2014 Topps Finest 21-30

Here are the next ten cards in the very colorful 2014 Topps Finest set. Billy Hamilton does a lot of base-stealing, but what is memorable about him from my perspective is that he helped my fictional team in the Out of the Park baseball simulation game to win a couple championships before his performance declined, a string of injuries hit him, no other team wanted to take on his bloated contract, and I got run out of town unceremoniously. But he had a long career and eventually got into the Hall of Fame.

Here is the hottest rookie of the year, especially since Tanaka spent so much time on the DL. Abreu has hit approximately 3 billion home runs this season and his autographs are driving many of the baseball products, just like Puig, Trout, Harper, and Strasburg before him.

Prince Fielder has been out all season basically with a neck injury. He is sure a big dude. I don't know what else to say about him.

McCutchen is one of those guys who just looks good on a baseball card. I don't know why. He's pretty photogenic and the Pirates have good uniform colors, I guess. It's hard to look bad in a Pirates uniform. The same could be said about the A's uniforms, too.

Clayton Kershaw is a dominant pitcher, but he looks like a Muppet. I guess there are worse things to resemble. I'm just jealous that I didn't draft him in any fantasy baseball leagues.

I don't even know who this Rafael Montero guy is. He's got a pretty nice patch on his sleeve, though, which gets a few extra words devoted to him in this post.

A Met I never heard of is followed up by a Met everyone knows. I don't have any data or anything to back this up since the guy is a perennial All-Star, but I feel like David Wright is undervalued in the hobby. Maybe I just don't know enough Mets fans. Or maybe Mets fans are busy focusing on the future, which has to be brighter than the Mets of Wright's era.

I think I should know more about Chris Owings, but I don't. His name seems familiar, but if I hadn't already seen this card and you asked me which team he played for, it would have taken me several guesses to get it right.

I was kind of surprised to see that Pedroia has only played in 9 seasons, which is really more like 8 if you take out the 30 games he played before his rookie year. It feels like he's been around forever. Albert Pujols was a veteran of several years before Pedroia showed up, but in my mind they occupy a similar place in time. Of course, my concept of the passage of time isn't really a very accurate representation of anything.

Carlos Gonzalez is a pretty good player, but Colorado is kind of a black hole. The local sports talk shows have been all abuzz, as Boise's Short-Season Class A team, the Hawks, had their affiliation dropped by the Chicago Cubs and picked up by the Rockies. Much of the debate centers around whether there will be enough movement to get a new stadium built, as the condition of the facility was rumored to be a major reason for the Cubs to pull their affiliation. I don't really care either way. I have always liked the idea of attending games for the local NBA D-league and minor league baseball teams, but the cost of going and the inconvenience of getting my butt out of the house keeps me from ever actually doing it. I am really terrible at being a sports fan.