I found myself at Fred Meyer yesterday, and decided to look for the trading card section. It was an unfamiliar store, so it took me some time to locate the cards. Once I found them, I noticed that Stadium Club was on offer. Since that's the hot new thing on social media right now, I grabbed a blaster from the row to try it out for myself.
Ronald Acuña Jr. had a pretty good season last year, and gets to be on the cover of the Stadium Club box.
Things start out pretty well for an Astros fan, with the box topper Master Photo featuring Yordan Alvarez, one of the best hitters in the game today. I'm no internet sleuth, but it looks like Yordan has just hit something big in this photo.
Here are some of my favorite base cards from the box. Altuve is probably the best of the bunch for me, but Barry Larkin's card features dogs!!! I picked Dennis Eckersley for his mustache and Mike Trout because he's Mike Trout. I saw him play live last year in Colorado, when the Angels hung 25 runs on the Rockies.
There's me in Denver, watching a baseball game. I'd driven to Denver for a concert, but decided to see if the Rockies were playing at the last minute and wound up getting to see Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani play live. Pretty cool stuff.
Here are a couple of horizontal shots, with the great Ichiro's batting stance and a celebration shot of Michael Harris II.
I pulled a Black Foil parallel of Robbie Ray, and three Red Foil parallels. I especially like the Dave Winfield and Joe Morgan cards in this batch.
I believe the Sepia parallels are retail-exclusive. This Andre Dawson photo seems to be a favorite photo among collectors on Twitter/X, so I was happy to pull an example of it from this box.
Among the inserts in the box I pulled a couple of sluggers in Aaron Judge and Yordan Alvarez. I'm always happy to get another Yordan for the collection, and even though Judge plays for the Yankees I don't mind pulling his cards. 2023 was kind of a down year for Judge, but I bet most players wish a down year for them included an All-Star appearance and 4.5 WAR.
The final insert of the box was this die-cut Cal Ripken Jr. Triumvirates card. My cousin collected Cal when we were kids, so I always enjoy pulling a nice Ripken card for my collection. It takes me back to the good parts of my teen years, which were few and far between.
Someday I too will be able to tell my grandkids that I saw Trout and Ohtani play in person. I wonder if it will have the same awe factor as those that get to say they saw Mantle and Ford play in person.
ReplyDeleteI hope some of my grandkids find an interest in sports, so I can tell them stories and maybe pass on my card collection to someone. So far none of my kids have shown any sort of interest at all.
DeleteOn what Tom said, it should.
ReplyDeleteIt should, but who knows what will impress the kids of the future?
DeleteThat Ichiro card is awesome! Damn... the Angels dropped 25 runs on the Rockies? I'm guessing Ohtani went off. By the way... solid beard! Wish I could grow one like that.
ReplyDeleteI think Ohtani just had a single. They pulled a bunch of the starters when it got really out of hand. I recently shaved off the beard, but I might grow it back at some point in the future.
DeleteWhat was the concert? And did you end up going to see the game instead of the concert then, or did you go to both while you were there?
ReplyDeleteThe concert was a Russian rave band called Little Big. I was able to fit both into my schedule by leaving a day early for the trip.
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