National Wear Red Day, A Yearly Tradition

Over the past couple years I have had a tradition of showing off red baseball cards the first Friday of February.  You can revisit all those posts here.  The reason I do this is to bring awareness to women heart disease.  

I will continue the theme of showing off some nice red parallels, but first...a reminder to please wear red today to support the movement.

Visit heart.org to help make a contribution.  They set out a goal of $3 million this year and as of Friday morning are falling well short of it as they have only raised just over $100K.

Now for the best red parallel baseball card in my collection that I have picked up over the past few months

2021 Topps Now Game Used Base and (on card) autograph celebrating Cutch's 250th career home run. The card is numbered out of only 10 copies (mine being number 2)

This is a very recent pickup and it was shipped by COMC within a week.

Shocking, right?

That is the 2021 Topps Triple Threads Triple Relic patch Ruby parallel numbered 1/1 featuring relics of Cutch, Bryce Harper, and Rhys Hoskins

You guys like bling?

Ben Baller does

And Ben Baller Did The Card for this 2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller edition red parallel limited to 5

How about some autographs signed in red ink?

2021 Heritage High Number limited to 72 copies and 2021 Diamond Icons limited to 25 copies

And to finish things off I have a 2021 Topps Archives Red Hot 🔥 parallel limited to 50 copies

That's all for now.

Again please go visit ❤ heart.org ❤ and make a contribution if you're able to today.

Don't forget to wear your red!

Look at that shine!!!

When it comes to modern baseball cards, many of us can agree that we love things that are shiny

The Superfractor has been one of the most prestigious parallels in our hobby for nearly 2 decades.  

Beginning in 2005 Topps Chrome, we have seen the champagne circles expand to many other sets like Topps Tribute, Allen & Ginter Chrome, Topps Heritage, Transcendent, among other sets.

Topps has been producing chrome parallels in their Topps Heritage set since the beginning of the product, but the Superfractor remained absent until the 2016 release.  Prior to that only the Chrome, Refractors, Black, and Gold Refractors existed.

With only a limited number of Superfractors produced for Andrew McCutchen Topps Heritage Chrome cards (2016, 2017, 2018, 2018 High Number, 2019 High Number, 2021) the chances of me getting one of these rare 1/1 style cards has been slim to impossible.  Only six McCutchen Heritage Superfractors exist in the past six years.  

Topps Heritage is THE MOST COLLECTED set of any hobby collectors.  It supports both the modern collector with current stars of the game along with a limited number of shiny parallels to chase after along with the vintage collectors that love the look and feel of vintage cardboard.  Unlike Flagship or any of the hit focused products, Heritage dives into the nostalgia fans because of that vintage design.  Heritage appeals to the original set design fans, player collectors, team collectors, set collectors, and master set collectors.  Lots of competition for the rarest of rare cards.

Well after many many many searches, I finally got one.

2021 Topps Heritage Chrome Superfractor based on the 1972 design.

It's so fricking sweet!

Check out the gold foil 1/1 on the back right corner.  

I grabbed this card a little over a month ago, but with the chaos of house searching, additional work hours, and prepping for the Save Second Base event I never got around to taking a picture of it. 

Do you have any Superfractors?

What kind of cards have you been looking to add to your collection for a few years, but you've never seen one available?

21/72

The 1972 Topps set will always be associated to me as the last playing days card of Roberto Clemente. It also is represented by my first look at the 1972 set via the 1987 Turn Back the Clock subset featuring Clemente. 

So it was a nice surprise to see Topps pay respect to Clemente by creating a 21 card insert set to Roberto Clemente in this year's Topps Heritage release which pays homage to the 1972 design.  The number 21 was of course worn by Clemente throughout his playing career.

I quickly jumped on adding the black refractor from this year's Topps Heritage to my collection.  It is limited to only 72 copies.

Mine is serially numbered 21/72 in the top right corner.  So close to a Cutch22 serial number, but I will gladly take the Clemente numbering for a 1972 inspired set.

Have you gotten any Topps Heritage cards yet?  

If so any luck pulling a Clemente insert card?

It's Shaq Week, I mean Shark Week

Yesterday saw a familiar face return to Shark Week.  Shaquille O'Neal was the host of Shark Week a few years ago and he returned this year for a special called Shaqattack.

Shaquille O'Neal is best known for his Hall of Fame basketball career and big (no pun intended) personality.

He was born in 1972 in Newark, New Jersey.

In his 19 year career he was a 4 time NBA Champion, winning the NBA Finals MVP Award 3 times. He made 15 All-Star Games and was selected the game's MVP in 3 of those contests. He won the Rookie of Year Award in 1993 and MVP in 2000. His number is retired by both the Miami Heat and LA Lakers.  

He has starred in movies, video games, and even has had his own rap album and ice teas.  

Shaq is larger than life!

I will finish with showing off this 2013 Topps Archives 1972 Basketball design (Shaq's birth year) of Andrew McCutchen.

I like that Topps has used the other sports designs from their old catalog to make unique inserts like this.

Basketball Diaries

My favorite sport to play and watch has always been baseball, but the sport that got me the most recognition with my friends was basketball.  I was pretty tall in 8th grade and that helped me make the team.  I wasn't very good with the rock, but like Dennis Rodman I could jump and grab those boards.

Some of my favorite players were Reggie Miller, Penny Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning, and of course Shaq.  I changed the teams I rooted for fairly regularly going from Bulls to Hornets to Pacers to Magic.

With the basketball playoffs in effect, who are you rooting for?  I'm pulling for OKC Thunder vs Pacers.  I'm tired of the Warriors vs Cavs matchup.

Today's card is 1972 Basketball Design found in 2013 Topps Archives.  The set is 20 cards deep and features players on the 1972 Topps Basketball Design, made famous by the Julius Erving (Dr. J) rookie card.