Promoting a lack of promotions

When you hear promotion it's often something that people worked really hard for to get to.  For baseball players, it's that moment they finally get the call from the minor league's to the majors.

Andrew McCutchen received his call up to the majors 13 years ago on June 4th, 2009. 

He got an insert card in 2022 Topps Series 1 highlighting his call up.  There's of course parallels to chase and I'm sure I will seek them out as time goes on.

Eventually, no matter how elite someone is though father time eventually catches up with you and you can no longer perform at that same level that earned you the promotion.  

All great athletes eventually have to retire.  

I think that's why some greats have a hard time walking away from the game and find something else related to it as either a coach, broadcaster, scout, etc. 

This got me thinking about real life not because of this insert card or the sudden surge of the Pirates Young Bucs callups, but because I went and saw Top Gun: Maverick.

I won't spoil too much of the movie, but I see my life much in the same way as Maverick.  Lots of experience and the ability to get promoted, but refusing to just because it's not something that fits the mold of the character.  

I heard that someone I helped train about 15 years ago recently got promoted to a job that has been offered to me (and I repeatedly turned down over the past 5 years).  I'm happy to hear that for him as it's something he has wanted.  For me though, despite a higher salary, it is something I wouldn't want to do because it doesn't fit my personality.

Have you ever turned down a higher salary or promotion because it's not something you'd want to do?

My first Brewers cards

I was VERY VERY frustrated with Topps not including guys who made the Opening Day roster in their Series 2 flagship release.  I even considered not buying any new Topps products because it seemed like just a money grab to force people to buy their Topps Update release.

Topps did redeem themselves by including guys like Bobby Witt Jr, Spencer Torkleson, and Julio Rodriguez as short prints in the set.  This is a similar approach to what they did in 2019 with Vlad Jr (who debuted 3 weeks after this year's SP debuts).  They also produced a SP photo variant of Cutch in a Brewers uniform for Series 2.  

I haven't purchased that SP (or any flagship cards yet), but I did pick up this insert card (which you will likely see again in a future themed post).

I love this insert set.  It's so simple, but it's fun because it is something we haven't seen from Topps in a long time.

The insert set features fan favorites and superstars wearing sunglasses and is called Sweet Shades.  All the cards feature a closeup of the athlete wearing the sunglasses and feature rainbow holofoil on the front.  The font on the player's name is easy to read as it is all capital letters with the first name on top (something we don't always see from card manufacturers these days).  The sweet shades logo features a sun ray on the top corner of the last "s".

The back features an actual writeup discussing the front of the card.  Rather than Panini insert releases, it is nice to see Topps put in an effort to discuss the player and sunglasses.  

While not expensive, this insert set would be fun to put together especially since it features most of the popular stars in the game.  It is very possible that including Cutch in this insert set that Topps brought me back to wanting to collect current releases of my favorite player.  This insert set brought back memories of the early 90s insert set I enjoyed putting together in my early teens.  Sets like Donruss Long Ball Leaders or Fleer Shrap Shooters didn't break the bank, but had a fun design using holofoil.  Were it not for this insert, I was perfectly content not adding any new 2022 cards to the collection.

Prior to my frustration with Topps I was picking up 2022 releases hoping to get a few Brewers cards in the PC.

I preordered the Topps Now Road to Opening Day thinking that the Brewers could give me an off chance of some bonus cards throughout the year.  With a strong pitching staff and the best closer in baseball, I was sure they would be in 1st Place at the All Star Break.  A recent 8 game losing streak caused them to slide to 2 GB of 1st Place as of June 17th.  With a month remaining until the ASG I still have hopes of getting an NL Central division leader card (with hopefully some Cutch cameo) on it.  Cutch has struggled to use the long ball this year compared to years past.  Returning from his brief stint on the COVID 10 Day IL, Cutch struggled, but in recent week Cutch has returned to vintage form with a .833OPS, 2SB, 1HR, and a .433 OBP over the past 7 games.  

The back of the Topps Now Road to Opening Day cards looks similar to recent years spotlighting the same blurb for all members on the team along with something the player has done recently.  

In Cutch's case it notes his 27HR in 2021.

Here's hoping for more Cutch and Brewers success.

Have you bought any Topps Series 2?

Have You ever purchased the Topps Now Road to Opening Day team sets for your favorite teams?