2020 Topps is here!

Today after work I had to run out to Wally-World to try to find a new belt for our vacuum cleaner, so I saw it as a great opportunity to see if 2020 Topps was on the shelves. Since Target was on the way, and it usually puts the new cards out faster than Wal-Mart, I stopped there first, and found a few hanging boxes, some blasters, and some hanging packs. I chose the first hanging box I saw, and think I did an overall good job. 

First card of 2020 is:

Some guy named Michael Baez of the Padres. Could've done worse and landed a Yankee.

I think this pack should've been sent to Buffalo, New York, as 3 of the next 4 cards in the pack were Dodgers. Sorry, Night Owl. If you want my Dodgers, they are yours. 

The middle of the pack had the inserts, of course. I was a little disappointed to get so many Turkey Red cards and not much variety of the rest of the inserts, but the rest of the photos show I got to make up for it.

The team cards are back. I was hoping they would be the stadium ones, but maybe in Series 2. If not, I will add them to my 2020 Topps missing player (and stadium) checklist.

This is what made up for the lack of insert variety. I pulled a Bo Bichette '85 insert (wasn't he in 2019 Topps?  Why does he have the Rookie logo?), and a Turkey Red of Rays slugger Austin Meadows. 

The Strasburg World Series Highlight is from Game 2. I also pulled Willie Adames for my Rays binder. I don't really like that Topps added the yellow to the color scheme. I would've went with light blue. I pulled a Jordan Zimmermann and Niko Goodrum for my Tigers binder. We will get back to that Goodrum. Lastly, I pulled a Hunter Dozier and Jameson Taillon for my Favorite Player Collection.  

So that Goodrum came out of the pack, and I set it to the front, just like I do with all of my Tigers/Rays/Favorite Player/Rookie cards, and thumbed through the rest of the pack. When I looked at the back, I noticed a serial number, and I flipped it to the front, and didn't notice anything different. I didn't think Topps numbered SP cards, and then I realized that it was a Sabermetric Stat variation card. Cool. Not into all of those stats really, but cool.

Speaking of card backs and sabermetrics, I think I did a good job at predicting the back of the 2020 Topps cards, don't you?

MY PREDICTION

WHAT TOPPS GAVE US

I pretty much nailed it down except for the team logo, the top part of the nameplate, and the slants ending where the number was. Mark my words: Next year, they are going to have the FarmerOnly profiles.

I did notice a few things with the cards. They only have the Topps twitter/instagram thing, and not the players. That's fine. They feature career stats on the cards, not just the last 5 like they did 2 years ago. Another plus. They still could use work, like having 3 players in 1 League Leader card instead of wasting 2 additional cards for each one.  I really hope they bring the stadiums back this year. Also, on the back of the team leader cards, they list the HR/K/ERA leaders, but don't put the stats next to them. So you will stump your friends and tell them that JD Martinez led the 2019 Red Sox in Home Runs, but not be able to tell them how many he hit.  HIRE ME, TOPPS!!!!  I WILL MAKE YOU MONEY BECAUSE OF MY ANAL-RETENTIVENESS AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL WITH LITTLE BASEBALL THINGS!!!  YOU CAN STILL HAVE YOUR 80-CARD INSERTS OF MIKE TROUT, AARON JUDGE, & ___________________ (INSERT NAME OF NEXT HOT ROOKIE). JUST LET ME PICK OUT YOUR CHECKLIST AND CHANGE A FEW THINGS TO THE BASE SET!!!

So we got the ok on the surgery for Monday. I have Sunday-Wednesday off, and that is probably the best schedule I could have hoped for. Things are good. I got some 2020 Topps, hopefully the surgery will give Karen some relief, and I get 4 days in a row to hang out with her, sleep past 4AM, and eat some really good pizza at the hospital cafeteria (seriously, if you ever go to Shands in Gainesville, they have this place in the Neuro building that makes wood fire oven pizzas and they are amazing!).

Hope you enjoyed the peek at 2020 Topps, and if you want any, let me know. Most everything except for the Rays/Tigers/PC guys are up for trade.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy