2022 Topps thoughts and coming up for air

 Yesterday Topps unveiled their design for the 2022 Topps set. Every year, I try to get to the top of the Google Image results for '2022 Topps' by making a custom of a schmuck who will never get on a card (Rob Manfred) as close to the day they unveil the design as I can. I think I got on the first page last year. Let's see if I can get closer to #1 this year and piss off some of the higher ups at Topps.

As far as my thoughts on the design, I think Beckett did a good job in comparing it to the 2013 Topps design. I also think it has a hint from 2020 Topps Big League (the nameplate at the bottom is similar. Maybe this is what would happen if the 2 sets had a baby. They must've listened to collectors who said the fonts for the name were too small, but don't worry. They made the ones for the team small this year. I also think they must've listened to Night Owl and got rid of the slashiness. For some reason, this card almost reminds me of a Bowman design from the last 10 or so years, and I could seeing it being used for a Bowman set. 

I would like to thank everyone who commented, e-mailed, or just said a prayer or send good thoughts with my wife's surgery. Dr. Murad found a kink in the tubing of her LP shunt (the one in the back), and placed a piece of plastic where it kinked to try to get it to curve more naturally and stay in place. At this point, he said that the LP shunt is doing probably 90% of the work and the VP shunt (the one going to her brain) isn't doing much at all. If the LP one can drain enough Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) to get her pressure levels to be in the normal 10-15 range, I think everything will be fine. We will see what happens, and I think how she feels in the next 2-3 months will indicate if the LP shunt has remained unkinked, and if it is draining too much or too little. Right now, she is having some pain in her back where they cut into her, and we expect that to go away in the near future. She is also having headaches, but more of the type that she has got when her shunts have been draining too much fluid and gave her low pressure. It's more of a tugging in her neck, and can be helped some by drinking caffeine, which helps create more CSF, and by lying flat. Since they drained some CSF when she got a spinal tap and also had some CSF drain during the surgery, we kind of expected her to have low pressure headaches, and the hope is that the pressure will come back to a somewhat normal level and not stay too low from the shunt draining too much, and not get too high from the shunts not draining enough due to a kink or whatever. 

I was thinking about it yesterday, and between in-laws coming over and wanting to do something with us just about every day, doctor visits, the stay in the hospital for the surgery, band practice, and church, I don't think we've had a normal night where we just sit at home, go through pulling teeth to decide what is for dinner, watch some TV, and go to bed in about 2 weeks, so I'm ready to just come up for air and have a normal night tonight, seeing that we don't have any commitments tonight and the in-laws have finally left town. It should actually be a pretty routine next few weeks, and I'll take it.

Things have been so crazy that I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks, and I didn't have time to offer the proper thanks to Rod from Padrographs. He sent me a package full of Rays. I wasn't expecting it, and it was a nice addition to my Rays collection. I am just a few cards away from completing the 2021 Topps Series 1 & 2 Rays sets. I got my hands on just 1 Series 2 pack, and it was nice to get some Series 2 Rays. Rod was nice enough to send me 2 Randy Arozarena 2020's, 1 from the 2020 Update set, and the other from the 2020 Holiday set. I didn't even know Topps had a mini set in 2020, but now I have a Yonny Chirinos from the set. I haven't been as lucky with the SPs in the 2021 Topps Heritage Rays set as I have with the Tigers set, but I'm still close to getting the Rays set without the SPs. All of the 3 Heritage Rays here are needs. What was nice was that I got my first cards of some Rays who helped the team in the postseason, Josh Fleming and Pete Fairbanks. When (hopefully) the Rays loosen COVID protocalls in 2022 and allow more access to autographs, I'll be ready with 99% of the guys on the team, and it is greatly due to guys like Rod who have send me newer cards. Thanks, Rod, for the nice package. 

I'll have a 2022 Topps page up with just a template or 2, the Manfred card, and a placeholder checklist for now. I have also added the 1st round Draft Picks of the 2021 MLB Draft to the 2021 Topps page, and I will add more names (probably Rays and Tigers) to it in the future. The 1991 Topps set has come along slowly in the last few weeks. Got a team or two done while Karen was in surgery, and I might work on some today if I have time, but now that I have a little more time to come up for air, I figure I'll be able to crank cards out at my normal pace. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy