2020 in Hindsight

 This post was probably better suited for late December or early January. If I were blogging regularly then it certainly would have appeared then. 

Early in January 2020, I had a similar re-cap of 2019 offerings, which was part of a Blog Bat Around that Matt from Diamond Jesters proposed. Take a single 9-pocket page, fill it with cards that summarize the year that was. 

Here's my page for 2020:

Of course, I have to share the backs as well:

1 - 2020 Topps Update Jose Iglesias - Just like last year, it was tough to pick one card from the Topps flagship design. Other contenders for this spot included Bryce Harper pumping his fist with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle headband showing, or the uncharacteristic super close up shot of catcher Jason Castro, but I decided to go with this throwback pose of Jose Iglesias, with his bat offered up like a broadsword, ready to slay dragons (or sliders).  So much of 2020 felt to me like trying to hold on to nostalgic things, and fighting for normalcy where ever it could be found.

2 - 2020 Topps NOW Spring Training Alyssa Nakken - It was inevitable that at least one card on this page would feature someone wearing a mask. The pandemic nearly ended the season before it started in Spring Training, delaying further the first on-field female coach in Major League Baseball history. Her official title is "Special Assistant" but she's done a little bit of everything for the Giants since first joining the team as an intern in 2014. Nakken devised health and wellness programs for the team, and while interning also went to college to earn her master's degree in Sports Management. She was named to the Giants' staff as an assistant coach before the 2020 season, and served as the team's first base coach on July 20, 2020. 

3 - 2020 Donruss Diamond Kings Jake Rogers -  The obligatory Panini entry - Topps doesn't quite have a monopoly, but it can be easy to overlook the competition when the cards lack team logos and all seem to go above and beyond to wipe away the slightest hint of personality. Catchers tend to get the best breaks on these designs, so here's one of those.

4 - 2020 Stadium Club Xander Bogaerts - Last year I picked a Stadium Club card that featured Jose Berrios pitching in Hiram Bithorn Stadium in front of his fellow Puerto Ricans, so this year here's Xander Bogaerts in London playing in front of his fellow Europeans. Stadium Club consistently scratches the itch for more variety in subjects, and more experimentation in photographic choices. Letting the photo and it's subject carry the card, which has been the strength of this set every year.

5 - 2020 Topps NOW Turn Back the Clock Jackie Robinson -   Call it creative or call it a cash grab, when the season was put on hold, the daily "Topps NOW" brand had to find some way to keep calm and carry on. The decision to cover historical moments in baseball history was a savvy one. Getting a chance to commemorate Jackie Robinson again is always a good move, and hey- this one's also a bat rack card!

6 - 2020 Topps Big League Flipping Out Tim Anderson - Finding insert set topics must be tough. The sheer volume of subsets that have been trotted out since the 80s can make one's head spin. I'm surprised that bat flips haven't been featured before. Old-school adherents to the unwritten rules of baseball may turn up their noses at flipping your bat, but for me it just underscores the joy and excitement of playing baseball. Tim Anderson would probably be my favorite player if he played for the Twins instead of the rival White Sox. I don't have to root for the Sox to see what Anderson brings to the game. 

7 - 2020 Topps Utz Eddie Rosario -  Food issued cards were a common occurrence dating back to the 70s. It's probably a good thing that they are less common now, I shudder to think how many Twinkies I would be eating right now just to get the cards. Utz is a regional brand of potato chips, mostly in the Eastern part of the U.S., so I added cards online only, no empty calories with this cardboard. I liked the Utz design more than the flagship design. This reminds me of a re-mixed 1986 Topps design, with the big bold team name moving to the bottom of the card. 

8 - 2020 Topps Throwback Thursday (1954 World on Wheels)  Luis Robert - I had to make room for the big name rookie for 2020. Even though he did not win rookie of the year, Luis Robert certainly had the hype throughout the season for his ability to hit, run, and catch. This online exclusive set focused on the "wheels" figuratively and literally, as an homage to a car trading card set that Topps released in the mid 50s. 

9 - 2020 Topps Heritage Gary Sanchez - One of the pleasant surprises in recent years from Topps has been their willingness to dig deeper to find the aspects of their previous sets that resonated with collectors. The 1971 Topps set had several action shots, which the 2020 set emulated with varying degrees of success. Perhaps one of the more iconic cards from 1971 featured Yankees catcher Thurman Munson in his 2nd Year, making a tough and dazzling play at the plate. This image of Gary Sanchez calls that image to mind, if a bit removed from the gritty and dusty nature of its forefather.  

Thanks for reading!

Good-Bye, 2019! Hello 2020! (contest in post)

Happy New Year everyone! 

2019 had its ups and downs collecting-wise, I wanted to get 2020 started with a quick review of my 2019 Collecting Goals. How did I do? Well, we grade on a curve here at the ol' Arbitrary, so everything is Highly Subjective.

My first goal was to organize my wantlists, player collections, and mini collections.... HAHAHAHA! Well, I definitely did not achieve this goal, and if anything, I'm in worse shape now than I was last year. Some things I did in 2019 did help my collection get more organized - I added some new Hockey and Basketball binders, and I updated my want lists on this site at least once each... Hoo boy, that's a low bar. But I cleared it! 

I made a 2019 commitment to my bat rack mini collection, and now I have a fairly healthy stack of cards to place in pages. At the beginning of 2019, there were just 2 pages of bat rack cards in my bat rack frankenset. Now I have posted up to page six, and there are more pages on the way in 2020. This was a goal achieved without any argument from me. 

I added a new mini collection in 2019 for cards featuring phone calls, and made a modest stack of these as well. They are much less abundant than bat rack cards, they seemed to be most likely found on NFL sidelines in the late 80s, and then again in the mid to late 90s Fleer and Upper Deck sets. It technically started in December 2018 with this Secret Santa post, but it wasn't until 2019 that I started adding phone cards intentionally. I look to continue this mini collection and add a new one for 2020, which will come in a future January post. Any suggestions?

2019 was going to be the year I finally finished the 1959 Topps set build. I am very very close now, with a small checklist remaining of mostly high numbers, including the very pricey Bob Gibson rookie card. If I can find a good deal on Bob (and Willie and Warren and Mickey), then I should have this set completed in the next few months. I'll be looking to do a similar weekly review of each team's set in 2020 once I complete the darn thing!

What else for 2020? I've let my "I Love the 80s" posts wither on the vine a bit in 2019, I will be looking to pick those back up again and start moving from 1981 Team Reviews to 1982. 

I also want to start another set build, and since I've worked on 1956 and 1959 after completing the oddball 1965 O-Pee-Chee set, I thought I would go with a 1970s edition next. 
Hey, here's a random contest with a very long fuse. I haven't decided which set I'm going to try for next, but maybe you can guess which one it will be in the comments below?
Let's say up to 5 people can win this contest, so if you wanted to pick a year that someone else picked, go ahead.
Winners will receive a custom-made-by-me re-pack of those 100 card (+1 pack) boxes you find at, say, Walgreens. Each box will have a "hit," and I'll add some 1970s vintage singles in there, too.
Winner(s) will be announced when I finally pick a new set, probably in February or March.

 Last but not least . . . Support The Minor Leagues!