NOW, More Than Ever

What a moment! I am unabashedly a Twins fan, and part of me was disappointed that Cleveland won this game, but there's no denying the excitement that Lindor brought to the crowd in San Juan, Puerto Rico last month. Topps Now of course was there to capitalize.

But Topps decided to do something special for this card, donating a portion of the proceeds to Puerto Rico hurricane relief efforts. Normally I would have skipped this card, but it tangentially involved the Twins, and directly benefited people in need. Topps would also add donations to two Stephen Piscotty cards, who lost his mother to ALS in May.

Topps found that there are still more ways to get me to shell out some cash with a new Topps Now feature called "Moment of the Week."

Ohtani has been every bit as good as advertised, and I couldn't pass up a chance to get in on the fun. I was unaware of the voting period this first time around, so I missed out on the gold parallel of this card, given out to collectors that voted for Ohtani to be the first moment of the week.

Last but not least, I still collect the Twins when they manage to make it on Topps Now cards. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance for this game, in which the Twins nearly gave away a 10 run lead to the defending champs. Kepler's homer was an absolute laser beam out to right field, and the whole ballpark knew it was gone the moment he connected with it.

I was able to see this game in person as well, as Mauer collected both hit # 1,999 and hit # 2,000 on the same night. The 2 run single for 2,000 was vintage Joe Mauer, a screaming grounder up the middle past the pitcher and into center field. His first hit of that night was greeted with a big roar from the crowd and the team played Prince's "1999" over the PA. It was good timing by Mauer, as the rest of the Chicago series was postponed due to snow and rain, meaning it would be some time before he would play in front of his home fans again. He's up to 2,025 hits now, though he just landed on the DL with a neck injury.

Bringing it full circle - the night after Lindor's homer, it was the Puerto Rican Twins players that put on a show. Jose Berrios pitched 7 shutout innings, and the winning run was scored by Eddie Rosario. This is the first appearance for Ryan LaMarre on a Twins card. He was a journeyman AAA outfielder and tore up spring training. Given the opportunity to start in the big leagues, LaMarre played very well for the Twins in April.

It seemed to me to be the very best outcome for the fans in P.R., with the heroes each night being from Puerto Rico.