Remember that one Friday in 2021?

     October 29th, 2021 was a Friday. What happened in baseball that day? The Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros 2-0 in game 3 of the World Series. Ian Anderson got the win for the champion Braves, going 5 scoreless and no-hit innings with three walks and four strikeouts. The Astros ended up getting only two hits all game, and game 3 put the Astros up in the series 2-1. 

    I remember the game well. I was rooting so hard for the Braves to win the series, and they won pretty convincingly to prove they're the real deal. They've been awesome ever since, winning 101 games in '22 and 104 in 2023, but can't beat the Phillies in the postseason (sigh). They are currently lined up to win only 95 games in 2024, due in part to injuries to their starting rotation and Ronald Acuna Jr. 

    Enough with that (although I could live in Braves land for the duration of a really long post) Now I must continue sifting through the 2021 binder and finish it. 

    Up to this time, I had forgotten to sprinkle trade bait into the mix. I'll make sure to do that sometime. Just like in fantasy baseball, I love trading.

    And this first card features a player from the team the Braves defeated in the 2021 Fall Classic:

    Not gonna lie; not a fan of the 1986 Topps design. In the 2021 World Series, Correa hit 6-for-23 (.261) with zero home runs and four RBI. This was pretty good considering the team slashed .224/.298/.299 as a whole and averaged just over three runs per game. 2021 was Correa's last season with the Astros; he has been playing with the Minnesota Twins ever since.

    Man, I loved Javy Baez, most especially when he was playing with the Cubs. He brought energy, defense and a strong bat to a Cubs team that looked really good, and won it all in 2016 (for some reason I was rooting for the Indians to win. What was I thinking?!). Unfortunately, Baez's last effective season was 2021, when he slashed .265/.319/.494 with 31 home runs, split between the Cubs and the Mets. He's been awful ever since for the Tigers.

    Corey Seager's awesome. You can't get past that fact. It was driving me insane when he was raking for the Dodgers. I didn't really like this card, because he wasn't in the field or anything, but standing next to a car. BOOOOOORING! What I neglected was the fact that Seager's holding one of his (two!) World Series MVP awards. Seager slashed .400/.556/.700 with 2 home runs, five RBI and seven runs in six Fall Classic games. I personally like it better when he's mashing for the Rangers in the World Series, but that's just me.

    And here's another guy raking for the Dodgers. In the 2020 World Series, Mookie slugged .577 and stole four bases. I wonder if he'll make the Hall of Fame, with the whole Red Sox scandal and everything. What do y'all think?

    I believe this is the third card featuring the 1965 Topps design that I've posted on, but this one is most probably my favorite out of all of them. I can't get over how young Acuna looks. He debuted and won the Rookie of the Year award at age 20! In 2021 he was playing his age 23 season. He's 26 this season, and has already been around for seven years, which is incredible to imagine. Unfortunately though, his '24 campaign has come to a close due to a torn ACL in his left knee. This makes a torn ACL in both of his legs now, which may affect the rest of his career. Yikes. I hope the recovery goes well, and good luck Braves. You may need it now with the losses of Strider and now Acuna for the rest of the season.

    I've got only one post left for the 2021 binder before I can move on to 2022. As always, thank you for reading, have a great weekend and Happy Collecting!

Friday Again?!

     It's that day of the week again. Last week I finished showing off all the pitchers (except for one), so we will be moving on to position players presently. First however, that last lingering pitcher...

    This Clayton Kershaw card is the redo of 1986 Topps. I don't particularly like the '86 set design, but I do like the Kershaw card. It shows the 2020 wins leaders on the back of the card, and since 2020 was that shortened season, Yu Darvish took the lead with 8 wins, good for about 22 in 162 games.

    There isn't really anything special about the Series 2 Realmuto card, but I really like it for some reason. For one, I love J.T. Realmuto (being a catcher, a lot of my favorite players are catchers), and I also like the photo on the card. He looks either deep in thought, or like he's giving Angel Hernandez the side-eye. Either one will do.

    1952 Topps may very well be my favorite of the 2021 Topps representations. Just coming off Freddie Freeman's MVP-worthy 2020 season, he didn't disappoint in '21, batting .300 with 31 home runs and leading the league in runs scored (120). This was also his last season with the Atlanta Braves. It is here that I must stop to shed a few tears.

    Now then, back to the post. 1979 Topps was the first Topps set to include the company logo on the front of the cards. However, I don't think they had a 70 year anniversary patch on them, since at the time they'd been around for only 29 years. I was really dismayed to hear that in 2022 Tatis was suspended for the use of steroids. I was very interested in the young shortstop who was hitting 42 homers, but I've almost completely lost interest in him after his suspension. He doesn't play short anymore either.

    Of all the cards in the 2021 binder, this one ranks among the top five. Reminiscent of the 1993 set, the back of the card explains how '93 Topps included 825 cards, making it the biggest Topps set assembled. Unfortunately, like many of the throwback cards of the 2021 set, you don't get Trevor Story's stats. 

    Since the card doesn't have his stats, I pulled them up on baseball reference:

    Where did it all go?

    Well, that'll do it for this post. Sorry for the abruptness. I completely forgot about the Friday post until about 11:00 this morning. Come back next Friday when we'll take out another chunk of the 2021 binder. Thanks for reading and Happy Collecting!