I never dyed my hair

    Howdy folks!

    It's been over a month, so I figured it's probably time to post again. 

    This card is from good ol' Diamond Jesters. I had forgotten about it until it showed up about a week ago. This is the perfect card to write a short post on and get back to the blog.

    A few things about this card strike me. Firstly, Riley without a beard is downright strange. Reminds me of that 2014 Topps Charlie Blackmon card (shaking my head so hard right now).

    I love how the card says Official Trading Card of Baseball Fans Everywhere. I didn't know Leaf had it in them to make the 'Official' trading card. 

    The red is really jumping out, but kinda in a good way. I don't know what it is, but the strange color combination of red and green seems to work well with the card (and it's not even Holiday).

    Would you believe that all Matt was asking for was a card older than this one??? 

    I made a deal with myself last season that if Riley Greene bats .320 with 40 homers, I would dye my hair greene (it's a long story for those who don't know it). Unfortunately, he never did it. But I'm keeping the deal up indefinitely. Wouldn't greene hair be so nice on the blog?

    Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

Serial Card Countdown -- The Grand Finale

    A huge thanks to The Diamond King for 100 serial-numbered cards. This post marks the last one in my countdown. I've moved on to my top five cards, and without further delay, here they are:

#5: 2019 Leaf Valiant Green Prismatic JJ Bleday Autograph (98/99)

    I like just about every aspect of this card. I think the design and background are spot-on (of course the color scheme works for me, because he's on the A's). I do like on-card autos, and this one looks very nice. A solid card at #5.

#4: 2019 Panini Crusade Pink Cody Bellinger (11/25)

    Panini Crusade is far and away my favorite Panini baseball card design. The designs are pristine, and the crests Panini uses for the cards are amazing. I wonder how Bellinger will fare in 2025 with the Yankees. He looks ready to have another solid season; it would be insanity to see him struggle like in 2021.

#3: 2017 Panini National Sports Collectors Convention Wrapper Redemption Memorabilia Rainbow Spokes Mookie Betts (22/25)

    Well that was quite the mouthful. Thanks to TCDB user jamestagli for clarifying just what type of card this is. It's a really nice card (it looks like Mookie is exploding); it's shiny, and has that lovely  (though a little bit plain) jersey swatch on it. I'm sure Mookie's headed for the Hall, the question is how much longer he can go. He hasn't shown too many signs of slowing down. other than getting hit by pitches and breaking wrists.

#2: 2018 Panini Immaculate Collection Rookie Auto Dual Materials Tyler Wade (09/99)

    This is a very intriguing card. The double patches plus the autograph are pretty cool, even though there's a ton going on in the card. I still think they did a good job with the card's photo -- Wade looks so young! I've always liked seeing player-used memorabilia cards, so the two and the autograph is really nice. Wade has been getting plenty of ABs in spring with the Padres. Maybe he'll play a lot?

    Now, we have really been through 99 cards, from the process of choosing the top 20 and then counting down all the way through card #2. The card about to be shown won the honors of the best card in the box. And that card is...

#1: 2023 Topps Pristine Gold Refractor Zach Plesac (35/50)

    This card was actually sitting on top of the box when I opened it and was therefore the first card I saw in the entire package. It's a real eye-catcher. The design is really good (the card is way nicer in hand than on the blog). Plesac has been in the majors since 2019, and in 87 career big-league games (86 starts), is 27-28 with a 4.31 ERA. Plesac lands #1 on my countdown. 

    So ends the serial card countdown. This was a fun little series that of course could not have been done without The Diamond King. Thank you for your generosity.

    Thank you all for reading the blog, have a great week, and happy collecting! Opening day's right around the corner, so good luck to your teams :)