2021 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 3

I am not a huge fan of dual autographs.  It's not really my thing.  Blake Snell has not signed many dual signature cards and I have not added any of them to my collection.  For me to like a dual signature card, there needs to be a strong connection between the two players.  I prefer the players to be on the same team and comparable pieces.  I know one of the dual signature cards Snell has is with Brendan McKay.  Same team.  One of the players was the American League Cy Young Award winner, the other has been on the Durham Bulls injured reserve list for 2 years.  

So, what would move me to buy a Blake Snell dual autograph after passing on others?  

Dual.  Durham.  Bulls.  

Here is the card.  

Snell and Cronenworth were never on the Durham Bulls at the same time, but they are both two of my favorite former players.   Obviously on the same team at the moment with the Padres.  They are actually pretty close in age, but Snell was drafted out of high school and Cronenworth went the college route.  Cronenworth was also not a very highly regarded prospect, but there is nothing more Rays than turning a former college relief pitcher into a super utility player.  Snell was a first round pick.  

As for the card, this is from Dynamic Duals, which was a Topps On-Demand product.  I don't buy Topps directly from Topps.  I still have not moved on from my curved Aledmys Diaz rookie card.  

I am not sure how much these cost when buying direct from Topps, but I waited out a seller on Ebay and got the card at I price I felt comfortable paying.  Mind you, it has Cronenworth on it, so it cost more than the typical Snell autograph.  Since I am only 3 Snell autographs into 2021, I decided to splurge.  It's also a dual sticker autograph, so I was not going to splurge too much.  

Back of the card.  

Meh.  

If they had mentioned that they were both on the Durham Bulls, I would have been really impressed.  That did not happen.  

Stadium. Stadium Club.

Stadium. 

I spent my Saturday afternoon watching the Durham Bulls and Norfolk Tides.  It had been a few weeks since I last attended a baseball game in-person.  The Bulls are in first place at the moment and had a chance to clinch their division this weekend, which is still possible.  The weather was a little warm, but still a nice day to take in a baseball game.  

I also got to check out Orioles catching prospect Adley Rutschman, who is the top overall prospect in all of baseball.  I saw him a few years back while he was playing at Oregon State and appeared for the USA Baseball team during the summer.  

A few pictures of Adley warming up before the game.  

Adley spent most of the time working with some Orioles coach who is wearing the black and orange wind breaker in this picture.  He needs a little bit of work on defense.  

He didn't get a hit during the game.  

The Bulls ended up losing the game 3-1.  Their lone run came on a home run by Alika Williams who was called up to the team from A Ball before the game.   Pretty good shot.  

2020 @RaysBaseball CBA pick Alika Williams clears the Blue Monster in his Triple-A debut for the @DurhamBulls. pic.twitter.com/IhmuXAN0YK

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 12, 2021

Stadium Club. 

Beyond going to the game, I also picked up three Stadium Club autographs earlier in the week.  They have been sitting on my desk for the past few days.  Really not that bad considering there a couple that have been there for multiple weeks.  These were easy to scan and post, so that's what won out today.  

First up is Ryan Jeffers.  

I saw Jeffers earlier this summer at a Tigers game.  He's from Raleigh and went to UNC-Wilmington for college.  I never saw him play in college, nor in the Minors.  I just know several local people who follow his career, seems like he might be a solid player.  The card was also really inexpensive.  

Next.  

I try to avoid Brewers cards, but Devin Williams is pretty awesome.  He's also from St. Louis.  It would be more fun to watch him if he was on the Cardinals, but they probably would have found a way to mess him up.  

Last card, which has a scratched up top-loader.  

Easily my favorite card out of the group.  I just wish it was a Cardinals card.  Topps has made a bunch of different Scott Rolen cards this year, but it feels like almost all of them are Phillies cards. 

Random Ray - 1995 Pinnacle

This is THE actual Pinnacle set from 1995. There were so many of the them in the mid to late 1990s. I pick on the overproduction of Pinnacle frequently, but I really like this card. The gold baseball seam on the bottom of the card is a nice touch. The gold circle logo is nice too, even if Pinnacle would later reuse the same design element on their 1995 Score Summit cards.  

Repeating design elements is bound to happen when you make 25 different baseball card products every year.  Not really that many, I think.  

The picture is great with Ray interacting with the fans at Shea Stadium. Was Ray Lankford fan friendly?  I am not sure. I don't do anything with in-person autographs and I have never tried to track down Ray Lankford to sign anything. Fan interactions make great cards. I like that the front row is filled with Cardinals fans and some random guy on the end in a blue shirt.  

I would also like to point out the blue road hat and batting jersey. Why do the Cardinals ever wear red on the road is beyond me. I know, I say this every other week.  

Back of the card.  

I like the repeated seam pattern on the bottom of the card, but I wish they had not cluttered it up.  The stats are fine, but how many logos do they need to squeeze onto the bottom of the card?  Do they need to be that size?  There is a Pinnacle wordmark and a Pinnacle logo?  

The two color photos are nice, but for me the highlight is the line, "A thinking man's hitter with a sure eye and great patience at the plate" in the write up.  I am not sure that's a really accurate description of Ray Lankford as a hitter.  He was actually pretty simple hitter.  If you had to throw him a fastball, that was bad.  If the fastball was low in the strike zone, that was really bad.  

The Rare ManuPatch Appearance

I used to be a big fan of the ManuPatch cards, but they have disappeared from my collection and blog over the last few years.  ManuPatch being a manufactured patch.  Topps used to make some really well designed ManuPatch cards that were pretty fun to collect.  I had two favorite types of ManuPatch cards.  

The first were the awards cards.  They were big and chunky cards.  Always really thick and heavy for a baseball card.  If I had to narrow the category down to two specific sets, I would go with the Silver Slugger cards in the 2013 Topps set.  

I believe that I got this out of a pack of cards and it was the only card in the pack.  No, the award cards were not in the per-box Manu cards at Wally World and Target.  Pretty common back then, but Topps put the nice ManuPatch cards in Hobby boxes and counted them as your autograph or relic that you were guaranteed.  

From the same year's Topps set, I also really like the MVP cards.  It could be that 2013 was the peak of ManuPatch cards.  I have a Pujols and Musial card from the set.  Still a little irked that Topps did not make a card for 1985 National League MVP Willie McGee.  

This card is not as thick as the Matt Kemp, but it might actually weigh more.  Great looking cards.  

I also really liked the Minor League ManuPatch cards that Topps used to put in Pro Debut and Minor League Heritage every year.  The Durham Bulls used to frequently appear.  

My two favorites were Tim Beckham and Mike Montgomery.  

There is a Blake Snell ManuPatch card as a member of the Bulls, but I do not like it as much as the two above for design reasons.   

I am sure that some people like the pennant shape.  I like the simpler look of the large square logo.  

I have a few Cardinal Minor League ManuPatch cards too.  I think my favorite is Kolten Wong.  

I have not bought any ManuPatch cards in recent years.  I went and checked COMC to see what I missed?  Maybe Topps didn't even make them?  As it turns out, Topps did make ManuPatch cards and I stand by my decision to not buy any ManuPatch cards.  

After years of skipping over ManuPatch cards, why would I buy one now?  

Have I mentioned how everyone is spending excessive amounts of money on Jake Cronenworth cards?  

Yes, bringing up his age or the fact that he graduated from the University of Michigan has not persuaded people to discontinue spending money on the cards of one of my favorite former Durham Bulls players.  In fact, it seems to have gotten worse as he plays better at the end of the season.  So, I have started looking for cards that are affordable, but not boring.  That includes ManuPatch cards.  

This was very affordable compared to many other Cronenworth cards.  

This is not nearly as good looking as the two award or Durham Bulls ManuPatches at the top of the page, but I still like the RC patch logo on this card.  I know the RC logo has limited meaning at times in the baseball card world with the large number of Bowman brand and Minor League products that Topps put out.  However, they skipped over Cronenworth for years, meaning this year Cronenworth is officially on his rookie card year, but these are literally his first cards.