There were a pair of NC State players on the USA Baseball roster this past summer, but it appears that neither of them made the checklist for the Panini Stars & Stripes product. Jacob Dudan and Derrick Smith were both freshman for the Wolfpack and played a starring role in helping the team reach the College World Series last spring. When Stars and Stripes originally dropped, they were the first two players I tried to find, unsuccessfully.
Amazingly, Panini included a third Wolfpack player who never appeared in a game for USA Baseball Collegiate team, sophomore pitcher Dominic Fritton. According to what I can find on the internet, Dominic Fritton was at the Collegiate National Team Training Camp, but did not make the team. Apparently, that earns you a baseball card.
It sounds like I am complaining, which I am to a degree. Yes, I wish there were cards of the two NC State players who were on the College National Team this summer. They're really good players with bright futures. No, I am not complaining that Panini made a card of Dominic Fritton for trying out for the team. In fact, I hope Fritton got a whole pile of NIL money for signing these autographs and ends up have a long and prosperous professional baseball career.
I have two Fritton cards, the first is a red patch card with a red ink autograph.
Obviously the preferred card color for anything involving the Wolfpack. Flipping the thickly stocked card over and it's serial numbered out of 25. You can also check out the bio on Fritton who was a Freshman All-American at State. There are no Sophomore All-Americans and he had kind of a rough year.
I also picked up a jersey relic card with a blue (boooooo) autograph.
This card has a thinner card stock and no serial number on the back of the card. Did UNC or Duke even have a player on the College National Team roster last summer?
For the second time this week, I am posting more cards of Taj Bradley. I won't start giving each new Taj Bradley autograph it's own post at this point, like I do Blake Snell, but it's under consideration for the future. Since this blog post is also part of an afternoon long procrastination from lesson planning for class next week, it's going to be somewhat short.
Ten minutes on the timer.
Two new Taj Bradley autographs, first up......
This is from the 2023 Donruss Optic set, which I think is the Panini equivalent to Topps Chrome.
The card is essentially the same as his 2023 Donruss card, outside of the Chrome finishes on the card. Perhaps Chrome is not the right word. Glossy? Let's use that word instead. The Optics card has a high gloss finish and a slightly different photograph with tighter cropping.
Both cards are photographs from Bradley's time with the Durham Bulls.
The scratches and dust bunny looking things on the Optics card are on the sleeve or on my ancient printer scanner, not on the card.
Next.
This is Taj Bradley's Signature Series card from 2024 Donruss. I did not even realize that there was a 2024 Donruss set until I found this card. I thought Panini had completely vanished from baseball after last year.
This is the 104th Blake Snell autograph in my collection. I crossed 100 while I was gone, maybe there will be a recap post coming at some point in the future. You could also check out my Instagram account where Blake Snell autographs 99-103 are all posted.
My latest Snell follows my more recent pattern of buying older Snell cards with low serial numbers that I missed the first time around. Many are available on Ebay at much lower prices these days.
Today, a Snell rookie autographed card from Prime Cuts that is serial numbered out to 25 copies.
Here is the front of the card.....
That's a really young Blake Snell in the photograph, which is way too small for the front of the card. I know this is an unlicensed card and that Panini could not show Snell in a Rays uniform. Still, the word "PROSPECT" should not be the overwhelming design feature over a photograph of the player.
In positive news, the card is older and features Snell's full signature. He only signed every letter of his name for a short period of time at the beginning of his career. The signature more than makes up for the fact that this a sticker autograph.
Back of the card......
The back of the card is better. I like the write up about his decision to play professional baseball over college. There are plenty of high school kids that get drafted into professional baseball who are also committed to play college baseball somewhere. Kind of nice knowing the back story.
Ray Lankford became one of my favorite Cardinals players after watching him hit for the cycle against the Mets during his rookie season in 1991. Over the years, a few different baseball cards have referenced Ray's cycle game, but today's card might be my favorite of the group.
This is from the high-end Panini Flawless release and from the autographed insert set "Flawless Achievements". Note the small banner under the autograph and serial numbering labeled, "Homers To Complete Rare Rookie Cycle". I knew the second I saw this card that I needed a copy for my collection.
Yes, it's a "high-end" Panini card without logos and the most expensive Ray Lankford card I have added to my collection in the past year. It was still less expensive than plenty of other modern autographed cards, so some perspective on it being an expensive Lankford card. I kind of dig the design on the card too.
I like the color scheme on the back with the gold writing on a white background with red trim. Panini also did a really good job with the write up on the back of the card describing his cycle and the rarity of the feat by players in their rookie season.
2023 has been incredible for the Ray Lankford collection.
The latest Ray Lankford autograph comes from Chronicles, which is seven different baseball card sets in one pack of cards. You think I am joking, but I am not. Luckily, someone else pulled this card out of a pack and sold it on the internet.
Here is the front of the card.......
It's a sticker autograph, which is not my favorite, but it's Ray Lankford.
There is also a picture of Ray Lankford batting on the front of the card, which is a positive.
What is going on with the baseballs on the side of the card?
I don't even care, because it's a Ray Lankford card.
Here is the back of the card........
Nice write-up on Lankford's career, which is actually accurate on this card.
The picture is fine, as are the lines on the side of the card.
Whatever, just give me more Ray Lankford cards. You know I will buy it and post it online.
I am not going to say a bad word about Panini for at least the next month on this space and my other social media sites based solely on the fact that they have now produced two different Ray Lankford autographed cards this year. It's true that they can no longer manufacture cards of current players, so I understand they are limited to retired player like Ray Lankford. However, they could have done something really mediocre like made a bunch of Todd Zeile autographs.
Nobody needs that.
They really did a good job of making the best of the situation and choosing players who have some degree of popularity within their fan base. My Cardinals have Ray Lankford, Vince Coleman, and Jim Edmonds as the featured players and I can't say I know a Cardinals collector who would be disappointed to add another card of those three players.
On to Ray.
My latest Ray Lankford autograph is from their high-end Immaculate Collection. It's even better than the previous 2023 Lankford autograph I posted here a few weeks back from the same product.
Here is the front of the card.
I love the picture on the front of the card. The Cardinals switched to button up uniforms and blue road caps in 1992, so this is from early in Lankford's career. I believe the 1990 uniforms had an AAB patch on the sleeve to honor former owner Gussie Busch, which makes this a 1991 photograph.
Ray had a pretty good 1991, topped off by hitting for the cycle against the Mets at the end of the year.
As for the design of the card, it's fine. I like the red and gold color scheme, but honestly I am just excited that someone made a Ray Lankford autograph. This card could have purple dinosaurs dancing on rainbows and I would buy it in a second. This one has a print run of just 10 copies.
There were two of these listed on Ebay last week, including a Buy It Now for $62. I tried talking the Buy It Now seller down into the $20 range, but he would not budge. That's okay, because I won the second card in an auction for roughly $20. The $62 copy is still listed, it's going to be there for a while.
Back of the card.
Panini does a great job with their card backs. Great write-up. Ray Lankford, Stan Musial, Ken Boyer, and Albert Pujols. I like all four of those players I don't think I knew this fact before reading this card. Young Stan was fast and Ray Lankford had some big stolen base seasons early in his career, but I don't think of stolen bases and Albert Pujols or Ken Boyer.
I had not played in roughly a decade, but decided to take on a team this year. I figured I was going to be a little rusty, so I just signed up for a team on Yahoo.That's all people do on Yahoo these days, right?
Anyway, my team is doing well. I am currently in fifth place a few games out of first place in a 12 team league. My team is heavy on offense, I tend to fill in my pitching stats by picking up probable starters. I have always used that approach with my teams and it has generally worked well.
Anyway, besides playing fantasy baseball for the competition, I learn a lot about some players I might otherwise miss. It also is a great excuse to go find some baseball cards of these new found players. There are several non-Durham Bulls/non-Cardinals who have helped my fantasy baseball team this year and four of them have also joined my baseball card collection.
Hope these guys can still help my baseball team and my card collection.
First up, Braves pitcher Bryce Elder.
He's won a bunch of games and has a low ERA. Not the best strikeout pitcher, but a solid contributor to my baseball team. I worry that his first half performance has been "smoke and mirrors", but I am not really attached to starting pitchers. I will move on to someone else.
In the meantime, Bryce has some nice on-card autographs. Picked up a 2021 Heritage Minor League card from his time in the Gulf Coast League.
Next up is Yandy Diaz.
Yandy has also been a good average and on-base player, but the extra base hits have been a pleasant surprise this year. I originally had him on my roster to balance out some of my power guys who hit for a lower average, but Yandy is actually hitting home runs this year.
Yandy is on the Rays, so it might be a little surprising that I don't own one of his autographs already. However, Yandy was never actually on the Durham Bulls. He came up with Cleveland, played part of two seasons with the Guardians, and then was traded to the Rays. Yandy never touched Triple-A with the Rays and won't at this point barring an injury-rehab assignment.
Yandy has only two certified autographs, both stickers, and they are messy. Yandy has a really tall signature and should not be trying to squeeze it onto a sticker autograph.
Next.
I kind of dig this card as much as I have enjoyed Mitch Keller's wins and strikeouts during the first half of the baseball season. When did this guy turn into a good player? He's like the one pitcher on my roster, not quite, that I won't release after every start and resign two weeks later.
The card is a Bowman Tek, which only lasted one year. It was like Topps Tek, but with prospects. I am guessing it was not a very successful set and this card only cost me $2.
Last one.
Bryan Reynolds is my glue guy. I have Ronald Acuna, Corbin Carroll, and Wander Franco doing a lot of the heavy lifting for my offense, but Bryan Reynolds helps out everywhere. His average is decent, he hits for power sometimes, and he steals bases. At the end of the week when I look at my totals and see that I won a category by 1 home run/stolen base/run, I can look down and see that Bryan Reynolds is the player that put me over for the week.
Fist bump.
Reynolds was good last year and I guess his cards are becoming more popular. At $12, this is the most money I have spent on a modern Pirates card in at least a decade.
I have been to a few Durham Bulls games this year.
There are a lot of new faces on the team this year and I have been working hard the last few weeks to pick up some cards from the new players. I am going to sort them out by quality of prospect, but some of these players are flying completely under the baseball card radar.
First up, Taj Bradley.
He's actually pitched a bunch of games with the Rays this year. As good as the Rays have been, they have had a ton of pitching injuries. Taj Bradley is a Top 100 Prospect across the board, throws hard, and looks like all the other pitchers the Rays crank out. Somehow he has a bunch of autographs that are between $10-$20. I have not seen Taj in person yet this year, but I imagine the Rays will send him back to Triple A once some other pitchers come back.
Next up is Curtis Mead.
He's going to be the third baseman for Rays at some point, but he's currently on the injured list for the Bulls. Mead is not a new face. He debuted with the Bulls back in 2021. I actually got to see his Triple A debut, which was a little odd. The Rays had to call someone up unexpectedly, the Bulls had a thin roster, so they promoted Mead from A Ball (Charleston, SC) because he could drive to Durham for the game.
I went for Adley Rutschman, but also got Curtis Mead and Felix Bautista.
Mead is another Top 100 Prospect. He's also Australian, that's a bonus.
You do not get many MLB players from Idaho, but Kyle Manzardo is from the Potato State. He is also another Top 100 Prospect. Good looking first baseman/outfielder, nice looking left-handed swing. Super cheap baseball cards too.
This is actually a double. I picked it up in a trade, but still love Jonathan Aranda. He was on the Bulls last year, back this year. Aranda can hit, but does not really have a defensive position. Should I say it?
He's a Top 100 Prospect, but only on the Baseball America list.
That's four Top 100 Prospects and none of them are the best player I have seen in a Bulls game this year. It's tough watching the Bulls some days.
On to a pair of non-Top 100 Prospects.
Picked up a pair of Kameron Misner cards. He's a Missouri native, from Poplar Bluff, and also played at Mizzou during college. Misner was drafted by the Marlins and traded to the Rays last summer for Joey Wendle. No Rays cards yet, so I went for a Marlins rookie card and a sparkly Mizzou card from Panini.
Misner is a really good defender in the outfield, but not the best hitter. Although, he has a crazy walk rate. Misner has around 200 at-bats and has walked almost 40 times. He's doesn't quite lead the league, but close.
Last one for tonight.
Tanner Murray has only played a few games this year. Three of them were with the Bulls. Why did I get this card? I am a sucker for combined shipping and this card was two dollars. That's a pretty good deal for a Bowman Chrome autograph.
Murray was decent in the lower Minors the past two years, so why not?
Remember that time NC State got eliminated from the College World Series in the middle of the night two years ago?
Yes, it was because of COVID.
No, don't leave a comment about COVID below.
Anyway, my Wolfpack reached the College World Series and was in a position to win the National Championship thanks to the efforts of pitcher, Sam Highfill who pitched a shut out against Vanderbilt opposite Rangers first-round pick, Jack Leiter.
Highfill is from Apex, North Carolina, is best known for its abundance of trains and its cheesy water tower. It's also the town where I happen to live, just a few blocks from both the train tracks and the water tower. Both are walkable from my house.
The water tower has some art work on it and is stamped with the words, "The Peak of Good Living" and is located smack dab in the middle of the town. Nobody who lives in Apex is actually from Apex, but local legend has it that the water tower was built first and the town filled in around it.
Seems plausible.
Back to baseball. I am not going to rehash the whole reason as to why NC State was sent home from the College World Series at 2 in the morning, but the community rallied around Highfill and the mayor of the town started lighting up the water tower red at night.
Here is the famous/infamous water tower. Note the railroad crossing sign in the foreground.
While half of that College World Series team is now playing in the Minors, since Highfill was only a freshman, he is still in college at NC State. He missed most of this past season, but did manage did manage to appear last summer in a few games for the USA Baseball National College team.
The inclusion of Sam Highfill cards is part of the reason I have been opening packs of the USA Baseball cards. Unfortunately, there have been no sightings of good Sam Highfill cards. A few base cards, but nothing too exciting.
The town of Apex gets a nod at the bottom of the back of the card on the right side. I like the green frame around the edge of the card and the green box used on the back as well. More on the use of the color green later in the post.
I just bought a pair of his autographs from Ebay from less than $10. Highfill is a well-thought of college pitcher, but I am not sure he's high on the board for the MLB Draft. Not quite the same energy level as when Carlos Rodon was at NC State.
First up, the base autograph. Yes, it's a sticker autograph, which is a bit of a bummer. It is also the autograph of a college kid that cost less than $5. Panini has started using on-card autographs for the college players in Donruss Elite, so I thought they might change the USA Baseball cards too. Guess not. Do you think that USA Baseball has to pay the college kids for autographs now that they have NIL rights?
Just curious.
Hopefully Sam got paid some money for signing these cards.
Notice that Panini went away from the green for this card with only the green bar at the bottom for the team name and another at the top as part of the design around the card brand logo.
Next up, is a relic/autograph card.
I like this card much better than the first one. The USA Baseball set has a lot of green included on the packaging this year, as the primary color of both the packs and boxes. Plus, green also shows up on the border and backs of the base cards. Feels like a good move, especially considering that their facility is very green with all of the trees around the field. Green is a prominent color.
I wish Panini had used the green background on the base autograph as well. The green on this card also has a star pattern, which actually lightens up the background quite a bit in places. They should have gone simple here and just used the dark color. No matter, it's still a much better looking card than the first Highfill autograph, but both are welcome additions to the collection.
On the previous post, I shared a few of the cards that I picked up while visiting my in-laws in northern Michigan. The card aisles of the two large box stores in town, Meijer and Wal-Mart, both had more packs of cards than I have seen living outside of Raleigh during the past year and a half to two years.
A quick refresher.
The Meijer card aisle is on the left, Wally World on the right.
For this post, I am just breaking the cards into brand rather than by location purchased.
First up is another pack of the Panini Chronicles cards. Again, I am still confused as to whether or not these cards all come from a single set or they are different sets packaged together. I don't care enough about Panini to research the answer and I fear it's a rip off of the 1998 Donruss Collections product.
If you don't know that one, the card manufacturer Pinnacle re-released all of their Donruss and Leaf products at the end of that year, but they put some foil finish on the cards. In my opinion......
I have three highlights from this pack of cards.
On the left is Akil Baddoo. I saw him with the Tigers this summer and enjoyed his style of play. I am looking forward to picking up some more of his cards this year. More Akil later in the post.
In the middle is Clayton Kershaw. This is the same style card as AJ Puk and Gregory Polanco cards from the previous post. Again, the card has a nice finish on the surface and the thick card stock is always a plus. The Pete Alonso is another acetate card, but it's different from the three in the previous post. Are the acetate cards supposed to have variations like the Topps Tek cards? I love acetate baseball cards, but the line pattern on this one is boring.
Next up is a few cards from Topps Archives. I have really become torn on this product in recent years. Topps has gone completely overboard with reusing former designs in current products. At some point they are going to completely ruin the Topps Heritage product. However, for the moment I still really enjoy the autographs and a few of the inserts in this product. Topps does come up with some nice cards here.
Topps did a really good job of picking out photos for the 1970s players. Not a Nolan Ryan fan, but good job putting him in an Angels uniform. Dick Allen and Mike Schmidt have great 1970s hair. The uniforms in the picture are an added bonus. The red version of the White Sox uniforms is underrated. I felt like the 1970s players had the best looking cards in this year's set.
Next up is a pair of Movie Poster inserts. These are really neat.
Most of the cards are team themed, like the A's card on the left. However, I do really like the Black Aces poster card. The black and white photo with the red background really pops. The term "Black Aces" was coined by long-time Indians and Twins pitcher, Mudcat Grant. There are players who fit Grant's description left off of the card. One of those players was Grant himself. Give credit where credit is due. This would be a better card if Grant had been included.
Just my two cents.
I did not land many Cardinals cards in my packs of Archives. My only two options were Lou Brock and Paul DeJong. I am sorry, but Paul DeJong is a no at the moment.
Lou is an easy choice.
My favorite Durham Bulls card....
I am going with this Evan Longoria insert, but let's talk about this card for a minute. This is card is the direction that Topps should take the Archives set. This is a modernized version of a 1989 Topps Big card. They were a kid-friendly oddball set released that ran for several years.
This is the original design.
Topps always uses past oddball designs for insert sets in Archives. They should just make them the base set design for the entire product. Small change, but it would help to preserve the former flagship brand designs for future Topps Heritage sets. Again, just my opinion.
Onto the last group of cards. These are out of the Update Series. I got two of these box toppers.
I like the Satchel Paige card. Big Papi. Meh.
I also ended up with two more Akil Baddoo rookie cards. Did I mention I hate when Topps overuses former designs? I am going to ignore that for the 1986 Topps card on the left. That is a good looking baseball card.
I also picked up a pair of Luis Patino rookie cards. He has been my go-to Durham Bulls player of sorts during the past year. However, the card on the right is a little ridiculous.
Topps made Rookie Debut cards for a handful of players in the 2021 Update set. Read the small print there and you can see that Luis Patino actually made his Major League Debut in August of 2020. He was traded to the Rays in December of 2020, started the year in the Minors, and was called up by the Rays. I get the card on the left since Patino was both traded and called up to the Majors in the past year. I do not understand why he is getting a Debut card from a previous season.
Favorite Cardinals cards.
Ignore the previous comments about Topps reusing old designs here too. The Molina has a Chrome finish, Arenado and Carlson are the regular card stock. I love the 1992 Topps cards.
Favorite former Durham Bulls players in this set....
I am going with Blake Snell and Jake Cronenworth. Easy choice.
You may not know the name D.J. Funderburk, but there is a chance you've seen him on college basketball blooper videos or social media clips from last season. The full sequence of events is floating around on the internet, but NC State and Charleston Southern were playing in the opening game for both teams. After a couple of quick trips up and down the court during the first half, a player on Charleston Southern lost his dinner.
D.J. Funderburk was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The arena was empty and D.J.'s reaction was preserved for all-time on the internet.
D.J. Funderburk was a good college basketball player. He scored 10 to 15 points a game and did a decent job of rebounding. I was not really thinking he would end up playing in the NBA and certainly was not on the look out for any of his cards. However, D.J. did have a good performance in the NBA Summer League, which landed him a bunch of basketball cards.
Love D.J., not the last card I am going to buy of him.
As a baseball card collector, this feels really similar to Inception, but on thinner card stock. I like the red and pink cloudy background behind the player picture with the white coloring at the top and bottom of the card. The sticker autograph feels like a bit of a downer. This card would look really sharp with an on-card autograph.
I wish the back of the card had some sort of write up about his career at NC State, but the majority of the space is just filled with a giant logo.
