2022 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 1

Yes, there are Blake Snell autographs in 2022 Topps.

No, this card is not one of them. 

I am just going to find Blake Snell autographs that I do not own this year. I do not mind Snell being on the Padres, there are far worse places he could be pitching, but I am also interested in looping back to find a few old Rays autographs. The prices on some of his low-print, high-end Rays autographs have come way down over the past year. 

With that being said, let me run out a Padres autograph from last year.  

This is from the 2021 Topps Chrome Update set. I usually like the autographs out of the Chrome products, because they are usually on-card signatures. Well, this one is not. Kind of disappointing, but I guess not all that surprising that Topps would find a way to disappoint on a set that I enjoy.  

Snell still had a large amount of Rays autographs last year with a few Padres autographs sprinkled into the mix. I think that every single Padres autograph released so far is a sticker autograph. Snell was traded to the Padres at the end of December 2020 just weeks before the first 2021 baseball cards were released. My guess is that he signed a bunch of Rays cards during the off-season for early Topps card products along with a bunch of stickers. Topps used the stickers in later releases for the Padres autographs.  

Snell has always signed a ton of cards. I bet he gets some on-card Padres autographs this year.  

Back of the card.  

Man that is a crooked scan. I will do better on the next post.  

It's the standard card back. Blake Snell got pulled with a shutout and 8 strikeouts in the fourth inning of his Padres debut. Almost sure there is some funny connection that Topps could have made to a certain World Series Game. 

I am sure there will be other opportunities in the years to come. 

Vacation Day Mail

My work schedule used to have me work on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  As a person who is employed as an upper elementary school teacher, it was really hard to be productive on this day.  Many students would miss school, and those that showed up were rightfully distracted.  Admittedly, as the adult in the room it was hard to work that Wednesday.

Fortunately, things have changed and all the feelings of Wednesday have now been shifted to Tuesdays.  Although, I feel a little bit more focused.  Especially since I have given up going anywhere on Thanksgiving.  It's my own five day vacation in the middle of the quarter.

I started my vacation by attending a basketball game last night.

My Wolfpack ended up winning pretty handily.  Today, I am onto other things that do not involve work.  A little time spent playing with the kids, a little cleaning before the in-laws get into town, and now I have moved onto working on some cards.

Usually when I get cards in the mail they actually sit on my desk for a few days before I actually get a chance to scan them,  write something about the cards, and post them.  Just the way things are, many other things come before write blog posts about baseball cards.  For today though, I am setting all the grown-up things aside.

Bloggers do mail day posts all the time.  I have not made one of these posts in literally three years.  I will take a break from teaching my son about Oregon Trail on Dos Box.

Let's do it.   Three packages.  First one.

Picked up a Topps Gold Label Anthony Banda autograph.  He's been my Durham Bulls player that I have spent the year collecting.  Topps put him in a Rays uniform for this card, which has been an on going back and forth this year with cards featuring him as a Diamondback.  Banda was traded to the Rays last spring, not sure why he is not a Ray on every card.  I have another Banda card on the way, released after this one, he's a Diamondback.  Quality.

Second package.  

There have not been a ton of Joey Lucchesi cards this year, probably because he plays for the Padres.  The rookie pitcher went to Southeast Missouri State, which is where I happened to go to college for my undergraduate degree.  It's a small teachers college about halfway between St. Louis and Memphis.  Needless to say, there have not been many alumni to reach the Major Leagues.  I have been following him for awhile, fun to see him finally get a few cards.

I cannot keep track of all the variations in this Topps products these days, but this is one of the Chrome Pack cards from this year's Update set.  Nice looking card.

Third package.  Two cards.  Same player.

More Lucchesi.   The top card is a pink refractor which are very common in the Topps Chrome Update product.  The bottom card is a gold refractor, which is serial numbered out of 50.  A little tougher find, but neither is very expensive.

That's it for the mail, unless someone is willing to pay my toll road bill from the state of North Carolina.

Sticker Monstrosity

I have been looking into finding a Miles Mikolas autograph since the middle of the summer.  The Cardinals signed him this past off season after the former Padres and Rangers hurler spent a few years playing overseas in Japan.

Not sure everyone was sold on Mikolas helping the Cardinals out too much, but he turned out to be a really good free agent signing.  He ended up winning 18 games with an ERA+ of 137. during his first year back in the States.  Mikolas was arguably the best pitcher on the team last year.  

Mikolas had his first autograph in Allen & Ginter, but that was selling for a decent amount of money throughout the summer.  There have been a few other cards that Mikolas has signed more recently that seem to have watered down the price of his autographs a bit.  

I ended up with one of those cards.  It's not pretty, but it was dirt cheap.  This card is out of the Topps Chrome Update set.  It's a retail product.  

That sticker is pretty bad.  I am seriously thinking about taking a ruler to the card to see if the sticker is even straight.  Fairly certain that it is a little crooked.  I understand that we cannot get all of the autographs to be on card signatures, but we could at least do a little bit better job of blending the sticker into the photograph.  Maybe?  

The picture on the card is actually nice.  I picked up a base card too.   

Maybe it is just me, but the sticker really takes away from the picture on the card.  I like the action shot of Mikolas, but you can see the outfielder in the background and a hint of the catcher and umpire in the foreground.  

It's my first Mikolas autograph and I am happy to add it to my collection, but I am hoping that I will be able to add something nicer at some point soon.   Always happy to have a new autograph of a new player in my collection, but this card is a bit of a sticker monstrosity.