Parkside IndyCar Cards

Parkside Collectables finally release the IndyCar Trading Cards in the last few weeks and it was worth the wait to get them. I was able to order 3 hanger boxes from Amazon for $11.99 a box and was able to with prime to get them over night.

Parkside Collectable offer both hanger boxes and Hobby boxes for both IndyCar. Hobby boxes offer two autograph in ever box and hangers offer autograph 1 in 18 hangers.

Exclusive Features:

Castroneves autograph

• Autographed Memorabilia
• Relic Cards

You also have a chance to get both current stars and emerging legends in IndyCar.

So let talk about this set and my honest opinion on these cards. The autographs absolutely amazing i got two so far in Helio Castroneves and Rookie Marcus Armstrong. Other stuff I got so far is some very cool Indy 500 Champions cards with Josef Newgarden cards. I find other good Pit Pass cards of Wil Power and Marcus Ericsson which are other former winners of the Indy 500.

Cool thing about the cards is that the autographs are real. You can tell that the drivers all signed them personally and put in the effort. The over all appearance of the cards is amazing. I would say this I have also bought NASCAR Cards from Donruss and Panini America. I would say these cards are a little bit better but I also am partial to IndyCar. Would I want to get both of them maybe.

What would I say some of the little flaws in the card. I read in a group on Facebook about the little print on the back of the trading cards.. I have to agree that this is a real problem for people that have issue with small print.

I will say out of 3 hanger pack I was able to order I got 2 autograph cards. I heard from other people that they have bought almost 20 hanger pack and never got a single autograph cards at all. I know that I had some good luck recently with pack I have got from Topps 2024 Series 1. But these cards are absolutely amazing right now.

So what am I looking for right now when I get more cards from Parkside Collectables in this series. I would like to get a Josef Newgarden or Tony Kanaan Autograph card. I would also like to get some autograph memorabilia from some drivers or even teams. I mean it would be just as awesome as getting some the stuff I got from the Indy 500. I have met Tony Kanaan and Mario Andretti at the track and ran into other crew members and drivers there.

Ohtani Card’s

It been a while since I have been on here and Shohei Ohtani has now join the Dodgers. Since Topps Series 2 and the update series have come out and I hit the jockpot with Ohtani in both series. In the update series I was able to hit a 4/5 Red Mojo Silver Pack Ohtani. The value of the card is some where between $2000 and $4000. I pick up another couple other Ohtani’s.

The Topps Series 2 I was able to get a 3 of the 88 series card of each color regular, blue card and a Black card of Ohtani’s.

I also pick up another Ohtani All Star card from the updated series and the basic card from the update series.

I was also able to get a couple LA Dodgers Topps now cards of Ohtani when he had been presented his jersey and signed with the team. I also got one of him and Yoshinobu Yamamoto the new dodger baseball pitcher. The 3 cards I got in total were really pretty amazing that i pick up.

For Christmas I got a shadowbox told most of my high price and good cards. I actually got two of the shadowbox. One of the shadowboxes is full of just Shohei Ohtani. The only thing I haven’t got is an autograph of one of his cards.

1st place! Baltimore Orioles

Another team that is loaded with rookie and top prospect down the pipe line is the Baltimore Orioles led by the phenom Adley Rutschman at catcher. They are built around minimum of 2 to 3 year stars. Other big name are Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, and Grayson Rodriguez.

They crazy part is that they still have more to call up like Jackson Holiday, Colton Cowser, Hester Kjerstad and Joey Ortiz. All these guys are just sitting there waiting to be the next big splash for the Orioles in the major league.

But I say this Adley Rutschman might be the best catch to be called up since Mike Piazza or I honestly say he as good maybe better then Buster Posey. He was the #1 overall pick in 2019 out of Oregon State. Now Adley is not eligible for the 2023 Rookie of the Year because of the amount of games he played last year on his call up last year. This year home run derby was coming out party for Adley because his dad pitch to him but he also hit from both side of plate and hit multiple home runs!! Adley is batting right now .275 batting average, 13 home runs, 41 RBI for the season.

Adley is the top rookie card for all tops sets in 2023 and is highest card in most sets I seen so far this year.

Adley home run derby from both side of the plate!!

Jackson Holiday is last year first round pick in 2022 MLB Draft. Holiday was drafted right out of high school and signed the highest signing bonus for a high school baseball player. He is batting right now with .341 batting average, 7 home runs, 51 RBI this season.

Colton Cowser was another one the top draft pick that have been made by the Orioles. He was drafted 5th overall in the 2021 draft out of San Houston State. In 2023 he was batting .303 for batting average, 10 home runs, with 40 RBI in Triple AAA before being called up to the league.

Couple thing to say like Cincinnati they loaded all the way around the field. Some holes to be filled but they have amazing chance down the road and in the future to be really good.

Here are the cards for the team!!!

What if? Could the Yankees be back!

Recently, a lot of people have been talking about the fact that the Yankees could be making a trade for Shohei Ohtani. But I have an interesting side to this after I read something the other day and I think they can make it happen.

What if the Yankees traded for Juan Soto instead of Ohtani, and then signed Ohtani in the off-season. The Yankees could bring in Soto right now which then in turn could help them bring in Ohtani in the off-season. That’s if they could find a way to make the contracts work and not care about the luxury tax. This would instantly make them a championship contender next year and also put the Yankees back to where they can’t were in the 90s.

Soto trade could look like….

Yankee get

• Juan Soto

Padres get

• Jason Dominguez
• Trey Sweeney
• Austin Wells
• Will Warren

Why does this make more sense? This makes more sense because adding Soto now shows that they’re committed to getting a Ohtani some help when they try to sign him in the off-season.

Juan Soto’s current contract is one year and $23 million. Without a long-term deal on the table, this trade to go down a lot easier and make the Yankees an instant championship contender.

Could they make it work with 3 players making 300 to 400 million each! Aaron Judge is making $360 million for 9 years, could they get Soto to take $390 to $400 million for 10 years. Then offer Ohtani $450 to $500 million for 10 years or something close. The luxury tax start at $230 million a season, with the big 3 right now they would be at around a $130 million.. currently the Yankees payroll with just Judge and the other 25 players is at $186 million as of right now. So adding another $90 to $100 million would put them over by only about $50 or $60 million.

I will say this even if they did add them they would might still not have the highest payroll ever in the major league. Highest payroll in the major league went to the 2021 Dodgers with $286 million payroll. The penalty for going over the luxury tax might be worth the reward of being World Series champs for next few seasons and building a new dynasty. This could shake the foundation of Major League Baseball and bringing the Yankees back to the top.

Lineup could be interesting too..

• Peraza/LeMahieu – 3B
• Judge – CF
• Ohtani – dh
• Soto – RF
• Rizzo – 1B
• Stanton/Bader – LF
• Higashioka – C
• Torres – 2B
• Volpe – SS
• Cole – P

Here a couple of the cards…

New Cincinnati Reds “Big Red Machine”

Everyone know “The Big Red Machine” that dominated the 1970’s with players like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey Sr., Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Dave Concepción, César Gerónimo, George Foster and pitcher Tom Seaver known as the “Great Eight”. Under the leadership of Sparky Anderson.

These guys won 6 NL West Division titles, 4 NL Pennants, 2 World Series in 1975 and 1976. In a ten year time period they average 95 wins and won a total of 953 wins for the time period.

Big Red Machine

So now to the future! Could we say the big red machine is back with Elly De La Cruz leading the way. The team is loaded with talent from Cruz, Will Benson, Spence Steer, Matt McLain, Johnathan India, Joey Votto, Kevin Newman Andrew Abbott and Alexis Diaz.

This might be premature but since Eli De La Cruz has join the team with the young core of the team went 21 – 6 and went from 3rd to 1st in that time with unbelievable plays and records being set!

Cruz has been amazing with hitting for the cycle which made him the youngest player to ever do it. Right before the All-Star break, he became the second person in the modern era to swipe three bases in one trip against Milwaukee.. Cruz number right now are batting avg .325, 4 home runs, 15 RBI, ops .88, with 16 stole bases including home plate once!

Cruz steals all 3 bases

Elly hit for the cycle

The old man Joey Votto, looks like a kid again, leading the way with a group of young kids. He came back from injury and is having probably the best hitting is done in couple years.

I also forgot to mention that the Reds still have a lot of talent waiting to be called up from the minors such as Cam Collier, Edwin Arroya, Noeivi Marte, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. Also over the all star break the Reds were awarded the top draft class for 2023 MLB Draft.

MLB Draft 2023 – Cincinnati Reds #1 draft

So the main question is the big red machine back? Here are some of the baseball cards collected so far for this cast and characters. Enjoy.

Classic Big Red Machine

New Big Red Machine!!!!

Shohei Ohtani “Showtime”

Ohtani Jersey I bought for fun

So let talk about what we can call probably the modern day Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani. He has came on to the scene back in 2018 to Major League Baseball and done nothing but impress us as fans and shown us you can pitch and hit at the same time.

I have to say he one my favorite players right now and I have almost every baseball card I can get of him time 10! From his rookie card to his current cards from this year! I am a diabetic and when I finally got my sugar under control for that I awarded my self and bought two of his rookie cards one of him hitting and one of him pitching.

Ohtani has broke record since coming to the MLB and he just continue to shine as a player. In my opinion he should be a 2 time MVP in the American League already but he lost his chance to go back to back when Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs in season last year.

30th home run of 2023

So far this year Ohtani has just been amazing showing he can pitch and hit in the year where he is up for a new mega contract that is probably gonna be around $600 million for over the next 10 years or more. We at the All Star break and as of right now Ohtani has another run going at MVP, with 32 home runs and 71 RBI for the season. Pitching wise he is 7-4 with an ERA of 3.52 with 132 strike outs for the season so far!

Ohtani hold one of the career records that Babe Ruth set with 500 career strikeouts and 100 home runs for his career. He also set a recent record of most home runs in the month of June with 14 by a pitcher, a record held by Babe Ruth in which he had 13 for the month. He also hold the record of 10 home runs and 10 wins in season held again by one Babe Ruth.

Ohtani ROOKIE CARD

Ohtani ROOKIE CARD

Home Run Derby Champ 2023

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won the 2023 Home Run Derby against Randy Arozarena. With his win he became one of the first and only father/son champion in the history of the Home Run Derby. Vlad would beat Mookie Betts in the first round, then would defeat hometown favorite Julio Rodriguez in the semi finals.

Home Run Derby Champ

In the final, he would defeat Randy Arozarena to win the Derby this year. Guerrero Jr. was one of the favorite with the Polar Bear Pete Alonso. Pete did not make it out the first round who was beat by Julio Rodriguez who put up a record 41 home runs in one round..

Randy made it to finals by beating Adolis Garcia in the first round. Then Luis Roberts in the semi finals on his way go against Guerrero in the finals.

Here are the cards of the Topps 23 series 1 and 2 of the people in the home run derby!!!

Frank Thomas

This post has been one in my heart for long time and after a friend gave me one of his cards last week then I decided it was time to make it.. Frank is dear to my heart because it was my grandma and grandpa favorite baseball player.. Both of them loved watching him play the game and were die heart White Sox fans.

One thing that I got say was that my grandma was a big fan. She would watch most of the White Sox games even after my grandfather died which was so cool. She would call me and talk to me on the phone about the White Sox and then ask me what did you think about Frank game today.

We had many talk just about White Sox and about how much my grandpa love watching or listening to the game on the radio. My grandpa would listen to most games or if they were on the tv then he would watch them all the time. He would talk to me about old White Sox teams and tell me so much more.

So to the cards I recently pick up a 2nd year card from a friend at work of Frank Thomas. He was amazing from the start with playing 60 games with 7 home runs and 31 rbi in his first season. His second season he hit 32 home runs and 109 rbi which really pushed him in to his hall of fame career..

He would win AL MVP twice in his hall of fame career in both 1993 and 1994. He was a 5 time All Star during his career. He hit 521 home runs with 1704 RBI through out the career.

So why does Frank Thomas mean so much to me as a baseball player now and growing up. When my grandma passed away her final post was of Frank making the hall of fame on Facebook. She shared it with my family and her friend about him getting his plaque which was one thing I never for get was her love for Frank and for his accomplishment of being selected for the hall of fame.

Massive Father Day Break

I got some cards from my wife and my family for Father’s Day. I know I only have a dog but he was included as my kid on this one. I got some interesting cards from Topps Series 2, Topps Series 1, and Bowman.

Some of the interesting card I got in the pick up were I got another set of the Series 2 Top 10 Rookies by Topps which I showed in another blog post here a link to that. (Rookie Set).

I also pick up a pretty awesome Jordan Walker card in the first 4 pack of the hobby pack that was a Vintage Topps Card. Value of the card is at $190.98 ungraded and is one that is kind of hard to find in the series only 99 of them were made total.

Jordan Walker has been on 13 game hitting streak since I got this card. Which has definitely since the price up in last few weeks and made it worth a bit more. This is the first Vintage card I got so far this year.

Some other good cards I also got in the hobby pack was a Corbin Carroll which are Star of MLB, 1988 series card, and basic series 2 card.

I got another autograph baseball card from the baseball word series which is a cool card because it Lars Nootbaar card. Lars was with team Japan who won the World baseball Classic. Nootbaar was the first non born Japanese player to play for the Japan National Team.

Recently I have been getting a hot hand at getting some good hits and there been pretty awesome. There was a lot more in Series Hobby that I got. I have to show them off more later.

Topps Series 2 TOP TEN Rookie’s

So I finally have all top 10 rookies in this year’s Topps series 2. I was able to claim most of them in the hobby box. I picked up last week.

This year‘s rookie class is so interesting because it is a loaded class at certain positions. The main position that is loading is third base and catcher. Topps series 2 brought in most of the rookies that have taken off this year.

• Anthony Volpe
• Jordan Walker
• Kodai Senga
• Corbin Carroll
• James Outman
• Masataka Yoshida
• Josh Jung
• Francisco Alvarez
• Ezequiel Tovar
• Spencer Steer

I do believe that the top rookie in this class is probably as of right now in Corbin Carroll or Adley Rutschman. Adley is not on this list because his main rookie card is in series 1 but still he’s the top rookie in the American League.