Senators Singles: 1060 Dan Dobbek RC

1960 Topps: 123 Dan Dobbek RC

As we get to the end of the month and of the year I have to make another quick and dirty one card post. This one is from 1960 Topps Dan Dobbek Rookie Star Outfield

1960 Topps 123 Dan Dobbek

Bryce Harper: Going, Going ...Not Yet Gone.

Image from ESPN article Choose Your Own Adventure, Bryce Harper Edition

The 2018 Season saw the end of Bryce Harper's initial contract and his opening for free agency. He  most likely will be sporting a different uniform for the 2019 season. At the time of this posting he has not signed with a team. Most sources have ruled out him sticking with the Nationals. Some signs point to his dream team Yankees, others the Rangers or even Phillies? OH Please NOT Philly. No division rivals. Teams that have been mentioned as considering a bid in the Harper Auction, or that sports columnists are dreaming about are: Cubs, Rangers, Reds, Phillies, Mets, Dodgers, Angels, and Yankees. With the Cubs, Dodgers and Yankees being most talked about, as well as division rivals Phillies and Mets.

As a big Nationals fan and a fan of Harper it is a big disappointment for me to see "Homerin' Harper" or "Hawper" go. I had hoped he would stick with the Nationals and spend his entire career here. No matter where he ends up I hope it isn't with a rival team to the Nats. Please NO Division Rivals. I repeat no division rivals. I would rather he sign a long term contract with an AL team and then near the end of his career switch to being the DH for that team.

So I guess I will just show some Harper Cards here: Note: For this quick and dirty post I'm just showing card fronts. I didn't scan the backs.

This card I got quite a while ago back on 12 May 2015 as a matter of fact (according to my semi-reliable mail day posts). I got it for $8 from Ebay Free Shipping one of those ACEO Artist Sketch cards. I think the seller was the artist himself Anthony Douglas it is serial numbered 9/25. I haven't scanned the back that has his artists signature in the center and the serial number in lower right corner. I thought I had already scanned and blogged about this card but I had not yet. It wasn't scanned on my 'puter. Perhaps someday I will blog about it here like I do on my Blogged But Not Blogged posts at my other blog.

Moving on to some other Harper cards. Some of these came from group breaks, purchases or trades from ages ago. Maybe I'll get around to posting about the individual mailings maybe not.

 Top Row: 2014 Topps Baseball: The Future is Now: FN-29

2013 Topps Archives Baseball: 100

2014 Topps Baseball: The Future is Now" FN-30

Bottom Row: 2015 Donruss Baseball: 176

2014 Donruss Baseball: 143

2014 Donruss Baseball: Press Proof Silver: 143 #038/199

Top Row: 2015 Gypsy Queen Baseball: Walk-Off Winners: GWO-15

2015 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Superstar Celebrations: SC-08

Same photo used for both cards

Bottom Row: 2013 Topps Update Baseball: Home Run Derby: US 180

2016 Topps Baseball: Series One: 100

Senators Singles: 2018 Topps Gold Label Class 2

2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball: Class 2

97 Victor Robles RC

This episode of Senators Singles features a hot rookie from this past 2018 season Victor Robles. At age 21 he isn't the teen sensation that Juan Soto is (or was since Juan turned 20 on 25 Oct 2018) but he is mighty impressive during his time as a rookie. Victor appeared in only 21 games during the 2018 season and had 59 at bats. His 3 line average for 2018 is: .288/.348/.525

The card is from a very confusing set, many of the sets are now confusing with all the damn parallels, short prints and weird inserts the card companies love to produce now-days in the overproduced underproduction era. This is the 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball: Class 2: "base" card for Victor Robles RC number 97. The Class 1 cards are considered "base" while Class 2 and Class 3 are considered "parallels" but each level has a base, black, red, blue and gold card thus adding to the confusion. I got the card from a Sportlots auction for the opening bid of 25¢ plus $3.25 shipping

2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball: Class 2:
97 Victor Robles RC Washington Nationals

Confusing is right when I first saw the card I thought it was a gold parallel. It has gold foil on the lettering and at some light angles everything does look gold. I knew from ordering it the card was a Class 2, but being unfamiliar with the set design and the seller calling it a "scarce" rookie card I thought it was a bit more special than it really is. I also thought at first it might be a "black" parallel since part of the design that at first appeared gold to me, looks to be more of a gray. Upon searching the Internet for some black parallels (TCDB doesn't even have a checklist for the Black parallels yet)  they are obviously black not gray or brown. Both the base and the black are not serial numbered the other parallels are serial numbered for Class 2 the reds are #/50, Blue #/99 and of course the dang gold ones are #d 1/1.

Oh I had thought of adding another Robles card or two to this post, but then it wouldn't be a Senators Singles Post now would it?

New Kid on The Block: Juan Soto

Near the beginning of this season on 20 May 2018 the Nats welcomed New Kid on The Block...

...NO NO Not those guys.

This New Kid is named Juan... Juan Soto.

...NO NO Not HAN SOLO,

JUAN SOTO.

Ah that's better. Juan is only 19 and he has been doing some fantastic things for the Nats this season, and gaining on some of those records by teens. Bryce Harper should be shaking in his booties with some of the things Juan has done this year. He hit a 3 run homer during his first Major League at bat, on the very first pitch. He also hit a homer "before his debut" that is he homered in a game that was postponed from earlier in the season about 2 weeks before he was brought up in May.

 2018 Bowman Baseball: BP52 Juan Soto Washington Nationals

 2018 Bowman Chrome Baseball: BCP52 Juan Soto Washington Nationals

 2018 Topps Now Baseball: 235 Juan Soto Washington Nationals

Some Guy Named Harper. NO some other guy named Harper

Guess what? It's the end of the month you know what that means? Not so fast. OK so I was going to do another quick and dirty Senators Singles post but while looking for potential candidates found an interesting card and then another of the same guy so long story longer. I vaguely remember having one or two of these cards of this guy named Brandon Harper who is no relation to Bryce Harper, even though this guy has a little brother named Bryce. Bryce's older brother is Bryan Harper. Brandon played only 18 games for the Nationals in the bigs in 2006.

OK according to TCDB Brandon has 15 cards with 8 of them being minor league cards. I might have his 2006 Upper Deck (update?) card from some team trade or sales package but I'm not sure about that. Any how the cards of his that I am sure I have I'm showing here. I have at least two of his first card I'm showing (the regular 1952 Edition). A few weeks back I had to do a quick apartment cleaning/hoarding sweep for the annual insurance inspection. I gathered my unorganized piles of card packages and boxes condensed them and stacked them differently than they had been so now the unorganized groupings are even more unorganized. Hey now I have some of my dining room floor space back.

The Cards:

2006 Topps 1952 Edition 209

 

2006 Topps 1952 Edition Chrome TCRC53

#d 0877/1952

2007 Topps Heritage 403 (1958 Design)

Senators Singles: 1961 Camilo Pascual Post Cereal

1961 Post Cereal 99 Camilo Pascual Minneapolis Twins

Well what do you know it's another quickie Senators Singles post. This time it is an interesting 1961 Post Cereal card. it is interesting in a couple of ways. First since it is 1961 the year The Senators 1.0 moved to Minnesota to become the Twins the photos of the players have them in their Senators hat as the photos are from the 1960 season. Second this one is one of the variations marked as "Minneapolis" (on boxes) instead of "Minnesota" (direct from company).

1961 Post Cereal 99 Camilo Pascual Minneapolis Twins

I got this card back on 01 Dec 2017 from a Sportlots auction by a Canadian Seller for $2.25 plus $2.30 shipping.

Odd that they didn't have the Senators for this set only the Twins and doubled them up with the twin city names.

Senators Singles: 2018 Topps Now Bryce Harper

2018 Topps Now: 86 Bryce Harper 

And once again I find myself at the end of a month having to make a quick and dirty post. This one is very quick and very dirty on the very last day of the month in the afternoon. Time is ticking.

OK so 16 April of this year 2018 was a Monday. The Nats would come from behind to beat the Mets in New York 8-6. They scored six of those runs in the 8th. The first run happened, However in the first inning. With 2 outs Bryce Harper swings on the first pitch. He smashes the ball to make a 406 foot homer, breaking his bat in the process. A rare occurrence as most often a broken bat results in an out. It was Harper's League Leading 8th Homer of the season.

Here be the card:

2018 Topps Now 86 Bryce Harper Broken Bat Home Run

Senators Singles: 2011 Topps Roger Bernadina

2011 Topps Baseball 84 Roger Bernadina

In my last Senators Singles post on Tyler Clippard I mentioned a second card that was promised but never mentioned. This one features Roger Bernadina. Roger made a spectacular game saving catch against the Astros in 2012 to end and save the game in the 12th inning. One of my all-time fave Nationals plays.

Most of the images in this tile were screengrabs from video. I didn't bother trying to edit brightness or anything else. The first image was from a blog but looks to be originally from the Washington Post. That photo is from a different better angle than the video which is from the original MASN broadcast. The straight on angle would show better continuity and wouldn't have the post block some of the action.

Oh and look who was pitching - Tyler Clippard.

Screengrab from MASN video. 07 Aug 2012 Nats @ Astros

Now the Senator's Singles Card:

2011 Topps Baseball 84 Roger Bernadina

When Bernadina was with the Nats he had the nickname "The Shark" because of the way he would hunt down and snatch the ball to make spectacular catches. The last MLB team Roger appeared in a game with was the Dodgers in 2014.He was last contracted in 2016 with the Mets for the minor leagues. In November of 2016 Roger signed with the Kia Tigers in the Korean Baseball League (KBO League) in December 2017 he signed a one year contract with the KBO Tigers.

Image from Bernadinakia on Twitter

Related Links:

Nationals vs Astros: Danny Espinosa has 3 RBIs - Washington Post

Washington Nationals Fans Begin to Ask "Could This Be Our Year?" - Washington Post

Senators Singles: 2011 Topps Tyler Clippard

2011 Topps Baseball 74 Tyler Clippard

Doing some more searching of cards already scanned I found this gem. One of my many favorite late innings relief pitchers Tyler Clippard. I sort of showed it on my regular card blog some years ago in a mail day post. A What Post? Strange. Of course I also made a "promise" to show this card and another one on this blog. Wow there have been many times when I had planned on doing something and never end up doing it. Well this post corrects that six years later.

2011 Topps Baseball - 74 Tyler Clippard

Tyler started his career with the Yankees. He was with the 2017 World Series Winning Astros but despite being on the 40 man roster for them did not appear in post season play. He is currently under a minor league contract with the Blue Jays.

Senators Singles: 1954 Topps Wayne Terwilliger

1954 Topps Wayne Terwilliger

I should do this feature more often. I have considered a few times to try to do a daily single card posting thing with this feature along the lines of the blog Orioles Card "O" the Day (he only shows the card front), but I don't have the blogging stamina or the motivation to do it, even just the front. I think it would be fun to do though. Of course 99% of it would have to be planned well in advance and the posts drafted up and placed in the scheduled posting queue. I certainly have more than enough cards to post about. Some of the posts would appear to be "quick and dirty" posts since some of my cards I have no real back story for. I just collected them because I needed them for the collection. If I did do it I might have to yet again make a new blog, divide this blog in two or double post. UGH I already have 3 blogs to keep track of and organize. That is at least 2 blogs too many. OK so no new additional blog, just expand the scope of this blog to include more frequent single card posts. Since I really don't feel like taking the effort to post daily I'll settle on trying to post single card posts more often. Heck I need to just post more often. I will also try to make them all interesting.

Ah found a card that had been sitting in my pictures/baseball cards folder on my ancient XP laptop. From the looks of the scan it was also saved before I started using PhotoScape to finish up my scanned images a year or two ago. I don't think I've talked about this card anywhere.

1954 Topps Baseball: 73 Wayne Terwilliger

Why SI Why Oh Why?

NOTE: This post may or may not contain any card images.

My copy of SI March 26 - April 2, 2018 issue Yankees Cover
(I cropped out/color dropper mailing address)
They also made an Angels cover

As the 2018 MLB Season is about to begin* Sports Illustrated got out it's crystal ball and made their annual prediction for this season's World Series.

Who did they pick? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count because I'm writing this post about the silly thing. Yep they picked the Nationals to win it all over those Damned Yankees. Oh and they also predict the Nats will go 100 - 62 this season.

Now just last year (2017) SI was very wrong with their pick of the Dodgers over the Indians as the actual result was of course the Astros over the Dodgers. Strangely enough though SI had a correct prediction back in June 2014 when their cover sported Astro George Springer and predicted The Astros to Win the World Series in 2017. Hmm I wonder why they had randomly picked three years in the future? However as I said they then in 2017 actually picked the Dodgers over the Indians. The 2014 Astros prediction was just an off-the-cuff statement as it related to the team rebuilding scope of that article.

The Nats fan in me wants a World Series win sometime soon preferably sooner than later and preferably several times over in my lifetime (which is at least half over and getting shorter all the time). The last time a DC baseball team won the World Series was 1924 with the Original Senators and their last appearance was in 1933 the same franchise that would become the Twins. That is two teams/franchises ago with a 33 year gap between the current team and the previous one. This, however is not the first time that SI has predicted the Nats to Win or at least go to The WS. Their first wrong ProgNATStication (play on the word "prognostication") was in 2013 when they picked my beloved Nats to win the whole enchilada over The Tampa Bay Rays the actual series was The Red Sox over the Cardinals (a rematch of the 2004 WS). The next year 2014 the magazine picked the Nats over the A's reality said it was Giants over Royals. Then the very next year 2015 they picked the Nats to go to the Series but picked the Indians over them the real result was Royals over Mets.

Related Articles:
Astro-Matic Baseball: Houston's Grand Experiment - SI.com
Sports Illustrated Picks Nationals to Beat Yankees in 2018 World Series - SI.com (has video):
Sports Illustrated predicts the Nationals will beat the Yankees in the World Series - Washington Post

All images in this post are from the March 26 - April 2, 2018 issue of Sports Illustrated

*The 2018 season has started. This post was originally drafted only a few days to maybe a week before the season began and is being published sometime in the afternoon of Saturday 31 March 2018 to barely make my personal posting quota of one post a month for each of my blogs.