A Soto Photo Plus

For Christmas my Oldest bro and his wife almost always include some Curly W stuff in the bag or box of gifts they give me. This year was no exception there were a few Nats memorabilia things in there. Sometimes they are silly nick nacks I would never by myself or even want and sometimes there are some real cool things that I have drooled over for ages. OK so maybe I haven't literally drooled over the thought of some of the memorabilia but you get the idea. This year one of the cool things was a Juan Soto T-Shirt a red one with The Nationals script a faux Juan Soto signature and the number 22, and This Photo from this past year's Home Run Derby that Juan Won. from Fanatics.

The photograph is 8" x 10" and for now I am keeping it in the plastic bag/packaging. I thought it was a resealable bag but it doesn't act like it. 

Here is my Tops Now card commemorating the event.

Since the photo isn't a card and I have already posted about the Topps Now card, here are some Juan Soto cards that I received for the baseball team box breaking group December break:

2022 Topps Baseball: Series 1: 150

2022 Topps Chrome Baseball: 129 ACK with those star things one the top and bottom edges this might be a stupid winterized version. Blah.

2021 Topps Chrome Baseball :1992 style: TC92-49

2021 Topps Finest Baseball: 7

2021 Panini Chronicles Obsidian Baseball: 37

 

Goodies From A November Group Box Break

 Without much fanfare here are some cards I got from a November Group Box Break. A monthly break I am a part of that I get recent Nationals from.

Group 1:

2022 Topp Archives Baseball:

1963 Design:

75 Andre Dawson Expos

96 Patrick Corbin

100 Juan Soto

1978 Design:

109 Stephen Strasburg

132 Josiah Gray

168 Vladimir Guerrero Expos

190 Lucius Fox

1987 Design:

284 Keibert Ruiz

1992 Design:

366 Bryce Harper

Group 2:

2022 Panini Prizm Baseball:

28 Mason Thompson

84 Josiah Gray

94 Cody Wilson

2007 Fleer Ultra Baseball: Ultra Rookies Auto:

206 Matt Chico on-sticker blue sharpie 104/349

2021 Topps Heritage Baseball:

1972 Design:

200 Michael Taylor

368 Rookie of the Year Award

2022 Gypsy Queen Baseball:

56 Stephen Strasburg

287 Patrick Corbin

Group 3:

2021 Topps Baseball (Series 2):

343 Victot Robles

446 Alex Avila

453 Starlin Castro

461 Ryan Zimmerman

473 Kyle Schwarber

531 Asdrubal Cabrera

2002 Topps Baseball: Update:

US38 Lucius Fox RC

US51 Erick Fedde

US68 Washington Nationals Team Card Juan Soto - 100 Career Home Runs CL

Group 4:

2022 Topps Baseball: Update:

US132 Joe Russ

US173 Andrew Stevenson

US 179 Maikel Franco

US194 Nelson Cruz

US226 Sean Doolittle

US269 Ehire Adrianza

US293 Yadiel Hernandez

US296 Steve Cishek

US299 Cesar Hernandez

I also got a small lot of Texas Rangers cards I had gotten from a bonus group box break:

Cards not scanned

2022 Topps Baseball: Update:

US82 Taylor Hearn

US91 Brad Miller

US96 Kyle Cody

US101 Albert Abreu

US122 Kolby Allard

US131 Martin Perez

US163 Jon Gray

US198 Garrett Richards

US200 Corey Seager

US285 Nick Tropeano

A Spark Of Hope From 2nd Worst Season

 The 2022 Season was a huge bummer for Nationals fans from being the 2nd Worst Season to trading away two of our best players on the trade deadline day (Soto and Bell) to the San Diego Padres. They got to the NLCS but lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. A spark of light in a dark season came on Aug 2nd in the form of 30 Year Old Rookie Joey Meneses in his MLB Debut Homering in the 7th Inning in a 5-1 home victory vs. New York Mets.

From that night on through the rest of the season Joey soon became a fan favorite and one of the shining stars of the last part of the season. 

I have 3 Topps Now cards that commemorate a few of his highlights of the 2022 season.

2022 Topps Now Baseball 645 CALL-UP Joey Meneses Washington Nationals

30-yar-old blasts HR in 1st MLB Game

2022 Topps Now Baseball 822 CALL-UP Joey Meneses Washington Nationals

Hits 10th Inning Blast for 1st Career Walk-Off HR

2022 Topps Now Baseball 910 CALL-UP Joey Meneses Washington Nationals

Inside-The-Park HR Sparks 5-4 Comeback Win

Juan Soto Home Run Derby 2022

This month's card celebrates one of the last highlights of Juan Soto's Nats career. His 2022 Home Run Derby Win. Juan is the second Nat to win this event. The previous Nat winner was Bryce Harper the 2018 Home Run Derby winner when Nationals Stadium was the host park. Looking back on my past posts I thought I had missed posting about that, however it was during a time when I was not tagging labels to my posts due to format changes that Blogger had made. I eventually figured out how to do labels for the new format/template. I thought I had the card even though I don't seem to have it on my TCDB collection list.

Here is Bryce's Home Run Derby Champ Card:

2018 Topps Now Baseball: 467 Bryce Harper Washington Nationals

2018 T-Mobile Home Run Derby Champion at Home Ballpark

Anyway here is the Juan Soto 2002 Topps Now card to celebrate his Home Run Derby Win.

2022 Topps Now Baseball: 567 Juan Soto Washington Nationals

2022 T-Mobile Home Run Derby Champion

Slugging Back to Back to Back

This card might be a little bit of Deja Vu almost but not quite. A few years ago (2017) a quartet of Nats sluggers hit back to back to back TO BACK homers in a game, well this year (2022) the struggling Nats did a trio back to back to back.

In this frustrating losing season on Jun 11 a little bit of sunshine lifted the season a tiny bit. Juan Soto, Nelson Cruz, and Josh Bell hit back to back to back homers scoring 4 runs against The Milwaukee Brewers (traditionally and annoyingly pesky opponent) in an 8-6 victory.

Here is the Topps Now card that commemorates that event.

2022 Topps Now Baseball 331 Juan Soto, Nelson Cruz, Josh Bell Washington Nationals

Sadly a few months later Juan Soto and Josh Bell would be traded to the San Diego Padres. In the final two games of their last 4 game series guess which two players would do San Diego's only scoring for those two games? Yep Juan Soto and Josh Bell. In game 3 they hit back to back homers giving the Padres a 2-1 victory. The next night Josh Bell hit a 2 run homer giving the Padres a second 2-1 win in two nights.

2022 Topps Team Set (Base) Complete

 I now have the complete 2022 Topps Baseball: Nats Base Team Set. I am only missing the 2 Juan Soto SPs (1 SP and 1 SSP) I might never get those two. So I am pretty happy about that. I completed Series 1 a while back and just recently completed Series 2 including the Stephen Strasburg image variant.  I got it from an Ebay auction for $7.50 + only like a buck for shipping. I was the opening bidder when it started at 99¢. The card was delivered on 05 July 2022 estimated delivery was between then and 08 Jul. It was sent via the special Ebay Standard Envelope and their special tracking number system. Tracking shows this card as being still at the point of origin and in transit. Tracking says "It's still on the way". Tee-Hee

The Cards:

360 Joan Adon

404 Andrew Young

439 Josh Bell

472 Luis Garcia

492 Stephen Strasburg

492b Stephen Strasburg SP (photo variant)

525 Patrick Corbin

565 Lane Thomas

568 Keibert Ruiz

580 Carter Kieboom

583 Geraldo Parra

2022 Topps Washington Nationals

(series 1 cards)

A Trio Of Curly W Cards From A Sportlots Splurge (and Ebay).

 From Sportlots I recently went on a Strive For '65 Splurge and bought cards from other years including 2 Curly W cards in this post of 3 cards. The third card I got from Ebay I'll start with that one.

The first card is from Topps Now that I got from Ebay. It is 2022 Topps Now Baseball 73 Joan Adon First Career Win with 6.1 Scoreless Innings. Of course by the time I got this card Adon was Assigned to the Minors (Rochester Red Wings) the day before.

2022 Topps Now Baseball 72 Joan Adon WashingtonNationals

Next we have a card that finishes my 2022 Topps Baseball Series 1 Washington Nationals Team Set (minus the 2 Juan Soto photo variant SPs that I might never get) 2022 Topps Baseball 59 NL Batting Average Leaders: Trea Turner Dodgers, Juan Soto Nationals and Bryce Harper Phillies. 

2022 Topps Baseball 59 NL Batting Average Leaders:

Trea Turner Los Angeles Dodgers, Juan Soto Washington Nationals and Bryce Harper Philadelphia Phillies

Now on to the hunt for the Series 2 cards. I have recently gotten the Series 2 base team cards only need the Stephen Strasburg photo variant SP (in t-shirt). I am currently bidding in an Ebay auction for it, so far I'm the only bidder at the opening 99¢ bid. There is at least one other auction for another copy that started at the same price. UPDATE: The bidding on Strasburg t-shirt card is now up to 4 bids at $5.50. I'm still "Winning" it but it ends in 2 days Sunday 26 Jun at 1:46 pm PDT.

Finally we have a nice cool vintage piece. It is actually a sticker/decal not a card from 1961. This beauty is from the Team Logo Decals insert set from 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats Set. There is No Number it is The Washington Senators Logo. I might try finding the other teams from this insert set. I currently just have the Baltimore Orioles one on my TCDB wantlist.

1961 Fleer Baseball Greats Team Logo Decal Insert Set NNO Washington Senators

Varying Shades of Gray

So a recent Ebay sports card order I made was for the short print of a card from the 2022 Topps Baseball base set. Card number 43 Josiah Gray RC short print w/ his knee up and him turned to the side (about to fall over). That leaves the two Juan Soto short prints for me to hunt down (a short print and a super short print), plus the NL batting average leaders card with Trea Turner, Juan Soto, and Bryce Harper, I'm getting ready to get that one on Sportlots in a huge order I'm piecing together over there.

Oh the odd thing with this order was the "buffer" cards that the dealer packed around the purchased card. I've seen all sorts of things sellers have used and it is common practice to include bonus "buffer" cards that are usually super common cards that are barely worth part of a penny. This seller was no exception except that there were 8 of these bonus cards total, but only 2 different ones. One a 2022 Topps 1st Edition Baseball card 289 Nate Pearson Toronto Blue Jays and a 2016 Bowman Draft Chrome Baseball (1st Bowman) BDC-29 Justin Dunn New York Mets.

How many of each were there? An even 4-4? No, 3-5? No, Not even 2-6 but 1-7 in favor of the Bowman Chrome card. I was tempted to send the bonus cards back, but figured it wasn't worth the postage.

So here are the images for the two variants of this card: 2022 Topps Baseball 43 Josiah Gray Washington Nationals:

2022 Topps Baseball 43 Josiah Gray Washington Nationals (base)

2022 Topps Baseball 43 Josiah Gray Washington Nationals (Short Print - picture variant)

A Team Set Sort Of Topps 2022

I haven't purchased new packs or full sets this year, but have gotten some of the 2022 Topps Washington Nationals via a monthly box breaking group I have the Nats in. So except for 3 image variants and the NL batting leaders card I have the Team Set for series 1. The NL batting leaders card has one Nat Juan Soto and two Ex-Nats Trea Turner and Bryce Harper.

Last post I showed The Ryan Zimmerman sunset card from this set, this post is all the base Nats cards.

38 Mason Thompson

43 Josiah Gray

61 Jackson Reetz

116 Alcides Escobar

150 Juan Soto

158 Riley Adams

218 Washington Nationals Team Card

220 Gerardo Parra

296 Ryan Zimmerman

So Long Mr. Zimmerman Employee Number 11

 

Ryan Zimmerman The Nat's first ever Draft Pick (well as the Washington Nationals) announced his retirement on 15 February 2022. Then at the beginning of the delayed Spring Training opening the organization announce that they will officially retire his Employee Number 11 Jersey Number on 18 June 2022. Two other Nationals wore number 11 in 2005 before Ryan wore it, Jeffery Hammonds and Junior Spivey, but it is Ryan who is known for wearing that number, previously he was Employee Number 25.

2006 Fleer Baseball 228 Ryan Zimmerman Washington Nationals

Image from Trading Card DataBase 

(I have a copy of this and/or maybe the gray/silver version,

but couldn't find my copy in time to scan it for posting)

An image I created using an old CheckOutMyCards logo and a Getty Image of Ryan. 

Here is one of my Fave Zimmerman cards. I wish it was available in a non-chrome version but it was apparently only for Chrome. This card was made several years before the Nats ever wore an Expos Throwback uniform. As far as I know they have only worn a Montreal Throwback uniform (The powder blue away uniforms) the one time. They have worn retro Homestead Grays uniforms plenty of times. Not a very flattering image of him, but it is better than some sketch cards.

2010 Topps Chrome Baseball: National Chicle CC49

Ryan Zimmerman Montreal Expos

Here is an oddball Z-Man Card I like: It is a die-cut standee so it is very fragile. I think I might have wrecked it some after I scanned it while removing it from the scanner.

2009 Enterplay MLB Fan Pak #60 Ryan Zimmerman Washington Nationals Standee

Now here is what will be Ryan's last career era card.

2022 Topps Baseball 296 Ryan Zimmerman Washington Nationals