My annual pack of baseball cards

Happy Opening Day, everyone! Time for over 6 months of smug baseball writers mocking older writers, sports radio hosts, and dumb fans for their "takes." Of course some of the highlights of the season include the annual smug expression of superiority when discussing the Hall of Fame, the smug rejection of non-"smart" opinions around the trade deadline, and best of all the smug lambasting of awards voters who don't agree with the cool kids.

If I sound cynical, it may be because the Pirates won't contend, I haven't renewed the MLB.TV package (and why do the blackout rules still apply to that, anyway), and when I bought my annual pack of Topps baseball cards the other day, I could only find a jumbo pack that cost 5 bucks.

I still  love baseball, even though I have all but stopped regular watching of basketball, tennis, boxing...Australian Rules Football (OK, I weaned myself off that one years ago), and curtailed my overall sports viewing. Buying a pack of cards is a ritual for me, a way to reconnect with the game and summon nostalgic feelings for the days when I didn't grasp just how much of a ripoff these things were.

I would have liked a chance to get a smaller, less pricy pack, but on the bright side, I got more cards and more chances to get some of my favorite players, like...Well, I think I need to develop some favorites. I hoped to get some Pirates, and I did get two--Opening Day starter Ivan Nova (see what I said about the Pirates in the second paragraph) and John Jaso, who looks cool on the card but is no longer in The Show.

Here are some other scattered impressions I have after looking at my cards:

*I say it every year, but, wow, these pieces of cardboard look and feel better than they did when I was scooping them up and actually collecting.  Great graphics, good stock, attractive photos--and these are the "regular" ones.

*I never knew exactly what "embossed" meant, but Topps has embossing all over these cards.
*The wrapper touts "ONE EXCLUSIVE KRIS BRYANT HIGHLIGHTS CARD INSIDE!" This may be a dumb question, but why? I do indeed have a Kris Bryant card now, but why does HE get a card in every pack? Does his uncle run the company now?

*I remember when "League Leaders" cards were LAME, but this Jose Altuve (led the AL with a .346 BA) looks pretty much just like a "regular" card with only an unobtrusive label above his name on the front. It's like, hey, I got a Jose Altuve. Cool.

*I am not a big fan of the "Legends in the Making" subset. The design just doesn't appeal to me.

*Other notable players I got:  Adrian Beltre, Carlos Carrasco, "Fielding Award" Nolan Arenado," Daniel Murphy, Luis Severino, Avisail Garcia.

*By far the coolest card in the pack: A Sandy Koufax in the style of the 1983 Topps set.  I'd almost pay another 5 bucks to get another of these special cards.

Play ball!