A Very Late Opening Day

For as long as I've been watching Major League Baseball, Opening Day happens in early spring. Topps built a whole set around it, and they helpfully list the date right on the Blue Foil parallels. 

2020 Topps Opening Day Blue Foil #168 A.J. Puk

March 26th, 2020. That's when the season was supposed to begin.

Earth had other plans.

It ended up happening four months late, kicking off in late July 2020. I could be cheeky and call this A.J. Puk card an uncorrected error (along with all the rest in this parallel set), but really it's just disappointing and tragic.

I suppose it's fitting that I'm just now getting around to blogging about this hanger box of 2020 Topps Opening Day, after a year and a half of it sitting on my card shelf. They got the season started on time this year, but a springtime Opening Day isn't something that's carved in granite, and isn't something you can always rely on, even though you always thought you could.

And now, so it goes with Topps as a whole. Ever since the early 1950s, collectors could count on having Topps baseball cards available for purchase. Over the years they've been for sale for as cheap as a nickel or as much as hundreds of dollars a box, and everything in between. But there was a seismic event in the baseball card world a few days ago.

On Thursday, it was announced that Fanatics, a sports apparel and memorabilia company with a less-than-stellar reputation, will have the exclusive license to print MLB trading cards starting in 2026. Even more shocking is that Topps will lose their MLBPA license to use player names and likenesses after 2022. 

There has been much speculation in recent days since this news hit the wire, not to mention the sudden implosion of the deal Topps had with a SPAC to go public at a valuation of over $1 billion. That's off the table now, replaced by a gaping void of uncertainty.

Using their MLBPA agreement, Fanatics can step in as soon as 2023 with unlicensed player-only cards like we've seen from Panini for most of the past decade. But as I understand it, that's an exclusive license, leaving Topps in the awkward position of being able to use MLB team names and logos but no players. 

I can't imagine the powers that be will allow airbrushed cards from Fanatics to coexist for three years with, I don't know, Topps cards of nothing but batting helmets and stadiums and mascots. As it stands now, I believe that scenario would be contractually possible, but that certainly isn't what anyone has in mind.

My prediction is that either Fanatics will buy the rights to the existing MLB license from Topps, kicking off this transition even earlier than we had expected and leaving Topps to fend for themselves with little more than their various soccer and pro wrestling products, or my preferred option at this point, they'll just buy Topps and their vast stable of brands outright, albeit at a far lower valuation than Topps was supposedly worth just a few days ago.

Business is war. 

And monopolies are double-edged swords. Surely we all wouldn't be so concerned about the future of card collecting if Upper Deck had been able to compete with Topps since 2010.

In any case, here's how I feel about it:

2020 Topps Opening Day #122 Jorge Alfaro

Just add this whole saga to the ever-growing list of Things We Can't Count On Anymore.

Let's also not forget that the prospect of another labor dispute is clouding the waters. But regardless of what will happen in the future, Topps has quite a history, and it kept going all throughout 2020.

2020 Topps Opening Day #89 José Altuve

"'José's the heart and soul of what we do,' says Astros manager A.J. Hinch", or so says the card back of José Altuve's 2020 Opening Day card. It would turn out that Altuve and other Astros were at the heart of the cheating scandal from 2017 and beyond, something that got shoved to the back burner by the pandemic, along with everything else. As you might imagine, there remains some pretty bad blood between the Astros and Dodgers, but all in all, it didn't really make the waves it might have during a normal season. A bunch of the players involved have since moved on to other teams by now anyway.

2020 Topps Opening Day #14 Alex Verdugo

Alex Verdugo wasn't on the 2017 Postseason roster, so he didn't get to see the Astros cheating scandal firsthand, but he did suit up for L.A. that year, and traditionally, that's enough to earn a ring. Despite being on some extremely talented teams, he has yet to appear in an actual Postseason game. That might change this year depending on where the Red Sox finish in the standings, which is where Verdugo plays now.

2020 Topps Opening Day #28 Mookie Betts

In fact, he was part of the trade that sent Mookie Betts to Los Angeles. Consequently, as a Rockies fan, I've been seeing a lot more of Betts than Verdugo these days. It always surprises me how well I find myself knowing the Dodgers lineup. They play the Rockies a lot, they're often on the nationally-televised games, and they make the Postseason constantly. Like it or not, they're a force to be reckoned with.

And they have become the New York Yankees of baseball, according to A-Rod.

2020 Topps Opening Day #48 Francisco Lindor

Those Yankees are not to be confused with the crosstown New York Mets, which is where Francisco Lindor is now playing. His career has taken a significant downturn, much to the chagrin of the new Mets owner.

The card back mentions that Lindor was an All-Star in four consecutive seasons, but that's a streak that was snapped this year. In future years, we'll have to remember that there was no All-Star Game in 2020, so seeing a gap in the list of All-Star seasons isn't necessarily indicative of a broken streak. Notice that Lindor is wearing the official Indians All-Star patch on his left sleeve, the one with the Rock & Roll-themed guitar.

This would be a good place to mention the new Cleveland team name, the Guardians. That will go into effect next season. I like the name, I understand why they're changing it, and the detail-oriented side of me appreciates that they'll keep their place in line on an alphabetical list of team names. I'm sure that was the lowest of priorities when choosing their new name, but maybe keeping the last four letters in place was intentional to maintain a degree of connection to their history.

Here's the Tom Hanks-narrated video of their new identity, named for the Art Deco-style Guardians of Traffic statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland.

2020 Topps Opening Day #162 Max Kepler

I found some nice horizontal photos in this box, such as this one of Max Kepler's home run trot. I haven't said much about the 2020 design, and didn't really even post about the 2020 Topps base set until last month, but I have to say it works better in horizontal orientation than it did in 2017, when the design covered up a lot more of the photo.

It's worth mentioning here that Topps has already released images of the 2022 set design, and while it's certainly more readable than this year's set, I don't know how well I'll be able to differentiate it from most of the Bowman sets we've seen in the past decade.

Anyway, I like how the Twins are clearly making the most of all their scoreboard graphics. It leaves little doubt as to what just happened on the field. Kepler hit a career-high 36 dingers in 2019, so I'm not even going to try pinpointing this photo.

2020 Topps Opening Day #131 Eddie Rosario

During what was definitely a different play, Eddie Rosario slid into home to put another run up on the board for the Twins. I can't tell who the blurry third baseman is in the background; if I had to guess I'd say a Kansas City Royal. If that's correct, you're looking at the only two active teams I haven't seen in person. 

Eddie Rosario has since switched leagues, joining the Braves in return for Pablo Sandoval. It was a weird trade, because Rosario is currently on the IL, and the Indians promptly released the Kung Fu Panda the same day they acquired him. Really all Cleveland was trying to do was offload Rosario's contract. 

Incidentally, Eddie Rosario was involved in one of my all-time favorite heads-up plays, where he scored from first on a single to short left field. That isn't the play pictured here, but the clip did feature current Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron at the plate.

2020 Topps Opening Day #127 Kirby Yates

I used to go to a lot of games. Eight or ten a season was common. I haven't been to a regular season game since the pandemic hit. Yes, there was the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, and I do have tickets for one game in September, but that has been a serious adjustment. 

I used to even fly to other cities to see games once in a great while. That also has not been happening, nor do I have any idea when it will again, but I did see Kirby Yates pitch for the Padres in San Diego in July 2019. He was asked to come in and get a six-out save, which he was unable to do. The game went to extra innings, and even though the Padres loaded the bases down two runs in the 10th inning, they had no choice but to send a pitcher in to pinch-hit with two outs. That ended the four-hour evening in predictable fashion, at which point I began hunting all over the Gaslamp Quarter for a late-night bite to eat.

I also used to eat in restaurants. It was nice.

As far as Kirby Yates, he's recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, and is out for at least the 2021 season.

2020 Topps Opening Day #33 Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.

Holding all else equal, which is a bold assumption these days, Yates will be teammates with Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. once he returns to the mound. Those Blue Jays are an exciting young team, currently sitting in fourth place in the AL East despite having a solid winning record. Vlad shares the infield with Bo Bichette, who sings his praises on this card back. 

On the card front, the design is graced with the Opening Day logo, the well-deserved Topps Rookie Cup, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wearing a monogrammed elbow guard. That's when you know you've arrived.

2020 Topps Opening Day Opening Day #OD-14 Toronto Blue Jays

On to the inserts. I found four in this hanger box, plus the blue parallel shown at the top of this post. This one is from the redundantly named Opening Day insert set, documenting the actual outcomes of the first day of the 2019 season. The Blue Jays hosted the Detroit Tigers at the Rogers Centre on March 28th, 2019, losing 2-0 in 10 innings.

Speaking of the Tigers, Miguel Cabrera, who went 0-4 that day, was right back in Toronto today and hit his 500th career home run.

2020 Topps Opening Day Opening Day #OD-15 Washington Nationals

Fresh off their improbable World Series championship in 2019, Topps gave us a look at how that historic season began for the Washington Nationals. They opened at home, facing off against Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets. The Mets took game 1 of 162, part of what led to the Nationals starting off with a frequently-cited 19-31 record. As we know by now, they turned things around dramatically to win the first World Series in franchise history.

2020 Topps Opening Day Spring Has Sprung #SHS-20 Rafael Devers

Opening Day is obviously preceded by Spring Training, and Topps gave us a look at that portion of the baseball season with this Spring Has Sprung insert set. 

Spring usually springs a bit later than March in most parts of the country, hence why teams fly south to Arizona and Florida to shake the rust off. The set describes how certain players approach the preseason, such as Rafael Devers of the Red Sox joking around with teammates in between heavy training sessions. We're told he hired a personal trainer during the offseason, and he "showed up ready to dominate".

2020 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-8 Bernie Brewer

I'll close this Topps Opening Day post as I usually do, with a Mascot card. I didn't find Dinger, or even the Mariner Moose, but I did at least get one Mascot card, a mustachioed Bernie Brewer, nowhere near his yellow slide in left field.

I was shut out of the other insert sets, including Team Traditions and Celebrations, Sticker Collection Previews, and a few others that have depressingly long odds to pull.

I read in Joe Posnanski's column recently that "The very best version of baseball is how the game was played when you were 10 years old." I think the same is true for baseball card collecting. 1994 Topps Black Gold, for example, ranks up there as one of my favorite insert sets of all-time. It was rare but possible to actually finish. There weren't a zillion of this, a zillion of that, 1/1s, things you'd never have any hope of seeing, especially as a 10-year old. On the other hand, collectors older than me might look at 1994 and cringe at how many sets there were, how some cards looked like a multicolored windbreaker got caught in the printing press, foil, and how even then there were parallel sets like Stadium Club First Day Issues that no one had any hope of completing.

Of course, there are no guarantees that Fanatics won't take everything we dislike about the current hobby right now and make it even worse. Availability issues, high pricing, short prints, far too many variations and sets to collect, excessive focus on rookies, quality control, and so on.

Sometimes it feels like we'll be lucky to have cards at all in 2026. Not that I really have room for more anyway, and even if Topps collapsed tomorrow, I'll still have enough cards to keep this blog going for a lifetime, and I think that's true for all of us.

The Annual Stadium Club Appreciation Post

Year after year, I keep coming back to the most beautiful set on the market, Topps Stadium Club. I didn't go with a blaster or a box this year, just a 12-card pack off the rack at Target. But what a great pack it was.

2019 Stadium Club #112 Michael Conforto

I wrote myself a little note about this card, as I pulled it right around the same time Michael Conforto smashed a walkoff hit over the head of Adam Eaton on August 9th. I wanted to be sure to include that highlight, because it looks an awful lot like Conforto is celebrating another key hit on this card. It can't be a walkoff due to that road uniform, but road teams can certainly find some magic in visiting ballparks.

Anyone who watched either NLDS game yesterday can attest to that. And Adam Eaton, though Michael Conforto got the better of him on August 9th, celebrated the Nationals' first-ever playoff series win yesterday, not counting the Wild Card game a week prior.

The Mets were pretty close to having a turn in the postseason this year, and were in the mix right up until the final few days. They were three games out of a wild card spot. Disappointing, but great to build on. And it certainly helps to have Pete Alonso, who just set the all-time rookie home run record.

2019 Stadium Club #159 Noah Syndergaard

Noah Syndergaard is another key part of a well-rounded Mets team, a talented righty who threw his first career shutout to close out the 2018 season.

Stadium Club for 2019 is another full-bleed design, and the lettering this year is somewhat similar to the 2017 design. The font is quite readable, and the only demerit is the drop shadow, which looks a little amateurish on such a light background like this pristine pitching mound.

My eyes are drawn to the white number 10 on the back of the Citi Field mound, and I believe that is a memorial to Rusty Staub, a Hall of Famer and fan favorite who passed away on Opening Day 2018. Staub spent nine seasons as a Met across two stints and was one of the first stars of the newly formed Montreal Expos.

2019 Stadium Club #43 Carlos Santana

Shifting over to the American League, here's Carlos Santana giving us a posed bat barrel shot. Like the Mets, the Cleveland Indians finished three games out of the second Wild Card spot, despite winning a whopping 93 games. They shared a division with two of the four worst teams in the Majors this year, so that probably padded their win count a bit, but that's still a disappointing outcome, and one more win than any Rockies team has ever amassed.

Santana signed with the Phillies for the 2018 season, but found himself right back in Cleveland for 2019, earning his first All-Star selection in the process.

2019 Stadium Club #37 Carlos Carrasco

One of the bigger stories to come out of Cleveland this year was Carlos Carrasco's sudden trip to the Injured List, after which it was revealed he was battling leukemia. Fortunately, he responded well to treatment and pitched out of the bullpen throughout the month of September.

It is fortunate that these players are surrounded by such talented medical staff. Micah Bowie has been battling serious medical challenges for quite some time, and has found relief thanks to B.A.T., the Baseball Assistance Team. Danny Farquhar suffered a brain aneurysm in the White Sox dugout, a scary and potentially lethal situation, but recovered well enough to briefly appear in the Yankees organization before announcing his retirement this summer.

These guys are tough.

As far as Carrasco, I wish him a continued strong recovery, and hope to see him appear in lots of Stadium Club sets yet to come.

2019 Stadium Club #132 Rickey Henderson

This year's Oakland A's team did better than the Mets and Indians, but didn't manage to win the Wild Card game against the Rays. As a Rockies fan, I've been on both sides of that, watching the team lose in 2017 and win in 2018. But the poor Oakland A's have lost three of them, one of just two teams to lose more than one, and the only one without at least a win in another year.

Needless to say, Oakland is not a fan of the Wild Card game.

But when Rickey was there? Well, he played plenty of postseason games with the A's, won the ALCS MVP in 1989, and helped bring home a trophy to Oakland that year, the year of the earthquake.

Rickey Henderson appears on his 2019 Stadium Card with fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, who is fielding a throw from a very wise pitcher trying to check the runner. I'd surely try the same against the best base stealer in the history of the game.

Lots of collectors, myself included, notice and occasionally complain about recycled photos on baseball cards. I don't recall seeing this one before, but how would you feel if Topps were to use this on an Eddie Murray card at some point in the future? It's a great picture and I don't think there are nearly enough Eddie Murray cards out there.

2019 Stadium Club #86 Johnny Bench

This isn't a recycled photo, but it is extremely similar to Johnny Bench's card in 2017 Stadium Club. It's still a great image, and looking at the two side-by-side gives you a great look at the evolution of the catcher's mask.

As the card back tells us, of all the members of the Hall of Fame, only 18 were catchers. I won't go into ranking them, but Johnny Bench finds himself toward the top of a very short list.

2019 Stadium Club #245 Lou Gehrig

By many measures, Babe Ruth is the best baseball player of all-time. But his teammate Lou Gehrig is right up there in a number of statistics. If his life had not been tragically cut short, he would have unquestionably been in the 500 home run club and reached 2,000 RBI, very likely would have been the first Yankee with 3,000 hits, long before Derek Jeter, and would have made it that much harder on Cal Ripken to break the consecutive games played streak. When Gehrig removed himself from the game with his streak at 2,130, that was the very last time he'd play.

Despite all that, he is third all-time in slugging percentage, seventh all-time in RBI (and Barry Bonds edged him by one), and is in the top-10 in a slew of modern Sabermetric stats, like Win Probability Added and OPS.

And one more thing. He was the first baseball player to have his uniform number retired.

There's just no way you can't be excited by pulling a Lou Gehrig card out of a pack.

2019 Stadium Club #257 Ken Griffey Jr.

With all this talk of Division Series Game 5s (which I am watching as I write this), it's worth remembering the first-ever Game 5 in the current Postseason format. That was in 1995 (it should have been 1994, but that's another story), when the Mariners beat the Yankees in extra innings. SBNation recently did a great video about that ALDS, and just how important that win was to the Mariners as a whole.

Spoiler alert, none other than Ken Griffey, Jr scored the winning run in the 11th inning, thanks to a double off the bat of fellow Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez.

This card shows The Kid looking pensively out of the dugout, likely on the visitor's side, as you're unlikely to need eye black and flip-down shades inside the Kingdome. And we get enough of a close-up here to see that those ubiquitous flip-down sunglasses we've seen for decades are made by a company called Gargoyles.

You learn something new every day.

2019 Stadium Club Red Foil #109 Khris Davis

For a simple pack, this one was one of the better ones. I found a Red Foil parallel of another Oakland Athletic, Khris Davis. I mentioned him yesterday in the context of extreme consistency when talking about Vinny Castilla's mid-'90s stats. Khris Davis's streak ended this year, but he hit .247 four seasons in a row. It got to be a running joke for a while on Reddit, especially as it became clear that streak was coming to an end. "If he goes 28 for his next 31 he'll keep the streak alive" or something to that effect.

It's right there on the card back in his 2018 stats, .247, right below the paragraph that Topps included about this odd feat of consistency. The only thing they missed was making that the card number. According to Beckett, a Khris Davis card #247 does not exist yet.

Topps, please make that happen.

2019 Stadium Club Power Zone #PZ-5 Mark McGwire

This turned into an Oakland A's hot pack, didn't it? The Power Zone insert set makes another return, this year with a background that looks straight out of an iPhone ad. Mark McGwire gives us his philosophy on hitting on the card back: "I don't know of anybody that makes a big living hitting pitches that are off the plate."

And that's how you hit 70 home runs in a season.

McGwire once held the record for most home runs by a rookie, but Aaron Judge beat that record two years ago, and Pete Alonso beat that record just weeks ago, with 53. Interestingly, both Judge and Alonso won the Home Run Derby in their Rookie years. McGwire participated in the '87 Derby, his rookie year, but only hit [checks notes] one?

Must have been a different format.

2019 Stadium Club Chrome #SCC-21 Chipper Jones

And that brings us to our final card, Chipper Jones on a Chrome parallel. The switch hitter stepped in from the left side for this particular plate appearance, and the card has the usual look of what we expect from the Chrome brand. The card back compares him to another switch hitter, Mickey Mantle. We're told that Chipper is the son of an avid Mickey Mantle fan. I, too, am the son of an avid Mickey Mantle fan.

While the NLDS didn't go Atlanta's way this year, Chipper Jones managed to cleanly snag a foul ball as a fan during Game 1. He has come a long way since that high school Rookie Card in 1991 Topps. I've never been much of a Braves fan, but I have plenty of respect for great switch hitters and franchise players.

Not a bad pack when you pull 50% Hall of Famers. Yes, I am counting Mark McGwire, because he should be.

Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 3)

Hanukkah is not a holiday for those with little patience. You're in it for the long haul, a week and then a day. This leads to the fun chronology of it always ending on the same day of the week on which it began, in this case Sunday. The actual celebration is quite ritualistic, and it differs from Christmas in that it doesn't have weeks or even months of buildup, suddenly followed by an abrupt end. December 26th always felt like the most anticlimactic day of the entire year. Hanukkah is a nice, slow burn, and by the end of the eighth night, you feel like you've gotten your fill.

By the third night, you've got the rhythm down again. You probably remember the prayers without having to look them up. You've also perfected your dreidel spin. And the more candles you have, the more fun it is to watch them dance in varying ways, even just a centimeter apart.

Something else where your muscle memory comes back quickly is opening packs of cards. I might go months without opening a pack, but partway through a blaster, I have that little tear of the back flap of cellophane just perfect.

2018 Stadium Club #59 Yonder Alonso

First out of Night 3's pack is Yonder Alonso, the Cuban first baseman who has played on three teams in two seasons. He spent all of 2018 with the Cleveland Indians, which means he made it to his first Postseason in October. All those years on the Reds and Padres didn't afford him a taste of October baseball until now.

This card shows the rapid recent evolution of the Cleveland Indians uniform. Red and dark blue are becoming more prominent, and the Indians are gradually moving away from the Chief Wahoo logo, which is barely visible on Alonso's left sleeve. Starting in 2019, the longtime logo will not be used on-field anymore.

2018 Stadium Club #266 Alex Verdugo (RC)

I'll spare you any political opinions about the Indians' logo and move right along to the first of two rookie cards in this pack. Alex Verdugo has mainly been a September call-up for the Los Angeles Dodgers these past two years, and the Dodgers haven't chosen to add him to a Postseason roster yet. He's only 22 years old, and the Dodgers show no signs of slowing down. That will continue to make it difficult on the rest of the NL West, and gives this 22-year old plenty of time to improve his game.

This card has the general look of those 1970s cards everyone loves so much. Other than the massive amount of ink on Verdugo's forearm, the chain link fence and various parked vehicles in the background just scream "retro". That's also one of the better examples of a bat's woodgrain that I can recall.

2018 Stadium Club Never Compromise #NC-MT Mike Trout

This pack's insert arrived exactly in the middle, and it's another new one called Never Compromise. Perennial MVP candidate Mike Trout is the subject this time, who was named the AL Rookie of the Year in 2012. He's reached that age of 27 where most players either finally figure out the big leagues or fade into obscurity. Trout, on the other hand, is a two-time MVP, seven-time All Star, and would be a guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer if he retired tomorrow. Instead, he's sure to score a gigantic payday once he hits free agency.

I'm not sure what the point of this set is, other than an excuse to make another card of Mike Trout. The paragraph on the back mostly talks about Trout's clubhouse demeanor, including a quote from former Angel Howie Kendrick.

I am a frequent Redditor, and things get quite different around the /r/baseball subreddit during the offseason. There are plenty of highlights and game recaps during the season, but between November and March, people are grasping at straws a little bit. One offseason post pointed out that Shohei Ohtani was the first Angel not named after a fish to win Rookie of the Year, after Mike Trout and Tim Salmon.

Sometimes April is a long way away.

2018 Stadium Club #280 Harrison Bader (RC)

We're rotating to landscape orientation for the final two cards, starting with our second rookie card of the pack. It's outfielder Harrison Bader of the St. Louis Cardinals, just barely off the ground in a picture-perfect dive, though the ball is still nowhere to be found. It can be a little lonely out there in the outfield, and your ability to dive for fly balls is the only thing standing between an out and an inside-the-park home run. A play like this can spectacularly turn against you very quickly, but professionals like this make the SportsCenter highlight reel more often than not.

Back when I was a young Beckett subscriber, they'd occasionally run a feature where fans would write amusing captions for their cards and send them in. Gloves on heads, dugout shots, Bip Roberts, that sort of stuff. Upper Deck cards were frequent candidates. Anyway, I always wanted to send a card like this in to Beckett, and caption it, "Hurry up and take the picture! I can't hold this pose much longer!"

I may have stolen that from my dad. It was a long time ago.

2018 Stadium Club #300 Hideki Matsui

Closing out the third night is our first MLB retiree of the blaster, Hideki Matsui as a Yankee. The Japanese star spent most of his American career as a Yankee, though he did wrap things up with a few other AL teams in the early 2010s. He was named the 2009 World Series MVP in the Yankees' defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies, and I had the good fortune to see him in late 2009 in Anaheim, the only regular-season MLB game I've attended outside Denver. Matsui went 0-3 that day, with a walk and a run scored.

There is definitely some funny business going on with the background of this card. The umpire, catcher's head, and fans nearer the third base dugout are much blurrier than the fans on the other side, leading me to believe that either Topps applied some weird artificial bokeh effect to the upper right quadrant of the photograph, or else an image processing algorithm got confused. I speak from experience when I assure you that light does not work this way.

I haven't played with new smartphone features like Portrait Mode much, but they can get confused when a background is encircled by a foreground object. Someone with their hands on their hips, for example, or a chair arm. The enclosed area might not be digitally blurred like the rest of the background in the same focal plane. For my money, a fast lens with a wide open aperture is still the best way to get a nice bokeh effect, but I'm a purist.

It's a good photo selection, as is usual with Stadium Club. But the strangeness of how it was manipulated knocks it down a few pegs in my book. However, this is the final card in the set, #300, so that raises it back up a little bit.

Our streak of Washington Nationals has come to an end, but it's never too late to begin a new one.