Showing posts with label Paul Molitor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Molitor. Show all posts

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Bees?

Remember that Diamondbacks game where a swarm of bees decided that the backstop would be a great place to set up shop? And they had to bring in a local beekeeper to vacuum them all up so the game could start? And then he victoriously threw out the first pitch?

2024 Topps NOW #145 Matt Hilton /16946

That was April 30th of last year.

Feels like ancient history.

But at the time, I was amused enough by this whole saga to be one of 16,946 Topps customers to order the related Topps Now card. Topps spared no expense in cranking out the bee puns front and back, warning us to "Bee very afraid" while "fans swarmed into Chase Field" to see the Dodgers and Diamondbacks "causing some buzz", etc....

The Diamondbacks ran with it, too. Beekeeper Matt Hilton even got a bobblehead later in the season.

At the end of the day, these cards are just toys. Might as well have some fun with it. 

2024 Topps NOW #774 Charlie Blackmon /1348

But it was a more serious atmosphere at Coors Field on September 29th, 2024, the date that career Rockie and four-time All-Star Charlie Blackmon finally decided to hang up the spikes. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Denver, marking my seventh game of the season, and the first time I saw both the home opener and the final game in the same year. I sprung for a Club Level ticket to see Chuck Nazty off, and got there early to catch all the pre-game ceremonies.

Charlie got the honor of taking the field alone in the first inning, jogging out to his usual spot in center field, only this time with his uniform #19 mowed into the grass. He got a hit in his first at bat, left the game, and that was a wrap.

The card documenting the occasion was the third and final Topps Now card I bought in 2024. There's no paragraph on the back, just a photo of #19 high-fiving the fans as the team did their annual farewell lap of the warning track after the game ended. Incidentally, Charlie got a cameo on Ryan McMahon's Topps Now card from the 2024 home opener, bookending the season nicely.

2024 Topps NOW #39 Ryan McMahon /888 (Reverse)

In the little Spring Training action I've seen thus far in 2025, the team does have a different feel. The young guys that have peppered the Top 100 Prospects list are working their way up the farm system, and new fan favorites will emerge. Blackmon is still with the club in a front-office role as "Special Assistant to the General Manager," a title he shares with Vinny Castilla, Todd Helton, and Clint Hurdle.

You may recall that the Rockies gave Todd Helton a real live horse as his retirement gift in 2013. Charlie got his own steed, of sorts, as the team removed the promotional Toyota Tundra pickup truck from near the scoreboard in left field and gifted it to Charlie as a going-away present. There was a whole video on the scoreboard showing a huge crane taking it down the day before, and while I did vaguely note the truck's absence from its usual spot at the ballpark, I didn't quite put two and two together until they drove it onto the field.

I just hope Charlie doesn't run out of gas again, as DJ LeMahieu isn't in town to save him anymore.

2024 was a slow year on the baseball card front for me. I bought a couple blasters, received a few gifts, and picked up the Topps Factory Set, as is tradition. But I did feed a little nostalgia and branched far off the traditional path with one purchase.

Magic: The Gathering - Ice Age: Polar Kraken

To go along with the one Pokémon card in my entire collection, feast your eyes on what is now the one and only Magic: The Gathering card in my entire collection. 

I don't have the slightest idea what any of these numbers or symbols mean, but I do have a couple friends I could ask. And I only paid a few dollars for this on eBay, far below the value of the legendary Black Lotus card.

No, it's just the one particular card I remember seeing in my friend's collection in middle school, and that's about it. And now Seattle has a whole NHL team named after this mythical beast.

 

Back to baseball.

Chris over at Nachos Grande is running another Breaker's Club group, which got underway earlier this week. I didn't see a blog post about it, so those may be exclusively advertised on Discord now. I'm sure it's a lot of work to manage that in more than one place, and I might just be missing recent posts, but it's just another sign of the times that the blog community isn't what it once was. It's not lost on me that I only did four posts during the entire last year. Not that long ago I could crank four out in a long weekend or two. That's only half a Hanukkah!

Anyway, I bought in for the Rockies as I often do. Prior to that, I did have a couple boxes of cards to sort through from past Breaker's Clubs, and that was my main collecting accomplishment of 2024. It felt good to get those organized, as they had been sitting there a while. 

I don't remember anything major jumping out at me, but the one set I wrote down to mention in a future post was 1995 Bazooka. I don't trust Google Search as much as I once did, but I am not seeing any mention of this set on my blog before today. That surprises me, because in looking at the two-plus pages I have of this set in my 1995 binder, a few of these look extremely familiar. 

1995 Bazooka #102 Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor running the bases as a Blue Jay on Astroturf.

1995 Bazooka #113 Kirby Puckett

Kirby Puckett wearing a catcher's mitt.

1995 Bazooka #26 Robin Ventura

Robin Ventura on Tatooine, shielding his eyes from the twin suns with his fancy blue shades.

I could practically draw some of these from memory.

1995 Bazooka #83 Andrés Galarraga

But the Rockies look unfamiliar. Maybe the Bichette I already had, but this Galarraga, my favorite player from the Blake Street Bombers squad, doesn't ring a bell. It's probably the card that made me write a future reminder to myself.

It's a pretty basic photo and design for an entry-level set, complete with drop shadows under the lettering. The one unique design element is the position list on the right. It always seems to be on the right edge in this set regardless of whether it fits the photo or not, and the highlighted position comes in a variety of primary and secondary colors. Pitchers had four options depending on their handedness and role, and is likely the first time I ever saw the letters LHSP appear together in sequence.

Any color coding on the position markers appears to be purely coincidental. I saw it appear in purple on Expos, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and several other team cards, but Andrés Galarraga plays first base in green.

I don't make the rules now, and I certainly didn't in 1995.

As a 1995 release, of course these come in a parallel variety.

1995 Bazooka Red Hot #RH-6 Tony Gwynn

It's a partial parallel set called Red Hot, which has a red background and position marker, as well as that most '90s of premium design elements, gold foil. "Red Hot" isn't labeled anywhere on the card; it's just something I remembered from thirty years ago without having to look it up.

This hobby is nestled deep in my brain, truly.

Parallel or not, all varieties allow you to play the "Play Ball" game via a circular grid on the card back. It's meant to pair with a spinning pointer, conveniently included inside packs and awkwardly branded the "ToppSpinner".

This set is only 132 cards, a single Topps printing sheet. It wouldn't be terribly hard to complete or even to make a huge dent in the checklist for a minimal cost.

We'll see what 2025 has in store and whether I'll beat four posts this year.

 

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Brewers

We're nearing the end of the Mystery Packs that came from my trip to the antique mall last year. Like the Yankees, this one consists of 1970s cards that were sold in a binder page. I didn't get any ninja Orioles, but the interesting history of the Brewers does have shades of another team.

1971 Topps #516 Ted Kubiak
1969 saw more expansion in Major League Baseball. The Montreal Expos began play that year, as did their National League counterparts, the San Diego Padres. In the American League, the Kansas City Royals started, along with a team called the Seattle Pilots that few people other than hardcore baseball fans have heard of.

The Pilots experienced the usual expansion team woes in their only 1969 season, and a lot more. Their repurposed Minor League stadium wasn't nearly up to par for a big league setting, and the team quickly fell into bankruptcy after poor attendance and high ticket prices. Recently retired Commissioner Bud Selig bought the team and moved them to Milwaukee to become the Brewers.

The City of Seattle didn't like this one bit, and ended up suing the American League. Everyone was happy by 1977 when the Mariners brought Major League Baseball back to Seattle. That was also the first year of the Blue Jays, ensuring there remained an even number of teams.

Anyway, in the midst of all that drama, the now-Brewers didn't really have time to come up with their own branding. The move wasn't made official until just before the 1970 season, and their uniforms hastily had "Brewers" sewn over where "Pilots" used to be. What you see here is essentially a Seattle Pilots jersey and helmet, which is given away by that unique striping on the sleeve, meant to resemble an airline captain's uniform.

Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four, and perhaps the only reason anybody at all remembers the Seattle Pilots ever existed, hated the uniforms. With all the stripes, colors, braid on the caps, and little ship's wheel logos, his feeling was that "We look like goddamn clowns."

1978 Topps #595 Sixto Lezcano
By the late 1970s, the Brewers, though they kept the blue and yellow of the Pilots, at least toned down the uniforms a bit. Lezcano had a more-or-less average 12-year career, though he does hold quite a specific record. He is the only player in Major League history to hit a grand slam on Opening Day more than once. It happened in 1978 and 1980, the seasons that sandwiched his only gold glove award.

He was part of the trade that sent Ozzie Smith from San Diego to St. Louis, and like many of Topps' 1970s American League cards, this photo was taken in Yankee Stadium. That black armband on Lezcano's sleeve was worn as a memorial to the death of teammate Danny Frisella, who died in a dune buggy accident in 1977. It was worn throughout the Brewers' 1977 season.

1979 Topps #24 Paul Molitor
This isn't Paul Molitor's rookie card. That goes to a four-player card in the 1978 set. This is, however, his first solo Topps card, and it also marks a change in the Brewers uniforms. They still kept the blue and yellow colors, but with a fancy new logo. Cleverly, though it just looks like a ball in a baseball glove, it is actually made up of the letters "M" and "B". This was a fan-submitted design, and is one of those things you can't unsee. Like the arrow in the FedEx logo. Or the little arrow going from A to Z in the Amazon logo.

But the Expos logo still looks like a JB to me.

This 1979 card is the newest one from the whole page, and the only Brewers jersey that looks familiar to me. The 1979 set didn't have cartoons, but there are on-this-date trivia questions. Try this Baseball Dates question out: What happened on October 15th, 1960?

Coincidentally, it was something I wrote about just a couple weeks ago in a book review. Taken verbatim from the card, "Bill Mazeroski's 9th-inning Homer gave Pirates the World Series championship over Yankees."

Paul Molitor was present for another World Series-ending home run, as he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993. Joe Carter won it for the Jays with a Game 6 walkoff. Molitor won his only World Series that day, and was named Series MVP. He'd continue to play through 1998, finishing up as a member of the 3,000-hit club, and being enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

1975 Topps #337 Kevin Kobel
Another 1970s card, another Yankee Stadium photo. I still have trouble telling the 1970s sets apart, but 1975 I can recognize. The telltale two-tone design (say that ten times fast) can be spotted a mile away, even if it's a player I've never heard of.

1977 Topps #406 Tim Johnson
The remainder of these cards are from 1977, which is primarily what I found in these pages. There are quite a few batting cage shots in that set, but at least it's a different backdrop than the left field seats at Yankee Stadium.

1977 Topps has cartoons! Tim Johnson's card has one depicting Cookie Rojas, and a note that Rojas has hit two extra-inning grand slams in his career for the Royals. Between this post and that doubleheader with the Dodgers last month, there's been a lot of talk about grand slams lately. The cartoon is slightly incorrect, as the line score shows the 12th inning on the scoreboard, but Rojas' grand slams were in the 10th and 11th.

1977 Topps #498 Sal Bando
Sal Bando came over from the A's for the 1977 season, and is welcomed onto his Brewers card with a very airbrushed photo. Bando played for Oakland when they dominated baseball in the early 1970s, winning three consecutive World Series from 1972-1974. No one besides the Yankees have put together such a streak.

Topps reached way, way back into the history books for Bando's cartoon. We're informed that Claude Elliott of the Giants earned a whopping six saves in 1905. That's a few weeks' work for a modern closer, but it led both leagues by far in 1905. The next player down only had three, and no one in the AL managed more than two.

If you told someone in 1905 that we'd have such a thing as a Closer in today's game, and that the all-time leaders have over six hundred, they'd probably stare in a state of amazement at how close games must be in the future.

Also they'd probably be surprised about the whole Cubs thing. But the Postseason is fast approaching, and this year could get interesting, especially with the Indians in the mix, who haven't won since 1948.

1977 Topps #159 Bernie Carbo
Bernie Carbo knows World Series droughts about as well as the Cubs and Indians. He was a key player for the Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1975 Series, tying it up with a three-run shot, and setting the stage for Carlton Fisk's 12th inning heroics. Still, the Red Sox couldn't get it done in Game 7, and would have to wait another 29 years and for a lunar eclipse to break the curse.

The Brewers haven't reached the Fall Classic within my lifetime, and this year definitely won't be it. But for an expansion club, they've seen a lot of great players and have one of the most interesting genesis stories in the entire league. These cards from their early days were a great find!


Friday, July 1, 2016

The Most Overproduced Set Ever. Probably.

When you hear the word "overproduction", or its more derogatory cousin "junk wax", what do you think of?

Those words probably conjure up images of sets like 1991 Donruss, maybe 1990 Topps, or perhaps one of the earlier Upper Deck sets. It could be one of the color bombs like 1991 Fleer. 1987 Topps is a strong candidate, but it's just too iconic to be lumped in with some of the others. Maybe you know the sets from that era so well that the only one it doesn't make you think of is 1990 Leaf.

But for me, I think the best example is 1988 Donruss, also one of the worst-collated sets ever. Maybe one day I'll break down and buy the factory set, but I feel like I've been on a perpetual quest to complete it since I was a kid.

On the same day I drove that Ferrari, I stopped by the Colorado Mills mall afterwards. Inside a sports memorabilia shop filled with autographed bats, jerseys, and other things of that nature, I found a box partially filled with sealed packs priced at a buck apiece. I selected the five packs from 1988 Donruss, swiped my card, and instantly added to my collection.

As an aside, what's the proper slang equivalent for "swiping" a chip card? "Inserting?" Too technical. "Chipping?" Maybe. We'll probably still be "swiping" our chip cards in much the same way we "dial" an iPhone or "roll down" a power window. Or even "text" over iMessage, which isn't entirely correct.

Let's get to the cards.

1988 Donruss #309 Darren Daulton
If nothing else, opening up some overproduction packs gives you a look at some minor stars that haven't had cards in ages. Darren Daulton participated in the 1993 World Series, and had a pretty good season in 1992, earning a spot on the All-Star team and finishing sixth in MVP voting. "Dutch" was one of the Wild Bunch 1993 Phillies, coming up just a bit short that year, thanks to Joe Carter's walkoff home run in Game 6.

1988 Donruss #238 Bobby Bonilla
Bobby Bonilla, a six-time All-Star and near-MVP (second only to teammate Barry Bonds) ended up being a journeyman player later in his career, though he was a Marlin in 1997, winning his first and only World Series ring. But in recent years, he might be most famous for the financial deal he worked out with the Mets. As part of a deferred payment plan, the Mets will pay him about $1.2 million annually (every July 1st, in fact) until 2035, when Bonilla will be 72. The contract makes the Mets an annual laughingstock, but much has been written about how it's not as bad a deal as everyone makes it out to be.

And yes, Bernie Madoff indirectly had a hand in all that. Sort of isn't that surprising that the Mets re-signed Jose Reyes to a minor-league deal after the Rockies waived him.

1988 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-15 Kirby Puckett (SP)
Sadly, Kirby Puckett passed away about ten years ago. But he won two World Series, was elected to the All Star team every season besides his first two, and was a fan favorite in Minneapolis for quite a while. The MVP logo in the upper left signifies that this is an insert card, or what Donruss that year called "Bonus Cards". According to BaseballCardPedia, this card, from the second half of the Bonus Cards insert set, is very slightly harder to find than the first half. I'd have never thought a phrase like that would be said about 1988 Donruss, but apparently there are a handful of short prints out there.

Maybe those go for two cents instead of one.

Despite its alleged scarcity, this card is an example of the primary gripe I have with 1988 Donruss. It's dark. And yes, I do realize that Mr. Puckett is African American, but many of the photos in this set are quite underexposed.

1988 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-24 Will Clark (SP)
Camera flashes can only do so much. Depending on their power and a few other factors, they're pretty much useless beyond about thirty feet. And action shots in sports are not done with a flash. But photographing a guy under a helmet in direct sunlight just doesn't give you the best results. Another Bonus Card, this one of Will Clark, demonstrates this.

I didn't pull his card in these five packs, but one of the worst underexposures in the whole set can be found on Nelson Liriano's card #32. Flip through your stacks of '88; you'll see what I mean. And who doesn't have stacks of 1988 Donruss?

1988 Donruss #324 Rafael Palmeiro
Perhaps the most glaringly obvious thing about 1988 Donruss (and most 1988-ish sets) is that steroid use hadn't taken over the league. Maybe Jose Canseco, but that sort of goes without saying. Rafael Palmiero, one of the asteriskiest players with an asterisk, was a bit more on the Regular Human end of the athletic spectrum when this photo was taken, in sharp contrast to cards from later in his career.

1988 Donruss #1 Mark McGwire DK
Same goes for this Diamond Kings card of Mark McGwire. He looked a lot different during his home run chase of 1998, and not just because of the facial hair. But his rookie year was good enough to earn Card #1.

Dick Perez did what he could, but this still looks a touch dark to me. When it comes to Diamond Kings cards, the painting always looked creepy enough that I never really noticed the tiny action shot in the lower area. Even on a set like this you can still spot new things.

1988 Donruss #326 Barry Bonds
One can't bring up steroid use without mentioning Barry Bonds. For the longest time, he was my least favorite player in the league, but I did start warming up to him a little bit once his greatness became undeniable. And say what you will about his steroid use, he stood head and shoulders above the league when almost everyone else was using PEDs, too.

1988 Donruss #34 Roberto Alomar (RC)
1988 was almost 30 years ago. Players that are now in the Hall of Fame were once baby-faced rookies, or Rated Rookies if Donruss thought particularly highly of you. Alomar had no major league experience at this point, but went on to have a stellar career, even leading the league in sacrifice flies in 1999. Plus a slew of stolen bases, and even a couple hundred home runs.

Of course, the back of the card is sure to mention the rest of the Alomar family, father Sandy and brother Sandy, Jr.

1988 Donruss #657 Gregg Jefferies (RC)
Looking even younger is Gregg Jefferies, who had one of the hottest cards in the whole set. The 1988 price of this card could have paid for these packs twice over. It's slightly disappointing to know that it's worth pennies today, but there is something about having cards that were totally out of reach back then.

I still need to find a Griffey rookie, though. It's a glaring omission in my collection.

1988 Donruss #88 Jeff Reed
Jeff Reed is probably the least recognizable player thus far. It's been a lot of Hall of Famers, and a few more that should be in the Hall. But Expos cards are few and far between these days, plus Jeff Reed played behind the plate as a Rockie for several seasons in the late 1990s.

Still, pretty underexposed.

1988 Donruss #638 Bob Melvin
Mostly I've been featuring younger players, but in 1988 there were lots from the old guard still in the league. Melvin has spent the last decade or so as a manager for a few Western teams, including his current tenure as skipper of the A's. Melvin actually only had a few years' experience by 1988, but he had a relatively short career, and didn't play past 1994. He was one of numerous players whose career was ended by the strike.

1988 Donruss #401 Tommy John
Tommy John had been in the league since 1963, and was nearing the end of his career at the not-quite-Jamie-Moyer age of 45. He never won a World Series, as he always seemed to be on the wrong side of the Yankees-Dodgers rivalry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But of course he is known for the surgical procedure he underwent on his elbow in 1975 that now bears his name, and lesser known for the dubious distinction of being the only player to commit three errors on one play. Still, he came pretty close to 300 wins, and was an All Star in three different decades.

1988 Donruss #305 Bob Boone
Tommy John's career predated the Designated Hitter by quite a bit. I'm sure he got plenty of plate appearances, but I doubt he was the type to wear batting gloves. Melvin and Bob Boone above also don't use any fancy batting gloves, and it didn't seem to hurt anything. In addition to lots of underexposed shots, there are plenty of "bats resting on shoulders" shots. He might be in the on deck circle, but that's one of the most casual postures I've ever seen on a card.

Like the Alomars, the Boones are a longtime baseball family, in fact one of only four to have three generations in the Big Leagues. Ray Boone played as postwar baseball cards were becoming what we know today, Bob you see here, and sons Bret and Aaron played until quite recently. Aaron, of course, won the 2003 ALCS for the Yankees with a dramatic extra innings walkoff home run.

1988 Donruss #249 Paul Molitor
Even the great Paul Molitor can't escape 1988 Donruss. But he's a batting glove guy, apparently.

1988 Donruss #641 Stan Musial Puzzle
Donruss' big selling point were all the puzzle pieces. Every year, they'd pick another baseball legend and create a 27-card puzzle. Technically it's 63 pieces but I've heard of no one that's ever split each card up into its constituent three pieces. At least, I never have. They make enough of a mess of tiny paper shreds just taking them out of the border.

So we'd know what the final product looked like, Donruss always included a card showing the completely assembled puzzle. I've completed a few of them, but I'm still a few short on Stan Musial's 1988 puzzle, even after these five packs. I've seen this card a few times, but didn't quite notice the old-style black and red Cardinals logo before yellow crept its way in.

I have a bit of sorting to do on this set. I just have too many to keep it in binder pages anymore, so I'll probably be moving it to a box soon. But don't be surprised if a few 1988 puzzle pieces make it onto my Eight Men Out list so I can complete this beauty of Stan the Man.

And all that for a mere five bucks. I even found a few commons.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Blue Jays

I'm sure most collectors my age subscribed to Beckett as kids. Maybe some of us still do.

For a while, they had a feature where readers would add humorous captions to various baseball cards. Something along the lines of "He's at lunch. Can I take a message?" on one of those call to the bullpen cards.

1994 Score #43 Roberto Alomar
And I always wanted to caption a card like this as "Hurry up and take the picture! I can't hold this pose much longer!"

Comedy gold when you're ten.

Anyway, another one of my Antique Mall Mystery Packs from the Brass Armadillo jogged that particular memory, even though this pack was a bit less interesting than the Mets or Pirates.

1994 Score #427 Paul Molitor
In fact, there was quite a bit of Score product in this pack. I recognize these guys from the 1993 World Series, the last time the Blue Jays were in the postseason. Especially after that Tulowitzki trade, I'm pulling for them this year, but their prospects for advancing are not looking great, as they're down three games to two to the Royals and headed back to Kansas City.

Night Owl wrote a post last week about the prevalence of "hatless" players in some early Topps sets, but a good mix of that and action shots like Alomar's make for a pretty good set. Of course, these dark blue borders are seriously fragile (note the damage on the left edge), but that doesn't stop 1994 Score from being my favorite of their whole run.

1993 Score #602 Tom Henke
1993 wasn't bad either, and I remember getting a pack or two of this product from my dad for a Hanukkah present. The font's a little hard to read, but it is a surprisingly bold design for being so minimal.

I've worn glasses since before I was 5, so seeing a pro ballplayer wearing them was always cool. And I'm not talking about crazy goggles like Alex Cole or Chris Sabo, just plain old nerdy glasses. Greg Maddux wore them from time to time, too.

1994 Topps Gold #511 Devon White
This is totally a trip down memory lane, which is exactly what antique stores are selling, I guess. One-per-pack 1993 and 1994 Topps Gold cards were prized treasures of my early collection, and 1994 Topps was the first factory set I saved up enough to purchase. I've seen this card plenty, though this Gold parallel is a new addition.

Devon White was an important part of the Blue Jays' back-to-back World Series wins, and judging from all that mail, he was quite the fan favorite.

1993 Upper Deck #425 Carlos Delgado
Carlos Delgado had yet to make his mark on the majors the last time the Jays were a contender, and he looks so young in this photo! The back of this card details how he was tearing up the minor leagues in 1992, well on his way to wielding the wooden tools in that bat rack to hit darn near 500 home runs before he retired.

1993 Upper Deck #339 Duane Ward
I don't remember Duane Ward as well as some of these other guys, but it's a perfect example of the legendary awesomeness that is 1993 Upper Deck. Pre-game stretching while on the road? Might as well blow a bubble.

I didn't really have a good appreciation of the closer role (when are we just going to break down and call it a "position"?) until I started playing Fantasy baseball in 2005, let alone an understanding of a "save situation". Still, Ward was good for 45 saves in 1993, and even got the W in the final Game 6, thanks to this next guy.

1994 Score Gold Rush #73 Joe Carter
One can hardly say a word about the Blue Jays, especially this time of year, without mentioning Joe Carter. His home run in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series was only the second time anyone won the whole darn championship in walkoff home run fashion, other than the (in)famous Bill Mazeroski. There have been plenty of walkoff home runs in World Series history, names you're sure to recognize, like Kirk Gibson, Carlton Fisk, and Derek Jeter. But only Carter and Mazeroski got to raise the trophy immediately after rounding the bases.

It's a tall order for the Blue Jays at this point, but if there was ever a team to add to that list, its the 2015 Jays and their stacked lineup.

Up next, the Houston Astros, which will be the last Mystery Pack of a 2015 Postseason team.