2025 Topps Baseball Series 2

2025 Series 2:  Bryan Reynolds and Pittsburgh are struggling this season, but Reynolds has consistently produced solid numbers for the Pirates in his seven seasons.

As is expected with Series 2, we see some players in the unis of their new teams, like these three, while getting the same flagship design.

Plenty of young players as well with RC and Future Stars offerings.

Fun photos.

Inserts including Stars of MLB showcasing two rookies and a Summer Superstars.  Jackson Chourio is having another solid season with the Brew Crew.

We get Lucas Giolito on a Holo Foil Parallel.  Fun pack even if it doesn't have many of the stars we hope for in a pack of cards.

Love seeing stats like these on the back of the Mark McGwire Topps 1990 All-Star card. Does the stat year (1987) match the design (1990)?  No.  Still a great looking card but Wade Boggs was second in slugging?  Yep.  He hit 24 home runs in his monster 1987 season where he hit a career high 24 home runs, and led the league in WAR, batting average, on base percentage and OPS.

BREAKDOWN:
36 – Total Cards
10 – RC
2 – Future Stars
2 – Stars of MLB
1 – Retired Great
1 – Holo Foil Parallel
1 – Summer Superstars
1 – 1990 Topps All-Star Baseball

2025 Patrick Mahomes Football Tin

Derrick Henry had a monster 2024 first season in Baltimore with 16 touchdowns and almost 2,000 yards.  He's a beast and looks good on this Donruss Optic Light It Up insert.

These tins almost always look cool and pull me in.  About the only thing I can do with them is put things like stickers or other randomness in them.  Still, I fall for these more than I should.  You'll get variety in the form of shiny card brands like Select, Mosaic and Donruss Optic.

Georgia Bulldogs alum Brock Bowers had a great rookie season with the Raiders despite their issues at quarterback.  He had 5 touchdowns and almost 1,200 receiving yards.

Here's the tin.  I like the look and the photo. It's black on the sides with Mahomes name and number in jersey lettering.

The downside to the cards is you won't get many.  I wish there was at least one fat pack or add in some smaller packs of Donruss and Score to give us a bit more.

Always some downsides to tins but I did enjoy this one.  It looks pretty nice, and I pulled a few good cards like this nice-looking Josh Allen My House insert.

BREAKDOWN:

21 – Total Cards

2 – 2024 Donruss Optic Packs (8)

1 – 2023 Select Pack (7)

1 – 2024 Mosaic Pack (6)

 

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

I did watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier some time ago, but it looks like I didn't post anything here.  It was good.  The series is set six months after Sam Wilson became Captain America at the end of Avengers: Endgame.  Pretty good character development, plot and we get to see some familiar characters from the Marvel universe.  Sam and Bucky team up.  Fight a global threat.  All the while we see the government's involvement in overseeing heroes and Captain America, specifically.  I'm a huge Falcon fan and while I liked this series, I don't think it wowed folks and I get that.  Baron Zemo, played by Daniel Bruhl, really stood out to me.  I like that character.  I think it's a good watch.  There are six episodes.  I do think the pacing may not be what some would hope for, but it is a good story with good characters.      

Random Wax: 2024-2025 Donruss Basketball

24-25 Donruss:  Anthony Edwards just finished his 5th NBA season and is talked about as a future face of the league.  He's gotten better every year and has a tenacity to his game and personality that lends itself to fans.

Jarrett Allen had another excellent season for the Cavs defending the rim and led the league hitting 70% of his shots.  The Cavs won 64 games this season, best in the East before losing to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Zaccharie Risacher averaged 12 points a game in his rookie campaign and made the All-Rookie Team.  That Klintman is a Holo Green Laser Parallel.

Lots of rumors of the Celtics making moves as Boston looks at not having the injured Jayson Tatum next year.  They have new owners, were number three in payroll this season and are projected to have the biggest payroll next year.

James Harden surprised many with another good year in LA.  The former 3X scoring champ averaged 22 pints and almost 9 assists per game for the Clippers at age 35.  

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Total Cards
5 – Rated Rookie
2 – Holo Green Laser Parallel
1 – Bomb Squad

2024-2025 Upper Deck MVP Hockey

24-25 UD Hockey:  Game 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals is tonight with Florida up on Edmonton 2-1.  Leon Draisaitl has 4 points in the series.

I'm not a big hockey fan but I do enjoy hockey cards.  My daughter got me these as a gift and they are fun.  I think this is a solid design.  I do wish the team logo was in either of the corners on the bottom.

I'm never a fan of cards with no stats but these have a different take with highlights from the player's season.

Jason Polin hasn't made it in the NHL yet but does show up on this Rookies card.  Small pack but it is a fun one.

BREAKDOWN:
6 – Total Cards
1 – Rookies

Random Wax: 1994 Donruss Baseball

1994 Donruss: The Big Hurt averaged .301 across 19 seasons.  The 2X MVP also hit 521 home runs.  Such a great hitter.

That "Sweet" Lou Whitacker is a Gold Special Edition card.  He played 19 seasons in Detroit and is a Tigers legend.  He was Rookie of the Year, World Series Champion, 4X Silver Slugger, 3X Gold Glover, and 5X All-Star.  I'm a big fan of this set and picked up a few packs off eBay last fall.

The backs of these are fun with a different photo including this really good one of Mark Grace.  

Just a really good look.

Not just a masher, Dave Winfield batted .283 and had 3110 hits over a 22-season career.  He also collected 7 Gold Glove awards.  Man, did he have an arm.

BREAKDOWN:
13 – Total Cards
1 – Special Edition (Gold)

2024 Contenders Football Blaster

2024 Contenders: Saquon Barkley is a newly crowned Super Bowl champion and is an all-around stud on the field. Very happy for him after years of giving his all with Giants.

 

I'm a fan of Contenders and I really like this year's design.  They had gotten stale for a while but doing better in my eyes the last two years.  We see some creativity with this design as well as seeing the photo background again this year. 

Plenty of options for rookies in this set.  Jayden Daniels had an amazing first year with the Commanders as they won 12 regular season games and another two in the playoffs to cap a great rookie season.  I really like him and I hope he's a great quarterback in the league for years to come.

Rookie Stallions is a nice-looking insert.  Feels like they could still do more with it, but I do like it.  That MarShawn Lloyd card is a red parallel.

Historic Contenders are really fun cards.  It is easy to forget Tim Tebow only played three seasons ending his career with an 8-6 record.  He also had one playoff victory to his name.

Lots of quarterback love.  I haven't seen the checklist for this season's set, but Contenders is normally not that big meaning you should get a pretty good pull.

The backs are fine.  Lots of color and it makes you want to look at them.  They are missing career stats but that's not a Panini thing.

Bijan Robinson rushed for over 1400 yards averaging 4.6 yards per carry and caught 61 passes.  If the Falcons can figure out the quarterback position, the South Division is winnable for them.

I do like this design and my pull really made this a fun box.  I'll pick up more in the future, so this isn't the last you'll see of this set.

BREAKDOWN:

40 – Total Cards

3 - RC

3 – Rookie Stallions

2 – Red Parallel

1 – Draft Class

1 – Retired Greats

1 – Round Numbers 

1 – Historic Draft Class

1 – Rookie Ticket Relic

1 – Game Ticket Parallel

 

The Witcher

The Witcher:  I enjoyed this one.  It has completed three seasons.  It was a slow start but once it got going, I got into it.  I won't go into a lot of detail, but I like the main characters played by Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, and Anya Chalotra.  I know Cavill isn't coming back for season four.  While I like the series I'm not sure if I'll rush back to watch season four which will have Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia.  I liked the series, but I'm probably not as invested as the great fanbase.  Nothing against him, but we'll see.  

2025 NBA Finals: Indiana Pacers vs Oklahoma City Thunder

We get Pacers - Thunder in the NBA Finals.  While I'm sure ABC execs are not excited about having two small market teams in the Finals, I am.  We get two great teams and great players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton.  OKC was the class of the league the entire season.  Their defense and the play of MVP SGA were overwhelming for teams.  While Denver took them to seven games, the Thunder only took nine games to dismiss the Grizzlies and Timberwolves.  The Pacers were 20-9 after the All-Star break and took out the Cavs, Bucks and Knicks in the playoffs.  They shouldn't be overlooked, and Tyrese Haliburton is the real deal having some amazing games in the playoffs.  I do think OKC wins this series.  Maybe 4-2.  I understand it could even be 4-1 but I have more confidence in Indiana.

Who am I rooting for?  Indiana.  This only their second NBA Finals and they've never won an NBA championship.  OKC has won a championship as the SuperSonics in the '78-79 season.  I also think their window for competing for a championship is longer than the Pacers.  No matter who wins I think it is a win for fans.  These small market teams built their teams through good front office moves in the draft, free agency and the trade market.  There are lots of fun players outside of the stars.  They are both deep.  We should celebrate these teams.  We are getting some "old school" basketball in the playoffs, so it'll be interesting to see how much they let them play.  Enjoy!

Random Wax: 2023-2024 Hoops

 23-24 Hoops: NBA Finals start tonight!  Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers have made an unlikely run to the Finals, but it is well deserved.  He's a 2X All-Star, 2X All-NBA, and former assist leader.  He's also fun to watch and I expect plenty of great moments from him in this series.

Brunson did his part in the Eastern Conference Finals averaging over 30 points per game.  In the end turnovers and the Knicks' porous defense did them in.

Amen Thompson averaged 14 points per game, 8 rebounds per game and almost 4 assists per game as one of the nice young core the Rockets have put together.

Buddy Hield is no longer a Pacer, but does look sharp on the Teal Explosion Parallel.  We also get a Purple Parallel Hoops Tribute Vince Carter.  I really like the color synergy on both those parallels.

Scoot and this Rookie Greetings design have been underwhelming but I still have hope for Scoot.

Always fun to pull a KG card and Hoops Tribute cards are fan favorites that include current players and retired greats.

Great looking LeBron photo on his card.  I totally get those who choose him as the winner of this pack.

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Total Cards
6 – RC
3 – Hoops Tribute
1 – Arriving Now
1 – Purple Parallel
1 – Rookie Greetings
1 – Teal Explosion Parallel