2025 MLB Champions Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the 2025 World Series Champions.  The Dodgers had to keep coming back in the series and in games, but they did it.  I'm sure Toronto fans are beside themselves.  It felt like many games were theirs to win.  But the Dodgers despite not hitting well (.203) and having a staff ERA lower than Toronto, (3.95), they did it.  And the story was pitching.  And I love that we are talking about pitching.  Yoshinobu Yamamoto was dominant in three appearances totaling 17 innings including 2 innings in game 7 after starting the previous game.  The Dodgers just came up with big pitches, big hits and big defensive plays when they counted most.  Congrats to LA and I'm happy for Freddie, Mookie, Shohei and Kershaw.  And there was a shirtless Clayton Kershaw appearance after game 7 that we didn't know we needed.

Random Wax: 2021 Chronicles NASCAR Blaster

2021 NASCAR:  NASCAR Championship race is today!  Denny Hamlin is amongst the four drivers in contention for the 2025 Championship.  Probably the biggest personality in the sport today, Denny Hamlin recently won his 60th race which puts him 11th all-time and tied with Kevin Harvick.  He's also looking for his 1st NASCAR Championship.  He already has 6 wins this season.  I'm rooting for him.  He deserves a title.

We get more of the top drivers in the sport and masks which were "all the rage" in 2020.  While NASCAR cards don't lend themselves to team logos I would have liked the car numbers on the fronts.  I like the Absolute and Score designs.  We also see a Base Chronicles Ryan Blaney.

Plenty of young drivers in Chronicles.  I like the Crusade design.  Jessie Love is one of the top drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity series this season.  Think minor leagues right below the Cup Series.  I like Contenders as a whole and in this set they get the Optic treatment.

Brittney Zamora is no longer an active driver, but the sport does promote lady drivers.  The most prominent is the NASCAR Truck Series at the moment - Toni Breidinger.

This Tyler Reddick Status Swatches is my insert.  Reddick has finished top 10 in the standings for three straight seasons.

Pedal to the Medal.  This is a nice-looking Green Parallel.

I like the Pinnacle design as well.  XR is fine while Zenith doesn't do much for me.

If you like variety, then Chronicles is for you.  Some shiny offerings here.  I like all three with Obsidian being my favorite.

Probably the best-looking card in this box is that Jeff Gordon Limited card.  The classic DuPont look for one of the greats of the sport.  Gordon retired with 93 career wins good for 3rd all-time.  Let's hope for a good clean race today in Phoenix.

BREAKDOWN
25 – Total Cards
5 – Green Parallels
4 – RC
3 – Contenders Optic
2 – XR
2 – Score
2 – Select
2 - Pinnacle
2 - Phoenix
1 – Titan
1 - Zenith
1 – Limited
1 – Crusade
1 – Absolute
1 – Obsidian
1 – Chronicles
1 – Retired Great
1 – Pedal to the Metal
1 – Status Swatch Relic

Halloween-Horror-Spooky Movies Watched This October

 Great time of the year for me as I love spooky movies and all that goes with Halloween.  I seek out favorites, classics and new movies.  I got plenty of movie watching in this year which isn't always easy with all the sports going on.  I always seek out classics I love like Halloween, Universal Monsters, Jeepers Creepers, and Sleepy Hollow.  Amongst movies I'd never seen before, my favorites were Pearl and The Black Phone.  Some of the other new movies on the list were some stinkers but it's fun trying to find a hidden gem.  Movies marked with an "*" are movies I watched for the first time.  I hope you have a fun and safe Halloween!

Halloween (1978)

Dracula (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Beetleguice Beetleguice*

Slender Man*

The Black Phone*

Pearl*

The Jester*

The Babysitter

Jeepers Creepers

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn*

Butterfly Kisses*

Fear Street Anthology*

Fear Street: Prom Night*

Sleepy Hollow

Fear Street: Prom Queen

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came out last year and I finally got around to watching it.  I liked it.  As much as the orginal?  No.  But this one was entertaining.  It did a good job bringing back original characters while adding new ones including Astrid, Lydia's daughter, played by Jenna Ortega.  I won't over analyze this one.  I'll just say I liked it.  Happy Halloween!

Random Wax: 2022-2023 Hoops

22-23 Hoops:  Dame is back in Portland where he should be.  He'll be out this season with injury but hopefully this is the path to him ending his career as a Trail Blazer.  I'm a huge Lillard fan and he's my favorite Trail Blazer of all-time.  So good in his prime, he's a 7X All-NBA, 9X All-Star and was chosen to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

Some big man love.  Bam Adebayo is only 27 and has already been named to the All-Defensive Team 5X.  And he's played in two NBA Finals.

Keegan Murray just secured a 5 year $140M rookie extension.  He's averaged 13 ppg and 6 rpg while shooting 37% from deep in his career in Sacramento.

Dorian Finney-Smith on a Teal Explosion Parallel while Davion Mitchell is on an appropriate Purple Parallel.  I like that Mitchell photo.

A couple of Hoops Tribute inserts and a Pure Players insert (which I still don't get).  But great pulls.

This pack was reduced in price when I bought it in March of last year.  I'm really happy with it and this design definitely says Hoops to me.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

4 – RC

2 – Hoops Tribute

1 – Pure Players

1 – Purple Parallel

1 – Teal Explosion Parallel

Butterfly Kisses (2018)

Butterfly Kisses:  Butterfly Kisses falls into the found footage horror genre.  In this one, two college students invoke a local legend and document it on film.  Where it is different, is that a filmmaker finds the footage and tries to prove they it is real.  People don't believe him which spirals him into a bad place.  Add on top of that, the filmmaker is unlikable throwing in more questions about the footage.  The questions about the authenticity is where this sets it apart from other found footage movies.  I liked it.  It's not great but the subtle difference makes it a good watch.  The ending was not as fulfilling as I would want but it doesn't mean you shouldn't watch the movie.  Its newish take on the genre is good. 

2025 Score-a-Treat Football (20 Packs)

2025 Score-a-Treat:  Halloween is this Friday, so this is a perfect time to debut this scary offering.  Jonathan Taylor is having another really good season as are the surprising Colts.  

These utilize the 2025 Score design as the base for the Halloween inspired cards.  Decent design.  The border is basically the same as last year which is disappointing.  

We get plenty of rookies as well as they make up 20 of the 60 cards pulled.

These are sold in "bundles" which have 40 packs with 3 cards in each pack.  Easy cards to include when giving out candy on Halloween.

I like the backs though nothing here says Halloween.  At least Panini's basketball Halloween cards gave us a spooky vibe on the back too.

My big complaint is the lack of variety.  Last season's design gave us plenty of bat and pumpkin options.  Bat parallels were basically half your pull.  This season's set has the base pumpkin look and three parallels: #/399 Bats, #/99 Trick-or-Treat, or the new #/31 Webs.  And I didn't get one parallel in the entire bundle.  Fail Panini, fail.

I always love the retired greats and Joe Cribbs is a player I remember well from growing up rooting for the Bills.  His stats won't blow you away but he was a fun player to Buffalo fans.  Kellen Winslow has always been a fan favorite of mine as well as so many others.  A great tight end.  Hope you enjoyed our spooky beginning to Halloween week!

BREAKDOWN:

60 – Total Cards

20 - RC

4 – Retired Greats