Topps Series 2 Baseball Review:

Here we go again, with some brand spankin’ new cards — Topps Series 2 Baseball. Going into this review, I’m expecting typical Topps photography which is almost always put to shame by Upper Deck and their love of Getty Images.  It’ll be fairly interesting to see who the rookies are, as we’re bound to see them in future Topps’ baseball sets.

Packs:

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It’s unbelievably nice to not see A-Rod or Manny hucked all over these packages.  Now onto the hits…

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Wow, there’s some serious beef-age going on with these.  First off, there’s something wrong when you’re pulling the same two mediocre second basemen in both Topps Finest and Topps Series 2.  I’ve got nothing against Robbie Cano and Aki Iwamura, but this is why people hate sticker autographs.  Obviously, there’s no difference between the autograph on the FINEST MOMENTS and the autograph on the Series 2 card other than a massive difference in price.  I guess this isn’t really a problem with Series 2 so much as it is a problem with Topps Finest…

I’m not a fan of the Manufactured Patches, so if anyone wants to trade for the M in Mr. October, shoot me an email.  The WBC game used is pretty neat, and I’m sure Topps agreed to sponser the Cuban Cepeda for a green-card if he agreed to donate his WBC uniforms…

Now onto my favourite parts of the set (my scanner decided to cut off chunks when scanning multiple images):

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The Turkey Red Inserts actually look better, they’re quite well done.  The older players are actually the best of the bunch this side of the Pedroia Turkey Red.

Young, Campy, and Ty Cobb are all done pretty nicely in the Turkey Red Fashion. However, I think my favourite part is the Career Best Legends with Cy Young, Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson — I’m not sure if these were included in Series 1, but I definitely didn’t pull any of them.  I’d like them better if they were all mono-chromatic, but I can live with a bit of colour.

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The WBC redemptions are harmless enough, and they actually look pretty solid given the colour scheme they have to work with.  While I’m not a huge fan of the short-printed variations, I did manage to pull a Frank Robinson to go with my Christy Mathewson from Series 1.

The Topps Town codes look pretty solid, and I enjoy the blue over the silver from Series 1.  It’s also an incredibly awesome idea to use different pictures for the different parallels — good on yah, Topps!  There’s also the Red Hot Rookie redemptions, and I’m praying that I can nab someone solid…..like Matt Wieters maybe?!?!

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Topps has it’s standard gold and black parallels numbered to /2009 and /58 and they’re both fairly boring, but some people love them.  What I’m digging in the photos on these inserts.  From Jim Palmer’s GIGANTIC, BEAUTIFUL head of hair that’s only rivaled by Travis Buck to Dusty Baker’s equally gigantic Chest-To-Waist Ratio.  Baker has the tiniest little girly waist combined with a Barry Bonds-esque upper-body.  Most of the inserts in Series 2 seem to be of newer events, particularly the Ring of Honor Inserts.

I recently picked up Joe Torre and Tom Verducci’s account of his The Yankee Years and I’ve yet to crack it, but I’ve posted his Ring of Honor card anyways.

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Lots of solid rookies in this set, even if Matt Wieters and Tommy Hunter will end up being Red Hot Rookie Redemptions.  Seeing Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill in the set is nice, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see the majority of these guys get sent down at least one more time.  Rick Porcello’s probably got the most hype of the bunch and the inclusion of Ricky Romero of the Jays was a nice bonus.  I’m not a huge Romero fan, even being a Jays’ season ticket holder, but the kid has put it together thus far.  Hopefully he’ll return from his oblique injury shortly.

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Finally, we’ll deal with some of the ‘more interesting’ photographs on Topps Series 2 cards.  There’s some really nice shots, but there are also a lot of photos where it’s clear they tried to make a tiny little photo the size of a card.  This leaves the photo looking like crap, and filled with photographic artifacts everywhere…

The Estaban German photo is awful, but the Shaun Marcum photo more than makes up for it (what gunzzzz!)  The Luke Scott Card is ridiculous, and a little too sexual for my taste.

I’m loving almost all of the catcher photos in Series 2, and the Jeff Clement and Ramon Hernandez close ups are the best in the set.  Finally, the cheeky Soriano and unique Nelson Cruz photo are two lovely additions.

In the end, Topps still is out-down by Upper Deck in the photography department but they’re getting better.  Forgetting to remove the white background to Mike Aviles Rookie Cup is really annoying, but I’ll live.  A lot of the Topps photos are washed out, and someone seriously needs to show them how to re-adjust the contrast on their photos.  Topps generally takes every possible category in the baseball card flag-ship wars, except photography.

I’m somewhat upset that I didn’t manage to pull a Sketch Card, as they were far and away my favourite insert of Series 1.  I was lucky enough to interview two of my favourite Sketch Card artists from Series 1.  If not for a broken computer, the interviews would be front-page news here.  It’ll probably take a bit for me to retype the entire thing, but thankfully the original notes were saved in my email so expect them shortly.

There are inconsistencies everywhere surrounding this Alex Rodriguez story.  I wrote an article earlier this week dealing with A-Rod’s cyst and it’s fantasy impact.  A link to an MLB.com article detailing the situation was provided (lame, I know).

Keith Allison - Flickr

The MLB.com article focused mainly on A-Rod’s brother announcing that Rodriguez will miss a bunch of time due to cyst surgery.

Then, MLB.com made the link disappear. The link was replaced with an article detailing how the cyst had been aspirated on Thursday — which is odd because my article was written Wednesday night.  Either way, I’m not sure why they removed the article from both MLB.com and their sister site worldbaseballclassic.com

Here’s the article by Bryan Hoch (taken from google cache, entitled Brother: A-Rod could be out until May:

TAMPA, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez’s troublesome right hip requires immediate surgery and could force the Yankees slugger out until May, the third baseman’s brother told LasMayores.com, MLB.com’s Spanish-language Web site.

Rodriguez’s brother, Joe Dunand, said that Rodriguez will have the operation performed in Vail, Colo., on Monday by Dr. Marc Philippon. The recovery time is expected to be about 10 weeks.

The diagnosis will nix Rodriguez’s hopes of playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.

“We’re not giving any information right now,” Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo said Thursday.

“I do not have that information. I have not heard that yet. I have to talk to Cash,” manager Joe Girardi said, referring to general manager Brian Cashman.

Rodriguez left the Dominican Republic team on Wednesday to fly to Colorado after the results of a MRI taken Saturday in Tampa revealed the internal cyst. A Yankees team physician, Dr. Chris Ahmad, recommended that Rodriguez undergo an examination by a specialist.

The 33-year-old Rodriguez has managed discomfort in his right hip dating back to last season. Girardi said Wednesday that Rodriguez had expressed feeling “a little stiffness” at various times since last season.

“There wasn’t really any pain — just some mild stiffness,” Girardi said. “He was doing a lot of stretching and worked on it this winter as well. We just want to make sure that we’re doing the right things with this.”

Rodriguez has played regularly this spring, including going 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored in Tuesday’s Dominican Republic exhibition against the Marlins. He left the Yankees on Sunday after playing in New York’s Grapefruit League loss to the Reds at Sarasota, Fla.

Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. — MLB.com

I wanted to revisit this article to deal with some of the inconsistencies, and it seemed wise considering that A-Rod’s surgery was breaking news, somehow, 4 days later.

March 5th brought us: The News that A-Rod was doing his thing in Colorado, and there was the possibility of surgery.

The strange thing about this Newsday article was A-Rod’s comments to the Yankee organization:

Rodriguez told the Yankees he thought the hip soreness was restricting his bat motion, however, and possibly affecting his power.

March 7th brought us: Bloomberg’s ‘Maybe A-Rod Will have Surgery‘

March 8th and 9th brought us: A-Rod is going to have hybrid surgery and should be out for 6-9 weeks. As far as I can tell, the cyst is rubbing A-Rod’s hip labrum, and causing stiffness. Dr. Phillippon, the hip-specialist, plans on freeing up the labrum in addition to removing part of the cyst (mlb.com-link).

The MLB.com Link that replaced “Brother…” still piques my curiosity however, stating the following:

Cashman said that Rodriguez has not felt pain in the right hip, though an MRI examination taken last season during Rodriguez’s stint on the disabled list with a strained right quadriceps revealed an irregularity that was tucked into Rodriguez’s medical file.

Because the irregularity was asymptomatic and there was no pain, Rodriguez was permitted to continue playing. He had taken measures over the off-season and during the Grapefruit League season to relieve stiffness and restriction in the hip, including increased stretching.

USA Today listed A-Rod’s 2008 Quad injury as having taken place in late April, which I’d assume meant A-Rod played the entire 2008 season with the Yankees having known that he had a cyst or an irregularity.

A tear of the hip labrum does seem suspicious, however. Firstly, tearing the labrum in the hip joint generally requires absolutely no treatment, and patients often do not even realize they’ve torn it. The Mayo-Clinic’s website, Mayoclinic.com, will help us along, although feel free to skip to the end:

Symptoms: Many hip labral tears cause no signs or symptoms. Occasionally, however, you may experience one or more of the following:

* A locking, clicking or catching sensation in your hip joint
* Pain in your hip or groin
* Stiffness or limited range of motion in your hip joint

Causes:

The cause of a hip labral tear may be:

• Repetitive activities. Sports-related and other physical activities — including the sudden twisting or pivoting motions common in golf or softball — can lead to joint wear and tear that ultimately results in a hip labral tear.
• Trauma. Injury to or dislocation of the hip joint, such as from playing football, hockey and other contact sports, can cause a hip labral tear.
• Diseases or conditions that damage the labrum. These may include degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis or femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a condition in which the ball of your femur and your acetabulum rub together abnormally, causing friction in your hip joint.

Sometimes a hip labral tear has no known cause.

Tests and Diaganosis:

Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and conduct a physical examination. He or she may ask you to move your hips and legs in different positions to assess your range of motion while asking you about any pain or unusual sensations.

To confirm a diagnosis of a hip labral tear, you may undergo a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography.

Magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography is a noninvasive technique that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create cross-sectional images of joints. During magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography, contrast material is injected into the joint space to help make images more clear.

Treatments and Drugs:

Many hip labral tears cause no signs or symptoms and need no treatment. However, when treatment is necessary it may include:

• Physical therapy. Exercises to maximize hip range of motion and hip strength and stability can help to improve symptoms. A physical therapist also can analyze the movements you perform that put stress on your hip joint and help you avoid these forces.
• Corticosteroid injections. A corticosteroid injection into the hip joint can help provide pain relief and reduce joint inflammation. These injections are performed under X-ray or ultrasound guidance.
• Pain medications. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can provide pain relief. NSAIDs include such over-the-counter (OTC) medications as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) and naproxen (Aleve, others).

Arthroscopic surgery
If you have a hip labral tear and experience hip pain for more than four weeks, your doctor may recommend a surgical procedure called hip arthroscopy.

During hip arthroscopy, an orthopedic surgeon inserts a flexible, drinking-straw-sized instrument (arthroscope) into your joint space through a small incision in your skin. The arthroscope is fitted with a lighting system and tiny camera, enabling the surgeon to see into your joint.

Once the surgeon can see the joint, the specialized instruments needed to perform the procedure are inserted through small accessory incisions. Depending on the cause and extent of the tear, the surgeon may cut out and remove the torn piece of labrum or repair the torn cartilage with a suture procedure.

YES, STEROIDS ARE A TREATMENT FOR A TORN HIP LABRUM. Awesome, or AWESOME?

Just a final note on the possibility of Rodriguez having osteo-arthritis or the possibility of FAI (hipfai.com):

Why does it occur?

No one knows if FAI is a condition that begins at birth (congenital) or develops during periods of growth (acquired).  It is likely a combination of one’s genetics and environment.

How did I get it?

Some experts believe that significant athletic activity before skeletal maturity increases the risk of FAI, but no one truly knows.  Significant contact sports (i.e., football) are associated with Cam impingement.

I’m going out on a limb when I say this, but when you combine a body that has yet to mature with mass amounts of steroids, and in turn, muscle growth — you have yourself a perfect set of conditions.

What I can’t understand is why Alex Rodriguez didn’t have this addressed in the OFF-SEASON.

Everyone knew there was a problem but like many people Rodriguez did not experience pain from a torn-labrum & cyst.  However, the Yankee Doctors and Specialists surely must have known that this “irregularity” wouldn’t get better with time.

A-Rod swings a bat for his paycheck, and somehow we are supposed to believe that highly paid Doctors assured the Yankees that this wouldn’t continue to worsen?

So what’s going on here? There’s no reason why things should have unfolded this way.  If A-Rod was unfit to play, or the cyst was causing discomfort — this should have been taken care in the off-season.

There’s no fantasy baseball content within this post, which is unfortunate.  However, there is a whole hoot of a lot of regular baseball content.

A few weeks ago, I went down to the Rogers Centre (Skydome) to grab WBC tickets. The rather large lady working the counter informed me that the tickets were only available through MLB at this point, and I should check back later if I wanted to buy them at the Box Office rather than paying the stupid surcharge.

WBC Tickets, Happy or Sad

I started writing an overly long diatribe about Anti-Trust, but it was stupid.  To summarize, it’s really fucking idiotic that they force you to order on-line and pay their 20% charge if you want good seats.

I was stubborn and refused to pay the ridiculous fee, so I got stuck with crappy seats.

Seats also tend to be more expensive when you’re buying for two.  I did however ask whether you’d be able to sneak in down to the first level to watch batting practice like you can during the season.  I was assured you could, and I’m almost certain that they lied to me. I’m assuming that the Dome, which has already sold 40,000 tickets for the first USA vs. CANADA, will be absolutely nuts during BP — I’m curious as to whether or not it’ll trump the frenzy of a Yankees or Red Sox games.

I’m pretty excited to bring my new camera to the game and curse my brains out at the terrible lighting in the Dome.  I’m sure I’ll take plenty of awful photos with an awful white balance.

In Game 1 of the WBC in Toronto, Canada and the US face off.  The best outfield level tickets were in row 19! So, I made a wager that’s bound to backfire.

I assumed Canada would beat Italy, and I bought tickets to game 5 and 6.  If Canada loses to Italy, I’m royally screwed.

My assumptions were as follows:

Boy do these look like a keep-sake.

Canada loses to the USA. Venezuela beats Italy.  The US and Venezuela face off, and it doesn’t matter who loses.  Canada faces Italy and wins.  This means that Game 5 would be the winner of the Canada / Italy game versus the loser of the USA / Venezuela game.

So, I assumed it’s Canada vs. Venezuela.  Then I bought tickets to Game 6 which should be Canada (or Venezuela) vs. the USA. If Venezuela beats the USA, then I’ll get to see Canada vs. USA in game five, and the winner of that game vs. Venezuela in game 6.

Of course, if Italy beats Canada I’ll get to watch Italy take on Venezuela — and I’ll kill myself.

I’m not sure which side of the fence I fall on with regards to purchasing tickets in a NO-ALCOHOL section.  I’m somewhat curious as to whether or not the folks at the Rogers Center will raise the prices of booze. Could 14oz of liquid gold set you back 10 DOLLARS instead of 9 DOLLARS? We shall see.

More Baseball! Cards!

On the walk back from the Sky-Dome, I stopped at “Legends of the Game” which is a nifty little card-shop alongside a Tim Horton’s. I’ve been there a few times, and the guys always seem nice — nicer than the prices, at least. It’s a bit pricey, with a pack of Topps ’09 running almost 4 bucks and the Upper Deck pack of 20 coming close to 8 bucks, OUCH!

Needless to say, I did something I haven’t done in 15 Years: I bought a retail pack of baseball cards. I bought one pack of Topps, and one of Upper Deck.  Nothing fancy, no Spectrum or Chrome — Just plain old base set, series 1.

The upper deck look like nicer cards, I think.  I’m really not sure which cards I enjoy more.  The Upper Deck cards are a bit flashier, but the Topps cards are a bit more “baseball-card-ish”.  They just look like a solid baseball card.  Either way, I’m glad that Topps removed their stupid assed printed black signatures.

In my first pack of Upper Deck, I got an autograph. I sat around earlier watching people do “box-breaks” on ebay, and it’s ridiculous.

They just fly through 15 packs looking for hits.  Someone pulled a Brady Quinn autograph jersey card, and an Adrian Peterson Autograph Jersey card in the same box. They blew there load, I guess I would too.

I’m sure they popped up on ebay pretty quick-fast. I think they go for well over a couple hundred bucks each.

Either way, I’m pretty high on David Murphy and his fantasy value this year so I was pretty pleased when I pulled an autograph.  Apparently they’re only 6 or 7 bucks on ebay, but i’m still excited.

In the Topps, I got a Turkey Red Cole Hamels card which was very lack-luster.  Those cards should have been a lot nicer — alas, they weren’t. I was thinking of buying a back of Upper Deck Spectrum at some point, but I’m not a fan of celebrity-rock-band autographs.

If there’s any recommendations for packs under 10 bucks, I’ll probably go and buy one at some point next week.  I definitely prefer sharp looking cards over the possibility of crazy-awesome inserts.