Opening Day Scan Dump

I was cleaning up my card corner the other day and came across this box of Opening Day I forgot I bought. It's the jumbo box variety and has the red parallels so that's a dead giveaway it came from Target. I had some time and ripped into it. While I didn't find anything groundbreaking, I did come away with some keepers and a few neat things. This will be pretty scan heavy and I guess could qualify as a "scan dump" and will also probably be quite brief.

Red parallels ... keeping most of these although I might send the Merrifield off to Dime Box Nick. Not sure yet.

Scenes of Opening Day. I was pretty happy to get the Reds card, even though it mentions last year's Opening Day was a rain-out.

Mascot cards are always fun!

Other inserts, parallels, etc. The "150 Years of Fun" cards are interesting but not really my thing, although I'm keeping the Aaron and the Carter pictured.

Reds and Indians highlights.

The best horizontal cards of the box. 

And lots of fun base cards. 

So that's the highlights from a box of Opening Day I'd forgotten about. Like I mentioned earlier, quick and painless, right?

Reds Opening Day Pitchers

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Yesterday, the Reds named Luis Castillo the starting pitcher for Opening Day 2019. I think it's a good choice as he was by far the best starter the Reds had last year in the dumpster fire of a rotation they had. Hearing this gave me an idea for a blog post, that would be looking back at the Reds Opening Day starters since 2000. Since I'm currently nowhere near my card collection as I write this, I'll use COMC for help in showing off some cards and I'll provide some quick notes as well.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Homer Bailey - 2018

Homer Bailey got the call for Opening Day and it went down as one of his 14 losses of the season. The Reds went 3-15 in the first 18 games in 2018 which saw Bryan Price get canned after the miserable start and Jim Riggleman leading the team the rest of the way.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Scott Feldman - 2017

The well traveled Scott Feldman took the mound for the Reds on Opening Day in 2017 and didn't fare too well. He allowed 3 earned runs, 7 hits, and 2 walks in only 4 2/3 innings. Feldman's lone season with the Reds was his last of a 13-year career.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Raisel Iglesias - 2016

Iglesias was probably the best choice to start in 2016 as the Reds rotation consisted of such notables as John Lamb, Tim Adelman, and Brandon Finnegan.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Johnny Cueto - 2012-2015

Johnny Cueto started four straight Opening Day games for the Reds, beginning with the 2012 season where they just steamrolled the NL Central and culminating in 2015 where he'd start his final Opening Day in red before being shipped to Kansas City at the trade deadline.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Edinson Volquez -2011

The Reds in 2011 had just come off their first winning season since 2000 and a surprise NL Central title. Volquez got the Opening Day assignment in which turned out to be his last season in Cincinnati. 

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Aaron Harang - 2006-2010

Aaron Harang was one of the few reliable pitchers (aside from Bronson Arroyo) in the Reds rotation in the mid-2000s. Acquired from Oakland in 2003 for Jose Guillen, he spent 8 seasons in red. His best season with the Reds was 2007 where he went 16-6 with a 3.73 ERA. 

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Paul Wilson - 2005

Paul Wilson pitched all of 9 games for the Reds in 2005 after being one of the better starters the Reds has in 2003 and 2004. Opening Day 2005 though will always live in Reds lore as the game where the Reds won on a walk-off homer by Joe Randa in the bottom of the 9th.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Cory Lidle - 2004

Cory Lidle's lone season with the Reds in 2004 was highlighted by his Opening Day start against the Cubs. However, he didn't even last the whole season with the team. He was traded to the Phillies in August for two minor leaguers and a player to be named later.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Jimmy Haynes - 2003

Jimmy Haynes has the designation of being the person to throw the very first pitch at Great American Ball Park in 2003. Honestly, that was probably the highlight of a 2003 season where he only won 2 games in 18 starts.

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Joey Hamilton - 2002

I have zero recollection of Joey Hamilton pitching for the Reds in 2002. However, he has the honor of starting the final Opening Day in Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field history. 

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Pete Harnisch - 2000-2001

The Reds picked up Harnisch as a free agent before the 1998 season and was one of their better pitchers through the 2000 season before injuries set in again in 2001 and he only pitched in 7 games. The 2000 Reds squad went 85-77, finishing second in the NL Central. The 2001 squad bottomed out at 66-96 finishing dead last.

So there it is, every Reds Opening Day starter since 2000. I didn't remember half of these pitchers and some I forgot even played for the team. This was a pretty fun walk through the past and looking at the 2000s, I'd forgotten how bad some of those teams were (especially that 2001 team). Here's hoping the 2019 team can be one of the better teams in recent memory.

A Blaster of Opening Day on Opening Day

I bought this when I picked up the two hanger boxes of Heritage a week or so back. I probably should've used better judgement and gotten a third box of Heritage for the same price but oh well. Since today is Opening Day, and the Reds Opening Day game got postponed until tomorrow for the first time since 1966 due to rain what better time that now to rip into this.

Keeping with my tradition this year, here's the first card from the first pack I opened. Not a bad start and I noticed the "future stars" heading is gone from the card.

Here's some cards of a few players I don't remember pulling cards for when I binged on Series 1. I really like the Alex Bregman card with the daylight and the orange uniform. It makes me long for nice spring and summer days where I can leave the snow and the cold behind.

A couple cool horizontal cards. Love the Green Monster in the background of the David Price card.

I got exactly one blue parallel, that being of Whit Merrifield. 

The Opening Day set is more based around inserts than anything else. Out of the eleven packs, four held these "Team Traditions and Celebrations" cards. I got the vaunted "The Freeze" card

I really like these team Opening Day inserts and the pictures are just amazing.

I guess these are supposed to be what players are up to in Spring Training? 

But here's my favorite thing of the Opening Day cards ... mascots!!! And I got three good ones, the Phillie Phanatic, the Rally Monkey, and our hometown mascot Mr. Redlegs.

As I mentioned though at the beginning, I think this ten dollar could've been better spent elsewhere, for example another hanger box of Heritage or a couple Gypsy Queen hanger packs. Oh well, lesson learned I suppose. Now, back to watching baseball that matters!

You've Got Mail #68: Night Owl Cards

Photo: Wikipedia

As anyone who followed this blog last fall knows, I'm a big fan of Halloween. As such, today is the official "halfway to Halloween" point on the calendar. The official name for this is Walpurgis Night, which is a celebration observed in Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and other countries in that region to usher in the start of summer. This night is said to be the final time witches and other evildoers to cause havoc before spring woke up the land. To ward off evil spirits, citizens would burn bonfires, sprinkle holy water, and put blessed palm leaf in their homes. 

While the card blogging world does not have and evil spirits (at least none that I know of), there is a resident nocturnal creature we all know and love as Night Owl. Last Monday a nice little package showed up on my doorstep from the Owl and as usual, it was stuffed with some pretty neat cards.

As I mentioned, Walpurgis Night is a time to celebrate the start of summer. However, in these parts, the start of summer the beginning of baseball season. When I saw that this card was in Opening Day, I knew I had to have it. Luckily, Night Owl was nice enough to throw it in. 

Speaking of evil things, I used to think minis were evil and I would immediately throw them into the discard pile. However, my stance has definitely changed on them and I'm building up as many of them as I can. These definitely helped bulk up my stockpile.

Of course, any trading package coming my way includes Reds cards and these are definitely ones I didn't have. These are from the 2006 Topps release, of which I opened a pack recently for my ongoing "Back Packs" series, a look at which will be coming up shortly.

There was also a good amount of miscellaneous stuff thrown in from another Eckersley card for my collection, to some Bengals cards, and even a completey random Jake "The Snake" Roberts card, of which I will not complain.

The majority of the package though was loaded up with these 2015 All-Star Update cards. I still need to add my want list for these to the blog but there were about 14 cards included in the package that I needed. I'm getting close to halfway on completing the run of these in 2015 Update and these additions were much appreciated. 

A big thanks to Night Owl for sending over these cards and helping ward off any evil spirits that will hopefully stay away all through baseball season.