The mailman this week brought me two amazing baseballs, one of which will be the subject of this post; the other will come soon.
While Hit By Pitch balls are my niche in game-used baseballs, I also dabble in Clayton Kershaw items. I was able to acquire a ball from the Giants this week that has some historical significance.
Kershaw is at the stage of his career where he is passing folks on various statistical charts, and on 8/27/2020 he won his 173rd career game by defeating the Giants. The win made him the winningest left-handed pitcher in MLB history. It’s sort of a convoluted stat as it’s percentage driven and the number changes, but it is history.
Anyway, the ball that arrived today is the first ball Kershaw used that day against the Giants. The ball was used for warm up pitches and then for eight pitches spanning three batters.
Giants lead off hitter Mike Yastrzemski saw three pitches, the third of which he rapped into center field for a single – his 136th career hit. The ball was fielded by Cody Bellinger and thrown back to the infield where it was tossed to Kershaw for the next hitter.
Wilmer Flores saw two pitches from Kershaw, the second of which he blasted to right-center causing Bellinger to chase it down near the warning track, a play that was replayed on television with high praise.
Evan Longoria, a fellow 2006 draft pick, saw three pitches from this ball including a classic Kershaw knee-buckling bender that was on the inside corner but called a ball. On the third pitch, Longoria fouled the ball off the chalk of the batters box and the ball was removed from play, ending it’s lifespan.
I’m always a tad skeptical when I see balls that are authenticated as used for various batters, especially when they are out into play. So when I opened the package today and saw that this ball is hammered, it made me smile as again the Giants Authentics department left me with zero doubt as to the authentication.
I also ordered the associated Topps Now card pictured below.
cardboardicons.com 
Machado Topps Now Relic draws ire … but why are we so angry?
Posted in Commentary with tags Manny Machado, Topps, Topps Now, Topps Now Relic on February 23, 2019 by Cardboard IconsI admit: My first reaction was not positive.
In fact, it went a little something like this:
That’s dumb … That won’t sell out.
I didn’t go too much further than that. Afterall, I was busy at work. Then I started seeing the negative reaction from the Twitterverse, which of course does NOT represent everyone in the hobby, and people seemed legitimately angry.
And so I thought some more about my initial reaction, about why I also disliked the idea. And then the more I thought about it, the more I found myself not really understanding my anger.
The whole point of Topps Now is to document things through the year. And this year the market had/has two major free agents in Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. Machado signs a 10-year, 300-million contract and Topps decides to document the moment with Now base cards, and then the special relics, which include a piece of the cloth on the table during the press conference.
Why is that bad?
Did Topps FORCE anyone to buy them? No. In fact, they priced the relics cheap enough that they were way less than any other relics offered through the program. If you ever wanted to own anything through the program, this is a fair shot at doing it.
What Topps did by creating these relics is made them available to anyone who wanted them; who wanted a part of the action, which is not really unlike any of us who collect random swatches of players not used during any specific year, season of event.
So, why the hate?
Well, I think there are three reasons why:
So, while I admit again that my initial reaction was not positive, I will say I am changing my tone. I do understand why this Machado Topps Now relic exists and I am not going to hate on it going forward, or any other effort that Topps does to legitimately get us closer.
I am curious what the reaction would have been if this happened last year when the Angels signed Shohei Ohtani, or what it might be in a few years when Mike Trout is set to hit the market.
The Machado relic clearly is not for everyone, which is fine. But why must we hate on Topps for trying something different?
I leave you with this thought: We get so bent out of shape about this Machado relic, yet we have a large portion of the hobby still clamoring over relic cards containing pieces of jerseys worn by rookies during a photo shoot. And the market somehow allows for these relic cards — often not really featuring anything more than the aforementioned Machado — to sell for hundreds of dollars. Does that make a lot of sense? Nope.
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