Going to the Sox vs Dodgers Game Sunday

 I am going to a red Sox game this weekend.   I haven't been to a game in two years and I am excited to go.  It was a combination Father's and Birthday gift from my daughter.  

Hopefully someone on here can help me with some Dodger Stadium Information. It looks like I can only enter in the Blue Shield Gate?  Is that right, I've never been to a stadium where it mattered what gate I entered.   If I am entering at the Blue Shield Gate does anyone know what parking I should look for?

Also Does anyone has some food recommendations in the area around Dodger Stadium?  We are driving from Phoenix Saturday evening and our hotel is supposedly somewhere close to the Stadium.  My daughter also wants to see the Hollywood sign while we are there.  I have heard that it is underwhelming but it is what she wants to do. 

Random Red Sox Card

I pick these Ted Williams Playball Tribute cards any time I find one.  Sometimes they are pretty pricy but most card shops have a little Ted Williams section in them so I find them without searching hard.  I I got this one in Gatlinburg at a randon card shop I stop in when I am there visiting relatives.  

Past Present and Future

 You would think with a title like that I was going to talk about some young Red Soxs an how they compare to some older red Sox.  Instead I am showing off one of my 1/! Virdon cards.

This came from a set called 2014 In The Game Past, Present, and Future.  This was a high end set and cards came six to a pack.  Each pack contained five autographs and a fifth card that was either a: Slabbed Memorabilia Card, Graded Vintage RC of a Key Player (that is exactly how they labeled it Key Player}, Slabbed Vintage Card, or a Cut Signature.  The cut signature list was pretty darn good.  There was a Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Ty Cobbs, Jackie Robinson, and Joe DiMaggio.  

I opened zero packs and just bought the Virdon off of eBay. 

Updated E27 Teddy's Trophies

 Five years ago I posted about my 1910 E27 American Caramel Teddy's Trophies collection.  In the past five years I have made a little more progress on this set.  

Five years ago I only had ten of the thirty cards in this set.  I am up to twenty five of thirty now, maybe.  I say maybe because one is missing.  I can't find the Hartbeast card.  I can see where I bought it on eBay but I don't know where it is now.  It has to be around here somewhere.  When I was putting these all together to scan them I noticed that they are so soft and flimsy that they stick to one another like crazy.  I lost the Zebra like four times today and the Gorilla twice.  They kept sticking to other cards and I couldn't find them minutes after having them.  That Hartbeast is probably stuck to another card somewhere here in my desk.

That first group of cards I scanned were all oriented the same way.  This second group I had to scan twice because when I put them on the scanner I turned all the backs the same direction and three came out upside down on the front and I had to redo it.  I would like to have scanned them all in order but the couple vertical cards in the set messed that up for me and I had to do them separate.  

It is kind of hard to imagine but I have a bunch of doubles too.  These cards are 114 years old and I have doubles, that is crazy to me.  I have kept my cost to a few dollars a card on this set.  I have done that by buying off condition and in many cases I bought them in lots.  Buying in lots is what created the doubles. 

2023 TRSTSOCAAT #185 Bryan Bello

 

Bryan Bello was the Red Sox opening day starter in 2024.  I myself didn't understand how they chose him as the best starter on the team I would have given opening day to Tanner Hauk.  That said Bello was really good in 23.  His 2023 season started off real bad but he turned it around.  At the beginning of the season he was only 23; starting for the Red Sox has to be a lot of pressure on such a young kid.  He caught his stride in June and was great the rest of the season.

This year has been a challenge for him.  The year started off good for him going 3-1 in April but then he got hurt.  He missed a couple starts and hasn't been as sharp since returning.  He hasn't been really bad or anything he just misses his spots at times.  I think that he is going to get better and better over the next few years, as long as he can stay healthy.  

2023 TRSTSOCAAT #165 Jeter Downs

Jeter Downs played zero games for the Red Sox last year.  He had played a handful of games for the Red Sox at the end of 22 but was put on waivers in December of 22 where he was picked up my the Nationals.  He was supposed to be the main piece we got back in the Mookie trade but in actuality he was the one that didn't do anything.  It would be hard to live up to being the main return on Mookie leaving town.  Just as bad in a different way, he was picked up by the yankees this offseason and has to play there with the Jeter name. 

 RC logo and it looks like he hit a gapper.  That's all I got on this one. lol

Some More COMC Boxing Cards

 In addition to the 1951 Ringside I posted the other day my COMC order included some 1938 F.C. Cartledge Famous Prizefighters cards.  These were boxing cards that had a really low cost so I grabbed them up.  

It is a set of 50 cards with two number 13s and two number 19s, so 52 cards total.  I own seven of them now.  They are tobacco sized cards and in 1938 England you got one of these cards with each Knock Out Razor Blade you bought.  Cards 1-30 are all drawings and 31-50 are photos.  

I don't know any of these boxers because as you can see on the back of this Isaac Perrins card he was born in 1750 and died in 1800.  Since the the camera was invented in the early 1820 I assume the first thirty cards are all drawings because all of those boxers represented predate photography.  It is pretty cool that if you got 50 cards even if there were doubles they would trade you a whole set in an album.  They charged .03 for shipping and handling but that is a pretty good deal that no baseball card manufacturer ever would offer.

Even today I'm not a fan of sports cards where people are in their every day clothes.  At least I assume that was every day clothing back in the late 1700s.  He doesn't look like a boxer to me he looks like a random schlub.   It reminds me of those early Bowman RCs were guys are in their high school clothes. 

To me even though it isn't an in action card like the first one I pictured the fact that he looks like he is dressed to fight makes a big difference to me.  I doubt I ever "chase" this set down and try to build it.  I'll just keep plucking them up one by one when I see a cheap one offered. 

2023 TRSTSOCAAT #152 Nick Pivetta

Back to my 2023 Topps review after the short COMC mail day posts.

I was excited when the Red Sox picked up Pivetta during Covid year.  He was a guy that had put up good numbers then had a bad year.   He usually isn't lights out but he is competitive every time on the mound and has been a reliable starter and reliever since we got him.  Not great, not bad, just steady every team needs a pitcher or two like that.

I hate the Red Sox City Connects uniforms!  I know they are supposed to represent the Boston Marathon but the gaudy yellow is absolutely terrible.  Some people like them because the Sox have had good luck when wearing them (30-8 all time) but I hate them.  

It may just be me but does Pivetta not look like motocross/supercross/rallycross/racer of anything with (and without) wheels, Travis Pastrana?