Joy and pain

 

I had another Target gift card to spend and my patience is not good when it comes to those things. I am mystified when I hear stories of people giving their folks gift cards and then they put them in a drawer and forget about them.

 

So, in a yank to spend it quickly -- and on cards -- I had basically three choices. Two of them didn't interest me.

 

 I could spend it on another blaster of 2022 Topps, but one of those was enough. Nothing more to be gained there, except for a bland Dodger insert. Or I could wait a little longer and spend it on a blaster of 2022 Heritage. But I didn't want to wait and, honestly, I've seen Heritage's take on the '73 design and I'm just not feeling it. 

That left Opening Day. And that's where the gift card went. Heck, I could get a few more Dodger cards and maybe a couple decent inserts. Also, Opening Day was packing even more cards than ever into those boxes!

Instead of $9.99 for 77 cards as Opening Day blasters have contained traditionally, it is now $19.99 for 154 cards.

Trust me, the box felt heavier than any blaster ever has.

That is impressive.

OK, that's the "joy" part.

Here comes the "pain" part.

Can you see that?

Right above Mike Trout's head.

Oof.

 

I ordered this box online because that's what you do when your local big-boxes are still afraid of shootings in the parking lot.

That is a major rip and indentation in the box. I suppose stuffing 22 packs in the box will do that. Or maybe it's more likely a pack is going to be damaged when something happens to it and there are 14 more packs than usual.

And unfortunately the first three packs contained damaged cards.

Dings on the left side of every card in the first three packs.

Not cool. 

But pressing forward, I have 22 packs to show.

I'll make it quick. Once I got past the dings, it was fun opening that many packs. Since I almost never open boxes, it was the closest I had come to a box-opening since I was buying Allen & Ginter boxes 10 years ago!

PACK 1

 

Every one of these has a ding on the left side or top of the card. New Dodger Freddie, my first Franco, and that nifty three-cards-in-one-card of Dodgers!

The ding in the triple card is hardly noticeable at least.

 

And there's more pain: that advertisement card is counted in the 7 cards per pack. 

PACK 2

More dings. Poor Cody. Poor Bernie Brewer. The Bellinger is a glimpse at the Series 2 Bellinger as he wasn't in Series 1. I'm sure there are other examples of that in this box, but I'm only familiar with the Dodgers.

 

PACK 3

The last of the dinged packs. One of the inserts, Bomb Squad, is nice to look at -- I'm not crazy about some of the content, as you'll see. But the cards look fun.

 

PACK 4

I'm not going to have a lot to say about these, in the interest of time (like who is reading this anyway?). I'll just note there's a Mike Trout card here, which I'll probably end up trading because everyone wants the Trouts.

 

PACK 5

I like the look of that Opening Day insert. I was hoping all of them would be overhead shots, but they're not.

PACK 6

There is my first look at Trea Turner as a Dodger in a 2022 set.

PACK 7

 

PACK 8

The two Christian Yelich cards came out of the pack back-to-back just like that. It made me think briefly it was the same photo. But it's a couple of clicks different.

PACK 9

Lots of young star power there.

PACK 10

PACK 11

I am almost positive that I have pulled the Mariner Moose card every year I've bought Opening Day since it started including mascots. I've never actually seen that thing in a game.

I already tried to send the blue Rizzo to Sooz, but she had already bought one.

 

PACK 12

Here is where the Bomb Squads don't sit quite right with me. It should contain only current players. Ortiz is still relatively recently retired but still, keep it to the present-day guys.

PACK 13

Another non-card that cost me 12.9 cents.

Justin Verlander's inclusion is interesting (is he in the flagship set?). He didn't pitch last year and appeared in one game in 2020, yet here he is. Also his stats don't include the 2021 season with the usual "DID NOT PLAY".

 

PACK 14

PACK 15

Babe Ruth-Bomb Squad does not compute. Heck, even "tater" is about 50 years too late.

PACK 16

The Mets are featured in the last 3-in-1 in the box. I'm very glad Topps kept each player on the card to the same team, unlike when Topps did that with the NBA in the early '80s.

PACK 17

PACK 18

That Whit Merrified is even weirder than the Royals mascot. Why is it a horizontal card? It's not very flattering to Merrifield. He looks about 3 feet tall.

PACK 19

 

Corey Seager is still in a Dodgers uniform. I haven't noticed any photoshopping changes from flagship as there often is with Opening Day.

 

PACK 20

 

Woo! Bomb Squad Bellinger! Although he wasn't doing much bombing last year.

PACK 21

 

PACK 22

I think "Tater Squad" would be more appropriate for Aaron.

The Mookie Betts is a nice way to end it.

With that many cards, it's only natural to see how close I am to a whole set.

There are 220 cards in the set. I pulled 129 of them for 58 percent of the set. I haven't completed an Opening Day set since 2006. I don't know if I'll do it this year but it's nice to get that close with one blaster.

Of course there would be the matter of replacing the dinged cards ...

(Overall Blaster Power Rankings since 2017: Dodgers - 64, Astros - 54, Yankees - 52, White Sox - 48, Mets - 45, Braves - 44, Blue Jays - 43, Red Sox - 43, Tigers - 43, Cardinals - 42, Phillies - 42, Cubs - 40, Guardians/Indians - 37, Padres - 36, Giants - 34, A's - 33, Brewers - 33, Reds - 33, Angels - 32, Mariners - 29, Rays - 29, Nationals - 28, Pirates - 28, Diamondbacks - 27, Royals - 27, Rockies - 26, Twins - 24, Orioles - 23, Marlins - 20, Rangers - 20)