Not very exciting, but then neither is A&G anymore

Today got busy with a couple of writing assignments. I'm finishing off the latest Beckett magazine article (another one should be showing up in mailboxes next month), and I'm starting a story for my job that involved interviewing this afternoon the man on the first baseball card I ever pulled, Tommy John.

Brush With Greatness post in the future.

Right now I just have time for my 2021 Allen & Ginter team set, which also arrived today.

 

 

I ordered the team set again this year because I just don't have the energy to do what it takes to chase team sets pack-by-pack, blaster-by-blaster anymore.

Out of all of the sets issued today, the Allen & Ginter set used to be the most fun, the most interesting to pursue by the blaster. You never knew what you were going to get and, of course, minis. Buying blasters and posting about them was about the journey and the discovery.

But I'm not the same and neither is A&G. We're both rather boring now. Just buy that team set and be done. I'm done with you now, A&G. Not much to chase in this set anymore anyway.

So here is the Dodgers team set:

That's 19 cards. I put them in order of how they appear in the set. The four short-prints are at the bottom. The Dodgers are lucky enough to get a manager (two managers) with their team set. My guess is that Dave Roberts signed an individual deal with Topps?

 

I noticed right away that Dustin May wasn't in the set. Perhaps his exit for the season was in time for Topps to scrap him off the checklist? If so, I don't know if rushing for something like that is necessary. Keibert Ruiz is no longer with the team and Bauer, too.

 

But never mind that -- Max Muncy isn't in the set either!!! This will look quite bad if Muncy ends up winning the MVP award.

You can see that Sandy Koufax isn't in the A&G rotation anymore but I think that's Roy Campanella's first A&G card since 2008.

Hey, there's Mad Max! These are the "This Date" cards for 2021 A&G. Pretty dull look. Not much to say.

 

I do like the look of the Murad Reimagined insert set. It's a take-off on the old Murad Cigarette cards, which mostly featured college athletics, around 1910 or so. For whatever reason (probably because I have a difficult time paying attention to prewar), I thought the original Murads were much larger than average card size. Turns out they were smaller.

 

And that's it.

 

I do miss not getting any minis, so that's a quest for another time (perhaps a blaster or two is in my future anyway).

 

As far as the hits, relics and such, they have always been extras for any set, and A&G left behind what I liked about the framed relics a long time ago.

So I'm done!

Yeah, yeah, I know that was not as exciting as the old Gint-a-Cuffs. Sorry. We're all very busy.