As we close in on the end of February, I have added the final missing card of the Topps 2019 Series 1 base set. When completing sets, it’s never a matter of speed for me really, but I’m pretty happy that I was able to collate the set in under 30 days. I need to give a big shout out to my buddy Matt who hooked me up with some doubles of my favorite cards to add to my mini-collections. He runs a YouTube blog called Passion 4 Cards. Give him a visit and subscribe to his channel!

I follow a few baseball card blogs and have read their opinions on the set. If you scroll to the bottom of the Cardboardconnection.com review, you can see about a dozen opinions from other collectors on everything from base card design, sub-sets, number of cards per pack or per box, typography, photography, card stock weight, player checklist, centering of photos, borders, no borders, half-borders, approval of Topps, hatred of Topps, and the list goes on and on.

“Randy” says that the “modern baseball card is dead” and that Topps should be dissolved as a company.

Probably time to stop hanging out on online baseball card blogs Randy.

What do I think? I don’t think it’s half as deep as some of these folks make it out to seem. Sometimes I like the new design and sometimes I don’t. I’ll still collect it but I’m not one to lose sleep over it. I like this particular design just fine. The blog Stadium Fantasium offers up a much more comprehensive review including his thoughts on the parallels and many different insert sets. It’s a great read. Check it out.

Without further ado, here are a few of my favorite cards from the 2019 Series 1 set.

*Disclaimer: No Trout and no Ohtani featured here – haven’t we already seen enough of those guys already?

Here we have two great shots. Didi appearing to slide back to first with the hopes of evading an opposing pitcher’s pick-off throw. On a handful of cards, Topps brought the player’s picture up and outside of the border which I love. 1988 Topps was the first year I noticed this cropping technique. Topps went back to it in 1990 and 1991 as well. It took me a while to track the actual game down but Cesar Hernandez’ card features him turning two and avoiding the slide of San Francisco’s Joe Panik during their June 3, 2018 day game at Citizen’s Bank Park. Jake Arrietta and the Phillies would go on to lose this game 6-1 with Arrietta providing the only run – a home run off of Dereck Rodriguez in the 3rd inning.

Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea’s 2019 Topps card puts you seconds away from a fastball coming right down the pipe. After coming off of arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder this winter, Manaea is progressing ahead of schedule and says that he feels “100% better than he did last year.” That’s hard to believe considering he enjoyed a 12-9 record in 2018 with a 3.59 ERA and tossed a no-hitter against the future World Series champion Boston Red Sox. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do when he’s healthy. I’m always a fan of cards featuring exciting outfield catches. This particular one will go in the “mini-collection” of spectacular grabs. Chicago White Sox center fielder Adam Engel’s 2019 card will forever document his 8th inning, snag against the Cleveland Indians. This was one less home run for Yonder Alonso. He would have hit 24 last year. The Indians would go on to win this August 12th day game 9-7.

I’ve always enjoyed watching Kole Calhoun play. He’s had a nice five year career with the Angels, a Gold Glover and for the most part, a decent hitter. The first two months of his 2018 seasons were two of the absolute worst for him as he hit around .145 for the first 60 days of the season. After working in the minors on his swing, he bounced back and had a pretty good season. I love this shot of him flipping the bat with an open right hand after lifting the ball into the air.

I love this landscape shot of Cubs catcher Willson Contreras at Wrigley Field. He was an All Star in 2018 despite having a lackluster second half of the season. As his power faded during the last months of the 2018 season, it was no surprise – the guy was simply, tired. He had caught 1,200 innings; the most in the majors.

What’s not to like about this card. We have the split second before Minnesota Twins catcher Mitch Garver makes contact while Anaheim Angels catcher Martin Maldonado looks on. Home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman keeps a close eye on things. This appears to be a day game and given that Maldonado was traded to Houston in July, the only time he played a day game against the Twins would have been June 10. Garver knocked a double to deep right field in the fifth inning of this game and seeing that the pitch is on the outer half of the plate, this very well could have been that very play. Jake Cave would score Garver with a ground ball single to right in the next at bat.

I decided I was going to start a mini-collection of cards with Wrigley Field’s ivy-adorned wall in the background. Billy Hamilton’s card here fits the bill nicely. 2019 will see Hamilton in a Royals uniform and the Reds are considering filling their center field position with current right fielder Scott Schebler. Yasiel Puig will also likely see some playing time in center and the Reds are even toying with letting pitcher Michael Lorenzen split time between the outfield and closing games out on the mound.

Adding another one to my ivy wall/outfield grab mini collection is Albert Almora. He had a great 2018, hitting .300+ for most of the year. He has reportedly slimmed up over the winter and is in the best shape of his life. Nevertheless, he will still likely move around the outfield as manager Joe Maddon likes to move guys in and out of the game based on match ups.

Another mini-collection card here from Minnesota Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario. Nick, who runs Dime Boxes baseball card blog started a min-collection of cards featuring players on nothing but infield dirt. I like the idea so I’ve started to notice cards that are absent of grass. This one shows Rosario celebrating his successful arrival at second base without a blade of grass in sight.

Another Rosario but this time its the photo variation. Topps did a nice job with this one. Looks like a beautiful day for a ball game.

Three more photo variations including a similar shot of Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo prepping his battle axe. Not my favorite card of local-boy Ryan Zimmerman but it will go in the PC. As a Mets fan, I was thrilled to pull this photo variation of 2018 Cy Young award winner Jacob DeGrom. The Mets were terrible last year but this guy was as good as it got.

I love this photo variation of Boston Red Sox super star Mookie Betts. He is coming off of a banner 2018 where he was not only a World Series champion, but American League MVP, an All Star, Gold Glove Award and Silver Slugger Award winner. He was also the AL batting champion in 2018 and was a member of the 30-30 club. I’ve also read that he’s a professional bowler and bowled 300 in a game in the 2017 World Series of Bowling. I went bowling yesterday and didn’t crack 100. My 3 year old beat me but for the sake of transparency, he DID have the bumpers up.

We will close out with this SP photo variation of San Francisco catcher Buster Posey. Posey sported his patriotic catcher’s gear as the Giants visited the Colorado Rockies on July 4, 2018. The Rockies took this game 1-0 as Chris Ianetta homered of off of Andrew Suarez in the bottom of the 7th. Posey would go hitless in 4 at bats with 2 walks.