2026 Topps Two-Pack Break

I picked up a pair of 36 card fat packs at my LCS on Topps Opening Day. I challenge anyone to get more Doubles than I received in these two packs. 

Pack Highlights 

Before I get to the low-lights of the dupes I want to show some of the cards I liked. First off are the commons.

2026 Topps Trevor Megill

The first card of 2026 was Brewers Closer Trevor Megill. I like this card because almost all of the pitcher cards are exactly the same. It is nice to get action shots but there is so little variety in those action shots. 

Battery 

2026 Topps Bryan Woo, Michael Wacha, Logan Webb & Sean Murphy

Fairly typical pitchers photos for recent sets. Sean Murphy is the only catcher in the two packs that was shown catching. There were at least two catchers pictured running.

Infield

2026 Topps CJ Abrams, Kristian Campbell, Ben Williamson& Vlad jr

A couple of goofy jerseys here. I think Campbell is the only FS. I do like the CJ Abrams bat flip out of frame.

Outfield 

2026 Topps Jhostoynxon Garcia, Aroldis Garcia, James Wood & Byron Buxton

Getting Password may be the highlight of non-Phils 

Speaking of Phillies, we have one of the newest Phils in Aroldis Garcia with a good celebration going.

Speaking of Phillies 

2026 Topps Jhoan Duran, Bryce Harper, Edmundo Sosa & FoilBoard Cool Crushers (Schwarber and Harper) 

I always appreciate the use of the Liberty Bell Logo.

Between the 4 cards three different home jerseys are represented. 

Kind of a Meh Harper card - unless you hate the electric blue city connect than I suppose it's worse than meh.

Team Cards

2026T team cards: Dodgers, Dodgers b-side, Blue Jays Royals

Next up Team Cards. 

one good thing about getting a boatload of dupes is you can feature a front & back in the same shot. 

but these are a bit weak.

How does the Dodgers Team Card not have  the words "World Series" on the b-side? 

And what's with the Team Leader stats not having THE STAT?

Inserts

2026 Topps Titans of the Game De La Cruz & Mike Trout

Stars Insert Devers & Roman Anthony

Each pack had a couple of what I assume are continuity inserts. 

2 different styles but basically similar. one has baseballs the other has stars. kind of lazy kids.

Retro Inserts

2026 Topps 91T Roman Anthony, Matt Shaw ASR, 91T Mickey Mantle

Closing the feature cards with the Retro Inserts and Rookie Cup Cards. 

1991 Topps is solid so this is a nice retro - I wonder how many other 1991 cards Mantle is on. 

Bit of RedSox hot pack, couple of Roman Anthony Inserts, the FS Khristian Campbell and Password. 

And The Dupes

Out of 72 card between the two packs I was cursed with 19 Duplicates! that is over 25% of the cards

19 duplicate cards in 2026 Topps

A lot of this is just bad luck. I chose two packs from different spots in the bin and probably should stick to picking back2back packs.  Still this is some pretty lousy collation. 

2026 Topps

Overall I think it is a mediocre year. Good enough to open a few packs but I doubt I will ever build the set. Getting all those dupes may have soured my already muted opinion on the set, regardless my collecting new cards is winding down and the odds of me building a new set in the future is fairly slim. 

CTB: 2025 Topps Holiday #H182 Jackson Chourio (candy cane sleeve variation)

Covering the Bases(CTB) is a feature where we take a deep dive into a single card, today we look at a recent Topps Rookie Cup Winner. 

A recent LCS purchase of a 59 card Topps Holiday Tin yielded 3 All-Star Rookie Cup, one of which was an image variation.

2025 Topps Holiday #H182 Jackson Chourio

This is such a great image that one may not notice Jackson Chourio has antlers and a right sleeve wrapped in a candy cane pattern.

Rookie Cup

Chourio earned the outfield Rookie Cup with a 21 Home Run 79 RBI season which was good enough for 3rd place in the NL Rookie of the Year voting behind Padres Centerfielder Jackson Merrill and Paul Skenes.  

Base

2025 Topps #376 Jackson Chourio (from TCDB)

On the Base Card we see Chourio sans antlers and wearing a Milwaukee Brewers team colored yellow sleeve. We also see the original team label border without the Holiday Evergreen Garland. The remainder of the card is identical including the great action shot and Rookie Cup flare. 

Game Dating

The uniqueness of this shot made it easy to find in Getty Images and it turned out to be a big moment in Jackson Chourio's rookie campaign.

Stacy Revere photo of Jackson Chourio in Getty Images dated 2024 Jun 26 

The text accompanying the photo reveals something fun "Jackson Chourio #11 of the Milwaukee Brewers slides safely into home following an inside the park home run against the Texas Rangers" 

Jackson Chourio's eighth career Home Run can be seen here. In the video we can see the In the Park Home Run is largely due to a misplay by Texas Rangers Center Fielder Derek Hill and Jackson Chourio's aggressive base running. Milwaukee won the game 6-5 so the two out in the park home run may very well have been a difference maker. 

Topps Now

2024 MLB ToppsNow #349 (image via ToppsNow) 

Jackson Chourio's first ITPHR was also chronicled in 2024 as part of the Topps Now series. Here we see Chourio just after the plays completion with a sly smile indicating the Venezuelan Rookie is keenly aware of what he had just done. Topps has added a nice bit of text indicating that Jackson is the youngest to accomplish the feat since future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr did it in 1989.  

Photographer Stacey Revere 

The images used on both the Rookie Cup and ToppsNow cards were taken by Stacey Revere, a self taught Native American(Choctaw) Photographer who is based in Milwaukee. In addition to covering the World Series, NBA Finals, Olympics, SuperBowls, Indy500 and the UFC Revere has also worked to bring attention to issues affecting Native Communities. 

A really interesting Andscape profile of Stacey Revere can be found here. Among the topics covered are the persistence of the Cleveland Indians name and use of Chief Wahoo as a Mascot. Stacey Revere's Photography site can be found here. 

Team Phungo

Have not posted here in a while, not sure if this is a return. If it is future posts will likely be similar to this. CTBs on Rookie Cups, Phillies and HOFs.

in the meantime I ask you to check out my baseball trivia game Starting9. For details on game play click here. 

Sources and Links
2025 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

Game Dated Cards

Stacey Revere

AndScape

Getty Images

ToppsNow

Baseball-Ref

mlb.com

TCDB

Beckett

1993 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 1993 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 1992 season. 

1993 Topps #331 Kenny Lofton

• RHP – Cal Eldred
• LHP – Dave Fleming
• C – Todd Hundley
• 1B – Eric Karros
• 703:  2B – Jeff Kent 
• 3B – Scott Livingstone
• SS – Pat Listach
• OF – Kenny Lofton, 
• OF - Moises Alou, 
• OF Reggie Sanders

Sources and Links
All-Star Rookie Index
Baseball-Ref

LifeTime Topps Project

Cards from the Quarry

TCDB

2025 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 2025 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 2024 season. 

2025 Topps #98 Paul Skenes

591	Austin Wells	C	New York Yankees
263	Michael Busch	1B	Chicago Cubs
180	Colt Keith	2B	Detroit Tigers
165	Joey Ortiz	3B	Milwaukee Brewers
22	Masyn Winn	SS	St. Louis Cardinals
125	Jackson Merrill	OF	San Diego Padres
376	Jackson Chourio	OF	Milwaukee Brewers
230	Colton Cowser	OF	Baltimore Orioles
98	Paul Skenes	RHP	Pittsburgh Pirates
473	Shota Imanaga	LHP	Chicago Cubs
571	Mason Miller	RP	Oakland Athletics
691	Wyatt Langford	DH	Texas Rangers

Sources and Links
All-Star Rookie Index
Baseball-Ref

All-Star Rookie Cups in the 2024 World Series

To kick off the 2024 edition of the World Series we are going to examine the series from a Rookie Cup perspective and see if that can predict a winner. 

Yankees

Juan Soto 2019

Gleyber Torres 2019

Aaron Judge 2018

Carlos Rodon 2016

Anthony Rizzo 2013

Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton 2011

Dodgers

James Outman 2024

Will Smith 2020

Shohei Ohtani 2019

Walker Buehler 2019

Sort of Dodgers

Ryan Yarbrough 2019

Jason Heyward 2011

Turns out Rookie Cups are well represented in this year's World Series with each team rostering 6 players this season. However the Yankees have all 6 of their cups on the Postseason Roster. 

Two of the Dodgers six are no longer with the team Ryan Yarbrough was traded and Jason Heyward released. 

The Yankees have gotten contributions from all of their cups players Especially Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton. Even Anthony Rizzo who had a miserable regular season has performed well in the Playoffs.

For the Dodgers Shohei Ohtani has been a star on the big stage but that is it for the hitters. Will Smith has a couple of Home Runs, but otherwise he has been a member of the Dodgers bottom third of the order which has failed to produce. James Outman has not appears in the Postseason but appears to be on the World Series Roster. Walker Buehler, Like Rizzo struggled during the regular season, however his Postseason has been mixed at best. 

If the cups have anything to do with picking a winner all signs point to the Yankees.

1) More Cups 6-4  

2) More contributions from the Cup Players

2019 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Team 

Special Shoutout to the 2019 Rookie Cup Team - the cards above are all from the 2019 Cup Class and will all be playing in the World Series this week.  Pretty strong class to have 4 players in a single World Series Five if we count Ryan Yarbrough.

2024 World Series

We will be following the Series this week and giving special attention to the Rookie Cup winners. I will be rooting for the Dodgers so I will be looking for big games out of Ohtani and Buehler.  

 

Sources 

FA Sports Cards Trading Card DB Topps All-Star Rookie Card List

Blaster Break: 2024 Topps Update - inserts (Plus Justin Topa IG Link)

On Monday we covered base cards, today we are going to take a look at the inserts and noteworthy cards. 

Orioles

The blaster was a bit of an Oriole Hot Pack. out of 84 cards Eight were Orioles. We discussed the crummy Stars of MLB cards earlier this week and I am confusing the new Mystical cards with Stars - although they are slightly better. I prefer players wearing their teams uniforms for the ASG, but this year I did not mind the design that much. Regardless the Orioles have lots of young talent and are my favorite AL team, it was nice to get a bunch of them in one pack. 

Shohei Ohtani

I have no idea how many Ohtani cards are in Series 3 but picking up a trio in a blaster feels pretty strong. \

The bottom right card is from a new insert called "All Class". I don't get it, but if I am going to get one that is not a Phillies Player Ohtani is solid. The All Class insert falls at a rate of 1:32 for blasters.

The HR Record Card will go into my game dated binder. The Trout Shared card will go into the Versus collection (2 teams repped on one card)

Retro and Game Dated Cards

Couple of 1989 Retro-Selfies. Big Day in the Volpe Household when he gets to share a room with Willie Mays. Anthony Rizzo is destined for the Game Dated Binder. Ronel Blanco joins one of my favorite collections No-Hitter Cards! 

2024 Update Blaster Review

The Highs of the Blaster was getting a Paul Skenes Card (see Monday's Post), a couple of Ohtani's, a bunch of Orioles and I will also admit I kinda liked the Jack-O-Lanterns Insert. A number of singles will go towards special collections. 

Lows: No Justin Topa card which was #1 on my wish list, and only one Phillies Card. 

There are 2 cards I haven't covered yet one is the Phillies Card (which is a Low) and one is of a Hall of Famer - a high. 

So Mixed bag some fun inserts, but no Topa and a dud Phillie. 

Sources and Links

Topps

Twins Reliever Justin Topa Ripping Packs at Wheelhouse Cards

On Monday I mentioned I was looking for Justin Topa cards in my s3 Blaster. 

Why would I, a Phillies fan, care about a reliever that has never played for the Phillies?

Well the IG post below sort of explains why I was seeking a Justin Topa card in this box. 

Topa is an MLB reliever that is also a card collector. Last Friday HE WAS IN MY LOCAL CARD SHOP OPENING CARDS. I happened to be there that same day, but I was there prior to Topa - who I believe dropped in unannounced. The Cards in this blaster review were all picked up that day. 

Here is a link to the Instagram -> Justin Topa at Wheelhouse Cards

Justin Topa with his Card

Topa opened at least two boxes and in the IG post you get to see his reaction to getting his own first card. He also gets another pretty good hit as well.

Great to see Justin Topa is a card collector that also comes out and supports local card shops. 

Sources

Wheelhouse Cards.