2021 trade package #10: Topps Cards That Never Were

Baseball is back, bay-bee! The Tigers kicked off the season with a traditional home opener, which meant a sell-out crowd (if not a full stadium, thankfully) braving freezing temps and snow. Miggy homered, John's guy Matt Boyd pitched well, Paul's guy JaCoby Jones knocked in the game-winning run, and the bullpen mostly combined to not sabotage the lead. All in all it was a nice way to open up the month and the season--no foolin'!

Since I'm in a celebrating mood I'll mark the occasion with my latest trade package, a single-card PWE from Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were, who's enjoying weather that's much more my style. That seems very appropriate to me since we both root for and collect the Tigers, plus his other favorite team, the Rays, signed my favorite player, Rich Hill, so we'll have him in common as well.

This is the fourth time he's sent me an envelope and I was happy to see it in my mailbox since he's done a great job of picking out stuff for me in the past. Plus I was thrilled it meant the minimum amount of work since I only had one thing to scan!

As Cap would say, "I understood that reference!" The last time he sent me cards, the first trade envelope of 2021, one of the items was a 2020 Topps Update Rainbow Foil parallel of a certain guy I collect whose name is in this here blog's title. I appreciate the promise of possibly including a Series 2 card next time!

Don't be fooled by the goofy scan, this is indeed a Rainbow Foil card, not some weird experimental purple parallel! As in years past the whole card has that reflective foil look, and this year's return of borders also aids in telling parallels apart.

And yes, it stars one of my favorite guys to collect in Verlander, a guy who's no stranger to opening day. While with the Tigers he was the pitcher in game #1 from 2008-2014 plus 2016 and 2017. Detroit went 6-3 in those games while Justin's record was 3-1 when earning the decision.

Unfortunately his TJ surgery rules him out for most if not all of 2021. Neither that nor the fact that he hasn't been with the Tigers since 2017 will dampen my enthusiasm for picking up new cards of him like this one, though. Oddly enough I don't have the base version yet since the one I recently got from Kerry was an SP. I have no problem starting things off with something shiny, of course!

Here's the back with a crazy 16 years worth of JV's stats. If you excise his cup-of-coffee 2005 season and super abbreviated 2020, his average campaign comes to a 16-9 record with a 3.31 ERA and 214 strikeouts, plus a bWAR of 5.2 (and HOF-affirming total of 72.3). And just look at all those times he led the league in one or more stats!

Jeremy, thanks again for the fun surprise addition to my many Verlanders by continuing the rainbow streak! Whenever I can get to a card show after getting vaccinated I'll make sure to gather up a few nice things to send back your way. In the meantime I hope Rich Hill and your Rays have you celebrating too.