If You Build It, They Will Come

 Its been a few weeks now, but 2023 Topps Series I is out and its time to find the Iowa Connections.  Connections include players born in Iowa, played semi-pro ball in Iowa, played for a club team in Iowa, or played in the Field of Dreams game.  #95 Jonah Bride - Waterloo Bucks #97 Brandon Hughes - Field of Dreams Game #128 Alec Bohm - Iowa Select Black #T88-92 Ryne Sandberg - Iowa Cubs Manager BSA-AP A.J. Puk - Cedar Rapids BSA-DD Dane Dunning - Waterloo Bucks #97 SSP Brandon Hughes - Field of Dreams Game #120 SSP Patrick Wisdom - Field of Dreams Game #54 SSP Marcus Stroman - Field of Dreams Game #183 SSP Seiya Suzuki - Field of Dreams Game #308 SSP Christopher Morel - Field of Dreams Game #33 SSP Kyle Farmer - Field of Dreams Game

 So last year, I wrote about the Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and Yankees, and spent a majority of the time complaining about MLB's issues with Iowa.  For those unaware, MLB.tv have a tough record with the state of Iowa and blacking out a large slice of their games every day due to every team that reasonable can claim Iowa has claimed Iowa in their viewing area.  (Once again, who wouldn't take Iowans if they could!) This year, the Cubs take on the Reds on Thursday at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville.  Its a matchup that looked good on paper before the teams decided this year didn't count, but it is still going to be fun to watch.  Game is on Fox and replayed on Fox Sports early the next morning. What's more important is that I have more Field of Dreams cards to collect next year!  This year across flagship set and in some other sets, Topps has inserted images from that game last year.  Some are easily accessible like the Craig Kimbrel f...

So I managed to eventually find some 2022 Topps Series 1 in the wild, but was unable to find a single Franco base in any of my purchases.  No worries, life goes on. Now Series 2 has arrived, and the hunt begins again.  There are four Iowa Connections in this set.  They are: #411 Dane Dunning - Waterloo Bucks #500 Eloy Jimenez - Field of Dreams Game And the short prints... #466b Ryne Sandberg - Iowa Cubs Manager #565b Ozzie Smith - Clarinda A's In Series 1, there are 21 versions of each card (I missed Purple in my earlier post).  I count 18 currently for Series 2, with Memorial Day Camo, Vintage Stock and Advanced Stats not currently listed in TCDB. Not Going to Happen Platinum /1 Printing Plate Black /1 Printing Plate Cyan /1 Printing Plate Magenta /1 Printing Plate Yellow /1  Not Likely to Happen Black /71 Father's Day Powder Blue /50 Independence Day /76 Mother's Day Hot Pink /50 Maybe? Green Foilboard /499 Orange Foilboard /299 Red Foilboard /199 I can d...

 I can't resist the corn cards...I mean other than the fact that Topps keeps putting them in their products (yay!), makes them short-printed (um...) and then they are super expensive and I get none of them (wah!).  (Stated odds: Base SSP - 1:3,614 packs) No matter, I will still add them to my want list.  Which brings me to 2022 Topps Gypsy Queen, with two Iowa Connections plus the 10 Field of Dreams short prints. #11 Dane Dunning - Waterloo Bucks #65 Zach McKinstry - Waterloo Bucks #6 Aaron Judge - Field of Dreams Game #9 Giancarlo Stanton - Field of Dreams Game #144 D.J. LeMahieu - Field of Dreams Game #155 Jose Abreu - Field of Dreams Game #163 Eloy Jimenez - Field of Dreams Game #174 Luis Robert - Field of Dreams Game #180 Andrew Vaughn - Field of Dreams Game #202 Brett Gardner - Field of Dreams Game #248 Joey Gallo - Field of Dreams Game #280 Tim Anderson - Field of Dreams Game

 Listen, I'm also done talking about 2022 Topps Series One.  Everyone has posted their hits ... except me who has still yet to find a pack/box in the wild yet.  However, I keep finding Iowa Connections to this set and I can't let all 5 of my blog follower miss out on the important details. To recap, Mitch Keller is the only solid Iowa Connection in the main checklist.  4 players from the White Sox and Yankees have short print versions with Iowa Corn as the backdrop.  Now, I have discovered an Iowa Corn cameo card: Craig Kimbrel in action card during the Field of dreams game last year.  That is definately the Field of Dreams field there.  Scanning the rest of the Yankees and White Sox cards in the set, I do not see any others, but this will be something to track in Series Two. Now when adding a player, its always interesting to see how many parallels there are.  In the 80s there would be two versions: Base and Tiffany.  1991 you added Desert S...

 I've spent the last week being inundated with pictures of everyone's hauls from their Series One breaks, and I regret to say that I have yet to see anyone post their Mitch Keller pulls, which means he must be one heck of a hard pull.  Not like that Frank Wander guy, everyone seems to have pulled him.  Must be overproduced.  I have yet to find a box, but to be fair I've only been out once since they came out so I'm not surprised.  Hopefully today will be the day.  Along with the Mitch Keller hunt, I discovered that Iowa is represented in the SP cards in the set this year.  Sometimes Bob Feller will show up as a SP, but not this year.  This year Topps has cards of its most famous children, its corn.   These are obviously taken from the White Sox / Yankees game last year, because there are the baseball players in the way of the corn.  It looks like they go for about $30 on eBay currently, with Judge being closer to $50.  Seems like a ...