During the summertime, I attend almost one minor league game per month. In May, I visited the Harrisburg Senators on Stephen Strasburg bobblehead night. This weekend I’ll be at the Williamsport Crosscutters as they’re giving out bobbleheads of Rhys Hoskins. Near the end of July I’ll be going back to the Crosscutters for a retro bobblehead. Finally, in August my last bobblehead giveaway will be with the State College Spikes. That one is of former Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter. As you can see, I tend to shoot for games with bobblehead giveaways. Oh yeah! The National Sports Collectors Convention is thrown in there too. Lots of good stuff is coming.
As part of their exclusive with MLB, I believe Topps is required to release at least two MiLB products per year. One being Pro Debut, and the other Heritage Minor League Baseball. Of the two, Pro Debut is my favorite. I believe it reflects the whole minor league experience the best. While participating in the Topps wrapper redemption program during the 2016 National, a Topps employee gave me a Pro Debut logo pin. I thought that was the coolest.
2018 Pro Debut jumps right into the action of minor league baseball. The base set consists of (200) cards. Parallels include Green #’ed/99, Orange #’ed/25, Red #’ed/10, and Black #’ed/1. As you can probably already tell, the 2018 Topps Baseball flagship design carried over. I’m still a fan of this pixelated design. That colorful stripe near the team logo reminds me of AirHeads candy.
The list of photo variations is small compared to it’s major league counterpart. Only (15) players have photo variations. CMP codes are an easy way to find these. Base cards end in #44, whereas photo variations end in #54. Topps actually printed these in bold this time around making them easier to read.
A box of 2018 Pro Debut comes with (2) autographs and (2) relics. My favorite relics from this product has, and always will be the Fragments of the Farm cards. These contain actual pieces of certain minor league stadiums. Many stadiums I’ve been to make it on this checklist. Instead of picturing the actual item the relic is from, this year Topps placed players on these cards. I kinda miss the artifact’s picture like they have used in the past. Using player images probably appeals to more collectors though.
I’d like to see Topps include some retired minor league stars in here. It would be neat to see Hall of Famers in their minor league uniforms. Autographs and relics pertaining to those old teams could be fun. When TRISTAR made Obak, they touched on this. I know for a fact Topps could do it better than TRISTAR. Imagine pulling a Mark McGwire card with a patch from his Huntsville Stars jersey.
Minor league baseball is full of crazy stories. An insert set dedicated to some of those is something else I’d like to see. Have you ever heard of Dave Bresnahan and the Great Potato Caper?
Fans connect with minor league baseball. Not everyone can make it to a major league game. Seeing the team in their backyard get attention can mean a lot. Isn’t having fun and bringing back fond memories what collecting is all about?
Here is what I pulled:
Autos
- Taylor Trammell
- Cristian Pache MiLB Leaps and Bounds #’ed/50
Relics
- Zach Kirtley Fragments of the Farm New York-Penn League Championship Banner from Medlar Field at Lubrano Park
- Ryan Vilade Fragments of the Farm Wall Sign From Sam Suplizio Field
Parallels
- Carter Kieboom MiLB Leaps and Bounds Orange #’ed/25
- Luis Ortiz Green #’ed/99
Inserts
- Fernando Tatis Jr. MiLB Leaps and Bounds
- Scott Kingery MiLB Leaps and Bounds
- Sixto Sanchez MiLB Leaps and Bounds
- Andres Gimenez MiLB Leaps and Bounds
- Eclipse Game Ben’s Biz
- Belly Buster Ben’s Biz
- Susan Mielnik Ben’s Biz
- Steamed Crabs Night Aberdeen Ironbirds Promo Night Uniforms
- Cancer Awareness Night Danville Braves Promo Night Uniforms
- Relay For Life Night Everett Aquasox Promo Night Uniforms
- Breast Cancer Awareness Night Fort Wayne Tincaps Promo Night Uniforms
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2018, baseball, box, break, debut, pro, review, topps | 1 Comment »
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