Opening Day Eve Card Shop visit

With the Phillies taking on the Nationals tomorrow for Opening day 2025, I stopped by my local card shop for some cards to go through during the game which is set for a 4:05 start.

• 2021 Topps Update 1992 Redux Bryce Harper – Came with a bundle which I will get into more tomorrow
• 1977 Topps – Big League Brothers George Brett & Ken Brett
• 1977 Topps – Nolan Ryan – Record Breaker – Most Seasons 300 or more strikeouts
• 1991 Upper Deck – Baseball Heroes – #10 to #18

Other pickups are wax/grab bag based which I’ll open tomorrow during the game. For the full season I was toying with the idea of opening a pack a game, and scanning the cards. This led me down a path of going on Blowout and looking to buy more packs just to have enough, and I realized that doesn’t align with the idea of the collection.

Finding Focus

While today’s pickups aren’t following the perfect path of the collection, we’re trying to focus on only collecting Phillies cards, and building an online catalog of the entire collection. When I was in the shop, I absolutely had to have the Bryce Harper 1992 card, and the 1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes was a throwback and a great deal which brought back a huge wave of nostalgia for me. What I was able to do is stay focused on the vintage off-condition cards, except the George Brett & Nolan Ryan cards. So for now, we’re focusing on Phillies cards, for the most part, with some rare exceptions.

Opening Day Phillies vs Nationals

The Phillies are walking into this season in a new situation with the fanbase. Growing tired of the last two disastrous postseasons with early exits, the fans have grown borderline apathetic. The 2024 NL East Champions are going to have an interesting reaction upon raising the flag on opening day, when in the very next round they failed to compete against the Mets. I am hopeful, I am a die-hard fan, but also realize that this configuration of this team has never dealt with traditional Philadelphia sports fans who are fed up with mediocrity from the highest paid players. The team has had a love affair with the city of Philadelphia up until this point, now we have broken hearted fans waiting to invest their hearts into the team until they can see a reason to believe. They don’t want to get hurt again.

The city, fresh off a DOMINATING Superbowl victory, will put it’s eyes on the Philadelphia Phillies this Opening Day, and as national pundits are declaring the Phillies as a major contender for the World Series, that comes with the sense of urgency because “the window is closing”. The other window that is closing is the patience of the fans to be put through 162 games only to have their hopes dashed as wild swings out of the zone. The Phillies approach to left handed pitching makes every starting pitcher look like Cy Young. Coupled with that, the unreliable bullpen, the source of the last 3 years of failures in the postseason, and the lack of big moves in the offseason and the city can feel the window closing around them.

Manager Change?

Personally, I look to the late 70s, stars on the Phillies but they were underperforming as a team. This may be Rob Thompson’s last year as a manager, and if so, the right pick could light a fire under them to carry the next season to the World Series. Dallas Green came in and really did what it took to get every ounce of competition out of that team, and the road to the 1980 World Series demanded everything they had. This is where I see the 2025 Philadelphia Phillies, and the entire world is saying prove us wrong. The team has apparently heard that, and the question is will they respond.

More cards to come tomorrow!