Author Archives: Matthew Lug - Page 3

The Politics of Losing

Posted by on 2 April 2018 Comments Off on The Politics of Losing

Eat shift or die trying

Taking “April Fools’ Day” a bit too far, Brian Dozier criticized Chance Sisco yesterday for bunting for a hit down 6 runs in the 9th inning. Believing he had the moral high ground, Dozier felt confident that the Orioles’ veteran leadership would set the offending player straight.

In the end, the only one needing to be set straight was Dozier himself. In a sport where failing to run out a fly ball can get you benched and watching a home run just a bit too long can get you plunked, the unwritten rule about not trying win with the odds stacked against you seems a bit out of place. And in this case, criticism seems even more unwarranted considering that the player in question was bunting to get around a shift; clearly, the other team was doing everything they could to get him out, so why shouldn’t he do everything in his power to get on base? Not playing to the best of your ability is the ultimate disrespect in sports. That message seems to have been lost somewhere.

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2018 Mets Card Spring Preview

Posted by on 1 March 2018 Comments Off on 2018 Mets Card Spring Preview

Low expectations all around

The Super Bowl is a distant memory, the Olympics are over, and the snow is melting (tomorrow’s bomb cyclone notwithstanding). Baseball’s back! Down south at least. There’s still another month until games that count, but Topps already has two 2018 releases out the door and we more or less know who will be on the Mets to start the season. As to how the team will do this year… They’ll have some cards, so let’s just see what to expect on that front.

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2017 Biggest Pulls: 1-5

Posted by on 12 January 2018 Comments Off on 2017 Biggest Pulls: 1-5

Best year ever? You be the Judge.

It took all week, but we’ve finally gotten to the best of the bunch.  In 2016, I struggled to come up with five cards to showcase.  In 2017, we had 45 cards to get through before the top 5.  You can’t predict baseball… cards?  Here we go…

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2017 Biggest Pulls: 6-12

Posted by on 11 January 2018 Comments Off on 2017 Biggest Pulls: 6-12

So many big hits, but we’re far from finished

38 cards in, you might be feeling some fatigue. But these last 12 are worth the wait. In a normal year, any one of them could be a legitimate best card of the year. But in 2017, 11 of them fell short. If you’ve ever followed a big case breaker, you would know that hits like this typically fall much less than one per case. Prior to 2017, I had pulled a total of 15 cards that would fit in this range. And while only one of 2017’s hits would (barely) crack my top 5, the sheer quantity of this level of quality is unprecedented in my decades of collecting. And that has me worried.

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2017 Biggest Pulls: 13-20

Posted by on 10 January 2018 Comments Off on 2017 Biggest Pulls: 13-20

Fading favorites and a star on the rise

Not long ago, I commented on the contrast between my fortunes in 2017 and 2016 on Twitter.

And, with the best card I pulled in 2016 selling for just $30, this is indeed the case. It took one last big score from a case break to do it, but I pulled 20 cards in 2017 that topped my best from 2016. And now you get to read about each and every one of them! Settle in, this might take a while…

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2017 Biggest Pulls: 21-32

Posted by on 9 January 2018 Comments Off on 2017 Biggest Pulls: 21-32

Most of the Mets

Now we get to the fun stuff. The $20-30 range is where you’ll find your expectation-level hits. As in, this is usually the best you can expect to get from a box. Now, when you’re spending $60-100 per box, you’re sure hoping for something at least this good to be in there. But all too often you’ll get a 99 cent “hit” and a base card will be the prize of the box. Enjoy it when these fall regularly, even though they won’t make back half of the price of the box.

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