10 Padres appear in 2017 Topps Series 1 Baseball

This isn’t exactly timely, since it has already been eight days since Topps Series 1 was released, but it’s new to me since I haven’t really been keeping up to date on new baseball cards lately. The last time I bought any baseball cards was when I ordered ten fairly scarce Joey Cora cards late last year; the time before was about a month earlier when I ordered thirty-some Joey Cora cards. Point being, current cards are an afterthought to me, and I’ll probably only get around to having any 2017 Topps in hand when I add the following commons to my cart the next time I’m clearing a card site out of all of, yes, their Joey Cora cards.

24 - Christian Friedrich

92 - Derek Norris

114 - Colin Rea

124 - Travis Jankowski

125 - Yangervis Solarte

138 - Tyson Ross

143 - Nick Noonan

184 - Oswaldo Arcia

192 - Team card

264 - Cory Spangenberg

333 - Jarred Cosart

Cardboard Connection has the full checklist, along with full insert checklists.

Norris, Ross, Noonan, and Arcia are already gone, but I’ll make a note to get Noonan and Arcia’s cards to have as documents of their brief stays. I don’t collect every Padres card of every Padres player ever, but I do like to have at least one of each.

One name that is notably absent is Wil Myers, but worry not; he appears in 13 insert sets in Series 1. Hunter Renfroe, whose base card will also be waiting ‘til Series 2 to see the light of day, has two insert cards, both of which are certified autographs.

While I haven’t purchased any 2017 Topps yet, I have seen the cards online and like them well enough. The photography is great, nearly Stadium Club caliber, and while the base card design isn’t going to go down as a classic, I’ve seen worse. My friend Tom got a box this past weekend and pulled nine of the eleven Padres base cards, along with 1987 Topps 30th Anniversary inserts of Wil Myers and bench coach Mark McGwire.

My favorite insert series is one that Myers appears in, but the cards are as scarce as scarce gets. It’s this year’s edition of “In The Name” in which each card contains a letter from the actual All-Star workout jersey worn by that player the year before. 2017’s are especially beautiful thanks to the brown, orange, and gold jerseys, as well as the frames of the cards.

There are two insert sets of MLB Network personalities, which low-key infuriates me because now I really wish they came out with this a couple years ago when Joey Cora worked there. On the other hand, Cora’s 1988 Topps card is one that was included in the stamped buyback set Rediscover Topps. As a completist, these buyback cards are a nuisance. They create a new card to chase out of one that already exists, and manufacture scarcity out of thin air. Still, whether I like it or not, I’m committed to getting every Cora card I can, even if that means shelling out for foil-stamped copies of a card of which I have 64 plain copies, one autographed copy, and one test pressing. It’s not entirely unlike being a junkie.