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Friday, July 12, 2019

Tino is in 2019 A&G!

Yesterday, I took a quick peek at the 2019 Allen & Ginter checklist that was released by Topps. A&G is by far my least favorite set each year, even more than Big League, but I did want to see what Yankees were in the set. I was glad to see that Adam Ottavino is included, for example. And equally happy to see that there was no Jacoby Ellsbury card. For some reason, Topps still seems to think Yankee fans want Ellsbury cards. I can assure you that, even for the season he was healthy, no one did.

But I was shocked, and I say SHOCKED, when I saw card #300 on the 2019 checklist: TINO MARTINEZ - NY YANKEES.

I don't know if this is certain, but my hunch is that Tino didn't have a Topps contract for awhile, but that has changed. For starters, he was left out of 2017 Topps Home Run Derby Champs insert set. How else can you leave out the undisputed 1997 Derby champ?!

I'm sure many non-Yankee fans will gripe. Why do we need to keep seeing El Duque and Paul O'Neill in our sets?! Because Topps makes money from old dudes buying cards, and including more Yankees = more sales. Simple really. Tino isn't a star, and is probably better reserved if another "Fan Favorites" set ever comes out. Regardless, I don't care what others will think, especially with some of the garbage that is usually included in the A&G checklist. If Tino takes the place of a base card of a hot dog eater or an entrepreneur, then I am for it. Many find those cards charming. I find them annoying.

Side note - I do enjoy the look of A&G. That's never my issue. And they look great signed! They serve as excellent TTM fodder. Like this:
Anyways, I'm wondering if this will start a run of Tino being included in various Topps sets. He was a redemption in 2019 Bowman for the 30th anniversary buyback autos, and now has a base card in A&G. It wouldn't surprise me to see him start popping up in Archives and the likes.

Will it make me buy more Ginter? Well, I'll probably buy a blaster because it'll be fun to pull a Tino from a pack in 2019. So, in short, yes. But I won't go overboard, as I'm sure a few copies will find their way to me even if I didn't buy a single pack.

But at least this did one thing: got me excited about a 2019 release, which is saying something.
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6 comments:

  1. FujiJuly 12, 2019 at 11:49 PM

    Congratulations! The good news is there are plenty of bloggers who will bust A&G blasters who know where to send their Tino's. I'm sure you'll have a 9-pocket page filled up by 2020.

    ReplyDelete
  2. night owlJuly 13, 2019 at 1:12 AM

    It's too bad you don't like Big League, it's my favorite set released this year. I've always been an A&G fan although it's getting more and more lame with the non-baseball jokers they pick (used to be a lot better). And I'm one of those collectors annoyed by all the "medium retired stars" that show up in this product, but I spread it around to other teams, not just the Yankees.

    So I guess what I'm saying is I agree with like 5 percent of your post. But good on the Tino!

    ReplyDelete
  3. P-town TomJuly 13, 2019 at 9:31 AM

    I hope you video tape your opening of teh blaster of A&G and then post the video to Twitter when you pull the Tino card. (You know, kind of like what Gary V. did when he pulled his own card.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Zippy ZappyJuly 13, 2019 at 12:06 PM

    I dare you to go after the rainbow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Collecting CutchJuly 15, 2019 at 8:57 PM

    Good for Tino fans getting some new cards to collect. I am excited to see AJ Burnett appear in the set (even though he's pictured as a Marlin) and am hoping for some buyback autos of AJ in future products.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Defenders50July 16, 2019 at 1:51 PM

    Ooh, going to have to get me one of these. I don't pay attention to A&G that much, so I'm glad you caught this.

    ReplyDelete