Saturday, March 6, 2021

Spring Training Game 6 - 2021 Topps Project 70 #15 Bryce Harper

Phillies 3
, Pirates 0
Spring Training Game 6 - Friday Afternoon, March 5th in Clearwater
Record - 3-2-1

One Sentence Summary:  Eight Phillies pitchers held the Pirates to two hits and Bryce Harper made his spring debut with a two-run home run in this 3-0 win.

What It Means:  After last season's relief pitching debacle, it was slightly jarring (but incredibly refreshing) to witness seven innings of scoreless relief pitching from the remade bullpen.

What Happened:  Chase Anderson started the game, throwing two perfect innings and striking out three.  The seven relievers that followed combined for 10 more strikeouts against a lifeless Pirates line-up.  Harper homered to the opposite field in his first spring at-bat, and Andrew McCutchen added a solo home run in the fifth.

Featured Card:  Hard to believe, but Harper is already entering his third season with the Phillies.  This is his new Project 70 card, which arrived in the mail yesterday, a few weeks after it had gone on sale on the Topps website.  Throughout the season, Topps will be selling cards produced by various artists depicting a player on one of the company's flagship baseball card set designs from its 70 year history.  This Harper card is supposed to pay tribute to the 1999 Topps set.  To date, there have already been three Phillies represented in the Project 70 set - this Harper card, a McCutchen card (paying tribute to 1959 Topps) and a Mike Schmidt card (paying tribute to 2008 Topps).

I think I like these?  They're definitely different, and after a Phillies-less year with the Topps Project 2020 offering, I'm glad to see the team getting some representation early and often this year.  I'm not sure yet how to store them as they come encased in a think slab with a protective piece of tape across the top.  The cards themselves are super thick, so even if I removed it from the slab it wouldn't fit well into a 9-pocket page.  Anyone have any thoughts on these cards?  Are you collecting them?

Camp Head Count:  73

1 comment:

Steve F. said...

I haven't been keeping up yet this season, Jim, but I just saw this. I have a bunch of Project 2020 cards, and now Project 70, and I keep them in 4-pocket sheets and then in binders (which is how I also store my unopened Topps wax packs from each season--is "wax packs" still a phrase?). I put a small piece of clear tape at the top of each of the two upper slots in each sheet as they are more likely to slide out without tape, compared to the lower two slots, which generally are not as apt to let the card/wax pack slide out.