My First 2011 Topps Card

One side effect of The Great Blizz-aster of 2011 here in Chicago was that the local release date for 2011 Topps was delayed.  While the product was supposed to street on February 2, it was kind of hard to get any cards over to Target and Wal-Mart if the trucks couldn’t make it into the city.

So, we waited.

Checked a Target only to find nothing.

And we waited.

Checked a Wal-Mart out by work only to find nothing.

And we waited.

Checked more Targets only to find nothing.

And of course we checked the blogs to see what kind of fun everyone else.  Like being sick on a snow day, all we could do was look out our window to see all the other kids sledding and building snow forts.  While everyone was posting about how they were SURE their fellow bloggers were completely sick of 2011 Topps and were struggling to find anything else to write about, we were busy soaking it all up hoping for more new packs to vicariously rip.

I, personally, was going stir crazy.  Ebay became the only outlet.  And that is how I came to acquire my first 2011 Topps card.

About to throw the ball and knock over all the chairs "saving" parking spots

Yes, here’s our new $20 Million closer in all his low-numbered parallel glory.  I know I’ll be seeing plenty of this card in the coming year with all the variations and parallels and whatnots, so it better be a damn good picture.  Luckily for me, it is.

Just look at the way Marmol is staring down the poor sucker about to feel the wrath of the deadly slider.  The shadows from his cap give him that extra bit of evil.

Not a bad way to start off the year, if you ask me.

By the way, don’t feel too bad for us.  That same day I tried Target again and finally found a pretty fresh vendor box, a couple blasters and some rack packs.  We’ll have a better, closer look at the full thing soon.  Only 2 weeks too late.

You all have probably moved on to 2012 Topps by now, huh?