Jose Reyes releases new music video Vivimo Caro

Jose Reyes hit a whopping .189 for the New York Mets in 2018, so naturally, his next move is to make a music video, right? Reyes has actually been making reggaeton music since 2011 through his El 7 imprint.

Reyes can be seen flaunting some of the $140 million in riches that he's accumulated during his MLB career in the visuals for his new song, "Vivimo Caro."

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The Top 5 Reasons Why 2018 Topps Update Is the Only Set You Need This Year

The release of 2018 Topps Update Baseball completes Topps’ annual flagship set trifecta. With post-season attention squared on Rookies of the Year Ronald Acuña Jr. and Shohei Ohtani, Topps doubles down on their star power with this set. This strong 300-card collection makes a robust case for Topps’ best 2018 issue for these five reasons.

2018 Topps Update / Topps

5) Stellar Photography

It is obvious after reviewing all of this year's Topps products that 2018 Topps Update contains some of Topps’ highest quality action shots. The photography rivals Topps Stadium Club, which is known for its hallmark landscapes.

2018 Topps Update / Topps

4) Mother’s Day / Father’s Day Parallels

What a better way to celebrate Topps’ place in the family with a special nod to all of the parents out there. Limited edition parallels numbered to 50 exist in both Mother’s Day Hot Pink and Father’s Day Powder Blue. The box provided for this review sided with the matriarchs, producing this Javier Baez Home Run Derby Mother’s Day Hot Pink Parallel.

2018 Topps Update Javier Baez Mother's Day Parallel / Topps

3) Crisply Designed Inserts

This 1983 Topps 35th anniversary and Topps Salute series lead the way for 2018 Topps Update’s inserts, continuing the tradition of Topps Series 1 and 2 releases earlier this year. The International Affair and Storybook Endings inserts are new to this release, both providing interesting facts on foreign-born players, as well as those who had a fond farewell in their final MLB season.

2018 Topps Update Inserts / Topps

2) Guaranteed Autographs and Relics (One Per Box)

With 17 different signature series and 7 patch / relic variations, 2018 Topps Update has a boastful assortment of signatures and relics that will keep collectors ripping open packs in search of the next big hit. This review box yielded an attractive Gleyber Torres All-Star Stitches relic.

2018 Topps Update Gleyber Torres Relic / Topps

1) A Coveted Rookie Lineup

This set has all of the top 2018 rookies together minted in the traditional Topps flagship design. Rookie cards of award winners Acuña Jr. and Ohtani, as well as Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres, populate the set. These four upstarts are featured twice, once with their rookie cards, and again on their MLB debut cards.

2018 Topps Update Rookies / Topps

As if these five reasons aren’t enough incentive to get on the bandwagon, an entire hobby box delivered a complete base set among the myriad of inserts and parallels. With prices hovering around $60, Topps creates both an exceptional value and experience for 2018 Topps Update Baseball.

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2018 Topps Gold Label Review and Box Break - Topps hits gold with their framed autographs

Collectors looking to follow the postseason gold rush will set their next destination for the hobby-only 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball. The product's signature gold framed autographed and relic cards create a premium piece worth chasing.

2018 Topps Gold Label

2018 Topps Gold Label Base Set

The base set contains 300 cards, each 100-card series organized in a tiered system. The three tiers (Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3) are differentiated by their label and their image variety. The Class 1 cards are the most abundant and increase in scarcity as they ascend in the system.

2018 Topps Gold Label Base Cards / Topps

One box guarantees 35 cards, which puts set collectors far away from a base set. With the three different classes for the base set, collectors are going to have to think hard about whether pursuing a base set is a challenge they want this off-season.

2018 Topps Gold Label Parallels

Each series has four colored parallels (Black, Blue, Red, and Gold). These inserts become harder to find by class, with the odds sharply decreasing as between Class 1 and Class 3. The parallel odds are listed below.

2018 Topps Gold Label Parallels / Cardboard Connection

While the image variations and designs will attract collectors, the true gems in 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball are the framed autographs. They are guaranteed one per box and have limited edition parallels that add even more value to a desirable product.

2018 Topps Gold Label Chris Sale Red Parallel / Topps

2018 Topps Gold Label Autographs and Relics

Topps gives collectors a ready-made collectible by framing their autographed cards. The thick gold border creates a card that demands a display, not one destined for a binder like most traditional signed trading cards. The box provided for this review uncovered both a Scott Kingery rookie framed autograph and a Lewis Brinson blue parallel autograph redemption.

The relics are even harder to find, with their Golden Greats Autographed Relics and MLB Legends Relics all numbered to 75 or less. Lucky collectors will rejoice in finding a black (#/5) or gold (1/1) parallel.

After opening a box of 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball, it is apparent that the framed autographs will be the key driver of interest to this product. One question that collectors will have to answer is if they want to hold on to the base set. The images are crisp, and player collectors will enjoy the variations; however, the prospect of opening ten or more boxes to complete a set will send the average collector to the secondary market.

Despite the challenges of finishing the base set, 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball ranks highly among Topps' guaranteed hit products and is worth checking out a box or two for the framed autographs alone.

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The Top 5 Books About Baseball During World War II

As we celebrate Veterans Day across the country, here is a look at the top five books about baseball during World War II. At a time when our entire nation was focused on the war, President Roosevelt ordered the game to continue for the morale of citizens everywhere. These five books illuminate the efforts to preserve the game on the home front, as well as the experiences of those who traded their baseball uniforms for military ones.

5) Bluejackets of Summer: The History of the Great Lakes Naval Baseball Team 1942-1945

Roger Gogan’s “Bluejackets of Summer,” details the Great Lakes Naval Baseball team, a unit so strong that it was often referred to as the “17th Major League team.” The Great Lakes Naval Station hosted an array of All-Star talent from 1942-1945, led by Hall of Fame manager Mickey Cochrane. The team included Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Johnny Mize, and Pee Wee Reese, as well as All-Stars Schoolboy Rowe, Virgil Trucks, and Dom DiMaggio.

4) Hardball on the Home Front: Major League Replacement Players of World War II

When the draft took many of the major leaguers from their teams, players who were exempt from service stepped up to the plate. These included teenagers such as Joe Nuxhall and Tommy Brown, as well as post-retirement forty-somethings Babe Herman and Clyde Sukeforth. Craig Allen Cleve interviewed nine wartime baseball players for "Hardball on the Home Front," who generously shared their experiences playing baseball after President Roosevelt ordered Judge Landis to keep baseball going.

3) The Game Must Go On: Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and the Great Days of Baseball on the Home Front in WWII

When President Roosevelt made his decree, players mulled the decision to enlist (before they were drafted) or to stay home and play. Author John Klima penned “The Game Must Go On,” to tell the story of American baseball during World War II - of both the players who left to join the war and the ones who kept the game alive stateside. Klima provides a deep look at the stars that left and the players like one-armed Pete Gray, who fought to inspire others on the field. The book finishes with the 1945 pennant race where Gray’s St. Louis Browns fought mightily to upstage Hank Greenberg’s Detroit Tigers.

2) The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

Moe Berg was a major league catcher for 19 seasons, but his true fame came for his work as a spy during World War II. The Office of Strategic Services sent Berg to investigate Germany’s Atomic Bomb developments. After the war, he helped draw European scientists to the United States. The President awarded Berg the Presidential Medal of Freedom; however, he refused to accept the honor. Author Nicholas Dawidoff digs deeply into the mysterious life of one of baseball’s enigmas with "The Catcher Was a Spy."

1) The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie

Lou Brissie was an All-Star pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1949, but his road to stardom was marred with hurdles unlike any other major leaguer has ever faced. To call Brissie's experience in the war remarkable would be an understatement. Life changed drastically for Brissie on December 7, 1944. While serving in Italy, an artillery shell exploded on his squad leaving him for dead with his left leg tattered from the explosion. Doctors wanted to amputate, but Brissie pleaded with them to save his injured appendage.

“The Corporal Was a Pitcher,” is an intense look at the horrors of war, as Brissie waited over sixty-years to tell the painful details of the carnage he witnessed while he managed his own suffering.

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Ron Negray, pitcher in the first ever Los Angeles Dodgers game, dies at 88

Ron Negray, a former pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers, passed away November 8, 2018, in Akron, Ohio after a brief illness. He was 88.

Negray signed with the Dodgers in 1949 after briefly attending Kent State University. Although only 19 in his debut season, he looked like an experienced veteran with a 21-6 record for Class D Valdosta. Over the next three years, Negray battled his way up the crowded ranks of Brooklyn’s farm system en route to the major leagues.

Ron Negray / Author's Collection

The Dodgers finally reached for Negray once their roster expanded in September 1952. Fresh off an 11-7 performance with their Triple-A club in St. Paul, Negray entered a Brooklyn clubhouse anonymous to a Hall of Fame roster.

“The first day I came to Brooklyn, I came in during the morning,” Negray recalled during a 2008 phone interview his Ohio home. “We were playing Cincinnati and Charlie Dressen told me to go to the bullpen. Nobody even knew me; I wasn't even introduced to anybody.”

Negray's anonymous September 14, 1952 debut

After the Reds chased starter Johnny Rutherford, Dressen summoned Negray to start the fourth inning. Hidden among the throng of September call-ups, his Brooklyn teammates met Negray with surprise as he approached the mound. (Ed. Note – Some names were corrected from Negray’s recall of the following events.)

“I went in relief in about the 4th inning," he said. "Campanella [Rube Walker] came up and said, 'Who are you?' I said, 'Well, I'm Ron Negray.' Gil Hodges came up and asked if I was in the right ballpark. Campanella [Walker] then asked me if I knew the scoreboard signs. I said, ‘What scoreboard?’ They worked signs off the scoreboard, but I didn't know what he was talking about, because we didn't have that in St. Paul. That broke everybody up.”

After pitching a scoreless frame, he returned for the fifth to stare down the power-hitting Ted Kluszewski. With his bulging biceps exposed by his cut-off sleeves, Big Klu cut an intimidating figure just by standing in the batter’s box.

“He looked like Man Mountain Dean,” he said. “I guess Campanella [Walker] must have told him I threw really hard. The first pitch I threw him a change of pace, a low slow ball, and he popped it up. He cursed Campanella [Walker] because he must have told him I threw really hard.”

Negray left the game unscathed, hurling three clean innings in relief. He made another three appearances for the Dodgers down the stretch, pitching 13 innings without a decision.

Jackie Robinson's special gesture

As the Dodgers rejoiced for yet another opportunity to play in the World Series, the team skipped over Negray when they distributed watches to celebrate their National League victory. One teammate however, went out of his way to ensure that Negray felt like one of the regulars.

“When we won the pennant, they gave out watches,” he said. “Since I came up and I was a low-life rookie, I was the last man and didn't get a watch. Jackie [Robinson] came over and gave me his watch. He said, ‘You could have my watch.’ I gave it to my dad and I don't know what happened to it. … We talked a lot of baseball. He told me what I should and shouldn't do.”

After his sip of big league coffee, Negray stayed in the Dodgers minor league system until he was traded midseason in 1955 to the Philadelphia Phillies. He spent the remainder of 1955 and the entire 1956 campaign with Philadelphia on their big league roster.

The Dodgers reacquired Negray in 1957 as part of the Chico Fernandez trade. While he did not return to the majors for the Dodgers' farewell in Brooklyn, he made history when the team moved to California.

Breaking ground in California

When the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants squared off at Seals Stadium on April 14, 1958, it marked a frontier for baseball’s westward expansion. Both teams left New York to build a new legacy, and Negray made his mark on the inaugural contest. Appearing in relief, he pitched the final two innings in the Dodgers’ 8-0 loss. At the time of his death, he was the last player alive from the Dodgers lineup that groundbreaking day.

The Dodgers sent Negray back to the minors a month later, never again to return to the big leagues. He finished his career in 1963 after 15 seasons in professional baseball.

Negray stayed close to the game by selling uniforms and athletic equipment to local high schools for 34 years until his retirement. His death leaves only 18 living Brooklyn Dodgers alumni.

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