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Justin Herbert #104

Rookie Ticket Auto. (Team Helmet) PSA 10

Hold up.

Pause.

What was that?

A rerun?

Because it sure looked like a Seattle kid ran away with the Home Run Derby ratings again.

The stars assembled and midsummer storylines ran rampant but the spotlight couldn’t dodge that 21-yearold Mariners outfielder with the requisite smile and swagger to properly channel the primetime energy of Ken Griffey Jr. deep into the bleachers.

A spin-off, perhaps. But this ain’t a rerun.

Things got interesting at the 2022 Home Run Derby. A celebrity-packed venue in Dodger Stadium. Pujols crushing a final few on his way to the Hall. Elephanton-the-field-sized Juan Soto trade drama. And though the latter would go on to win the exhibition, it was Julio Rodriguez who stole the scene with 81 reasons to tune in next year.

Yes, the reviews are in: Seattle has another smash hit in the lineup, and while The J-Rod Show has been coined and greenlit for 14 seasons, it’s the all-important sophomore effort that finds collectors musing, dreaming and ultimately buying. After all, when it comes to prestige entertainment, Season 2 can be a make-or-break moment. For every universe-expanding Breaking Bad arc, there’s a jump-the-shark True Detective debacle.

Concerning a stellar rookie class that premiered in 2022, this is when all the good questions swirl. Is golden-locked Adley Ruschman the next great backstop? Could mustachioed Spencer Strider snag the Cy Young? Will Bobby Witt Jr. join the 30-30 club? Are fans and hobbyists of the Griffey era just nostalgic for the next Mariners great or is Julio Rodriguez the next true MLB star? Most importantly, what card do I hunt?

“It’s been a long wait for that first flagship SSP,” said collector Chris Parsons, better known on Instagram as @baseballcardaddict. Consider him and Jeff Boehm, aka @myfavoritecardboard, part of J-Rod’s captive audience, as well as co-hosts of their own weekly baseball card-obsessed show on Instagram Live. The collectors share more than screen time and a zip code; they also go in on cards together. When the cast of Topps Series 2 was announced, the hunt was on.

“There’s an absolute ocean of 2022 Julio Rodriguez rookies, so we wanted something that hits with historical precedence, rarity, and recognition — either the Topps flagship image or an attentiongrabbing variation, think Juan Soto’s Gatorade Bath [#US300] or Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s with Ball [#US1] from 2019 Topps Update.”

Perceiving a dilution dilemma in Topps Chrome and quality control issues in Chrome Update — “we’ve landed a rover on Mars but we can’t center a Topps Chrome baseball card?” — the duo landed on Topps’ flagship product and decided to chase the Update SSP featuring a guest appearance from Ichiro. “A Mariners legend is tossing the first pitch to the franchise's future. What’s not to love?”

But everyone has a plan until they get rocked by a sudden listing. An hour after a Topps flagship Black parallel appeared on eBay, the card was theirs. “It’s a perfect storm of history, rarity, image recognition and condition sensitivity. It’s everything a collector could want in a rookie card,” added Parsons.

“And it just looks cool.”

Yeah, it’d better look cool. And it’d better call out The J-Rod Show in all its baseball-clubbing, customshades-reflecting, Mariners-torch-bearing glory. Card that energy, capture that charisma, and queue Season 2.

It’s too easy to typecast coveted baseball rookie cards as flagship base and Bowman 1sts, so save those amateur headshots for another episode. Instead, give us the cards that go off-script with showrunning stars who play into hard-hitting archetypes. Character development, after all, is everything. And every leading man — Julio Rodriquez, in this case — needs a strong supporting cast.