A week after Jake Arrieta threw his second career no-hitter, he also earned his second card from this set, though this one a little more bittersweet. Streaks can be quite awesome...until they end. And that's what today's card shows, the end of a streak.
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| 2016 Topps Now #40 Jake Arrieta |
The back of the card describes the feat as well as I could:
It had been 10 months since Jake Arrieta had allowed an earned run at Wrigley Field. Granted there was an offseason in there but that is still a long time. And to add to his overall dominance, note that his two no-hitters in that stretch were both on the road!
There were only 365 of these cards produced, a huge drop from his no-hitter card last week, ranking it among the lowest of the Cubs cards produced. This one has increased significantly on the secondary market having sold for 4-5x its original value recently and the current cheapest one listed is $75.
The Cubs enter tonight's game at 12-9, with the 4th best record in the National League and a one game lead over the Brewers atop the National League Central. They have outscored their opponents by 20 runs. This time last year, the Cubs had the best record in the MLB, with a 15-5 record and a 3 game lead over the Pirates and a +69 run differential.
This is card #40 from the 2016 set and Topps has more than doubled that this year. Cards ending today are numbers 86 and 87, not to mention the cards that will go up for sale for yesterday's and today's games.
So what you're saying is that Topps saw how much money they made so they doubled up production?
ReplyDeleteI am still amazed at how much some of these sell for on the after market especially the Liriano from last year.
Pretty much. And I haven't done an exact comparison, but the print runs seem down compared to last year so maybe overall it comes out a wash.
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