Soxumentary Update #1

After pondering over what to base my custom Red Sox card set around, I'm presenting not only my idea for the set but a cool name as well; Soxumentary. It combines the idea of the Upper Deck Documentary set but instead uses unique photos and goes into detail about the final results of every Red Sox game, both wins and losses.

Fortunately, the Soxumentary cards I've been creating over the last week have been honoring nothing but wins. Because in case you haven't noticed, the Sox have been playing outstanding baseball, mainly thanks to their pitching staff, Xander Bogaerts, and Hanley Ramirez.

Speaking of Hanley...

He has been featured on multiple Soxumentary cards this week after scoring the winning runs in both games against Miami and their home opener against Tampa Bay on Thursday. He promised back in January to play this season like "Miami Hanley." He certainly did that at Marlins Park by leading them to win 7-3 on Monday...

and a 4-2 win in extra innings on Tuesday when he hit a go-ahead double in the top of the 13th inning. I've been trying to have some variety regarding who I put on the front of each Soxumentary card, but when you have one player that has been performing and winning games at the rate that Hanley has been, it's hard to think of any other player more worthy to be on the cards. Plus, there's still well over 100 games left for other players to get in on the action.

The schedule for the Red Sox has not been too difficult thus far. They opened against Tampa, went to Miami, and are now back home to play the Rays again. Since they had already played Tampa 4 times this season and beat them 3 of the times, they seemed to have the Rays' number going into Thursday's home opener. However, it quickly became a tightly-contested game going into the bottom of the 12th inning.

Once again, Hanley won the game for the Red Sox and gave me the perfect opportunity to show that I'm still going all in for the card backs in order to write interesting yet quick blurbs that do a good job of recapping the games, all of which have been very exciting thus far. The backs aren't my favorite in terms of the design, but they're the only backs that allow for a few sentences to be written. The backs I'm creating contain the game number, the final score, a headline, the game recap, and a fun fact about a star player from the game. I have to say that I really enjoy writing these backs just like I enjoy writing blog posts. This is a bit different, however, as it requires a different writing style than a blog post.

But it was today's game, a thrilling blowout against you guessed it, the Rays (who I'm getting tired of seeing the Sox play) that was, by far, the most entertaining game of the season. For the first time this year, superb starting pitching was matched with the unparalleled offense used to deliver today's win. Typically, the Red Sox either have one or the other, but today we had both.

Xander and Devers hit home runs today while J.D. Martinez hit his very first dinger in a Red Sox jersey. The offense exploded for 10 runs while Rick Porcello pitched a very good game and gave up just 3 runs through 8 1/3 innings. This game got me super excited for many things. I'm incredibly excited to continue watching Boston's pitching all season. I'm excited to watch their bats come alive from here on out. But mostly, I'm excited to create even more Soxumentary cards, one for each game of the season. Writing the card backs, choosing the images, and mostly, watching the games has been a blast thus far. And once the Sox play their 20th game of the season, I'll be able to order my very first 20-game card set of the year and be able to add my first ever custom cards to the collection.