Saturday, October 13, 2007

2003 Topps Baseball Series I


Here's another pack that was hot-glued to a slab of cardboard and put on a Toys R' Us shelf. In 2003 I was probably at the most barren of my card collecting days. It had been about three years since I bought any new product and still four years before I would start up again. I guess starting a career took precedent. I'm only marginally sure I made the right choice.

After opening this pack, I was struck by how foreign the cards seemed. I realized I had never seen a single card from this set, at least the base set. (Although I do own a few Robin Yount Record Breaker inserts as a part of my massive collection of the man.)

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
116 Mark Mulder (Not as cool as "Fox Mulder" would have been, even though he pretty much batted .000 with Scully. BA-DING!)

53 Luis Castillo
211 Mike Lowell
164 Vernon Wells (Never before have I seen such a large percentage of a person's total mass taken up by thigh.)

121 Marvin Benard
AB-AG Andres Galaraga Record Breakers
333 Season Highlights--Shawn Green Hits 9 Homers in One Week! (Hot Creepers! 19 total bases against my Brewers! I actually remember this. The back of the card cites the Milwaukee fans' class as they gave Green a standing ovation after his 4th HR of the game.)
99 Jose Rijo
16 Kerry Wood (Ick.)
243 Sean Burroughs
263 Bobby Cox
25 Nick Neugebauer (Highly touted Milwaukee washout.)
Checklist 2/3

Grade: C
This was an extremely average pack. The Sean Green card documents a phenomenal feat. I love the look of this set. Blue borders beat black any day of the week. Sure, white is the best in terms of holding value, but all of the dings and dents show up much less than on black backgrounded cards. It looks like an overachieving Score set, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

1 comment:

Jason Wilder said...

Those look like some Fleer insert cards from the early 90s. I will have to dig some out to compare.