2005 Donruss Champions

Ok, enough of this bonus crap, let's open the real baseball cards. Ironically, after complaining about Showdown's lame design, we get a pack of the poster child for insipid Donruss designs in '05 Donruss Champions. This set is the most egregious example of Donruss worrying more about where to put the jersey piece on the relic cards then whether the card looked ridiculous or not. They decided on a horizontal layout where the player name and photo is squashed on the left side of the card so the right can stay open for a relic. It probably looks great on the jersey cards, but on the other 99.99% of the cards printed it looks like crap. If you took some scissors and hacked off the right two thirds of the card you'd be left with a decent looking T206 sized card. Don't worry, I won't actually do it, I've gotten the card mangling urge out of my system.

When I pried this pack away from the cardboard the structural integrity of the wrapper collapsed and revealed the last card in the pack. Tom Glavine is haunting me. I think the baseball card gods are trying to break it to me easy that Tom is going to re-sign with Atlanta this offseason. Tom does look really good in that Braves uniform. Maybe I should let go of my anger and be joyful that the prodigal son may return. He better not return for 10 million bucks a year though, that's too damn much money.

31 Rodrigo Lopez
167 Kenny Lofton
159 Carlos Lee
61 JD Drew parallel numbered 65/75
259 Orlando Cabrera
354 Willie Mays
389 Roberto Novoa
430 Tom Glavine

I have absolutely nothing to complain about in this pack, but I'm going to complain anyways. The Rodrigo Lopez card is beat up like the first card of my other Target cheapo packs. I thought I could avoid this by buying a box, but apparently not. Kenny Lofton is inexplicably shown in a Braves uniform, even though the stat line on the back says Yankees. Coversely, Drew's stat line says Braves, but he's in a Dodgers uni on the front. I'm so confused. The card is numbered to the number of days JD spends on the DL each year, so that's a plus. Actually the only players with matching teams on the front and back are Lopez and Novoa, who is apparently a rookie. Carlos Lee has Brewers on the front and White Sox on the back, Cabrera is in an Expos uni but the card reports his trade to the Red Sox on the back, and Tommy G has his Mets stat line, but has Atlanta across his jersey. I'm so confuuused. Thing is, I should be slapped by my momma for having the colossal gall to gripe about a pack that has a Willie Mays card in it. If the seven other cards were all Mike Morgan each in a different uniform, and that eighth card was the Say Hey Kid, then the pack would still be full of Win. I will complain no longer. This was a good pack.