2007 Topps Series Two Jumbo

The tornadoes didn't wipe me out (although my favorite radio station is off the air till monday) so here's another Jumbo pack to get you through the weekend. Dice-K mania must be dead and gone because these jumbo packs aren't selling at $5 a pop and the Wal-Mart near me literally has an entire shelf of the shrinkwrapped two-blasters-for-20-bucks deals that have been left completely untouched. Call me when it hits $10, Sam.

502 Brian Roberts
448 Fernando Rodney
649 Brian Barden RC
468 Kerry Wood
539 Eric Milton
341 Akinori Iwamura RC
622 Matt Chico RC
503 Jeff Cirillo
596 Texas Rangers
659 Angel Berroa & Andres Blanco
505 Gold Jose Bautista #1805/2007
486 Wandy Rodriguez 1st Edition
493 Greg Norton
530 Brandon Webb
353 Kyle Lohse
371 Kenny Lofton
507Shea Hillenbrand
414 Brandon Phillips
379 Chris Young
650 Alex Rodriguez & Jason Giambi
588 Jose Guillen
544Juan Uribe
369 Ben Zobrist
HP10 Chipper Jones Hit Parade
GN392 Nick Swisher Generation Now
JDSF35 Joe DiMaggio Streak Before the Streak 35
TS8 Miguel Cabrera Topps Stars
TP17 Jeff Conine Trading Places
MHR380 Mickey Mantle
JD28 Joe DiMaggio The Streak 28
600 red Ryan Zimmerman
557 red Scott Olsen
542 red Omar Infante
523 red Derrek Lee
375 red Miguel Olivo
512 red Jason Kubel
603 red Los Angeles Dodgers
608 red Sam Perlozzo
563 red Mike Gonzalez
549 red Horacio Ramriez
Top of the Class filler
332 Chris Young
337 Jason Isringhausen
496 Ryan Klesko
573 Gustavo Chacin
470 Gary Sheffield
449 Francisco Liriano
410 Tom Glavine
373 Cliff Lee
513 Jermaine Dye
489 Doug Davis

I'll admit it, I bought this pack simply to chase a Dice-K variation. I could just buy one with no problem, but I'd rather pull one. I already have the set so the base cards are meaningless but not bad. There's a couple of stars and rookies in there and three ex-Braves in there. I wasn't even expecting a hit, I already knew the box was tapped because I ended up pulling the auto in my last jumbo pack opening. This pack is all about the inserts. There are 19 total, breaking down into 12 parallel, 4 mirror and 3 plain ol' inserts. Derrek Lee and Invader Zim make the red backs a success, the 1st edition is useless and the Gold card at least gives a very important anatomy lesson. This is why Dr. James Andrews is so busy. Elbows are NOT supposed to do that.

The Mirrors basically serve to boost the pack count of inserts with as little effort on the part of Topps as possible. At least the four I got look good. Nick Swisher is a good player and the green looks nice. Nick will be wearing Green at his Spring Training game soon won't he? It'll be like old times. The Mantle mirror has a red background and a good photo so at least it's aesthetically pleasing. He hit #380 off Jim Hannan of the Senators. I bet you didn't know that! The DiMaggio sets are troubling. The minor league streak set is a complete cop-out and shouldn't have even been made. Or at least they should have waited until they could get a second photo or some historian to find box scores of the game or something. 61 identical cards in one set is boring. The Streak set is one that I'd kinda maybe sorta like to complete, but every time I see a pile of Joe D's in the insert box I just... cant... do it. The packs are going to be infiltrating repack boxes very soon though so I might complete it whether I want to or not.

Ok, now to the real inserts. There's only three of 'em out of fifty cards, but they turned out to be good ones. The Chipper Hit Parade was worth the price of admission. Yeah, it's only a 50 cent card (maybe a buck in the ATL) but it's a Chipper Jones card! I'll take it. If it was Delgado or Steve Finley or something I would have been less happy with this pack, but Chipper is able to save it. Plus I didn't realize he is #11 on the active home runs list. Or was at the beginning of the 2007 season. Bonds, Sosa and Piazza are all involuntarily retired now too so he should be up to #8. Let's find out for sure. Still #11, but Barry, Sammy and Mike are still waiting by the phone for his agent to call. Miguel Cabrera is #83 on the active list, but then again he's only 24. With guys like Mike Lieberthal and Damion Easley in front of him, he'll be moving up the list rather quickly. I'm not a fan of the Stars insert set, but it's a Hobby only insert that I didn't already have so thumbs up. Jeff Conine is the poster child for the Trading Places insert set. He was traded from Baltimore to Philly to Cincinnati to the Mets all in one year between August 2006 and August 2007. He's also never been traded for anything good. He's been traded 6 times for 9 players who have played a combined 85 games in the majors. Jeez. That trade to the Mets may have been his last, he's another player still waiting by the phone...