2006 Topps Bazooka Baseball

Ahhh...Bazooka. The gum that, on the off chance that you had a few cents left over after buying a couple of packs of cards, you would buy on your weekly trip to the neighborhood drugstore. And if you're like me, when you got your work permit, you got a part-time job at that drugstore. But by that time they didn't sell cards anymore. Because by that time, Beanie Babies took up all of the rotating seasonal shelf space, and all of the end caps, and all of the spare space on top of the opened boxes of cigarettes, opened because the stupid overhead cigarette pack holder could only hold eight packs when boxes came in packs of ten, stupid Beanie Babies, stupid Beanie Babies collectors calling nonstop, asking if a new shipment had come in, forcing it into my brain that there actually existed a Beanie Baby named "Spangle" with a stars and stripes design, stupid Beanie Baby collectors, tying up the phone lines when there are legitimate human beings with legitimate health concerns like diabetes and asthma and seasonal allergies and rickets who should have unfettered access to the phones and the pharmacist and...

Whew... I guess I hated that job. But at least I became a smarter shopper because of it. Here's a little tip for everyone out there: That basket of fun size candy...that one that's sometimes sitting by the register and selling for 3 for 25 cents? Yeah... that's last year's Halloween candy. Good luck with that.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
214 John Koronka Blue Parallel (RC)
126 Jeff Francis Beat-to-Shit Gold Parallel (Seriously, I don't know how this happened. The top card is fine, but this one looks like it's been used as a teething device.)

12 of 24 Alex Rodriguez Comic

144 Francisco Rodriguez
63 Miguel Tejada

128 Carlos Delgado
2 Scott Podsednik
61 Luis Gonzalez
Gum

Grade: C-
Good thing I didn't buy any more of these. The comic is cool, if only that it's unusual to see one not creased from having been wrapped around the gum. Speaking of which, the piece here made me think of Razzles: "First it's a candy, then it's a gum." Yeah for this one, "First it's a gum, then it's a jigsaw puzzle. Suck on that, comsumer."

Read about my Up North Fantasy at Thorzul Will Rule. Yes, I did come back alive.