2003 Fleer Authentix

A lot can happen in the span of seven years. Coincidentally, that's how long ago this pack of cards came out. In case you didn't know, I freed it from a cheap-o box of cards I got at K-Mart.

Since this pack was produced somewhere before the dawn of television, and thus, before mixed martial arts pay-per-view, I'll give you an update as to what each player is now doing. Fun stuff!

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
23 Jacque Jones
Update: Changed last name to Mauer, currently lapping up all of the accoutrements therein and therein contained.

93 Darin Erstad
Update: In the running for Disneyland's Goofy, summer 2011. Will settle for Thumper.

109 Victor Martinez
Update: Splitting time between Boston Red Sox and his home-operated "Bring Back Surge Soda" website.

18 Jose Vidro
Update: Spearheading the now-thriving Puerto Rican bullfighting movement.

98 Bartolo Colon
Update: Free agent starting pitcher.

By the way, the backs of the cards all show the exact same stadium seating diagram. How hard would it have been to show the diagram specific to that player's team?

2003 Topps HTA Jumbo

Anytime you get a chance to buy a Topps hobby jumbo pack for $2, you have to pounce on it. I don't care what year it is. It also doesn't hurt that I am trying to collect this set.

187 - Ismael Valdes

191 - Ramon Hernandez

216 - Todd Hundley

218 - Derek Lowe

220 - Jorge Posada (Posada is the last of five consecutive horizontal cards to lead off the pack. These things seem to always come in groups.)

130 - Gary Sheffield (Here's Sheff back when he was slightly less obnoxious.)

195 - Tony Batista

234 - Matt Lawton

239 - Eric Milton

153 - Mike Stanton (Mariano Rivera gets all the credit, but Stanton was tossed out into the fire in some pretty key situations during the Yankees late '90s period of dominance.)

260 - Vicente Padilla

78 - Jimmy Anderson (Anderson gets the dubious honor of being the first gut in the pack that I've never heard of.)

203 - Kip Wells

192 - Adam Kennedy (Kennedy had a surprisingly good year with Oakland yet can't land a job for 2010 for some reason.)

173 - Johnny Damon (Pre-Caveman Damon.)

339 - Alex Rodriguez / Jim Thome / Rafael Palmeiro AL HR League Leaders

361 - Bernie Williams All-Stars

337 - Manny Ramirez / Mike Sweeney / Bernie Williams AL Batting Average League Leaders

RB-JM - Juan Marichal Record Breakers

HM7 - Chipper Jones Hobby Masters (Wow, look at all of those MLB logos!)

154 - David Justice

254 - Glendon Rusch

10 - Mark Prior

163 - Carl Everett (I wonder if Carl Everett watched Jurassic Park back with his buddies in college and freaked out.)

212 - Robert Fick

132 - Brian Daubach

99 - Jose Rijo (Rijo has five consecutive years of stats on the back which read "INJURED - DID NOT PLAY")

16 - Kerry Wood

243 - Sean Burroughs (What happened to this guy? He was the typical Can't Miss Kid.)

263 - Bobby Cox

25 - Nick Neugebauer (No idea who this guy is.)

204 - Ron Coomer (Him neither.)

102 - Hideki Irabu

23 - Aubrey Huff

157 - Brian Lawrence

2003 Donruss Hobby

So I picked up a pack of 2003 Donruss at the local Target [$1.59] - I was looking for 2009 Goudey, but there wasn't any and I found several 2003 Donruss packs in the loose repack box.

Pack #1
#83 Troy Percival



#43 P.J. Bevis



#10 Randy Johnson Diamond King subset - from what is listed in the pack, there is a version numbered to 2,500.
#2 of 20 Jim Palmer Donruss Anniversary 1983 insert



#111 Mark Buehrle - gives up a ton of hits because that is the type of pitcher that he is, but has been consistent innings eater, who works quickly and has won a lot of games [not to mention throw a no-hitter and win a World Series].
#130 Wendell McGee



#119 Jim Thome
#190 Kazuhiro Sasaki
#254 Juan Cruz
#235 Byun-Hyun Kim
#268 Ryan Dempster
#365 Kevin Young - I remember him tossing me a ball once coming in from batting practice either in 1996 or 1999.
#385 Reggie Sanders

2003 Donruss

Here is pack two of the incredibly dusty Fairfield repack box I bought at Target a week ago. Again, the main allure to this for me was that a Bowman Heritage pack was glued to the box. Seeing an actual, factual Donruss baseball pack was certainly a plus, too. I think it's been mentioned before, but the glue they use to display the packs the way they want to could probably adhere space shuttle parts to each other and survive space flight. Somehow I was able to jackhammer this pack loose. It promises 13 cards and tells tall tales of possible cards from 17 different insert sets. That seems fairly excessive.

11 - Nomar Garciaparra Diamond Kings (It's not Dick Perez, but it'll do.)

24 - Cliff Lee (I'm not sure I'm so fond of this more modern Rated Rookie logo. Cliff Lee had a huge season, but this is not an actual rookie card, so it probably won't ever be worth anything to anyone who isn't an Indians or Lee collector.)
74 - David Eckstein (Here's Eckstein as a member of the Anaheim Angels of Anaheim, California.)
108 - Joe Crede
122 - Earl Snyder (Whoever Earl is, he apparently was not "rated" enough to be a Rated Rookie.)
175 - Scott Hatteberg (The copy editor is okay with redundancy. "In his first season with the A's, Hatteberg excelled offensively and continued his reputation as one of the game's best clutch hitters when the game is on the line." Wait, do baseball card companies even have copy editors?)

205 - Chan Ho Park (According to his baseball-reference.com page, Park made $15,505,142 for his services in 2006.)
213 - Frank Catalanotto
235 - Byung-Hyun Kim (Another closer who faded quickly.)
306 - Eric Gagne (I don't know what to say about this guy other than that I need to stop getting his cards.)

324 - Javier Vazquez (What's that funny looking hat on his head? Is this a minor league card?)
384 - Jason Schmidt (Somewhere, a Giants fan is smirking.)

376 - Jeff Kent (Kent seems like kind of a jerk, so I won't show his face. Instead, you get the stats on the back. He's one of the few players that played before I stopped collecting that is still active.)

All in all, it's not a bad looking design. I didn't get any Cardinals, which is unfortunate because I don't think I have any from this set.

2003 Topps Series 1

Just hours before the start of the 2008 MLB postseason, I bring you a pack of cards that really has nothing to do with the playoffs at all. Sorry, no Playoff brand cards, no World Series heroes, not even a Red Sox uniform sighting. These cards are blue. That's, er, pretty much all they have going for them.

274 - Jimy Williams (Williams has a 5-9 playoff managerial record, taking the Red Sox to the ALCS in 1999. He's now the bench coach for the playoff-bound Phillies.)
289 - Todd Walker (Walker was 15 for 52 lifetime in the playoffs, reaching the ALCS in 2003 with the Red Sox.)

286 - Dusty Baker (Baker is shown here practicing what he was best at: making the call to the bullpen. He has a 23-24 lifetime postseason managerial record, taking the Giants as far as the World Series 2002. He is gainfully employed as a manager of a team called the Cincinnati Reds, where is hopefully not warping all the young minds that team is reputed to have.)

12 - Dennis Cook (Mr. Scary Face himself. Cook has two World Series rings, one as an active member of the playoff roster of the 1997 Marlins. In 19 postseason appearances, he has given up 5 hits and 0 runs. I guess I should stop talking about his face.)

RB-LC - Luis Castillo Record Breakers (Apparently a mere team record qualifies here. Castillo is a dismal 18-for-82 in the postseason, but has a ring to show for it as a member of the 2003 Marlins.)

350 - Postseason Highlights Division Series: Twins Upset A's / Cards Sweep Champs (Well, here we go, here's some playoffs. Neither of these teams are in it this year, unfortunately. I like the touching Cardinals picture with Darryl Kile's jersey being held in the air. For some reason this card is a different shade of blue than the rest.)
237 - Alex Sanchez (Sanchez has never been to the postseason and his career is in the tank, but he has a nice shiny Topps All-Star Rookie cup trophy to show off.)
193 - Tony Womack (Womack has been in the postseason 5 times, the World Series twice, and has a ring from the 2001 Diamondbacks. He has a .212 postseason batting average in 156 ABs.)
111 - Ruben Quevedo (I've never heard of him, and neither has the playoffs.)

149 - Tony Armas Jr. (To be honest, I only took a picture of this because it was an Expos card. 8 years with the Expionals, 1 with the Pirates and 3 games with the 2008 Mets equates to no postseason experience for Armas.)

2003 Upper Deck Victory

Here's a pair of packs that I received in a trade from John in the U.K. Victory was essentially Upper Deck's attempt to pander to the Magic: the Gathering crowd. Each base card has a batting outcome on the back. If you're wondering how successful they were, ask yourself where the 2008 Upper Deck Victory packs are being sold. Yeeeaaahhh.

Pack 1

61 Nick Johnson (Sacrifice Fly) - Or as I now call him, Poor Unfortunate Nick Johnson.

19 Nomar Garciaparra (Single) - It seems like ages ago that he was The Guy in Boston.

98 Josh Phelps (Walk) - Hit .309 with 15 homers in 2002. What happened?

49 Vladimir Guerrero (Single) - I can't believe he's been in MLB for 13 years already.

194 Vladimir Guerrero Difference Makers - A 1:20 packs foil insert. No foil on the front, which is odd. So here's the back.

59 Bernie Williams (Walk) - I think this is a parallel. It's got a green border.

Rules card

Pack 2

75 Sean Burroughs (Single) - He was no Jeff Burroughs, it would seem.

12 Gary Sheffield (Ground Out) - As a Brave. Weird.

14 Geronimo Gil (Pop Out) - Ha! Of course the Oriole would be a weak out. If you ever saw "Chief" play, it's pretty spot-on.

63 Eric Chavez (Single) - He's been on the decline for a few years, due in part to a balky back.

156 Jason Giambi Laying It On the Line - This one's got 1:5 odds. Jason looks like he smelled something, possibly his own lucky thong. I'll spare you the picture.

33 Larry Walker (Triple) - An orange border this time. I do not get these parallels.

Rules Card - I should point out that these do not count as one of the allotted cards per pack.

These cards have a pretty decent design, though the black borders show every scuff and ding, especially on the back. The game's simple enough that it might even be fun to play if you were bored. I should mix them in with the dozen or so 1996 Collector's Choice You Make the Play cards I already have and go nuts.

...Maybe later.

$19.97 Walmart Variety Pack Part 3

I was looking at the up coming packs from my variety pack and I felt I needed a double post. The 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings deserve their own post, but I wouldn't even bother posting unless I had a whole box of the next pack, 2003 Upper Deck Victory. The Diamond Kings have a timelessness to them. As for the Victory, they remind me way too much of the UD Collectors Choice You Make the Play. They even have the same rounded corners. As for the poo-poo platter, the contents were

61 Nick Johnson
19 Nomar Garciaparra
71 Jim Thome
50 Jose Vidro
144 Pedro Martinez Clutch Player
41 Shawn Green

And now for tonight's main event

230 Michael Young
171 Jim Thome
88 Vinny Castilla
257 Scott Proctor (Red Frame)
152 Derek Jeter
227 Scott Kazmir

Of all the cards in the Diamond Kings set, I had to get Scott Proctor. The main reason I made posted two packs was so I could open the 1991 Topps jumbo pack next. I know I have been lacking images of my cards, so I will break out the digital camera for the extraordinary event.

2003 Fleer Patchworks

This pack was glued to the front of an 8 packs for 10 bucks junk repack box I bought before I went on vacation. I almost got a box with a pack of UD Masterpieces showing, but I picked up this box and it was twice as heavy. That means CELLO PACKS! I wasn't disappointed, I got a few packs of '89 Topps wax and cello to rip on the trip. If you're nice to me I'll post one of the '89 packs soon. As long as I had bought the thing already, I figured what the hell and ripped this one too.

15 Shawn Green
75 Barry Zito
29 Mike Sweeney
DE-LA Darin Erstad Jersey #029/500
40 Ken Griffey Jr.
4 Bobby Higginson

Yes kids, you can pull jersey cards out of repack boxes. Ok so it's Darin Erstad. I said jersey cards, not 1 of 1 Babe Ruth autograph DNA splinter off the bat he hit his called shot home run with card. The Griffey's nice too. I'm attracting Mike Sweeneys at the rate Chris is pulling C3POleruds though. Does anybody actually collect Mike Sweeeney? I guess I am by default.

2003 Fleer Double Header

Fleer went berzerk with oddball sets in 2003 and one of the weirder ones was Double Header. These cards were not only smaller than the normal 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, but they included one 'flip' card that showed two players on the same card sharing the lower half of their body. There's a reason for this, which I'll get into later, but they were probably just as strange to card buyers in 2003 as they are now. I found this pack in a Wal-Mart $1.50 bin so I grabbed one to spread the knowledge.

24 Tomo Okha
81 Eric Chavez
139 Randy Winn
251 & 252 Albert Pujols & Drew Henson
128 Roy Oswalt
107 Omar Vizquel
91 Andres Galarraga
170 Rich Aurilia


Oof, not much there unless you're a fan of one of these players. I like Oswalt and I'll always love the Big Cat for his couple of years in Atlanta so this pack isn't a total disaster. Pairing up Albert Pujols with Drew Henson is a disaster though. What a waste of a Prince Albert card. So that's the one per pack flip card, but what the hell is a flip card anyway? Well, this set completely ripped off the 1955 Topps Double Headers oddball set (to be fair, Topps ripped off the 1911 Mecca Double Folders set as well). Here's the lone example from that set in my collection, a card of Braves catcher Charlie White:

As you can see, it's a drawing of the player with a stadium scene in the background. I think if you have a complete set of these cards, you can put them together to show a panoramic view of the stadium. These cards are slightly smaller than normal just like the Fleer cards, but look what happens when you unfold it:

Shazam! Charlie White has turned into Dean Stone of the Washington Nationals. Note again, the detailed drawing of the stadium in the background. Now note the half-assed Photoshop filter used to fuzz out the background of the Fleer cards in a lame attempt to make them "Retro". Now you understand why these are showing up in cheesy repack boxes. Topps did a much better homage to this set as boxtoppers in their 2004 Topps Heritage set. If you ask me though, I'd say just pick up an original instead. You can get one in off grade cheap and a really nice one for not too much more.

2003 Fleer Hardball

No this isn't a trading card set of a bad MSNBC pundit show, this is one of Fleer's extremely gimmicky early '00s sets. Fleer tried a few of these weird sized cards and I'm pretty sure none of them worked. This one here is "The Round Card!" as the wrapper with what appears to be Hank Venture or possibly Howdy Doody throwing a palmball exclaims. It's funny, I think Chris Harris or somebody was making fun of this set a couple of weeks ago, and lo and behold a couple packs of the junk showed up in an 8 for $10 box I picked up recently. The first pack I ripped was so terrible I wasn't even sure how to mock it, so here's the second actually kind of decent but not really pack.

76 Mark Teixeira
35 Kevin Mench
255 Ken Griffey Jr. All Around Stars
106 Kaz Sasaki
174 Joe Mays
157 Robb Nen
222 Jeff Weaver

See, they are round! Little tiny round cards. I think they were ripping off the Isaly Disc concept from the '70s, but instead of making them large sized they shrunk them so the diameter was the standard card width of 2 1/2 inches. Amazingly enough, this wasn't the only product at the time to have tiny little round cards that were hard to store and a pain to keep up with. Upper Deck had a product called Standing O or some such nonsense that mercifully made the small baseball looking cards a one per pack insert. Hardball gave ya a whole pack of the little buggers.

This pack wasn't terrible, but the Teixeira card was wrecked by the other back of Hardball jammed in the box. There's a big circular indentation on it and the Mench card. Oh well. My plans to send these to PSA are dashed! The big hit in the pack is a Griffey Jr All Around Stars short print (get it? All Around?? Ha!) that drop one in 4 packs. Fleer goes nuts with the Circle puns... Here are some of the insert sets you can find:
Round Trippers 1:12
On the Ball 1:18
Discs 1:24 (They're ALL discs!)
Round Numbers numbered to 1000
Rounding First game used numbered to 500
Ok, we get it, the cards are round. For such an unwieldy shape they are designed pretty well though. The fronts and backs are both decent looking. This pack also gave me another bit of evidence for a scientific hypothesis I am trying to test - namely that Jeff Weaver is completely incapable of not looking goofy on a baseball card. Once I write up my findings and present it to the scientific community my Nobel Prize is assured.

Now for no other reason than "why the hell not" here's the Monkees performing "Circle Sky".



And the version from "Head", although there's a couple of distressing scenes in there so be careful kids.

2003 Fleer Patchworks

There's two things about this set that stand out to me. First, I remember when this first came out that there were a lot of complaints about the patches. This set wasn't really on my radar at the time but I recall a lot of problems with the patch cards. Delays, jerseys instead of patches, missing patches, etc. I might be totally wrong as this is from memory and I can't find anything online confirming it but that's just my recollection. The other thing is I never figured out what the heck the logo was supposed to mean. It's like a tire surrounded by a roman laurel crown with 7 stars representing witchcraft or something and there isn't a quilt anywhere to be found. No worries, it's a bad set that's easily forgettable and you can pick up the patch cards for pennies on the dollar nowadays.


Checklist
46 Tom Glavine
68 Rafael Palmiero
54 Kazuhiro Sasaki
59 Greg Maddux
1 Luis Castillo

Two Braves and still meh. Whoever designed this just took all the standard bullcrap that showed up on premium cards and mashed it all together. Marbleized borders. Pinstripes. Way too much silver ink. UV coating on just the player. Ho hum. Another boring mid-aughts set. The Braves will enter my team collection and the rest, who knows? I am amused by Tom Glavine's "tribute to the Great Pumpkin" jersey though so there's that.

2003 Upper Deck Victory

Last week I shared a bunch of stuff a reader from England sent to me. As a break from our ongoing pack war, I've decided to post the first of these packs.

It goes by the name of Upper Deck Victory, though I'm not entirely sure the Bicycle Playing Card Co. didn't have a hand in their manufacture.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
68 Bobby Abreu

47 Jacque Jones
4 Darrin Erstad
53 Roberto Alomar

152 Eric Chavez Laying it on the Line
12 Gary Sheffield (Green Parallel?)

Information Play Card

Grade: B
Doubling as a strategy game has not historically been kind to card makers, but every once in a while an attempt is made. I showed the back of the Alomar card, so you can see this game probably isn't too complicated. But let's face it: The century-plus of baseball's existence has produced a number of great, time-honored sim games, so there's not really a need for another. As cards, this pack was fine. Not really any personal favorites in here, but whatever.

What I'd really like to address has to do with yesterday's posting of Panini stickers. In the comments, someone lamented the difficulty of getting new packs.
MWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAA!