P and C Contest 2009 - Pack 2

This is the second pack of the contest designed to take your mind off of spring baseball and let you focus on important things. The first pack had three pitchers and three catchers and a total IP of 3750.67. Let's see if the second pack continues the taunting.


Jorge Posada
You may have heard of this guy. I looked him up on baseball-reference just to make sure he never pitched an inning. Nope. Has anyone ever heard of a catcher pitching an emergency inning?

Mark Grudzielanek
Grudzy never flung the spheroid or donned the tools of ignorance.


Ryan Franklin
1047.33 IP.

Darin Erstad
No points for punters.


Jimy Williams
The manager binge continues from last pack, when we had four. I'm not even gonna ask what Topps was thinking by using this photo of him. Williams got all of 13 AB in the bigs as a SS and 2B.

Mark Buehrle
1847.66 IP. And he'll be 30 this year. I don't mean to be telling stories out of school, but this could be a future HOFer.


Steve Sparks
1319.66 IP. The knuckleballer showed up in the last contest as well.

Ken Macha
Managers on parade. Macha had 380 AB over six seasons with three teams, mostly as a 3B. He played 4 games as a catcher.


Michael Young
I like the card. I wonder if he just went yard? Young has been a SS and 2B, and emergency 3B. No C, no P.


Carlos Delgado - Sporting News All-Stars
Remember when he came up to the bigs in 93 (2G,1AB) / 94 (43G/130AB)? He actually caught in 1 game in each of those years, for a total of 5 innings. Can you imagine his bat as a catcher? Would he be Mike Piazza? Carlos needs 31 HR to reach 500.

That's three more pitchers and three more catchers, for a total of twelve after two packs. Total IP: 7965.67. Sidenote: we've had six pitchers, six catchers, and SIX MANAGERS.

Get your guesses in to me before TOMORROW'S pack is posted.

Pitchers and Catchers 2009 Contest - Pack 1

This is the first pack of the contest designed to take your mind off of upcoming spring baseball and let you focus on important things.


Curt Schilling
Now that is a way to start a pitchers and catchers contest. Old Blood Sock has pitched 3261 innings in the bigs. That's a lot--seventh among active pitchers (baseball-reference apparently doesn't know that Maddux has retired, or, like me, does not want to live in a world in which Maddux has retired).

Mike Scioscia
In two cards, we have had a pitcher, followed by a catcher. Scioscia caught 1395 games in the bigs from '80 to '92, all with the Dodgers. Scioscia is seen here fondling the hardware from the Angels' title in '03.


Bob Melvin
I swear I am not cherry picking. This is how the cards came out of the pack. Melvin was a catcher from '85 to '94. Is it just me, or does it look like he's looking around to see if someone heard him let one rip? The two players in the foreground seem to be smirking and pretending not to have noticed. This is Topps action photography at its best.

Antonio Osuna
We are now 4 for 4. Seriously, it's like the packs are taunting me on the first long day of The Week Before Pitchers and Catchers. 488 2/3 innings by Osuna.


Alex Rodriguez - Sporting News All-Stars
I don't know if I should laugh or cry. We finally get a non-pitcher/catcher, and it's Say It Ain't So, Alexander.

Art Howe
This is a more classic manager action shot: walking. That makes three managers in six cards, and it is one of the rare managers that was not a former catcher. Howe was a utility infielder from '74 to '85.


Shane Halter
Oh boy. This pack continues to mock me. According to baseball-reference.com, Halter played every position on the diamond, including two appearances as a pitcher, totaling a single inning. Career ERA: 0.00. I will count Halter as a pitcher and as a catcher.

Juan Castro
Utility infielder. Nothing more.


Jerry Manuel
Really? Four managers in nine cards? I love you, Topps, but this is getting old. At least Manuel is another non-catcher manager. I like this type of manager action shot more than the walking-across-the-infield type. I especially like the shades. Manuel makes fungo look cool.


Kirby Puckett - World Series Highlights
I bet you didn't know that Kirby played catcher for a half a game in his second season when the Twins had their only two catchers injured in the same inning. Actually, I know you didn't know that, because I just made it up. It's believable, though. Kirby just looked like a catcher. I hate the glare on this pic, but I am no good as a photographer, and my scanner refuses to fix itself, despite my pleadings. The card itself is rainbow-shiny. Anyone who saw this moment live remembers it well. This is a great shot of Kirby rounding the bases and doing the triumphant fist pump.

That's three pitchers and three catchers, and yes I'm counting Halter twice. Total IP: 3750.67.

Get your guesses in to me before the WEDNESDAY pack is posted.

Pitchers and Catchers 2009 Contest

Pitchers and catchers report this Saturday. To celebrate, I'm having a countdown contest.

Every day this week (Monday - Saturday) I am going to bust a hobby wax pack of 2004 Topps Series 1. To win all the cards, you are going to guess how many pitchers and catchers I pull.

A pitcher is anyone who has ever pitched in the majors. A catcher is anyone who has ever caught in the majors. Baseball-reference.com will be my research source.

To enter, email me (timrooks ATgmail DOTcom) a guess with two numbers:
1) Total number of pitchers and catchers pulled
2) Total number of innings pitched in the majors through 2008 by all pitchers pulled

Closest guess to the actual total wins. Ties will be broken by the second number.

Guesses must be emailed to me (timrooks ATgmail DOTcom) before the WEDNESDAY pack is posted, which will likely be around 9:00 AM Central time.


First post is tomorrow morning. Good luck everyone. And good luck staying productive during the second-longest week of the year. Try to focus on work and school. Don't think about the sound of popping leather, the smell of freshly cut grass, the taste of a hotdog, the warmth of the Florida sun on the back of your neck. Think about school and work. And submit a guess to me before Wednesday morning.

2000 Upper Deck

I discovered a hobby store near me that, while very disorganized, had a large quantity of bargain wax. I grabbed fistfuls of 50 cent and $1 packs on my last trip there and plan on doing it again soon. In the meantime, here's one of the packs from the last trip, with sluggin' Mark McGwire featured on the wrapper. Has anyone here heard my McGwire rant? Probably not. Maybe someday...

470 - Aramis Ramirez
444 - Ramiro Mendoza (The good kind of Mendoza. Not the kind that can barely hit .200)
418 - Jose Hernandez

392 - Mark Kotsay (It seems that teal has fallen out of favor the further we get away from the '90s. That's really... too... bad.)

(Upper Deck gets bonus points for the dark blue backs, but serious negative points for cutting off the top of Kotsay's cap. They did that to Ramirez, too. It just looks terrible.)
350 - Brian Simmons
324 - B.J. Surhoff
298 - Mo Vaughn (Another thing that annoys me is that Mo, like most of the cards in this pack, is pictured in a spring training uni. A few of those a set are okay with me, especially when they're players you know they couldn't capture easily any other way, but it seems like spring training photos are always relied on way too heavily.)

296 - Wily Mo Pena (Even though this card kind of reminds me of failed early '90s prospect Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens, it looks really nice. Check out the background.)

499 - Jamie Moyer (Moyer was coming off of the four best seasons of his career to date.)
481 - Phil Nevin
- Reggie Jackson rookie jersey Upper Deck collection ad

2008 Upper Deck Documentary: What's the point?

Yipes, no posts to this blog since Tuesday. So much for A Pack a Day. Sorry, but this stuff is all that I have handy. Unfortunately, I couldn't just take everyone's word for it when they said that Documentary was pointless and a waste. I just had to buy FOUR packs and find that out for myself. I'll post one pack here, and list the player pictured and the player that is actually described in the accompanying text. We'll see how often they match up, okay? Okay.

88 (CLE9) April 9: Angels 9, Indians 5. Travis Hafner/Indians offense. Well, that's at least in the ballpark. However, Pronk is not one of the hitters mentioned on the card back, which references Blake, Peralta, Shoppach, and Dellucci's extra-base hits. Hafner went 0-for-4 and was hit by a pitch. Whee.

2559 (MIL89) July 7: Rockies 4, Brewers 3. Jason Kendall/Prince Fielder. Bravo, UD. Bravo.

2598 (OAK88) July 6: White Sox 4, Athletics 3. Bobby Crosby/Rob Bowen. Seriously, how hard is this?

297 (WAS7) April 6: Cardinals 3, Nationals 0. Paul Lo Duca/John Lannan. Geez, now they can't even distinguish between a catcher and a pitcher.

287 (TOR7) April 8: Athletics 9, Blue Jays 8. Frank Thomas/Frank Thomas and Vernon Wells. HEY! Blind squirrel finds nut. Film at eleven.

HRD-5 July 14: Home Run Derby. Justin Morneau/Justin Morneau. This commemorates the Canadian slugger's winning effort in the derby. I actually like the foil All-Star Game logo, and they would have had to work overtime to screw up this subset card. Back to the crap.

3923 (CIN132) August 26: Reds 2, Astros 1. Jay Bruce RC/Bronson Arroyo. At least this pack his its first card depicting the winning team in the featured game.

3920 (CWS132) White Sox 8, Orioles 3. Jim Thome/Gavin Floyd. Boooo! The loser was Brian Burres, recently salvaged by Toronto. He's your problem now, Jays.

3917 (CHC132): Cubs 14, Pirates 9. Rich Harden/Geovany Soto. I like the picture, with a batters' eye view of Harden peering toward the plate.

3959 (OAK132): Angels 5, Athletics 1. Carlos Gonzalez/Jack Cust. It's also fantastic that Upper Deck chose not to label the player pictured anywhere on the card. I don't know Gonzalez from Adam, and had to look online to figure out who wore #28 for the A's in 2008.

So yeah. You're probably smarter than me anyhow, but on the off chance that you're tempted to pick up a pack or two of Documentary because it sounds like a neat concept, or you're curious, or Ken Griffey, Jr. is on the pack, or Target is fresh out of 2009 packs, or any other reason you can conjure up...DON'T.

DON'T.


Don't.

1989 Fleer cello

I found some Fleer cellos for a dollar each and bought three packs, hoping they maybe early-run cellos - meaning I may have a chance of pulling the infamous Billy Ripken FF error card or a Randy Johnson Marlboro variation card.

Everyone knows about the Ripken card and even if it is more crass than classic - it has become an 'iconic' baseball card for anyone collecting during the past 20 years.

I didn't know about the Johnson Marlboro variation card [where Marlboro signage was visible in the background] - until about five years ago.

Random cello pack one - there were 36 cards per cello pack along with three stickers.

#282 Jerry Gleaton
#38 Gregg Jefferies
#400 Joe Carter
#153 Tom Browning
#494 Mike Diaz
#335 Bob Melvin
#89 Rich Gedman

One thing of note is the backs feature statlines from the players' entire professional career - not just the Major Leagues or the most recent minor league stats. Some of the backs featured an info box [Did You Know?] with some tidbits about the player's career.

#432 Jamie Moyer - it would be real funny if this guy was still pitching today. He began his professional career 25 years ago and made his Major League debut all the way back in 1986. His pro career pretty much spans nearly my entire life so far.
#186 Jim Gantner
#484 Mark McLemore
#126 Fred Toliver
#433 Al Nipper
#128 Doyle Alexander
#313 Keith Moreland
#643 Mike Capel/Drew Hall - Major League Prospects subset

#60 Jeff Hamilton - he looks sickly in this picture, not a guy you'd think would be listed at 6'3'' and 215 pounds.
#526 Chad Kreuter
#390 Pascual Perez
#281 Steve Farr
Baseball stickers - Dodgers, Expos, Mets, Phillies.
Baseball stickers - Pirates, Cardinals, Padres, Giants.
Baseball stickers - Twins, Yankees, Athletics, Mariners.
#293 Kurt Stillwell
#653 Scott Service/Shane Turner - Major League Prospects subset

#263 Hipolito Pena - looks like Fleer decided to play some more games and included a bat boy in their card set.
#354 Danny Darwin
#481 Wally Joyner

#240 Fred McGriff
#3 Todd Burns
#577 David Palmer
#247 David Wells
#206 Doug Drabek
#112 Dan Gladden
#621 Doug Sisk

#5 of 12 Julio Franco - 1989 Fleer All-Star Team insert; miscut and the green ink splotched
#656 Checklist
#216 Vicente Palacios

#552 Edgar Martinez - the greatest designated hitter, ever?
#460 Tony Pena
#83 Ellis Burks

2005 Topps Football

Several years ago, when I first succumbed to the allure of buying sports cards again thanks to your local big box retailer, I picked up a couple of football packs and a basketball pack and promptly forgot about them. I discovered them tucked away in a box recently and thought Super Bowl Sunday would be a good time to bust out this 2005 Topps rack pack. Unfortunately, I completely ran out of time Sunday and now no one cares about football anymore. Anyway, it's time to put football to rest until the fall, with one last gasp from the past.

This came out around the time the 2006 Topps baseball rack packs came out and came with 3 "vintage" cards in them. This pack also followed the same scheme in celebration of 50 years of Topps football. The base set design apparently does not follow the lead of 2005 Topps baseball. I actually think it's one of the nicer modern Topps football designs.

378 - Brandon Jacobs (RC) (I'm pretty sure I had no idea who Jacobs was when I got this pack, so this was a bit of a surprise. As an Eagles fan, I see plenty of him now.)
325 - Joe Namath Golden Moments (Looks like there's plenty of retired players in this set, which is always nice.)
248 - Quincy Morgan (Completely forgot about him. 2005 was his last real season.)
1977 #90 - Dan Dierdorf (I love the picture. I grew up with Frank, Al and Dan on Monday Night Football. He doesn't quite have the same impact as a CBS announcer, but I think CBS football broadcasts in general are really boring.)
237 - Brett Favre (Favre was 0-5 with 2 INT in his Falcons career.)
178 - Kenechi Udeze

56 - Jerricho Cotchery (Cotchery had a nice season for the Jets in 2008. He's also got a notch in the Cool Name Dept.)
410 - Reggie Brown (RC) (Terrible looking posed photo which I just couldn't bring myself to take a picture of, even though he's an Eagle. Brown didn't do much this year. NFL rookie cards are the worst looking things.)

337 - LaDainian Tomlinson All-Pro (Being a dominant running back in the NFL is a fickle thing. Just ask Shawn Alexander. Tomlinson's numbers in 2008 were the lowest in his career, though he hasn't quite fallen down Alexander's path just yet.)
39 - Drew Bennett (Crappy Pac-10 QB turned one-year-wonder NFL wide receiver.)
299 - Nate Clements

1977 #303 - Charlie Davis (I don't know who Davis is, but he sure looks mean.)
234 - Joe Horn (Horn was a star with the Saints, but he's been out of action since an ill-fated 2007 with the Falcons.)
85 - Antwaan Randle El (I kinda like the Steelers when they had several former QBs playing other positions and would run lots of trick plays. I'm not much of a Ben Whats-his-face fan though.)

1977 #504 - J.V. Cain (Complete with authentic wax stain!)
195 - Marc Bulger (Ick.)

324 - Lawrence Taylor Golden Moments (There's only one LT.)
295 - Mewelde Moore
263 - Derrick Mason
115 - Simeon Rice
140 - Robert Gallery (One of many questionable Raiders draft picks, as he was chosen #2 overall in 2004 and has yet to develop into a Pro Bowl player.)

I also have a 2005 Topps Total pack, but I might save it for next year. As usual, all of these cards are up for grabs if anyone wants them.

2002 Donruss Originals

I grabbed a pack of this stuff because it intrigued me as it seemed to be Donruss' answer to Topps Heritage. Unfortunately it doesn't work quite as well given that Donruss wasn't around until the 80s.

#9 - Oliver Perez - 1982 Donruss

#396 - Eric Chavez - 1988 Donruss

#205 - Moises Alou - 1984 Donruss

#25 - Kerry Wood - 1982 Donruss

#134 - Eric Chavez - 1984 Donruss

This would've been one hell of a pack for an Eric Chavez collector. The cards are alright, nothing spectacular but I am glad that they included the 1984 design, as it has always been one of my favorite 1980s sets (featuring Kodak photography!).

The two Cubs cards are already going out in a trade, and I've already added the other 3 to my collection on Zistle. I've already raved about this site on my own blog, but if you haven't checked it out you owe it to yourself to give the site a look. There is tremendous potential for this to become a fabulous site for collectors if we all contribute. I can't recommend it enough!

1989 Donruss cello

I found some 1989 Donruss cellos [$1.00 each x1] - I picked one up out of the scrap heap [pre-priced at $1.29] so I could see if I can pull and Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I already picked up a graded version of the card, but it is nice to see if you pull a similar card like the one you pulled out of a rack pack 20 years ago.

The back of the bottom card of the cello is visible and for full disclosure I could see Junior was right there before I bought the particular cello pack - the cello features six puzzle pieces and 39 cards.

#409 Bob Kipper

#BC-11 Dave Winfield - MVP insert or bonus card

#5 Robin Yount Diamond King subset
#158 Rich Gossage
#624 Ricky Jordan
#503 Shawn Hillegas
#379 Jim Presley

#649 Rod Nichols - I have to remind myself that no matter how many of these guys looked on their baseball cards, they appeared in at least one Major League game as players.
#251 Shane Rawley
#180 Alan Trammell
#58 Melido Perez
#526 Rick Aguilera
#16, #17, #18 Warren Spahn puzzle pieces
#7, #8, #9 Warren Spahn puzzle pieces

No. 12 Ellis Burks - Grand Slammers insert
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen
#210 Storm Davis - a Tony LaRussa/Dave Duncan reclamation project in the late 1980s.
#161 Willie McGee

#636 Scott May - goes under my 'I would have never guessed this guy appeared in a Major League game' pile.
#BC-18 Kal Daniels - MVP insert
#351 Jeff Treadway
#591 Ernie Whitt
#242 Bo Diaz
#129 Lance McCullers
#551 Luis Aguayo
#438 Doug Jones
#560 Pat Borders
#565 Felix Fermin
#216 Bryn Smith
#100 Checklist
#46 Gregg Olson - relief star early in his career, became a journeyman for a while after injuries derailed him.
#470 Jeff Robinson
#357 Paul Assenmacher
#643 Jose Canseco - 40/40 card
#21 Harold Reynolds Diamond Kings subset - the star of the early MLB Network programming
#134 R.J. Reynolds
#557 Alejandro Pena
#444 Jerry Don Gleaton
#566 Darnell Coles
#571 Don Robinson
#33 Ken Griffey Jr. - there are fuzziness and imperfections along the top, where his name is.

So much for a nice pull -I think I got what I paid for.

2005 Donruss Team Heroes

Before I get to today's pack rip, I should wrap up last week's Royal Rumble Contest. Sam chose #8, represented by Shannon Stewart (see below). The eighth entrant in the Royal Rumble match, Randy Orton, won the whole magillah. So Sam is the winner! I'll need you to email me (brotz13 AT gmail DOT com) with your address and your favorite team so that I can send your prize. If I don't hear from you by the end of the day Wednesday, I'll move on to the runner-up.

So, are you going through Donruss Withdrawal? Never fear, a repacked pack of Team Heroes is here! I don't quite get the graph paper background on these, but I do like the team-color gradient bar on the left side. What do we have here?

241 Marlon Byrd - The card back mentions his 5-RBI game against the Expos. I miss those guys.

222 Barry Zito - Rockin' the double-knit flashbacks. Love the stirrups.

204 Tom Seaver - Hey, an actual Team Hero! Who'da thunk it? Great action shot of Tom Terrific in mid-delivery.

186 Justin Morneau - Probably didn't deserve his MVP award a few years back, but since he denied Derek Jeter the honors I can't complain.

373 Carl Pavano - One of Cleveland's big offseason pickups. Stop snickering.

349 Derek Lowe - It's D. Lowe, not to be confused with D'Lo.

308 Jose Cruz, Jr. - Shown in the Diamondbacks phase of his long career descent.

197 Victor Zambrano - One of the most useless of the Orioles parade of pitching horrors in recent years (0-1, 9.49 in 12.1 innings).