2006 Fleer Tradition Baseball

Not sure exactly how I'm going to go about busting this repack box. I've thought about going in some sort of chronological order, maybe starting with the most recent and traveling back in time, but what will most likely happen will be a random, haphazard choice of packs.

Pack Wrapper: Ken Griffey, Jr. I can't tell you how sick of the Cincinnati Reds I am. This season I saw the Reds play at least four times in three different cities. I saw them lost to the Diamondbacks in April in Arizona, followed by a trip to Cincinnati in July and home games in Milwaukee toward the end of the summer, all of which were Brewer losses. To top it all off, there's some douchebag, out-of-focus Cub in the background. How can you tell from this wrapper that this game is not taking place at Wrigley Field? No, it's not because of the uniforms, although that might be your second hint. Actually, it's because the fans in the stands are actually watching the game. Am I bitter? Yes, but I look forward to relishing every moment of the playoff beating the Cubs will inevitably take.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:

38 Bengie Molina
3 John Smoltz
15 Bartolo Colon
146 Ian Kinsler (RC)
104 Carlos Beltran
182 Joe Nathan

181 Torii Hunter (Looking ready to steal, though clearly not factoring in the wind resistance his gloves will undoubtedly cause.)
139 John Van Benschoten (RC)
175 Chris Shelton
123 Khalil Greene (B&W Parallel)

I have to say I like the look of this set. In some ways it reminds me of a Topps football set from the '80s, not one in particular, but an amalgam of several different years. You gotta love a set that has the balls to use purple graphics on a non-Rockies card. Plus, there are team caps in the lower left-hand corner, reminiscent of 1981 Topps baseball. (Click here for more on this set at Thorzul Will Rule.)

Toys R' Us Variety Box

This morning after coaching a 4th/5th grade soccer game, I headed out to Toys R' Us in search of some material for the blog. I'm excited to report that I did not come away disappointed. Actually, they had a very large selection of "Championship Collection" wax pack boxes.

Ten packs, ten bucks, plus a "Free Bonus in Every Box." Awesome, this will keep me going for the next few weeks. All I had to do was steer clear of the store's Geoffrey the Giraffe's Birthday Party Parade that commenced literally the very second I entered the establishment.

What you get from a box like this is a bunch of old wax that appears to be hot glued to central cardboard structure. Really, you have to yank pretty hard to remove each pack. Let's take a look at what else was inside.

Ooh, a Vince Carter Upper Deck mini-Card Clip, featuring his 2000-01 UD MVP card inside a clear plastic holder and attached to a key clip. The suggestions for use on the rear of the packaging is the best part, one of them being, "Hang it from a belt loop." Yes. I will do this.

Also inside were four clear-wrapped packs of either 1998 Score or 1997 Pinnacle Zenith baseball cards. These were all incredibly warped and stuck together. I'm having a hard time even considering them a vital part of the box, so I won't even list who I got here.

Shoot, I changed my mind. There were too many blasts form the past and players wearing unfamiliar uniforms not to comment.

Score Pack #1:
191 Shannon Stewart
169 Bobby Estrella
97 Bobby Bonilla
82 Ryan Klesko
117 Steve Finley

212 Fred McGriff (How can you argue with pulling a Crime Dog? Today is going to be a very pretty day!)
228 Chan Ho Park
74 David Ortiz (Sweet pull of an early card.)
190 Will Clark
49 Ken Caminiti (You can actually tell from his picture that his testicles have retracted several inches into his body cavity.)

Score Pack #2:
102 Brian Rose
157 John Smoltz
133 Rondell White
86 Robin Ventura
118 Jose Canseco (In a Blue Jays uni!)

263 Mike Piazza Spring Training (Looking like a Randy "Macho Man" Savage wannabe.)
265 Scott Rolen Spring Training
154 Shawn Estes (In what is apparently both halves of a Sportflics photograph.)
132 Bob Abreu (Bob?)
39 Larry Walker(Probably biggest stick in the game at time of printing.)

Zenith Pack #1:
6 Mike Piazza
8 Greg Maddux (I get a Maddux in every effing pack! Jiminy Christmas! What did I do to deserve this?)
27 Javier Lopez
38 Jay Buhner
29 Gary Sheffield

Zenith Pack #2:

20 Ken Griffey, Jr. (Awesome shot!)
2 Tony Gwynn (Classy pic for a classy guy.)
49 Scott Rolen
41 Mo Vaughn (What in the world happened to this guy? For a few years there, he could do no wrong. He would regularly hit 40-plus HRs, bat in a ton of runs, save kittens from trees, deliver babies for mothers stuck in elevators, and cure entire Third-World villages with some very strong medicine. Then...he was just gone.)
19 Roger Clemens (You heard it here first: He goes into the Hall as a Blue Jay.)

Not a bad way to kick off the box. Can't wait for the rest!

2005 Fleer Tradition MLB

Here's another Target discount pack, comin' at ya!

The wrapper is pretty much the best part of this set. Baseball was meant to be played by men in overcoats and work pants. This batter/catcher matchup clearly depicts a railroad foreman against a coal miner, both merely thirty minutes removed from their respective "offices." If only the cards inside were so cool.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
90 Marco Scutaro
38 Kenny Rogers
71 Brent Mayne
129 Khalil Greene
157 David Ortiz
109 Shawn Green
10 of 25 DT Greg Maddux Diamond Tribute
296 Miguel Tejada
275 Roberto Novoa
233 Reed Johnson

Actually, this isn't a horrible set. Had I been collecting cards back in 2005, I may have gone further into this set. The simple, stat-driven backs are alright. The front signatures are a bit too small. And there seems to be a bit of confusion about what constitutes a "typical background." Out of the nine base cards I received...



2 retro, monochrome backgrounds...



4 cloud backgrounds...



and 3 "natural" backgrounds.

This set suffers from multiple personality disorder. I'm left a little disappointed that I failed to snag a card featuring a man attempting to steal second while wearing a pea-coat. Maybe next time.

2002 Topps 206

Ok, so that was a dirty trick dangling a cool pack in front of your eyes and then not opening it. I was running waaaay late for work last night and I wanted to post something. Besides, I thought it might get some of the lurkers to post a comment and I was right. You didn't really think I'd be able to resist opening this thing, did you?

62 Kenny Lofton
18 Edgardo Alfonzo
53 Bartolo Colon
90 Mike Cameron
131 Brandon Duckworth
151 Bill Hall
44 mini Brian Giles Polar Bear
T206-15 Sammy Sosa


Before I even bought it, I know I'd pull an Edgardo Alfonzo out of this pack. I guessed it would be the mini card though. Kenny Lofton's card looks great, plus he's in an Indians uniform where he belongs. Speaking of Indians, what the heck happened to Bartolo Colon? Did he catch Mo Vaughn disease? I think it's the Disney influence. There seems like there's been a bunch of players signing big contracts with the Angels and then turning into a pumpkin when the clock strikes midnight. Even so, they still might end up winning the World Series. I guess pumpkins do best in October.

The back of the pack gives odds for Rookies at 1:2. I didn't think there were SPs in this series. This pack has two rookies, Bill Hall and Brandon Duckworth. I suppose one of them may technically be a prospect card, but I can't tell which one. Bill Hall was my big fantasy bust this year. I figured hey, third baseman eligibility with outfield production, how can I lose? I ended up replacing him with BJ Upton off waivers so I guess I didn't lose after all. Brian Giles is the mini in the pack, and the Slammin' Sammy pack searching discourager card is the last one in the pack. This is actually the first series one pack I've opened, but it seems kind of silly to put the thick card in the back of the pack. Wouldn't a relic card be obvious if it was the last one in the pack? That, folks, is why you always buy boxes of this stuff.


Unfortunately, I need none of the cards for my set. I don't have the Giles mini card, so it's not a complete double pack at least. Now I can finally say I opened a T206 first series pack and that experience is worth more than an unopened pack collecting dust.

1986 Topps Rack Pack

One of my main issues with newer packs is the decreasing number of cards. In protest, I’m opening what I consider to be the antithesis of the four-card, insert-laden foil packs of today: a rack pack of 1986 Topps. What ever happened to the 792 card sets of yesteryear? But, in efforts to not bore everyone (listing off every forgotten common), I’ll focus on the highlights of each of the 3 sections.

This first third is pretty anticlimactic. On the list of possible all-stars I could receive, Terry Kennedy is right smack at the bottom (with LaMarr Hoyt and Tom Herr). And, it may be that I look older than I actually am, but I think Barbaro Garbey may be the youngest-looking 30 year old ever. A couple of legitimate star pitchers, Mark Langston and Jimmy Key, save this section from being a total bust.

Section 2 is topped by a Tom Seaver Turn Back the Clock card—hopefully a sign of good things to come. Bret Saberhagen and his oversized batting glove is the 4^th star pitcher I’ve pulled from this pack—and I’m not even half way through it. I got really excited when I pulled my first Pete Rose subset card (#5) because I saw a second one (#6) showing on the bottom of the second section. Another Tom Seaver (base set) in the same section is a little odd and almost insulting; seeing that one is a TBtC card.

In the 3rd section, I found a few odd pairs: back-to-back managers, back-to-back Reynoldses, back-to-back rookies and back-to-back mustaches—oh, yeah and there were a couple of all-stars in there as well.

In summation this was a pretty great pack (complete list of cards here). Without a doubt, the highlight for me was the 2 Rose cards; although, I really wish I got #7 so I could bitch about Topps not showing him in his Expos uniform. The two Seaver cards were pretty great too—it’s not too often you find an active player with 300+ wins and 3500+ strikeouts.

2007 Goudey: Packs #3 & #4

Another two packs of Goudey.

Pack #3

Pedro Martinez
Prince Fielder
Ray Durham
Michael Cuddyer
John Smoltz
Miguel Tejada
Ichiro Suzuki
Chien-Ming Wang

Pack #4
Bartolo Colon
Johan Santana
Morgan Ensberg
Stephen Drew
A.J. Burnett
Tim Hudson
Pedro Feliz
Carlos Quentin

T206 question

Ok, so I broke down and bought that last T206 pack in the store. Now for the life of me, I don't know what to do with it. The short sighted immature part of me is screaming openitopenitopenit! The rational adult part of me thinks "You'll never see another one of these packs again unless you drop two bills on a box. Store it away for safe keeping". The adult part is right, series one packs are insanely hard to find. They were pretty tough even back in 2002 when they came out. Then again, I still need something like 30 cards for my series one set, so there's a chance I'll get a couple of cards I need. And hey, Auto and relic cards drop at 1:9 packs, not to mention the mini card varieties, so I might get lucky. Decisions, decisions.

What do you guys think? Save it for posterity or rip that sucker?

2005 Donruss Zenith

Here's another one of those packs I picked up in a blister, opened up and forgot about. The Zenith set was Donruss' attempt to resurrect an old Pinnacle product they acquired when they bought out Score. The brand is a bit cursed, 1998 Zenith (the set that pioneered the 'rip card' concept used in Allen & Ginter) was one of the last sets released by Pinnacle before they went belly-up. This set also ended up being one of the last baseball sets released by Donruss before their license got unceremoniously yanked out from under them.


The pack looks pretty good unopened at least. It's a nice shiny gold, always good to attract pack foragers in the wilds of the Target baseball card rack. George Brett is prominently featured, good to see a KC Royal get some love from a card company. Wooo... an insert card in every pack! That worked out pretty well for Fleer in the mid nineties, didn't it? Ug, 4 cards per pack. Me no likey 4 cards for 3 bucks. Oh well, lets crack it open anyway.


148 Mike Sweeney
187 Jeremy Bonderman
M13 Florida Marlins Mosaic - Dontrelle Willis, Mike Lowell and AJ Burnett
229 Delmon Young


Mike Sweeney keeps up the Royals theme and even has a shout out to Brett on the back:

National Baseball Hall of Fame member George Brett and Sweeney own three of the top five single-season batting averages in Royals franchise history.

This isn't entirely accurate, as Sweeney and Brett own five of the top five batting averages in Royals history. The two are tied for #4 all time with a .333 average. Not bad, I guess you have to be a die-hard Royals fan to realize what a good player Sweeney was before the injury bug bit.

Poor Jeremy Bonderman. The one-time phenom had to suffer through the dreadful times of the Tigers, and his reward was to end up completely overshadowed by Justin Verlander. He's building a lot of character at least.

The Mosaic card is the promised insert out of the pack. It's made out of that Dufex stuff that Pinnacle overused and abused back in the '90s in all their sets. It looks really nice but it dings like crazy. This one came out of the pack with a nice bug chunk squashed up on the edge by Dontrelle. Still not a bad insert even though two of the three have already been run out of Florida.

The Delmon Young card made me do a double take. I'm so used to pulling Delmons this year with that official Rookie Card logo, that pulling his card from two years ago without one confused the hell out of me. You mean those other Delmons aren't really his first card?? Looks like Donruss weren't the only ones to get screwed in the Great License Shakeup of Aught-Six.

2006 Upper Deck series 1

I'm not a big fan of this set. The photos are nice, but it still looks like every other full bleed photo set out there. The way the last name is set in block letters with the full name stamped over it in foil is just plain ugly and makes both names hard to read. The backs are ok, full stats, a decently written bio, a small portrait in the top corner, usual fare for a base set. Still, no one buys a thousand plus card set at three bucks a pop for the bios on the back. Basically what this set has going for it is good photos and good writing. Why not just get a subscription to Sports Illustrated instead? I still feel obligated to get at least a few packs each year to file away with my neglected UD sets from the nineties just to have some. It would be unseemly to have a big gap in my collection once Upper Deck eventually monopolizes the hobby.

481 Shaun Marcum RC
196 Juan Pierre
137 Aaron Boone
384 Woody Williams
378 Khalil Greene
93 Jeromy Burnitz
156 Brad Hawpe Gold parallel #149/299
288 Cliff Floyd

Yawn. A collection of 2nd, 3rd and 4th rate stars and a rookie. Pretty normal for a set with that many cards in the checklist though. It's just a lot easier to swallow when you're paying two bucks for a Topps pack of 12 than three bucks for an Upper Deck pack of 8. Why can't we just buy this in a factory set? Assuming dead perfect collation at 3 bucks a pack you're looking at almost 400 bucks to complete this set. Add another hundred bucks if you want the retail-only Update set. And that's assuming all the stars align and you don't end up with a stack of doubles. You can buy a complete set of Heritage with SP's for less than that. I'll take the Heritage, thanks.

I got this in a repackage blister pack bundled with a pack of last year's Heritage for four bucks so there was some value there at least. I suppose the rookie is pretty good, or was until he blew out his knee. The Juan Pierre card was worth a chuckle as I imagined what these guys' reaction to the writeup would be. I would have completely missed the Hawpe serial numbered card were the number not stamped on the front. On close inspection the foil stamping is gold instead of silver, but if you're quickly shuffling through the cards it's not that noticeably different. I don't know the insert ratio of this parallel since Upper Deck doesn't deem us proles worthy of them. Sad to say but the best thing about this pack was the Jeter Blue Letter short print I landed in its sister Heritage pack.

2007 Goudey: Packs #1 & #2

Yes folks, I've decided to take the plunge. I bought a Blaster box of Upper Deck's new Goudey baseball. It was just staring me in the face in the check out like at the Target. What was I supposed to do, not buy it?

Pack #1

Base:
Andruw Jones
Todd Helton
David Wright
Chone Figgins
Dontrelle Willis
Jim Edmonds
Michael Barrett
Freddy Sanchez

Pack #2

Base:
Zach Duke
Mike Jacobs
Brad Lidge
Jeff Kent
Curt Schilling
Adam LaRoche
Maggilo Ordonez
Alex Rodriguez Heads Up (SP)

Considering Upper Deck's previous ventures into "retro" themed products, (i.e. Vintage, Play Ball, and UD Retro) I was skeptical that UD had an "Allen & Ginter" type product in them. But you know what, I have to give the devil it's due because UD pulled it off. While not exactly perfect, Goudey stays true to the original -- almost to a fault.

First things first, I don't like the under-sized format. It's 2007, not 1933. How the hell are you supposed to store these cards without damaging their corners? Memo to Upper Deck: We want our cards in the 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" format, thank you very much.

Also, I'm still on the fence regarding the "Red Backs" and "Green Backs." It kind of reminds me of the "Silver" and "Gold" cards from '96 Flair, in which both variations were printed in roughly the same quantities. (This is probably the only time you will hear '07 Goudey compared to '96 Flair.)

I also think that the short-printed "Heads Up" cards -- which are tacked onto the tail end of the base set -- probably would have worked better as an insert.

2007 Ultra: Box #2, Packs #5 & #6

Pack #5

Base:
Jeremy Sowers
Ben Sheets
Zach Duke
Ty Wiggington
Troy Tulowitzki Lucky 13 (SP)

Pack #6

Base:
Tadahito Iguchi
Frank Thomas
Jered Weaver
Mike Cameron

Parallel:
Lance Berkman Gold

All-in-all, not a bad couple of boxes. Each six-pack blaster had 2 Ultra Rookies, 1 Lucky 13 rookie, 1 Ultra Iron Man insert, 1 Feel the Game insert, and 1 Gold parallel. Not bad.

2004 Donruss Throwback Threads Baseball

Last night I found myself at a Target roughly 30 minutes outside of my metropolitan area, so I decided to check out their card selection. What I found was a box full of loose packs from a few years ago at a discounted price. Perfect for the blog, I put a few into my basket. Here is one of the results.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
59 C.C. Sabathia
41 Greg Maddux
CS-28 Lou Brock Century Stars (#0229/1500)
132 Chien-Ming Wang
3 David Eckstein

Thoughts: This set is boring. It sucks. No wonder Donruss had its license snitched away less than two years later. If I was the head of a youth sports program, and the photographer who took player pictures presented me with a faux-sports card photo option (like an add-on to a traditional 8x10, 5x7, 20 wallets package) that looked like this set design, I would have punched him in the face.

The Brock card is cool, but other than that I am unimpressed.

1981 Topps Stickers

Stickers seem to be popular on this blog, so I'll contribute a pack of my own. I'm not sure where I got this pack, I think it may have been a throw in from an eBay auction. While I have a few of these stickers floating around my collection this is the first '81 sticker pack I've opened. The first sticker set I remember collecting was the '86 set with Pete Rose on the album cover.

The wrapper is actually more intriguing to me than the stickers inside. Fifteen cents netted 4 album stickers back in 1981. A nameless airbrushed Kansas City Royal is taking a mighty swing. The patriotic Red, White and Blue BASEBALL logo on the front is underscored Made in Italy. The back of the pack has alternating advertisements for the sticker album, one of which features a kid who is way too happy about these stickers. Whatever glue once held the pack together has long since given way to the ravages of time and the stickers literally fall out the bottom.

254 Mike Schmidt foil All Star
213 Bill Madlock
116 Tony Armas
46 Carlton Fisk
Spectacular pack. A foil sticker of the greatest third baseman of all time turns any pack into a winner. Bill Madlock is another solid player at the hot corner and makes a lasting contribution to mathematical theory on this sticker. Huge Fro + Flat Top Pirates cap = Abe Lincoln stovepipe hat. Hail to the Chief. Tony Armas was a good outfielder in his day, but unfortunately whenever I see his name now, I subconciously add "Junior" and "disabled list" to it. To cap things off, I pull another of my favorite players with the last sticker. Carlton's 81 Topps All Star card is a classic and now I have the sticker counterpart.

You can't ask for much more than two Hall of Famers in a four sticker pack. Now I just need to go find an album to put these in.

2007 Ultra: Box #2 Packs #3 & 4

Pack #3

Base:

Miguel Tejada

Lance Berkman

Torri Hunter

Michael O'Connor

Jesus Flores Ultra Rookie (SP)

Pack #4

Base:

Carlos Zambrano

Howie Kendrick

Albert Pujols

Brian Giles

Insert:

Chipper Jones Feel the Game

2007 Upper Deck Artifacts

Upper Deck Artifacts has never really interested me that much. I love the hell out of a Retro themed set, but an archaeological one? I like my baseball card ancient history to be from 1909 or at the earliest 1887. 5000 BC is a bit much for me. This is the first time the brand had been offered in retail packs though, so I thought I'd take a risk and check out a pack. I was actually suckered in by the wrapper. It has a really cool T204 Ramly sort of vibe going on. Upper Deck should take this design and use it for 2008 Artifacts, and make them minis like the Goudey set.

9 Victor Martinez
1 Miguel Tejada
76 Cesar Jimenez RC
31 Mark Teixeira
98 Sean Henn RC
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by this set. The design has a kind of Indiana Jonesey feel to it. It's weird to say that the dirt borders are attractive but they are in an odd way. I think the design on the front is supposed to look like an old pirate treasure map, just with Sean Henn instead of Skull Island, but they kind of remind me of badly cut old W-series strip cards from the 20's for some reason. The backs on these kinds of oddball sets are usually lousy, but this one is remarkably well designed. The name, team and bio look like a spy dossier hand typed on and old Underwood typewriter. The cards have full career statistics which is very nice.

The player selection out of this pack is not bad at all either. Three bona-fide stars and two rookies. I bought this pack before the Teixeira trade, so the pack has only improved with age. Yeah that's right, I bought this pack weeks ago and am just now digging it up for public display. Isn't that the point of archeology after all? Besides, there's still plenty of this stuff out there. The blaster boxes I've seen have a relic in every box, which is not bad value for a nice little set.

2007 Ultra: Box #2 Packs #1 & #2

Pack #1

Base:
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Garrett Atkins
Michael Cuddyer
Felix Hernandez
Matt Lindstrom Ultra Rookie (SP)


Pack #2

Base:
Conor Jackson
Gary Sheffield
Khalil Greene
Roy Halladay

Insert:
Ultra Iron Man #14

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter

Timing is everything.

Despite having most of the set, I still have a hard time resisting grabbing one more pack of this stuff when I see out on the shelf. It's probably because since last year's packs dried up so quickly, my instinct is to get it while the getting's good. I yielded to temptation and picked up this pack recently. This pack is either a great pack or one of the worst, depending on your point of view.
76 Garret Anderson
203 Justin Verlander SP
ARHR263 Alex Rodriguez BS Waste of Space Home Run #263
ARHR256 Alex Rodriguez BS Waste of Space Home Run #256
Mini nno India Flags of all Nations
Checklist two of two
114 Homer Bailey RC
291 Trevor Hoffman
On the surface, this is a great pack. It's hard to beat a Verlander short print, a flag of India mini card and two A-Rod inserts without pulling an auto or relic. Garret Anderson is arguably the worst card in this pack. Think about that. One small problem: I have all these cards already. Well, not the A-Rods, but I didn't want them in the first place. I've got each of the base cards, the India flag I picked up in an auction a while back and I actually have four Verlanders. That's right, four. I think Justin's a hell of a pitcher, but I don't need four of this card.This is why it sucks to buy packs once you've hit the point of diminishing returns. It becomes a gamble for a relic at that point and it may as well be a scratch off lottery ticket. You hit a good one like this and still end up disappointed because it's a double pack. I actually feel bad for buying this pack away from someone who could appreciate it. At least I have more stuff to trade now.

2007 Ultra: Box #1 Pack #6

Base:
Willy Taveras
Andre Either
Jose Reyes
Randy Winn

Parallels:
Derrek Lee Gold

One thing that I find weird about the Gold parallels, is that there appears to be two different versions of them. The Golds inserted into Fat Packs are serial numbered to 999 copies; but the Golds in Retail and SE aren't.

One box down, one more to go.

2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Tin

Let me start this pack post off by saying that this will be a rare occasion. I decided to spring for a pack of 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes, which consists of a pack of 8 cards contained within a sealed tin. For fear of setting the bar too high, I will go ahead with this post. Don't get me wrong, enjoy a premium card as much as the next guy, but I can't quite bring myself to buy packs just to get them. The main reason I bought this has to do with my personal player collection. I'm currently working on putting together as much of the Robin Yount Heroes collection as possible. They look good in pages, they sometimes come in green, and they feature Robin wearing a pair of Dwayne Wayne (from the Cosby spinoff, "A Different World, not the NBA All Star) flip-up shades. At this point, I'm pretty close to putting together anything that comes numbered to 10 or higher, with a couple of 1/1's to boot.

This pack is so special, in fact, that I might need some help to work my way through it., so I recruited a few helpers.

Sorry to mix hobbies, but Batman and Green Lantern, two of my favorite DC superheroes, will assist in this pack bust.

On second thought, these two, despite the fact that they, too, are "Heroes," are a little two-dimensional for this task.





That's more like it. Rookie year Robin Yount bobblehead will lend a helping hand. Is there Babe Ruth memorabilia available in this set? Neither of us are sure, but I ain't lucky enough to get it.

Let's tear in.





After tearing off the hologram-enhanced plastic wrapper, the lid is removed. Robin doesn't quite seem to be himself. In fact, it looks like he's crying a little. What's wrong, Robin?





Oh, I see. It's your old pal Paul. And he's in a...GASP...Twins uniform. Is that the way he appears to you in your dreams? Of course not. Five hits in a World Series game or not, Upper Deck certainly did Molitor and his Milwaukee fans a measure of disrespect by putting him in a Minnesota shirt. That makes me cry a little bit, too, if that makes you feel better. Let's move past this, old friend. You can hold my hand if you'd like. Oh, your hands don't move from your hips. Let's just see who's next.





Jim Palmer, and a DiMaggio short print. Not too shabby. We shall press on.





Mmmmm, this may be the gem of the box, a blue Ryne Sandberg, numbered to 10. Not a Sandberg collector, so this will probably find its way to eBay. How do you feel about this card, Robin?





That's what I figured. We could have done a lot worse than that for our sequentially-numbered card. Who's next?





My, my...Steve Carlton game-used jersey. Looks like a Phillies jersey, but he's in a Giants shirt on the card. What's up with that? It's like requesting an issue of Green Lantern and getting a Guy Gardner issue instead of the classic Hal Jordan. (Sorry, last time I'll mix addictions here.) Plus the Brooks Robinson header card looks pretty sweet. Lots of orange.





Well, thanks for joining me Robin. These are the last two cards in the pack. On the right we have a great looking Stan Musial card. On the left, Wade Boggs, pictured the way he always wanted his fans to think of him...in Yankee pinstripes? Sure, I realize that these cards depict personal milestones, none bigger than a World Series triumph. But shouldn't there be a footnote to the card caption, something like "as an afterthought" underneath "Wins Title With Yankees"? The guy's a Red Sock through and through. Where's the Devil Rays card? What do you think, Robin?





Oh, I guess you're tuckered out after all that action. Glad you found a suitable bed. But it's a little nippy out...aren't you going to be cold? Especially that exposed spring in your neck?





Good move, Mr. Yount. I'll rest easier knowing you found a blanket. Enjoy your slumber, sweet Robin. I'll leave the hall light on in case you have to go to the bathroom. Good night.

For more card commentary and Robin Yount appearances, check out my blog, Thorzul Will Rule.