2006 Bowman Heritage

Here's the second pack in the Target Box, a Bowman Heritage pack from last year. This set was a complete mess. The 1949 design, which was ugly back then, was made worse by Topps' efforts to 'antique' the set. Much like a furniture dealer will rough up a table or a cabinet to make it look like it's older than it is, Topps printed these up out of focus, off register and with bizarre random printer's marks to make it look like it was printed on late 40's press. The net effect was a set that in some cases a card looked eerily like the originals, and in other cases they just looked ugly. This was also the first set that was affected by the new rookie card rules, so a 100 card insert set of prospects was tacked on so Bowman could get all their minor leaguers in there somewhere. The thing that really ruined this set was the infamous 'white' parallel flustercluck where due to a so called printing error the 1 in 6 pack parallel set was almost indistinguishable from the regular cards. The only way to tell is to put the regular and the parallel card side by side and look for a slight difference in the shade of the background color. On my deathbed my last words will be "why didn't those idiots just use the "name on front" variation that was already part of the original '49 set???" and a fat director will interview all my friends in the nursing home trying to discover the true meaning of the statement while my family gleefully chucks all my worthless cards that are cluttering up the house in a big 'ol bonfire. That being said, Topps put in original size mini parallels in the set and I am a total sucker for those.

140 mini Johnny Damon
BHP28 Chris Dickerson
BHP14 Dustin Majewski
172 foil Richie Sexson
248 Chad Billingsley RC SP
54 Casey Blake
140 Johnny Damon
215 Anthony Reyes RC
The mini card in the pack is Johnny Damon. I love these mini cards, but I've had a grudge against Johnny ever since I saw this documentary a couple years ago on Bill James and Sabermetrics that tried to claim using some formula that Johnny Damon was more valuable than Andruw Jones. Um, no. Only if you got bonus points for feeblest arm. I know I shouldn't be mad at Damon over something that he had nothing to do with, but Bill James is too cute and cuddly to be angry at. The prospects cards are so boring, I don't even feel like making the C Thomas Howell reference. The rainbow foil cards have no rainbows on them and are a complete waste of wood pulp. They look ugly as hell (and that's saying something with this set) and they ding up just by breathing at them. I appreciate when a company takes the time to make the pack searcher deterrent an actual collectible card, but these suck. What the hell happened to Richie Sexson this year anyway? Was he hurt or something? The Billingsley card is a short print, but it still ain't his rookie no matter what the MLB licensers say. I got another Damon card in this pack and it looks different from the mini card I got. Oh please don't tell me that Topps put that stupid "white parallel" short print in the mini set as well? Ug, this set is giving me a headache. Still, I got a short print and mini card I didn't have so I don't have to compost the whole pack. Enough of this ugly stuff, time to shift to a subdued and soothing Fleer design with tomorrow's pack. Oh, wait. This is Fleer I'm talking about. I'm in real trouble, aren't I.