2000 Skybox Metal

I found this pack in an old abandoned briefcase in the basement. There was a CVS down the street from my job back in 2000 and when things got intolerable in the office I'd sneak out to get a couple of packs and a soda from the Quik Trip across the street. If you look at the pack there's a big hole in A-Rod's head. This is because for no apparent reason the CVS decided to switch up the card display so that the packs went from being in boxes where they belonged, to hanging up on a rack. They had a bunch of sticky plastic hanger hooks to paste on the packs to make them hang, but when they ran out of them they took a hole punch to the wrappers. No seriously, they hole punched at least a whole box of Metal, Fleer Tradition and Press Pass football. Possibly more but I don't remember. This pack has been abandoned in the basement for about 7 years so now it's like getting to open it all over again!


197 Rico Brogna
171 Warren Morris
142 Charles Nagy
71 Chad Allen
53 Kevin Millwood
8 Vinny Castilla
22 Alex Gonzalez
185 Al Leiter Green parallel
186 Roger Clemens
40 Albert Belle

Wow. No wonder I left this pack to rot in the basement. Metal is one of many great ideas Fleer had in the mid-90's that they had completely ruined by the time this millennium came around. Metal Universe debuted in 1996 with fantastically creative "comic book' backgrounds on textured foil and was one of the most unique sets ever made. They kept up the comic book theme in '97, switched to cityscapes in '98, did a sort of industrial thing in '99 and then devolved to this. Sort of a swirly metal fingerprint kinda thingy. I guess it's sort of a unique concept and you can spend a minute or so wiggling a card back and forth under a light and watching shiny concentric circles swirl behind Roger Clemens but overall it sucks compared to the fantastic comic book sets. My hit for the pack (remember when "hit" meant an insert and not a jersey card?) is a crummy Al Leiter Green parallel. I at least pulled a Brave in Kevin Millwood and with the Bravos' starting rotation woes, the rumor mill has him maybe making a return to the ATL. There will sadly be no return for Skybox Metal Universe.