2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes

During a recent trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, I eschewed the opportunity to spend my green on colonial trinkets or amusing candid rollercoaster photos and instead wandered into K-Mart and took a flier on a blaster of Baseball Heroes. All in all, it's a fairly uninspiring, harmless set. There were a couple goodies, though, so I'll share the best two packs out the nine I ripped.

Pack 1

11 Jeff Francoeur - Frenchy hit a pair of home runs on 4/12/08. His season went downhill from there.

65 Justin Verlander - Last year: a no-hitter. This year: crushing disappointment.

132 Daric Barton RC - Yeah, just making your ML debut does not a hero make. At least he reached base four times that day.

12 Josh Hamilton Green 019/499 - That's a purty color. Josh was pretty much single-handedly responsible for an April Fools' win over Seattle in 2008.

183 Steve Carlton/Johan Santana Black - a Phillie and a Met? FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT


Pack 2

49 Aaron Harang - In 2006, he led the NL in wins and K's. Now, he's had his arm ruined by Dusty Baker. Join the party!

197 Yogi Berra/Reggie Jackson/Joe DiMaggio/Derek Jeter - It would've made more sense to list them chronologically, putting Joe D. at the beginning. But what do I know?

56 Matt Holliday - 2007 was a helluva year for Matt, with his NL-leading 216 hits and 137 RBI. Now he can be yours, if the price be right.

YSL731 Joe McCarthy Yankee Stadium Legacy - In Game #731 (06/05/1932), the Yankees clobbered the Red Sox 12-1. George Pipgras got the win. That's THE George Pipgras, of course.

18 Frank Robinson Black - This was the pull of the blaster for me, since there were no relics to be found. You can't go wrong with the catalyst for the Birds' first World Series Championship!