Friday, January 02, 2009

2005 Topps Updates and Highlights

Here's a quickie post so that we don't blow the pack a day thing on the second day of the new year. I got this pack out one of those repack boxes where the packs are stuffed inside a plastic card box. I needed the box to be honest, the cards were a nice bonus.

UH257 Tony Arnerich first year
UH 228 Brian Miller first year
UH94 Thomas Diamond prospect
UH248 Hayden Penn first year
NI-BW Nationals Inaugural Lineup Brade Wilkerson
UH214 Conor Jackson Futures Game

This was the last year before the MLB Rookie Card logo started getting slapped onto rookies so this pack had a lot of "First Year" rookie cards in it. A first year stamp didn't necessarily mean it was the guy's official rookie card though, as Adam LaRoche collectors will know. Hayden Penn was the only first year player I'm familiar with, he's a fading prospect who can't seem to stay healthy enough to get on the major league roster. Tony Arnerich never played another game after this card was released and is now an assistant coack for the Cal Bears. Same thing with Brian Miller, he gets a card and is out of baseball. Maybe that Rookie logo rule isn't that stupid after all? Thomas Diamond is in the Rangers organization, but had missed a lot of time the past two years due to injury. He might be able to make the squad with a good spring training though. Conor Jackson at the very least is doing well.

The insert in the pack was an opening day lineup card for the (then) brand new Washington Nationals. It's a neat idea for an isert set, but that lineup isn't all that hefty. Christian Guzman, Jose Vidro, Jose Guillen, Nick Johnson, Vinny Castilla, Terrmel Sledge, Brian Schnider and Livan Hernandez. Well, I bet a Nats fan would love it...

3 comments:

  1. Until I looked him up, I was pretty certain you made "Terrmel Sledge" up.

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  2. Being a Sox fan, a picked up a box of this stuff last year for the Ellsbury RCs (or XRCS or whatever they're considered now). That was one heck of a draft class that year with Ellsbury, Braun, Bruce, Jered Weaver, Zimmerman and Stephen Drew. I got a couple of Ellsburys in my HTA box so I was pretty happy. Sometimes it's nice just to get one of each of the rookies instead of hoping that the one game used, autographed, short printed rookie that you get is someone who will turn out to be good.

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  3. I liked Terrmel Sledge during his time with the Portland Beavers. They used to, predictably, play Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer every time he came up to bat. I wonder if he hated it.

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