1991 Topps Traded Baseball

This pack has been sitting in my living room for the past few months. Every so often we get out a bowling ball and play a game where we roll it under the pack to score points. It's fun.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
116T Todd Taylor
121T Mike Timlin
97T Ernie Riles
129T Willie Wilson

103T Tom Runnells
74T Candy Maldonado
42T Steve Finley

Mattress Man says, "That's that."

2013 Topps Allen and Ginter's

I picked up a couple of packs from the card shop I go to for $4.50 each - I don't want to splurge too much on unopened breaks since I'm planning on getting a hand collated set of 2013 Topps Allen and Ginter's sooner than never.

Pack one

#256 Rickie Weeks

#170 Hanley Ramirez

#221 Salvador Perez

#159 Jose Altuve

#150 Reggie Jackson

#CAP-IN Inca - Civilizations of Ages Past insert

#26 Elvis Andrus - black bordered mini parallel

#326 Ruben Tejada - SP

1986 Fleer Cello

I recently bought some Yount cards on eBay from a huge Yount collector who's slowly paring down his collection. As a little add-on, I picked up this cello pack that the Yount guy was selling with Robin featured on the front. To me, this doesn't represent something different, but I understand the completist mentality. I bought it with the intent to open it, as '86 Fleer is a set I don't have too much of.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
506 Robin Yount

214 Reid Nichols
181 Andy McGaffigan
41 Tito Landrum
234 Lance Parrish
192 Mario Soto
64 Dennis Lamp (Man, that is one area of growth! That dude shaves after lunch, then has to do it again before washing his hands for dinner. Thickness.)

509 Bruce Benedict
448 John Russell
8 Mark Gubicza
93 Rafael Santana
45 Darrell Porter
565 Mike Mason
261 Randy St. Claire (That's a sweet-ass Starter jacket. One might even say it's worth being killed over.)

Los Angeles Penant Sticker
Oakland Sticker
104 Brian Fisher
484 Cecil Cooper (Cooooooooooooooooop!)

197 Juan Agosto
196 Max Venable
29 Cesar Cedeno
242 Lou Whitaker
178 John Franco
62 Cliff Johnson (Speaking of jackets, Canada was representin' on the outerwear, eh?)

530 Milt Thompson
441 Greg Gross
13 Charlie Leibrandt
83 Danny Heep
36 Brian Harper
573 Wayne Tolleson

That was fun.

2013 Panini USA Baseball Champions

Out of the three packs I busted for $3.50 each at the card shop I go to - this was the best one with an autograph pull; it looks like Jake Barrett is currently a closer for the Visalia Rawhide, a minor league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

#77 Blake Swihart
#100 Bubba Starling
#6 Tyler Anderson
#64 Nick Franklin
#22 Shawn Green
#JBR Jake Barrett - Stars and Stripes auto serial #'d 367/855
#109 Alex Dickerson
#113 Nolan Fontana

2013 Topps Opening Day

Opening this pack, I realized that you can give any player a nickname with little to no thought. Just take the start of their first name, add the beginning of their last name, throw a hyphen in there, and PRESTO! Instant nickname! Let's see how this works.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
198 Ryan Howard (Ry-Ho. Futuristic, would fit in well with the Voltron crew or the Thundercats.)

155 Brandon Crawford (Bra-Craw. Kind of Neanderthal, maybe a little too Broseph-y, but it has potential.)

22 Felix Hernandez (Fēl-Her. Suggestive, a little TOO suggestive.)

BF-18 Darwin Barney Ballpark Fun (Dar-Bar. A new desert available at Dairy Queen in limited test markets.)

183 Fernando Rodney (Fer-Rod. Too many -Rod nicknames as it is, plus no one wants to think about a furry shaft.)

212 Pablo Sandoval (Nope, already has quite the nickname.)

81 Miguel Cabrera (Mig-Ca... oh,forget it.)

Never mind, bad idea, it only works out like 10% of the time.
Gotta say I like these cards, though. Although Topps probably heard how much we liked it when their OD product is designed without the foil player names, then decided on difficult-to-read light gray. Why do we even bother?

2013 Topps Archives pack break recap

I picked up a pack of the new 2013 Topps Archives [$4.50 each from a card shop] - to see what the cards look like.

I grew up collecting 1990 Topps but out of the retro designs within this product, I probably like 1985 Topps the best - followed by 1982 Topps, 1990 Topps and 1972 Topps.

#5 Allen Craig - 1972 Topps
#92 Ken Griffey Jr. - 1982 Topps
#143 Jake Odorizzi - 1985 Topps
#197 Chris Sale - 1990 Topps
#83-BH Bryce Harper - 1983 Topps All-Star
#78 Johan Santana - 1982 Topps
#141 Adam Jones - 1985 Topps
#151 Jason Motte - 1990 Topps

1985 Donruss

This is a pack I got in a big random lot. One of them was placed into my recent card draft, and I kept one for myself. The wrapper is a little suspicious, something about the seal seems a little off, but whatever.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
49, 50, 51 Lou Gehrig Puzzle
640 Mike Jones
632 Jim Gott
623 Ed Lynch

285 Joe Lefebvre
398 Mike Hargrove
511 Ed Vande Berg
622 Roy Smalley

125 Dave Rozema
239 Gary Matthews
26 Bob Brenly DK

576 Floyd Rayford
78 Larry McWilliams
69 Alvin Davis

181 George Hendrick
294 Dwight Evans

Not an outstanding pack, but adequate. I'd say this was not a searched pack. I have very few cards from this set, and now I'm going to go file these away.

2008 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects

I think this is the last of my old cheapie packs.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
BDP12 Chris Carter
BDP27 Evan Longoria

BDPP92 Jake Arrieta
BDPP82 Wellington Castillo
BDPP83 Mat Camel Chrome

BDP16 Nick Evans Chrome Refractor

BDP21 Micah Hoffpauir Gold


That was a pack with a little bit of everything, ain'a? A Gamel I didn't have yet, a refractor, and a superstar. I still like the '07 iteration of this product a little more, but this wasn't too shabby.

2009 Upper Deck Icons (Retail)

Another one of those packs that's been sitting around for almost four years.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
36 Edinson Volquez (Camo is not a good look for the Cincinnati Reds organization.)

99 Vernon Wells

1630 20th Anniversary Retrospective New England Patriots (Every time I clicked on Yahoo to check my email this week, there was a headline suggesting that I feel sorry for Tom Brady, Wes Welker, whoever will be replacing Wes Welker, and anyone living within 500 miles of Boston. What's up with that?)

97 Tim Lincecum

7 Alfonso Soriano

Grade: B-

Super Awesome Fairfield Co. Target Baseball Repack Package!

'Sup? I couldn't pass up a Sweet Spot Classic John Montefusco on the front of this repack (I actually need it for that base set), plus I was told to "Look for Memorabilia Cards!" (like everyone else at my Target, I looked at the sides of the package, saw no thick cards, and said "meh", but I'm the yutz who brought it home anyway), so here we go, my first post here, 100 cards of dubious vintage for your perusal and enjoyment!

Left stack:

Some days, you just want the Icons cards to be base cards. If you don't recognize him, since this is illegible, this is '09 Upper Deck Icons Matt Kemp #78.

'87 Topps #754 Dave LaPoint

'87 Topps #623 Kurt Stillwell (Who here remembers when he was supposed to be the big deal instead of Larkin?)

'87 Topps #274 Jeff Hearron

'87 Topps #752 Dan Petry

'89 Topps #388 Bobby Bonilla All-Star

'89 Topps #584 Randy Velarde

'89 Topps #395 Danny Jackson All-Star

'89 Topps #617 Mark Parent (This pack's off to a real rip-snorter of a start, ain't it?)

O HAY THAR HANK

('89 Topps #663 Hank Aaron Turn Back The Clock)

'88 Donruss #450 Atlee Hammaker

'88 Donruss #506 Geno Petralli

'88 Donruss #98 Tim Burke

'88 Donruss #228 Willie Randolph (This is the best of this very sad bunch of '88 Donruss, 17 in a row in fact, so I'll only burden you with a scan of this one. Worst part is, I can see the borders in the 2nd stack of cards that I haven't been through yet. When "I hope they're at least Leaf" enters your head, you know you're in trouble. This was a borderline Bipping.)

'88 Donruss #95 Chris Bando

'88 Donruss #284 Pete O'Brien

'88 Donruss #114 Benito Santiago

'88 Donruss #107 Tom Brookens

'88 Donruss #604 Don Newell

'88 Donruss #636 Mike Flanagan

'88 Donruss #610 Mickey Brantley

'88 Donruss #480 John Morris

'88 Donruss #132 Danny Jackson (2nd appearance in the pack so far...)

'88 Donruss #250 Darrell Evans (I'd scan this, but it's a boring shot of him, and well, '88 Donruss)

'88 Donruss #504 Joe Hesketh

'88 Donruss #85 Jim Deshaies

'88 Donruss #323 Dave Magadan (this one totally juked me; saw the Mets uni and the pose and thought it was Jefferies)

'90 Score #473 Terry Puhl

'87 Topps #132 Paul Assenmacher (oh, how we laughed at that name)

'92 Upper Deck #277 Frank Viola (Damn it, didn't need it; almost forgot to check...)

'87 Topps #293 Bob Rodgers

Here's where the pack gets cool for a second:

'87 Topps #250 Teddy Higuera

Now, I know what you're thinking, but shut up, I like Teddy Higuera, and this is a great card of him.

'90 Topps Mail-In Glossy #20 Ken Griffey Jr.! (I have it already, blast it, and it's dinged up, but compared the first half of this pack, this is like heaven...)

Then this happened. '91 Topps Glossy All-Star #19 Andre Dawson, #13 Will Clark and #22 Juan Marichal. Now, I haven't looked on eBay yet, and I probably shouldn't make my life any harder than it is, but I feel compelled to mention that, in my usual travels, I've never found '91 Glossy All-Stars before these three. They were a mail-in, if I'm not mistaken, so the bulk of these are probably sitting in Fairfield's warehouse collecting dust or something.

Actually needed this dinged up poor bastard of a card. Vander Wal was one heck of a pinch-hitter.

...and then we went back to tedium again:

'87 Donruss #534 Jerry Royster

'87 Donruss #533 Ty Gainey

'87 Donruss #603 Jerry Narron

'92 Donruss Triple Play #20 Erik Hanson

'87 Donruss #356 Doug DeCinces

'90 Upper Deck #795 Juan Samuel

'90 Upper Deck #772 Mel Rojas

'90 Upper Deck #727 Scott Hemond

'90 Upper Deck #729 Jeff Reardon (wasn't gonna scan it, but check out this card back...)

'90 Upper Deck #785 Dave Hollins 

'90 Fleer #95 Duane Ward

'90 Fleer #43 Rick Sutcliffe

'90 Fleer #394 Jose Gonzalez

C'MON, MAN!

'90 Fleer #593 Lonnie Smith

Card #50 makes this half a Kemp sandwich! '2011 Topps Chrome Orangefractor #24. Up for grabs, like the first Kemp in the post.

A closer look at the card that sold the pack, 2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic #46 John "The Count" Montefusco. I think he still lives in the same town as the Target I went to. Probably planted the card himself. I should put all the real junk wax from this in his mailbox.

Just to really mess with my head, they also put a '91 Topps Glossy Rookie (#2, Kevin Appier, pictured) in this repack! I didn't have none of them, neither.

'89 Fleer #535 Curtis Wilkerson

'94 Upper Deck Electric Diamond (hate those) #288 Greg Vaughn Home Field Advantage

'90 Upper Deck #189 Tom Browning

'90 Upper Deck #792 Charlie Hough

Were Upper Deck being ironic by calling these three "Rookie Threats" in quotes? Gonzo didn't look very threatening back then. Bagwell, not so much, neither. Tuffy Rhodes would still stomp a mudhole in you, though, even as a "rookie" (he was in '90 sets too, if I'm not mistaken). '91 Upper Deck #702.

'91 Upper Deck #712 Dante Bichette

'88 Topps #531 Rich Yett

'92 Pinnacle #174 Milt Cuyler (Hey, needed it!)

'88 Donruss #288 Juan Samuel

'89 Donruss #500 Checklist

'88 Donruss #140 Joe Magrane

'91 Donruss #66 Tim Jones

'91 Donruss #339 Steve Olin (RIP)

'88 Donruss #131 Brook Jacoby

'92 Leaf #60 John Olerud

'93 Bowman #234 Bryan Harvey

We know you're not really juggling, Rolen, you little punk. '97 Upper Deck Collector's Choice #15

C'MON, MAN!

I mean, I get it, Classic Four Sport was released primarily as a baseball issue, but was the repack person blind? Did they not care about my happiness? This is a f00'ball card, y0. *sigh*

(As an aside, I was in the Webelos with a kid named Mike Evans. He didn't look like this guy.)

'93 Topps #261 Bill Wegman

'93 Topps #121 Todd Worrell

'92 Donruss #90 Bobby Ross (Happy trees and their friends not included.)

'92 Donruss #466 2013 Canadian Baseball Hall Of Fame Inductee Rob Ducey

Hey, a Pete Rose Special. That's one of those things that sounds dirty, but isn't. '86 Topps #4.

'88 Donruss #307 Willie McGee

'86 Topps #21 George Bamberger

'92 Donruss #11 Andy Ashby Rated Rookie

'90 Upper Deck #670 Tim Crews (Weird, both Crews and Olin, who showed up earlier in this repack, were killed in the same boat accident. If Bob Ojeda were in this repack, that'd be super-weird, as he was severely injured in the same accident.)

"I had a great meal..." (NSFW)

('88 Topps #141)

'88 Topps #297 Zane Smith

John Stearns will stone cold beat you. '82 Fleer #537

'82 Fleer #120 Mark Littell

Anyone know what the deal is with the box on Chambliss' batting helmet here? '82 Donruss #47. (Needed it!)

'81 Fleer #39, Renie "Don't Call Me Cognac" Martin

'91 Upper Deck #416 Tom Herr

'90 Upper Deck #152 Don Slaught

'91 Score #738 Mike York

'90 Score #640 Tommy Greene

'91 Score #305 Rafael Ramirez

'07 Topps Series Two Checklist #3

'90 Upper Deck #611 Jeff Wetherby

'84 Topps #751 Charlie Moore

'84 Topps #469 Tom O'Malley

'90 Upper Deck Astros Checklist #88 (featuring substandard Mike Scott art)

'88 Donruss #105 Mike Pagliarulo

'88 Donruss #617 Kevin McReynolds

'89 Fleer #212 Dave LaPoint (LaPoint ties Juan Samuel, Matt Kemp and Danny Jackson for the lead!)

'88 Donruss #318 Keith Atherton

'88 Donruss #600 Checklist (Are. You. Kidding. Me?)

And finally, mercifully, the last card...

"Hey Rog, could you look a little more pompous for this one?" '91 Bowman #118.

So, some of the totals:

Cards I needed: 8

Players with more than 1 card: 2

'88 Donruss cards: 25

Cards printed before 1981: 0

Memorabilia cards: 0

"C'MON, MAN!" moments: 2

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

-Scott Crawford