The Dirty Dozen: 1999 Bowman's Best

Ah yes, Bowman's Best. One of the great products of the 90s; ruined by gimmicks in the 00s. But will a pack of the 1999 edition make me "better feeling?"

The 200 card base set is divided into four color-coordinated subsets: 85 Veterans, 15 Best Performances, 50 Prospects, and 50 "Rookies" which are short-printed and seeded at the rate of one-per-pack.

Being that this is a Bowman brand, there are a shitload of rookie cards and the 1999 class was one of the best in recent years. Amongst the RCs are Cap'n Cheeseburger, Matt Holliday, Alfonso Soriano, Brad Lidge, and Pat Da Bat. Unfortunately, being that this is a Bowman brand, for every CC, Holliday, and Pat Da Bat, there's an equal chance of getting Mike Nannini, Eric Valent, or Masao Kida.

In addition to the usual Refractors (and their inbred cousin the "Atomic Refractor"), you also have an outside shot at an autograph of Michael Jack Schmidt, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Pat Da Bat and others.

Let 'er rip!

Base:
Matt Clement
This card is from the sliver-bordered prospect subset. Clement was a third round pick of the Padres in '93 who went on to have a respectable nine-year career. Last seen with the '06 Red Sox.

John C-3POlerud
Each of the gold-bordered veterans has a "Best Against/Career" blurb. From the back of C-3POlerud's card, we find that he was 10-for-13 with a 1.308 SLG against Mark Leiter; 8-for-15 with 2 HR off Darryl Kile; and 6-for-8 against Brian Meadows.



Another C-3POlerud!!!!!
NO!!!!!!!!!!!

I'VE BEEN BIPPED!!!!!

Tom Glavine
Tom was 0-for-16 (with 5 SOs) against Al Martin; and went 1-for-23 against both Rey Sanchez and Brad Ausmus.

Kevin Brown
Mark McGwire: .156, 1 HR, 15 SOs in 45 ABs
Eric Davis: 0-for-11, 5 SOs
Bill Mueller: 1-for-12

Giuseppe Chiaramonte (RC, 1:1)
My one-per-pack "rookie" is a catcher who was drafted in the 5th round of the '97 draft, topped out at AAA Fresno, and never played a game in the Majors. For all you Joe Collectors who bitch and complain about the MLBPA's "Rookie Card" rules, I present Giuseppe Chiaramonte.

God what a shit pack. A "Rookie" of a catcher who never played a game in The Bigs, and two C-3POleruds. This has not made me "better feeling."

1996 Bowman's Best

I went to the hobby store to get some supplies and saw that 2007 Bowman's Best is out. It looks pretty nice but is 90 bucks for a mini box. Gonna have to pass on that. Up on the shelf though was a dusty old pack of 1996 Bowman's best for only three bucks. Now that's more my speed. There's no autographs or relics, and the best cards are Atomic refractor inserts that I think I might already have, but hey who needs all those bells and whistles. Let's open this purple pack.

13 Frank Thomas
57 Jose Canseco
73 Matt Williams
132 Edgard Velazquez
167 Steve Gibralter
154 Luis Castillo

Frank Thomas right off the bat is not shabby at all. I can't pull a White Sox card anymore without thinking about Sox or No Sox. Unfortunately Big hurt is immediately followed by a trap card. A good trap card though, which is going straight into Mario's trade pile. Matt Williams makes this pack three-for-three on mid 90's star cards in the Veteran half of the pack, although the shine has really faded on everyone but Frank. The rookies get silver backgrounds instead of yellow. First up is Edgard Velazquez, better known as Edgard Clemente. He wasn't quite the player his uncle Roberto was and only had one full year with the Rockies. I remember Steve Gibralter was another hot prospect at the time, and he ended up playing 6 games for the Reds before banging around in the minors until 2001. The last card in the pack is a decent rookie though. Luis Castillo is one of the big rookies in this set along with Mike Sweeney, Geoff Jenkins and Carlos Guillen. Ok, so 1996 wasn't the greatest year for rookies.

The backs are pretty neat, Topps once again tried to incorporate some innovative stats on their off-brand cards and we have the Bowman's Best Stat-Scan. The rookie cards are separated into Class A, AA and AAA stats so you can follow the progression, but this means that the veterans have their career stats hacked up into three different chunks. This is the first time I can recall seeing the Home Runs per At Bat stat on the back of a card before. I wish I had pulled a pitcher so I could see their stats. This pack reminded me of two things from 1996: These cards thankfully do not have the stupid "Protective Film" that is found on Finest cards. Unfortunately I was also reminded that these cards have a weird greasy film on them. I bought several packs of this stuff back in '96 and pulled a couple of sweet inserts. No autos or gamers, but feast your eyes on this little gem out of the Cardboard Junkie's vaults:


Awwww Yeah! Die cut baby! NucularCrazyFractor! There ain't no die cuts in 2007 Bowman's Best! If Steve wasn't jealous before, I know he is now.