Fairfield 7th Inning Stretch

I spent the day shopping for Christmas gifts with my wife. While at Target, I knew I wanted some kind of 'repack box,' but wasn't sure what to get. Ultimately, I decided that $14.99 was a better 'risk' than $19.99 (though I have no idea WHY it is I reached such a conclusion), and I put the "7th Inning Stretch" into the shopping cart. Here is what I was promised: One game-used or Autograph card, One Beckett graded card, One sealed boxed set of 20 cards or more, One major manufacturer sealed pack, One rare insert valued at $15 or higher, One authentic rookie card, and One superstar card of Pujols, A-Rod, Jeter $ more! Get it? SEVEN items... 7th Inning... Yeah, exactly.... So what did I get?

An envelope with cards in it (see below), a pack of 2007 Upper Deck Series Two, a 'box' of 1990 K-Mart Baseball Superstars, and a graded card:

The graded card is a Beckett Mint or better 10 2007 Tristar Prospects Plus Jarrod Parker (D-Backs). According to the 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, this card doesn't warrant mentioning. Of course, that is because TriStar is not listed in the book. This will be given away at some point for sure:

In the white envelope, we find four cards. A 2006 UD Star Attractions game-used Tadahito Iguchi (White Sox). This is the "game-used or autograph" card. I am always looking to add to the stack of giveaway prizes for my various exploits, and this will make a nice addition. I also have a 2006 Topps "National Baseball Card Day" Topps David Wright (Mets). I don't know if this is the "rare insert" or the "Superstar card." I also had a 2008 UD Series 2 Matt Tolbert (Twins) rookie card. I presume this is the "authentic rookie card." Rounding out the envelope is a 2005 Fleer Showcase Roberto Clemente (Showcasing History). Maybe this is the "Superstar card" or this card is worth "$15 or higher." Uh, no, the SCoBBC says $1.50 at most:

That leaves the 2007 pack. Inside we find Chris Gomez (Orioles), Jason Schmidt (Dodgers), Jermaine Dye (White Sox), Carlos Silva (Twins), and Alfonso Soriano (Cubs). Boy, I'm glad I didn't play "Tribe or No Tribe" with this pack:

The K-Mart box is sealed. The cards are listed on the back, and there are no Indians to be had there. Well, that means that some lucky winner will walk away with a sealed box of K-Mart cards eventually (man, can I really say KMart cards and lucky in the same breath?).

My advice: Spend the extra five bucks and get a "real" repack box. Or buy a blaster. Or buy supper and a couple packs of cards. Or just eat the $20 with a drink of water. Just don't bother with the "7th Inning Stretch."

Hockey Week - 2006-07 Bee Hive and Fairfield Rookie Bonus Pack

I missed a day earlier this week so I'll combine the Bee Hive pack and the bonus rookie card in one post for the opening night (American version) for the NHL. I ripped a pack of Bee Hive last year and liked it. I regret now not buying the blaster when I had the chance. I got a second pack of it in this box, let's take a look.



47 Saku Koivu
124 David Booth Bee Hive Rookies
100 Jean-Sebastien Giguere
31 Jason Spezza

Another rookie card, nice. That's two-for-two for me in Bee Hive. I got my second (or maybe third?) Giguere card which is annoying because I keep misspelling his name. Koivu's good... Spezza's good... my favorite part of these cards though is the back. They are cluttered, they have a lot of wasted space and the faux-retro is really cheesy. But they use something like ten different fonts on the backs! It's like a kid first figuring out the Font function in Microsoft Word and trying to use every font they can find. I'm surprised UD didn't use Wing Dings on the card. Could you imagine sorting a set where Wing Dings was used for the card number? In honor of these epic backs, I'm going to post a few "Did You Know? factoids from them.

Spezza: Bobby Carpenter was the first American-born player to post 50 goals in a season (1984-85).

Koivu: Koivu began the 2006-07 season as has seventh straight as the Canadiens captain.

Giguere: Bernie Parent of the Flyers and Tony Esposito of the Blackhawks tied for the Vezina Trophy in '74.

Booth: The Michigan State alum notched a team-best five shots on net for the Panthers in an 11/24/06 contest with the Senators.


Ok, we've ripped five packs and not done too badly. Now, here's the pièce de résistance: the One Rookie Card.

Woohoo. a plain white envelope. That is surprisingly see-through when you scan it. No other protection banging around in there with all those packs. Let's open it:

1990 Bowman #7 Eddie Belfour!!!

SWEET! My favorite goalie! His rookie card! ONE I DIDN'T HAVE! I was expecting some random prospect card from the past couple of years but Fairfield dropped the Eagle on me! Great ending to the box. Here's an example of why I love Eddie:



Complete thievery of Sergei Federov right there with a glove that would make Brooks Robinson proud.

Fairfield Baseball Blister Pack Madness - Part 1

Oh, Fairfield. Your inexpensive jumbles of cheap old cards redeem my faith in the hobby. I like getting a random sampling of stuff without having to spend actual money on full packs or boxes. This way, if I find something I particularly like in the mix, I can focus my future collecting dollars on that. Getting five random wax packs is also fun, especially when one of my favorite sets is included.

But first, we turn to stack one. Your face cards in this episode are Edgar Renteria ('04 Skybox LE) and Miguel Tejada ('99 Victory). I'm not a huge fan of Tejada, but I'll take any card featuring an A's player.

These are listed in order first by year, then by set. I'm not going to attempt to go card-by-card here, as it's simply too many cards to do quickly. Also, a note: my scanner likes to crop white borders, so you'll know why some of the pics look funky.

1987 Topps:
16 Pat Clements (Pirates)
16 Pat Clements (Pirates). Is it too much to ask to not give me doubles for my $6.99? Yeah, it probably is.
19 Matt Young (Mariners). "He enjoys handball as a means of relaxation."
75 Ron Darling (Mets). "Ron is co-chairman of New York State Youth Drug Prevention Campaign. He played 2 years of football at Yale while working on Degree in History."
539 Reid Nichols (White Sox)
552 Larry Sheets (Orioles)
559 Lance McCullers (Padres)
564 Larry McWilliams (Pirates)
566 Tim Hulett (White Sox). Damn, those old ChiSox uniforms were odd.
587 Eric Plunk (Athletics). This has to be an RC, even though Beckett doesn't list it as such. Not an auspicious debut for Plunk, who went 4-7 in 1986 with a 5.31 ERA. And yet, "Eric was All-California pitcher in high school."
632 Rob Woodward (Red Sox)
647 Tom Lawless (Cardinals)

1988 Fleer:
299 Jeff Calhoun (Phillies)

1988 Topps:
711 Bill Gullickson (Yankees)

1988 Topps American Baseball (I love this set and I don't know why):
1 Harold Baines (White Sox)
3 George Bell (Blue Jays)
3 George Bell (Blue Jays). Yep, more doubles.
51 Lloyd Moseby (Blue Jays). "Lloyd was nicknamed 'Shaker' in high school."
56 Larry Parrish (Rangers). "Larry is the owner of 50 head of cattle in Florida."
75 Dave Stewart (Athletics). Did you ever see the man pitch? Pure, unmitigated EVIL. Just nasty stuff. Followed up by the closing skills of Dennis Eckersley, this was a combo that made the A's a team to be rightly feared during the late 1980s.
75 Dave Stewart (Athletics). So nice, they gave him to me twice. I'll accept that double.
75 Dave Stewart (Athletics). Okay, now it's getting ridiculous.
75 Dave Stewart (Athletics). Seriously? Four times? Honestly, I like this card, but come on!
81 Andy Van Slyke (Pirates). Fairfield packs seem to be full of Van Slyke cards; this is possibly because he was heavily hyped during the 1980s and then kinda fell off the hobby's map.

1989 Fleer:
366 Craig Reynolds (Astros)
390 Pascual Perez (Expos)
448 Ken Dayley (Cardinals)

1989 Topps:
93 Ken Howell (Dodgers). "Also pitched for Cotuit, champions of 1981 Cape Cod League."
437 Andy Benes "#1 Draft Pick" (Padres). Lots of good rookies in the 1989 Topps set.
761 Dante Bichette (Angels). Rookie issue for one of the original Blake Street Bombers. So this stack is instantly a winner.
3 of 22 Tim Belcher "1988 Rookies" (Dodgers)
14 of 22 Ricky Jordan "1988 Rookies" (Phillies)
16 of 22 Melido Perez "1988 Rookies" (White Sox)
17 of 22 Chris Sabo "1988 Rookies" (Reds)

1990 Score:
159 Bob Welch (Athletics). Welch was 17-8 in 1989 as he helped the A's to their "Earthquake Series" victory that year. Score says that Bob was "strong and durable". I'd agree with that.

1990 Star Lakeland Tigers:
20 Dan Raley (Lakeland Tigers). Having not heard of Raley, I am forced to Wiki him...and I find nothing. Another "interesting" curiosity for my big ol' box of unsorted cards.

1990 Topps:
523 Jay Bell (Pirates). Jay began his MLB career with the Indians, then bumped around the league for quite some time before finally landing with the D-Backs, proving to be a pivotal player in their World Series win against the Yankees in 2001. Though never regarded as an impressive fielder, Bell did earn a Gold Glove in 1993 while still with the Pirates.

1990 Upper Deck:
787 Matt Young (Mariners)

1991 Donruss:
206 Bryan Harvey (Angels)

1991 Fleer Ultra...Football? (Yay! Random football cards!)
127 Gary Plummer (Chargers)

1991 Topps Toys 'R Us Rookies (this kind of set is the reason I even bother with Fairfield packs)
8 Travis Fryman (Tigers)
9 Marquis Grissom (Expos)
21 Chris Nabholz (Expos)

1992 Topps Stadium Club
706 Tony Pena (Red Sox)

1993 Topps:
379 Mike Munoz (Tigers)

1996 Pinnacle:
364 Tim Raines (Yankees)

1996 Score:
192 Roberto Hernandez (White Sox). Score managed to remain relatively consistent with their proven methods throughout the 1990s, while other card brands went nuts with over-amped designs and card backs stuffed with useless filler. Score retained large obverse photos, full statistics, and well-written copy that actually told you something about the player. For instance, Roberto "comes right at batters with an intimidating overhand 95-mph sinking fastball". I miss that kind of quality in a basic product these days.

1999 Upper Deck:
203 Kevin Young (Pirates)

1999 Victory:
282 Miguel Tejada (Athletics)

2004 Skybox Limited Edition:
83 Edgar Renteria (Cardinals). Pictured in a throwback uniform, which is cool. The die-cut design of this set is also nice, but the multi-line border is distracting.

Coming up next: Section 2 of the blister pack. I like to save the wax in the middle for last.

Fairfield Guaranteed Memorabilia Pack

As being a part of this blog has already made me do on earlier occasions, I found myself buying something I normally wouldn't buy for the sake of ripping it open and posting it here. And as a sane, rational human being, I realize that what I would most likely pull from a Target Fairfield box like this won't be that great. Take the box cover for instance:

Looks to me like I've got a chance of pulling a game-used Mantle, a Jose Reyes autograph, a game-used David Wright, or a Jackie Robinson swatch.

Let's tear in.

Hmmm, looks like I get to open a little more stuff. The memorabilia card is in an envelope, and I got a pack each of 2004 and 2005 Topps baseball, both series 2.

Let's not eff around here...I'm going for the good stuff first.

But before we get any further, I need to point out my realization that, if cropped effectively, the skin of my hand can be made to look positively pornorific.

Oh. Great. Sammy Sosa.
I'll try to contain my excitement

Why? Why a stinking, dirty Cub? And a cheater at that? Why did I get a card with a built-in glue stain?
For those of you counting at home, this is a 2003 Fleer Platinum Scouting Report, #030/250.

How come it doesn't say, "Uses steroids" underneath attributes? This thing will be on eBay within a matter of hours, unless someone wants to offer something better in trade.

Oh, and here's the other packs.
2004
439 Darrell May
697 Bengie Molina Gold Glove Award
409 Paul Wilson
686 Ryan Wagner Draft Pick
394 Chris Woodward

2005
569 Willie Harris
663 Mariners Team
BB101 Barry Bonds Home Run History #101
552 Jeff Cirillo
652 Dodgers Team
692 Dodgers Prospects Chad Billingsley/Joel Guzman

Don't buy these things, people.