2002 Fleer Tradition

Taking a step up from the last few baseball packs I've posted on this blog, here's a pack of 2002 Fleer Tradition that I forked over a whole dollar for. I'm a sucker for anything "heritage", "traditional" or "retro", so I was pretty excited about this one.

455 - Jason Romano Prospects

454 - Ryan Drese Prospects (Hmm, I'm not so sure what's "traditional" about these first two cards. Nothing says tradition like a guy with 191 career ABs and another guy who has a 5.31 career ERA. At least Drese is still kicking around AAA in the Pirates organization, or at least was as of last season.)

278 - Brian Jordan (Ahh, this is starting to look familiar now. I have a couple of these in my collection already. I'm not sure what the USA flag is for. This being released sometime in 2002 does explain it a little, I suppose.)
372 - Jeff D'Amico

336 - Gary Sheffield (For some reason I thought he had retired, but he's still a part of a questionable Tigers team.)
358 - Billy Wagner (Wagner will make 10.5 million dollars this season and not pitch at all.)
406 - Ruben Quevedo

166 - Derek Lowe (I have this guy on a couple of fantasy teams this season. I hope that he's solid.)

4DH - Tony Gwynn This Day in History (Nice! I wish the picture was a bit bigger, but this is a pretty nice card to pull. This card commorates his 3,000th hit in 1999, which was barely history at the point this set came out. These apparently show up at a ratio of 1:18 packs.)
255 - Edgar Martinez (Edgar should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame. He's one of the greatest, if not the greatest DH of all-time. I think the DH rule is terrible, but since it exists, the Hall should honor the best DHs. And honestly I can't think of anyone else who has hit as well as Edgar Martinez has hit from the DH spot. Most players go into decline at that phase of their careers, either because they're no longer actively on the field the entire game or... more likely... because they were already heading into decline in the first place.)

As always, all of these cards are up for grabs. 10 days until real baseball!

2005 Fleer Tradition

It's kinda sad that I can recall the designs of every Fleer set from 1959 to 1992 in an instant, but I can't for the life of me remember what it looked like two years ago. Did it have that swooshy banner thing, or the whatchamacallit... oh hell, I don't know. I bought this pack to refresh my memory, but I made a bit of a blunder:

I just purchased the pack I passed by two years ago at a 10 cent markup. Oh well, I've done a lot stupider card related things in my life. The illustration on the wrapper's worth a dime at least. Let's open this sucker up and see what they look like on the inside.

38 Kenny Rogers
71 Brent Mayne
20 Eric Hinske
129 Khalil Greene
157 David Ortiz
109 Shawn Green
325 Giants Trio Prospects
Fleer Showcase ad
273 Victor Martinez
231 Kyle Lohse
240 Jose Valentin

Oh yeah, it's the sort of half-assed '61 Topps design with the clouds. Wait, Thorzul already ripped one of these... I should have remembered that. Not that this design is worth remembering. Oh well, no crying over Kenny Rogers. Not much in this pack other than Big Papi. There's a David Aardsma short print, oh goody. The photography in this set is really bad. The Shawn Green and Lohse action shots are all right, but the posed ones in front of the fluffy clouds look horrible. Whoever took the shot of Khalil needs a remedial course in lighting. All in all, this pack was a dud. I hope that Ultra basketball pack didn't use up all my pack ripping luck, I still have several more to open.

2004 Fleer Tradition

This one's been lying around for at least a month. Here we go.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
201 John Vander Wal (Some scrubby Brewer I can't remember hearing about, despite the fact that he played 117 games for them in 2003.)
286 Luis Castillo
109 Mark Ellis

194 Joe Borowski
139 Scott Rolen
473 Trio Prospects - Mike Hessman, Chris Waters, Greg Aquino

362 Ryan Franklin
335 Aaron Boone (Best picture in the pack, Boone's on his knees making a sliding catch of a foul ball. His pose is also worshipful in some sense, like he's receiving some sort of divine intervention or something.)

56 John Lackey
13 Braves Team Leaders

Grade: C
Not a bad looking set, but no good pulls to speak of. Fleer's decision to vary the color of the cards backs according to the team was a good one. My life, however, has not been changed by this pack.

Keep visiting Thorzul Will Rule. Trade Me Anything is still open, and there's a great 1981 Fleer Tournament now in progress.

2006 Fleer Tradition Baseball

Not sure exactly how I'm going to go about busting this repack box. I've thought about going in some sort of chronological order, maybe starting with the most recent and traveling back in time, but what will most likely happen will be a random, haphazard choice of packs.

Pack Wrapper: Ken Griffey, Jr. I can't tell you how sick of the Cincinnati Reds I am. This season I saw the Reds play at least four times in three different cities. I saw them lost to the Diamondbacks in April in Arizona, followed by a trip to Cincinnati in July and home games in Milwaukee toward the end of the summer, all of which were Brewer losses. To top it all off, there's some douchebag, out-of-focus Cub in the background. How can you tell from this wrapper that this game is not taking place at Wrigley Field? No, it's not because of the uniforms, although that might be your second hint. Actually, it's because the fans in the stands are actually watching the game. Am I bitter? Yes, but I look forward to relishing every moment of the playoff beating the Cubs will inevitably take.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:

38 Bengie Molina
3 John Smoltz
15 Bartolo Colon
146 Ian Kinsler (RC)
104 Carlos Beltran
182 Joe Nathan

181 Torii Hunter (Looking ready to steal, though clearly not factoring in the wind resistance his gloves will undoubtedly cause.)
139 John Van Benschoten (RC)
175 Chris Shelton
123 Khalil Greene (B&W Parallel)

I have to say I like the look of this set. In some ways it reminds me of a Topps football set from the '80s, not one in particular, but an amalgam of several different years. You gotta love a set that has the balls to use purple graphics on a non-Rockies card. Plus, there are team caps in the lower left-hand corner, reminiscent of 1981 Topps baseball. (Click here for more on this set at Thorzul Will Rule.)

2005 Fleer Tradition MLB

Here's another Target discount pack, comin' at ya!

The wrapper is pretty much the best part of this set. Baseball was meant to be played by men in overcoats and work pants. This batter/catcher matchup clearly depicts a railroad foreman against a coal miner, both merely thirty minutes removed from their respective "offices." If only the cards inside were so cool.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
90 Marco Scutaro
38 Kenny Rogers
71 Brent Mayne
129 Khalil Greene
157 David Ortiz
109 Shawn Green
10 of 25 DT Greg Maddux Diamond Tribute
296 Miguel Tejada
275 Roberto Novoa
233 Reed Johnson

Actually, this isn't a horrible set. Had I been collecting cards back in 2005, I may have gone further into this set. The simple, stat-driven backs are alright. The front signatures are a bit too small. And there seems to be a bit of confusion about what constitutes a "typical background." Out of the nine base cards I received...



2 retro, monochrome backgrounds...



4 cloud backgrounds...



and 3 "natural" backgrounds.

This set suffers from multiple personality disorder. I'm left a little disappointed that I failed to snag a card featuring a man attempting to steal second while wearing a pea-coat. Maybe next time.