Bigfoot Sighting!

With all this talk of frozen yeti costumes and such, I thought I'd make like Encyclopedia Brown and get to the bottom of the legend of Bigfoot, A Pack a Day style. Two decades ago a company named Leesley put out a set entitled Bigfoot and offered to explain the story, the myth, the machine. Wait a second, this pack isn't about Yetis and beasts who gobble up seals for breakfast, kittens for lunch and cute puppies for dinner. This is about that truck that was never had the street cred Gravedigger did but had a better marketing team and got a cartoon out of the deal.

 

We'll start with a bad scan of an unopened pack. Five cards all about the "original monster truck." Let's get crushing.

  

013. Bigfoot 1

Oooooooo, it goes through big puddles. Give this truck a toy. All sarcasm aside, cool picture, bad design. Bigfoot and its monster truck brethren are meant to be tough machines capable of flattening anything in its path. The baby blue borders don't read "TOUGH" to me.

On the flip side, I'm digging the simple design on the back. It has a definite early-90s SkyBox feel to it. My one complaint is the text reads a little to much like propaganda. But what are you going to do when you have a set dedicated to one truck.

 
 

043. Bigfoot Tundra
A really big monster truck crushing another monster truck. It's like being bullied by the bully in high school all over again.

 

032. Bigfoot
I have to say, I'm kind curious as to what kind of race that brown 2 car was in. I'd also go out on a limb and say Bigfoot won (or was a poor sport about not winning). 

 

022. Bigfoot 3

Such destruction. I can smell the gas fumes. I think I just let out a nostalgic flip of my one-time faux mullet as well.

 

0 

083. Bigfoot

The pack finishes with a double take of two Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) charging through the big puddle. I wonder if one is Bigfoot and the other's Bizarro Bigfoot?

I was hoping for more crushing and a little less puddles. Going by this lone pack of a cheap product, perhaps the monster trucks are best left for the racing equivalent of a freak show and not plastered on cardboard.

Bully for Blasters: 2008 Upper Deck Goudey 2/8

Last time, I hit the jackpot. Will there be a letdown in pack two? Most certainly. But to what extent? To be continued...now.

39 Luis Aparicio - Little Looie won a World Series with the Orioles in 1966, but he's pictured with the White Sox. Everything is as it should be, actually.

169 Raul Ibanez - Is on pace for his third straight 100-RBI season. For serious.

117 David Wright - The most famous D.W. this side of Marc Brown books.

55 Troy Tulowitzki - I have opened three packs of Goudey (including one from last year). I have gotten both Tulo base cards.

100 Chin-Lung Hu RC - His season has been hampered by vision problems, which sounds scary.

48 Joe Morgan - The watchword is "consistency".

178 Carlos Pena - I'd be even happier for the Rays' success if they hadn't just switched to those lame generic-looking uniforms.

YSL5350 Kevin Maas Yankee Stadium Legacy: 04/28/1992 - Hahaha, my first YSL insert is the biggest flash-in-the-pan in Bomber History. Future Yankee free-agent bust Kevin Brown shuts down the home team 1-0, as the Rangers win. For a Yankee hater such as myself, this is a fine card.

Okay, no autographs or short prints, but I'm a sucker for the retired-player cards, and now my dark curiosity about Yankee Stadium Legacy has been satisfied. Not bad.

2008 Heritage 1959 Buyback

Here's another pack from the haul of boxtoppers I just picked up. This is a buyback card from 1959 that was inserted one in every other hobby box of 2008 Heritage. If they were one in every box, I might have bought a couple more boxes. With no guarantee, I held off and bought blasters and worked on the T205 mini bonus cards set instead. This pack cost me all of a buck. Let's stare deeply into the wrapper and see if we can discern who is in this bugger.

Hmmmm... that's definitely Warren Spahn, don't you think? Warren is the only card I need from the Braves '59 team set other than the high series All Star cards. Maybe I should just slip the pack unopened into my team binder and call it complete. Nah, I gotta open it. I cannot resist.

#11 Billy Hunter

Hey, that's an Indian, not a Brave. This is Billy's last card as a player, but he had a few oddball issues and a handful of Topps cards in the '70s as a coach and manager. His rookie card is from the 1953 Topps set and features the awesome St. Louis Browns 'brownie' logo. He also played for the Orioles (where he was later a coach for many years, the Yankees and Athletics. The cartoon on the back notes his selection to the All Star team his rookie season. This is from 1959's first series which is slightly more scarce than all but the high numbered cards in the set. It's a little miscut, but the photo with the Yankee Stadium grandstands in the background is pretty sweet. I didn't have this card already, but the foil 50th anniversary stamp means it's going in my Heritage binder and not with my othe 1959 cards. Too bad I couldn't have pulled card #10 instead of 11.

1992 Stadium Club Series One

The final pack of my six-pack gift from Dave in Michigan is a poly-pack of 1992 Stadium Club series one.

In the early-90s the card companies phased out the waxpack. Too many complaints about wax stains and pack searching led to its demise. While eliminating the issue of staining and pack searching, it did not completely eliminate tampering. By 1993, fin-sealed mylar had become industry standard.

1988 Sportflics

This pack came to me from Mike S. as part of a trade for a Chien-Ming Wang autographed card. When I was a kid, I loved 1988 Sportsflics, much more than any of the other sets from that company.

Each card features 3 different photos on the front, using a lenticular lens setup to display different photos at different viewing angles. It's what a lot of people call "holograms" although that term is technically incorrect. Of the 3 photos, 2 were often from nearly the same moment, such as catching a player during and after a swing, giving the card a real sense of motion when "flicked." In the case of the Jim Clancy card, all three photos are from a single pitch delivery, which is pretty cool.

First, here is the pack itself:



Check out the Young Stars cards you could order featuring the "top newcomers from the 1987 season." I'd say they missed the boat on a few of those guys.

Anyway, the top card is Willie Randolph, #47:



I love the very simple design with the basic red border. I really love the fact that they show each player's number (30 in this case) on the front. You can clearly see the photo of Willie batting. If you look carefully, you can see a ghost of an image of his catching a pop-up, as well as an even dimmer ghost of a closeup of his head and shoulders.

Next up: Carney Lansford, #202:



This one's got two shots of Lansford batting, and the third shot is a closeup of his lovely mug.

The third and final main card is Jim Clancy, #215:



There's a shot of the back for you. This is very reminiscent of Score cards from the same era, and I like it. That's 4 photos of each player per card...not bad.

The pack also includes 2 magic motion trivia cards that feature a team logo on the front and a trivia question on the back.

Here's a Tigers card:



The trivia question on the back is "Name the current manager who shares the N.L. record for most losses in a row in a season as a pitcher." If you're like me, you instantly know that the answer in 1988 was Roger Craig. No brainer.

And here is a Mariners team card, but showing only the back:



I know that opinions were harshly divided on Sportflics. I, for one, loved them.

1986 Topps Leaders

This is another pack I got from Shane Diaz. Like last time, I'll post the categories that they led the league for them all.

42 Mario Soto

#1 AL Shutouts - 5
#6 (tie) NL Games Started - 36
#6 (tie) Complete Games - 9
#9 Innings Pitched - 256 2/3

An excellent pitcher for some bad teams. Arm problems wrecked his career, but he had a very solid five year run in the early '80s.

7 Gary Pettis

#2 NL Stolen bases - 56
#7 (tie) Triples - 8

Great speed, great defense, lousy hitter. Nobody's perfect.

38 Keith Moreland

#4 NL RBIs - 106
#7 NL Batting Average - .307
#9 (tie) NL Hits - 180
#10 NL On Base Percent - .374

I had no idea his nickname was Zonk. Thanks Wikipedia! 1985 was probably Keith's best year, although he hit a career high 27 homers in 1987. He must have been competing with Hawk.

10 Britt Burns

#2 (tie) AL Shutouts - 4
#3 (tie) AL Victories - 18
*#6 AL Strikeouts - 172

The back notes that Mike Witt was rated #5 in the AL in strikeouts, but he's not pictured. Witt would win 18 games in '86, so I'm sure he's featured in the 1987 version of this set. Britt developed a hip problem after this season and never pitched in the majors again.

27 Rickey Henderson

#1 AL Runs - 146
#1 AL Stolen Bases - 80
#4 AL Batting Average - .314
#4 AL On Base Percentage - .419
#4 AL Walks - 99

RICKEY!!! This card shows why he's the greatest lead off hitter of all time.

3 Wade Boggs

#1 AL Batting Average - .368
#1 AL On Base Percentage - .450
#1 AL Hits - 240
#3 AL Doubles - 42
#4 AL Total Bases - 312

Boggs right in the middle of his peak years. 240 hits is good for 13th all time for hits in a season.

Bully for Blasters: 2008 Upper Deck Goudey 1/8

It's a testament to the depth and dedication of the bloggers here at APAD that my last post was three weeks ago (vacation followed by a break in my Internet service), and that was some 80 drafts and posts back! It's been a crappy sort of week, so when I found myself near WalMark (as a friend of the family calls it for some unknown reason), I decided to partake in my own brand of comfort food: a blaster. I actually intended to get some Allen and Ginter, but they didn't have any blasters of it. Though I'm still not happy to see Derek Jeter's overrated face smugging back at me from the bottom of the American League cards, I'm not to heartbroken over Topps missing out on my money. I still haven't bought any Topps products since I found out about that card #661 garbage. Let 'em sweat it out.

In the meantime, this is only my second-ever blaster, following the box of 2007 Bowman Heritage that I ripped back in January. I may be losing my mind, as the first thing I did when I popped open this box was to take a nice long whiff. It smelled like cardboard. I was going to give you a scan of the blaster itself, but it's a pain wedging it onto the scanner bed. So here's the pack design:

Whew, what an exhausting stretch of exposition. Pack one is Go!

195 Ryan Zimmerman - As you can see, he's playing volleyball with Jupiter, the largest planet of our solar system.

91 John Lackey

1 Eric Byrnes Mini - The bottom of the card is scuffed. Perhaps Eric's dog did it...

GG-NM Nick Markakis Goudey Graphs - Actual dialogue uttered by me: "Nice, Nick Markakis."
"...."
"Holy crap, it's autographed!"

EPIC WIN!!!!!

74 Andrew Miller

22 David Ortiz - The only Red Sox player I would ever describe as "lovable".

152 Tom Gorzelanny - Eww, Gorzo! Between him and Lackey, there's a WHOLE lotta ugly in this pack.

225 Steve Carlton SP - Lefty closes things out. The card back describes his excellent 1972 season: 27 wins, 1.97 ERA. As an O's fan, I would kill for 17 wins and a 2.97 ERA.

Geez, the rest of this blaster is just gravy now. By comparison, I paid three times as much for a hobby box of 2008 Topps Heritage and got NO auto or relic. I don't care if it's a lucky pull, that's another point for Upper Deck. Back tomorrow with Pack 2: This IS "A Pack A Day", after all.

'08 Allen & Ginter box break- Part Deux

For those of you who do not remember Part One, click on the link and review. When you come back, read on for the second box break review.

A much better box "hit wise" than the last one. And unlike the first box, no duplicates of any kind. I've heard of bad distribution in this set, so I purchased box #2 from a completely different seller in a different part of the U.S.

It didn't work. In total with the two boxes, out of 288 base cards, I ended up with 87 duplicates. Including 6 out of 24 SP's.

The hits for box 2?


Carl Crawford - Rays : game used bat

Chase Utley Phillies: game used jersey

Lance Berkman Astros: game used jersey

Ervin Santana Angels: Autograph

Two rather grumpy looking gentlemen out of the World Leaders subset...

Gilgamesh!!!!! Sweet. And some make believe dude from Team Orange. (no 'stache)

Jackie Freakin' Robinson. Bask in that glow for a moment.

But I'm still short a bunch o' cards, not to mention at least the 3 Braves SP's... All of these cards pictured, and in Box One, are for trade...

There must be some Rays fans(Dave), Angels fans, Phillies fans who are willing to trade for these wonderful cards for some meaningless Braves cards they have kicking around... right?

Plus, anyone wanting to trade base cards to try and complete their set like me... send me your lists....

Video Pack Break: 1990 Fleer

The fifth of six packs sent to me by Dave in Michigan is a beauty; 1990 Fleer.

I always liked this set. No, it ain't worth shit, but it's got a nice design, and some OK RCs.




I still want those official Fleer 9-pocket sheets.

Sox Or No Sox: 8-23-08

Let's play America’s favorite pack opening game, Sox Or No Sox.

The rules are simple. We take one unopened pack of baseball cards that was randomly selected by yours truly. We then go through the pack card by card looking for those hard to find White Sox cards.

Our player in tonight's game is a 2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update pack. The pack contains 10 cards and 1 StarQuest foil card. Let's begin.

#1: Shelley Duncan – 426 - Yankees
Who? Must be all the injuries on the Yankees?

#2: Matt Garza – 480 - Rays
He made his first start of the 2007 season against the White Sox in a game the Twins won 12-0. Uh… next card.

#3: Trevor Hoffman – 453 - Padres
What’s the all-time Major League saves leader doing in an update set?

#4: Brian Wilson – 462 - Giants
Great. Now I have that Barenaked Ladies song running through my head. Has Brian ever pitched in a sandbox? The world may never know.

#5: Luis Gonzalez – 363 - Marlins
There is no text on the back, just stats dating back to 1990.

Halfway through the pack. Meh. I’m not feeling this pack. Let’s see if we can get a White Sox card!

#6: Joe Crede – 335 – White Sox
JOE CRE-DE!!! as Hawk Harrelson would say after a “Late Inning Joe” moment.

#7: Jhonny Peralta – 345 - Indians
Is Jhonny hiding a dyslexic problem? Or were his parents just unusually cruel or stoned… or both?

#8: Joey Gathright – 372 - Royals
Joey only seems to do well against the White Sox.

#9: John Lackey – 381 - Angels
Ladies and gentlemen, the most invisible 19 game winner in Major League history! Seriously, why hasn’t more been written about him?

#10: Francisco Liriano – 401 - Twins
Where do they keep finding them and why do they keep sending them against the White Sox? This may give the Twins the boost they need late in the season.
#11: C.C. Sabathia – StarQuest – SQ-35 - Indians
This product just came out and Sabathia’s been on the Brewers for two months. What’s up with that?

OK, our pack opening is complete. No trap cards and one White Sox card! That was an OK pack. The White Sox card saved it from being a meh pack.

So, that’s ½ point for each card in the pack. 2 points for the White Sox card.

Final score: 7 ½ points

One White Sox card of Joe Crede in this game! Let’s find some more next time on Sox Or No Sox.

1994 Upper Deck World Cup Football USA94

This will be the last of my soccer for the time being and what a pack it is. The World Game came to the US of A in 1994. There are a few thing I remember about this World Cup.

1. England were not there.
2. Indoor football - a first for a world cup
3. It was really hot.
4. and Alexi Lalas!

Yes Alexi Lalas. The Ginger, long haired, goatee bearded, musician. What a character. What a player.

There was 210 cards in the set with some inserts 3D holograms, International All stars and Postcards from Pasadena. The last two inserts were a way to make collecting the set more interesting for those countries not at the World cup. Another notable feature was that they were bi-lingual. They came in English/German, English/Spanish and English/Italian. If memory serves me correctly they cost £1.99 a pack.
There were three USA squad members who plied their trade in England at the time- John Harkes, Roy Wegerle and Juergen Somer. Also members of the squad were Brad Friedel and Claudio Reyna, they were part of Soccer America?

I will bust two packs.

Pack 1

UD1 'Postcard from Pasadena' Brian Laudrup Denmark (Who were not at this World Cup.)

156 Aitor Beguiristain Spain

168 Terry Phelan Republic of Ireland

36 Frank De Boer Netherlands (with twin brother Ronald.)

57 Jan Eriksson Sweden (Who never actually went because he was injured.)

54 Dunga Brazil (Captain of the winning country, possibly better know for a having a fight on the field with team mate Bebeto in the 1998 World Cup.)

Pack 2

19 Gianluca Paglica Italy

102 Stephane Chapuisat Switzerland

81 Michel Preud'Homme Belgium (Belgium Man-I just want to be swadding well rescued Ford! )

247 An odd card with a crying Paul Ince on the back- just to remind the English they weren't there I suppose.
14 Eric Wynalda USA! USA!

WC8 Enzo Scifo Belgium (An impressive hologram insert card.)

An interesting set of cards that I'm not sure set the world of card collecting on fire.
Again if your interested in some packs I have about 8 more.

Hope you enjoyed.

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes

While picking up groceries to feed my face, I swung by the card aisle to pick up a pack to feed my habit. As I looked, I saw a box of 2008 UD Baseball Heroes packs. I reached in and grabbed one. Why? Because they reminded me of the old "Heroes of Baseball" set. When I got home, I opened the pack to find these:


Clay Buchholz (Red Sox) - 9/1/07 Throws No-Hitter In Second Start. The cards have a wrinkled paper-like background. In the upper left corner is the player's name and team (and "Rookie Card" logo, if appropriate). The upper right corner features the reason why this card exists. The center has a cool circle with the player photoshopped coming out of the frame of the circle. It's a technique my grandfather used when he painted oils when he was alive. I always thought it was a cool effect. The lower right of the card features the "UD Baseball Heroes" emblem.

---

Well, crikey! The second card out of the pack is a Mariano Rivera Game-Used jersey card! Sweet! Well, actually, the card never says if it is a jersey, pants, dirty underwear or what... That's kinda scary... Will this one go into my collection, or be added to the prize pool for the scratch-off tourney? Only the shadow knows! (That reference may be a bit before some of readers' times). Any way, it's Mariano (Yankees) as 1999 Named World Series MVP. The back of this card features the "Congrats! You got a game-used card!" as if I didn't know that by holding the thing in my hand. The backs of 'regular' cards feature the "rest of the story" behind the 'headline' on the front.

---

Since this pack had a game-used card, I only get three cards (pack label says 5 cards per pack). That's okay, this one is a double-header featuring Albert Pujols and Stan Musial! The back reads, "Birds of a feather flock together." Although it is supposed to show how much alike the two are, the back actually almost serves as a slap in the face to Pujols: "Although four decades separate (them), the duo are birds of a feather when it comes to adding up their huge numbers for the Cardinals. Musial retired with 475 HRs and 1,951 RBI while Pujols has delivered 282 HRs and 861 RBI in his first seven ML seasons." So, Pujols has HALF of Musicals accomplishment... How are they alike again? Oh well, it's a cool card anyway!

2008 Topps Heritage Ad Panel

Here's a Quickie for Friday night. I hit the jackpot recently and bought up a bunch of Heritage and Allen & Ginter Box Toppers for five bucks. Over the next week I'll share my bounty with you all.

First up is a 2008 Heritage Ad Panel. These were 1 per box and there are 110 possible panel combinations. The problem with these packs is that the wrappers are see-through, so be careful when buying unopened packs online kiddos. I, however, would never ever stoop to such a deceitful tactic just to pick out the best panel to rip on A Pack A Day. Nope it's the luck of the draw for me...

John Smoltz
Fence Busters - Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones
Andruw Jones

What an amazing coincidence! Me, A Braves fan, randomly choosing the all-Braves panel instead of the one with Yovanni Gallaro or Kenji Johjima to rip on A Pack A Day! Ok, so I cheated a bit. They're my packs, I can search 'em if I want. For anyone who's interested the other three panels I got in my lucky find are:

Dmitri Young
Yovanni Gallaro
Chris Duncan

Kenji Johjima
Alfonso Soriano
Mike Piazza

Barry Zito
Dmitri Young
Yovanni Gallaro

If you want scans of these, you ain't getting 'em tonight. It's late and it's Friday. Pester me though and I'll post them on my regular blog.

Update: Here's the scan of the ad back that I promised.

1988 Fleer

Pack #4 in Dave in Michigan's pile of junkwax, is an unopened waxpack of 1988 Fleer. Of all the sets released in '88 Fleer was (by default) the best. Granted, that's not exactly saying a whole lot; but the design is nice looking and it has the only true rookie card of Edgar Martinez.

Base:
Ellis Burks
In his rookie season of 1987, Burks became only the third Red Sox to go 20/20. Curiously, he did not receive a single ROY vote.

Major League Prospects: R. Velarde/A. Peterson
Randy Velarde would go on to have a 16-year career with the Yankees, Angels, A's and Rangers. On the other hand, Adam Peterson pitched in parts of five seasons for the White Sox and Padres. He final career stat line: 5-11, 5.46 ERA, 1.50 WHIP

Dave Henderson
It says on his BR Bullpen page, "Henderson will most be remembered for his enthusiastic style of play and for his spinning leap after he hit the Game 5 HR in 1986." The ghost of Donnie Moore would, respectfully, disagree.

Al Pedrique
Served as interim manager of the D-Backs in '04.

Gary Redus
Gary hit .462 for Billings in '78, which remains to this day the highest batting average ever recorded in professional baseball history.

Bob Welch
Bob is shown on his '88 Fleer card as a Dodger, but before the season he was dealt to Oakland. There, he developed a splitter and won 27 games for Oakland in 1990.

Superstar Special: "The O's Brothers," Billy & Cal Ripken, Jr.
Still not as cool as the Cal, Jr./Cal, Sr./Billy card in '88 D'Russ.

Al Hall
I could find nothing on this guy.

Terry Kennedy
One of the 80s better catchers, Kennedy made four All-Star appearances in the decade.

Mike Scott
Although the Mets won the pennant, Scott was named 1986 NLCS MVP. He also won the Cy Young award that season.

Alvin Davis
Here's another award winner: The 1984 ALROY. Davis is the greatest player in pre-Griffey Mariners history.

Checklist: NYM,TOR,MKE,MON

Scott Lusader
Hit .246 in 260 ABs over five seasons with Detroit and the Yankees.

Chuck Finley
Oh sure, he won 200 games and led the AL in ERA twice. But when I hear the words "Chuck Finley," my first thoughts are...



Pete Incaviglia

Always good to get another '93 Phillie. But did you know that Inky holds a place in MLB Draft history?

Montreal picked Incaviglia in the first round of the 1985 draft. Incaviglia demanded the Expos sign him to a Major League contract, and promote him immediately -- something the Expos didn't want to do. With negotiations at a standstill, the Expos traded his draft rights to Texas.

Shortly after this trade, MLB changed the rules prohibiting teams from trading away draftees until one year after they had been drafted.

1996 Upper Deck USA Basketball Deluxe Gold Edition

Last Olympics pack for a while from me. This is a USA Basketball set from Upper Deck meant to cash in on the 1996 Olympics. Upper Deck put out this set and one featuring Legendary Olympic Athletes in for the Atlanta games. They snuck in Michael Jordan into the Olympic set, but I can't blame 'em for that. This is a weird set. First of all, the cards are die cut on the bottom for some reason. I have no idea why, but they did it. Secondly, they padded out a 12 player team into a 72 card set. This means every player gets 5 cards each plus a two per pack SP foil card. The set was produced before the last two players were selected for the team and there's a redemption card for those players inserted one in 10 packs. I apparently never pulled a redemption card because I don't have any of those cards. In addition to the redemption, there are Career Highlight inserts, Michael Jordan and Penny Hardaway tribute cards and a set of Predictor cards where the card of the high scorer in the games would win you a prize. Upper Deck tacked on a USA Women's team subset at the end of the set to be fair to the ladies. Here's a pack for your approval.


SP - S1 Anfernee Hardaway
SP - S6 Hakeem Olajuwon
27 Scottie Pippen
28 Scottie Pippen
50 Grant Hill
54 Hakeem Olajuwon
4 Anfernee Hardaway
20 Shaquille O'Neal
35 Glenn Robinson
68 Carla McGee

As you can see there's a lot of opportunities to get more than one card of any given player. There are probably pretty astronomical odds against opening a pack where you didn't receive two of one player. The cards are nice, if a little repetitive. The SP cards are similar to the base set except for the black and white background printed on foilboard. Those are the best cards in the set though since they are the ones with career stats on the back. The other five cards are broken down into one "Portraits of Power" card like Grant below focusing on the '96 Olympics, and four other career highlights cards. Those highlights cards are really repetitive, as the backs all feature all four photos used on each of the fronts.

Here's one of the Women's Team cards of Carla McGee. These are a breath of fresh air from all the Pippen, Penny and Glen Robinson cards. This card here is extra awesome if you pay close attention to the photo. Former Tennesse Vol Carla is shooting over a University of Georgia player with Stegman Coluseum's waffle cone roof in the background while McGee is wearing her Team USA Uniform. I suppose it could have been an exhibition...