2002 Topps Ten

I've never heard of this stuff before, but the concept behind the set seems pretty simple. The checklist consists of cards for each of the top ten players in a variety of statistical categories. In one way it just seems like a cheap excuse to release another set, but in another way it provides a nice snapshot of the statistical leaders, kind of like the 1986 Topps Leaders set.

#136 - Jon Lieber - Chicago Cubs - 5th in Wins - I've got a destination in mind for this Cubs card...
#19 - Cliff Floyd - Florida Marlins - 9th in Doubles
#147 - Mike Mussina - New York Yankees - 7th in ERA - I actually don't really mind the look of the cards, although they could be a little less "busy" in my opinion. I mean we have a huge number 7 in the upper right corner of the card. Did they need to include the smaller number 7 in the lower left hand corner, and then the even smaller 7/10 in the lower right hand corner? Mike was 7th in ERA, we get it.


#140 - C.C. Sabathia - Cleveland Indians - 10th in Wins - As a Red Sox fan, I think it's pretty obvious that this guy is going to cause a significant amount of pain in the upcoming season. I hope he doesn't finish in the top 10 in wins in 2009, but the only way I see that happening is injury...

#153 - Hideo Nomo - Boston Red Sox - 3rd in Strikeouts - Sweet! The Red Sox paid Nomo 4.5 million dollars in 2001 to go 13-10 with a 4.50 ERA. He did throw a no-hitter though in his Red Sox debut, the first to be thrown at Camden Yards.

#80 - Bob Abreu - Philadelphia Phillies - 9th in Stolen Bases - I'll always think of him as Bobby, not Bob.

#73 - Roger Cedeno - Detroit Tigers - 2nd in Stolen Bases

If anyone needs any of these they're all up for trade other than the Nomo and the Lieber.

2008 Timelines

Here's a quickie just to get a pack in today. 2008 Timelines Hobby - first one for me with an autograph. Don't get all excited or anything though as you will soon see...

41 Justin Verlander - Got it.

60 Luke Hochevar RC - Need it! The back of the card has the same hobbit looking photo used as the model for the Masterpieces set painting. One other thing I've noticed... If the second card in the pack is the base rookie card, that means you got a Yankee Stadium Legacy card or an autograph.

127 Rico Washington '92 UD - Got it.

203 Randor Bierd Autograph - Not only do I need card 203, now I have it autographed! Or I have a sticker with an autograph plastered on it at least. Randor also is the winner of the "2008 Foster Castleman Memorial Most Awesomest Name Award" hands down.

370 J.R. Towles '95 SP - I've pulled five 1995 SP short prints cards so far. THREE OF THEM HAVE BEEN J.R. TOWLES. Argh.

150 Grady Sizemore '94 Heroes - Need it! I don't understand why so many people think the floating heads on these cards look weird. Ok, well this one is a little nightmarish, I suppose.

199 Kosuke Fukudome '95 minors - Thorzul just traded me this card. I wonder if his has the huge roller mark going right down the middle like 80% of all the rest of the cards from this subset have running through them.

220 Adrian Gonzalez Timeless Teams - I need this card and... YES! I needed the Padres stadium too! This was a good pack right here even with the SP triple and the hated Fukudome.

2008 SP Rookie Edition Football

I liked the SP Rookie Edition baseball set from last year so I decided to try a retail pack of the new football version. It's kind of like an upscale Timelines, with a base set and retro rookies. It's a little more pricey though at three bucks a throw. Blasters have a free pack of "Legends" cards in them and now i'm intrigued by this set...


56 Plaxico Burress
21 Braylon Edwards
8 Laurence Maroney
82 Drew Brees
105 Colt Brennan retro rookie
185 Kevin Smith retro rookie

BEWARE THE ZOMBIE BRENNAN

He's a zombie, 'cause the Bulldogs KILLED him in the bowl game last year. Great pic from Upper Deck on that one. I guess it's a retro card but I've never seen the design before so I don't know what one it is. I got a laugh out of the Plaxico card with the big Falcons logo in the background. THE CURSE OF THE FALCONS STRIKES AGAIN. I really like the base design. It reminds me of a horizontal take on '94 Upper Deck. The '93? SP design is also cool, they textured the foil for the football release which looks kinda neat. Kevin Smith is not kinda neat. I've pulled more Kevin Smith rookies than I've watched Kevin Smith movies. And I have not bought that much football this year and I've watched a LOT of Kevin Smith movies. I saw a hobby pack and it had 4 base and 4 rookies (and probably a hell of a lot better auto odds) for $5 so if you like it, hobby is probably a better deal on this.

1998 Topps Stadium Club

When I saw the "Never Compromise" slogan, how could I turn away from this pack? Does anyone know if they sold "odds" and "evens" packs of this stuff? My pack says "The Odds" on the front, and all 9 cards I pulled were odd-numbered. What a dumb concept...

#159 - Jeffrey Hammonds - Baltimore Orioles
#31 - Chuck Knoblauch - The design is very simple. Embossed baseball stitching in both the upper left hand corner (a bit difficult to see on Knoblauch's card) and lower right hand corner, with some foil thrown on the lower right hand corner along with the Stadium Club logo, and the player's name in blue ink at lower left.


#203 - Mark McGwire - St. Louis Cardinals - I guess it's fitting that I should pull this card from a 1998 pack. One of baseball's darkest years...

#207 - Chad Curtis - New York Yankees

#211 - Quilvio Veras - San Diego Padres

#97 - Mike Matheny - Milwaukee Brewers

#47 - Jeff Cirillo - Milwaukee Brewers

#223 - Ivan Rodriguez - Texas Rangers

#17 - Brian Jordan - St. Louis Cardinals

I guess the McGwire is the pull of the pack. Yawn...

2008 Donruss Threads

Now that packs can no longer be found at my Hobby shop, I have decided I really like this set. Luckily, the flea market dude was around for one last Christmas sale and I got a couple of packs. I haven't had much luck in the packs I've opened so far, but my luck changed a little today. Pack one netted four minor leaguers and this:

Pete's one of the main attractions for this set so why not show him off. Here's the second pack and it's much better:

4 Cal Ripken Jr.

62 Jon Still

CL-1 Stan Musial Century Legends

38 Mike Schmidt

95 Josh Vitters

Ripken, Musial and Schmidt in the same pack. Hard to beat it. Josh Vitters is the Cubs' top prospect and was the centerpiece to the aborted Peavy trade negotiations. Still is a first base/catcher/DH prospect for the Red Sox who is probably going to have problems cracking that lineup anytime soon. He's got the bust photo in all the packs I've ripped so far though. I wish they had this at Target instead of Elite Extra. I'd really like to pull a Diamond king out of a pack again.

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition

Today the Milwaukee area got about a foot of snow dumped on it, prompting the public schools to close. I was relatively ambivalent about the whole thing, since it was supposed to be the last day before Christmas Break, traditionally a blowoff day filled with pizza parties and photocopied coloring sheets. Now, since the Powers That Be have something shoved up their asses that they can no longer manage to extricate, today's missed day will likely have to be made up in a warmer month. F--- you!
SuperNintendo Andrekopoulos needs to grow and pair and tell the Wisconsin DPI to suck it.

Anyways, once we were able to dig out, a trip to Target was in order. With the store so empty, we had quite the Career Opportunities moment, although we were never chased by Dermot Mulroney. I decided to splurge a little and try a pack of Donruss Elite Extra Edition, which was mysteriously labeled "Hobby Exclusive" inside of its blister pack. Will the results be more akin to hobby or retail?

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
54 Jon Mark Owings (Braves prospect, Single-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans. I'll try to give you a look at the cool minor league logos represented in this pack.)


13 Brent Morel (White Sox prospect, Single-A Kannapolis Intimidators)


135 Jose Martinez AUTO 588/868 (Cardinals prospect, AA Springfield Cardinals)


84 Ryan Pressly (Red Sox Prospect, Gulf Coast League Red Sox)


9 Bobby Lanigan (Twins prospect, Rookie League Elizabethton Twins)


Guess this was a hobby pack after all. I have nothing to say about these guys right now, but in a couple of years we'll find out if this was a good pack or not. Martinez is the farthest along in his career of the bunch, but his profile picture reveals something a little Jack Clark-esque.

Tweezers, son.

And while you're at it, check out the 2008 Card-vent Calendar.

1982 Donruss The Dark Crystal

I watched The Dark Crystal many times as a kid, but it's been a while. The movie was directed by Jim Henson and I guess was groundbreaking in terms of puppetry and animatronics. It's a bit darker than the Muppets obviously. Apparently Donruss was impressed enough to release a set of 78 trading cards in 1982 commemorating the movie.

I'll do my best to sum up the plot quickly here, but you'll have to go elsewhere if you want a full (or more accurate) synopsis. It was a classic story of good vs. evil. The movie takes place in a far-off world and is based on the premise that 1,000 years ago the "Crystal of Truth" was cracked and became the Dark Crystal. After this happened, two races were formed; the gentle Mystics and the evil Skeksis, who look sort of like vultures. The basic storyline is that the hero, a male character named Jen (?), who was raised by the Mystics after his family was killed by the Skeksis, has to find the shard that is missing from the Dark Crystal and replace it, thereby stripping the evil Skeksis of their power and restoring order to the world. If you're not totally bored yet, here are the cards...

#4 - The Valley of the Standing Stones - This was the valley where Jen grew up, and where he learns of his quest at the beginning of the movie...

#5 - The Mystic Scribe - Here's one of the Mystics.

#11 - A Grab for Power - I remember this scene scared me quite a bit as a child. The old decrepid monster on the bed is the dying head of the Skeksis (the Emperor), and looking on is another Skeksis eager to become the leader. Shortly after this the Emperor dies and dissolves into dust. Pretty corny now but surprisingly scary for a PG movie at the time.

#21 - Aughra's Observatory - Aughra is the character pictured on the wrapper, who provides the crystal's missing shard to Jen. The observatory had the huge machine that is pictured here, which was supposed to be a model of the planets and stars in this strange world.

#23 - Selecting the Shard - Here Jen has to select the shard that he thinks is the correct one from the pile of shards that Aughra had. Interesting fact...the man who did the voice of Aughra, Frank Oz, is also the same guy who did the voice of Yoda in the Star Wars movies...

#31 - Kira's Dreamfast - Kira was a woman that Jen met up with on his quest and maybe becomes romantically involved with? Can't remember...

#41 - The Making of a Pod Slave - III - The hit follow-up to the card "The Making of a Pod Slave - II". The evil Skeksis would suck the life out of these cute little Pods, lengthening their own lives and turning the Pods into slaves in the process.

#50 - Jen and Ydra - Here's Jen talking with one of the Pods. Don't remember much about this scene.

So, what's the verdict? The movie is nostalgic for me, but these cards suck. The purple border occupies way too much space, which should be used for larger photos. On top of that, rounded corners should be reserved for playing cards, not trading cards. I won't be picking up any more of these...

1997 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

I remembered reading a post about this stuff in the past, so I grabbed this pack when I saw it for $1.39. The previous post did a good job accurately describing the blandness of the set. I should've known to stay away...

Checklist 2 of 4
#360 - Darrin Fletcher - Montreal Expos - Ever hear of personal space Darrin?

#201 - Marquis Grissom - Atlanta Braves - Pictured in Braves uniform even though he played with Cleveland in 1997. Marquis was coming off of a pretty solid year with Atlanta though, in which he batted .308 with 23 home runs, 74 RBI, 10 triples and 28 stolen bases.

#221 - Vinny Castilla - Colorado Rockies

#349 - Rey Sanchez - Chicago Cubs - Great horizontal card. I didn't realize that the banner containing the player names is embossed on these cards. I wish they were just flat, the cards don't seem to age well and seem to warp easily.

M25 - Wendell Magee Jr. - Philadelphia Phillies - Millenium - Wow, this thing is shiny. The entire card is silver foil, and Wendell himself is embossed. These actually fall 1:24 packs, too bad I happened to pull Wendell Magee, who appeared in just 386 career games scattered across 7 seasons. I guess anyone could get a Millenium card in 1997.

#369 - Mark Loretta - Milwaukee Brewers

#334 - Mark Langston - California Angels - I'm seeing a pattern here.

#357 - Orel Hershiser - Cleveland Indians - Yup, I definitely got three of the same cards in the exact same order that Ryan got in his pack break. If you want to see the photos and you're too lazy to scroll back up to the top of this post, just click here. Collation is one of my biggest gripes about card collecting. It's always frustrating pulling doubles in the same pack, or consecutive strings of the same cards in different packs, and it seems to happen more than it should.
#336 - Jason Giambi - Oakland Athletics - I liked Jason a lot more when he wasn't a Yankee. And a cheater. At least he admitted to what he did and apologized.

I guess it was worth picking this up for the cheesy Millenium insert.

I may be pushing it here after posting a He-Man pack recently, but would anyone out there actually read a post on a pack of Donruss' 1982 set commemorating Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal"? I'm probably already treading on thin ice for posting a Masters of the Universe pack recently and I'm not sure anyone wants to see more 1980s crap on here, so I figured I'd ask.