Allen & Ginter Box Break Part 2: Packs 2 though 8

Ok, enough scans of the wrappers, we're gonna crack open some packs!


Pack 2:
343 Jeff Francis
88 Francisco Rodriguez
152 Carlos Lee SP
Mini 151 Bob Wickman
AGR-EG Eric Gagne Jersey
187 Russell Martin
324 Ian Kinsler
50 Albert Pujols

Pack #2 yields the first of the two hits in the box. Eric Gagne in a Rangers' uni. Oh goody. Kind of like pulling Reggie Jackson in an Orioles Jersey. Except Gagne will have to pitch until 2084 to be anywhere near as good as Reggie. It doesn't help that I've had a grudge against Eric since he gave up that meatball to Hank Blalock in the All Star game and cost Smoltz a save opportunity. Karma caught up to him though, he's a set up guy for Boston now. At least he better be a set up guy, I have Papelbon on my fantasy team.



Yikes! The ghosts of the dead from 1887 are haunting my scanner! Their souls shall not rest until I replace my yellow ink cartridge! I know printer manufacturers will go to great lengths to boost their ink profits, but employing the spirits of the departed is a bit much. The effect turned out pretty cool actually, so I'll post it anyway. That's a great scowl on Albert's face. Winning a ring hasn't made him go soft, he's still hungry for the blood of pitchers.

Pack 3:
40 Adam Dunn
241 Doug Mientkiewicz
Mini Black 24 Susan B. Anthony
Dick Perez 25 Barry Zito
127 Brandon Phillips
247 Dave Roberts
291 Trevor Hoffman
128 Milton Bradley


Good: I got a black bordered mini. Bad: it's Susan B. Anthony. With the possible exception of Edsel Ford, Susan is unfortunately the person most associated with a completely disastrous flop that wasn't even remotely their fault. Then again, any publicity is good publicity. I don't see a trading card of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, do you? Susan B. is apparantly a 'civial rights leader', whatever that is. Hey Topps, if you need an extra proofreader, throw a few packs my way and I'll happily help you guys out. They don't even have to be good packs, I'd be cool with some old '89 Topps Big from the warehouse.

Milton Bradley wins the prize for first base card pulled of a player who is already long gone from the team he's pictured with. He's hitting like crazy for the Padres though, another nifty pickup by Kevin Towers.

Pack 4:
91 Kevin Mench
318 Johnny Gomes SP
Mini 228 Chris Carpenter
Dick Perez 10 Gary Sheffield
342 Chad Cordero
185 Troy Glaus
197 Greg Louganis
174 Jamie Fischer

Greg Louganis is probably the most authentic Allen & Ginter replica card yet, what is the bare chest and all. Pulling the Chris Carpenter mini card gave me flashbacks to my fantasy draft, where I took him in the second round. Ouch. Oh well, I never wanted to be a fantasy baseball champion anyway. I always wanted to be... a lumberjack!

My scanner really hates this set. I think the white nebulous borders are really confusing the heck out of it. The results are interesting though, I could probably pass this scan off as a mini card if I wanted to be sneaky about it.

Pack 5:
328 Jason Jennings
344 Lastings Milledge
Mini A&G back 187 Russell Martin
Dick Perez 13 Mark Teahen
294 Julio Lugo
108 Mark Twain
83 Brad Lidge
271 Wes Helms

Five packs in, I got my first A&G mini card, right on schedule. Russell Martin is no civial rights leader, but he is one hell of a catcher. Ya gotta love a backstop who can steal 20-30 bases.

Samuel Clemens gets a card in this set. Good. There needs to be more trading cards of satirists. Of course if you squint, this card looks a little bit like Kurt Vonnegut. Now there's a guy who needs to be on a trading card. It's a damn shame he passed earlier this year, he could have filled in for Dick Perez and did his own sketch cards for this set. I'd pay good money for an official Vonnegut * sketch trading card. It's topical too, what with Barry's chase and all.



Pack 6:
69 Mike Rabelo RC
118 Coco Crisp
110 Michael Young SP
Mini 294 Julio Lugo
Dick Perez 3 Nick Markakis
138 Ray Durham
219 Daisuke Matsuzaka
99 Shawn Green


Anyone involved in Ben Henry's fantasy baseball league immediately understands this scan. For everyone else, here's the backstory: After the draft, one of the owners traded Michael Young for Julio Lugo. Another owner balked and became obsessed with the deal when it didn't get overturned. About 100 posts to the message board later, everyone is pretty much sick of Julio Lugo. Normally I would mercilessly mock someone like that, but in truth he's a damn good owner and he's breathing down my neck for control of first place. Besides, I don't need to give the Baseball Gods any excuse to send half my team to the DL.

Here's the second big pull from this box, the Dice-K rookie. Japanese players rock, it's really nice to pull a rookie card that's actually the player's first card.

Pack 7:
146 Carlos Quentin
ARHR267 Alex Rodriguez Home Run #267
Mini 319 Ken Jennings SP
Dick Perez 11 Hanley Ramirez
227 Matt DeSalvo RC
154 Paul LoDuca
249 Mike Aponte
157 Freddy Adu


Why does American soccer pay a truckload of cash to import an old and busted Beckham, then let the best American born player bolt to play in Portugal? Oh wait, that's why. Freddy will have to hook up with Paris or Nicole or whoever the current trainwreck of the month is in order to make the big bucks over here. Stay in Portugal Freddy! Don't get involved with Lindsey Lohan and screw up the US World Cup chances!

Now, I'm officially on record as not really minding the current wave of mirror inserts from Topps. I don't like it when they mail it in like they did with the Josh Gibson set, but overall they don't bother me that much. Flashy shiny foily inserts like this ARod card in heritage sets, however, I do mind very much. I understand that they are trying to boost sales by spreading out this set across all their brands, but pulling this glaring silver mess in the middle of a pack full of subdued faux-lithograph cards just doesn't sit right with me. To be honest I would have preferred pulling a Nick Punto or Greg Zaun common card.

Pack 8:
329 Vernon Wells
289 Jim Leyland
319 Ken Jennings SP
Mini A&G back 55 Ken Griffey Jr.
Dick Perez 29 Roy Halladay
173 Andy LaRoche RC
144 Manny Acta
281 Torii Hunter


Looks like Torii just saw the skeery ghosts in my scanner. Or maybe he's just frightened by a pack with two managers. I love this card, it's probably in the lead for Card of the Week. This is seriously up there with the all time greats like the '76 traded Gamble, the Kurt Bevaqua bubblegum card and the '84 Fleer Glen Hubbard with the huge-ass snake for sheer genius in photography. Despite the managers, this is a pretty good pack. Stars, a rookie and a Griffey Jr. A&G mini. Not too shabby.

That's it for the left side of the box, up next, I'll crack open the middle 8 packs. There's got to be a GW relic in there somewhere.