The Slowest Box Break Ever: Part 2, Packs 1-4

Ok, I've cleaned out enough drafts to open a few packs. Here's the first 4 out of the box.

PACK 1
149 Freddy Sanchez
65 Dontrelle Willis
184 Tom Gorzellany no sig
27 rainbow Lance Berkman
BHP20 Young-Il Jung
BHP22 Carlos Corporan
95 Joe Mauer
159 Matt Cain

First pack=bunch of stars. Freddy Sanchez leads off the box. Dontrelle Willis and Matt Cain are two pitchers I'd much rather give 10 million bucks to instead of Tommy Turncoat. Make a trade, Frank! I can't emphasize enough how much better the rainbow foil looks than the crappy ding magnets from last year's set.It's a good thing Jung uses his middle name like Charles Nelson Reilly or it would get confusing for the Angel announcers to talk about the young Young Jung. The Gorzelanny card has no signature on it which is some sort of variation this year. Best card in the pack: Joe Mauer.

PACK 2
109 Curt Schilling
89 Conor Jackson
139 rainbow Pat Burrell
BHP28 Bryan Byrne
BHP48 Woods Fines
249 Delmon Young RC
195 John Lackey
43 Jeff Francis

So does Curt go into the Hall with a Sox cap now? Two rings in four years... Another Delmon Young Non-RC. Yawn. One thing I like best about Bowman is all the great names you find among these prospects. Bryan Byrne is one letter away from being an anagram. Woods Fines is just ridiculous. Woods is actually his middle mane, he had to insist on being called that. Is Donald really that bad a name? In the fifties he'd be Donny or Woody or Skeeter or Traffic and would install aluminum siding in the offseason.

PACK 3
169 Cole Hamels
57 Cliff Lee
131 rainbow Prince Fielder
BHP100 Fernando Martinez
BPH8 Anthony Hatch
210 Joe Smith RC
51 Tom Glavine
167 Chipper Jones

The rainbow Fielder card is nice. The backgrounds on these cards are interesting this year. Hamels and Lee are in their Spring Training digs. Joe Smith is in front of the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel. Is that Coney Island maybe? Tom Glavine is standing underneath a Delta Airlines ad. Getting ready to board a plane to the ATL I guess... Chipper is in the Disney World spring training stands that have become ubiquitous on Topps Braves cards. Chipper will be very happy if Glavine signs. He, Smoltzie and Huddy will have a fourth for golf.

PACK 4
13 Chien-Ming Wang
193 Chase Utley
196 Nick Markakis no sig
103 rainbow Hideki Matsui
BHP18 Cody Strait
BHP16 Jonathan Van Every
Checklist 1 of 3
211 Tony Abreu RC
99 Robinson Cano

Another no sig card in this pack, this time of Nick Markakis. I'm going to boldly state for the record that if there is a third card before the rainbow, that's probably a short print. I haven't gotten a card numbered higher than 250 yet either, 251-300 must also be shorts. This is a Yankee pack with Wang, Cano and a hideous Hideki. Someone in the Topps art department is not a fan of Godzilla because Pizza Face does not even begin to cover it. Pretty strange considering the amount of touch up work done on everyone else to get the original '52 feel. Cody Strait is the 4th or 5th prospect using his middle name, what's up with that? The first checklist card pops up in this pack. It is way thinner than the rest of the cards. Available Jones is on the back, but they took away the B from his cap for some reason.

Scans will be up soon, packs 5-8 will be opened after I knock out a few more posts.