Topps Hobby 20 pack break part 2

I originally said this was a 15 pack break, but you know how it is. I couldn't resist. 20's a nice round number, I promise I'll stop here. At least until the Wal-Mart blasters come out.

Pack 6:
UH301 Bob Howry
UH307 Kyle Davies
UH103 Antonio Alfonseca
UH156 Matt DeSalvo RC
UH43 Ubaldo Jimenez RC
UH119 Matt Stairs red
UH34 Paul McAnulty red
MMS36 Mickey Mantle History
UH11 Matt Morris
UH249 Billy Wagner NL All-Star

Matt DeSalvo's signature looks more like a logo than an autograph. Matt Morris looks somewhat bemused to be a member of the Pirates. It was a pretty bizarre trade, so I don't blame him. Kyle Davies, now he looks pissed. He went from future Braves' ace to Royals' spot starter in about two years time, I'd be upset too. Ubaldo's rookie card comes about a week too late to mean anything. The red cards are boring as hell, and the Mantle History card is really the only thing worth a damn in here. Switching up to the '54 design for this series is a good change of pace, it would have been nice if they had done the same thing with the mirror set. Oh who am I kidding, a bootleg '55 design repeated 532 times with slight variations in photo and color is pure genius and I'm just jealous because I didn't think of it.

Pack 7:
UH64 Cliff Floyd
UH9 Adam LaRoche
UH328 Kenny Lofton
UH153 Mark Reynolds RC
UH212 Justin Verlander Season Highlights
UH230 Ken Griffey Jr. NL All-Star red
UH300 Kason Gabbard red
GN456 Kenji Johjima Generation Now RUNNER CAUGHT STEALING ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME #5
UH281 Cole Hamels & Russell Martin Classic Combos
UH236 Johan Santana AL All-Star

Just when you thought the Generation Now inserts could never get any more ridiculous, Topps pulls out runners caught stealing as an insert-worthy stat. Twenty-nine inserts actually. He threw out Aaron freaking Boone! Who cares! The rest of the pack is star-studded at least. Griffey and Santana All-Star cards, Hamels & Martin at the All-Star game and Verlander's no hitter card make up for a stupid insert. Just barely. Kason Gabbard is another weird choice for a card number divisible by 100. Abraham Nunez, Brad Salmon and now Gabbard get the 100, 200 and 300 cards. Aren't these supposed to be given to decent players? The checklist is kind of dicey since this is a set full of players who were traded, called up this year or just weren't good enough to get into series 1 or 2, but come on. Sosa, Teixeira and Joba. There's numbers 100, 200 and 300 right there. It's not that difficult to do these things right. Then again, the #100 slot was used for the Ellsbury variation, so maybe they put crappy players there on purpose. Perhaps there is a #200 A-Rod variation hiding in blaster boxes shipped to Des Moines and a #300 Bullwinkle J. Moose card variation so rare the only known copy is in Keith Olbermann's sock drawer.

Pack 8:
UH97 Shawn Hill
UH1 Tony Armas Jr.
UH61 Shawn Chacon
UH150 Ryan Braun RC
UH37 Jason Simontacchi
UH164 Chase Wright RC red
UH216 David Ortiz AL All-Star red
B*rry B*nds H*me Run Hist*ry 745
UH74 Luis Castillo
UH265 Jorge Posada AL All-Star

Jason Simontacchi is still in the league? Huh. Never mind that, I got the Ryan Braun rookie! All right! The good one, not the Royals one. I can't believe I have this awesome player's very first card. Oh wait, never mind. Another good red card, keep 'em coming. B*rry B*nds is b*yc*tting my bl*g f*r gr*tuit*us and *bn*xi*us *pplic*ti*n of *sterisks. Don't be mad at me Barry! I didn't want a stupid asterisk branded onto that home run ball. I wanted the damn thing shot into space!

Pack 9:
UH12 Marlon Anderson
UH330 Brian Burris
UH42 Chris Snelling
UH41 Ryan Langerhans
UH9 JD Drew
UH257 JJ Hardy NL All-Star red
UH13 Jorge Julio red
HRK Barry Bonds #1 All-Time Home Runs
UH279 Chase Utley & Ichiro Classic Combos
UH241 Trevor Hoffman NL All-Star

Uh oh, I pissed off Barry and now he's going to keep showing up in my packs. This card is numbered HRK which coincidentally enough is the sound I made in the back of my throat when Bacsik threw him that meatball. It just occurred to me that JD Drew now has a ring. Ugh. Trevor Hoffman helped that happen indirectly. Man this pack depresses me. Let's go to the next one quick before I try to figure out what is going on on that Classic Combos card. Chase isn't really punching Ichiro in the guts, is he?.

Pack 10:
UH87 Jeff Karstens
UH142 Jeremy Guthrie
UH195 Marcus McBeth RC
UH130 Eric Gagne
UH206 Tom Glavine Season Highlights
UH81 Kelly Shoppach red
UH287 Alex Rios Home Run Derby red
GN573 Josh Barfield Generation Now Waste of Space
UH146 Freddie Bynum
UH242 Manny Ramirez AL All-Star

Well, at least I got Manny. I can say one thing about this pack, it's sheer awfulness prompted me to buy 5 more packs of the stuff which turned out to be a great move on my part. Find out why in part three.

For anyone interested here's the breakdown of the first 10:

Base set -70 cards
Red parallel - 20 cards
Gold parallel - 1
Mantle History - 1
Barry History - 2
Barry HRK - 1
Gen Now - 5 cards
Rodents - 0
no dupes