I already rubbed pack 25 in everyone's face over at A Pack A Day. Here's all you really need to know though.
Aren't I mean? On with the rest of the box then.Pack 26:
233 Jimmy Rollins NL MVP
128 Kenny Lofton Postseason Highlights
26 Manny Ramirez Postseason Highlights
135 Brad Penny
219 Kevin Kouzmanoff
222 Mark Grudzielanek
OTG4 Carlos Pena Own The Game
208 Gold Foil David DeJesus
David Wright TotC ad
55 Chris Young
81 Ray Durham
Jimmy Rollins' MVP card has nifty stats on the back like the Cy Young cards. Jimmy had 43 game winning RBI... Is that even possible? Baseball Almanac has the all time record as 24 by Keith Hernandez in 1985. That's not even the weirdest stat, there is also RBI and Batting Average vs. RIVAL TEAM. That's exactly how it's spelled too, RIVAL TEAM. Why not just put the Mets and be done with it? I wouldn't be mad if Topps put Mets as their rival team, the Braves came in third the past two years. The Mets were fighting until the end, albeit fighting like the French on National Surrender Day. Getting two postseason highlight cards back to back made me notice that Topps sprinkled the subset cards all over the set instead of grouping them together like a sane checklister would. I'm beginning to think they do this stuff on purpose to drive the anal retentive collectors nuts. IT'S WORKING TOPPS! The picture on Man-Ram's card (and Topps did actually stamp that in real foil on the card) is the same one used on the front of the pack and box, except they didn't airbrush the stray dreadlock that makes Manny look like a call center employee being robbed at gunpoint. For some reason every Dodger in the set looks photoshopped to me, even the ones that have been on the team for years. I think it's my brain rebelling against seeing Andruw in his airbrushed uni. I still can't get used to seeing the stat line: Carlos Pena - 46 home runs. Another stupid gold foil card in here, this time of David DeJesus. David was one of the players that was rumored to be traded to the Braves to fill their center field opening before Mark Kotsay arrived. Looking at his stats, I'm glad Kotsay's here.Pack 27:
101 Ryan Braun NL Rookie of the Year
311 Jeremy Guthrie
264 Byung-Hyun Kim
162 Andy LaRoche
252 Dmitri Young
106 Josh Bard
C08-JM John McCain Campaign 2008
Rookie Cup ad
67 Wes Helms
237 Eric Wedge
293 Gavin Floyd
Wooooo! Big Mac Attack! Now I have someone who can fight Obama and his elite ninja skills. Both frontrunners in the same box is pretty cool. But enough politics! Surely we've exhausted our 1:9 packs Presidential Candidate hit ratio, let us speak of it no more. Ryan Braun is a beast. I don't have anything snarky to say, he's just freakin' sick. A 23 year old with a 1.004 OPS, damn. Just damn. The fake signatures on these cards are interesting. Jaremy Guthrie takes a minimalist approach. Byung-Hyun Kim's looks vaguely like a seismograph before the Tsunami hits. You can't see most of Josh Bard's because Topps put it on top of a pitch black background. At least Wes Helms has a nice, simple, readable signature. Andy LARoche is the first Dodger I've seen that doesn't looked airbrushed. Unfortunately he looks like he's wearing a Royals uniform instead. I don't know what the heck the photographer said to Gavin Floyd before he took this picture, but it scared the living crap out of the guy. He looks like he's in front of a firing squad.
Pack 28:108 BJ Ryan
130 Justin Upton
103 Johnathan Albaladejo
315 David Weathers
172 Chris Ray
282 John Lester
OTG25 Fausto Carmona Own The Game
107 Gold Foil Shawn Green
Checklist 1
318 Ned Yost
138 Dan Wheeler
These stupid foil cards are messing up my doubles detector. I know I have a gold BJ Ryan and a silver Shawn Green, but I don't remember what kind of Johnathan Albaladejo I have. I'm looking forward to seeing what Justin Upton can do in a full season. Rest of the pack is meh. The Own the Game is nice, but I want to see if Fausto can repeat is success from last year. 23 year old pitchers who pitch 75 innings one year and 215 the next scare the crap out of me. Paging Dr. Andrews...
Ok, no more political cards! Let's pull something good out of the next four, shall we? I'm already starting to regret not ponying up for the Jumbos now.
The box so far:
Base cards - 234
Checklists - 7
Dupes - 0
Parallels:
Gold Foil - 14
Gold #/2008 - 4
Inserts:
Own The Game - 6 - Howard, Webb, Penny, Berkman, Pena & Carmona
Mantle Home Runs - 2 - 531, 533
Mantle History - 2 - 48, 49
Trading Card History - 4 - Santana, Mauer, Okajima & Votto
All Rookie Team - 6 - Anderson, Willis, Zimmerman, Powell, Ellis & Francoeur
Year in review - 4 - Everett, Reyes, Kazmir & Monroe
Campaign 2008 - 4 - Obama, Kucinich, Paul & McCain
5 comments:
What are the odds on the All-Rookie Team Cards? I think those are a sweet addition to the set.
A couple observations, now that I'm 4 packs into my jumbo box (and yet I've only posted two - guess I'm "taunting" as well):
-The Topps of the Class filler cards I've gotten don't have David Wright. Do you think he's retail only?
-However, my box did have a Series 1 logo sticker. So either those are jumbo only, or you just missed out.
-No doubles yet, but I do plan to offer up my gold foil cards for trade. These do nothing for me.
triple play - All Rookie Team cards are 1 in 5 packs. They are the easiest insert to get, but there are also something like 55 cards in the set. I agree though, they are pretty awesome. They'll be in series two as well.
kevin - do your filler cards have a different player on them or are they the same ones they've been using for the past five years? I'd prefer to see different players just for variety's sake.
I'm also going to pester my hobby shop for a sticker. I deserve a sticker dammit!
It's the same ToTC card as always. Ho hum.
Same here on the TotC card. I got the old version in my Hobby box. Although I did notice that the copyright date was 2006.
Topps must have printed a bazillion on these things.
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