C'mon Dominique, you helped 'em win game 3, let's take it back to Boston all tied up! YOU CAN DO IT!
And yes, if the Hawks win tonight, you're going to see a FLOOD of Niques for the next game. I'll give ya a baseball type card next week. Playoffs in this town are rare.
A couple of months ago I bought up most of a box of 1991 Bowman. I ripped a few packs and saved the rest for a rainy day. Well, this weekend was about as rainy as you can get metaphorically speaking so the box came out and plastic wrappers got shredded.
1991 Bowman is a really underrated set. Ok, it's not the greatest looking set out there. Blue, orange and purple isn't the greatest color combination around and this is the set that ushered in foil stamping on Topps products. The backs are a little unorthodox too, with split stats for each team instead of career stats. Of course a quarter of the set doesn't have any stats, just a "so and so made his professional debut" blurb. The photography isn't the finest around either, most of the pictures are cheesy posted mug shots from Spring Training. So why do I like this set so much? A) it's cheap B) it's just stuffed full of rookie cards.
This wasn't a full box when I bought it, as I had already picked out a few packs to rip, but it's about three-quarters of one. The box is already open, but it's quicker to rip than to type, so I'll post it a few packs at a time. I dug out my half-completed set too so I'll note cards that actually end up sticking in my collection (numbers in bold are ones I needed). And of course, I'll be chasing that Chipper! Here's the first three packs:
Future Hall of Famer Slammin' Sammy in a Sox uni is a nice way to start off. Just as Hall of Fame voters are slowly starting to realize that the deflated stats of the 70's and 80's were a product of the times and should be judged accordingly, the inflated stats of the 90's and 00's will also be judged for what they were. No, the juicers weren't trying to ruin the game and desecrate hot dogs apple pie and chevrolet and sell your momma to the communists. They were trying to get an edge at playing baseball. It may take thirty or forty years, but it'll happen.
Three cards in and I get the first Beckett 'hit' a Bob Wickman Rookie card. I didn't remember he was drafted by the Sox. The foil card in the pack is an Eddie Murray card commemorating his Silver Slugger award from his fantastic 1990 campaign. I'd list all his feats but it would take too long. I'll scan the back instead. I like Barfield's card, Jesse is stylin down in Tampa.
Pack two:
A nice threesome to start the pack, Willie, Big Hurt and Larry. Then we get Brian Drahman looking like a toad with a mullet. Jamie Moyer is pitching for the Cardinals back when he was only 38 years old. Jeff Russel has a big black splotch embedded in the cardboard that shows up on the front as a big bump. You don't get cards like that anymore. Matt Williams gets a foil card for his silver slugger award. Best card in the pack is Bernie Williams and his amazing glasses.
Pack 3:
Second rookie hit pops up in Brett Boone. The two cards that book so far are for players I don't like, but I don't mind 'cause I got OTIS MY MAN! This card of Otis Nixon probably came out the same time he got suspended for the booger sugar but even that can't bring me down off my early 90's high. After a few forgettable players we get Jessie Hollins giving me the same look a Tennesee prison guard tried to spook me with one time. He gave me this spiel "How does it FEEL goin' through a door where you go IN but you don't come OUT" which was ridiculous because I was only there to fix the Cisco router. Oh, that was a fun day I'll tell ya. ON a happier note, we get our first Rod Carew and another Eddie Murray card. Unfortunately we end up with another Jay Howell and his shit eating grin. Every single old set I've ripped a pack from lately nets me a Jay Howell card and I'm sick of it. Go 'way Jay! Terry Steinbach and Greg Brock are the first two doubles pulled which is slightly disconcerting. All told, 23 needed and 19 doubles in the first three packs.
I'll have the next four packs up soon unless Jesse locks me away for good.
GLENN DORSEY WAS RIGHT THERE!!!! JUST WAITING FOR US TO PICK HIM!!!!!! WE COULD HAVE HAD AN ANCHOR ON THAT LINE FOR A DECADE BUT NOOOOOOOO... ARTHUR BLANK HAD TO STICK HIS BIG FAT NOSE IN HIS GM'S BUSINESS AGAIN!!! AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH
It's a puzzle. Just like I puzzle over why I've put up with a team that consistently ignores the foundations of a successful football team in favor of flashy players they can market. Who would have thought that winning a coin flip would be just another calamity in a long list of disasters that have befallen this team? Ugh. Welcome to the Matt Ryan era, exactly the same as all the other loser eras this team has gone through.
Retail - 4 cards for $2.99
Inserts
Parallels
Press Pass is the dean of College Football Draft Pick sets and it on the high end of the products reviewed here. The design of the base cards is very simple and attractive and doesn't take away from the photo at all. The action photography is generally very good on the base cards too. Press Pass used to have about a 55 card set with a 36 card one per pack insert set die cut or on foilboard or both, but this year it's 100 cards. The higher numbers are taken up with subsets that focus on the bigger players in the draft, as a result you have some players in the set three or four times. The last five cards in the set are short printed "Power Picks" an insert they've used for a while now. There is a one per pack parallel with blue foil instead of silver foil. With only 4 cards in a pack this makes building a set that much tougher unless you're willing to ignore the foil color. The card I pulled is in blue foil but also says reflectors even though it is not serial numbered. this might be a retail only thing, while hobby reflectors get serial numbered. Hobby boxes have 5 autos per box, but expect to drop about a Franklin on a box.
Press Pass is the nicest draft set I've seen by far, but building a set is going to be very tough. With all the subsets you're more likely to pull a star player, but the repeats in the checklist will get tedious after a while. It's a nice product if you just want to pick up a few packs or a blaster though. My pack was pretty good even though I didn't get an insert. Chris Long and Glenn Dorsey are two players I'd love to see in a Falcons uniform this fall.
Set
Hit's retail product is a very stripped down version of the set, Hobby packs have more inserts and jersey cards. There is an autograph per blaster though, and autos definitely drive these Draft sets. The design is quite frankly not great. It looks like a bad minor league set and the photos are marred by the weird splotchy borders. The glossy parallel is another useless card wasting one out of the pack. I would have preferred some sort of insert instead if there had to be a 1:1 special card in each pack. The Glossies look identical to the base cards just more plasticy. The backs are inferior to Press Pass as well as it has only one year of college stats and a third of the card is eaten up by an explanation of referee signals. Hit also split their set up in two this year, there will be another "high" series coming out after the draft with 50 more prospects including Darren McFadden. Like Press Pass, Hobby packs are more than twice the price, but have way more autographs and inserts.
Verdict - It's not a great looking set and it doesn't have all the hot prospects in it. If you want a cheap product to rip, a guaranteed autograph card, and a legitimate shot at a complete set in one $20 blaster, this is the one to get.
Retail - 6 cards for $1.99
Inserts
Parallels
Upper Deck jumps into the fray with a set that is half rookies and half veterans. Normally these kind of sets from the companies with NFL licenses are a five card pack with one rookie per pack, but UD refreshingly give us a set where the rookies are not only in their college uniforms but aren't short printed all to heck. It's got the official NFL Draft logo right on the front of the pack so they got some kind of synergy thing going on with the NFL marketers. The cards themselves are kind of pedestrian. The foil logos are unnecessary (and why do the veterans have a "Rookie Card" stamp on them??) and the goofy borders with unnecessary spot UV coating are not that attractive. The college logos are nice though and there are complete college stats on the back. Upper Deck jealously guards any kind on insert ratios for their cards and I can't easily find a breakdown of what is in this set so I'm not going to bother. I did nab an insert though and it's a pretty good looking card.
Verdict - Upper Deck does a good hybrid set here by not shortprinting the rookie cards. If you're only interested in the draft half a pack full of NFL stars will put you off, but it's got more different college players than Press Pass and Hit combined. It doesn't look as good as Press Pass but it's not a bad set by any means.How's that for three kick ass paragraphs! That's a future Hall of Famer per paragraph, folks. I had no clue that Glavine was Doyle's replacement! Alexander needs to be inducted into the Braves' Hall of Fame just for getting run out of town.The Braves, who defeated the San Diego Padres 2-1 Wednesday night, acquired John Smoltz, a 19-year-old righthander with Glens Falls, N.Y. (Eastern) from the Tigers. To replace Alexander, the Braves recalled lefthander Tom Glavine from Richmond, Va. (International).
Glavine, who is 6-12 with a 3.40 ERA at Richmond, will make his major-league debut Monday at Houston. Smoltz, known for throwing hard but not always accurately, will go to Richmond.
“We want to keep adding arms and build for the future,” general manager Bobby Cox said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t want to win now. Trading Doyle doesn’t affect that.
Tom Henderson was the Hawks' first pick in 1974. He played on the '72 Olympic team that got screwed by the refs.
Joe Meriweather only played one year for the Hawks and all he got was this crummy airbrushed jersey.
John Drew scored a ton of points for the Hawks, but they traded him in 1982 for some French guy.
The Hawks picked Mike Sojourner #10 overall in the 1974 draft, ahead of Jamaal Wilkes and Mo Lucas. Oops. 
You already know about Lou. At least he's out of those horrible green uniforms.
Ken Charles is bored or stoned or both. He's from Trinidad and Tobego, isn't that interesting? He also has a painted uniform just like Joe.
I got a big disappointment when the Dolphins signed Jake Long this week. I was hoping that somehow he would end up falling to #3. It wasn't likely, but hey, you never know. The Falcons have completely ignored their offensive line for a decade and now it is a complete disaster. Michael Vick made it look better than it was with his Houdini act, but with a normal QB it's just terrible. That dream is dead, so now I'm focused on the other side of the line. Glenn Dorsey is a beast on defense and our defenseive line is only a little bit better than the offensive line. Put Glenn in the middle of John Abraham and Jamaal Anderson and they could do some damage. Unfortunately, the Rams started putting the squeeze to Atlanta before the ink on Long's contract was dry. Want Dorsey? Move up in the draft. As much as I want Dorsey, I do not want them to spend more than one pick on him. There are too many holes at too many positions and I'd rather have two starters instead of one. Moving down and stockpiling picks would be great, if anyone out there wanted to move up. No one seriously thinks we'll pick McFadden anymore now that we signed Turner and Matt Ryan isn't a 'must have' franchise quarterback. Actually Matt Ryan is what this post is all about.
that's some serious Twilight Zone stuff going on right there! Baseball cards aren't supposed to weird me out like this, man! I need to stick to nice boring Heritage.
