Some Goudey to Shake Things Up

This week has been dominated by Americana and Lost Awesomeness, so it's time for some new stuff. I've been jonesing for some Allen & Ginter or Goudey for over a week now. I've been to just about every Target and Wal-Mart between Kennesaw and Alpharetta and found nothing, nada, bupkis. I also don't have enough money for a hobby box right now, so the lack of retail goodness is doubly frustrating. I needed some bubble mailers though, so I hit the card shop and get a quick Goudey fix. Just enough packs to blow a twenty. It's not a blaster, but four packs will hold me off for another week or so.

Pack 1:

Boring cards:
Brian Roberts, Chien-Ming Wang, Jack Wilson, Randy Johnson, Hank Blalock.

(For the purpose of this exercise, "boring" cards are those I don't feel like scanning or talking about right now. If I label your favorite player "boring" don't take it as a personal affront. Take this as a personal affront instead: YOUR FAVORITE PLAYER SUCKS EGGS!)

Update - Except for Ian Kennedy. Booooooooring!

Interesting cards:
No. 19 Jim Palmer

I really really really like the fact that retired legends get cards in the base set this time. This fact alone ensures that I will build this set despite the insane amount of short prints and UD's stinginess with the mini cards. Palmer's a Hall of Famer, the background is appropriately orange and I thankfully cannot see Jim's jockey shorts.

No. 132 Don Larson

How to become immortal:
a) Kill all the other Highlanders
b) Become an Alchemist and discover the Philosopher's stone.
c) Don't die.
d) Become a baseball player and do something ridiculous during a World Series game.

256 David Ortiz 1936 Goudey

Oh yeah, I like this set. I prefer the mini cards though. I wonder how hard it would be to complete the mini '36 set? Probably harder then completing the original '36 set. UD got it right though, check out the back:

Foul / 11ɐq I still haven't seen a hit on one of these cards... It's a good game if you're really into strikeouts and walks.

Pack 2:

Boring cards:
Ian Kennedy, Josh Willingham, Khalil Greene, Alex Rios, Billy Butler.

Interesting cards:
No. 27 Clay Buchholz

The eyes...

THE EYES..........
Actually all the eyes in this set look a bit creepy. I wouldn't look at them too closely if I were you.

No., 10 Phil Niekro

YESS!!! I GOTS KNUCKSIE! Hey, this card seems familiar...

Shenanigans! Recycled photos! Upper Deck is lazy! This bit of coolness makes up for it though:

Yeah! '70s lowercase A logo! I'm looking forward to seeing what logo they use on the Spahn card now.

No. 296 Julie Foudy

Yay, short printed soccer player. Now I only need 58 more Sport Royalty cards for the set. By the way, if anyone pulls the Chipper Sport Royalty, name your price.

Pack 3:

Boring cards:
Aaron Rowand, Alfonso Soriano, Juan Marichal, Dmitri Young, Justin Verlander.

Interesting cards:
No. 4 Dan Haren mini

Why the hell aren't these one per pack? Seriously, Upper Deck. You get so close to putting out a great set and then you pull something mind numbingly stupid like this and screw it all up.

198. Chad Cordero

Chad Cordero looks like the Joker on this card. A little makeup, some green hair and maybe a machine gun and bam - instant Joker.

No.221 Reggie Jackson

I have had insanely good luck pulling Reggie cards from both this and last year's Goudey. The back is printed in black ink, but I'm not sure if that means anything. So far all the short prints I've pulled have black ink except the 1936 Ortiz card which has green ink. At least I think it's green. Upper deck has me paranoid about ink variations.

Pack 4:

Boring cards:
Vernon Wells, Catfish Hunter, Alex Rodriguez, Evan Longoria

ExtrEEEMEly boring card:
Mark Teixeira (yawn)

Interesting cards:
No. 18 Eddie Murray

I got an Orioles Bonanza in these four packs.

No. 191 Frank Thomas mini Blue

A mini card in every other pack frustates me. Making ink variations for the mini cards drives me to despair.

148 Adam LaRoche

I finally pulled a LaRoche card to send Brian. Good thing he's not a short print. This is the second straight year, Upper Deck has had Adam staring off into space on his Goudey card.