2011 Allen & Ginter Box Break Part 4: Packs 9-12

INSERT WITTY OPENING HERE

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE OUT THE PLACEHOLDERS

Pack 9:

86 Greg Halman
277 Hank Conger
270 Kevin Youkilis
87 Colby Lewis
173 Mariano Rivera
342 Mike Pelfrey SP
AP5 Endangered Critters - Gharial
MMF30 Minds that Made the Future - Michael Faraday

Looking at the Rivera card makes me realize that I miss the borderless designs. Ok, fine. We have logos now. I should shut up and be satisfied.  I can't remember how much they are worth in actual Gint-a-Cuffery, but every time I pull a Mind who made the Future card it feels like 100 points. The Michael Faraday card should be worth 96,485.3365 points. The Gharial is an crocodile with a long skinny snoot that lives (barely) in India. There's apparently only a couple hundred of them left. The one on the card is not from India, though, it lives in San Diego.

Pack 10:

234 Chrissie Wellington
159 Shawn Michaels
2 Ty Wigginton
118 Rafael Soriano
61 Brian Roberts
35 Adam Dunn
99 Placido Polanco Mini
HH99 Hometown Heroes Andrew Bailey
Ginter Binder ad

I'm sad Chuck Woolery is not in this pack because Chrissie Wellington and Shawn Michaels would make an adorable couple. The Adam Dunn card is nice because before Dan Uggla started channelling the spirit of Joe Dimaggio, Dunn was the one free agent pickup that made Dan look good. Can ya believe that out of the 4 players on the base cards in this pack, Ty Wigginton is the only one worth a darn this year?

Did Placido Domingo make the Frankenset? YES. Bumped a 2006 Jeff Francoeur mini.

Ok. Several Braves fans just had an aneurysm. A Phillie bumps a Brave?? from 2006??? Well, here's the deal. On either side of Jeff are other 2006 minis. One of whom is Chipper Jones. So Jeff goes to the Braves box. Oh God, I've made a horrible mistake haven't I? FrankenSets are serious bizniss.

Pack 11:

40 John McEnroe
254 Denard Span
291 Grady Sizemore
102 Wandy Rodriguez
BHS-7 CC Sabathia
312 Cody Ross SP
UG5 Uninvited Guests - The Amityville Haunting
MMF4 Minds that Made the Future - Nicolaus Copernicus
Ginter code ad - 8:45 3:15

It seems like for every dud pack like the last one, there's also a loaded pack with three inserts and a short print. Nice to have a card of the troublemaker that got Galileo in so much trouble.  John McEnroe is raging he wasn't in the last pack because now he's shut out of this post completely. I'm not crazy about the sketch cards this year. The border is way too big and the sketches are cropped rather close. Why can't Topps just do one set a year with all original art and give it a minimal border so the artwork can breathe? They couldn't possibly screw an idea like that up. Amityville Horror was one of those terrible '70s things that messed my mind up so badly when I was a wee little child. My only memories of seeing that movie as a child is lots of flies and a really dumb scene where some kid gets his hand smashed in a window and the blood that came out looked orange. I was more disturbed that this kid bled orange juice than by all the ghosty stuff. GET OOOOOOOOOOOUT of the fridge and don't spill your Sunny D on the windowsill!

Pack 12:

298 Peter Gammons
247 Yadier Molina
145 Victor Martinez
134 Matt Cain
BHS-18 Highlight Sketches - Stevie Stressbork
323 Orlando Hudson SP
274 Stan Lee Mini Black border
HH56 Brett Anderson Hometown Heroes
Ginter Code ad- 9:41

Ok, raise your hand if you have a Peter Gammons card from 1993. The inserts are coming in clusters with another Sketch card of a player I don't particulary care for. This card is proof that Topps is half-assing their sketches now. The sideways Strasburg looks ludicrous. I was being cute and posting the time on the clock in the mirror for all the code card ads I've pulled, but I just realized that the time is backwards since it is in a mirror. This is why I don't bother trying to figure out codes. Namely, because I am an idjit.

It seems like every year I pull one black border mini card that I absolutely adore. Stan Lee is this year's Super Black Border Card. The question is not if this card makes the set.

So, which card just became homeless due to the Stan Lee black border card taking over its slot in the FrankenSet?

OUCH. This is a pain that shall linger. Braves box saves the day. Check out all the #274s in the set:

2006 Moose Skowron
2007 Tim Lincecum RC
2008 John Smoltz
2009 Josh Hamilton
2010 Nick Markakis
2011 Smilin' Stan

Damn, 274 is a power number in A&G, isn't it.