2009 Topps Heritage High Series Box Break - Part: Packs 17-24

Allrighty, let's finish this. As you can see I got Medlen in the box. Did I get the Hanson? Read on through this post full of drivel and find out! Or just cheat and scroll down and look at the pretty pictures. Miss my drivel, see if I care.

Pack 17

629 Lastings Milledge
637 Travis Ishikawa
621 Kevin Correa
705 Kendry Morales SP
583 Garrett Jones
575 Scott Rolen

Dang, the reds look like they are going to take it this year. Braves and reds in the NLCS, baby! It's 1995 all over again!

Pack 18

593 Jason Giambi
535 Chad Qualls
509 Alfredo Aceves
CHR186 Jordan Schafer Chrome #1452/1960
636 Ben Francisco
605 Alex Gonzalez

There must be some kind of disease infecting the Turner Field outfield that is a career-ruiner. Frenchy, McLouth and Schafer all came down with a terminal case. Someone move J-Hey to second base, quick!

Pack 19

601 Jerry Hairston Jr.
644 Mike Hampton
672 Aubrey Huff
CHR155 Huston Street Chrome #1443/0960
618 Jarrod Washburn
634 Mark Loretta

Huston Street saved the game for the Rockies last night against the Braves. If only he had pitched like Hampy up in Colorado...

Pack 20

529 Brent Cecil RC
552 Daniel Schlereth RC
719 Ricky Romero RC SP
CHR134 JA Happ RC Chrome Refractor 176/560
598 Jeff Baker
574 Gabe Kapler

HAPP SHIIIIIIINY..... I don't really know what to do with the high series Chrome. I should probably wait for a Phillies and Astros fan to make an offer for it.

Pack 21

662 Ramon Ramirez
325 Kris Medlen RC
594 Jason Jaramillo RC
RP-02 Tommy Hanson Rookie Performers
571  Francisco Cervelli RC
544 Coco Crisp

Hanson! The wrong one! I felt like Red Leader when I pulled this card. "Negative. It didn't go in. It only impacted on the surface" SO CLOSE

Pack 22:

540 Clay Zavada RC
520 Bobby Scales RC
679 Scott Downs
716 Orlando Hudson SP
516 Bartolo Colon
528 Aaron Bates RC

What is with all the Orlando Hudsons?!?

Pack 23

607 John Mayberry Jr. RC
668 Xavier Paul RC
647 Mitch Jones RC
FB-03 Randy Johnson Flashback
513 Andruw Jones
519 Bud Norris RC

Big Unit, Andruw Jones and a slopload of rookies. I'm still slightly miffed the Braves traded Crash Davis to Pittsburgh.

Last chance for a Hanson SP!

Pack 24

502 Mat Latos RC
568 Evereth Cabrera RC
609 Johnny Gomes
686 Aaron Hill SP
612 Jose Contreras
595 Jason Kubel
 
WRONG YOUNG STAR PITCHER! Making this twice as painful is that I got an extra SP in the box and it was fantasy bust Aaron Hill. Oh sadness. I've mentioned it before but the cap on Mat's head just does not look right at all. I get that the flat bill on a cap is all the fashion among the cool kids (just see Kris Medlen up top) But this... this just doesn't look normal. If I didn't know better, I would swear it's a bad 70's airbrush job.

That's the box, I'll do a wrap up of both boxes and try to post the winner of the SAT contest tonight. Maybe.

2009 Topps Heritage High Series Box Break - Part 3: Packs 9-16

As you can tell, I blogged not even a little bit this weekend. I'll try to knock out this box today. Here's the box toppers and the Mojo if you missed it.

Pack 9

581 Gregg Zaun
542 Clayton Richard
506 Adam Kennedy
CHR183 David Hernandez Chrome 1508/1960
670 Ross Detwiler
569 Alex Rios

Is David Hernandez any good? The first page of results on Google are clogged up with stuff about a stripper who was on American Idol. Maybe they're the same person?

Pack 10

565 Endy Chavez
589 Jamey Carroll
626 Tim Redding
FB-08 Mariano Rivera Flashback
504 Takashi Saito
567 Eric Hinske

Anyone else have the feeling that as we watch Trevor Hoffman struggle mightily trying to get save #600 for the Brewers, that Mo is just going to blow right by him in a year or two anyway? Kinda like Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan with the strikeout record.

PAck 11

666 Rich Hill
655 Omir Santos RC
628 Landon Powell RC
711 Trevor Cahill RC SP
545 Neftali Feliz RC
674 Ryan Church

Ok, the Teixeira trade was a disaster. Steven Marek might be in the bullpen next year at least.

Pack 12

664 Randy Wells
683 Bill Hall
503 Aaron Poreda RC
619 Justin Masterson
538 Chris Jakubauskas RC
557 David Huff RC

I can't think of anything to say about these guys. The only reason I chose Justin is I liked the way the bottom strip looked with the black and red letters on yellow. Cheif Wahoo seems to like it too.

Pack 13

651 Nick Green
501 Shane Robinson RC
550 Daniel Bard RC
695 Elvis Andrus RC SP
608 Jon Garland
649 Ty Wigginton

Oh dear God the Teixeira trade was awful awful. At least JD Drew got our asses to the playoffs.

Pack 14

582 Homer Bailey
614 Josh Outman
641 Micah Hoffpauir
CHR127 Trevor Crowe RC Chrome 1572/1960
681 Scott Olsen
599 Jeff Francoeur

Now that he's no longer the Golden Child, I can finally admit that Jeff Francoeur's buck teeth have always reminded me of the Dopefish.

Pack 15:

547 Craig Stammen RC
587 JP Howell
622 Kevin Gregg
CHR169 Orlando Hudson Chrome 1509/1960
623 Kevin Millar
563 Pedro Martinez

Why does no one want to pick up Pedro this year? And why do I attract Orlando Hudson cards like I'm an O-Dog magnet?

Pack 16

603 Jody Gerut
643 Mike Carp RC
507 John Smoltz
TN-10 Roger Maris & Torii Hunter Then and Now
548 Christian Guzman
521 Nick Evans

Behold: Warren Spahn in a Giants uniform. Sad. So sad. 

2009 Topps Heritage High Series Box Break - Part 2: Packs 1-8

Here's packs 1-8 of the Heritage High box. I've got all your guesses for my SAT exam just about scored, I'm just trying to figure out how to rule one one of the answers. I'll announce the winner this weekend.

Pack 1

561 Derek Lowe
532 CJ Wilson
514 Anthony Swarzak RC
700 Huston Street SP
517 Michael Saunders RC
584 Julio Lugo

D-Lowe starts off the box along with a short print. Amazingly there were no dupes among my SPs even though I had a few already.

Pack 2

652 Tyler Greene RC
613 Josh Bard
596 Jason Marquis
CC-RH Ryan Howard Bat
645 Mike Sweeney

Second pack reveals the hit. Luckily we have the Tommy Hanson SP to provide further suspense. Lots of people guessed a relic would be the hit, but no one picked Ryan Howard.  I could have done much worse than this I suppose.

Pack 3

525 Braden Looper
640 Melky Cabrera
685 Sean West RC
CHR199 Chris Tillman RC Chrome 1569/1960
508 Alex Cora
663 Wilkin Ramirez RC

Melky! I just don't get the hate towards the Melk man. These guys want to deport him. To North Korea. Wilkin Ramirez is also a newly acquired Brave.

Pack 4

537 Chris Gimenez RC
556 David Hernandez RC
693 Chris Coghlan RC SP
CHR150 Elvis Andrus RC Chrome Refractor 123/560
579 George Sherrill
536 Marc Rzepczynski RC

An SP and Chrome refractor in the same pack, not bad. Not bad at all.

Pack 5

590 Jarrett Hoffpauir RC
617 Julio Borbon RC
638 Matt Maloney RC
TN-3 Brooks Robinson & Adrian Beltre Then and Now
678 Ryan Spilborghs
527 Brandon Wood

Brooksie and Beltre. They don't really seem to be the same kind of player to me. High number Then & Nows can have some odd pairings.

Pack 6

656 Orlando Cabrera
680 Scott Hairston
676 Ryan Perry RC
CHR197 Takashi Saito Chrome 1588/1960
551 Jack Wilson
602 Jesus Guzman RC

Can ya believe I already have this Saito Chrome? I popped it into a package for a Sawx fan today. The lettering on this Chrome card looks like enamel. It's a nifty look.

Pack 7

657 Vin Mazzaro RC
671 Ross Gload
659 Rafael Soriano
RP-07 Gordon Beckham Rookie Performers
639 Scott Kazmir
620  Kanshin Kawakami RC

Beckham insert and two Braves who are no longer with the team. Not bad at all.

Pack 8

616 Juan Uribe
586 JJ Putz
555 David Freese RC
688 Andrew McCutcheon RC SP
592 Cliff Lee
534 Cesar Izturis

McCutcheon is one of the big three short printed rookies along with Beckham and Hanson. Cliff Lee on a Phillies card is mildly amusing. Halladay's up on the Nats 1-0 as I type this so not all that amusing.

2009 Topps Heritage High Series Box Break - Part 1: Box Toppers and detritus

Obak wasn't the only box I ripped. Time to show off the 2009 Topps Heritage High Series Presented By Topps 2009 Updates And Highlights Because We Are Using A Loophole To Circumvent This Product Around The Licensing Agreement Which Is Why You Are Paying The Same Price As Heritage Proper But Getting Two Cards You Want Replaced By Two Crappy Base Cards From A Set You Already Completed A Month Ago When You Bought Those Jumbo Boxes Of Updates & Highlights And You Still Didn't Even Get A Sketch Card Which Was All You Wanted In The First Place box I picked up because I like the 1960 design and it was cheap as dirt, but still enough to get me free shipping. Oh Yeah, I also wanted the Tommy Hanson Shortprint, but I'm too lazy to go on eBay and pick it up for 5 bucks.

Here's the box toppers. Wait, did he say toppers? That's right, I got me a buyback. First, the strip card:

Let those Youngsters know you have 209 Topps blah blah blah! And then hope their dad comes into buy a box, because the kids don't care no more.

Johnny Gomes and two Padre rookies. The Padres are going to mess up the Braves in the playoffs, I just know it. The season is going too well for something horrific like losing to what everyone thought was the worst team in baseball at the beginning of the season to not happen. That was an awkwardly written sentence but you'll have to excuse me because I am too gripped by Pennant Race Dread to think straight right now.

Ok, here's the good one:

Buyback card! And the winnah is....

Detroit Tigers coaches! Floaty heads! And there's a Hall of Famer on there too!

I basically treat the Topps base cards like garbage in this set, but here's some garbage that caught my eye.

This is such a great looking card. Too bad it's spoiled by a Yankee and a Met.

I desperately want Andruw Jones to be a Hall of Famer one day, but his post-Braves career is a hot mess. I just don't know.

Wilkin Ramirez is the latest member of the Braves' rotating fringe outfielder squad now that Josh Anderson, Brian Barton, Willy Taveras and Gregor Blanco have been run out of town.

Ball on bat. Sqiushes slightly from impact. Nice.

Here's Javy back when he was good. So, who's had the better season, Javy at 9-9 with a 4-something ERA for the best team money can buy, or Melky and Dunn who have actually contributed to the Braves this year? Don't even worry about the top 10 prospect we got either. That's what I thought, ya Wren haters.

They're Here - Contest results and 2nd chance contest

The package arrived, but nobody guessed correctly. There were a lot of guesses that were on the right track, but no one got it exactly right. I won't keep you in suspense anymore, here's the swag:

2010 Tristar Obak

Topps Heritage High Number Series Presented by Topps 2009 Baseball Updates & Highlights

Since no one guessed, I'll give you guys a second chance now that you know what you're dealing with. Answer the following questions. Whoever has the highest point total from answering correctly wins. Prize: A couple of relics and autos and a pile of cards from your favorite team or set. Your favorite set cannot be Ultimate or 1952 Topps or anything crazy. Got it? Good. Here's the questions.

Heritage Questions:

5 pts: Name one player on the Heritage three card strip box topper.

5 pts: Did I get a buyback card? Yes or no.
     If yes: guess the player for a bonus 50 pts, or the team for a bonus 10 pts.

5 pts: Is the hit a relic or autograph?


25 points: Name the player on the hit.

15 pts: Did I get the Tommy Hanson short print which was the whole reason I bought the box? Yes or no.
    
5 pts: Name the player on one Chrome card pulled.

5 pts: Name the player on one insert pulled.

10 pts: Total number of Braves pulled out of the box. This includes both cards with Braves logos and current Braves with other teams (including minor leaguers).

Obak Questions:

5 pts: Did I get a hot box?

25 pts: Name the team on the box topper.

10 pts each: Name 4 autographs in the box.
      100 bonus pts: choose a cut auto or a mini or one of the other case hits as one of the autos and choose the right player.

10 pts: Name a player on a mini card in the box.

5 pts: Name a player on a short print in the box.

5 pts: Name a player on a parallel in the box.

25 pts: Total number of Braves in the box.
       25 bonus points:  Total number of Heywards in the box.

Special Super Jeopardy question:  

Will I get a J-Hey autograph in the box?

If you answer YES:
If you are correct you get 50 points. Incorrect, you lose 25 points.

If you answer NO:
If you are correct you get 25 points. Incorrect, you lose 50 points.

If you don't answer at all, you're not much of a gambler, but a wise person.

If you need help, here's the checklists:

TriStar Obak

Heritage High



Some players get bonus points for their previous guesses. Here's the current standings:

Play at the Plate: First to guess Obak - 10 pts.
Don - First to guess Heritage High - 8 pts.
Hackenbush - For Obak shipping shenanigans - 6 pts.
Beardy - For being the first one to man up and gamble that there is a Heyward auto in my box. - 5 pts.
S - for picking Heritage High second - 4 pts.
BuckeyeState Cards - For picking Heritage third - 2 pts.

Good luck.... I am ripping the Heritage box tonight and will be videoing the Obak box this weekend. Deadline for entries is 10:00pm Eastern on Sunday night.

Random Current Brave #8

Dude hit a walk-off against our #1 rival in the division last night. I figure it's time to give some love to Mr. Slump. Here's his Heritage High Numbers card from 2009, AKA his first Heritage card  in a Braves uniform.

...which is a fecking short print. Ha! Topps tried to keep me from getting McLouthy goodness last year but I foiled your evil schemes Topps! Buy buying a lot of packs... and lucking into one... and I still don't have the Hanson short print....dammit. Topps wins again.

I want to get High

NO NO NO.

Topps Heritage High.

Number Series.

Presented by:

TOPPS

2009 Baseball

Updates & Highlights.

Major League Baseball

6 Heritage High Number Cards + 2 Updates & Highlight cards + 1 Stick of Bubble Gum.

Packs with a relic card contain 7 cards.

Patent Pending.

Here's a pack to open you pothead degenerates. Do cards, not drugs!

633 Tony Gwynn

Cool stat on the back: Tony's 1st hit was 24 years to the day after his dad's first. Sadly I dinged up this card pretty badly with my keys. D'oh!

653 Nyjer Morgan

That DC on the helmet is pretty slick. If Liberty Media ever move the Braves to Bermuda for a tax dodge shelter I might have to become a Nats fan just for the swag.

533 Carl Pavano

fdgakjndf

No, really. fdgakjndf just about sums it up.

Abominations to the Lord

Get this CRAP outta my Heritage!!!

Actually the Masterson throwback uni is pretty slick, it just doesn't belong in my pack of Heritage.

CHR180 Brett Gardner Chrome 1361/1960

A lot of people on the Braves Beat blog were hoping for this guy instead of Melky in the Vazquez trade. I don't understand what Atlantans got against Melky. Melky's a good player dammit! Also: I know bupkis about Gardner.

519 Bud Norris RC

Of Bud, I know nothing. Bud looks like he may be familiar with the Bud, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN AND I THINK YOU DO

583 Garrett Jones

I JUST saw this card on another blog and I wasn't paying attention enough to glean any info on this dude out of it so I could be able to write something coherent about him here. This is the problem with Heritage High: I DON'T KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE. Now, you could say this is a me problem and not a Topps problem, but I'm not the one selling nobodies for the same price as regular Heritage with two less cards in the pack. BRING BACK BOWMAN HERITAGE! Or Topps Total. Either one works for me.

I'M YELLING AND I DON'T KNOW WHYYYYYYY

First pack of 2009 Topps Heritage High Number Series presented by Topps blah blah blah

Orange and Green? Really?


I had to pick up a pack of this stuff just because it's Heritage, but it's likely the last one for a long time unless I splurge on a Jumbo. The 2008 edition boxes are pretty cheap and I have Topps206 to obsess over. I can wait.

553 David Aardsma

This bum knocked Hank Aaron out as the first name alphabetically of all MLB players. Now when I see blurbs on the front of baseball encyclopedias instead of Aaron to Zisk it reads Aardsma to Zisk. I hate you, David Aardsma.

607 John Mayberry Jr.

Rookie Stars return in the High Series. I wonder if Topps is going to finish up all the coaches and team cards they left out of the low series? I wonder if I'll ever stop being lazy and just look at the checklist?

668 Xavier Paul

According to the cartoon on the back, Xavier was a delinquent in high school.Quit hanging out behind the gym and go to your algebra class you hooligan!

Some Useless Crap

I don't care if this is the only way this set could even exist, it sucks and I hate it.

CHR108 Matt Diaz #900/1960

Since the Braves just spent all their money on a hellacious bullpen, Matty will likely get a lot of time in the field this year.

654 Omar Vizquel

This guy's going to end up playing longer than Julio Franco at this point. Heck, maybe longer than Minnie Minoso...

612 Jose Contreras

I remember when this guys cards were on fire back in '03. Now they're only good for kindling.