The Joy of a Completed Page #24

Picked up a few packs of Heritage on a whim. There seems to be a ton of the stuff out there right now, especially at Targets. The packs did not turn out well, both short prints were doubles as was most of the base cards. The Miggy in the Middle finished off one more page though, which pretty much saved the packs. This is a pretty sold page as long as you don't look to hard at the bottom row.

Joy of a Completed Page - 2010 Heritage

I have nothing to say about this page or this set. I am simply mesmerized by Josh Bard's shiny dome. I was also mesmerized by his dome in the 2009 High Series set when they used the exact same picture.

Derek Lowe is not the only Lucky Bastige out there

The day after declaring his intention to collect every single Ken Griffey Jr. card from his second go-around with the Mariners (something I had planned to do with Ken when he was seemingly going to sign with the Braves), He ends up getting one of the scarcest Griffey releases in Thorzul's A Piece of History group break. What are the odds?

I do know the odds of getting this:

If you're keeping track, that's three lucky bastiges, Derek, Matt and me. I pulled this Babe Ruth Chase '61 Variation out of a retail pack last week. I was killing time on my lunch break and went to Wally world for a couple packs of Heritage and some popcorn shrimp when the Babe made his appearance. When I saw what I had pulled I nearly pyew- wait, no. I was very excited by my good fortune. I'm not inspiring Thorzul any more.

I consider this card to be a variation and not a gimmick. Basically because Topps put the odds on the pack. the stupid stealth color variation cards that no one would ever be able to pick out in a million years without having a doctorate in advanced cardology, those mickeyfickeys are gimmicks. I love variations, gimmicks not so much. This is a pretty sweet looking card even though the design is as boring as a box of rocks. The Babe tends to bring up everything around him to his level. The only complaint I have about the card is the fact that the stats on the back are near microscopic. That's pretty nitpicky though, I'll just have to get the Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass out when I look at the card and be happy about it. So what's the chance of pulling this beast?.

There are three of the Chase '61 variations that fall at 1:435 retail packs. I got extra lucky and got Ruth over Maris and the overdone Mantle versions. Sure this card is tough, but how tough is it compared to any of the other cards in the set? there's a lot of short prints out there, and there's only three of these suckers. Let's check out the approximate odds for pulling any single card from the set.

Base cards: You get about 7 in a pack and there are 425 of them. 425 divided by 7 gives you a ratio of about 1:60 packs to pull any single base card.
Short prints: these are one in every three packs. Since there are 75 of them, you're looking at 1:225 packs to snag that one short print you need to complete your set.
Dice back variations: I kinda want to collect this set, but I'm so far behind in trading that I don't dare go begging for them. Seriously, I suck right now. Sorry to anyone waiting on cards from me. There are 18 of those cards and at 1:72 packs you're looking at odds of 1:1296 to pull that Pujols for your collection.
Chase '61 variation: Three cards, 1:435 odds. are these the hardest to pull? Do the path. 3x435 = 1:1305 packs. So really, these are about as tough as the dice backs. Even so, pulling the Ruth out of retail makes me the king lucky bastige for the week.

Two more lucky bastiges tonight:
Tommy Hanson for getting taken off the hook for a loss by two-out homers from Troy Glaus and the J-Hey kid with two outs in the ninth.
Billy Wagner for getting the win courtesy an improbable walk-off homer by Mr Slump Nate McLouth.

Actually all Braves fans are lucky bastiges tonight!

Another Updated 2010 Blaster League Roster

Ok,  here's the updated updated list of people who have their teams ready.

I've abandoned the 20 team limit. If you do a rip and a post you're in and I'll sort out the logistics later. If you're not on the list yet and you've created a team, leave links to your team in the comments. If you don't have a blog to post the team to, leave details in the comments or e-mail them to me and I'll post it here. Deadline is April 18th!

I have prize cards in my hands from two contestants. I'll post them later this week.  For now, the teams will be divided into the 'free' version of the game and the 'playing for keeps' version. More details on the prize pool will be posted later.

Playing for prizes:

Thorzul - Rip and Team post.

Mmosley - Rip and Team post.

Playing for fun:

McCann Can Triple - Rip post - Team post.

Jeffrey Wolfe - Rip post - Team Post.

HamRamMobTown - Rip post - Team post.

Play at the Plate - Rip and Team post.

Punk Rock Paint - Rip and Team post.

DogFacedGremlin - Rip and Team post.

CynicalBuddha - Rip and Team post.

Lake Effect Cards - Rip and Team post. 

Chris Mays - Rip post - Team post.

Madding - Rip Post - Team post.

ZMan - Rip post - Team post.

Jay - Rip post - Team Post.

Wax Wombat - Rip and Team post.

Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius - Rip post -Team post. 

Don - Rip post (images) - Team post. 

Ike's Cards - Rip post - Team post.

DavidJ - Rip Post - Team post.

Zpop - Rip post - Team post.

Tunguska - Rip post  - Team post.

Chris L. - Rip and Team post. 

Cardsplitter - Rip post - Team post.

AdamE - Rip and Team post.

Phungo - Rip post - Team post.

Me - Rip post - Team post.

Opening Day Victory Feast

B-Mac hit his third opening day homer, J-Hey is one home run closer to passing Bonds and Jair Jurrjens is cussing a blue streak because Lowe stole all his run support again as the Braves beat the hated Cubs! To celebrate I gorged on a feast of pizza (Grand Slam, of course) beer and three packs of cards. I enjoyed them all while watching the replay of the game on Sports South. Here are the packs:

2009 Topps206

 255 AJ Pierzynski
147 Fernando Perez RC
Christy Mathewson NNO SP
224 Roy Campanella Piedmont Mini
131 Kosuke Fukudome Bronze
80 Jim Thome

I like this set and there are packs of it everywhere. Got lucky with a short print that I don't have. Of course Campy and Christy make any pack a winner.

2010 Topps Heritage

29 Reid Gorecki RC
95 Miguel Cabrera
53 Jason Varitek
148 Chris Getz
247 Casey Blake
TN3 Then & Now Al Kaline & Joe Mauer
255 Jordan Zimmerman
440 Edinson Vazquez SP

Two packs, two SPs. I have half the pack but it was worth it just to finally see that Reid Gorecki is no longer wasting a Brave card. I have no patience for pulling Braves prospects that barely played for the team, especially when they are in every single set produced.

2010 Opening Day

Yeah, I know. What the hell, it's opening day.

10 Felipe Lopez
26 Eric Young Jr.
81 Coco Crisp Blue Parallel
TTS8 Jay Bruce ToppsTown Code
70 Jeff Niemann
46 John Garland
94 Kelly Shoppach

The complete and utter lack of any major star in this pack allows me to pretend it was actually a pack of Topps Total. I realized after the fact that I took a picture of the ToppsTown code. Well, I wouldn't want any of you ne'er-do-wells to steal my code so I guess I'll just have to redeem the thing.

TOPPSTOWN CODE REDEMPTION SWAG:

Brad Lidge
Brandon Phillips
Mark Buehrle
Nick Markakis
Johnny Damon
Mark Teixeira
Asdrubal Cabrera
Yadier Molina

I just spent an hour messing with this site and I still don't know what the hell is going on. I need another beer.

The 2010 Topps Heritage Blaster Fantasy League Competitors

Ok ya'll. This here is the first listing of Blaster League managers. If you have ripped a blaster and created a team, let me know in the comments so I can add you to the updated post a few days from now. 

Some important clarifications:

You do NOT have to make a video. If you want to, go for it. If you don't, don't. I just need some documentation of the blaster rip, be it in video, pictures, or text.

You do NOT have to buy a blaster. Eight packs, be it retail or hobby is sufficient. Blasters offer two advantages: they are slightly cheaper, and no RuthMantleMaris cards.

You do NOT have to have the team ready by opening day, the deadline is April 18th, and if you did one on the 19th, I couldn't stop you anyway. 

You do NOT have to freak out about not being able to join the fantasy league, If you put in the time and effort to rip, document and create a blaster team you're in. 20 team limit is rescinded.

COMMISH RULING FOR PUNK ROCK PAINT:
You cannot use the Chase Utley World Series Highlight card for your second basemen. The Damn Yankees won so all World Series Highlights are banned from my league. You CAN however utilize my One Insert or SP rule which Thorzul cruelly ignored and use Gordon Beckham as your second baseman. OR you could scribble out the position on Thome or one of the other cards you didn't use and write in Second Base. Totally up to you

SPECIAL MADE UP FIVE MINUTES AGO NIGHT OWL RULE:

You do NOT have to buy eight packs of 2010 Heritage if you hate it and it sucks and Topps should have pulled the plug on this crap and it's the worst set ever bleargh.  You can buy eight packs or one blaster of ANY Topps Heritage Base set* (no High #s) from 2001-2010 and build your team with them. Don't whine at me when your big stars in the box are Barry Bonds, Jeff Bagwell, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. Mix and match years, I don't care. Just don't do this.

Ok,  here's the list of people who have their teams ready. Notice I am not on this list yet.

McCann Can Triple - Rip post - Team post.

Jeffrey Wolfe - Rip post - Team Post.

HamRamMobTown - Rip post - Team post.

Play at the Plate - Rip and Team post.

Punk Rock Paint - Rip and Team post.

Thorzul - Rip and Team post.

DogFacedGremlin - Rip and Team post.

CynicalBuddha - Rip and Team post.

Not quite there yet:

Cardsplitter - Rip post

Me - Rip post

ZMan - Rip post

DavidJ - Rip Post (team in comments)

I checked one more time for links before hitting post and didn't find any. If you've done a team and e-mailed me and posted a comment and FedExed me your cards and threw rocks at my window to get my attention I just didn't see it. Leave a comment here with the link please.

* Note: 2002 Topps Heritage Blasters have 10 packs instead of 8. In the incredibly unlikely event someone finds one on eBay just to use for this game you can't use the whole blaster, just 8 packs chosen beforehand.

The Heritage Blaster

Still working on the team.

A quick note to everyone freaking out and begging to be included in the Blaster League. People who take the time to buy a blaster (or 8 packs), document the rip, create a team and post it will be given preferential treatment over people who commented on the first day "oh yeah, I'm in". If you do the work, I will find it near impossible to exclude you. So no more panic attacks, please. I'm getting a few teams here and there, I'll try to compile a post tonight. Leaving a comment with your team here will help be be lazy so thanks in advance.

THIS IS SUPER INCREDIBLE

SPACE

MONKEY

!!!!!!!!!!1

Ok, now we're back to normal.

I do not dislike these

When I first heard about the '61 Chase cards in 2010 Heritage, I must admit I was not at all happy. Oh Great, another mirror set. Now I get to dread pulling Babe Ruth cards, thanks Topps. I have to admit though, this is not a bad insert series. Here's why:

The set size is only 15 cards per player. We didn't need another home run tracker set with 56, 60 and 61 cards apiece. Cutting it down to 15 each gives you plenty of each player.

The sets are numbered individually. The Ruth Set is numbered 1 to 15 and so are the Maris and Mantle sets. This makes it easier for someone to focus on one player if they wish and not end up with an insert set numbered 16-30. This is important for us with OCD who feel the need for completeness in everything we do. It's also nice for the person stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hobby shops or Targets, but a massive Super Wal-Mart in the middle of a prairie with a fully stocked card aisle. Go for the Maris set, 1-15, you're done. It also is good for mad scientists like me who like to create FrankenSets. Muahaha! It's a small detail but it gives collectors more options when chasing this set. Options are good.

The backs are actually pretty good. Unlike the other mirror home run sets where you got the date, home run number and pitcher the homer was hit off of and not much else, here there is a paragraph on the back of these cards describing the home run chase. They are pretty well written too, this is another of those seemingly small details that make all the difference.

Here's the most important thing - all the photos are different. This is huge. Consider the collector psychology. When we open a pack the first thing we do is shuffle through the cards to see what we got. We register each one of those cards in our mental database. When we open more packs, we note right away if there is a card we have seen before. This is a Double and it is Bad. We have that card, we don't need another. When there is a huge insert set with the same photo on every card, then every time we pull that card we get that negative Doubles feeling. "Oh Christ, not another Mantle". Could you imagine a kid in the '50s saying those words? Topps has trained us to think that way now with their endless mirror sets. So sad. These cards are pretty easy to get at 1:4 packs, so if they were all the same photo then that's 1:4 packs with that negative Doubles feeling. And Lord knows that Heritage does not need any help at all with providing collectors with Doubles. If I pull one more John Russell Manager card I'm going to scream.

The design is a little iffy but at least it's colorful. Plus it's really difficult to hate a Babe Ruth card. I don't even mind the 1961 variations of these three fellows, at least Topps announced them in the wrapper odds. The color variations is entirely different, but that's a subject for another post.

The pluses and perils of Retail Heritage

I finally found a gravity feed box of 2010 Heritage at the local Wally World last night. I got two packs just for gits and shiggles. I did... rather well, except for an odd quirk. Here are the last four cards from the first pack:

Matt Kemp Chrome
Ty Cobb Flashback
Luke Hochevar
Derek Jeter All Star SP

That's a parallel, insert and short print in one retail pack. And not crummy ones either, those are all stars right there. Can't beat that with a stick. So how'd I do with the rest of the pack? Here they are, along with the first four cards from the other pack I got.

Rogers Hornsby Highlight
Bobby Crosby
Erick Aybar
Stephen Drew
Rogers Hornsby Highlight
Bobby Crosby
Erick Aybar
Stephen Drew

Either I'm drunk and seeing double or Topps needs to work out some collation issues. Some math nerd figure out the odds on this one. I'd do it myself but, you know, the drinking. Plus I suck at math. I need to stick to blasters.

Two more racks of Heritage

Here's highlights of two more of those Heritage Rack Packs I found last week. The first one was kind of boring so I'm showing off another one too. Of course now I need to find a fifth to pair up with the last rack pack. Of course I've bought four more since then since I haven't seen blasters yet. Of course you'd like me to shut up and get on with it already. So I will.

Pack 2:

Tommy Hanson

Great googely moogely I love this rookie cup card. the only Heritage card I could possibly love more than this one is the Jason Heyward card that will come out in the High Numbers set later this year.

Yaz Debut Flashback

This was the only insert in the pack which seems like sort of a rip to me. Then again, it is one of the best inserts possible and I also got Braveage action, so I'm not complaining this time. Yaz is on the short list of non-braves players I really like.

Chipper Jones

I bought eight hobby packs and got one Chipper Jones. So far I've bought eight rack packs and I've gotten one Chipper Jones. Chipper Jones is apparently in one in every eight packs.

Javier Vazquez

I'm not as insences as the rest of the state at having to give up Javy, but I'll be honest with ya. I'd rather have three more years of Tim Hudson than one more year of Javier Vazquez. I'd rather have both of them and blister-footed Derek Lowe elsewhere of course, but you can't have everything.

Pack 3

The last pack was pretty boring, this one is much more interesting.

Topps Stamps Carlos Quentin and Gerardo Parra

Here it is, the fabled '61 Stamp card. The ones whose coolness are mitigated by the difficulty of their pull. At 1:108 packs, it is over three times easier to pull a jersey card than one of these things. The stamps are enclosed inside a plastic frame and are not sliding around in there, indicating to me that they are stuck. The back is numbered out of 50, I've put it in my binder already and it's in the other room and I'm too lazy to get it so don't worry about the actual number on the back. Yeah this card looks really nice. At the risk of earning the wrath of a certain Sox fan, I'm going to say that this particular specimen is not all that impressive. It's kind of like pulling an original '61 stamp panel of Vic Wertz and Jerry Lumpe. Why Topps didn't just put one panel of unframed stamps in every pack and them give out a stamp album as a box topper, I simply do not know. Topps has stamps in the '62 set so maybe they will get it right next time.

Jamie Moyer

I posted this card for two reasons. To try to lure Dinged Corners away from studying for a moment or two, and because The Aged One is looking pretty majestic on that card. So, Is Moyer even a possibility for the Hall of Fame or is he the to the '90s and '00s what Frank Tanana was to the '70s and '80s? Discuss.

Checklist

I'm not a huge fan of the '61 set, but DAMN did they have some mighty fine checklists. Not even the unfortunate photograph can spoil the perfection of this checklist.

2009 National League Home Run Leaders

2009 NL HR Leaders: Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Mark Reynolds.
1961 NL HR leaders: Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Ken Boyer, Eddie Mathews.

One you're done yelling "Moyer in the Hall?? You must be mad!" you can all discuss which group is better instead.

2010 Topps Heritage Box Toppers

You all know Atlanta Sports Cards as that site where you can get cheap boxes, but I know them as the shop that puts boxtoppers in the 50 cent bin. On a recent trip there I snagged some of the new Heritage strip toppers.

Topps has put these in their Heritage hobby boxes since 2008. It is basically a strip of three random cards uncut so it is impossible to safely store. As far as I can tell they aren't terribly popular, probably because of their clunkiness and because even obsessive team collectors don't have much use for them. What Cardinal collector would want a dirty Cub on their LaRussa card? Carlos Quentin won't even acknowledge the inferior team from his city to his right. Dempster feels like the guy in the middle seat on an airplane with two with Kevin Smith on one side and, well, me on the other.

The backs have ads for 2010 Heritage on them. Because, you, know, you might really want to learn about this new product you just bought 5 minutes earlier. Strips like these were given out as premiums to shop owners to get them to stock Topps cards back in the late 50's. That's what I heard at least, there isn't a whole lot of information out there on them. One thing I regret about today's collecting culture is that people won't automatically cut these strips up into three separate cards anymore. Maybe in 5 or 10 years from now eBay crooks will do so in order to market them as SUPER RAER 1/1 SOOPER SHORT PRNIT!!! Actually, I could cut this one up and have two of them traded off in a half a second. That would leave me with a Cub though... ew. No thanks.

Topps switched things up this year and added a second box topper. This one features two of their depressingly impossible to find stamp insert set from one team on a strip. The stamps aren't real, but are printed on the card. So Topps' #1 priority is to market to kids, and instead of making the stamps a cheap one per pack insert and including a stamp album as a box topper, they make it a 1 in a hundred something packs framed insert numbered to 50 each and throw these at us instead. Yep, marketing to kids right there... kids eat that shit right up.

For adults this isn't a bad insert set at all, especially for team collectors. The front features a couple of stars from one team and the back is chock full of team info. Why don't Topps add these strips to blasters? Back in the day, dang near every blaster had a jumbo sized insert in it. I guess now that they have no competition, they will be able to do such innovative things. Right?

2010 Heritage racks are haunting Targets

I actually went hoping to find a blaster, but these Rack Packs were there instead. No normal packs. just the Racks. Odd, I thought.

I was somewhat peeved to see there were only 14 cards in the rack. I was almost certain there were 15 or 16 last year. This means for pure card bulk, blasters are the way to go. Here's the breakdown of packs/cards/$$$ if you're interested.

7 retail packs - 56 cards - $21+tax

4 Racks - 56 cards - $20+tax

1 blaster - 8 packs - 64 cards - $20+tax

This is assuming that Topps doesn't pull some shenanigans like putting 7 packs plus some ManuPatchFractor Ruth card in the blaster instead of 8 packs.

I got four packs. Two at one Target, two at another. Both times I actually had a legitimate reason for going and wasn't just scrounging for cards. That is, if you consider soap and diapers legitimate. I'm going to show off the four best cards from each of the four packs just because I'm in a four kind of mood. Here's pack one, in order of coolness.

Ryan Howard

The cover model. I'd really like the Phillies if they weren't beating the hell out of my Braves all the time.

Melky Cabrera

Everyone in Atlanta is all like GRAAAAR idiot Frank Wren traded Javy Vazquez for Melky Cabrera. No he didn't. HE traded Javy for Melky, a relief pitcher, the Yankees' best pitching prospect AND enough payroll room to sign Tim Hudson for three more years. Melky ain't a bad player either, he'll do well in his platoon role with Diaz. What I'm tring to say is I got his card in an airbrushed Braves uni and I'm happy about this.

Then & Now Luis Aparicio & Jacoby Ellsbury

A pair of mismatched Sox here. Not totally random though, they both led baseball in stolen bases in their respective year. Historically speaking, throughout the entire Topps Heritage run this is my favorite insert set. Not a bad design this year either.

Shane Victorino All Star SP

Why do I like Shane Victorino? He tried to murder Brian McCann for Pete's sake, normally I'd swear eternal revenge on someone for doing that. I dunno, I guess it's because the guy has impressed me the way he absolutely ruins the Braves every time they face off. I had a Phillies bonanza tosay too, 7 of 56 cards had a Phil on it.

Four more packs o' Heritage

I'll let The Easy Life do my patented long drawn out Bataan Death March of Box Rips this time and save my obsessive 'post every card' break for Allen & Ginter. Here are highlights from the other four packs of Heritage I got and a few things that stood out.

WOOOOO ALL-STAR

Yay! An All-Star SP! (Will trade this for McCann All Star in a nanosecond)

I don't know what happened here but it's interesting.

Anyone who collects Braves cards knows that ever since the Braves moved to the Disney/ESPN Wild World of Sports complex for Spring Training, Topps has been using that same damn generic background of the bleachers at that stadium for half their sets. I noticed the same thing going on with the backgrounds for some other teams.

Tiger Bucolic Bliss

Happy little trees. Notice the shadow, looks like Justin got his picture taken first.

Yankees Spring Training

Note the outfield wall. Also note that both of these dudes are no longer Yankees.

Red Sox Gray Havens

Note Gandalf and Frodo in the background. The Yankees win one damn World Series and Boston goes West over the sea with a bunch of Elves.

White Sox ???????

I have no clue what is going on behind Tyler here. Did he get sent to the cornfield? Is he standing in front of a Paul Klee? Is Ozzie Guillen projectile vomiting? What the hell is that?

After introducing the deathly dull News Flashback cards a couple of years ago, they've decided to cross over the tradition of putting boring-ass public domain photos from Wikipedia with no context whatsover to the Baseball Flashback set too. Two teams, different coasts, one stadium. Thanks Topps, for the clarity.

Yay Managers! Gotta have my Bobby!

I love all Babe Ruth cards unconditionally. I despise Topps for making me cringe when I pull one.

It bums me that the Yankees are in both versions of this Word Series subset. It bums me worse that they won this one.

One last thing... Have you noticed the copious amounts of facial hair in this year's set? Half the base cards has at the very least a soul patch adorning the player's face. A few years ago it was a shocking faux pas if the guy didn't shave off his five-o'clock shadow after batting practice and now everyone's going bushy. Aaaah, we live in grand times.

2010 Heritage Madness

HLUAGHALGHALGHLAUAGH

 

Buuuuuh BUUUUUUH Buuuuuuh

Hurf Durf DUUUUUUUR

nyongnyongnyongnyong

WooobWooobWooobWooobWooob!

PBBBBBBBBBBTTTTTHHHHHHHTTTTTTT

Millennium hand and shrimp buggerit!

 UALUEALUEALEUALE

HOOOO-HAH!!!!

GUM.