The Slowest Box Break Ever, Final Wrap-up

You know, if I had any style, I'd just postpone this post for another couple of hours and make it an even month from the first to the last post for this box break. It's time to let it go though. The box break is finally over.

First though, there were some questions on whether some of the prospect cards or even base cards were short printed as they were showing up erratically in box breaks. After looking around a bit online, I think this may just be due to a collation quirk in some box breaks. I personally got more even numbered prospects by 2:1 over odd numbers, but I've also gotten a few random retail packs in a row were both prospects cards were odd numbered. If you bust enough of this stuff, things will probably even out eventually. If there were really short prints, the dealers would have picked up on it by now after they built up a bunch of hand collated sets. I don't blame anyone for being paranoid about it though after Topps' rather random use of skip numbered short prints and unannounced and indecipherable parallels recently.

Now, on with the totals:

Hobby Box:

Base Set:
Base Cards: 110/250 44%

No Sig Short Prints (1:3): 7/45 16%
184 Tom Gorzellany no sig SP
188 Roy Halladay no sig SP
196 Nick Markakis no sig SP
199 Felix Hernandez no sig SP
235 Alex Gordon no sig RC SP
238 Glen Perkins no sig RC SP
243 Hideki Okajima no sig RC SP

Mantle Short prints : 0/5 0%

Bowman Prospects (2:1): 48/100 48%

Checklists: 2 complete sets of 3

Parallels:
Rainbow Parallel: 21/251 8%

Black Parallel #/52: (1)
194 black parallel Jeremy Sowers #32/52

Red Parallel #/1: none

Inserts:
Pieces of Greatness: (3)
PG-JE Juan Elpido Encarnacion bat card
PG-LG Luis Emilio Gonzalez bat card
PG-NS Nick Thompson Swisher bat card

Signs of Greatness: (2)
SG-AF Andrew Fie
SG-CC Carl Crawford

Press Plates: none

'55 Red Man Box topper: (1)
21 Alex Gordon

A-Rod Waste of Space cards:
two unknown still in wrapper most likely never to be opened

But wait, there's more: I also busted a Blaster of this stuff, 8 packs for 20 bucks. Here's what I got out of that:

Retail Box:

Base Set:
Base Cards: 37/250 15%

No Sig Short Prints (1:3): 3/45 7%
198 BJ Upton no sig SP
200 Barry Bonds no sig SP
232 Dallas Braden no sig RC SP

Mantle Short prints : 0/5 0%

Bowman Prospects (2:1): 16/100 16%

Checklists: #2 and #3

Parallels:
Rainbow Parallel: 7/251 3%

Black Parallel #/52: none

Red Parallel #/1: none

Inserts:
Pieces of Greatness: (1)
PG-AD Adam Dunn jersey card

Signs of Greatness: (0)

All in all, a couple of great box breaks for a nice product. Two extra hits in a Hobby box is always nice and anytime you pull a jersey from a retail blaster you're doing pretty good for yourself. The Dunn relic was a jersey too, which was nice since all three of the hobby relics were bats. Out of the two boxes, I have over half the set and a tenth of the short prints. There were no dupes in either box. The only thing I'm disappointed in is not pulling a Mantle card. I love the fact that the set can be completed without having to dig for short prints, but it would have been nice to have at least one of the Mantle cards be a common. I'll probably dig around eBay or Sportlots for them instead of waiting to pull them from wax. Last year's Mantle card wasn't short-printed and I still didn't pull it out of a pack till last August or September when I found a Quik Trip with a dusty half-box of Bowman Heritage left in the back of the card rack.

Since this is sadly probably the last Bowman Heritage set, over the next week or so I'm going to be ranking all seven sets from 2001 to 2007. I'll grade each one based on things such as the checklist, inserts and how well they pulled off the design and we'll see which one ends up as the best Bowman Heritage set. I've got an idea of which one is best but we'll see what happens once the grades are totaled. This set may end up ranking pretty high, it's really the only Topps baseball product since Allen and Ginter that I've liked. Oh well. 2008 Topps isn't that far away...

The Slowest Box Break Ever, Thank God It's Over Edition: Part 7, Packs 21-24

Way back here, on November 7th, I discovered to my horror that Bowman Heritage was not going to be delayed for a month like most of Topps' other products and was in fact live. Of course, I rushed out and immediately bought a box. Instead of ripping it open right away I forced myself to open it up a pack at a time, as rewards for clearing out the growing drafts folder for this blog. Three and a half weeks later, my drafts look a little better and it's time to finish this thing.

Pack 21:
49 Adrian Gonzalez
114 Zack Greinke
194 black parallel Jeremy Sowers #32/52
199 rainbow Felix Hernandez
BHP90 Gabriel Sanchez
BHP76 Chris Salamida
19 Aaron Hill
59 Brandon Phillips

The hits keep on comin'. This pack has a black parallel card, which looks the same as the rest of the cards except for the black border and the serial number. It's a hot pitching phenom too, so I guess that's cool. A slight touch of white can be seen on all four corners due to the black border, so I probably have the 52nd best example of this card in the world. That's among the top 100! PSA here I come. Oh wait, Jeremy went 1-6 with a 6 plus ERA last year. But he has 'upside'. I hate cards of pitching prospects.

Pack 22:
18 Zach Duke
134 Troy Glaus
235 Alex Gordon no sig SP RC
143 rainbow Torii Hunter
BHP40 JR Towles
BHP68 Ryan Finan
138 Glen Perkins RC
187 Matt Holliday

Ho hum, a boring pack full of plain ol' cards. No autos, no relics, no serial numbers, no press plates, no holy grails, no DNA samples, no signed OJ confessions... THANK THE LORD. I'm hitted out, thank you very much. These inserts are making it that much harder to finish the set, which is the whole point of this exercise. This one's not that bad. Two rookies including a short print Gordon. Matt Holliday missed the MVP by an eyelash, let's see if he can win it outright next year. Zach Duke went from phenom pitcher to complete bum in just over one season. Pittsburgh will do that to ya. Goodness gracious I hate cards of pitching prospects. Torii Hunter seems utterly bored on his card but he may just be worn out from all the excitement from his Allen & Ginter card. I know I said I wasn't talking about these prospect cards anymore, but there's something very very wrong about J.R. Towles' card. Somewhere in the cropping and vintagizing of his card evil was unleashed and J.R. knows it by the haunted look in his eyes.

Pack 23:
126 Travis Hafner
162 Tadahito Iguchi
119 rainbow Jamie Moyer
BHP58 Jeremy Jeffress
BHP60 Joba Chamberlain
216 Curtis Thigpen RC
11 Brian Roberts
79 Richie Sexson

I got the Joba prospect card finally so I won't have to overpay for it to complete my set now. So what is this thing going to be considered in the long run anyway? Joba's RC is already in the set, tacked on at card #251. Is this a rookie? An insert? An XRC card? A rookie insert? A waste of wood pulp? All for a player whose most probable career path is as a throw in pitcher in a trade to Seattle when Hank Steinbrenner decides he absolutely has to have King Felix. Like I just said, I hate cards of pitching prospects. Torii Hunter looks positively giddy compared to world-weary Jamie Moyer. In making these cards look vintage, Topps has managed to make a handful of them look really goofy and the rainbow cards accentuates the weirdness.

Pack 24:
154 Scott Rolen
43 rainbow Jeff Francis
BHP78 Brandon Hynick
BHP74 Matt Young
Checklist 3
242 Josh Hamilton RC
231 Jesus Flores RC
143 Torii Hunter
115 Justin Morneau

Last one. It's over. All the packs are busted and it only took about a month. Well, actually I haven't opened the A-Rod waste of space bonus boxtopper pack yet. I'm not really planning to, to be honest. Really, what's the point? If someone out there is collecting that entire set, please e-mail me. I want to laugh at you. The last pack throws me a curve. in every other pack the rainbow foil card was the 3rd or 4th card in the pack. It's the second one in this pack. I know, who gives a crap? This is actually critical information that baseball card historians will be craving in the future. Can you tell I'm avoiding talking about the cards in this pack? It's not that bad really, Rolen's good but on the downside, Francis is a good pitcher, Torii's pretty good and just got paid... I got another Braves prospect in Matt Young, another player I know nothing about. No, not the Seattle pitcher from the 80's. Then again, I didn't know who Adam LaRoche and Kyle Davies were when Topps put their cards in packs and, well, they're both gone now aren't they. Nevermind. Mario from Wax Heaven has already commented on how ridiculous Josh Hamilton looks on his card. The box opened with Freddy Sanchez and closes out with MVP Justin Morneau.

Ok, the box is broke. I need to finish up another 792 Gallery and post to A Pack A Day and I'll put up the final totals for this box.

The Slowest Box Break Ever, Hot Box Edition: Part 6, Packs 17-20

Ok, I left you guys with a teaser last time which was especially cruel since I was about to take a break for Thanksgiving. Well, that's just how the cards fell so to speak, I wouldn't have teased if all I got was a rainbow foil of Conor Jackson. So to recap, I'm a third of the way through the box and I've gotten two out of the three hits. Let's rip.

Pack 17:
146 Mark Teahen
SG-CC Carl Crawford
99 Robinson Cano
BHP10 Chris Carter
BHP4 Cesar Nicolas
235 Alex Gordon RC
163 Kevin Millwood
39 Craig Biggio

So... three out of three hits? This isn't right, There's only supposed to be one auto a box. Looks like Topps goofed up in a good way this time. If anyone out there got screwed out of an auto in their box, here it is. Crawford is part of Auto Group C, which means it is either 1:58 or 1:389 packs depending on whether they bungled the odds on the wrapper or not. Who cares, I got two autos in a box, even if it is the infamous ClCf scribble. I also bagged a future Hall of Famer, a nice Cano card and the Alex Gordon rookie. Not bad at all.

Pack 18:
30 Manny Ramirez
94 Kenny Rogers
PG-JE Juan Elpido Encarnacion
BHP51 Will Venable
BHP39 Mike Devaney
222 Andy Sonnanstine RC
199 Felix Hernandez
147 Juan Pierre

Ok, four out of three hits. Box is dead now, right? The second relic is one of Juan Encarnacion's bats. He doesn't use his all that much so I guess he can spare one. I'm not liking the design of these cards too much the more I look at them. The full name on the front is weird, and the logo that takes up 2/3rds of the card is just distracting. The more I look at it the more the silhouette of the guy batting in the logo looks like someone flipping off Juan. Still, I can't complain about getting a bonus insert and this is a really good pack. Manny, Max's kid and the non-SP of King Felix round out the pack.

Pack19:
97 Brian Giles
53 Bobby Abreu
PG-NS Nick Thompson Swisher
BHP6 Zach McAllister
BHP70 Vasili Spanos
223 Chase Wright RC
171 Jhonny Peralta
15 Brandon Webb

The box that was dead has come back to life! ZOMBIE HERITAGE! Another bat card of Nick Swisher gives me the fifth hit of the box. It's a good thing I didn't open this side of the box first and then dump the rest of the packs on eBay thinking the box was dead. I would have missed out on a Luis Gonzalez bat and Andrew Fie auto... um, maybe I should have dumped the packs. Nick's a good pull, he helped get my fantasy team into the playoffs last year when I traded him for Chad Cordero. Then the fool who I traded with dropped Swisher and I claimed him on waivers so I basically got a free closer. I blew the championship when I benched Brad Hawpe in favor of injured Jason Bay like an idiot. You don't give a crap about that though so I'll continue with the box break that's getting slower by the minute. The rest of the pack is all right, featuring Cy Webb and the 87th rookie Yankee pitcher I've pulled so far. The Swisher card broke up the perfect 'every three packs' run I had on no sig cards, but who cares.

Pack 20:
137 Austin Kearns
101 Andruw Jones
79 rainbow Richie Sexson
BHP98 Sam Fuld
BHP26 Mark Wagner
Checklist 2 of 3
219 Michael Bourn RC
63 Frank Thomas
139 Pat Burrell

Ok back to reality. Andruw Jones is nice, but I have a feeling Boras is going to make sure he's so overpriced he won't sign for months. The Braves will be screwed out of a draft pick since they'll be too scared to offer him arbitration for fear he'll accept. Then he'll sign with the Mets so I can hate him like death. Why not? I can't hate Tom Glavine anymore, sadly. I gotta have someone to hate and there aren't any obvious candidates right now. I'm hateless. Austin Kearns and Richie Sexson go into the "What the hell happened to you?" file. Frank Thomas looks weird in a Blue Jay uni. And Pat Burrell is just good 'ol Pat Burrell no matter how much the Phillie fans wish he was someone else.

Ok, just 4 packs to go and I'm gonna drag it out till forever most likely. You may scoff, but I've made this box last three weeks so far and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Till next time, I leave you with the first pair of sig/no sig variations I've pulled so far: King Felix. Don't strain your eyes looking for the difference.

The Slowest Box Break Ever: Part 5 Packs 13-16

Ok, time to open some packs. To recap: so far I've pulled one relic (Luis Gonzalez), the auto (Andrew Fie) and Joba, which I assume is the big rookie in this set. Let's see what pops up in the second half of the box.

Pack 13:
186 Scott Kazmir
122 Sammy Sosa
199 Felix Hernandez no sig SP
167 rainbow Chipper Jones
BHP86 Matt Miller
BHP30 Gorkys Hernandez
119 Jamie Moyer
55 Garrett Atkins

All right, off to a good start on the second half of the box. I got a rainbow foil of Chipper Jones who looks like his mommy told him to stand still so she could take a picture to send to Aunt Alice in Poughkeepsie so she can see how big he's grown. There's also a prospect card of Gorkys Hernandez, who the Braves just got in the Renteria trade. He's the centerfielder of the future assuming Josh Anderson, Brent Lillibridge and Jordan Schaefer all flop. There's another no signature short print, this time of King Felix. As soon as I get a short print and a non short print of the same card I'll post it so you all can see. Scott Kazmir is going to win 25 games one year and everyone who isn't paying attention to how good he is will wonder what happened. Sammy Sosa is in the classic "Swing the bat at the photographer's head" pose which is always fun.

Pack14:
26 Russell Martin
70 Roger Clemens
115 Justin Morneau
BHP82 Nick Van Stratten
BHP62 Aaron Cunningham
227 John Danks RC
83 Greg Maddux
175 Vernon Wells

Pulling the two best pitchers of the past 30 years in the same pack is pretty damn nice. Roger Clemens' card has monument park in the background, which looks great. Morneau and Wells aren't too shabby either. Once again I'm bewildered by the prospects. They remind me of sit-com characters, not ballplayers.

34 Noah Lowry
14 Mike Lowell
147 rainbow Juan Pierre
BHP2 Peter Borjos
BHP14 Derin McMains
240 Philip Hughes RC
179 Garrett Anderson
183 Ian Kinsler

A short break from superstars here. Phil Hughes is nice I guess. Mike Lowell's card looks pretty good. Anderson and Pierre look like they might have gimmick backgrounds from 1952 cards, but I'm too lazy to check.

22 Michael Young
58 Michael Cuddyer
188 Roy Halladay no sig SP
187 rainbow Matt Holliday
BHP42 Michael Martinez
BHP36 Brendan Katin
Checklist 1 of 3
228 Elijah Dukes RC
103 Hideki Matsui

I've given up trying to recognize the prospects. I just want to complete the set and put it away for a few years until some of these guys start making the majors. Another short print in here, every three packs like clockwork. Matt Holliday's card looks good. He has a gripe about the MVP voting, but I have a feeling he might have a shot at another one before it's over.

The next four packs will be up after the holiday. I've already opened a couple and, well, let's just say I got a nice surprise in this box. Till next time...

The Slowest Box Break Ever: Part 4, Packs 9-12

Finding, scanning, editing and posting 100 cards=opening 4 more packs. You didn't believe me when I said slowest box break ever, did you...

Pack 9:
1 Jeff Francouer
251 Joba Chamberlain RC
151 rainbow Orlando Hernandez
BHP66 Steve Singleton
BHP92 Jim Fasano
245 Travis Buck RC
155 Jimmy Rollins
23 Carlos Delgado
No less than three of the cards with gimmick backgrounds in this pack. You'd have to be a baseball historian to know that was Ebbets Field in Delgado's card, you'd have to be blind to miss the Liberty Bell on Jimmy Rollins' card, and you could go blind finding the edit on Joba's card. All but the Joba are doubles from the first pack I opened but who cares, Ill take all the Frenchies I can get. I don't get the whole Joba rules thing. 'Joba Rules' sounds like a bad Disney Channel sitcom to me.

Pack 10:
26 Javier Vazquez
157 Jason Varitek
243 Hideki Okajima no sig RC
135 rainbow Rocco Baldelli
BHP54 Trevor Cahill
BHP96 Gregory Porter
47 Mark Teixeira
71 Gary Matthews

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The Last Bowman Heritage set ever and Mark Teixeira is in a Rangers uniform! I'm so depressed........ Next pack.

Pack 11:
37 JD Drew
181 Ichiro
67 rainbow Aaron Rowand
BHP38 Jay Garthwaite
BHP46 JR Mathes
244 Adam Lind RC
75 David Ortiz
35 Alfonso Soriano
Two more 'fun' background cards in this pack: Ichiro has the background from Duke Snider's 1952 Bowman card while Big Papi shares his background with Johnny Pesky's '52 card. It would have been nice if Topps had reprinted some of these original cards as an insert so we could compare, because '52 Sniders aren't all that easy to come by. It's still a really cool idea for the set. Another pack loaded with stars, but it's getting a little frustrating pulling two prospect cards I've never heard of in every pack.

Pack12:
45 Grady Sizemore
SG-AF Andrew Fie
59 rainbow Brandon Phillips
BHP64 Jeff Bailey
BHP72 Thomas Hottovy
Checklist 3 of 3
233 Akinori Iwamura RC
237 Kevin Kouzmanoff RC
107 Eric Bedard


Ok, here's the second hit from the box, an auto card of D-Backs prospect Andrew Fie. The Odds on the wrapper are a little screwed up, but this is a card from autograph group G with odds of 1:47 packs. We'll see if this guy pans out or not. A couple of rookies and Grady Sizemore fill out the pack. The checklist card is neat, Topps used the Prospect diamond design on the checklist for the prospect cards. Makes sense. It also has the list of Red Man oversized cards, not a bad lineup there either. The rookies are kind of dicey (Felix Pie? Ugh.) but the veterans don't have a bad card among them. No Braves at all though. Phooey.

Half the box is busted and here's the totals so far:

55 base cards - 22%
4 no sig SP's - 8%
24 Prospects - 24%
11 rainbow foil parallels - 4%
1 Relic - Luis Gonzalez
1 Auto - Andrew Fie
All three checklist cards
no dupes

A few more posts, another A&G card, another 792 gallery and I'll have another 4 packs to post. Stay tuned! This box break can't take much longer can it?

The Slowest Box Break Ever: Part 3, Packs 5-8

I've done a lot of scanning this weekend, so I get to open packs. Here's four more from my slowest box break ever.

PACK 5
85 Carlos Zambrano
141 Carlos Quentin
183 rainbow Ian Kinsler
BHP24 Leo Daigle
BHP84 Jarrett Hoffpauir
207 Yunel Escobar RC
31 Rich Hill
135 Rocco Baldelli

Ok pack, not much special in here except for the Yunel Escobar RC. Cubs pitchers will be special when they can actually win a meaningful game. Rocco Baldelli is on the trade block yet again. The MLB Trade Rumors archives show that the Rays might have had Yunel, Jarrod Saltalamaccia and maybe Kyle Davies for Rocco last year, but they wanted more and wouldn't trade. Holy Bleeping Bleep.

Pack 6:
161 Jeff Suppan
33 Jeff Kent
28 rainbow Bobby Crosby
BHP56 Henry Sosa
BHP12 Dellin Betances
229 Kei Igawa RC
91 Ryan Garko
191 Kenji Johjima

Jeff Kent is my first double, Although I pulled the other one in a pack from a different box. Neither of prospects in this pack have middle names. You notice these things whien you don't know who any of these people are. Ryan Garko is the first gimmicky background card I've pulled knowing it's been altered. Can you find the photoshop? I don't mind the shenanigans in this set, they don't appear to be short printed and they are actually kind of fun. I'm praying I pull an Adam Dunn card just for the Bily Mumy reference.

Pack 7:
177 Jim Edmonds
73 Jeremy Hermida
PG-LG Luis Emilio Gonzalez bat card
BHP32 Brad Knox
BHP94 Evan Englebrook
224 Mark Reynolds RC
123 Jason Schmidt
151 Orlando Hernandez

I live blogged this pack over on A Pack A Day, so you can read about it there. The commenters were far more excited about my Descendents reference than the relic I pulled so here's some blatant pandering:



Pack 8:
69 Brian McCann
238 no sig Glen Perkins RC SP
195 rainbow John Lackey
BHP50 Luke Hochevar
BHP44 Christopher Coghlan
205 Hector Jimenez
127 John Maine
67 Aaron Rowand

Jeff Francouer is the golden child, I have a man crush on Mark Teixeira, but Brian McCann is the one locked up in a long term contract. McCann's the one who is still going to be on the team in three years. I love you, Brian McCann, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I will not hide my love! I love Brian McCann!!! Ahem. Back to the cards, here's another no sig SP. Thank goodness the variations are discernible this year. Luke Hochevar is the first prospect pulled that I know who he is on first glance. Unless Rowand signs with the Braves (and he won't) the rest of the cards are just marks on a checklist.

The Slowest Box Break Ever: Part 2, Packs 1-4

Ok, I've cleaned out enough drafts to open a few packs. Here's the first 4 out of the box.

PACK 1
149 Freddy Sanchez
65 Dontrelle Willis
184 Tom Gorzellany no sig
27 rainbow Lance Berkman
BHP20 Young-Il Jung
BHP22 Carlos Corporan
95 Joe Mauer
159 Matt Cain

First pack=bunch of stars. Freddy Sanchez leads off the box. Dontrelle Willis and Matt Cain are two pitchers I'd much rather give 10 million bucks to instead of Tommy Turncoat. Make a trade, Frank! I can't emphasize enough how much better the rainbow foil looks than the crappy ding magnets from last year's set.It's a good thing Jung uses his middle name like Charles Nelson Reilly or it would get confusing for the Angel announcers to talk about the young Young Jung. The Gorzelanny card has no signature on it which is some sort of variation this year. Best card in the pack: Joe Mauer.

PACK 2
109 Curt Schilling
89 Conor Jackson
139 rainbow Pat Burrell
BHP28 Bryan Byrne
BHP48 Woods Fines
249 Delmon Young RC
195 John Lackey
43 Jeff Francis

So does Curt go into the Hall with a Sox cap now? Two rings in four years... Another Delmon Young Non-RC. Yawn. One thing I like best about Bowman is all the great names you find among these prospects. Bryan Byrne is one letter away from being an anagram. Woods Fines is just ridiculous. Woods is actually his middle mane, he had to insist on being called that. Is Donald really that bad a name? In the fifties he'd be Donny or Woody or Skeeter or Traffic and would install aluminum siding in the offseason.

PACK 3
169 Cole Hamels
57 Cliff Lee
131 rainbow Prince Fielder
BHP100 Fernando Martinez
BPH8 Anthony Hatch
210 Joe Smith RC
51 Tom Glavine
167 Chipper Jones

The rainbow Fielder card is nice. The backgrounds on these cards are interesting this year. Hamels and Lee are in their Spring Training digs. Joe Smith is in front of the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel. Is that Coney Island maybe? Tom Glavine is standing underneath a Delta Airlines ad. Getting ready to board a plane to the ATL I guess... Chipper is in the Disney World spring training stands that have become ubiquitous on Topps Braves cards. Chipper will be very happy if Glavine signs. He, Smoltzie and Huddy will have a fourth for golf.

PACK 4
13 Chien-Ming Wang
193 Chase Utley
196 Nick Markakis no sig
103 rainbow Hideki Matsui
BHP18 Cody Strait
BHP16 Jonathan Van Every
Checklist 1 of 3
211 Tony Abreu RC
99 Robinson Cano

Another no sig card in this pack, this time of Nick Markakis. I'm going to boldly state for the record that if there is a third card before the rainbow, that's probably a short print. I haven't gotten a card numbered higher than 250 yet either, 251-300 must also be shorts. This is a Yankee pack with Wang, Cano and a hideous Hideki. Someone in the Topps art department is not a fan of Godzilla because Pizza Face does not even begin to cover it. Pretty strange considering the amount of touch up work done on everyone else to get the original '52 feel. Cody Strait is the 4th or 5th prospect using his middle name, what's up with that? The first checklist card pops up in this pack. It is way thinner than the rest of the cards. Available Jones is on the back, but they took away the B from his cap for some reason.

Scans will be up soon, packs 5-8 will be opened after I knock out a few more posts.

The Slowest Box Break Ever: Part 1, Box Toppers

My novella of a Topps review is done so the wrapper is off of this box. Opening up the box finds a big hunk '0 cardboard with Available Jones on it:

This is apparently an ad the dealer can stand upon the back of the shoe box when displaying it. Pretty nice, plus is protects the toppers. Speaking of toppers, let's get 'em!

First up is the longbox sticker to use with the set. Topps has been putting these in their hobby boxes for a few years now. As much as I harp on Topps for ignoring the details, I have to admit this is a great idea and a nice touch.


Here's the side of Brussels sprouts you have to choke down if you want your dessert. Topps finally segregated these cards into a box topper and I say hooray. I don't want to open a pack and find one of these things staring at me. That's two extra cards I can pull instead. I'm not even going to bother to open this. I don't know if I'll sell it or just stick it in the back of the closet, but I don't care enough to open the thing.

Here's the Scouting Report that gets inserted into all Bowman boxes. The reports seem a little light on info this year... this turns out to be a glorified checklist card for the Red Heart prospect set. . Scanning through it I see four Braves in the set:

BHP5 Kala Kaaihue, the big Hawaiian first base prospect whose name comes up when Braves fans acknowledge that it's going to be next to impossible to get Teixeira to sign an extension with Boras as his agent.

BHP11 Tommy Hanson, another in a line of endless low minors Braves pitching prospects. He just made #9 on Baseball America's top ten Prospects lists for the Braves.

BHP30 Gorkys Hernandez, He's a Tiger on the card, but we just got him from Detroit in the Renteria trade. One of many Braves center field prospects that will be ready in a couple of years when we need one yesterday. Gorkys is a cool name, but I'm afraid I'll think of this whenever I hear it. If that's the case then I'm rooting like hell for Jordan Schafer to win the job.

BHP74 Matt Young, I'm not gonna lie, I don't know who the hell this guy is. He's not this guy, that I know.

Big names in the set: Jeff Samardzija, Luke Hochevar, Joba Chamberlain, Josh and Jeremy Papelbon, Reid Brignac, Cooper Brannon.

Juniors in the set: Eric Young Jr, Ivan De Jesus Jr, Joe Gaetti (son of Gary), Will Venable (son of Max).

Awesome names in the set: The aforementioned Kala Kaaihue, Johnathan Van Every, Young Il Jung, Gorkys, Woods Fines, Michael MacDonald.

I didn't see a base checklist in there, but maybe it's buried under the packs.

Ok now for the thing you've all been waiting for... The Red Man Ripoff Box Topper:

Alex Gordon, nice one. Topps got the bottom coupon right, but forgot the bio on the front. No matter. Alex looks good alongside another Gordon from the original set.

Now that's a Red Man tobacco card!

2007 Bowman Heritage Box

Or: The Slowest Box Break Ever

Ok. I got my box. Didn't have to sell an organ or shake down old ladies for money either. I had enough saved up for a box already, this is one of the sets I always plan on getting. The owner at the shop asked if I wanted to get two in case the price went up. Um, right. This is the product that is usually still on the shelf 4 months later at a discount. I'll take my chances. Besides, Topps used up all their squirrelly gimmicks on that crap they just released.

Here's the deal with this box. As much as I want to rip open this box right now in an orgy of cardboard and flying wrappers, I'm not gonna do it. There are two reasons why this box wasn't halfway opened by the time I got it to the car. First, this is the last product I'm really looking forward to until next February. It's slim pickings as far as I'm concerned after this until '08 so I'm going to savor it. I might get bored and go back and get some UD Artifacts or Masterpieces, or God forbid, get caught up in '52 Rookies, but this is it as far as a set I really want this year. More importantly though, I have about a dozen or so drafts of posts sitting in my queue that I've been too lazy to finish and I'm forcing myself to do it now. This box is the carrot that will get my mule ass in gear. I'm not even allowing myself to take the plastic off the box until I get my overdue 2008 Topps review finished. I have the whole thing in my head, I've just been too distracted to type it out. Expect that tonight or tomorrow followed almost immediately by the Bowman box toppers. After that, I'm only going to open one pack per post I get out of draft and into published status. All those Topps U&H pack breaks, original Allen and Ginter cards, Red Sox tribute posts and the rest are getting out of my queue an on this blog before I open the last pack from this box. Of course I can always simply post about the box itself first...

Topps used a shoebox setup for the box this year. The owner at the card shop didn't like it because it took up too much real estate on the counter, but I think it's pretty cool. The design on the box and wrapper is the same as from the original '52 set with updated dates and logos.

I'm thrilled because Topps included a generic Boston Brave as their official mascot of 2007 Bowman Heritage.

I thought it might have been catcher Walker Cooper at first, but after looking through my '52 Braves cards, I'm leaning more towards reliever Sheldon "Available" Jones.

The bottom is pretty nondescript other than the Relic and Auto Groupings. The typical Copyright, website and legalese stuff. A-Rod Waste of Space autograph cards are one in 773 boxes. Whoopee. I was interested in comparing the player groupings for the hits and the odds for each grouping on the back of the wrapper. Yeah, wrapper, I did buy one pack along with the box to post on A Pack A Day. I'm not going to completely deny myself. The very first thing I noticed is the odds on the wrapper for Autos are probably wrong. Odds for a card from Group B is the easiest at 1:47, and the only player in Group B on the box bottom is Chipper Jones. While I am all for having a Chipper Jones Auto hit in one out of two boxes, I'm thinking Larry didn't sign 180,000 cards for this product. I think what happened with the Auto odds is either the groups or the odds got printed in reverse order with Group A actually having the odds for Group H. David Wright autos packing out one in 337 boxes makes more sense than if it was one in 339 packs. The prospects in groups F and G are probably the easiest pulls. The Relic odds look to be correct with Rocco Baldelli being the tough pull for some reason. It looks like Bonds relics will be somewhat obtainable. Interesting. Odds are below, click to enlarge.

That's all for now until I get that '08 review out...