Yum

I skipped over the whole Voyager series so I have no idea who or what this is

Hey I like spinach... I like pears...

This... I uh... I ... um. eeeeeeccccchhhh

And yes, the scratch and sniff still kinda works.

No you don't wanna sniff it

A 2009 Topps Heritage Jumbo Pack With Absolutely No Commentary Whatsoever

159 Shin-Soo Choo

46 Brandon Backe

13 Garrett Anderson

56 Hunter Pence

42 Pablo Sandoval

96 Phil Hughes

407 Randy Winn

NF6 USS Seadragon News Flashback

310 Mike Lowell

296 Mike Pelfrey

360 Gavin Floyd

163 Johnny Damon

117 Michael Bowden

258 Jack Wilson

Ok, a little commentary. After I had bought it I noticed that someone had opened the bottom of the pack a little bit so they could search the pack.

Now take a look at what you didn't win

Readers chose the Mystery box over the Upper Deck fat pack blaster. Here's a quick run down of the sheer cardboard perfection you gave up. Yes, I bought the blaster and then let you guys pick because I am an idiot.

Base cards in the box: 165

Base cards I actually needed: 37

Infield Power inserts in the box: 10

Number of Infield Power Inserts that other people might want 'cause I sure don't want 'em: 3

Yankee Stadium Barrrrrrrf: 5

Ok, there was one good one:

You know I have to post this now:



Tears shed over dropping $20 on this mess instead of a regular UD blaster where I would have gotten a crappy jersey card at least: 4

There was a silver lining, I have all my 2008 Upper Deck Doubles sorted out finally so I can start checking people's wantlists. As for posting my 2008 UD wantlist? I'll get to that eventually.

DON'T CHEW THE GUM

I'm not talking about this gum:

I'm talking about this gum:

Brand spankin' new right out of the first pack of Heritage High Series I opened.

Oligato House put out a warning about the gum in 2008 Heritage High Series. I couldn't believe that Topps gum would taste bad. Not that it ever tasted really good, but it was baseball card bubblegum flavor. This stuff ain't Bubble Yum, but it's passable gum. Topps originally printed up the cards in order to sell more gum in the first place. Gum is what Topps does. So I ripped open my serial numbered pack of gum and started chewing...

Oh. Dear. Lord. What fresh hell is this???

This is not Bazooka gum. I don't know what the heck it is, but it's not good 'ol Topps gum. this gum has a really weird sour taste to it. Not Sour Patch Kids sour, more like milk that was left in the fridge for two months sour. It has sort of a sauerkraut/fermented goat curds/hákarl combination of flavors to it. I chewed it for a couple minutes before having to spit it out and i still taste the nasty stuff. It's really rancid and I'm not talking about the good kind.

What is going on at Topps? Squirrell cards are silly but I can deal. Adding an unobatinable card 661 to the set is really freaking annoying but I will persevere. But fucking up the gum?? What... how... that's just beyond wrong. I don't know man, there's a sickness... there's a serious sickness in Duryea and I don't know if they're going to make it though this one. I sincerely hope they are just setting up a really elaborate punchline for that Sklar Brothers show, because otherwise it's a sad day in the card community.

The Hall of Fame has Jumped the Shark

The Veterans Commitee finally elected new members to the Hall of Fame this morning, the first since Mazeroski.

First of all, congratulations to managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth. They are championship skippers who both deserve the honor they are getting. I'm sorry they have to be involved in this mess. Also congratulations are in order to Barney Dreyfuss, who was the owner of the Pirates from 1900 to 1932 and helped create the World Series. Barney is already a member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Now to the dicey choices.

Walter O'Malley was also elected to the Hall of Fame. I don't like it, but I can't complain about it. He is one of the most famous baseball team owners of all time and he did radically change the game. So what if he was instrumental in ripping the heart (and the entire National League) out of one of the best baseball cities in America. He made some money and that's what counts. So congratulations, Walter O'Malley, I and the entire city of Brooklyn hope your money and Hall of Fame Plaque are useful to you as you burn in the depths of Hell for all eternity.

Now to the guy I really have a problem with.

Former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was also elected to the Hall of Fame. Kuhn was a complete idiot as commissioner who bungled an attempt to rid the game of drugs, banned players from baseball right and left including Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle for life just for working as greeters at a casino, snubbed Hank Aaron when he became the all time home run king, tried to get Negro League Hall of Fame inductees segregated to a different wing to the building, and in his most lasting and relevant act as commissioner, watched ineffectually as the long standing reserve clause came crashing down due to the efforts of Curt Flood and Marvin Miller. Now Bowie was a complete buffoon as commissioner, but then again, most of them were. Kenesaw Mountain Landis kept the league segregated as long as he lived, and he's in the Hall of Fame. Bud Selig canceled a freakin' World Series and he's going to be in the Hall of Fame. Idiot commissioners in the Hall of Fame is nothing new. It's just how things are done.

Now about Marvin Miller, that guy who utterly pwned Bowie and completely changed the economics of baseball, if not every professional sport in the entire world. What of him? Where is he now? NOT ELECTED TO THE HALL OF FAME. AGAIN. Miller is 90 years old. He should have been elected unanimously by the Veteran's committee the last time they met. And the time before that. Now he has to wait two more years until the next ballot.There is absolutely no logical reason why the person who arguably had had the most influence in professional sports in the past half-century should be out of the Hall of Fame while the man he ran circles around should get voted in. The committee that votes to elect executives is made up of 12 members: two former players (Monte Irvin and Harmon Killebrew), three media members and 7 current and former MLB executives. I'm sorry, but you can't tell me that Marvin's exclusion is not out of spite by these MLB executives because he screwed up their license to print money while not having to share with the players. I thought I could never be madder about a Hall of Fame injustice after Buck O'Neil was inexplicably left out, but I think I'm just as mad now. This is a terrible, terrible decision, and I'm not the only one who feels this way.

DO NOT WANT

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta are giving away a free Infectious Diseases trading card set at their visitor center. The set includes veterans Rabies, Anthrax and Tuberculosis; Up and comers HIV, SARS and Ebola; and features the long awaited rookie card of Cryptosporidiosis. Sadly, the "protect the children" crowd have forced changes to the set, resulting in a rare variation where Anthrax's photo got swapped from a woman's rotting eyeball to a more genteel dead zebra. Even so, apparently the set is very popular among the middle-school crowd, and the CDC is having problems keeping them in stock. If you aren't able to grab a set of your own, you can download the PDF here and print them up yourself! A Bleeding Ulcer trading card is just what I need to complete my Atlanta Hawks Draft Pick collection.

Series 2 will reportedly feature food borne illnesses. Can we dare to hope for an official 1997 NBA Finals Michael Jordan Game-Used barf relic card??