2002 Just Minors Gold Set - Junk Cards

This is a little later than I planned to post it tonight. Have you seen the Burger King ads for the angry Whopper? Well, yeah they are kind of irate. Urp. Good thing I'm slacking and showing you the junk cards int he box set instead of the next five players. One thing Just Minors has never been shy about is putting advertising stuff in their products. They're a local company, so good for them. Go buy something from them now and help the local economy! They just entered a distribution agreement with Razor so they've got some of that stuff for sale too. Here's the first of the two ads in the set:

Autographed 8x10's! I've seen (but didn't buy) the full sized version of the Sean Burroughs card on this ad. They are pretty good looking! Unfortunately there is no checklist on the card,just a request for for their catalog. For 2002, these guys were pretty web savvy. They've got their website plastered all over the front and back and they now accept PayPal payments!

The other ad card is for Action Figures! $7.95 each and you can find player selection on their web-site. The two teeny photos on the card are of Hammerin' Hank and John Elway. The back of the card is an order form identical to the other card. So why am I showing you this junk? Because...

I got a Hank figure! Just Figures that they'd use a pun for the name of their product. The box it comes in is generic and has a Hank Aaron sticker on the bottom. Here's the lineup of figures for that time.

Hank Aaron - Atlanta Braves '74
Michael Barrett - Harrisburg Senators '98
John Elway - Oneonta Yankees '82
Gabe Kapler - Jacksonville Suns '98
Ricky Williams Piedmont Boll Weevils '96-'97
Collect 'Em All!


This particular figure is from 1999, as it has a Just 99 Justifiable logo on the side. It's an interesting mix of players too. Since the company is based in Atlanta, Hank was an obvious choice. Michael Barrett is local too. Elway had some sort of endorsement deal with Just back in the early days, I remember he had a few cards in their minor league sets at the time. I guess that was Battered Fan Syndrome from what ol' Horse Face did to us in the Supa Bowl. And Ricky Williams was in fact old Weedy McSmokey. An ok selection for 1999 I guess. I got this in one of those old KMart repack monstrosities that was a big 2 foot by three foot cardboard box with a bunch of packs and such glued to the thing. I miss those KMart repacks, although they weren't exactly environmentally friendly. They were fun to look at though! You could spend more time looking through the stack of them for the exact packs you wanted than it took to open the packs. Pulling the packs off the cardboard took more time than both those other activities put together of course.


I got the fielding version of the figure, otherwise known as the one where hank is standing with his arms to his sides wearing a glove and holding a ball. Sorry the pics aren't better, that's the best my crummy little webcam can muster with the terrible lighting near my PC. If I was a normal blogger I'd be pointing out the PayPal donation button on the sidebar and saying "HINT HINT - CAMERA FUND" but I haven't quite reached the level of blogtitude yet to be smart enough to do that. All I need is a battery and maybe a cable for a CoolPix camera, I'll find one eventually and you'll get good pictures. Well there's my little tangent from the Gold set, more player profiles tomorrow!

The people have spoken

The coupon has been eaten and I spent about a third of what I would have on the Heritage box on some American Heritage packs.

Now I have those cards as well as Lemkes, the Just Minors set, Obama cards, TribeCards Xmas stuff, some Target temporary insanity cards and new product autopsies to tide us over to the 2009 Heritage release. I don't really need to buy another pack for a month!

(shudders uncontrollably)

One day in the future I'll look back on my Heritage collection and regret that the '08 set is missing most of the high numbers. Then I'll look at my actual '59 set and realize that it's actually pretty normal to be missing most of the high numbers. Topps is just keeping up a tradition!

Holy crap: I just realized this is my hundredth post this month. Wow.

12 Days Giveaways - Days 3&4

On the twelfth day of a month and four days after Christmas, TribeCards gave to me....

Four Big Cats Purring

Three Home Run Kings

Two Vintage Pitchers


And an eTopps Johnny Estrada limited to 1590 and broken out of its plastic prison so it's now Freeeeee

(ok so I missed a day)

Dilemma

So when I bought that box of Timelines from Dave & Adam's, they send me a coupon good for $10 off a $50 purchase this month. The coupon expires in three days. Also, if I order today there's free shipping if I order over fifty bucks worth of stuff. So, Heritage High Numbers is $51.95. If I use the coupon, I can get it for $41.95 which is right around the price I was waiting for the awful stuff to drop to anyway. Problem is, I don't like this product, even though it's Heritage. I don't like Fukudome, I have a ton of Bruce already and Evan Longoria's first cards were from 2006, sorry Rays fans. But, it's a good deal and it's Heritage. But, all the 2009 stuff comes out next week and I might want to just save my money. A little help here folks?

So, about Mayo...

That presell information was complete garbage. There is no Paterno autograph, there is no McLovin' card and (thankfully) no Gorton's Fishermen either. We do have this guy though.

This incident fills me full of dread and ennui. We have a very nice looking retro set that is reasonably well done, but because Topps couldn't get their act together on the autographs and promised the moon and the stars on the sell sheet, the whole thing looks like it will become the Edsel of football cards. I don't want Topps to lose their license or anything, but I'm also not happy that sell sheets can't be trusted anymore. I would have been sad if Mayo had gone the way of Sterling, but maybe Topps should have bit the bullet and waited another month to put this sucker out. At least 2009 Topps and Upper Deck hit shelves next week. I need something to distract me from the madness of the past few days. If any of you inveterate gamblers out there bought a case lookin' for the Graphs, I'll take some of those worthless commons from ya. I need me a Marconi card.

Upper Deck X Files

Finally, Upper Deck creates a card just for me. 2009 is gonna be AWESOME

(hat tip to my crack dealer)

2002 Just Minors Gold Set - Cards 6-10

Aren't you glad you chose this box instead of that horrible UD Blaster? Here's the next five can't miss prospects from 2002.

6 Boof Bonser

His momma named him John Paul, but he legally changed it to Boof in 2001. Good move, even if he never becomes an all-star pitcher, he'll still be a hobby star forever. Boof was the Giants' #2 rated prospect according to the back of the card, but he was still traded to the Twins in the 2003 offseason in the horrific A.J. Pierzynski deal. He was called up for good in 2006 and pitched effectively in 18 starts. He was somewhat less effective in his first full year in '07 and lost his starting gig last year and ended up in the bullpen. He'll be 27 this year and will probably have another shot at the Twins' rotation in Spring Training.

Career MLB totals: 96 games, 391.7 innings pitched, 18-25 record, 317 Ks, 5.12 ERA, 1.479 WHIP

7 Joe Borchard

The can't missiest of the can't miss prospects in this set. The #1 pick of the White Sox in 2000, and their #1 prospect in 2002. He was even a quarterback at Stanford. So wha hoppen? Joe had all the physical tools to succeed and made his debut with Chicago in 2002. While he could hit the absolute slop out of the ball, he had problems actually hitting the thing. He spent 63 games with the Sox in 2004, and mashed a 504 foot homer but only hit .174. The Sox gave up on him in 2006 and shipped him off to the Mariners. He didn't last long there, and was in a Marlins uniform by May. He had a little success with Florida in 2006, playing in 103 games and hitting 10 homers. He mostly played in Albuquerque in '07 however, and by 2008 he was a non-roster invitee to the Braves' Spring Training Camp. Unfortunately, after 33 games in Richmond in 2008, his elbow blew out ad he had to have Tommy John surgery. Normally this would be the end of the line for a 30-year old prospect, but the Braves apparently see something in Joe that everyone else doesn't and have resigned him for 2009 and are allowing him to rehab. Joe might end up a starter in the bigs yet, but he'll never reach the lofty expections he had in 2002.

Career MLB totals: 301 games, 26 homers, .205 average, 89 runs, 77 RBI, 65 OPS+

8 Carl Crawford

The first bona-fide star in the set. There's an interesting blurb on the back of the card: "Grew out of Josh Hamilton's shadow in 2001 with banner season". Carl made his debut with the Devil Rays in 2002 and stole 55 bags in his first full season in 2003. HE really came into his own in 2004 as he made the All-Star team and was the Devil Rays' Most Valuable Player. Carl has turned into a Fantasy League player's dream, providing a ton of steals and solid production in average, homers, RBI and runs. Crawford had an off year with the Rays in 2008 due to an injury, but performed well in the postseason as he bopped two homers in the World Series. He will be a top player in 2009 and beyond.

Career MLB totals: 925 games, 70 homers, .293 average, 559 runs, 434 RBI, 302 stolen bases, 101 OPS+

9 Juan Cruz

Juan had actually made his debut with the Cubs in 2001, logging 8 starts for Chicago. He pitched well in '01 but lost his starting job in 2002 and was sent to the bullpen. He was a disaster in 2003, and ended up with a 6.05 ERA. The Cubs shipped him off to the Braves just before the 2004 season and he turned in a brilliant season in the 'pen and lowered his ERA to 2.75. The Braves flipped him to the A's in the Tim Hudson deal and it was implosion time as the ERA ballooned back up to 7.44! He was traded again in '06 to the Diamondbacks who tried and failed to put him back in a starter role. He didn't crackthe starting rotation, but he's been extremey successful as a set up man for Arizona the past three years. Unfortunately he may have been too successful, as he's currently stuck in free agent limbo. Juan had the best season of his life in '08 with a 2.61 ERA and 71 Ks in 51 2/3rds innings. This got him an A rating in the Elias player rankings, which means a team has to give up their first round pick to the D-Backs in order to sign him. Due to the fact that the free agent market is depressed and first round draft picks are like gold, no one has been willing to pay this price yet. Juan will be pitching somewhere in '09 though as he has established himself as a dependable set-up man.

Career MLB totals: 297 games, 515 innings pitched, 29-31 record, 535 Ks, 4.00 ERA, 1.383 WHIP

10 Nelson Cruz

Nelson is probably the most interesting prospect in the set so far. Nelson was signed by the Mets and was traded to the A's in 2000. In 2002 we was still a very raw prospect but with some massive upside. The A's traded him to Milwaukee in 2004, and he made his deput with them in 2005. He was then sent to the Rangers in the Carlos Lee deal in 2006. Nelson has absolutely murdered the minor leagues since 2004, but developed a reputation as a Quad-A player since he couldn't repeat that success once he was called in to the majors. In 2008 he obliterated the Pacific Coast League, tallying 37 homers and 99 RBIs in only 103 games while sporting a .342 average and a 1.124 OPS! This time however, when he was called up to the majors he kept on hitting. In 31 games with Texas he hit another 7 homers and added a .330 average and an insane 1.030 OPS on top of it. In 2009 Nelson has a chance to finally break through as a productive starter in the majors at age 28.

Career MLB totals: 176 games, 22 homers, .251 average, 70 runs, 82 RBI, 93 OPS+

Instead of cards 11-15 tomorrow, I have a surprise... stay tuned.

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.

The Perm Is Back

Don Sutton is back in the Braves' radio booth for '09. He's no Pete Van Weiren (who is?) but he's damn good and a familiar voice. He never would have left if it weren't got the TBS debacle. If Lemke is back on the pregame show I will be very happy in '09.



(you guys deserved some images after the Walls O' Text I've inflicted upon you today)

Sometimes a comment just needs to be a post, part 1

I stayed out of the most recent Blog Bat Around, mainly because I am a coward. I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my mind about what the card manufacturers should do in '09 and beyond, but I just couldn't force them out of my head and onto the screen via my stubby fingers. Partly I wanted to get it perfect before I posted it to the world, partly I'm unsure of myself since I've been utterly wrong on many occasions (Ok, 2008 Opening Day was a decent set for kids. It still makes my eyes bleed) and I'm also paranoid that I'll make a good suggestion and someone from one of the manufacturers will stumble across it and decide to do the exact opposite thing just to spite the loudmouth assclown who banned their company over a Hillary Clinton card or dumped their base set like a hot rock over a no hitter card.

The recent Panini monopoly/Donruss lawsuit bombslhells have me spooked however, and I'm starting to feel that impending dread I felt a year and a half ago when Upper Deck was trying to gobble up Topps. NBA cards are way down on the packing order in my world, but the MLB license is up at the end of the year and now I'm feeling queasy. There's been a metric ton of posts about these issues already in the past day and I've commented on most of them. This one from Hand Collated looks at the lawsuit and theorizes that Donruss won't be getting their license back anytime soon. Stale Gum said the exact same thing last night (and my comment on that post has gotten a LOT of traction in the interwebs, but that's a subject for part 2) That's probably correct, and Donruss is fooked, although I don't think it's the right decision.

Hand Collated's post did do one thing - it crystallized what is probably the closest thing to my ideal baseball card business model theory. It has also forced me to face my greatest fear for the hobby in 2010. I don't think I can really write it better than I already have in that comment, so here it is:

Three licensees, 12 sets each. That's the exact same number of products that are out now. There are three manufacturers so innovation will increase as they try to out do each other. 12 sets is enough so there can be a wide range of products from low end to high end while weeding out some of the unnecessary ones like X and Moments & Milestones. Each release is much more important to the health of the company so more care is put into each. Better product, happier customers, better sales.

However, MLB has shown in the Bud Selig era that they either do things absolutely right or completely wrong. Thus, I give it a 50-50 chance that they yank both Topps and Upper Deck's licenses next year and create their own in-house trading card company. Their first premiere product will feature Cut signatures of the Commish and all 30 owners. AND NOTHING ELSE.

Now you know the next time I post about nonsense at 3:30 am, it is because I just woke up screaming from a dream where I just pulled a Jeffrey Loria taxpayer leeched money card from a pack of 2010 SeligCards. The horror.

Deconstructing Mayo

So Mayo is live. If this had come out last year I would have gone certifiably insane over it, but my apathy toward the NFL this year has kept my retro cravings at bay for the time being. I'm still interested in it though, so I've been trying to figure out the set makeup now that I have a pack of them in my hands. My pack rip is over here if you want to take a look at the cards.

Basically Mayo follows the Allen & Ginter formula, except it uses the design of the first trading card set to feature football players. The design is not as attractive as Allen & Ginter, but it is pretty good in its own right. Some of the photos I've seen are dicey however, the set kind of reminds me of Cracker Jack in that regard. The set really follows A&G to a T, down to framed relics, mini cards, mini parallels, and 1890's style mini insert sets. If you've collected Allen & Ginter you should know what to expect from this set.

The set is broken down into 205 veterans, 50 rookies, 10 coaches, 10 legends, 15 'public figures' which I guess is what they are calling the non-football subjects and 40 short prints to make up a 330 card set. No word on what the short prints actually are yet. My cynical guess is that they are the 40 best rookies in the set, but they could conceivably be a mix of vets, rookies, public figures, etc. The sell sheet can be seen here, which also has links to the checklist in Excel format and the sell sheet in a .pdf.

The checklist doesn't tell me much about the possible short prints. Hopefully Topps put them all at the end of the set at cards 291-330 like in the A&G set to make things easier on us. That would make Favre, Warner and Tommy Tuberville short prints, which I could live with. Matt Ryan is at card 276, right after Eli. PLEASE Lord, don't make Matt a short print. The coaches are all college coaches as expected since Paterno is the big sell for this set. I'm not sure what the heck is going on with the 'public figures' as Napoleon Dynamite and McLovin' are in the checklist. Figures I pull Cornflake dude instead of McLovin'. Also Lord, if you ignore my pleas on the Matt Ryan thing, PRETTY PLEASE let that guy sign his card as McLovin'. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease. Legends are your boring usual suspects like Elway and Montana. Holy shit, David Cross is in there! Dammit, now I have to pick through the checklist and figure out the 15 'public figures' in the set. I wish I had paid attention to the NFL Draft now, I don't recognize half the rookies' names.

PUBLIC FIGURES IN TOPPS MAYO ACCORDING TO THE PRESELL CHECKLIST SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE:

10 Rich Eisen - NFL Network dude. I've always liked his broadcasting stuff.
24 Sig Hansen - Woohoo, a crab fisherman.
38 John Hillstrand - ANOTHER crab fisherman.
52 Phil Harris - NOBODY LIKES CRAB THIS MUCH
66 Mike Rowe - He freakin' NARRATES for Deadliest catch!!! Enough with the damn crabs!
80 Christopher Mintz-Plasse - the aforementioned McLovin'. My favorite card in the set if only for breaking the streak of crab celebrities.
93 Jesse James - He was in the 2006 A&G set so why not here as well?
106 David Cross - Ok, this card is epic.
119 Charlie Murphy - The comedians are balancing out the fishermen nicely.
132 Artie Lange - Misspelled on the checklist, this is a comedian on the Howard Stern show.
145 Gary Dell'Abate - Baba Booey? Are you fscking kidding me? First crabs, now Stern?
158 Seth Rogen - Superbad actor #2 in the set.
171 Jonah Hill - Aaaaaaaand #3.
184 Jon Heder - Also misspelled in the checklist. Vote for Perdo!
197 "The King" - THIS BETTER NOT BE A STINKIN CRAB

Ok, this is fifteen sort of public figures I guess. I pulled Cornflake guy though, so someone got bumped. Mr. Kellogg's number in the checklist is occupied by Bob Stoops so I'm not sure what's going on. Also Mr. Hansen's card #24 is actually Matt Cassell. I'm not seeing many Legends in that checklist either so I'm starting to think the thing is a bunch of bunk. Assuming it is correct though, here are the tough inserts I'd most like to pull:

Mayo Americana Autographs - William Shatner!
Cut Signatures - Jack Benny
Mayo Americana Relics - Willie Nelson
Mayo Century Series - Norman Rockwell paintbrush
There are also stamp cards and a liberty dime card in the Century Series checklist. The dime would be sweet.

Here are the inserts along with the odds as listed on the back of the pack:

Short prints 1:2 packs

There are only 40 short prints for the 330 card set according to the sell sheet. This is pretty close to Allen & Ginter's 50 SPs in a 350 card set, so it looks like it will be challenging, but not impossible to complete the set. There is no list of SPs out so far, but I'll link to it once Topps gets around to announcing it.

Mini parallel short print 1:12

Same deal as A&G. Mini short prints are a little tougher to find.

Yale Mini parallel 1:13
Princeton mini parallel 1:24
Harvard mini parallel 1:50
1984 mini parallel 1:250

These are parallel versions of the mini cards with different backs. I found an auction that showed three of the four backs. Pretty straightforward, they show the team color and letter. Yale is easiest with a blue back, Princeton is one per box with an orange back, Harvard Crimson is tough as they are numbered to 25 and fall at about one in every other box, and I don't even know what 1894 looks like as they are numbered to 5.

Famous Ships mini insert 1:12
Horses mini insert 1:48

These two insert sets hearken back to the 1894 as ships and race horses were frequent subjects of tobacco cards back in the late 19th century. I've got a horse of my own right here and I've also got a couple of ships somewhere. The ships look quite good and similar to the cards of the time. I'm not so sure about the unicorn, however.

Mayo Framed Autographs:
Group A 1:1950
Group B 1:3000
Group C 1:4300
Group D 1:920
Group E 1:1000
Group F 1:193
Group G 1:1350
Group H 1:188
Group I 1:120
Red Autograph 1:1420
Americana Autographs:
Group A 1:1000
Group B 1:1600
Red Autograph 1:12500
Cut Signature 1:35328

Signatures are on a mini card and put inside a frame. You know the drill. I suck at math, but somehow all those percentages add up to at least one per box. There don't appear to be any rip cards in this product, so the red autos are probably going to be in the same frames as the regular cards.

Mayo Framed Football Relics:
Group A 1:38
Group B 1:32
Mayo Framed Americana Relics:
Group A 1:400
Group B 1:600
Mayo Framed Century Series Relics:
Group A 1:1200
Group B 1:1650

It seems like these cards should be the ones two per box, but who knows. Same deal as A&G (how many times have I typed that so far?), mini card, inside frame, little swatch inside the card. If there's a Matt Ryan with a little red swatch I'll probably try to jump on one, but otherwise, meh.

Not listed on the back are the Super Bowl inserts. It looks like these are similar to the Dick Perez and state flag inserts. A thick filler card to deter searchers and provide a little something other than a blank hunk 'o cardboard. The sell sheet says Super Bowl ring card, but I don't see a ring on this card. the card I have is numbered SB39-B so maybe there is an A variation with a ring? I've seen one auction online for them so far and that one showed a card with a Broncos helmet so maybe there's one 'winner' card and one 'logo' card for each Superbowl. An 84 card filler set would be a real pain in the butt though. We'll see.

There are also supposed to be buyback cards in the set, but I don't see any odds for them.

I like the cards, but I'm not sure I like them enough to pay over a hundred for a hobby box. I'll probably buys ome retail packs to tide me over until Heritage comes out. Assuming I don't buy American Heritage instead. That stuff is pretty cool too, I'll haveto show off the pack of that I got soon.

2002 Just Minors Gold Set - Cards 1-5

2002 wasn't that long ago, was it? It is long enough to tell if a minor leaguer has made it or not. Since you demanded it, I'm going to open up this set and go over each of the prospects in groups of five. There are some other goodies in here too, I'll space them out to build suspense.

This set is very different from the regular 2002 Just Minors set. Along with the gold borders, each prospect's picture is done in artwork by Noah Stokes. Noah is an artist from Dalton, GA who does a lot of sports themed art. He's got a cool blog if you want to check it out! The backs are kind of plain, there's a very light copy of the picture on the front with a short paragraph about the prospect. not much to look at, but I'll scan a couple of backs if you want. It's a classy looking set and the base cards, two filler cards and three 'special' cards would look nice in 5 plastic sheets.

The plan for the next couple of weeks is to post the prospect's card and see if he has made the bigs and how successful he has been. Most of the players featured are top 10 prospects for their franchise. Some have panned out nicely, some have flopped and many have gone on to new teams. Let's begin at the beginning...

1 Willy Aybar

Willy was the Dodger's #7 prospect in 2002 according to the back. He was a free agent signing in 2000 for a whopping $1.4 million. That money got the Dodgers 69 games from Willy before shipping him off to Atlanta with Denys Baez for Wilson Betemit (who will pop up soon). The trade was pretty bad for everyone involved. Betamit was flipped to the Yankees for Scott Proctor. Baez signed with the Orioles and bombed. Aybar was productive in Betamit's super sub role in 2006, but was suspended in 2007 for substance abuse problems and missed the entire year. He was traded to the Rays in '08 for Jeff Ridgway and held down third until Evan Longoria was ready. He his a big homer in the seventh game of the ALDS, but in '09 he looks to be stuck on the Rays' bench. He will be 26 this year and could come into his own with an injury or a new start on another club.

Career MLB totals: 200 games, 15 homers, .271 average, 77 runs, 73 RBI, 101 OPS+

2 Angel Berroa

Berroa made his debut in 2001 but still had his rookie eligability in '02. Angel broke out in 2003 and won the Rookie of the Year award over Hideki Matsui by only 4 points. He never came close to matching that performance however and lost his job to Tony Pena Jr. in 2007. He was traded to the Dodgers in 2008 for Juan Rivera and was a below-average replacement for Rafael Furcal. He is currently in the Yankees organization on a minor league deal.

Career MLB totals: 711 games, 46 homers, .260 average, 319 runs, 251 RBI, 50 SB, 77 OPS+

3 Wilson Betemit

Wilson is a little frustrating for me. He was the Braves #1 prospect, but was rushed into a cup of coffee at age 19 in 2001. He then languished in the minors looking nothing like the 5-tool prospect everyone was high on before reappearing in the bigs in 2004. He was effective as a bench player in 2005 and 2006 providing some needed Chipper Jones insurance, but was swapped to L.A. in the Baez/Aybar trade. He seems to have regressed somewhat in partial seasons with the Dodgers and Yankees, and still hasn't quite hit his stride. He was traded to the White Sox this offseason in the Nick Swisher trade, and has a shot to win a starting job in Spring Training. Wilson is no longer a prospect at 27 (maybe), and is facing some make or break seasons ahead.

Career MLB totals: 496 games, 42 homers, .260 average, 145 runs, 151 RBI, 95 OPS+

4 Hank Blalock

Hank is the first All-Star in the set, and had a memorable game as he bopped the winning homer off a worthless Eric Gagne who thought it would be fun to throw heat instead of actually pitch. Hey, now it counts! Hank made his debut for the Rangers in 2002, but came into his own as their starting third baseman in 2003. He had another excellent year in '04, but slumped badly in '05 and '06. The past two years he has once again been effective when healthy, but unfortunately that hasn't been very often. Hank will be looking for a comeback year in '09 as the Rangers' DH, as Michael Young is moving to third to accomodate rookie Elvis Andrus at short.

Career MLB totals: 787 games, 127 homers, .274 average, 437 runs, 469 RBI, 104 OPS+

5 Tony Blanco

Tony was ranked as Boston's #2 ranked prospect in 2002, but he has so far had the least success in the set. He was sent to the Reds in '02 as the player to be named later in the Todd Walker trade and was later picked up by the Nationals in the minor league draft. Tony played 56 games for the Nats in '05 but barely hit his weight and has not been above Double-A since. Tony played for the Tulsa Drillers last season and so far I have not been able to find out if he's got a job for '09 lined up yet.

Career MLB totals: 56 games, 1 homer, .177 average, 7 runs, 7 RBI, 30 OPS+

Mayo Football and American Heritage are live

I have packs in my greedy little hands.

Mayo rip over on A Pack A Day within an hour or so now, I'll probably get to American Heritage tomorrow.

12 Days Giveaways - Day 2

On the twelfth day of a month and two days after Christmas, TribeCards gave to me....

Two Vintage Pitchers


And an eTopps Johnny Estrada limited to 1590 and broken out of its plastic prison so it's now Freeeeee

Sing it!

Well, so much for Fleer Basketball.

Hat tips to The Sports Card File, Sports Cards Uncensored and Wax Heaven who all made me crap my pants when I looked over my blog feed this afternoon. Three times!

The NBA just booted Topps and Upper Deck from their card licenses and gave an exclusive to Panini.

Yeah, the guys who make the stickers.

Now, this murders off Topps and Fleer basketball, two sets I've liked for decades, so I'm not terribly happy about this. However, after seeing this quote from The Sports Card File:

There have been overtures made by both Topps and Upper Deck during the past year to the NBA requesting a sole manufacturer license.

It seems to me that this is a little bit of karma biting them in the ass for squeezing Donruss out of their basball license a few years ago.

Of course monopolies are never good, and it's a concern that what works in the international market might not exactly work here. Then again, The history of basketball cards is littered with long stretches of nothin' followed by classic sets popping up to fill the void. And Donruss has shown quite definitively that there's money to be made with unlicensed products. So all is not lost, fellow hoops lovers. We have plenty to look forward to.

LIKE STICKERS!!!!

I LOVE STICKERS!!!!!1

2009 LEMKEPALOOZA - 1992 Score

1992 Score. I always liked this set. Never cared for '93 or '94, but '92 looked good to me at least. Gotta love the purple and green color scheme at least. Let's rank this Lemmer. Here's the scoring key if you've forgotten it already.

Team logo on front +1 point
Batting pose +1 point
Dirt in mid air (it's hard to see, but there's a few specks flying down at the bottom by his right foot) +4 points
Eye black +1 point
Fans - I can make out that dude with the white hat and blue shirt with a big stripe so this card gets the bonus +1 points
Bricks in the wall +1 point for Pink Floyd reference
Might be a little peach fuzz on the chin, but the photo is too small to tell. 0 points

9 points on the front, let's check out the back.

Picture on the back +1
Five O'Clock Shadow +3 points
Big ol' clunky glasses! +8 points
Tinted lenses with Croakie! +2 points
Full career MLB stats, but the minor league stats aren't complete +1 point
Scrappy! Defensive! World Series! Triple! +4 points

See, I told you 1992 Score rocks! Nineteen points just on the back for a total of 28 points for the card. I hope you're looking forward to more Lemmers, cause I've got enough to post for the next two months!

Poll's closed

The 2002 Just Prospects box beat Upper Deck by about 50 votes. I got 100 people to vote in the thing though! Here is a preview of what lies within courtesy my crappy little webcam. I'll start showing off actual cards tomorrow.

Here's the box! Shall we open it?

Hey, look at that! 95% of the box is taken up by a mini helmet! So where are the cards?

There they are! Let's take them out!

Wow, just a gold factory set. How is that going to keep us busy until Heritage comes out? Don't worry, it will...

And here is one last tease of the signed mini helmet. You didn't think I'd blow the big surprise on the very first post did you? Tsk tsk. You people have no patience.

Tomorrow night: same card-time, same card-channel... The first four or five cards from the 2002 Just Prospects Gold set! It's either four or five because I haven't decided if I want to do eight posts of five cards each or torture you a little more and do 10 posts of four cards each. You'll get actual cards tomorrow though, I promise!

12 Days Giveaways

On the first day of a month and a day after Christmas, TribeCards gave to me....

An eTopps Johnny Estrada limited to 1590 and broken out of its plastic prison so it's now Freeeee

And two Hall of Fame pins

and three starlight mints!

but they are not part of the song. Delicious though!

Woooooo! We Got Another One!

The Braves raided Japan again today to sign another pitcher. Yoshinori Yamarin is an 18 year old righty who is a few years away from the bigs. He is going to pitch in an Australian developmental league this summer and might pitch in the minors next year. There's a cool picture gallery on this Japanese language site that I'll probably swipe from to MSPaint up a card of the dude. Maybe he can be this year's Kazuo Uzuki? Funny how the Braves have ignored Japanese players for over a decade but have jumped in with both feet this offseason. Maybe they've finally gotten over Hideo Nomo stealing Chipper's Rookie of the Year award away from him.

HEEES BAAAAAAAAAAACK

From the creator of the 88 Topps Blog...

and the 78 Topps Blog...

The smash hit new blog of 2009............

THE 88 SCORE ROOKIE AND TRADED SET BLOG


Jack Clark in a Yankees uniform mickyfickeys!!

Day-Glo orange borders!!!

MaGiC mOtIoN cArDs!!!!

This is the best blog possible~!!!!!

And this is an unsolicited endorsement, there was no coercion or bribery whatsoever!

So um.... Andy, will you let me out of your basement now?

Maybe throw down a sammich at least?