Just Packs, Nothing Else...

I have a growing stack of packs set aside that I felt the need to use for blog fodder, and two of them are from one of my favorite sets, 2008 Topps Heritage. When done right, I think I like all of the Heritage/retro/vintage-based sets that I've seen that have become fairly popular in recent years. I definitely can't afford to collect them all, so I've narrowed my focus first to just this year's Topps line, based on the original 1959 Topps design. I've written about this stuff before, so I'll just get onto the packs. I actually purchased "Pack 2" last Sunday and "Pack 1" (which I completely forgot about) weeks ago.

Pack 1:
37 - Matt Capps (Capps seems to have the makings of a great closer, but he spent the last few months of the season on the DL and is also a Pirate.)
137 - Ross Ohlendorf RC (Ohlendorf became a Pirate as a result of the Xavier Nady trade and got some starts after September roster expansion.)
223 - St. Louis Cardinals (I always love the team photo cards. This is even better, because it's the 2006 Championship team. Wait a minute! This is a 2008 set. This is the same photo used on the 2007 cards, with the background hacked out of it. Night Owl Cards recently posted gripes about the team card photos, but this is kind of ridiculous. Maybe the 2007 Cardinals season really was that forgettable...)

366 - Alex Rodriguez Baseball Thrills (I'm fairly indifferent about A-Rod in general, but any time someone reaches a landmark like 500 HRs, I'm pretty impressed. Yes, even when it's Rafael Palmeiro.)
294 - Jay Payton
18 - Dontrelle Willis (Is his hat just crooked, or is this a factory defect? I don't quite understand where the Tigers logo is positioned.
)
HTCP10 - Ryan Howard Target Mini T205 (Mini cards are great, especially tobacco-shaped ones.)
3 - Eric Byrnes Black Back (Cards on Cards has a No Byrnes Ordinance that prohibits images of his likeness to be displayed.)

Pack 2:

243 - Dan Haren (Some cards in this set have these weird out of focus head shots that look like they were cropped by poor screen captures of a TV broadcast, perhaps a vintage TV even.)

229 - Chris Young (To contrast, other cards in the set have more modern studio photos for some reason.)
208 - Billy Butler (Butler is one of those players I would never remember if asked out of context. Actually, if someone asked me out of the blue, "is Billy Butler is a baseball player?" I would probably say, "I don't know.")
125 - Harvey Garcia RC (In this day and age, it's probably a bad sign when Harvey's Wikipedia entry is two sentences long.)
478 - Jason Bay (A former Portland Beaver who now plays for ESPN Boston.)
197 - Derrek Lee (I almost started to feel bad for the Cubs when I saw their Sports Illustrated cover tonight at a convenience store by my work. Almost...)
485 - Miguel Cabrera All-Star (SP) (I think this is only the third one of these All-Star cards that I've pulled. "Topps News" replaces "The Sporting News" that was on the original card designs.)

262 - Hitters' Foes Black Back (Hiroki Kuroda basically replaced Penny in this trio this year. Now the Phillies have to deal with them. Night Owl Cards has given the Cards some love the past few days, so I felt obligated to post this card here. I'm not sure I have much of a rooting interest in the series, though. My Dodgers dislike roots back to the early 80s when the Yankees were my team by default because of my dad and there's something that bugs me about the Phillies that I just can't put my finger on. I think Matt Kemp, James Loney and... yes... Shane Victorino are exciting players, though, so it should be interesting to watch anyway.)