Throw 'em Back?

Once the word came out that the black Topps cards at Wal-Mart were not a hoax, a glitch or some sort of demon-led plot to devour nerdy baseball card collectors and that there would be a Target exclusive that featured gray "throwback" style cards, I have to admit that I was pretty excited. After I opened this box, however, most of that excitement was gone. I'm not sure if it was buyer's remorse from spending so much money on cards on Saturday or if I was just in a bad mood, but I had all sorts of things to complain about. I slept on it (a couple of times, actually) and have decided that these cards aren't all that bad. But there's a certain Frankencard weirdness to them that I just haven't been able to completely accept. It's like they married a Topps Heritage card to a regular base card and switched up the logo (but still kept it in the standard silver foil.) The front is still glossy and white, but the back looks like the familiar Heritage style grey cardboard. The cards are thicker than normal. But it sort of feels like the typical thin UV-coated front is just glued onto the thicker cardboard. I think I would have absolutely loved this set if they had use a Heritage-style finish to the fronts of the cards as well.

Maybe I should just buy Heritage. In fact, I did get a blaster of 2009 Heritage as well, but that will be saved for a post later this week. After much deliberation, I think I will trade these cards out. I really don't think I can afford to put together a set regardless of whether I want to or not, since I think I might be collecting Heritage again this year.

Here's the patch card. These are pretty nice, to be honest. I just wish there was more than one Cardinal in the group of 50. I'm holding out hope that there might be different players in Series 2, maybe even Ozzie Smith and the 1982 World Series patch. I can dream, right?

And then there's the rest of the packs. My usual commentary will be limited, as you've all probably seen plenty enough of the new Topps stuff already. Most things that can be said about the regular base Topps applies to these: nice photography, pretty solid design, lots of Evan Longoria cards.

Pack 1:
136 - Tim Hudson
193 - Zack Greinke
37 - Erick Aybar (Those of you that complained about the card numbers being too dark with the regular base set are going to have fits with these.)

18 - George Sherrill
TTT13 - Albert Pujols Topps Town (Just regular Topps Town here. None of the inserts are "throwbacked".)
282 - Chris Lambert (RC) (The Cardinals gave up on this guy and dumped him for... wait for it... Mike Maroth.)
102 - Garrett Atkins (Former Portland Rockies player.)

165 - Matt Kemp (This is what the backs look like.)

Pack 2:
211 - Ryan Rowland-Smith
209 - Alfredo Amezaga
83 - Ryan Garko
TTT14 - C.C. Sabathia Topps Town
- David Wright Probably Brought an Apple to Every Class
10 - Dan Uggla

281 - Tug Hulett (What a name! Who is he?)
234 - John Russell (I'd like to see Topps bring back the Team Cards and merge them with the manager cards somehow.)
159 - Matt Antonelli (RC) (I didn't go to nearly enough Portland Beavers games last year.)

Pack 3:

122 - Joe Mather (At last check, Mather was the Cardinals spring training RBI leader by a long ways. It looks like he switched his number this year from a scrub number to #7, which was Adam Kennedy's. Good for him.)
155 - Roy Halladay
275 - Alex Rios
314 - Matt Treanor
LG16 - Roy Campanella Legends of the Game (I have two of these now.)
TTT15 - Alfonso Soriano Topps Town
292 - Francisco Cervelli (RC) (I think half of the RCs in this year's set were Yankees backup catchers that they tried to use when Jorge Posada was out.)
242 - Ricky Nolasco

Pack 4:
76 - Marcus Thames
213 - Jeremy Sowers
210 - Geovany Soto

TR26 - Cristian Guzman Turkey Red (If anyone has any of these that you don't want, please let me know. I'm going to add a want list soon.)
TTT16 - Ichiro Suzuki Topps Town
158 - Ray Durham
207 - Joe Blanton

40 - Carl Crawford

Pack 5:
328 - Doug Mientkiewicz
260 - Manny Ramirez
319 - Brian Fuentes

272 - Chan Ho Park Gold 0438/2009 (Like the other inserts, this is just a standard gold card - no throwback versions here.)
TTT17 - Francisco Rodriguez Topps Town
293 - Brian Bixler
329 - Gil Meche

151 - Carl Pavano (One more look at the back, just to show you that the Yankees got 26 starts from Pavano in 4 years with an ERA near 5.00)

Pack 6:

95 - Andrew Miller
149 - Juan Uribe
36 - Kevin Slowey

LG7 - Babe Ruth Legends of the Game
TTT9 - Ryan Howard Topps Town (I drafted this guy yesterday. That makes me feel dirty.)
191 - Shane Victorino Postseason Highlights
215 - Ian Kinsler
296 - Reid Brignac

Pack 7:
310 - Johan Santana
103 - Kyle Kendrick
28 - Mike Lowell
5 - John Lackey
TTT7 - Hanley Ramirez Topps Town
224 - Max Scherzer
298 - Jonathan Van Every (His name just sounds like it's missing something. Jonathan Van Every What?)

204 - Andy Sonnanstine

Pack 8:
113 - Chris Young (The pitcher)

300 - Ichiro Suzuki (It wouldn't be a Kerry box without an Ichiro card.)
324 - Mark Reynolds (The worst player in baseball last season. Don't get me started.)
TTT10 - Jake Peavy Topps Town
12 - Andrew Carpenter (RC)
318 - Manny Acta
272 - Chan Ho Park
90 - Justin Morneau

Pack 9:
67 - Andruw Jones
129 - Angel Berroa
301 - Clint Barmes
39 - Stephen Drew

TR44 - Ervin Santana Turkey Red
TTT11 - Nick Markakis Topps Town
22 - Evan Longoria / David Price Classic Combos
304 - Jason Kubel

Pack 10:
154 - A.J. Pierzynski

212 - Denard Span (They should have put a retro Topps Rookie All-Star team logo on these to match the retro Topps logo.)
56 - Edwin Encarnacion
264 - Dave Bush
TTT12 - Justin Morneau Topps Town
- Topps Attax code (I have free codes if anyone wants them.)
14 - Jon Rauch (Decent as a closer with the Nats last year, and then was horrible for the Snakes and ruined my fantasy team.)
245 - Pat Burrell
274 - Alex Hinshaw

So, that's it. If you've made it this far, don't forget about the contest I'm running. Free stuff. The deadline is Thursday morning before the first games start.