(Re)visiting 2003

I've been hanging onto this for awhile, but I figured that a rainy late night in Portland was as good of a time as any to bring this out in the forefront. I really like 2003 Topps cards. I can't really explain why, other than the fact that I love the color blue (the darker the better) and that this is a set that I haven't been overexposed to. Am I crazy for potentially wanting to collect this set, even though I haven't been interested in collecting a Topps base set since... well... ever? 2003 wasn't a particularly memorable year for me. (I didn't buy a single pack of cards from 1994 through 2004.) In fact, it wasn't a very notable year for anything, and I can't think of a lot of positive things to say about it. There was a lot of good music that came out in 2002 and 2004, for example, but I can't think of anything worth mentioning at the moment from 2003. That year was personally tumultuous for me as well. And it hardly goes without mention that a certain idiotic war began that year as well.

Nevertheless, here's a taste of what I've been hoarding in the darker corners of my apartment. I also bought a few Series 1 HTA jumbo packs that I'll talk about at a later time.

Pack 1:

76 - Randy Wolf (In a nod to the 1983 set twenty years before it, you can see that each card has a baseball diamond shaped inset picture of the player on the front. The 1983 set, of course, had a circular photo.)

152 - Steve Trachsel (I'll forever know him as a lousy Cub - and by lousy, I mean it in both ways - and as the guy who gave up a hugely monumental for its time HR to Mark McGwire.)

161 - Kerry Robinson (Robinson was a personal favorite of mine for his uniform number, his first name and, of course, that Cardinals uniform he wore. Tony La Russa didn't seem to have a lot of good things to say about him as documented in Three Nights in August, and he ended up changing his number at some point to 0. He did a later stint with the Portland Beavers and seemed way too talented for AAA, yet really never landed a permanent major league gig.)

37 - Brandon Duckworth

RB-JM - Juan Marichal Record Breakers (Not a bad idea for an insert set. Old school Topps Record Breakers just highlighted feats from the previous season.)

362 - Garret Anderson All-Stars

59 - Brad Wilkerson (An Expo and a Rookie Cup winner. You don't see that in today's cards.)

144 - Mark Quinn

41 - Kevin Appier

139 - Brandon Inge

Pack 2:

89 - Mike Matheny (More Cardinal goodness. Matheny, a multiple Gold Glove winner in the past mentored current Gold Glover and ESPN The Magazine coverboy Yadier Molina.)

233 - Derrek Lee (Before he lost his way and became a Cub...)

2 - Dan Wilson (At my first ever major league game, a Cards/Mariners game in Seattle at Safeco Field, some guy tried to heckle Dan Wilson mercilessly from our right field bleacher seats, even though I'm fairly certain Wilson was catching that day.)

255 - Michael Barrett

RB-FR - Frank Robinson Record Breakers

366 - Manny Ramirez All-Stars

127 - Jason Isringhausen (Word has it that Izzy is a new father - or at least a father of a newborn. Several seconds of internet research did not help me pick the more correct statement.)

39 - Sidney Ponson (If baseball was more like pro wrestling, Ponson would be a memorable character.)

83 - Orlando Palmeiro

22 - Dave Mlicki

There's more to come from this. If any of you have any 2003 Topps that you want to expunge from your living space, feel free to let me know. I only own a few packs worth of this stuff at this point (and virtually nothing from Series 2.)