Heritage High Series Blaster and Contest Update

An update on the ongoing contest follows this post about baseball cards, although those of you participating can just check the standings via Yahoo.

I was unexpectedly given a $25 Fred Meyer gift card with my most recent paycheck at work, so in a shocking turn of events I invested the entire thing in baseball cards. The big pickup was a blaster of the 2009 Heritage High Series. I also bought a repack box, but that turned out to be nothing to write home (or write on the internet) which is pretty typical.

Pack 1:

503 - Aaron Poreda (One of the many guys the Padres got back in the Jake Peavy trade. Is it just me, or does it look like San Diego will come out ahead on that one?)

666 - Rich Hill

655 - Omir Santos

UH72 - John Mayberry Jr. (One of my Christmas gifts was a new desk lamp. Other than revealing clumps of dust that I didn't realize were there before, the big benefit so far has been my newly found ability to easily read all of the card numbers on the backs of the 2009 Topps base cards.)

UH247 - Lastings Milledge

FB-01 - Jonathan Sanchez Flashback (Can you really "flashback" to something that happened only 5 months ago?)

618 - Jarrod Washburn

634 - Mark Loretta

Pack 2:

555 - David Freese (First Cardinal of the box. Freese looks to be in line for the starting 3B job next season, although he needs to keep away from the wheel after partaking in adult beverages.)

525 - Braden Looper (For some reason, I see Looper returning to the Cardinals again someday in some capacity.)

640 - Melky Cabrera (One of the new Braves.)

UH195 - P.J. Walters (The Cards thought enough of Walters, who got a cup of coffee this past season, to keep him on the 40-man roster thereby protecting him from Rule 5 Draft vultures. Mike Parisi was not so lucky.)

UH251 - Ian Snell

TN-9 - Bobby Richardson / Cole Hamels Then and Now

569 - Alex Rios (Apparently there is a rare black & white version of this card, but that's not what I ended up with.)

504 - Takashi Saito

Pack 3:

550 - Daniel Bard

582 - Homer Bailey

UH143 - Matt Maloney

UH307 - Heath Bell (I'm not sure how one of the league's best setup guys, who became a closer this past season, doesn't get a card in series 1 or 2 despite not changing teams.)

628 - Landon Powell

581 - Gregg Zaun

542 - Clayton Richard (Another reason to be excited about the Peavy trade.)

700 - Huston Street (SP)

Pack 4:

CHR118 - Joe Crede Chrome Refractor 258 / 560 (Any Crede fans out there? Twins fans?)

619 - Justin Masterson

538 - Chris Jakubauskas

UH205 - Dallas Braden (Only one UH card?)

693 - Chris Coghlan (SP)

598 - Jeff Baker

574 - Gabe Kapler

Pack 5:

506 - Adam Kennedy

565 - Endy Chavez (Could have been a player I despised had Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS ended differently.)

589 - Jamey Carroll (A.J.'s new favorite player!)

UH289 - Nick Johnson

UH133 - Graham Taylor (Lots of Fish in this box.)

CHR114 - Eric Byrnes Chrome 1432 / 1960 (I deserve this for making fun of Byrnes in my last post about this set.)

548 - Cristian Guzman

521 - Nick Evans

Pack 6:

626 - Tim Redding

651 - Nick Green (I have no idea who this guy is, but apparently he started at SS for Boston this past year. Maybe I should watch more ESPN.)

501 - Shane Robinson (Another cup 'o coffee guy for the Cards this year. There were a lot of them, especially early in the season.)

UH303 - Luke French (I think I have like 5 of this card, and I haven't even bought much U&H this year.)

UH221 - Adrian Gonzalez Home Run Derby

RP-08 - Brett Anderson Rookie Performers

623 - Kevin Millar (Millar actually played this past season? I thought he was just an MLB Network guy.)

563 - Pedro Martinez (Pedro also has a B&W variation card.)

Pack 7:

614 - Josh Outman (Born with a pitcher's name.)

641 - Micah Hoffpauir

657 - Vin Mazzaro

671 - Ross Gload

UH117 - Alex Rios

UH309 - Scott Podsednik

557 - David Huff

545 - Neftali Feliz (This Texas prospect also has a variation card. Are there any others that I'm missing?)

Pack 8:

659 - Rafael Soriano (I would have loved it if the Cards had signed this guy, but for some stupid reason I don't think they were interested.)

616 - Juan Uribe

586 - J.J. Putz

UH214 - Jason Grilli

UH184 - Francisco Cordero All-Stars

714 - Nelson Cruz (SP) (Cruz came from out of nowhere to star at the Home Run Derby. I was rooting for him after Pujols got knocked out.)

674 - Ryan Church

670 - Ross Detwiler (Hey, it's this guy again.)

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Contest time! I managed to correctly pick my 4th bowl game (out of 11) when Georgia beat Texas A&M to put me in 10th place overall out of 15. There are 16 people entered, but I am officially disqualifying "Onelostpunk86" for failing to make any picks at all. I suppose that's one way to win the "worst" prize, but... trust me... that prize is not appealing enough to be sneaky about it.

Kevin, who chose a name I wholeheartedly approve of (Home Movies reference "Fenton Sucks") is in the lead despite also only correctly predicting 4 games. He's going to have a tough road to the finish, however, as he has the fewest possible "potential points" of the entire group. Remember, first prize is based on Yahoo's crazy weighted scoring rules. Adam of Thoughts and Sox is currently in 2nd while Tim of the Great Sports Name HOF is in 3rd. Reader Jason, who was the runner-up in my March Radness contest, has correctly picked the most games with 8 of 11. He seems to be good at this sort of thing.

Erin is currently beating me, so all of the Erin supporters are looking good for the second prize. Sean of Condition: Poor (is there a better blog banner out there?) right now is the frontrunner for the worst place prize, although he has some stiff competition.

I'll do another update next week going into the final BCS games (and that absurdly late GMAC game) if anyone is interested.