2003 Topps Series 1 is Live!

The word is starting to trickle down, and it seems everyone is excited. You may have seen this stuff pop up on eBay already, but I believe I have once again scooped the "blogosphere" by posting the very first blaster of 2003 Topps of the new year. There are ten six-card packs and one "bonus pack" which is in a special compartment all by itself, yet looks exactly the same as all of the other packs. Enjoy!

Pack 1:

27 - Andres Galarraga (I still hold ill will towards the Big Cat for that one terrible season he had with St. Louis, which he then followed up by hitting .370 with the newbie Rockies.)

207 - Mike DeJean

31 - Brian Giles

364 - Derek Lowe All-Stars (One thing that bothers me slightly about this set is that the subset cards are in a slightly different shade of blue than the regular cards. The regular card shade of blue is what attracted me to collecting this set in the first place.)

90 - Alfonso Soriano

24 - Odalis Perez

- Home Team Advantage Ad

Pack 2:

138 - Jason Jennings (Jennings won 16 games in 2002 and was a Rookie Cup guy.)

107 - Travis Driskill (Is it driss-kill or dry-skill?)

48 - Aaron Boone (Look at me! I can sign stuff with a glove on my head! By the way, if these are not "TTM" autographs, then does that mean they are "IP"? "IRL"?)

71 - Jim Thome

151 - Al Leiter

200 - Albert Pujols (Nice!)

Pack 3:

282 - Art Howe

223 - Fernando Vina (The only man who had more finely groomed facial hair in baseball in 2002 besides Albert Pujols was Fernando Vina.)

101 - Steve Cox

359 - Eric Chavez All-Stars (Chavez is wearing '80s retro A's gear, but for some reason I didn't scan the card.)

219 - Kevin Millwood

70 - Austin Kearns (Another Rookie Cup guy. What happened to him?)

1/3 - Checklist

Pack 4:

288 - Tony LaRussa (A lot of people are taking their shots at this guy lately, and some of it is probably deserved. He's still a heck of a manager, though, and that's his job.)

77 - Miguel Tejada

127 - Jason Isringhausen (Lots of Cardinals in this box... no complaints here.)

OG30 - John Smoltz Own The Game (This card has magical powers as you can see.)

92 - Jeffrey Hammonds (Hammonds was supposed to be the second coming of somebody... at some point...)

238 - Denny Hocking

Pack 5:

30 - Jason Giambi

39 - Sidney Ponson

83 - Orlando Palmeiro

340 - Alex Rodriguez / Magglio Ordonez / Miguel Tejada AL RBI League Leaders

110 - Shawn Green

251 - Craig Biggio

Pack 6:

285 - Bruce Bochy

244 - Jeff Cirillo

22 - Dave Mlicki

56 - Eric Young

210 - Roy Oswalt

133 - Corey Patterson (Move along... nothing to see here.)

Pack 7:

85 - Kenny Rogers (Rogers was actually a reliever for his first four full major league seasons, which is something I didn't know. He even closed for a spell.)

14 - David Segui

365 - Barry Zito All-Stars

338 - Alfonso Soriano / Alex Rodriguez / Derek Jeter AL Runs League Leaders (Yeah... a bunch of guys on one card.)

87 - Mo Vaughn

176 - Sean Casey

Pack 8:

280 - John Halama

123 - Andy Benes

49 - Jason Simontacchi (More Cardinals! Back-to-back, even!)

RB-KG - Ken Griffey Jr. Record Breakers (This has to be the best pack of the box.)

28 - Edgardo Alfonzo

112 - Jacque Jones

Pack 9:

284 - Lloyd McClendon (I never thought much of McClendon as a player, and then he got into some physical altercation with the Cardinals during batting practice years ago while coaching. Nice.)

124 - Tino Martinez

335 - Jason Giambi Season Highlights

120 - Bernie Williams

256 - Omar Daal

2/3 - Checklist

Pack 10:

286 - Dusty Baker (Speaking of obnoxious managers, here's Dusty. A lot of these manager cards seemed to be posed for some reason.)

12 - Dennis Cook

51 - Jose Jimenez

32 - Deivi Cruz

50 - Sammy Sosa (I wonder if Topps will issue buybacks of cards like Sosa, with scarlet letter branding that pays "tribute" to admitted steroid use.)

146 - Darren Dreifort

Bonus Pack:

283 - Larry Bowa

45 - Carlos Baerga (There's a name from the past. Apparently he spent a couple years away from baseball before coming back with Boston in 2002.)

113 - Tomokazu Ohka

55 - Brian Jordan (A former Card who was fun to watch at times.)

20 - Todd Helton

246 - Jose Valentin

Well, there you have it. I'll have my wantlist posted fairly soon. Please make sure you hyperlink this on your blog so that my hits skyrocket and I become extra-famous.