Tuesday, January 19, 2010

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.

4 comments :

  1. It's Dris-kill. He played for the minor league team that used to be near me.

    In fact, I might have to pick up a card of his. I think I might've talked to him once.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kearns signed a minor league contract w/ a Spring Training invite w/ Cleveland. He just keeps getting injuries that seem small but he can't play over 70 games it seems. When in there he has the batting and fielding skill. It's just getting him in the game.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think I would say it's an IP success. He's right there, isn't he? Unless its just an Aaron Boone robot, which would be really weird.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are highly encouraged, but then again, so is eating your fruits and vegetables.