5 on the 5: 2010 Topps Opening Day

I made two rather embarrassing baseball card purchases today, but I'm not ready to call this one the most embarrassing. As much as there is to dislike about the Opening Day set overall, I was disappointed when it was cancelled last year. Call me a sucker for variations on the same basic design. I wanted to see what color they might choose for the border. This year, it seems that they have chosen the exact same color as the border, which is disappointing. The other oddness that others have already uncovered is that Topps apparently saved all of its Photoshop work for the Opening Day set, which is unusual. Anyway, I won't go so far as to collect this set or anything, but I will collect the Cardinals. Besides, at 99 cents a pack, you have to at least appreciate that this is about as close as you can get these days to picking up a pack for some loose pocket change.

Pack 1:

93 - Josh Beckett

87 - Mat Latos (There are now two "Mats" in the majors. That's alarming.)

215 - Chris Pettit (Whoever he is, I seem to get his cards like crazy.)

8 of 10 - Chipper Jones Where'd You Go, Bazooka Joe? (Topps seemed to make a serious effort at coming up with some of the most bafflingly bad insert set names this year.)

109 - Akinori Iwamura (Here's one of the Photoshopped cards. The photo could double as one of the "not licensed" photos that plague the unlicensed Upper Deck set this year.)

82 - Jeff Francoeur

55 - Brett Anderson

Pack 2:

77 - Josh Hamilton

208 - Drew Stubbs

8 - Johnny Cueto

TTS18 - David Wright ToppsTown Stars (Free code! The ToppsTown inserts are only in 1 out of 3 packs apparently, and look completely different from the base set version.)

174 - Derek Jeter

146 - Jimmy Rollins

160 - Grady Sizemore

- Topps Attax code

Pack 3:

89 - Roy Halladay (I know this card has been seen elsewhere, but this is definitely an example of lousy Photoshopping.)

53 - David DeJesus

2 - Derrek Lee

M23 - Rangers Captain Mascot (Mascot cards are inserts this time around? Wait... the Rangers mascot is actually called "Rangers Captain"? I don't know what to say about that.)

40 - Kenshin Kawakami

155 - Jake Peavy

164 - Kosuke Fukudome

Pack 4:

113 - Carlos Delgado

216 - Daniel McCutchen

12 - Cristian Guzman Light Blue Parallel 1818/2010 (I actually really like these, and by now you all probably know how I feel about serial numbered cards. I just wish this was a player I liked. I think this set would have worked better with blue borders, but they would have had to choose another color for the serial numbered parallels.)

TTS24 - Tim Lincecum ToppsTown Stars (This one goes right to my girlfriend, and no, you can't have the code.)

148 - Michael Cuddyer

183 - Jon Lester

190 - Jorge Cantu

Pack 5:

119 - Adam Dunn

57 - Hank Blalock

90 - Chris Coghlan (Is Coghlan for real or is he Todd Hollandsworth? I need to know these things before fantasy draft time rolls around.)

196 - Raul Ibanez

161 - Chad Billingsley

135 - Chipper Jones (See what I mean? Braves everywhere and no Cardinals.)

118 - Orlando Hudson (Braves and Dodgers... Dodgers and Braves.)

High End Hijinks

A couple of weekends ago I won a high-end basketball "box" that is really a pack (or is that a pack that is really a box?) from the polarizing people at Beckett. For some reason, I had high hopes for this thing. Visions of Brandon Roy jersey chunks danced in my head. Oh, I was so naive. Plus, after later glancing at the checklist included in this, I realized that none of the Blazer rookies made it in this product. I need to get my hands on a Dante Cunningham card or two.

Here is the first, and almost assuredly last high end anything I will open and post on this blog. The dual images of this hated Laker guard should have been a strong enough warning to me.

Here's Kurt Thomas, still in the wrapper. Kurt Thomas? This is a 100-card serial numbered set and they give you Kurt Thomas? Is Milwaukee really that bad? (This is numbered 113/199.)

Okay, we have a legend here. 'Zo wasn't exactly Julius Erving, but he manages to stay relevant with the occasional awful Gatorade commercial. (10/99)

Here's Stephen Jackson on a Banner Season rainbowy shiny card thing. If anyone actually cared about basketball cards, aside from a select few, would there actually be such a thing as a Stephen Jackson player collector?

The next three cards are of the thick variety: your guaranteed "hits". I just saw this rookie play against Portland on Wednesday and he looked, well, athletic. He's started every game he's appeared in this season, so at least he has that going for him. (64/99)

Here is the lowest numbered card I've ever pulled. The only problem is that it's someone named Sam Young. I have no idea who he is. If you look at the edge of the '4' he does have a bit of a stripe or color change or whatever going on, but I think people would be more impressed if it was more visible. By the way, am I the only one who doesn't understand the extreme increase in value of a jersey card if there's some sort of stripe or patch showing? (1/5)

As far as name recognition goes, this is probably the best card of the bunch. Hansbrough may never approach the high level of play and notoriety he achieved as a college star, but he's off to a decent start to his NBA career I suppose. At least, he's faring better than Hasheem Thabeet. (159/299)

And finally, here's a Baron Davis base card. Again, I could think of quite a few more likable players. (018/199)

Now, here's the tough part. What do I do with these cards? Aside from holding onto the Kurt Thomas card to unleash on Thorzul one day, I'm kind of stumped. I suppose I could try to sell the jerseys/autos for a few pennies. Does anyone have any advice?

Airbrushed Fridays: 1990 Topps Traded #52T

After Topps reached big success with their two most recent Traded sets, marked by the Olympians and strong rookie crop of the 1988 set and Ken Griffey Jr. himself in the 1989 set, the 1990 effort could have been filed somewhere between piss and poor. One notable addition, however, was the advent of Traded set wax packs. The entire traded set was issued in its usual factory set box with thinner, lighter card stock than its base set counterpart, but the wax packs contained cards printed on the standard card stock that everyone got to know and love over the years. I'm not certain which is the rarer version at this time, but I wouldn't consider your team set complete without a cards of each player in each card stock variety.

Brent Knackert logged 32 appearances as a major league pitcher in his career, including 2 starts and 8 games finished. Was he a fringe major leaguer? Certainly. The odd thing with Brent is that he appeared in the majors in two separate seasons, 1990 and 1996.

Why did Topps airbrush Brent's photo? I suppose Knackert's career could have been some sort of hoax and that he didn't really exist. The Mariners were a last place team in 1990 and Ken Griffey Jr. was still figuring out how to play the game. Growing up in the Portland area, we've always had Mariners game televised to some extent, and it's hard to pry my eyes away from baseball when it's on. I don't remember Knackert existing, though. It's even more curious that he showed up more than a half of a decade later.

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? Hand-drawn shirt and hat? Closely cropped photo? Actually, if it wasn't for the blip of color just above his right shoulder, I would seriously wonder if this was one of his class photos when he was in high school. Although, I suppose it's best to look directly into the camera when you're attempting to immortalize yourself into Senior Photo Glory.

1996 Pinnacle Conclusion

Alright, folks, it's time to conclude this mid-'90s parade of baseball cards. If I have learned anything from this venture, it's that if I was actually serious about putting together a set like this that I should have stopped after 2/3 of a box. The doubles begin appearing in droves from here on out.

Pack 17:

274 - Matt Williams Hardball Heroes

299 - Ray Durham

231 - Kevin Seitzer (I guess I don't give post-1987 Kevin Seitzer enough credit. He actually put together a pretty respectable 1995 season with Milwaukee, batting .311 with an OPS north of .800.)

265 - Mike Piazza Hardball Heroes

247 - Roger Clemens

343 - Charlie Hayes

372 - Livan Hernandez Rookie (As the sands of time have passed, Livan Hernandez has somehow become the de facto "The" Rookie Card of this set.)

337 - Sean Berry

382 - Osvaldo Fernandez Rookie

335 - Paul Molitor

Pack 18:

275 - Alex Rodriguez Hardball Heroes (Here's A-Rod when he was somewhat less repugnant.)

201 - Frank Thomas

309 - Butch Huskey

241 - Harold Baines

271 - Gary Sheffield Hardball Heroes

373 - George Arias Rookie

315 - John Smoltz

344 - Andy Benes

399 - Chase Checklist (For the record, pictured on this card are Griffey, Thomas, Ripken, Maddux, Chipper and Piazza. And it's still not a good look.)

311 - Erik Hanson

Pack 19:

225 - John Olerud (I think someone out there is a John Olerud collector. I just can't remember at the moment. I have a ton of his cards from the junky era.)

269 - Wade Boggs Hardball Heroes

251 - Bret Saberhagen (Saberhagen is actually the founder of Sabermetrics.)

191 of 200 - Mark Grace .300 Series Starburst (Okay, these doofy dufex cards are starting to grow on me, much in the way that chrome cards started growing on me after I made endless fun of them originally.)

342 - Ryne Sandberg

390 - Bob Abreu Rookie

397 - Greg Maddux N.L. Checklist

362 - Greg Gagne

330 - Tom Gordon

Pack 20:

236 - Randy Johnson

256 - Hideo Nomo Hardball Heroes

206 - Moises Alou

290 - Dwayne Hosey

283 - Raul Mondesi

348 - Ken Hill (I realize at this point that I have yet to show one of the backs of the cards, so here we go. And... now you know.)

377 - Brooks Kieschnick Rookie

320 - Gary DiSarcina

318 - Kirby Puckett .300 Series

387 - Jeff Suppan Rookie

Pack 21:

292 - Rod Beck (I thought about scanning his card, but the thought makes me somewhat uncomfortable.)

224 - Jay Buhner (You get Buhner instead, in all his '90s teal glory.)

268 - Kirby Puckett Hardball Heroes

267 - Tony Gwynn Hardball Heroes

249 - J.T. Snow

324 - Juan Acevedo

334 - Wade Boggs .300 Series

389 - Terry Adams Rookie

396 - Chipper Jones N.L. Checklist

361 - Tino Martinez

Pack 22:

253 - Ryan Klesko (Surfer dude again. The spots on the top of his photo that I originally thought might have been printing defects actually seem like they might be water spots on the camera lens. Cute.)

274 - Matt Williams Hardball Heroes

232 - Lenny Dykstra

266 - Chipper Jones Hardball Heroes (Him again.)

248 - Orel Hershiser

372 - Livan Hernandez Rookie

337 - Sean Berry

335 - Paul Molitor (I realized that I've now scanned 4 Molitor cards for blog purposes and they've all been from 1996, all featuring Molitor on the Twins.)

382 - Osvaldo Fernandez Rookie

308 - Hal Morris .300 Series

Pack 23:

263 - Sammy Sosa Hardball Heroes (I should have scanned this one. I don't think the guy on the front of the card is actually Sosa.)

245 - Vinny Castilla

212 - David Cone

276 - Tim Salmon Hardball Heroes

108 of 200 - Barry Bonds Starburst (Do Bonds cards have any actual value anymore? Could Pinnacle have chosen a worse photo than this?)

325 - Bip Roberts (I've been Bipped! In the... sort of... literal sense, I guess.)

345 - Sterling Hitchcock

306 - Mark Grace .300 Series

338 - Rickey Henderson (Far be it from me to keep track of Rickey Henderson's every move throughout his career, but I did find it somewhat surprising that he actually spent some time with the Padres before his 2001 tour with the franchise.)

374 - Steve Gibralter

Pack 24:

214 - Cal Ripken Jr.

278 - Manny Ramirez Hardball Heroes

204 - Alex Gonzalez

235 - Bret Boone

255 - Ken Griffey Jr. Hardball Heroes

308 - Hal Morris .300 Series (Again? I hate this card.)

347 - Julio Franco

376 - Jason Kendall Rookie

355 - Rick Aguilera

365 - Ernie Young

And that's it. It's time to unleash these cards on the unsuspecting masses.

Twenty Ten Cardinals Surprise

In what would certainly count as a surprise package in my world, reader Steve from ID became the first person to send me 2010 Cardinals cards. In most trade posts, I'll just select a handful of cards that were noteworthy to me or at least produced some sort of thought in me that I felt could be written about. However, set-building trades aside, I'm not sure that anyone has ever sent me a package where every single card was something I needed until now.

Here's my first 2010 Topps Gold Cardinals card. Lugo wasn't a terrible pickup for the Cardinals last year as it allowed them to part ways with Chris Duncan to give him a new start somewhere else and even gave them an additional contract year for Julio. He's a great low-cost backup infielder on a team that uses its reserve players almost as often as its regular starters.

This Pujols '51 Red Back mini becomes the second retail exclusive card that I've pulled. Are there more Cardinals to be had there? I don't have checklists handy at the moment, but I'm sort of hoping that Pujols and Dizzy Dean are it.

I know that not everyone appreciates a Topps League Leaders card, but I kind of like them in some weird way. I guess they remind me of 1984 Topps.

Albert Pujols is good at baseball.

I'd like to see Wainwright and Carpenter go into this season with chips on their shoulders and just flat out dominate the National League. I'm still pretty bitter about the whole Cy Young Award debacle, although awards are becoming more and more meaningless.

As much as it is fun to get 3 insert cards per $1.99 pack, I think that Topps could have dropped at least one of the insert sets. There isn't a whole lot of difference to me between the Topps Town design and the Peak Performance design.

Here's one less Card My Mom Threw Out to retrieve. This is the more common version and not the reprint back style.

I guess the only reason that the Peak Performance insert set exists is to provide a base for the Peak Performance relic cards that I've seen while browsing around.

Thanks again to Steve, who should be receiving a return pack of Braves in the near future.

Shiny Gold Triangles

Here's part two of my 1996 Pinnacle Series 2 box break. If you're sensitive to light or flashy gold colors, you may want to look elsewhere or at least dim the setting on your monitor a bit.

Pack 9:

226 - Jeff Conine (Fancy bit of photography here to catch the reflection in Conine's shades... if it's real, that is.)

270 - Will Clark Hardball Heroes

289 - Bob Hamelin (Yeah, yeah, yeah. Photo day is so hilarious. This shows you how fresh Upper Deck's ideas were last year with the OPC set. But honestly, these days, could anyone pick Bob Hamelin out of a lineup?)

218 - Carlos Baerga

5 of 16 - Chipper Jones Christie Brinkley Collection (These are inserted at a 1:23 ratio. Wow, I really don't know what else to say about this.)

Yeah, again, I'm not sure there are words for this. Apparently Brinkley fancied herself a photographer at this point in her career.

336 - Tony Gwynn .300 Series

398 - Mike Piazza NL Checklist

363 - Mike Kelly

331 - Ben McDonald

371 - Jason Schmidt Rookie

Pack 10:

246 - Cecil Fielder

213 - Will Clark (Back to back Clark packs.)

277 - Johnny Damon Hardball Heroes (Now that he finally has a job, I guess we can stop reading about him.)

203 - Kirby Puckett (One reason for me to hate the Twins less.)

234 - Rondell White

326 - Javier Lopez

314 - Kurt Abbott

307 - Don Mattingly .300 Series (Nice to see that Mattingly went out at the top of his game.)

346 - Bernard Gilkey

375 - Jermaine Dye Rookie

Pack 11:

295 - Willie Greene

227 - Dean Palmer

261 - Mo Vaughn Hardball Heroes

243 - Mark Grace

253 - Ryan Klesko (Dude!)

311 - Erik Hanson

364 - Tim Raines (I saved Rock fans from seeing him in a Yankees uniform.)

353 - Darryl Hamilton

391 - Quinton McCracken Rookie

305.3 - Paul Molitor .300 Series

Pack 12:

296 - Ismael Valdes

228 - Jim Abbott

262 - Albert Belle Hardball Heroes

244 - Derek Bell

211 - Craig Biggio

383 - Wilton Guerrero Rookie

354 - Shawon Dunston

392 - Mike Busby Rookie (First Cardinal of the second post.)

305.6 - Jeff Bagwell .300 Series

394 - Ken Griffey Jr. AL Checklist

Pack 13:

266 - Chipper Jones Hardball Heroes (Yeah, him again.)

248 - Orel Hershiser

215 - Wade Boggs

279 - Derek Jeter Hardball Heroes (Jeter looks like a little leaguer here.)

284 - Terry Steinbach

360 - Todd Zeile

328 - Mark Lewis

368 - Karim Garcia Rookie

301.8 - Ken Griffey Jr. .300 Series

349 - Russ Davis

Pack 14:

281 - Ozzie Smith Hardball Heroes (Ozzie! Hit of the box as far as I'm concerned.)

286 - Dave Justice

238 - Jim Thome (Thome is listed at 3B here, but you hardly ever see pictures of him fielding on cards.)

258 - Cal Ripken Jr. Hardball Heroes (People seem to like this guy for some reason.)

208 - Barry Bonds

370 - Sal Fasano Rookie

303 - Mike Greenwell .300 Series (I wonder what Red Sox fans think of Greenwell today. I could use this as a good barometer for telling whether a self-professed Boston fan is a real fan or if they just saw the crappy Jimmy Fallon movie.)

351 - B.J. Surhoff

380 - Rey Ordonez Rookie

332 - Dan Wilson

Pack 15:

282 - Garret Anderson Hardball Heroes

287 - Eric Anthony (I remember when Anthony's 1989 Topps card was highly sought after.)

239 - Edgardo Alfonzo

259 - Jeff Bagwell Hardball Heroes (The doubles are finally starting to appear.)

209 - Fred McGriff

304.9 - Carlos Baerga .300 Series

352 - Lance Johnson

381 - Jay Powell Rookie

333 - Ron Gant (First Cardinal double. This goes to one of the 10 boxes of Cardinals doubles I have in the corner of the room.)

310 - Ozzie Guillen

Pack 16:

254 - Greg Maddux Hardball Heroes

273 - Randy Johnson Hardball Heroes

221 - Jim Edmonds (Oh man. Yeah, I collect this guy. This card is terrible. How embarrassing.)

297 - Glenallen Hill

229 - Raul Mondesi

317 - Mark Carreon

339 - Wil Cordero

385 - George Williams Rookie

313 - Edgar Martinez .300 Series

357 - Todd Stottlemyre (Perfect way to finish off the post, with a Cardinal that I haven't pulled yet.)