Base & Chrome: Together Forever

Here it is! It's the grand finale of the 3 blaster purchase I made on eBay recently. You can see the first box here and the second box here. While the 2003 Topps blaster was the instigator in this purchase, I was definitely the most intrigued about this 2004 Topps Traded and Rookies box. Back when Topps gave every base card the Chrome treatment, they apparently released a version of what's now known as Updates & Highlights without inserts, but included two Chrome cards per pack. I still think the 2004 Topps design is incredibly boring, but this is still a nice chance to pick up some Chrome cards on the cheap as well as some pre-"Rookie Card" logo rookie cards. There's 7 packs plus the proverbial bonus pack with 10 cards in each. Let's take a look.

Pack 1:

T12 - Ben Grieve (Grieve doesn't have a lot of good to say about his time with the Devil Rays on the back of the card.)

T173 - Matt Capps (Here's a true rookie card of a promising young reliever that essentially worthless because he pitches for Pittsburgh.)

T56 - Tom Gordon

T94 - Chin-Feng Chen (Here's one off of Night Owl's want list.)

T105 - Edwin Encarnacion Chrome Prospects

- Checklist 5 of 10 (These are just plain weird. This seems like a Topps experiment where they used a dummy card, although it doesn't make sense inside of a blaster. This is "5 of 10" but something seems weird here.)

(This is the back of the card, where it shows a portion of the Traded and Rookies checklist and states that it is 15 of 110. I don't know what to believe now. At least these don't count against the 10 card total.)

T156 - Charlie Zink Chrome (Charlie Zink? Why did I scan a Charlie Zink card, you might ask. Zink was actually a quiet offseason minor league signee by the Cardinals and I know nothing else about him whatsoever.)

T21 - Jay Payton

T9 - Fernando Vina

T116 - Kazuhito Tadano

T62 - Braden Looper

Pack 2:

T153 - Luke Hughes

T59 - Junior Spivey

T146 - Danny Gonzalez (So many guys I've never heard of. I guess the jury still is not out on everyone from this set, yet. I know that Blake Hawksworth finally made an impact for the Cardinals last season after first appearing in a 2004 Topps set.)

T32 - Mark Kotsay

T193 - Jason Frasor Chrome

- Checklist 6 of 10

T58 - Paul Lo Duca Chrome

T115 - Eduardo Villacis

T1 - Pokey Reese (How did Pokey Reese of all people get to be card number 1? I'm not sure Topps applied the same standards to their year-end sets as they did to their first series.)

T112 - Brian Dallimore

T50 - Alex Rodriguez (Must be one of those rookies I've never heard of.)

Pack 3:

T213 - James Tomlin (This unknown Twins outfield appears to be playing in front of a few ants.)

T185 - Ricky Nolasco (Here's a guy we've seen from time to time, pictured as a Cub.)

T122 - Scott Olsen

T64 - Juan Encarnacion (Lots of Fish in this box.)

T47 - Orlando Cabrera Chrome (Ugh... another reminder of the 2004 Red Sox.)

- Checklist 7 of 10

T34 - Dustan Mohr Chrome Refractor (Chrome refractors are seeded at a 1 in 12 pack ratio. This is pretty nice looking, but I wish it was of someone I actually knew. Mohr is apparently some sort of outfielder.)

T219 - Don Sutton Gold 1501 / 2004 (Nice gold card of the Hall of Famer. Wait... something is wrong here.)

T91 - Chad Tracy Prospects

T100 - Kevin Youkilis Prospects (Seeing Youkilis without his chin monster is no longer a novelty to me.)

T87 - Kurt Suzuki Draft Pick

Pack 4:

T101 - John Maine Prospects (Maine was an Oriole? Huh.)

T88 - Erick San Pedro Draft Pick (They picked... who? Second round? No wonder the Expos almost were contracted.)

T218 - Jon de Vries

T201 - Casey Kopitzke Gold 0023 / 2004 (Is this starting to remind anyone of a box of Bowman?)

T129 - Jamie Brown Chrome

- Checklist 9 of 10

T13 - Brian Jordan Chrome

T25 - Richie Sexson

T37 - Tino Martinez

T22 - Octavio Dotel

T212 - Michael Mooney

Pack 5:

T109 - David Parrish Prospects (Lance's son.)

T209 - Kevin Davidson

T16 - Terrence Long

T182 - Brant Colamarino

T189 - Yoann Torrealba Chrome

- Checklist 8 of 10

T111 - Frank Francisco Chrome (Francisco made a splash as a closer last year for the Rangers.)

T203 - Chad Santos

T195 - Dustin Nippert

T188 - Alex Romero (So many "First Year" cards...)

T18 - Carl Everett

Pack 6:

T149 - Akinori Otsuka

T125 - Tim Hutting

T81 - Justin Orenduff Draft Pick (A first round pick of the Dodgers in 2004.)

T110 - Brandon Claussen Prospects

T145 - Shawn Hill Chrome

- Checklist 10 of 10

T5 - J.D. Drew (Everyone's favorite! This card commemorates when Drew became Atlanta's problem... and also when Adam Wainwright became a Cardinal.)

T155 - Ryan Budde

T199 - David Wallace (Not the character from The Office.)

T70 - Phil Garner (Things got so desperate for the Astros in 2004 that they brought in 55-year old Garner to be their setup guy down the stretch.)

T216 - Fernando Cortez (Lots of D-Rays in this box.)

Pack 7:

T113 - Jim Crowell (And on we go with guys no one has heard of...)

T197 - Harvey Garcia

T166 - Hector Gimenez

T80 - Josh Fields (Fields and Alex Gordon probably have some interesting conversations together. Great expectations are almost always weird.)

T93 - Johnny Gomes Chrome Prospects (This one has Troll written all over it.)

- Checklist 1 of 10

T99 - Preston Larrison Chrome Prospects

T179 - Lee Gwaltney (They aren't even trying to make up clever names anymore...)

T167 - Kevin Howard

T204 - Brian Pilkington (Another Dodger is knocked off someone's want list.)

T215 - Calvin Hayes (Finally, a Cardinal!)

Bonus Pack:

T177 - Alec Zumwalt

T19 - Reggie Sanders (Sanders was a great addition to the 2004 Redbirds.)

T154 - Howie Kendrick (I'm starting to buy into the Howie Kendrick is Awesome argument. Just starting, though...)

T83 - Chris Nelson Draft Pick

T205 - Terry Jones Chrome

- Checklist 2 of 10 (So... a question for you team collectors, or player collectors even. Would you put this card in one of your binders? I don't really know what to do and I'm usually pretty decisive about these sorts of things.)

T119 - Joey Gathright Chrome

T131 - Chris Saenz

T175 - Juan Cedeno

T211 - Tom Farmer (This is another anonymous Dodger card. I should have just billed Night Owl for this box.)

T46 - Victor Zambrano

These are pretty much all up for grabs. Let me know if you're up for a trade or, if you're someone I trade with already, let me know if I should set anything aside for you.