Nineties Chrowman

Along with the Super Estrellas and some of the other boxes I've purchased recently, my non-Cardinals buying focus lately has been more geared towards picking up cheap boxes (hobby and retail) that might be fun (i.e. that I've never bought or opened before.) This is one of those. I paid $15 for a box of 1998 Bowman Chrome series 2, where apparently the big chase was for Paul Konerko? Konerko turned out to be a quality player who is still around these days (just ask the Mariners.) He actually came up with the Dodgers, who traded him to Cincinnati along with current Cardinal Dennys Reyes for closer Jeff Shaw prior to the trade deadline in 1998. Konerko only lasted a few months before he was flipped to the White Sox for Mike Cameron, where's he's played ever since.

There's a number of parallels and inserts in this product, but apparently no autographs. With the player selection available in this stuff, I would likely not like whatever autograph I ended up with anyway. I've never heard of a lot of these guys, so my comments will be brief. Here's the first half of the box.

Pack 1:

418 - Kevin Barker (Not the best design in the world, but it's certainly distinctive. I can't say that about every Bowman design.)

304 - Justin Baughman

358 - Joe Fontenot

335 - Robinson Checo

Pack 2:

321 - Damian Sapp

364 - Chris Fussell (I'm not making these people up, I swear.)

50 of 50 - Livan Hernandez Reprint (This is a 1 in 12 pack insert where the card is a chromed up reprint of a Bowman card from a previous year. This is the 1996 Bowman design.)

394 - Fernando Seguignol Refractor (Refractors are also only a 1 in 12 thing. They sure didn't toss them around loosely like they do these days. Fernando's last name looks like someone was trying to make a word in Scrabble using their spare tiles.)

Pack 3:

292 - Travis Lee (Lee had a pretty disappointing career if I recall.)

268 - Ellis Burks (Burks was murder on the Giants in 1997 according to the back of his card.)

379 - Julio Ramirez

404 - Cole Liniak

Pack 4:

327 - Eric DuBose

303 - Richard Hidalgo

425 - Ruben Rivera

250 - Jay Buhner International (There are parallel cards in the set that fall at 1 in 4 packs. Instead of the usual background, the picture is a map of where the player is from/was born. This isn't particularly impressive when it's someone who was born in the States.)

Pack 5:

264 - Moises Alou (Occasionally they throw you a bone and toss in some vets into this set.)

290 - Brian Jordan (First Cardinal of the box. Nice.)

329 - Dan McKinley

276 - Andres Galarraga International (Apparently the backs of the International parallels have the text written in the player's native language.)

Pack 6:

271 - Eddie Taubensee

411 - Damon Minor

343 - Gabe Gonzalez

231 - Kenny Lofton International (Three packs in a row with International cards. Interesting.)

Pack 7:

392 - Jeff Yoder

356 - Odalis Perez (Pujols always ate this guy alive. If you click the link, be prepared for the most annoying YouTube clip ever.)

432 - Sidney Ponson

436 - Marlon Anderson (A couple of brief former Cardinals in Ponson and Marlon Anderson.)

Pack 8:

245 - Chuck Finley (Finley also had a little spin in the Birds on the Bat.)

263 - Kenny Rogers (I never knew Rogers pitched for the A's. I still say it was pine tar.)

390 - Rafael Medina

344 - Ralph Millard

Pack 9:

224 - Derek Jeter

254 - John Valentin

395 - Ron Wright

333 - Nerio Rodriguez

Pack 10:

388 - Onan Masaoka

302 - Billy Koch

377 - Octavio Dotel (The current Pirates closer, unless he's lost his job already.)

369 - Jimmy Anderson

Pack 11:

261 - Jose Valentin

289 - Hideo Nomo

307 - Nelson Lara

354 - Dernell Stenson

Pack 12:

258 - Al Martin

270 - Dean Palmer

397 - Steve Lomasney

401 - Kevin Buford

Part two will be coming up later in the week. I'll be trading these out to the usual suspects and keeping the Cardinals for myself if they're needed.