Late Night Box Break

I was going to hold off on posting this, but I came home from work tonight and realized that I had nothing planned for tonight's post. So this is it, folks. I picked up a box of 2002 Upper Deck MVP, which has a seriously dark theme to it, at the card show this past weekend for $20. I was fairly disappointed in the card show overall, but I also was pressed for time because I wanted to make sure I left in time to catch the Ducks game. This all added up to a couple more impulse buys than I usually pull off. I'll post the first half of the box tonight and the rest within the next several days.

I figured this box, card design unseen, was going to be a least somewhat interesting because there was an implied (not guaranteed) "hit" in the box for a low cost. Odds suggested I would likely get a relic card of some kind. Inserts are few and far between, and all of the cards (including subsets) basically look exactly the same, so I plan on keeping scans limited to about one per pack.

Pack 1:

112 - Corey Koskie

86 - Jose Offerman (There's a certain kind of crazy here that I can't even explain. If you don't already know about Offerman, I suggest you do a Google search.)

121 - Paul Konerko

95 - Neifi Perez

69 - Alex Rodriguez

295 - Ken Griffey Jr. Checklist (Even the checklists have the same card design as the regular base cards, only with "CHECKLIST" replacing the player's full name in the lower right.)

32 - Toby Hall

6 - Brendan Donnelly (Designated rookies such as Donnelly have "Rookie" splashed across the card in outlined gold foil where the player's last name is.)

Pack 2:

222 - Marvin Bernard

196 - Craig Counsell (Quick, someone explain to me the difference between Craig Counsell and David Eckstein...)

209 - Michael Barrett

183 - Fred McGriff (The Crime Dog is exempt from my normal Cubs ban because he's The Crime Dog.)

157 - Javy Lopez

236 - Mike Piazza

210 - Jose Vidro

184 - Corey Patterson

Pack 3:

172 - J.D. Drew (First Cardinal of the box. I find it strangely amusing to see Drew in an "MVP" set, considering that he was supposed to have three or four of those awards by now.)

147 - Shane Reynolds

148 - Chipper Jones

122 - Todd Ritchie

96 - Carlos Febles

98 - Michael Tucker

72 - Jeff Zimmerman

46 - Omar Vizquel (11 Gold Gloves and still at it at age 43. He's gotta be in the Hall, right?)

Pack 4:

245 - Tyler Yates

219 - Calvin Murray

279 - Ken Griffey Jr.

253 - Ray Lankford (The backs are kind of boring by Upper Deck standards.)

227 - Cliff Floyd

265 - Brian Giles

239 - Roger Cedeno

213 - Eric Good (Eric Good wasn't actually very good at all. His career was over by the time this card was released, topping out at Class A ball.)

Pack 5:

170 - Fernando Vina

144 - Lance Berkman (I have this terrible feeling I'm going to end up having to root for this guy in the playoffs.)

118 - Ray Durham

131 - Mike Mussina

105 - Matt Anderson

158 - Richie Sexson (Local guy who flamed out quickly.)

132 - Alfonso Soriano (One of my girlfriend's least favorite players in a Yankees uni.)

106 - Damion Easley

Pack 6:

60 - Jeff Conine (The Original Marlin as an Oriole.)

34 - Ben Grieve

249 - Bubba Trammell

43 - Russell Branyan

17 - Eric Chavez

281 - Todd Walker

255 - Scott Rolen (For some odd reason, the Pirates broadcasters dedicated about an inning of tonight's game against the Cardinals complaining about how Scott Rolen did not get ejected from a game that happened nearly two weeks ago. Keep in mind that Rolen last played for St. Louis in 2007.)

229 - Derrek Lee

Pack 7:

120 - Jon Garland (Nice old timey uniform.)

94 - Mark Quinn

68 - Chris Richard

70 - Chan Ho Park

44 - C.C. Sabathia

20 - David Justice

292 - Jose Ortiz

266 - Kris Benson

Pack 8:

193 - Doug Devore

167 - Darryl Kile (Nice new DK card for the collection!)

141 - Julio Lugo

201 - Andy Ashby

175 - Placido Polanco (I'm confident that Polanco had a smaller cap size in those days. This is pre-Rolen trade.)

187 - Francis Beltran

240 - Jeromy Burnitz

135 - Jason Giambi (Do Yankees fans like Giambi? Do A's fans? Maybe just Rockies fans?)

Pack 9:

133 - Robin Ventura

66 - Steve Bechler

40 - Brady Anderson (50 HRs in 1996. That's going to jump out at you no matter what.)

79 - Pedro Martinez

53 - Ichiro Suzuki (As usual.)

27 - Reed Johnson

80 - Nomar Garciaparra (Nomar had a career .332 batting average heading into the 2002 season. That's a huge number.)

54 - Kazuhiro Sasaki

Pack 10:

223 - Jason Schmidt

197 - Shawn Green

171 - Matt Morris

294 - Ben Petrick (Another local guy who left the game very early in his career after being diagnosed with Parkinson's, although it seems he may actually have Lyme disease if the internet is to be believed.)

268 - Kevin Young

134 - John Vander Wal

203 - Adrian Beltre

177 - Sammy Sosa ('Roids or no 'roids, I think my dislike for Sammy Sosa surpasses Bonds and Clemens put together.)

Pack 11:

163 - Jose Hernandez

137 - Rondell White

111 - Torii Hunter (Hunter is wearing a nice Washington throwback. In hindsight, I wish I had scanned it.)

C-EA - Edgardo Alfonzo MVP Souvenirs (Well, here's the "hit". I could have done a lot better, of course, but at least I know that a few people collect the Mets. Also, the bat and jersey combo is a bit harder to pull than one or the other apparently. I'm not sure I understand how or why the bat piece had his jersey number etched into it.)

16 - Mark Mulder

275 - Sean Casey

249 - Bubba Trammell (First double as far as I know.)

Pack 12:

115 - David Ortiz (Early Ortiz card when he was still with the Twins, but after his name change.)

89 - Carlos Beltran

63 - Melvin Mora

200 - Brian Jordan

123 - Frank Thomas

97 - Miguel Asencio (By the way, here's what the rookies look like. Can you tell the difference?)

280 - Barry Larkin

254 - Ryan Klesko

As usual, all of these cards are up for grabs/trades aside from the Cardinals I need. The second half of the box should be posted either Thursday night or early next week as my schedule allows it.