Contest Prize: Men Without Hats

As you may recall, mmosley of Stats on the Back won the little football contest recently and chose the blaster as one of the prizes. (I'm still working on those prizes, guys, but you should definitely start checking your mailboxes next week. I promise!) In an interesting little twist that I probably should have seen coming from a collector who went to great lengths to minimize his collection, he chose to not only have me select the blaster, but he only wants to choose five cards from it. Here is said blaster, in all of its glory. I was hoping to find a blaster from another set that was released last year, but it looks like it has disappeared from the big box stores. I ended up choosing Topps 206 instead. It's not great, but I thought it was a better option than something Chromey with the contest winner in mind.

Here are the results:

Pack 1:

19 - Carlos Ruiz

- Evan Longoria Variation (Yes, this is the set where the players don't wear the caps. How can you tell which ones are the short printed variations? Caps. Also, the backs are unnumbered.)

292 - Josh Johnson Piedmont Mini (One mini per pack. Piedmonts are the most common.)

96 - Evan Longoria Bronze (Also a one per pack insert is the thick "bronze" parallel.)

4 - David Ortiz

15 - Mordecai Brown (Yes... another reason I chose this product is the presence of retired players. Like... uh... Mordecai Brown?)

Pack 2:

116 - B.J. Upton

HE17 - Alice Stebbins Wells Historical Events Mini (What is this, Allen & Ginter? I didn't know this set had mini inserts in addition to mini parallels.)

23 - Matt Cain Bronze

57 - Aaron Harang

75 - Jeff Francis

180 - Gil Meche (The recently retired. I guess I can stop calling him Gil Ga Meche.)

Pack 3:

157 - Edinson Volquez

193 - Buster Posey

44 - Bryan Anderson Piedmont Mini (For some reason it completely escaped me that Bryan Anderson is in this set. That also means that I need this card. We shall see if I actually get to keep it, though...)

TA-CT - Clete Thomas Piedmont Auto (Speaking of keepers! Not bad for a blaster, eh? Clete Thomas may not be Bryce Harper or anything, but pulling autographs is always fun. This might fit nicely into the Stats on the Back collection. I think the color scheme works really well for Tigers fans, in any case. As a side note, I only recently learned that the framed mini auto concept did not start with Allen & Ginter.)

106 - Kazuo Matsui

221 - Albert Pujols

Pack 4:

211 - Jered Weaver (Wow... is that Lyle Lovett?)

5 - Will Venable American Caramel Mini (Slightly harder to pull than the Piedmont minis at 1:4 packs.)

209 - Torii Hunter Bronze

135 - Delmon Young

233 - Frank Chance

228 - Francisco Liriano

Pack 5:

236 - Johnny Bench

- Brian McCann Variation (Ahh, I'm glad someone put a hat on this guy.)

295 - Tommy Manzella Piedmont Mini

77 - Grady Sizemore Bronze

166 - Austin Jackson

299 - Dexter Fowler

Pack 6:

133 - Edwin Jackson

HE6 - 1st Pro Baseball Game Played Under Lights Historical Events Mini

258 - Scott Rolen Bronze

141 - Ivan Rodriguez

119 - Matt Garza

90 - Jon Lester

Pack 7:

92 - Andre Ethier

261 - Daniel McCutchen Old Mill Mini (A more rare 1:20 pack pull)

234 - Dan Uggla Bronze

111 - Mark Teixeira

69 - Honus Wagner (Almost as valuable as his real T-206 card!)

65 - Aaron Hill

Pack 8:

296 - Brandon Phillips (Ughhhh.)

44 - Bryan Anderson (Okay, that's a little better.)

71 - Paul Maholm American Caramel Mini

276 - Jason Bartlett Bronze (What box would be complete without Jason Bartlett?)

162 - Derek Jeter

41 - Brian McCann (AHHH! Put a hat on!)

So there you have it. Most of these cards will be available for trade once mmosley claims the cards he wants. Even though he asked for just 5, I'm not going to stand in the way of anything here.