5 on the 5: 2006 Bazooka

The 2006 Bazooka set has just about everything I could ever ask for. Fun factor is high, cost is low, and the design is just on the side of interesting without being gaudy. I first got hooked on it as a throw-in in many purchased repacks several years ago. Now, I'm seeking the packs out on eBay and starting to work on completing a set. I picked up 10 hobby packs recently and here are the first 5.

Pack 1:

128 - Carlos Delgago Blue Fortune (Each pack leads off with a blue parallel "fortune" card, where the "fortune" is always the same. Buy some more cards, kids.)

175 - Alfonso Soriano Gold Chunk (Next up is always a "gold chunk" card, a parallel that doubles as a pack searcher deterrent. Soriano was less... unlikable as a Nat.)

3 of 24 - Trevor Hoffman Comic (The third card always seems to be an insert as well, but not always the same kind.)

85 - Shawn Chacon

46 - Coco Crisp

31 - Pat Burrell (Pat the Bat was probably an inspiration for Jason Sudekis's character on the latest season of Eastbound and Down, or so I imagine anyway.)

212 - Anderson Hernandez (Two last names!)

45 - Mariano Rivera (Is this his last season? I don't mind if it's not, but once he decides to retire he needs to retire. No Favre-ing it.)

Pack 2:

150 - Carlos Beltran Blue Fortune (It didn't take me long at all to get used to Lance Berkman as a Cardinal, but I have a feeling that I will never consciously realize that Beltran plays for St. Louis for some reason.)

5 - Derek Jeter Gold Chunk

54 of 55 - Ryan Garko / John Koronka / Chris Denorfia / Jeff Mathis 4 on 1 Stickers (I don't have many of these, yet. This is an interesting parallel because all 220 players in the base set are represented on 55 different sticker cards, seeded at 1:3 packs.)

161 - Orlando Hudson

176 - Toby Hall

73 - Trevor Hoffman (It's rather baffling that Hoffman was a shortstop at one point.)

140 - Rafael Furcal

122 - Bartolo Colon

Pack 3:

2 - Scott Podsednik Blue Fortune

39 - David DeJesus Gold Chunk

3 of 30 - Hank Blalock Stamp (Another insert.)

202 - Chuck James

42 - Joe Mauer (Still relevant?)

175 - Alfonso Soriano

39 - David DeJesus

98 - Eric Milton (Milton had a 6.47 ERA in 34 starts in 2005. 6.47!)

Pack 4:

88 - Austin Kearns Blue Fortune

104 - Nomar Garciaparra Gold Chunk (Nomar totally pulled a fast one on you guys!)

10 of 30 - Roy Halladay Stamp

184 - Kerry Wood

195 - Jaret Wright

60 - Derek Lowe

141 - Bobby Abreu

163 - Jimmy Rollins (The backs have a bit of a comic book feel, which is appropriate for the set, but lack actual cartoons for some reason.)

Pack 5:

95 - Andy Pettitte Blue Fortune

114 - Lew Ford Gold Chunk

11 of 30 - Tim Hudson Stamp (I'm pulling lots of "stamp" cards so far. Just so you know, these things are not functional stamps in any sense of the word.)

178 - Brian Giles

117 - Placido Polanco

106 - David Ortiz (I find it really, really difficult to stomach that someone making more than 14 million dollars to play baseball would gripe about playing first base on the odd occasion, instead of sitting out the defensive portions of his team's innings. That's just terrible. It can't be that hard. No one seems to be asking him to be good at it or anything.)

94 - Mark Prior

143 - B.J. Ryan