99 Bowman Conclusion

2010 Bowman has hit the shelves this week, or so I hear. I'm actually more interested in this year's release than normal, mostly due to the lack of competing products out there this year. I've read a few fairly discouraging reports about the set, however, so I don't know if I'll buy much. If I buy any, it won't be because I'm trying to chase some red hot rookies. I just like opening packs and, hopefully, collecting the Cardinals.

Meanwhile, I have the last 8 packs to go through from the 1999 Bowman Series 1 box. I suppose it's time to go shopping for new boxes.

Pack 17:

74 - Matt Clement

126 - Freddy Garcia (not the pitcher)

160 - Armando Rios

116 - Juan Melo

156 - Terrence Long

150 - Scott Schoenweis (his last name is spelled wrong on the back)

187 - Nate Cornejo

167 - Clayton Andrews

189 - Wes Helms

173 - Chip Ambres International (His photo looks extremely bizarre when the outfield fence is cropped out.)

Pack 18:

49 - Bobby Higginson

62 - Chuck Finley (Finley spent some time with the Cardinals briefly. I need a Chuck Finley Cardinals card if such a thing exists.)

34 - Barry Bonds

70 - Shane Reynolds

17 - Travis Lee

94 - Vernon Wells (I heard that he was signed to some sort of contract or something.)

182 - Ryan Glynn

149 - Victor Valencia

33 - Jeff Cirillo

167 - Clayton Andrews International

Pack 19:

98 - Ruben Mateo

134 - Jason Tyner

37 - Ivan Rodriguez

87 - Mike Frank

24 - Curt Schilling

147 - Dan Reichert

97 - Kevin Barker

164 - Jason Standridge

120 - David Riske

87 - Mike Frank International

Pack 20:

21 - Todd Walker

48 - Jorge Posada (Posada wasn't even drafted.)

214 - Alex Escobar

60 - Mike Mussina

169 - Alex Ramirez

86 - Rod Barajas

123 - Michael Barrett

125 - Mitch Meluskey

5 - Cal Ripken

5 - Cal Ripken International (Back-to-back Ripkens. It's too bad that Billy Ripken isn't present and accounted for.)

Pack 21:

218 - Dernell Stenson

45 - Eric Young

23 - Barry Larkin

122 - Corey Lee

54 - Matt Williams (Williams had an extremely large head if I remember correctly.)

152 - Odalis Perez

162 - Jason Conti

145 - Ryan Bradley

13 - Chuck Knoblauch

4 - Sandy Alomar International

Pack 22:

57 - Ray Lankford (First Cardinal in quite awhile...)

183 - Calvin Pickering

175 - Pat Burrell (Here's a bona fide Pat Burrell rookie card.)

11 - Gary Sheffield

201 - Alex Gonzalez

133 - Carlos Febles

196 - Scott Hunter

195 - Chris George

107 - Matt Burch

190 - Nelson Lara International

Pack 23:

119 - Glenn Davis (Not the same guy that played for the Astros in the '80s.)

39 - Brian Hunter

59 - Brett Tomko (Every team goes through that phase where they need Brett Tomko on the staff for some reason.)

15 - Rusty Greer

18 - Jose Cruz Jr.

197 - Ryan Brannan

154 - Milton Bradley (Yep, quite a character...)

194 - Ben Petrick

128 - Jeff Liefer

124 - Lariel Gonzalez International

Pack 24:

51 - Trevor Hoffman (It figures that the one year that I actually am okay with picking Hoffman for my fantasy team that he completely loses it and can't pitch decently anymore.)

141 - Grant Roberts

82 - Jeff Urban

91 - Arturo McDowell

155 - Josh McKinley

140 - Brad Penny (Penny hit a huge grand slam last night but then left the game shortly after with what is being called a "strained lat". Yikes!!!)

185 - Nick Johnson (Here's another "rookie card".)

81 - Seth Etherton

203 - Scott Williamson

118 - Jared Sandberg International (Here's a Collective Troll favorite. I had no idea this guy existed or that he was actually the nephew of Ryne Sandberg until recently.

Late Bloomers and Scout's Choices

It's on to part 2 of 3 in the 1999 Bowman box break. I'm planning on heading to a card show on Saturday and will likely try to purchase something like this again - hopefully in the $20 or less price range. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

We didn't see any inserts last time, so this time I am promising inserts galore. Inserts galore!

Pack 9:

100 - Corey Koskie

124 - Lariel Gonzalez (I wonder if anyone ever called him L'Oreal when he was growing up. Probably not...)

166 - John Curtice

111 - Julio Ramirez

55 - Eric Karros

211 - Alex Hernandez

178 - Kevin Witt

170 - Gabe Molina

165 - Jason Dellaero

133 - Carlos Febles International

Pack 10:

16 - Al Leiter

7 - Vladimir Guerrero

38 - Jeff King

42 - Darin Erstad

LB10 - Trevor Hoffman Late Bloomers (I wish you could see just how... amazing... this card looks in person. You'll just have to take my word for it. Just, wow...)

137 - Nathan Haynes

130 - Andy Brown

73 - Jack Cust (Ah, to be young again... and also on a Bowman card.)

106 - Kit Pellow

113 - Eric Valent International

Pack 11:

199 - Chris Gissell

127 - Tony Torcato (Torcato... isn't that what Taco Bell invented to sell in their annoying commercials recently?)

2 - Kerry Wood (I used to like athletes with the name Kerry as a rule until this guy came along.)

142 - Aramis Ramirez

193 - Gil Meche

146 - Brian Simmons

131 - Ryan Mills

182 - Ryan Glynn

179 - Keith Luuloa (No, I don't know who any of these guys are, either.)

198 - Amaury Garcia International

Pack 12:

36 - Mark Kotsay

67 - Brad Fullmer

32 - Andruw Jones

200 - Austin Kearns

LB4 - Vinny Castilla Late Bloomers (These are a 1:12 pack insert. I'd love to get the Edmonds card if anyone has one.)

217 - Brent Butler

132 - Andy Abad

204 - Chris Enochs

69 - John Smoltz (I keep getting updates on Smoltz's wannabe golf career with my Cardinals news. Bleh.)

100 - Corey Koskie International

Pack 13:

47 - Juan Guzman

40 - Ray Durham

12 - John Valentin

14 - Tony Clark

102 - Rick Elder

90 - Chris Haas

72 - Adam Kennedy (Back to back Cardinals! I think I already have this one, though.)

109 - Jason Dewey

52 - Ken Griffey Jr. (The Mariners slogan this season is "Believe Big". I'm not really sure what that's supposed to mean. Also, there's a joke here, but... nah. I don't feel like it.)

19 - Pedro Martinez International

Pack 14:

78 - Ricardo Aramboles

80 - Jason Rakers

76 - Darnell McDonald

208 - Nate Bump

SC10 - Carlos Lee Scout's Choice (These are also 1:12 inserts. These look pretty nice and basic, though. I wouldn't mind it if the entire base set looked like this.)

210 - Matt LeCroy

95 - Pat Cline

184 - Michael Cuddyer (Something possessed me to draft Cuddyer on multiple fantasy teams this year.)

88 - Scott Randall

47 - Juan Guzman International

Pack 15:

66 - David Cone (Cone's "Now & Then" photo shows him back in his Mets days, but he actually pitched for the Royals first if I recall.)

68 - Andy Benes

44 - Pat Hentgen

28 - Jeff Shaw

1 - Ben Grieve (It's the cover guy!)

191 - Chuck Abbott

157 - Danny Klassen

121 - Jacque Jones

65 - Raul Mondesi

32 - Andruw Jones International (Jones has his native Curaçao pictured in the background, but he may as well be from the moon's surface as far as this scan is concerned.)

Pack 16:

101 - Ricky Ledee

77 - Adam Everett

151 - Sean Spencer

110 - Cesar King

SC17 - Jeremy Giambi (I think the Scouts made the wrong choice here.)

213 - Troy Cameron

92 - Matt Belisle

114 - Roosevelt Brown

143 - Cristian Guzman

106 - Kit Pellow International

The $15 Guarantee

Before I get into tonight's post, I'd like to direct everyone's attention over to the sidebar, where I have added a link to my 1985 Fleer wantlist. My theory on this set is that people are either swimming in the stuff like they would a sea of 1989 Topps or they find it rather difficult to find even though it doesn't have a lot of resale value. Those that fall into the former category, I would assume, are probably a bit older than me and probably started collecting before I did. The latter are probably my age if not younger and have never found 1985 Fleer packs at the corner store. I would love to open a bunch of packs of 1985 Fleer for the sheer enjoyment of it, and yet I think the price of unopened wax is prohibitively expensive because of the notion that you could pull a Roger Clemens rookie card and grade it and make $$$$.

Speaking of $$$$, I picked up a 1999 Bowman Series 1 hobby box for the investment level price of $15. With promises of Kerry Wood and Ben Grieve swimming around in a pile of gold coins and jewels, Scrooge McDuck style, I am ready to set off on this venture and open up some packs of 1999 Bowman.

Pack 1:

188 - Octavio Dotel (The current Pirates closer.)

8 - Moises Alou

215 - Jason LaRue (LaRue, the Cardinals backup catcher for the third consecutive season, looks like he's about 12 here. You'll have to trust me, because I didn't scan the card.)

41 - Bernie Williams

53 - David Justice (Veteran players had red foil on the front and red text on the backs, along with "Now & Then" photos - not to be confused with "Then & Now".)

135 - Mark Osborne

161 - Ramon Hernandez

89 - Justin Bowles

46 - Jaret Wright

194 - Ben Petrick International (Each pack comes with a Bowman International parallel. The International cards have a metallic finish and each background is of the player's home state or country, supposedly. Petrick is pictured with the Astoria-Megler Bridge in the backdrop.)

Each pack comes with a checklist in pocket schedule format.

This tells you exactly how to get your $125 back after suffering buyer's remorse. I wonder if it's still valid. I find it extremely odd, in all seriousness, that collectors apparently had just a 5 month window in 2002 (!) to cash in on this so-called guarantee, but only if they had already decided to be pessimistic about this set's future AND send in an additional $5 to Topps 3 years earlier.

Pack 2:

26 - Scott Erickson

113 - Eric Valent

173 - Chip Ambres (This is either the coolest baseball card photo of all-time or, much likelier, a staged photo that still looks kind of awesome.)

103 - Jack Cressend

3 - Ruben Rivera (The forgotten Rivera.)

220 - Daryle Ward (Allegedly, the only player to hit the ball into the Allegheny River on the fly in a game.)

219 - Adrian Beltre

216 - Kyle Peterson

189 - Wes Helms

144 - Mamon Tucker International

Pack 3:

174 - Trot Nixon

61 - Kenny Lofton (I just watched Up in the Air the other night and it reminded me of the Kenny Lofton commercial towards the end of his career where he kept getting traded.)

31 - Larry Walker

50 - Jose Guillen

198 - Amaury Garcia

105 - Mike Lincoln

171 - Mario Encarnacion

132 - Andy Abad

189 - Nelson Lara

176 - Jeff Yoder International

Pack 4:

6 - Mark McGwire (I haven't heard a ton about McGwire during game broadcasts this season... at least, not as much as I thought I would.)

96 - Ryan Anderson

63 - Alex Gonzalez

117 - Jason Grilli

205 - Fernando Seguignol

212 - Luis Rivera

186 - Doug Mientkiewicz (The prospects and rookies have blue foil on the front and blue text on the back. You just get one photo instead of a Now & Then deal.)

136 - Phil Norton

181 - Damaso Marte

12 - John Valentin International

Pack 5:

30 - Orlando Hernandez

177 - Chris Jones

9 - Jim Edmonds (Nice shot of the classic Edmonds uppercut swing in ready position.)

25 - Jason Kendall

206 - Marlon Anderson

138 - Roy Halladay (Nice early card of one of the game's elite pitchers.)

108 - Cole Liniak

180 - Billy Koch

207 - Todd Sears

97 - Kevin Barker International

Pack 6:

99 - Robert Fick

56 - Derek Bell (Derek Bell drove in 108 in 1998.)

153 - Joe Fontenot

4 - Sandy Alomar

172 - Mike Zywica

104 - Joe Lawrence

71 - Bruce Chen

128 - Jeff Liefer

27 - Andres Galarraga

175 - Pat Burrell International (Pat the Bat in front of some nondescript buildings that represent Arkansas.)

Pack 7:

29 - John Olerud (Olerud hit .354 in 1998. He was always a fantastic hitter.)

75 - Derrick Gibson

20 - Paul O'Neill (Totally Pauly!)

148 - Russ Branyan

19 - Pedro Martinez

93 - Scott Elarton

114 - Roosevelt Brown

83 - Manny Aybar (I keep forgetting that Manny Aybar was a Cardinal.)

22 - Vinny Castilla

90 - Chris Haas International

Pack 8:

I posted Pack 8 over at APTBNL.

Parts 2 and 3 will be posted over the next week or so, depending on my increasingly busy work schedule. The usual rules apply here: everything is up for grabs beyond the Cardinals, although priority will always go to the people that I trade with frequently.