Sunday, February 21, 2010

1996 Pinnacle Series 2, Part 1

Inspired by the recently flurry of mid-'90s breaks by the likes of The Collective Troll and possibly others, I found myself grabbing a 1996 Pinnacle Series 2 hobby box from a recent card show on the cheap. Lately, I've found it hard to resist passing up stuff like this as long as it is in my extremely small price range. I had a somewhat stealth poll about what to do with this box and the results were a split decision between posting it all in a recap-style post or just doing a full blow-by-blow report in a few parts. I'm opting for the latter this time, but I will keep my comments brief and let the images tell the story.

Pack 1:
216 - Pete Schourek

280 - Eddie Murray Hardball Heroes (You can see right away that there's no shortage of gold foil on these cards.)
285 - Carlos Garcia
237 - Paul O'Neill (With this only being a 200 card set, aside from the usual crop of unproven rookies and youngsters, this is a pretty star-studded offering. Paul O'Neill is about as bad as you can get, and that's not bad.)

193 of 200 - Hal Morris .300 Series Starburst (Starburst is a near-parallel set - there's only 100 cards per series rather than 200 - made with Dufex technology. I don't know what that is, but it looks kinda crazy. These are inserted at a 1:7 ratio.)

329 - Royce Clayton (First Cardinal of the box.)
369 - Paul Wilson Rookie

302 - Will Clark .300 Series
350 - Mike Blowers (I never knew Blowers played for the Dodgers. He's been a broadcaster with the Mariners for awhile now.)

379 - Alan Benes Rookie (Rookies get their names in red instead of black on the gold foil background on the front of the card.)

Pack 2:
239 - Edgardo Alfonzo
259 - Jeff Bagwell Hardball Heroes

209 - Fred McGriff
293 - Shane Andrews

14 of 18 - Manny Ramirez Project Stardom (More Dufex here, and I guess this would be considered the first "hit" of the box. These are inserted at a 1:35 ratio.)
304.9 - Carlos Baerga .300 Series (This is numbered oddly to distinguish it from other players who hit .304 in 1995.)
352 - Lance Johnson
381 - Jay Powell Rookie

333 - Ron Gant
310 - Ozzie Guillen

Pack 3:
288 - Benji Gil
240 - Terry Pendleton
260 - Barry Bonds Hardball Heroes (What do I do with Barry Bonds cards? Seriously...)

210 - Dennis Eckersley
294 - Julian Tavarez

395 - Frank Thomas A.L. Checklist (Kind of a strange concept here. The checklist only shows American League players on the back so the numbering is not very sequential.)
359 - Jack McDowell
327 - Benito Santiago
367 - Wally Joyner
300 - Jeff Conine .300 Series

Pack 4 can be found here at A Pack to be Named Later.

Pack 5:
309 - Butch Huskey
241 - Harold Baines
271 - Gary Sheffield

219 - Larry Walker

106 - Moises Alou Starburst (That's a lot of... effex.)
373 - George Arias Rookie

315 - John Smoltz (I think this was in the height of the Chicks Dig the Longball era.)

344 - Andy Benes (I like horizontal cards and all, but it's really annoying that you only get the first initial of the player on these. It's especially annoying when you're talking about a player who shares the same last name, first initial and team of another player also in this set.)
383 - Wilton Guerrero Rookie

399 - Chase Checklist (This is just a terrible looking card all the way around. I think a card that just said "CHECKLIST" in bold print without any pictures on the front would have been better than this.)

Pack 6:
202 - Michael Tucker

233 - Brian Jordan
242 - Roberto Alomar
272 - Dante Bichette Hardball Heroes
220 - Denny Neagle
316 - Ariel Prieto (I've never heard of this guy.)
393 - Cal Ripken A.L. Checklist
384 - Eric Owens Rookie
312 - Kenny Lofton .300 Series
356 - Danny Tartabull (Or D. Tartabull if you prefer.)

Pack 7:

257 - Frank Thomas Hardball Heroes
207 - Albert Belle (Coming off a .317, 50 HR, 1.091 OPS season.)

291 - Andy Pettitte
223 - Jason Isringhausen
232 - Lenny Dykstra
378 - Jeff Ware Rookie
321 - Trevor Hoffman
341 - Kenny Rogers
388 - F.P. Santangelo
323 - Frank Thomas .300 Series (Completing the Frank Thomas Pack.)

Pack 8:
225 - John Olerud
269 - Wade Boggs Hardball Heroes
251 - Bret Saberhagen (It's weird to see Saberhagen on the Rockies. You don't get to see it, however. I'm holding this card hostage until someone can find a Rockies fan to take all of these Rockies cards off of my hands.)
250 - Rafael Palmeiro
217 - Darren Daulton

342 - R. Sandberg (What's his first name? I can't remember.)
390 - Bob Abreu Rookie (Just Bob.)
397 - Greg Maddux N.L. Checklist
362 - Greg Gagne
330 - Tom Gordon

I'll try to finish off parts 2 and 3 before the week is out. I think I could come close to completing the series 2 set with this box as I have yet to get a double so far, but I have no interest in it so everything here is up for trade or claim besides the Cardinals cards.

1 comment :

  1. I've heard of Ariel Prieto. He was on my fantasy team. He wasn't good, which was a prerequisite for playing on my fantasy team.

    I never could understand these gold mountain peak cards. It's such a random design.

    ReplyDelete

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