The Pack Cycle Pocket Hypothesis

Pack 67: Tom Seaver League Leader, Julio Cruz Highlight, Jim Bibby, Ken Landreaux, Claudell Washington

Pack 68: Rollie Fingers League Leader, 1981 World Champions, Willie Aikens, John Wathan, Garry Templeton

Pack 69: Steve Comer, Scott Sanderson, 1981 AL Championship, AL Home Runs League Leaders, Mike Schmidt League Leader

Pack 70: Tom Seaver League Leader, Julio Cruz Highlight, Jim Bibby, Ken Landreaux, Claudell Washington

Pack 71: Willie Aikens, Eddie Murray, Johnnie LeMaster, Rick Rhoden, AL All-Star Rod Carew

Pack 72: Steve Comer, Scott Sanderson, 1981 AL Championship, AL Home Runs League Leaders, Mike Schmidt League Leader

Pack 73: Keith Hernandez, Dave Parker, Rollie Fingers League Leader, Tim Raines League Leader, Jim Rice

Pack 74: Steve Trout, Richie Zisk, AL All-Star Rick Burleson, Darrell Porter, Larry Bowa

Pack 75: Jeff Burroughs, NL All-Star Dave Concepcion, Garry Maddox, Tom Seaver League Leader, 1981 NL Championship, Len Barker League Leader

Pack 76: Johnnie LeMaster, Rickey Henderson League Leader, Steve Comer, Eddie Murray (only four stickers? Rip-off!)


Notes. I got 13/49 new stickers. But many of the new stickers showed up more than once (Steve Comer, Eddie Murray, Claudell Washington, Julio Cruz Highlight, etc.), which is probably the most interesting thing to me about these ten packs. The fact that it took me 67 packs to get a sticker of Claudell Washington, and then only three more packs to get a Claudell double leads me to a new hypothesis: The Pack Cycle Pocket hypothesis.

The Pack Cycle Pocket hypothesis is similar to the Pack Cycle hypothesis I presented a few days ago. The only difference is that the idea of the Pocket takes it one step farther. So if you have a box of 100 packs with a pack cycle of 20, then five packs will have identical contents. But if there's a 5-pack pocket with a cycle of two starting at pack #60, then there will be a great chance that at least two of packs 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, and 65 will be identical; pack #66 will divert back to the larger cycle of 20.

The Pocket hypothesis might help explain why it takes so long to get a certain card and then all of a sudden that card shows up in every other pack. I'll bet that when I look back at the contents of all the packs, there will be stickers that only showed up in a certain sequence of packs, and then not again.

In any event, I still haven't received a single Padre sticker. So either there's a pack cycle pocket coming my way with nothing but Padres, or this box doesn't have any, which I would find hard to believe.