Tonight's pack comes from Kelly in Cedar Falls, Iowa. With italicized editor's notes.
***
The post with some reader cracking open a new pack of Topps was pretty
great.... I didn't need much convincing to throw a couple of packs in
my basket while walking through Target after reading that post.
This really brought back memories of my friend and I ripping open
pack after pack of cards after a trip to any Schindler's in Minneapolis.....
First card....Scott Rolen.....jeez, am I gonna get the exact same cards
the other guy did in his pack? This isn't looking good. Plus, I'm
underwhelmed by this card, anyway.
It seems like collating might be a problem. Or is Rolen a double print? Has anyone else found there to be bad collation in packs and boxes of new Topps (and by bad collation, I mean gettings lots of doubles, triples and maybe even quadruples of certain cards and none of other cards)?
Once you open enough wax of any product, whether it's 1989 Donruss, 1990 Score, 2001 Topps or anything else, you begin to see the pattern of cards seeded into packs. With 1989-90 Hoops Series I basketball, if you got Larry Bird's regular card, there was a very, very good chance you'd get the David Robinson rookie card. Has there been anything like that with 2007 Topps? You'd think that with all the in-card technology manufacturers have taken advantage of, they'd have done something about the collation in packs.
Omar Vizquel. He should be WEARING a gold glove in his pictures.
Mike Rabelo....a rookie, and it looks like they took the picture in
his backyard, swinging one of Dave Kingman's old bats.
Johan Santana. Nuff said.
When I was caught up on my Topps meritocracy checklisting system last summer and fall, Topps spokesman Clay Luraschi told me that they were going back to using Hero Numbers (#1, 350, 500), 1st Tiers (hundred #s), 2nd Tiers (tens) and 3rd Tiers (fives) in the 2007 set. I would guess that Santana would be a 2nd Tier number, like 210 or 170 or something, and Vizquel might even get a 3rd Tier number. Has anyone noticed this to be true?
Luke Scott....damn, this kid spent some old school time in the
minors! So he probably actually knows how to play the game by now,
which would be a nice change.
Eliezer Alfonso. Speaking of time spent in the minors....this guy
might be the Hispanic Crash Davis.
Nick Markakis. I had this guy on my fantasy team last year, picked
him up just when he caught fire.... nice to see the little gold cup up
there in the upper left hand corner of this card, old school!
Brad Ausmus....I think I have his Upper Deck Minor league card
somewhere. God, I'm old.
Tony La Russa. This is almost an action shot....carrying his
sunglasses back to the dugout.
Am I the only one who's happy that Topps is doing manager cards? The only thing that could be better would be to have their photographers be there to get a manager's photo at the exact moment that he loses his mind a la Hal McRae. Without seeing these cards, I can tell you that's exactly what this set needs: manager cards with passion! At least La Russa sometimes looks like Sonny Bono from Airplane II. Where's Earl Weaver when you really need him?
Mike Cameron. Wow....the first error card, somebody tried to spell
"with" like "2ith".
Mike Hargrove....Topps, you're killing me here.
Jeff Conine....a couple more years and he'll need another card to
hold his stats. Now I don't feel so old after all.
So....not the best pack of cards I've ever cracked. And yet, still a
LOT of fun. In fact, I'm going to do it again in about a minute.
Kelly, thanks for the pack! I'm chalking your success rate at 58.3% (7/12). You got Rolen, Vizquel, Santana, Conine, Cameron, La Russa, Markakis, a couple of rookies and a few other guys including Brad Ausmus, which makes us two for two on packs with over-the-hill catchers as pack filler. Not bad, plus it also proves that not every pack has an insert card, which I find refreshing (unless one of your cards were gold bordered or red-lettered or red-backed or whatever the hell the parallel is).
Do you want to live-blog a pack and share it with the rest of us? Send me an email and I might post it on the blog!
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