1987 Topps Mini Leaders

To celebrate the beginning of baseball season, and the end of March, I've returned with my first post here since October.

Yes, October.

It's been a long, cold, lonely winter.

For my return pack, I've chosen 1987 Topps' mini leaders, which I received from Offy at Sports Syzygy. I love it when people send me unopened packs.

I know collectors have opened cartons of this stuff, but I never did. In 1987, I was majoring in drinking and chasing. No time for cards.

So let's see what I missed:

#36 - Mike Krukow. Ugh. A Giant. And he's still with the team, as a longtime broadcaster. I'll move onto the next card before I get myself in trouble.

#43 - Bruce Hurst. I should say that the wood-border look continued the theme of the '87 Topps base set. In fact, this is the same photo that was featured on Hurst's card in the base set. That wasn't good then. It isn't good now.

#9 - Bill Doran. Doran was a hustle-type guy for the Astros. Zipping down to first after walks. And he walked a ton.

Spring Fever sweepstakes promo - 1988 was probably the last year I could have taken time off during March to watch spring training. Missed my chance.

#64 - Rickey Henderson. A successful pack any time I pull a Rickey card. Possibly the greatest player of my lifetime. I know he coasted into the Hall of Fame, but sometimes I think he doesn't get enough credit.

#73 - Jesse Barfield. Listening to Barfield works as a color guy on Blue Jays games for the area Canadian television station is excruciating. I have no idea whether he's still employed in this capacity, but I hope for everyone's sake he is not.

#10 - Bob Knepper. Getting two Astros in one pack was a good thing in 1987. Knepper was a little cranky about women in positions of power.

#5 - John Franco. Drafted by the Dodgers. Traded for Rafael Landestoy. Franco sure would've come in handy for L.A. during the '90s.

By the way, the Dodgers just won their season opener. I can't come up with a better ending than that.

1991 Topps Toxic High School

 
By 1991, Topps go-to gross out series the Garbage Pail Kids had run its course and so they tried something new with Toxic High School.  Well, "new" isn't really correct as each card typically has something to do with some liquid coming out of some orifice much like the GPK.   This pack was literally a quarter...not much inflation since 1991 I guess.

#49 Senior Prom

#56 Class Trip

#53 Nose Picking Club

#50 Senior Prom

#56 Drama Club

2011 Topps Heritage Rack Pack

Today let's try our luck with a plus size Heritage pack.  I had some bad luck on a regular Heritage pack a little while ago and so let's see if that bad luck stays with me. 

Greg is the Mariner's #1 prospect and could be the best player from The Netherlands since Bert Blyleven. 

#362 Greg Halman [RC]

I recently did a little post on Billy Butler and his new contract with the Royals over at the my home blog.

#275 Billy Butler

Which Tommy Hanson will we get this season?  11-4 Tommy Hanson or 10-11 Tommy Hanson?

#63 Tommy Hanson

Brian started out as a pitcher but was eventually moved to the outfield.  A few days ago Brian was cut from the Spring Training team and so he'll start the season in the minors. 

#204 Brian Bogusevic [RC]

Kung Fu Panda has apparently slimmed down for Spring Training, which is certainly news...

#40 Pablo Sandoval

The latest episode of The Onion's Sportsdome has a hilarious segment of "Who Would You Kill?" with Kevin Slowey...but you don't take my word for it...

#166 Kevin Slowey

I don't think I'll make a go of completing this set but might do some of the insert sets or collect all the "floating heads" cards.   

#58 Wins Leader Roy Halladay/Adam Wainwright/Ubaldo Jimenez

It will be interesting to see who the Royals will put at 1st base this season Billy Butler or Kila Ka'aihue?  No Royal has had over 100 RBIs since 2003 and could Kila be the player that breaks that streak?

#481 Kila Ka'aihue

Here's what The Onion thinks of John Lackey...

#336 John Lackey

#123 Aaron Hill

#181 Dillon Gee [RC]

Ivan is about 180 hits short of 3,000 but he hasn't had that many hits in one season since 1999.

#262 Ivan Rodriguez

And my chrome cards was a Bobby Abreu. 

#C-80 Bobby Abreau Chrome #1765/1962

#4 Ben Zobrist

#20 Johnny Damon

#152 Jim Riggleman

2009 Topps Chrome Retail

I could open these packs all day long...It's a nice way to start the work week....and we begin with a Padres rookie.    Silva pitched for the Padres for six games in 2009 and has been in AAA since.

#211 Walter Silva [RC]

 Over his career Rolen has averaged 26 home runs and 104 runs batted in with a .285 batting average.  I would say another five years and he's got a pretty good chance of having some Hall of Fame consideration. 

#70 Scott Rolen

This pack is a winner for me just for another X-Fractor to add to the collection.  Each year the refractors are a little different as far as square sized used and the ability to see them...I think 2009 Chrome got it about perfect.

#29 Hideki Matsui X-Fractor

I really didn't understand all the shock and awe that occurred when it was announced that Derek Jeter has the best selling jersey.  To me the bigger story was that Albert Pujols was as low as number 6 behind the likes of Chase Utlely.  

#98 Derek Jeter

2001 Fleer Platinum Baseball (Hobby)

Since I'm a semi-regular contributor to this blog, it's only right that I use my recent group break to pad the listings on here. What good is it to open a pack without contributing to the cause? So, I'm going to be featuring one pack from each of the seven boxes I opened for the group break. In each case, this will be the first pack seen on video. That means, if you've already watched, then you know what's coming.

I have an idea! Let's look for National Patch Time Memorabilia cards! Together! 10 cards in each see-through pack. The cards were removed before scanning, obviously so you couldn't see...

...#3 - Bill Mueller - I know you'd jump at the opportunity to buy this pack with Mueller peaking out from under the wrapper. It still remains to be seen if it was a smart idea to jump or not.

#22 - Edgar Renteria - What is your arm resting on? It looks like it's resting on either the ball on the card, or on the fake bat from his jersey.

#39 - Corey Koskie - Oh, by the way, these are mimicking the 1981 Fleer design for the 20th anniversary. And now I've used up my useless tidbit I saved for when there's nothing else to say about a card. 3 cards in. Great.

#232 - Brian Jordan - I prefer my Jordans to have the first name of "Michael," thank you very much.

#183 - Rey Ordonez - I wasn't following baseball back in 2001, so a lot of these players mean virtually nothing to me. I know that this guy must have had at least a little talent, since I remember seeing a blogger's want list posted at one point.

#40 - Alex Rodriguez - Here he is again. Showing up in both of the first packs. I used to root for him to beat Bonds' Home Run record. Now I have to rely on Pujols, and I hate that idea (until he signs with the Cubs next year).

#13 of 20 GG - Mark McGwire - Grandstand Greats - Back to back juice. I like the rounded corners of these inserts, but the gold foil seems fragile, as if it'll scrape off in a normal stack of cards. The stadium in the back should be the player's home turf. I'm not good at my non-Wrigley parks to know what is actually pictured.

#123 - Ruben Mateo - Finally, a look at the card backs. Before there was Microsoft Excel, there was 1981 Fleer card backs. All the in depth analysis and bar charts you could ever hope to find. As a kid, I never paid any attention to these whatsoever. They all looked the same to me.

#140 - Tony Gwynn - Hot damn! I'll save my thoughts on this card for when I post my group break personal collection haul. I still need to get my Gwynn want list together, but I can assure you I did not have this card before.

#155 - Denny Neagle - Yowza! There had to be a better picture to use. There just had to be. This card will haunt me in my sleep. I'd burn the card, except A) it's going to Cards from the Quarry who claimed the rockies and B) if I did, it would probably regenerate itself and multiply just to spite me. 2 of 7 boxes down on this front now. To see what hit(s) were gained from the rest of the packs in this box, head on over to my blog. There were several unclaimed teams that are available for trade.

2007-2008 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Retail

Let's begin this pack break with the wrapper...easily one of the best I've seen in a while...and what's inside is pretty good too.  I wish I lived in a city with an NHL team because I think I would would really be able to get into the sport if I could see some games in person.  So long story short I don't know much about these players but I do know I pulled a Mike Modano base card which made my day.  You'll see him again soon in an installment of my "Everybody's Got A Record" series over at my home blog.

#38 Ray Whitney

#94 Tuomo Ruutu

#49 Martin Biron

#31 Alexander Steen

#70 Mike Modano