2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition

I don't delve much into the non-MLB licensed prospect sets that feature players in Photoshopped college gear and other weird uniforms, but this was included as the requisite "hobby" pack in one of the newer repack configurations available sometimes at Target.

67 - L.J. Hoes - I'll try to avoid making an "Area Codes" joke here, and just point out the weird "Baseball Factory" uniform that the subject is wearing. Is Hoes an actual sentient being or a product of some sort of weird baseball science?

10 - Brad Hand - One of the more familiar names in the pack, Hand has made the All-Star team the last three seasons as a reliever. Here you get a look at one of the boring card backs which apparently must have inspired Panini when they took over the Donruss/Playoff licenses not long after this came out.

59 - Josh Reddick - Another solid name. It's actually kind of a surprise to pull two players who are still active and relevant in the game today.

5 - Adam Moore - I can't be the only one who has asked from time to time what the meaning of "Extra Edition". This seems to imply that there would be a "regular" edition of this set, but in most cases it seems that there is not.

54 - Jon Mark Owings - We end with a guy I've definitely never heard of who actually sort of looks like he's wearing a Braves uniform. Is this some sort of Fall League uni? I cant' really tell. It also has the US flag on the back which could mean it is for some sort of national team competition.

2019 Topps 52-Card Baseball Game - Created by Kenny Mayne Booster "Pack"

Topps recently released another collaboration this time with sportscaster Kenny Mayne. Kenny created a 52 game, hence the name.  I opted not to pick up the full game package and decided that I liked the booster pack checklist more and ordered 3 booster "packs"  Packs is not really how to describe these as all the packs came in a clear snap-down.  

Anyways, I'm not sure how to play the game and to be fair I don't care, but the card are  nice quality and feel like playing cards.  Let's have a look at one of the "packs"

I chose the booster packs specifically because the checklist had a few players I collect, sadly this Hand Aaron was the only one I pulled out of all three.

Here are what the backs looks like, they're all the same.

One nice thing is I got no dupes out of my 3 packs so that's nice. 

2007 Bowman

Here's a hobby pack of Bowman cards from 2007, back from the days of Dice-K, Lincecum and Luke Hochevar, apparently. I believe I picked this up at a card show.

2 - Justin Verlander - Right off the bat we get a card of a pretty big star in Verlander, from one of his early seasons. Verlander was fresh off of a World Series appearance in which neither he nor his team did all that well, if I recall.

17 - Chad Billingsley - Another young pitcher at the time, Billingsley was entering his second big league season at the time of this set's release.

136 - Vladimir Guerrero - Long before his son was all the rage, Vlad (Sr) was finishing up the latter half of his career quite decently.

200 - Alex Rodriguez - I wonder what A-Rod thinks of the recent cheating scandal in baseball. Let's hear it, A-Rod!

BP34 - Derek Griffith Blue Prospects (350/500) - Bowman continues today much in the same vein as they were in 2007, with the expected mix of vets and prospects. This is a color "paper" parallel of one of the prospects. I have no recollection of this player who apparently topped out in A ball.

99 - Jose Reyes Gold - Long gone, though, are the days of the one-per-pack gold parallel. I guess at some point Topps thought we all lost our gold lust or something.

BC40 - Mike Devaney Chrome Prospects - Back to the prospects here. Devaney is the second player who would not appear for another affiliated baseball team after 2007.

BC36 - Chase Wright Chrome Prospects - Wright was a pretty big prospect at the time, probably overly inflated by coming up with the Yanks.

BP14 - Scott Taylor Prospects - Taylor looks like a massive dude, but some of it might have to do with the camera being pointed up at the clouds. 

BP91 - T.J. Nall Prospects - The last card is also a prospect and, yeah... never heard of him. Oh well.

Fairfield 75 Football Cards

Greetings!

Hope everyone enjoyed their New Year's celebrations.  We're seven days into the Roaring '20s and all the tidings of comfort and joy seem to be gone.  It's always a bummer when all the decorations go down.

The new year means new goals...maybe our goal should be to rebound from a horrible 90 post showing in 2019, the worst in the 10+ years of this site.  I'll do what I can to make that a reality!

Anyway, a few months ago, my eldest came home from a Walgreens run with The Wifey all excited because he got this:

Well, not that specific box; the image above is from the interwebs since he trashed the box before I could take a pic of it.  After I went through the stack and tried to figure out why he wanted a repack box of football cards (no particular reason), I checked the site and didn't see that we had one of these boxes posted here. 

I didn't take pictures of all 75 cards, nor did I write down all 75 players or sets they came from.  I did total the years the cards came from and took (not great) pics of some of the more interesting cards that's now somewhere in his room.  Here's what he got:

I'm pretty sure this was on the front of the box.  Pretty nice shot of the two 2-sport players.

Not sure why I took the pic of the back of Morten's 1993 Topps card.  Maybe I was impressed with kicking stats...something Panini would never show.

Here's another back.  I'm 100% sure the back was better than the front (another dig at Panini).

Here's Jim Everett with the Saints.  Unless you're a Saint's fan, this looks out of place.

Oh man, I don't think Herschel sees momma pigskin about to run him over for playing catch with her baby.

Here's the back of the Cardinals' 1989 Topps card, in case you wanted to see how they did.  Boy, they were streaky...and Phoenix Cardinals?

These were back to back in the stack.  I found it interesting that Broderick had no opponents on him (he's kinda floating there), while Bruce is getting mauled by Bears.

I took a picture of Mo here from 2000 Topps because of that gold stamp in the upper right.  However, I forgot to write down what it said and I ain't about to go looking for it in his very messy room.  I'll guess it's a parallel foil of some sort.  If I ever come across the card again, I'll update this post.

Thurman Thomas collects Garfield!

Why did I take a picture of Wade Wilson?  I may have watched Deadpool 2 recently.

The box promises a hit in every 4 boxes.  My son thought he lucked out and this 1990 Action Packed Eric Metcalf was the hit, because it was gold and a little shiny. I had to let him down gently.

You usually see the Astrodome on baseball cards, not football ones. 

This is an awesome looking card back from 1998 Flair Showcase.

My son asked me which were the most valuable cards from the stack, and I chose these two, which were back to back in the stack.

Here's the year by year totals for the 75 cards.  Certainly "junk wax" heavily, but could be worse:

1989 - 11
1990 - 12
1991 - 17
1992 - 10
1993 - 2
1994 - 4
1995 - 10
1996 - 1
2000 - 1
2011 - 2
2018 - 5

Anyway, that's the box.  Here's hoping for a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year to everyone!  Thanks for reading!

2019 Topps Pro Debut

Here's a pack from the annual Hobby-exclusive Topps Pro Debut set, which features a slew of prospects in their minor league uniforms. This was a free bonus pack from a group break I was recently in.

24 - Cristian Santana - Santana is a Dodgers prospect from the Dominican Republic who played at AA last season.

97 - Chris Paddack - Here's the most recognizable name in the pack (at least to me) as Paddack spent the entire season with the big league Padres after skipping AAA entirely.

29 - Alek Thomas - Here's a look at the card backs. Pretty standard stuff, again using the same basic design as the big league Topps set.

78 - Forrest Whitley - Whitley was a first round pick in 2016 and spent time at nearly every level in the Astros system last year.

38 - Rylan Bannon - Sometimes these guys just seem like they're made up to me. According to the back of his card, Bannon was a former Dodgers prospect who was traded to Baltimore.

159 - Carlos Cortes - This guy has the "Pro Debut" label meaning that (2018?) was his first year in pro ball. Or maybe that this is his first card as a pro?

182 - Elehuris Montero - A Cardinals prospect who has shown some promise in the past but had an injury-plagued 2019.

149 - Grant Little - We end it with another Pro Debut. The Tri-City Dust Devils is one of the better team names in the minors.

2019 Topps Chrome Update Exclusive Pink Refractor Pack

 I shared what was  my best pack out of a 3 pack retail hanger pack of 2019 Topps Chrome Update.  Each of those also has one of these Exclusive 2 card Pink Refractor packs included.  Here are the cards from that pack.

Not to shabby pulling two rookies, especially that Senzel.