Card of the Day: 2010 Topps baseball #80b Christy Mathewson SP

My first short print out of ’10 Topps! Considering I didn’t pull a single short-print out of all the ’09 Topps I opened, this is bliss for me.

That last line of stats caught my interest so I had to investigate. Mathewson pitched his entire career for the Giants until he was traded to the Reds on July 20, 1916. His 1 and only outing for the Reds, the second game in a double header on September 4, was billed as the final showdown between two of the biggest names in baseball, Christy Mathewson and Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown. It must have been quite a show! Mathewson came away with a complete game win, giving up 8 runs to the Cubs giving up 10. It was one of the highest scoring games of the year for both teams.

Card of the Day: 2010 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes 20th Anniversary #BHA-10 Chipper Jones

While most of my 1 pack’s worth of first impression of 2010 Upper Deck is pretty negative, one thing I like is the resurfacing of the Heroes brand as an insert set! I was actually hoping this would happen, just like I’m hoping for Stadium Club 20th Anniversary inserts in 2011 Topps. While the front of the card looks nothing like any past Heroes set I’ve seen, the backs are basically identical to the latest baseball version minus the logos.

Pack Break: 2009-10 Panini Adrenalyne XL Basketball

These are new to me. I haven’t even heard of them before! Wal-mart had a box of these out for 98 cents a pack! What are they? They appear to be Panini’s version of Topps Attax, but for basketball. In my 5 seconds of research, it appears they’ve just released at least 3 other Adrenalyne soccer sets for a couple of European soccer leagues and the upcoming World Cup. And for all I know, there might be more. Bowling maybe?

There’s 6 cards in the pack and that’s it. The only info I could find was on the back of the box which had something about an album and playing mat. I imagine there are starter kits or something out there but Wal-mart didn’t have anything else.

Just like with Topps Attax (I’ve only seen baseball), there are three numbers on the front which are probably used to play against your opponent’s card. Offense, defense and.. star power?

Isn’t that uniform sweet? I’ve seen the Spurs with their’s too. Kinda dumb though because the english uniforms don’t say The Mavs or The Spurs on them. I’ve also seen the Seattle Mariners with their Marineros uniforms which I found out were for a Latin appreciation day.

I like that they put rookies in the set. I don’t thing Topps Attax had any rookies.

All the card backs look the same with just an activation code which must mean you could play other 9 year old kids online.

Box Break: 1993 Action Packed All-Star Gallery Baseball, Extras For Trade!

I’ve been looking to buy a box of Action Packed for a long time now. And back in December, Kruk Cards was having a sale on some of their eBay auctions and it was 30% off of an already cheap price, so I bit! I love what I got too.

All of the Action Packed brand cards that I’ve ever seen were made the same patented way. 1 piece of card stock folded over and the ends meet in the middle of the back of the card. The player image on the front is raised, just like I’ve seen on Topps Embossed from the 1990’s. Because of the way they’re made, it’s pretty hard to find even pack fresh cards that would grade a 10. Most of them have a little foil blemish, or a bit of white showing on the black rounded edges. So keep that in mind if you’re wanting any of these.

7 cards per pack. 24 packs per box. 24-karat leaf cards randomly inserted (I pulled one). I got really close to 2 full sets. So after the 1st set and keeping 1 of each extra hall-of-famer for my hall of famer collection, that leaves me with quite a few doubles. These cards are cheap so hit me up if you want anything. I’ll even trade 1-for-1 for anything on my set needs list. Whatever. Here’s a list of what I’ve got available with the team they’re representing for you team collectors:

3 Bob Gibson [stl] pictured

11 George Kell [det] pictured

19 Vern Law [pit]

20 Virgil Trucks [det] pictured

21 Mel Parnell [bos]

22 Wally Moon [stl]

23 Gene Woodling [nyy]

25 Mark Fidrych [det]

26 Elroy Face [pit] pictured

28 Dick Groat [phi] X2

29 Cesar Cedeno [hou]

30 Bob Horner [atl] X2

33 Gil McDougald [nyy]

34 Roy White [nyy] X2

35 Bill Skowron [nyy]

36 Mickey Lolich [det]

37 Minnie Minoso [chw] X2

38 Billy Pierce [chc]

39 Ron Santo [chc] pictured

40 Sal Bando [oak]

41 Ralph Branca [br. dodgs]

42 Bert Campaneris [oak]

43 Joe Garagiola [stl?]

45 Frankie Crosetti [nyy]

47 Maury Wills [lad]

48 Sam McDowell [cle]

49 Jimmy Piersall [bos]

50 Jim Lonborg [bos]

51 Don Newcombe [br dodgs]

53 Wilbur Wood [chw]

54 Carl Erskine [br dodgs] pictured

55 Chris Chambliss [nyy]

56 Dave Kingman [nym]

58 Bud Harrelson [nym]

59 Clem Labine [br dodgs] X3 X2

60 Tony Oliva [min]

61 George Foster [cin]

62 Bobby Bonds [sfg]

63 Harvey Haddix [pit]

64 Steve Garvey [lad] pictured

65 Rocky Colavito [cle] X2

68 Al Oliver [mon]

70 Al Rosen [cle]

72 Curt Flood [stl]

73 Willie Horton [det]

74 Rico Carty [cle]

75 Davey Johnson [atl] X2 pictured

76 Dave Kessinger [chc]

78 Bobby Shantz [phi a’s or kc a’s]

79 Herb Score [cle]

80 Boog Powell [bal] pictured

81 Rusty Staub [nym]

82 Bill Madlock [pit]

83 Manny Mota [lad]

84 Bill White [stl]

All from this scan are on the list above.

Here’s an example of the back. I had always thought Garvey was in the hall until just recently!

And finally, we have the 24K gold foil insert. Not too much of a difference from the base set except the card number on the back is 12″G” and the foil on the front is… pure gold! I like this one so it would be tough for me to trade it away.

Six Pack Break: 1991 Upper Deck Baseball

Last month, Brian over at 30 Year-Old Cardboard posted a bunch of needs for his Darryl Strawberry player collection. He had a stack of unopened ’91 Upper Deck baseball packs and was trading away a pack per card! This post was perfect for me because I love junk wax, err.. any wax for that matter, AND I have a couple of hundred Strawberry doubles stashed away for moments like these (to trade). I’m surprised I was only able to find 2 on the list. That’s ok though because Brian also ended up claiming something from my trade bait post so in the end I came away with 6 whole packs. Here are the results:

Pack 1:
69 Dan Peltier Top Prospect
70 Greg Blosser Top Prospect
104 Felix Fermin
118 Steve Olin
217 Hubie Brooks
244 Cecil Fielder
291 Joey Cora
321 Scott Fletcher
385 Dennis Martinez
476 Jaime Navarro
483 Dave Lapping
506 Joe Orsulak
545 Bo Jackson
673 Matt Nokes
692 John Farrell
Indians Sticker

I just learned two things about Bo when I checked out his Wikipedia page. First, I didn’t know he won the Hiesman Trophy in ’85. Second I didn’t know he played semi-pro basketball before returning to baseball after his injury.

Pack 2:
46 Sandy Alomar Jr. Indians Checklist
96 Bobby Thigpen Save Master
128 Jay Buhner
194 Carney Lansford
235 Tim Wallach
267 Lenny Dykstra
268 Bill Spiers
309 Milt Thompson
397 Steve Frey
407 Bob Kipper
452 Dwight Smith
569 Juan Agosto
582 Scott Sanderson
617 1917 Revisited
697 Wayne Edwards
Pirates Sticker

This 1917 Revisited card is perfect for my retro and alternate uniforms collection. I’ve lots of cards with players wearing these but not this team shot. Let’s see how many names I can remember. I see Ivan Calderon… Ozzie Guillen I think… and Tim “Rock” Raines!

Pack 3:
50 Top Prospect CL
89 Kenny Williams
137 Brook Jacoby
185 Wally Backman
203 Lance McCullers
210 Raphael Ramirez
225 Travis Fryman
310 Bob Melvin
366 David Cone
464 Oscar Azocar
495 Bill Long
525 George Brett
526 Greg Vaughn
654 Alex Cole
674 Rafael Novoa

Some more powder blues. And yes, that is a giant piece of cat hair that he’s running from.

Pack 4:

68 Kurt Miller Top Prospect

71 Reggie Sanders Top Prospect

103 Mackey Sasser

119 Alfredo Griffin

216 Doug Jones

243 Jim Leyritz

292 Bill Wegman

322 Dan Plesac

384 Adres Thomas

477 Marquis Grissom

482 Rex Hudler

507 Dana Kiecker

544 Kirby Puckett

672 Reggie Harris

693 Tim Leary

Pirates Sticker

Did you know Reggie Sanders played with a steel plate implanted in his ankle? It prevented him from making clean pivots as an infielder in the minors before he was moved to the outfield.

Pack 5:

49 Roberto Kelly Yankees CL

90 Marty Barrett

138 Candy Maldonado

184 Jody Reed

202 Bob Garen

211 Donnie Hill

224 Dwight Gooden

311 Luis Salazar

365 Steve Avery

463 Omar Olivares

496 Mike Jackson

525 George Brett

526 Greg Vaughn

653 Trevor Wilson

673 Matt Nokes

Indians Sticker

I wanted to show this one because of a little pet peeve of mine. Can you guess what it is?

Pack 6:

64 Brook Fordyce Top Prospect

75 Len Brutcher Top Prospect

123 Cory Snyder

200 CL

213 Jack Howell

239 Lenny Harris

296 Mickey Tettleton

326 Gregg Olson

380 Kevis Gross

478 Marty Clary

481 Lee Guetterman

511 Casey Candaele

540 Randy Ready

668 John Wetteland

688 Stan Javier

Indians Sticker

I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly. How now brown cow how now brown cow…

6 packs, 3 Indians stickers, 2 Pirates stickers, and 1 pack with no sticker. Curses Upper Deck!

And that is that! If anyone noticed, this place has a new look, hope it’s ok. Plus I am officially back on the real internet, and not the mobile phone internet. It almost made me cry tears of joy. Going from blogging from a phone to a business class cable service is… nice! So things should be picking up around here.