Do You Believe in Magic?

All week long I pondered what I wanted to purchase for my second consecutive week of "one pack a day". I thought about continuing on with my Topps Heritage pack pulls, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about football season (0-1 so far on my pigskin pick em) and thought that this would be a great week to grab some of the Topps Magic football cards that I have heard so much about. I am a big fan of Turkey Reds, and from what I have heard and seen, these cards seem to follow that style a little bit.

I checked in with Cranky man's shop and asked him the specs on the packs. Apparently their are three auto cards to be had per box. I believe there are 20 packs in a box, so I quickly snagged five of these (five in a row, near the middle of the box for you "hit" searching technique specialists out there). I also snagged one pack of Philadelphia simply because I hear it is the bomb and would like to check it out. So this will be the rip theme of the week. I am going to be ordering up two boxes of Goodwin Champions on Monday, so in future weeks I will be heading back into baseball, but for now, are you ready for some football? I decided to start with the pack of Philadelphia for tonight's rip.Retro cards are my latest craze, as demonstrated with my sudden Heritage addiction...so this seems like a good place to start.

Michael "Burner" Turner - When you look at Turner's final numbers from last season, you really don't have much to complain about. The only problem is how hit-and-miss he was depending on the defensive capabilities of the opponent. Hot one week and ice cold the next. Not a lot of softballs on the Falcons schedule this season either. They draw the AFC East. I would keep my eye on Jerious Norwood to steal some of Turner's thunder.

Chansi Stuckey. Going to be a tough run. This team lives the AFC East!

Dhani Jones - Pass

Chad Ocho Cinco - I followed Chad Johnson back when he played for Oregon State. There is no doubting his talent, but his antics and ridiculous name changes make me glad that Bengals games rarely make it to television out here in O-Re-Gon. Carson Palmer has been hurt all pre-season as well, so I don't expect Cincy to be the feel good story of the year.

Mario Williams - On the other hand, I do expect Houston to be the feel-good story of the year. Fans were beside themselves when Mario was drafted #1, a full day ahead of the scheduled start of the draft. I think Houston is putting it all together as long as Shaub and Andre Johnson stay healthy this year.

Reggie Bush - And here is the number 2 pick. I don't really understand how Reggie has underachieved on this high-scoring squad, but he has found a way and now Pierre Thomas is stealing carries even with Deuce out of the picture.

So is this Vietnam card the retro themed card that the pack advertises? Seems pretty out of place here.

Oh cool, a mini! This is a Clinton Portis blue-backed mini. I never really know what to think about the Redskins. They tend to fly under the radar every pre-season and then you are either amazed or dismayed by the results. Portis is a solid play though, and worth keeping an eye on if he can stay healthy.

So there is my one pack of Philadelphia. I am not particularly attached to any of these cards, so if anything interests you, feel free to let me know and we'll see what we can work out!

Go Seahawks!

Pack #7, Heritage Wrap-Up!

Well, I made it to the end of the week and successful ripped on pack a day and had a reasonable amount of fun doing so. it's actually pretty amazing, I had less to do, and yet still found plenty of ways to fall behind on my blogging, trading, shipping, sleeping this week. I am going to repeat the pack a day rip for next week, but stopped off at the old cranky man's card shop yesterday and went down a different road. Stay tuned to my next post to see what I picked out. In the meantime, here is the rip...
Jonathan Papelbon. Honestly I think this is probably one of my least favorite Papelbon cards. Just has a little to much "Mr Ed" going on in this shot for some reason.

Jason Kendall - Owns the record for most HBP's for a catcher. Went to the Craig Biggio school of "taking one for the team".

Team cards! I like these. Wish I had pulled the Red Sox but instead got the hard-luck Orioles and the eternally cursed Cubbies.

I don't know if this is technically a rookie card for Ellsbury since he only played 33 games in 2007. Included in those 33, however, were fantastic World Series games that convinced me to peg him as the World Series MVP. Mikey Lowell took that honor, but I suspect it was only because they did not want to give the trophy to a rookie (Pedroia) or a non-rookie (Ellsbury).

On the other end of that 4-0 beatdown was Willy Taveras.

Bill Hall and Justin Upton Short Prints

So there are my seven packs. I ended up with several short prints, but only one shiny little chrome refractor. I ended up with a few Red Sox and many Yankees. Not a bad week of rips, but next week I am going to try something a bit different. Stay tuned!

2008 Heritage Packs 5 and 6

Thursday is near an end and I owe you all a pack rip from yesterday as well as today. I am happy to report that I have stuck to one pack a day for the last 6 days and it has not been so bad. I am definitely still liking this series and pondering chasing after it. Here are the results...

Lance Berkman - Besides Berkman's impressively consistant numbers, what really jumped out at me about his consistant number of games played each year, averaging right around 155 ( minus an injury year in '05)

Little Pony - A lot tougher looking card than his 2009 counterpart.

Ahhhh, Dragon Slayer! I love how this card mentions his victories in the NLDS and NLCS...no mention of his performance in the World Series though?

RAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLL. Glad he is in the NL now, every time I went up to Seattle to watch the Sox, he and Sexson killed them every time.

Yorvit and Big Z....

A clearly alienated Rich Hill showing the effects of the 100 year curse. And my (hit?) of the pack is a retro Orland Cepeda flashback from Seals stadium.

Pack #6

Cripes, A Yankee right out of the shoot! He is a shortprint though, of course.

Eric Chavez - Looking at his stats, nothing TOO dramatic jumps out, but he had a nice little run from 1999 to 2005 (with some scattered bad years). His balky back is most likely going to derail a good, solid, but unspectacular moneyball run.

Continuing with a Bay themed pack, we have Nate Schierholtz...his bat has gotten really quiet in the last month or so after catching fire, but he is an every-day player with a wild-card contender, and that is nothing to sniff at. Am I the only one pulling for SF now that the Barry circus has left town?

Zach Greinke - Borderline phenom. I have a few of his cards but he is fringe on my collection radar at this point. It would really help if he could get on a decent squad.

Juan Uribe and Michael Bourne. I really like Bourne and think he is a rising talent. He has stolen over 5o bags this year and has helped boost my fantasy team into a probably 1st round playoff win. Even tougher about his position is negotiating that grassy knoll in center field. Sometimes successful, sometimes not...always entertaining.

Andre Ethier - Carving out a nice little niche in La La Land.

Fidel Castro News Flashback! Smoke em if you got em!

So one lonely pack is all that remains of my little experiment. I have another $16 bucks burning a hole in my pocket. What should I open next week? Cast your opinions and I will take everything into consideration as I slide on in to the hobby shop or Target this afternoon!

Phenom Report - A Crying Shame

Rafael Soriano, shame on you. I am not even a Braves fan, but watching this game just left a bad taste in my mouth. Tommy Hanson was once again the hard-luck kid at after a 2 inning rainout with Philly and five solid 1 run, no decision at Florida, this one was a furball coughed up in the bottom of the ninth by Soriano. Once again Hanson fails to reach 10 wins after pitching eight fantastic innings.

Pitchers Line: 8.0 IP, 5 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 7 k's.
Result: No decision
Next up: New York Mets

2008 Heritage Pack #4 - Pay Dirt and a Lesson Learned

Last night I had the opportunity to crack open pack number 4 of my "one pack a day" pledge for the week. I have actually been doing pretty good midway through the experiment, and have enjoyed slowing down a bit to look a little more closely and appreciate the cards.

The first thing I noticed when I cracked the pack, was a serial number on the last card? A hit in a retail pack? Right on. I quickly flipped it over an wanted to save the surprise for the end. Here are the cards in order.


Craig Munroe

Sean Marshall

Aramis Ramirez - I have probably pulled more cards of Aramis than any other cubbie other than Soriano.

Erick Threets - Okay, I thought I was just being Naive when I did not know this player, but then I tried to pull him up in Yahoo and he is not even listed there. Most prospects are at least listed in Yahoo with an NA next to their name, so my guess is that Threets is buried deep down in A or AA at this time.

Mark Reynolds, Reggie Willits, and Jason Bartlett. This is NOT exactly what you would call a stellar pack of Heritage by any means.

So how about that hit?

The reason for the crazy coloring is that I tried to angle the card on the scanner to pick up some of the shine. It came out kinda looking like a pastel blurry rainbow, so let me describe the card:

This is an Alex Rios #/592 (weird, eh) and is a chrome refractor card. Now the border is actually pink, and when you angle the card, inside the image there are little pink sparkles mixed in with the crazy refractor rainbow effect. It is a very, very bright and reflective card...

...and you know what?

I love it!

It took me awhile to figure out why I was so drawn to a loud, pink, sparkly, should-have-been-in-a-Hannah-Montana-set type card. I am not really a pink kinda guy, but I quickly slipped this card into a sleeve. Why?

Then it hit me!

Since I have put myself on a pack a day restriction, I have loaded up on retail packs. I did not have any hits on my football cards, and no hits on my first three packs of Heritage. The closest that I can think is going bananas about pulling some short prints.

So when I pulled out that shiny chrome refractor, it was the coolest thing since sliced bread because it was completely unexpected, it was not only a chrome, but a chrome refractor (1:50..oh yeah, I checked). A nice little treasure in the bottom of a pack.

Why am I dwelling on this? I thought about all of the relics, and autographs, and serial numbered parallels and butterflies and horsehair and cut autos that people have come to expect from their hobby boxes. It consumes many of us, including myself, to get the "big hit". 99% of the time you wind up disappointed an saying to yourself "I can't believe I just threw down $100 bucks and ended up with two lousy relics".

Now take this situation. I dropped a grand total of $15.90 on a weeks worth of retail packs. I expected nothing more than a few cards to scan and share with my readers. So when I got that one card it was exciting and fun.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that when Michael Eisner announces wanting to return the collecting hobby to the kids, I can suddenly see this working. If I were a little kid and I had very little income to spend on cards, then I would be thrilled to find a refractor chrome in a pack. I can suddenly see the light as to where lower-end products CAN work and kids (and adults) CAN find joy and excitement in the hobby without all of the fireworks and "hits".

Don't get me wrong, I still am going to continue to buy hobby boxes and will do a jig every time I pull something nice, but I think my self-imposed daily allowance has taught me a valuable lesson about collecting. Man I hate it when that happens! But I tell you what though, after pulling that shiny pink chrome refractor last night, I can't wait to get home tonight and try my luck again!

Phenom Report: Buchholz and the King

Clay Buchholz had another promising outing last night and appears to be rounding into form when it counts the most. There was not a lot of stress on the lad, as the Red Sox pounded out six home runs and are taking full advantage of the home field advantage. Clay gave up only three hits and walked a single batter over seven full as the Red Sox continue to cling to a narrow 2 game advantage in the AL Wild Card

Clay's Line - 7.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 1 BB, 5 K's. Solid.
Result - Win
Next Opponent: LAA (most likely).



King Felix took the mound in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California of the United States of America. Perhaps I was a little harsh on my statement that Felix is an unknown due to playing for yet another "dreadful" Seattle team. Truth be told, the Mariners are actually playing some decent ball this year, but have had some rough stretches. I think the media has it nailed though that his Cy Young hopes pretty much go up in smoke when he is not getting run support, which is what happened again last night...his 10th no-decision of the season.

Hernandez Line: 7.0 IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned run, 4 BB, and 3 K's
Result - No decision
Next Opponent: Texas

Great News for Heritage Short Print Collectors!

Hey all you Heritage nuts! I have some good news for you. Over a furious eBay session I was able to take out a major portion of my Heritage short prints #426-500. I am down to only 21 short prints remaining and 2 elusive base prints.

The good news for you?

Over the mad eBay session, gathering duplicates was inevitable and I have 12 extra available for trade. My hope is that we might be able to do a 1 for 1 swap, but if you dont happen to have any Heritage short prints available for me, then we can certainly work something else out.

Here are the availables...

#429 - Pedroia and Ichiro

#437 Zach Duke

#441 - Fausto Carmona

#446 - Pedro Martinez

#450 - Justin Morneau

#458 - Chicago White Sox floating heads

# 462 - Tampa Bay Rays floating heads

#471 Brad Ausmus

#472 - Melvin Mora

#476 - Nick Punto

# 481 Kevin Youkilis

#493 Ichiro!

Mail Day! BIlly and His New Blog On the Block (part 1)

Good day to everybody and welcome yet another glorious work week! Today is actually a pretty short day because we get to take Jacoby to his 9-month Doctor appt. At 6 months, Jacoby was already at 29 inches and 21 lbs, so he is definitely going to be tall. Our goal is to make him the youngest kid ever to ride the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland (which has the tallest height requirement of all the park).

Just before the long weekend, I received a very generous package from Billy in Florida. Billy is a brand new blogger and actually acknowledged me as his reason for starting....no pressure! So for Pete's sake, everybody check out his blog and help make it a raging success! I have been blogging for only a few months myself, but the best advice I can give to you Billy, is just keep writing and see where it takes you from day to day. Some days you are doing a box break, and others you are throwing up a survey on bananas! (I am pretty disappointed in the results, by the way). Good luck on the new venture Billy, and everybody please stop in to BGM838. and welcome a new blogger into our community.

I initially met Billy when started blogging about my 2009 Topps Chrome break. I was looking for others that wanted to do some base-swapping to help me complete the set (since it is kinda my MO), Billy contacted me a spun me a tail of woe about cracking two boxes and ending up with and identical auto in each. Two Wil Venable's. I told him to hang tight as I awaited one more box, and luckily my misfortune of pulling two Yankees turned into a nice little Pena for Venable auto swap. A wonderful deal. Billy was also going to throw in a bunch of chrome base to help me complete the set.

Well, when the package came, there more (much more) than just the auto and the chrome. In fact so many cool cards to write about that I am going to have to split this baby into two "Kill Bill" style. So lets break down bonus material (Sox-themed).


Now I am not at home at the moment, so much of this is from memory, but I start with what I believe is 2007 Turkey Reds. I love Turkey Reds, as you all already know, and these are additions to the collection. I am a bit perplexed on the lack of detail on some of the cards, while the others look rather life-like. I think that this product has really evolved over the last couple of years.

I am getting well-versed in this series..the 2007 Bowman Heritage collection. So much time and attention to detail. My favorite of the bunch has to be of the Captain. I will really miss him when he goes, most likely at the end of this season.

Here we actually have two products, UD Artifacts Dice-K and his introductory press conference shot...this made my 6 in 45 seconds list. Then there are a couple Topps sketch cards that are a nice depiction, though I think the Manny looks a bit off.

Masterpieces is just a classic and this Yaz card is top-notch. I like the Papi too, but he looks a bit Shrekish in this particular pose.

Okay, so I have fully admitted my confusion regarding the big mini craze,but these Goudey are pretty nice, they are from the 2007 set and the Yaz in the middle is an extra bonus. I will be popping a couple of boxes of Goodwins and I hear that there is a mini per pack, so I am getting my tiny storage box dusted off and ready to roll!

Have you ever heard of this guy? I hear he is pretty popular. I was actually unaware that Bowman had minor league images of players ( I thought they just had prospect cards of players in MLB uniforms) so this is different from any other Jacoby that I have. BTW I think it goes without saying that Jacoby is always on my collections list, so if you have any lying around that you don't want, please let me know!

Got a little old school in here! While I admittedly did not really follow the Red Sox until the advent of the Internet (how could I way out here in O-Re-Gon?), one of the reasons I went Red Sox and have not looked back is the rich history involved with the franchise. These cards are fantastic!

That's it for now! I will post the remainders soon, but in the meantime check out BGM838, and help Billy get his blog off on the right foot!

6 in...45! JD's Red Sox Picks

I have always been a big fan of the Ladies at Dinged Corners and amazing posts, and today they came up with a great exercise for everybody to try. Unfortunately I have felt a bit under the weather today, and exceeded the alotted time by give or take 10-15 seconds.

Here are the results of the 30...er...45 seconds binder pull. #1 David Ortiz. Heritage are quickly becoming my favorite brands, and this is without a doubt my favorite Papi.

#2. I will always have a soft spot for Caveman Johnny.

#3 - These artifacts are pretty nice and i have always liked the look of this card...and that is the point, right?

#5. Topps had some great images this year, and really used the landscape effect perfectly in this card (my favorite landscape shot of the set is Pujols' card).

#5. Hard to pick a favorite Jacoby card. But this is the only my hand went to first, and that is the point, right?

#6. I think that I am going to see how many times I can get away with using this card in my blog. I love the dramatic image, the colors, and even think the shiny sticker with blue sig really add to the effect of this card. One of my favorites, hands down.

When I get more organized, I will have to try this game with my phenom folder. That was fun, thanks ladies!

2008 Heritage Pack #4 and Highlights of the Day

Today is Labor Day and we are all happy to have an extra day off this weekend. Unfortunately, none of the family feels that well today. As I write this it is almost 2:00 and I am still in pajama's and a sweatshirt. In my defense, EVERYBODY was in pajamas until just about half hour ago. I am straggling a little bit. Our big mission for the day is to walk to Safeway to buy bread. I need to save my strength.


Here is pretty much the day so far...


6:00 am - Jacoby wakes up. Stacy is already out on the sofa since she was coughing all night, so I get out of bed and stagger downstairs to grab the kid. He is already standing up in the crib and ready to rock and roll. Normally mornings are also times for him to leave us a little "surprise". Phew, no surprise yet, but he sure does not smell good. Oh well, my only goal at this point is to take him upstairs into bed and hope to at least get back to sleep until it is light outside.


7:30 - Success! Stacy has joined me and Jacoby and each of us passes out until now. About this time I realize that there is a lot of day games today and need to hit the computer and sub in my guys for the first week of the playoffs. My strategy is simple...my only hope of winning this week is to hope that my opponent is camping somewhere and does not have anybody subbed in. Other than that I am screwed. Every season I have a great team that magically falls apart all at once in the playoffs. This year is no different.


8:15 - Let's rip my daily pack! My wife points out that if I rip the pack so early, I will have nothing to do for the rest of the day! She is truly enjoying watching me squirm on my self-imposed pack-rip sentence. I make up some excuse about having other cards to scan, blah blah blah, and excitedly tear into pack#3.


10:03 - In our first attempt to put Jacoby down for a nap we excitedly flip on the TV to catch a little "Price is Right". Its a stay at home tradition. WHAT? US Opens womens tennis? Balderdash!


10:07-11:00 - Catch the last hour of Hoosiers on Versus, or Fuse or some crazy guys network. I noticed recently that we a ton of new HD stations, and most of them are sports channels, with a sprinkling of VH1 and MTV as well.


Did you know that Slider from Top Gun was in Hoosiers? That's my revelation of the day. He was Dennis Hopper's (Shooter?) son. Gave his Dad mad props for successfully running the picket fence and the expense of the opponent. Of course anybody can run the picket fence with Jimmy Chitwood running around the fence and popping for two.


11:05 - Time for some Red Sox baseball....uh oh, is that Buehrle on the mound. Balderdash! Jacoby Ellsbury scores in the first, and that...is...about...it. Sox lose.


1:30 - Success! After a month of failed attempts, I have finally convinced my wife to try a stick of Heritage bubble gum. This is my second highlight of the day. Stacy actually looked at her watch and determined that the gum has a life span of exactly 33 seconds!

1:47 - Stacy is excited to watch "Days of Our Lives" only to be disappointed by PGA golf!


2:02 - This part is kinda gross, but I came home on Thursday and discovered that have have a slight sugar ant invasion in the kitchen. We scrubbed everything down but have discovered that a nest must be somewhere behind our dishwasher. I went and got some of that Terrot (the poison, not the fortune telling cards) and have started placing little traps on the window sill. I tore off little pieces of a Joe Wolf Basketball card. It was pretty amazing...one second there was no ants and then the next thing you know there is a ring of them each ponying up to the bar to take back a little poison to the nest. Yesterday there were far less and today there are even fewer, in fact I no longer see any more than two at a time up there. I have lovingly called them "Cliff and Norm". I have also gotten really strict with any ant outside of the window zone. If they are caught in the neutral zone, they are one dead ant. I almost feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.


So there you are, all caught up on my day...lets get to that pack shall we?



Michael Young - Still solid in Texas. According to card, has had 4 consecutive 200 hit seasons at shortstop, actually 5 in a row, but played 2nd base on that first season.



Lastings Milledge - I swear I pull more of Milledge than any other player.

Ian Kinsler - Gotta be careful tossing around too many Ranger compliments, bad mojo. Still though, good player, good team.

Dave Roberts - As I mentioned yesterday, these older cards don't reflect important stats like save and steals. Only one steal in his career matters to me.

Adam Dunn - Just MASHES the ball. Four straight seasons of 40+ homers and is currently 5 away from a 5th straight season.

George Posada - Well, my Yankee pulling prowess continues, so far in three packs I have 3 yankees and 0 Red Sox...Why did I say three?
Robby Cano! Of course, why stop at one Yankee in this pack. I guess this is a SP though.

Brian Fuentes - As is this one. two SP's on one pack this time. I am starting to consider this set more and more.

Phenom Report: Jon Lester

Jon Lester took the mound for the Red Sox yesterday in a must-win (at this point pretty much all of the games are must-win when you are in a wild-card race) against the White Sox opposite John Danks.

And Lester was on form, picking up his 12th win of the season, 3rd in the last 4 outings, and has not taken a loss since July 19th. Here is the line:

7.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 2 BB, and 8 K's.

Lester's ERA stands at 3.58 and has 198 K's on the season.

Next opponent: Tampa Bay Rays

2008 Heritage "Two-Fer" Pack #2

Here are the results of my "Two-Fer" Sunday rip. I can honestly say that those other five packs seem to be taunting me to open them. They are extra tempting because, unlike many of the packs these days that are very expensive and only contain a few cards, this pack is quite plump with eight cards guaranteed (well, mostly guaranteed unless I 1) pull an auto or a relic, thus defying the massive odds against it) and 2) fall out of my chair and giggle maniacally on the floor ala Homer Simpson. Oh and did I mention the guaranteed gum hit?? It is going to be a long week!
Here are the cards from pack #2


Randy Johnson - Technically I could whine about pulling another Yankee, but I think that I will give the Big Unit a free pass because I don't truly believe he really liked being in New York from day one and his brush with the madness that is the New York media. He came in, did his time, and got the heck outta dodge and now is playing the mentor out in SF with the surprising Giants. I am looking over his Strikout Stats from 1999-2002 when he surpassed 300 Strikouts for four consecutive years. Phenomenal.

Brett Myers - Has a ring, not much else to say. Rings are cool.



Francisoco Cordero - One flaw that I am starting is starting to stand out to me in these old style cards is the lack of stats for saves. While innings pitched clearly indicates that the player is a bullpen guy, there is no saves column.

Chris Duffy - Apparently is in the Brewers farm system these days?

Eric Byrnes - I got nothing.

Kelvin Escobar - According to the card, Kelvim struck out 14 batters in 6 innings on 6/12/07... further research reveals that this was not enough to hold off Josh Hamilton and the Cincinnati Reds in a 5-3 loss.

The Kitchen Debate - Okay it is way too late to break this down, but apparently two stubborn politicians met in a kitchen (it's always a kitchen, isn't it?) and had an "extemporaneous" debate. Too late and too tired to look this word up, but I have visions of the old 80's video game "Food Fight" drifting around in my head.

Josh Hamilton - The man of the pack, and thanks to some previous questions answered, apparently Josh is a short print as well.

More rips tomorrow!

2008 Topps Heritage Pack #1

So here we go with my first of "Two-Fer" Sunday 2008 Topps Heritage Packs.

First off is the gum. I swear this gum looks much better than the 2009 gum. I still can't get my wife to eat any of it though.

Matt Cain - He is a borderline phenom in my collection, so this is a good start.

Jimmy's All-Stars - Last year this card would not really resonate much. This year though...gold! Three pieces of the Buc's fire sale. I hold all three of these guys in high regard and am thrilled that they got a chance to move elsewhere to make a name for themselves.

Question #1 - Are these considered parallels or are they regular set?

Delmon Young - Little brother Delmon, who exploded on the scene with Tampa a few years back. Again, he is sucked into that Minnesota vortex, so I really don't know how he is doing these days.

JJ Putz - I know how he is doing these days!

Question #2 - Ankiels Card has a black number on the back instead of the regular Christmas green and red, what is that all about?

Rick Ankiel - What a cool story. If you start pitching like Nuke LaLuche, re-invent yourself and jump back into the scene. Great story.

Anthony Reyes - Oof...2-14 in his rookie season with the Cards? Topps chalks it up to lack of run support, but failed to mentioned that he would have needed six or more runs in support!

Brad Lidge - Another black square number on the back. Not much to say here. He has a ring. Much respect

Oh heck! Of COURSE I have to pull a Yankee card. It is my MO. I gotta say though, since there are only 10 cards in this series, I guess I should feel fortunate considering these are retail packs, and the Eddie Mathews is a piece of class, but A-Rod? Ugg.

Initially impressions: Dangit. I am really starting to like the look of this set already. I joined this hobby one year too late and already feel like this set would be a nice one to collect.

Oh, almost forgot...Question #3 - When I look up this series in Beckett, they include the High Number additional series in the set. I am going to finish 2009 Heritage come hell or high water, so if I don't chase the High Numbers coming out soon...do I then have an incomplete set again?


For those sharp eyes out there, you may have noticed TWO pieces of gum in that first shot. you caught me, I have already ripped the second pack of "Two-Fer" Sunday. What treasure does it hold? Hang tight, I will post later today! CLIFFHANGER!* (except for those of you that collected this set two years ago and have already seen these cards a billion times).