A few more SP Highlights

I grabbed a few (okay, more than a few) packs of SP Authentic to rip open tonight. No 3rd and (final?) hit quite yet, but I did pull quite a wide variety of inserts tonight worth displaying to my dedicated readers. Your guess is as good as mine how Sean West ended up with a Rookie Card in 2009 SP Authentic. His rookie contributions turned out less than stellar with a paltry .338 avg to lefties and a more reasonable but unspectacular .267 to righties. Perhaps Wicked Ortega can help shed a little light on the upside of Sean West. I included this card because it was the only gold (or on my scanner...black) variety parallel of a rook.

NOMAR!! I wish you could see this card live. Apparently there is a refractor version parallel. In this card the SP authentic, Name, serial number, and 1B all refract nicely. I find it pretty hard to relate to Nomar these days because he has moved around so much and been pretty hit and miss, but he still finds a way to make the highlight reel a few times each season and finds a way to contribute when healthy. This card is particularly cool because Nomar is sporting the Ed Rooney!

This is another insert that took me by surprise, the pennant run heroes featuring Clayton Kershaw. Clayton is another one of those quasi-phenoms that I like to keep an eye on to see how they develop. I used to have a nice lil Kershaw auto..gotta get that thing back some day! :)

The platinum power cards are a nice insert. Adam Dunn, 40 HRs...YES! 100 RBI's...YES! .236 batting avg................uggg. keep swinging for the fences, kid.

I'd like to finish up this post with a little math less on for you all... WARNING: A-ROD RANT AHEAD.

young talent

I, Robot

And a star is born. For the record, I really like the Future Watch Flashbacks idea, and this particular card gave me pause. Back in 1994, before the advent of Internet/MLB Extra innings, the only shows in town were the Atlanta Braves and the Seattle Mariners, so I definitely got my fill of the A-Rod, Johnson, and Griffey show. That team had a bunch of young guys that you could really get behind and root for. Rodriguez looked starstruck being surrounded by the veterans of the game, and just looked like he was having a lot of fun out there....then came the contract...then the pressures to perform....then a trade to New York and even more pressure...only to finally have an opportunity to get out at the end of his contract and instead....SIGNED ANOTHER HUGE CONTRACT WITH THE YANKEES. At that point A-Rod was just dead to me. He could have gone somewhere far, far away from the AL East, somewhere quiet and far away from all the media scrutiny he faced on a daily basis. But nope, money talked loudest, and now as far as I am concerned, he deserves any criticism that people throw his way. Sure, he finally got his ring, but at the end of his career I doubt that's how his legacy will be remembered.

However you view A-Rod, this is a pretty nice tribute card to an amazing talent from a more simple time. If anybody has any other cards from this subset, I would love it if you could throw some scans my direction.