Pack Break

It’s baseball season! Fifteen more days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training and less than a month away until I have to report to spring training. But today, was a special day. I bought my first packs of baseball cards this season. I kept seeing cards popping up on eBay and sportslots and also seeing other blogs talking about their pack pulls. I made my way to Wal-Mart and bought 3 packs of Topps and 1 pack of Upper Deck. So stupid, I forgot Upper Deck lost the MLB license. Oh well, I’m a Topps guy anyway, I was just curious about their product. Looks like they went with an 18 card pack to try to get people to buy their product. Here’s what I pulled:

2010 Upper Deck Series 1
Cody Ross
Tommy Manzella RC
Everth Cabrera
Todd Helton
Jarrod Saltalamacchia
Carlos Gonzalez
Chris Davis
Roy Oswalt
Hanley Ramirez Season Biography
Joe Mauer Pure Heat
Scott Linebrink
Jose Lopez
Josh Johnson
Eric Bruntlett
Emilio Bonifacio
Lyle Overbay
Ballparks Kansas City, Missouri
Jeff Bailey

Kind of a blah pack. Typical Upper Deck product, nice glossy card with a beautiful borderless photo. Unable to use MLB trademarks the rest of the card is pretty bland. The black and white headshot is a nice touch on the front of the card, but is it necessary? I love the ballparks insert set, because well, I love ballparks! No Dodgers makes me sad. Probably the last pack of Upper Deck I buy.

2010 Topps Series 1 Pack 1
Shane Victorino
Ryan Doumit
Edwin Jackson
Humberto Quintero
Travis Buck
Asdrubal Cabrera
Don Mattingly Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back
History of the Game First Night Game
Justin Upton Toppstown
Skip Schumaker
Jon Garland
Kerry Wood

I’m a Topps guy and I love the cards this year. I love the jumbo, larger than life team logo that’s on the front of the cards! Sucks that I had to open up with Shane Victorino. I’m still wishing Kuroda “lost” command on that high and tight two years ago. I like the Cards You Mom Threw Out subset, and happy to have Donnie Baseball. That one is getting signed this year! Happy to get a Dodger in this pack. Too bad Garland is a Padre now. Another card that I’ll try to get signed this season.
Side note: my top Jon Garland memory is sitting behind the bullpen last season and after his last warm up pitch, Garland walked over and rolled the ball over the wall towards Makenzie. Nice guy, classy move.

Pack 2
Russell Branyon
Tony Gwynn Jr.
Scott Baker
Gil Meche
Dustin Richardson RC
Mike Gonzalez
Andre Ethier Turkey Red
Hank Greenberg/Ryan Braun Legendary Lineage
Josh Hamilton Toppstown
Daniel Murphy
Joe Mauer
Howie Kendrick

Great pack! The Tony Gwynn Jr. card I can hopefully get signed IP during BP, and shows a great photo in the camouflage Sunday uni’s. Baker, Gonzalez and Kendrick are known TTM signers. And course, Andre Ethier Turkey Red. A beautiful card, not only because it’s Ethier, it really is a nice card.

Pack 3
Frank Francisco
Adrian Beltre
Jon Niese
Ian Desmond RC
Brew Crew Knockout Checklist 3 of 5
Beantown Backhand Checklist 5 of 5
Adam Dunn
Evan Longoria Cards Your Mom Threw Out
Tales of the Game Curse of the Bambino
Roy Halladay Toppstown
Garret Anderson
Cliff Lee

Two checklists in one pack? Are you kidding me? Evan Longoria Cards Your Mom Threw Out? Maybe if your 9 years old! Too bad Anderson didn’t become a Dodger, at least I’d have a card to get signed out of this pack.

Overall, the Mattingly, Gwynn Jr., Ethier and Garland cards will come in handy for graphing this season. It’s always fun opening packs and getting Dodgers or cards I can get signed. But four cards in four packs? I’m gonna buy more but maybe I should just stick with sportslots!

Also, I have to apologize, sorry there's no pics of the cards I pulled. I rave about the cool photos and yet don't show them. Trust me, you don't know how bad I want to show of the Ethier Turkey Red. I'm planning on getting a printer/scanner soon. Hopefully before baseball season starts so I can start posting pics of my pack pulls and autographs.