Pack Skirmish: 2015 Stadium Club vs. the Junkiest of Junk

It's time for another filler post, er, I mean Pack Skirmish! This time, my last coupe packs from the discounted 2015 Stadium Club blaster will be matching up against the junkiest of the junk wax that Topps has to offer.

The first challenger is 1988 Topps.
GUM CHECK: It's good! Let's give it a point for pure, pink gum. Cracked, but otherwise still in fine condition. I ate the whole thing, ain't gonna lie. No ill effects. Took me back to my carefree days as a kid.

Since Stadium Club only has 5 cards to a pack, they'll have to fight off multiple junk foes. Cueto here feels no pressure, and fends off Neil Allen, Lee Mazzilli (creased inside the pack), and a micro appearance of Jack Clark.
Tied at 1.

Oh, it's a mano-y-mano matchup of future Padres. Current third base coach Glenn Hoffman vs. current closer Fernando Rodney. Man, I can choose between this pair of Friars. Pass!

Josh Harrison is pretty good, squeaking past an Astros onslaught. SC 2, Topps 1.

Wil Myers gold parallel.. nice card of a guy I collect, but I already have this one (thanks again, SCC), so it'll probably end up with Marcus. Since it's a dupe, I'll reluctantly give the point to the trio of decent names. Well, Maddux might be a decent name due to Mike's brother, but close enough. 2-all tie.

It's a BATTLE ROYALE as we close out the last cards of each pack. Pads in the Hall Sparky Anderson and Ozzie Smith, not to mention cardsphere gold Tim Wallach.. but damn, that's a fine looking Puig card with the So Cal sunset in the background. I had been hoping to land that card for my collection for a while now.

It definitely came right down to the wire, but Stadium Club wins by the skin of its teeth. Exciting!


Bout 2: Stadium Club defends its title vs. 1989 Topps.

Nasty! GUM CHECK: It's no good! Gum dust! Not edible. '89 Topps loses a point right out of the gate. It's 0 to -1. I threw away that Mark Williamson card too. It's gonna be an uphill climb for the flagship.

All-Time Cardinal favorites Lou Brock and Tom Herr team up to knock down JJ Hardy and redeem the disappointing gum. We're back to no score.

Ah man, where was Roger McDowell during the previous Pack Skirmish post when a Seinfeld theme was unsuccessfully forced?! The Candy Man and Eric The Red (slight water stain on the left?) are also hard hitters, but that shot of Elvis stealing second is just too awesome. Stadium Club up 1-0.

Meh, Hrbek is always fun to pull I guess. Let's give the point to Topps. 1-1 tie.

Oh wow, a Luminous diecut of a dude I collect.. nice! That's good enough to beat a HOFer and a couple other solid players. SC 2, Topps 1.

And this is it! Topps wheels out Frank Tanana and a couple Rangers scrubs. No match for Mr. Andrew McCutchen!

Stadium Club handily wins this one. Topps could never recover from the gum debacle. Congrats, SC.

And for the highlights from the other packs in my Stadium Club blaster? Well, there weren't any, really. Just a couple dudes I passively collect, Darvish and Pujols. Overall it wasn't a very exciting box. The Alex Gordon insert was the best card, with the Puig and McCutchen also being keepers for me. But hey, the price was right, and lots of collectors are working on this set, so it's always good for trade fodder.

It would be impossible to find packs of MLB baseball cards that interest me less than 1988 and 1989 Topps, but hey, even so, I still love ripping packs, so this was fun. Plus I pulled a few "pack fresh" PC guys who might be upgrades for me. And it's always nice to run into a Wallach for the Wallach Guy. BTW, I was privately racing him to 1000 copies of any particular card. Sadly for me, he won recently by reaching 4-digits with Wallach's 1982 card, meanwhile I'm still at 350-ish cards of 1990 Upper Deck Marquis Grissom like a chump. I keep hoping for a huge lot to hit eBay and help me take a big stride, but no dice.

Thanks for tuning in. See you next time!

Pack Skirmish: Seinfeld Edition

I've finally rented through Seinfeld on DVD and am watching the end now as I start drafting this up. I originally watched the show back in the day when it was on, and then scattered repeats in syndication over the years, but haven't hit it in order since the original run. My wife isn't a big fan, so it's been an activity for the evenings she's out at grad school.

This doesn't have much to do with a pack war, but maybe we'll pull a Keith Hernandez or Roger McDowell or something loosely related. Al Newman, even. Wouldn't that be great and tie this post together?! Fingers crossed!

Today we'll be pairing off junk wax against the last 2 packs of the discounted 2015 Bowman blaster I picked up a month or so ago.

Let's do it!

The first challenger is 1991 Fleer, packing a bright yellow punch.

Oh right, the foil names on these Bowman cards don't show up very well. Probably not the best product for this. Oh well. That Brewer guy vs. Jay Howell. No score.

A Giant vs. Rosario. No score. Oh, and looking at the edge of the photo, we learn that previous Brewer was Matt Garza.

Here we go.. Eric Hosmer vs. Rock Raines. Gotta go with Raines. Hopefully HOF voters get him in on this final chance on the ballot coming up.

Hough is tough enough. 2-0 Fleer.

Smoltz has this one easily. 3-0 Fleer.

No score.

No score.

Yawn. No score.

Eh, let's get Bowman on the board here. Fleer 4, Bowman 1.

Too close to call.

Bonus point for Fleer's surplus of cards and a sticker.

Final score: Fleer 5, Bowman 1. Congrats, Fleer.

Next up...

Bowman asks for another shot. 1987 Topps takes that challenge.

The gum was very crumbly. Gotta admit I ate a tiny piece of it for old times' sake. As the saying goes, "If it's brown, put it down. If it's pink, it's ok, I think." It was fine, though I didn't want to tempt fate eating the whole thing.

Blarf.

Hey, that's Mike Trout! Suck it, Traber. Bowman up 1-0.

The name Chico is always good for a point. 1-1 tie. Also, Chico sounds close to Bosco. Bosco!

Johnny Ray always gets "We Didn't Start The Fire" stuck in my head. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Topps 2, Bowman 1.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

I remember as a kid thinking how did a light-hitting second baseman make it into this song. I mean, sure, he led the league in doubles a couple times and often hit around .300, but he's hardly on the same level as Joe DiMaggio! LOL

Hey, it's the surgery guy, Dr. Thomas Jonathan. Point! 3-1

That's a great Floyd Rayford card, but gotta give it to the A's kid, in the spirit of this Seinfeld edition of Pack Skirmish.

"It was shrinkage, Jerry!"

Topps 3, Bowman 2.

Hmm.. this is tough.. shiny insert vs. Willie Wilson. I guess Appel just barely squeaks by. Tied up at 3.

It's Tiger vs. Tiger. But what's this?...

Oh man, the gum managed to damage through the card to the front. That's crazy. Immediate disqualification for The Bergman. Point to Bowman.

Gotta give it to the former Padre. Wisler's doing ok for the Braves these days, picking up the win yesterday. Bowman taking a good lead, 5-3.

Hey, it's not Keith, but teammate Sid Fernandez is close enough. Were this not Seinfeld Edition, Altuve would certainly take this round. But it is. Topps inches back, down a point, 5-4.

Oh, the good times they shared!

Bowman is tapped out. Topps keeps on swinging. Up off the mat to end in a 5-all tie.


Here are the highlights from the other packs in the Bowman blaster that I opened earlier:

A shimmering mini of Eric Jagielo. He went to the Reds in the Chapman deal and has been struggling in AA this season.
Those grey parallels are among the most boring ever, but hey, I won't say no to a numbered Nick Castellanos card. He's having a great year, hitting .340 so far.
And the best card of the blaster, the diecut Francisco Lindor #'d /99. Last year's AL ROY runner-up is having himself a very nice 2016 season, too.

That's it. I'll admit this was a clunker of a post. Sorry. I'm just gonna dump this out midday Saturday where not many people will see it.
But thanks for making it thru! Hope you're having a nice weekend.

Haul from Big 44 Sports Cards

Nate from Big 44 Sports Cards posted about getting some bonus unopened packs of early 90s football cards he didn't have interest in, and were up for grabs free if anybody wanted them. Needless to say, I jumped on it!

I haven't ripped any football card packs since these sets were on the shelves. Nice trip back in time for me.
Let's take a look at some interesting pulls..

Here are some names I know. I mainly know Billy Ray Smith because he became a local sportscaster.. but I suppose he had a good playing career too.

Here are some more guys. Before this, I never knew a man was ever named "Bubby" in the history of the world, much less a man who went on to play in the NFL. Am I dreaming? Was "Bubby Brister" a real, living person, or is this all in my mind? If he really existed, how have I never heard his name? He even played quarterback, a prominent position. I guess that was before I was paying any real attention to football. And he must not've been very good.

The '90 Topps Football pack included a broken piece of gum. I know in the past I've confessed to eating ancient Topps gum, but I draw the line if it looks like this:

Gross. Brown-tinged edges? No thanks. (Bummer. I was kinda looking forward to crunching down on some old gum!)

Nate didn't just stop with sending me over the few unopened packs, though. He obviously took a peek at my wantlist and delivered some excellent surprises!

Charger draft pick.. nice. And some sweet PC additions.. an updated Peavy.. an Alomar relic.. and what is now easily the jewel of my Greatest Gavins mini-collection: a serial numbered Floyd relic. Amazing!

More bonus football cards.. Reggie Bush (I collect local boys done good.. he's from my hometown area of East County San Diego.. representing the Grossmont High School District.. Went to my rival Helix High a few years after I graduated) and some notable Chargers. Very nice!

Thanks again for the sweet cards, Nate! Anything you might need from me, just let me know. I'll be on the lookout for any Pirate hits I could send your way to return the favor one of these days.

So yeah, check out his blog Big 44 Sports Cards and don't hesitate to swing a deal with him.. he'll treat ya right, I'm sure.

Eating the gum

When I was a kid collecting in the early 90s, my local card shop had a decent price on 1982 Topps wax packs. I bought a pack or two now and then, and over the span of a year or two, compiled probably over half the set, scoring some great cards including RC's of Cal Ripken, Lee Smith, and Dave Stewart, and late-career cards of legends like Yaz, Bench, and Stargell. They were the closest thing to "vintage" packs I ever had a chance to rip, and I loved it.

And of course, back in the good old days, every pack of Topps included a piece of gum. I know a lot of people warn you to stay away from the old gum in baseball card packs, saying it's got dangerous bacteria or organisms or cooties or whatever that have been hanging out and multiplying over the years... but I'll admit it, I ate the gum.

And I say "ate" not "chewed" because-- as you know if you've tried it-- it's crunchy at first but quickly melts away in your mouth till after a moment you're left with a wad of gum about the size of a piece of rice. It's got a weird, but not unpleasant taste. So yeah, it doesn't exactly improve with age like a fine wine. But in all time times I ate decade-old gum, I never once felt any discomfort or any ill effects from it.

A few weeks ago, View From the Skybox sent me my cards from his recent group break along with a bunch of bonus cards. Also included was an unopened pack of 1989 Topps. No GEM MINT 10 Randy Johnson rookie or other notable cards to be found when I ripped 'er open, sad to say.. but yep, there was an old piece of gum.

Back in 1992, it sure seemed like 1982 was a long time ago. Now in 2013, 1989 doesn't really seem all that long ago. Hell, I can remember things that happened in 1989. But I was just a toddler in 1982, so I can't really remember that year at all. Olden times.

It's just one of those mind tricks that come with getting old, I guess.

So you see where I'm going with this. Without giving it too much thought, I ate the gum. Well, actually, the gum had arrived broken in half. I ate a half and saved a half.. unsure if I would eat it too. Despite how it seemed in my head, that 24-year-old gum was obviously much older than the 10-year-old gum from in my youth. At 24, the gum could vote and fight for its country. But it couldn't rent a car, at least not without an added "under-25" fee, so I feel good about that.

After making it through with no stomach irritation, I ate the 2nd half a few days later (after getting the idea for this post and taking the cheesy photo up top). I'm still here.. feeling fine.. maybe a few extra bacteria cooties crawling around in my guts, but whatever. It's a guilty pleasure, sure, but now the experience and distinct taste and texture really takes me back to the early 90s, chomping '82 gum. Ah, nostalgia.

Now that I think about it, I bought a few 1984 Topps packs on eBay back around 2008 (I had the hankerin' to open some old wax, and I never had much '84 Topps), and I'm pretty sure I ate the gum then too.. at least one piece. That would also have been 24-year-old gum at the time. But I have a limit, I think. For example, if I was ever somehow fortunate enough to wind up with (or pay a large amount for) a pre-80s unopened pack of cards to rip.. I would definitely have to think long and hard about eating the gum. And anything from the 50s or 60s-- forget it. I guess my cutoff would be my age. I wouldn't eat a piece of gum older than me. Haha

Howbout you guys? Anybody brave enough to admit they eat the gum too? It seems like admitting you eat the gum is akin to admitting you eat your boogers (something I haven't done for a very long time, I assure you!) Feel free to shame me or offer scientific proof that old gum causes cancer or something, but chances are, next time I rip an old pack of Topps, I'm inevitably going to snap into that dusty pink rectangle with no regrets. *crunch* Yummmmm........