The Last of the Birthday Cards
July 5th, 2010 by slangon
Okay, so I finally got around to scanning that blaster of 2010 Topps Series 2 that the wife gave me for me birthday. I wanted to get this done quick so I could start in on busting that box of Ginter for Gint-A-Cuffs. It’s been laying around my house for a few days now, and believe me, it’s getting harder and harder not to tear into it. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll start in on that.
For now, though, we have the 10 packs plus the bonus patch card to get through. I’ve decided foe expediencies sake, I’ll just show what I thought was the most interesting card of the pack. Not necessarily the best card in the pack, but the most interesting. They’re not always the same, you know.
Pack 1
It’s funny when a public figure dies, the image of them that’s ingrained in your head doesn’t always match up with reality. Judging by bloated face and the fu-man-chu and the weird semi perm, I’d venture to say this photo was from pretty close to Thurmon’s death in 1979. Whenever I envision him in my head though, it’s alway the 1971 Topps card.
Pack 2
You know how above I pointed out that the most interesting card in the pack isn’t always the best card in the pack? Perfect example here. Aside from this Whitey Ford, I also pulled a Chad Billingsly Turkey Red. Now, I’m a big fan of Turkey Red to the point that I’d almost prefer a bad Turkey Red to a good anything else. So in my mind, that Billingsly card was probably the best in the pack. It is however probably the most boring Turkey Red I’ve ever seen. By the way, although the ’57 set is one of my least favorite sets of the 50’s, I do have to give it props for being one of the most unique looking sets of the 50’s. A lot of the other sets, although they’re very distinct looking and easy enough to tell apart at a glance, there seems to be a common thread to them. A 1955 Topps card is different from a 1956 Topps card, but you can see the relationship between the two. The ’57 set is the only one to me that comes out of nowhere, which is pretty cool.
Pack 3
You know, I always like serial numbered cards, and I like snagging the occasional gold bordered card for that reason, but I never quite understood those folks who choose to try to put together an entire gold bordered set. That must be maddening. By the way, what the hell is up with the way they print the serial number on the back of these cards this year? It looks incredibly cheap.
Pack 4
One of the things I enjoy about cards that feature multiple players is adding together their stats. Sounds dumb, I know. But listen to this. This card has a combined total of 4,920 hits, 717 home runs, 2,375 RBI, 23 All-Star game appearances (That includes 2010. Congrats Ichiro.), 19 Gold Gloves, 10 Silver Sluggers, 2 MVP Awards and 1 Rookie of the Year. Pretty impressive for just 2 dudes, no?
Pack 5
There’s something that throws me off about this card and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. I think part of it might be the orange and pink color combination, which reminds me of the circus which reminds me of clowns which doesn’t scare me, but it certainly puts me on guard. There’s also something about all the angles. The font that Indians is written in on his jersey and the C on his cap are very angular. Also the way he has his arms bent add to this. There’s even something angular about that clump of hair covering his ear. Like I said, I can’t put my finger on it, but something about this card bothers me.
Pack 6
Out of the three code cards I got from my birthday presents, Ichiro treated me the best.
Pack 7
I really think I like these Vintage Legends cards and when I really think about it, it kind of surprises me. I’ve already mentioned in before how I’m not a huge fan of The Cards Your Mother Threw Out set just because I don’t much see the point of reprints other than to make me wish that I had the original. These Vintage Legends are essentially just reprint as well, just randomly pairing up some star player with a vintage Topps design that that player didn’t appear on originally. I guess it’s the fact that all these designs really look good no matter what and there really is not original for me to wish I had.
Pack 8
I really think this insert set is my favorite from the 2010 issue. I was really glad to see that they continued it over from Series 1. Sometimes, though, as is the case with Dale and Matt here, I start to feel like the pairings are a little bit of a stretch.
Pack 9
I really need to start going through all the Turkey Red cards I have and see how far along I am on the Franken-Set that I’ve been planning.
Pack 10
Funny thing that Inotice about these Vintage Legends cards is even sets that aren’t so cool get some new life from them. I would be borderline mad if I somehow acquired yet another ’89 Topps card, regardless of who was on it. Somehow though, when you throw a nice looking colorized photograph of Giants Legend Mel Ott on there, it becomes really cool and makes me glad that I pulled it.
Bonus Patch Card
As I pointed when I was busting that cereal box a few days ago, the only reason to get those things is for the Legends Chrome Refreactor cards. Similarly, really the only reason to buy a blaster is for these patch cards. I personally like them despite the fact that they’re manufactured patches. Of course they’re not as cool as an actual patch, but considering what they are, I think they look pretty cool, especially when you get an older player such as Maz here. It’s especially cool when the patch is from a legendary World Series, such as the 1960 Series when the underdog Pirates beat the favored Yankees in 7 games thanks to Maz’s 9th inning home run. Interestingly enough, according to his Wikipedia page, the 13 year fan who caught that ball traded it to Bill for 2 cases of beer. As much as I do like these patch cards, I don’t think I would go out of my way to buy a blaster just to get one of them.
So that does it for all the baseball cards that I got for my birthday. I feel like I got some pretty nice cards and I hopefully did some damage to my 2010 Series 2 wantlist, which I still need to update. Like I said, hopefully tomorrow I’ll kick off the Gint-A-Cuffs festivities.
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