The 31-Year Old Pack Searcher

Man, this kills me. It really does. First of all, I rarely buy retail packs so it doesn’t affect me but this is pretty pathetic. The idea of some World of Warcraft-playing 31-year old loser lurking the trading cards isle of Target waiting for new boxes really disgusts me. I bet this is the kind of guy that would push your 10-year old son out of the way to get at the new packs.

Below is a scan of the card he pulled and you can read as he brags about it on the usually extremely dull Blowoutcards forums. If you look closely, it’s just an “authentic stadium seat relic” so it’s not much to brag about. He still might get a couple of C-notes since it’s #’d to just 10.

Donruss Crusade: The greatest insert ever?

I remember being an 18 year-old just about to leave the hobby for a decade long break in 1998 when my friend Craig asked me if I wanted to go to the card shop one Saturday afternoon. I knew for a fact that I couldn’t afford all those new high-end products like Pinnacle Totally Certified & Donruss Signature so I passed up and instead chose to go out with my non-collecting friends. The next morning I got a frantic call from Craig asking me to check out his card pulls from the previous evening. When I get there he shows me the stack of SPx he pulled (what a bad design that year), and asked me to go through the stack of Donruss he purchased. While going through the pack I saw all the stars of 1998; Albert Belle, Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., etc. Towards the end of the pack a bright yellow and green card popped out at me. It was the most beautiful card I have ever seen in my life and it was called ‘Donruss Crusade’. It didn’t even matter that the player was Mike Cameron, I wanted that card!

To really appreciate the elegance that Crusade brought to the hobby you must remember that this is before the days of 3 game-used, 2 autographs per box. In the 90’s if you wanted to stand out from the rest you had to put out the brightest, shiniest cards known to mankind. Sometimes I’d open a pack of Ultra and Pinnacle and would not know the difference between baseball cards and Pokemon cards. Crusade was a different beast, though. First of all, the cards were #’d, a practice that was still somewhat rare in 1998. The Green Crusade cards were #’d to 250, the purple to 100, and the mythical red to just 25. Today you can pull cards numbered way lower than that but they usually look like this or this. Tell me you’d rather have one of those instead of a Crusade. Just tell me!

Sadly, we may never see Crusade inserts again because the company that produced them, Donruss, lost their baseball license but we will never forget these beauties. Everytime you get a game-used jersey of a player hitting below .250 or an autograph of a 28 year-old “rookie”, remember Donruss Crusade. I have none in my collection at the moment but you can bet when one pops up on eBay I will take part in the bidding war these cards usually provoke each and every time they show up.

(Crusade scans courtesy of the Cardinals Collector)

The Yankees are coming!

Tomorrow the New York Yankees and all their Steroids/Jessica Alba Herpes baggage are coming into town to face the Florida Marlins. I won’t lie, I will be rooting for the home team while trying to fight off the greasy New York fans cheering for Jeter and Joba. As soon as we are allowed I will take some photos of the big stars and watch as Tatiana tries, and ultimately fails to get Derek Jeter to sign her Yankees Beany Baby. I’d like a few good shots of Jeter, A-Rod, Joba, and a few others. Afterwards I will rush to the Marlins side and cheer on Hanley, Miller, and, um….Hanley some more?

Also, “Mr. Marlin” Jeff Conine signed a one day contract to be able to retire as a Florida Marlin. It’s going to be emotional for him and the fans since he was with us in our inaugural season, in 1997 when we won our first World Series, and in 2003 when we won our second one. Anyways, expect a bunch of photos late Friday night, early Saturday.

The next Michael Jordan?

I will be the first to admit that I am not much of a basketball fan but being an all-around sports fan, I listen to a lot of talk radio. Lately the rumors have been running  rampant about the Miami Heat tanking the season in order to get a better chance at the #1 draft pick. Word around town is that Michael Beasley will be that pick and just from the fan feedback alone, you would think this guy is the next Michael Jordan.

Of course, I have been one the wrong side of prospects before. I once spent $30 on this rookie card of the “next big thing” only to watch him go out year after year with injuries. I did the same thing after watching Allen Iverson play in college and while he has turned out to be one of the greatest of his generation, he is no replacement to M.J. So to any basketball fans out there: is Beasley the next Jordan?

I have scoured eBay a couple of times and can’t seem to find any true rookie cards yet so I am guessing his official rookie card has not been produced yet. You can expect me to pick up a couple of those when the time is right. I just hope his career is a little more successful than the guy below. I mean, sure the commercials were funny but it won’t help his Skybox skyrocket anytime soon.

Am I missing something…?

I am as big a fan of Jurassic Park as the next guy but is this guy’s autograph really worth $4,600? It must be cause someone just paid that ridiculous price on eBay for a very ugly card from a poorly-designed set of an extremely overrated movie. There, I said it. I was never a fan of Indiana Jones but I know many 80’s geeks waiting in line for this movie already. I have already been let down by Transformers & Rocky to know not to expect much from this re-hash.

You know, for that price, a non-sticker auto would have been nice. For how meticulous a director Mr. Spielberg is, you would think he’d be careful to stick within the sticker borders. Oh well, what can you do? Check out the completed auction HERE.

FIRE Fredi Gonzalez!

Okay, I can understand starting future superstar Cameron Maybin in the minors. He’s clearly not ready for big league pitching but now he is messin’ with destiny by telling our only superstar, Hanley Ramirez not to steal bases! What kind of coach tells a back to back 50+ S.B guy to slow down and hit more home runs? Last season Hanley hit 29 home runs with 51 stolen bases and I predicted he might someday be the first-ever 50-50 man. The way he looks this Spring Training, it appears Hanley’s been working out quite a bit and 35+ home runs is not out of the question so why the hell is stealing bases a problem?

Did anyone tell Jose Canseco not to steal bases in 1988? Or how about Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez? These guys all had speed and power and played on much better teams than the 2008 Florida Marlins so what’s the big deal? Let’s be honest, it will be hard not to lose 100 games after trading Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis so why not leave Hanley Ramirez alone? It’s obvious he has something special and the Marlins won’t be competitive for a few seasons. His potential is limitless no matter what his crazy manager tells him.

Right now I am missing Joe Girardi…

The big two have become complacent

This is exactly what happens when your competition cannot keep up. Jose Canseco became complacent in the early 90’s and Ken Griffey Jr. & Frank Thomas completely destroyed all his accomplishments in no time. Now with Fleer and Donruss out the door, the two remaining companies are putting out one horrible product after another but instead of bringing in new customers, they are driving away old ones who can no longer afford to stay in the hobby. I for one spent quite a bit of cash in 2007 and still could not get my hands on products like Upper Deck Black, Premier, or Triple Threads.

Seriously, if Topps Moments & Milestones, Upper Deck Spectrum, and many others were discontinued would they be missed at all? Well, let me just say that I hated 2007 Fleer but seeing them being taken out of the game for 2008 was pretty disheartening. Of course, this commentary came to me after seeing these two horrible triple autograph disasters. What is worse? A triple autograph featuring Ken Griffey, Derek Jeter, and Jason Bay (?), or the fact that continuity goes out the door with a shinny Griffey Jr. sticker auto when the other two are not?

Check out one of the cards on eBay demanding $900. HA!