Card of the Day: 1999 Upper Deck 10th Anniversary Alex Rodriguez

As much of a weirdo as A-Rod is, and as much as I hate the Yankees, I have to respect what he’s done. I just have to.

Finds From The National Part 8: The Throwbacks

As always, I’m a sucker for old-school style revivals, and I came across some that I had never seen before during The National.

Not sure how I feel about this. There are some pretty significant changes to the 1989 design, and they’ve thrown some foil on it. It’s also a lot glossier than the original issue. So it’s not really true to the original, but the set still seems worth having. Just a note, this is the second A-Rod 1989 design card I have, each with a different team. Now they just need to make one in a Yankees uniform and I’ll complete the trifecta. Oh, and I got one other card of this set:

Now that’s a sweet card.

I also found some cards that I was blissfully ignorant of: chrome versions of old Bowman cards! I scooped up every copy I found, which wasn’t much. Anyone know more about these and how many there are?

I also picked up a few 2002 Donruss Originals for my set, short prints, but I haven’t gotten to scanning them and they’re already in the binder with the set. Oh, well. Their time will come on the site.

Okay, only one more entry to go! I thought this might end up taking the whole week, and it looks like it will. Stay tuned…

2002 UD Authentics #2

Time to take a break from National finds…

Say what you will about Barry Zito, I like this card a lot. It totally captures the spirit of 1989 Upper Deck, and the colors on his uniform mesh so well with the colors on the border. A card like this is why I think this design was begging to be re-used at least once.

I think this card also captures the spirit of 89 Upper Deck really well; the photography is a bit sharper than the 89 set, but the contrast of dark and light is so well-done that I think it’s what they were shooting for with some of those darker pictures and just weren’t able to capture. I think a lot of thought went into the shot selection for this set.

Here we get to the first mediocre shot of today. I’m not really sure what to say about it other than it’s A-Rod from his few years with the Rangers and was one of the more expensive cards of the set.

Man, there sure are a lot of Yankee logos on this card. But see what I mentioned in my last post about saying a player signed with a team when it’s abundantly obvious on the card? I mean, ABUNDANTLY. Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about these kinds of cards. The first example I can recall was Darryl Strawberry’s 1991 Donruss, Score, and Upper Deck cards:

I guess if you’re trying to beat the other guys to show him in his new uniform, I could see it, but it seems like a waste of a potentially good card. I also take the view that a given set is a historical record of the previous season, so these kinds of cards should be saved for update sets or later series. I don’t know. I’m not crazy about the Giambi, but I get why they did it. Thankfully, it’s the only one in the set.

Mail Call!

Found a nice fat package in the mail from Mike over at badwax.net, making up for the 1999 Bowman’s Best that didn’t get here. Here’s what he sent:

1 pack 1995 Fleer Update
1 jumbo pack 2004 Fleer Platinum
1 pack 2004 Fleer Platinum
1 Pack 2002 Upper Deck Vintage
2 Packs 1999 SP Minor Leagues

Great stuff! Here are some highlights:

 

 

Thanks Mike!

Senators #16: Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez
2003 Upper Deck Victory #92

Position: SS
Bio/Summary: Ah, another shot from the Turn Back the Clock game, this time with A-Rod. I’m still trying to figure out when in 2002 this took place (I suspect Baltimore, because they had a regular set of those games in 2002 – I saw the Braves). So…what to say about A-Rod? Well, along with Albert Pujols, he’s a once-in-a-generation (twice in a generation?) talent that was in the second year of that amazing contract. For the record, even with the steroids admission, I like A-Rod. He’s a weird guy, no doubt, and there’s always going to be question about how much HGH helped him, but in the end, he’s still one of the great players of this generation. 

How Did I Get It?: Pack of 2003 Victory in a repack box.

Did You Know?: Rodriguez was born in New York City to a Dominican couple, Victor Martinez and Lourdes Navarro. The family moved to the Dominican Republic and then to Miami, Florida when Alex was quite young. He grew up in Miami.

Rating: 5/10 – Never crazy about this particular Victory design, and this one is just…okay.

Box Break: 2009 Bowman Hobby Pt. 2

Continued…

Pack 16

Kosuke Fukudome

James Shields
Ehire Adrianza
Jack Cawley
Hanley Ramirez gold
Michael Pineda chrome
Jeremy Farrell chrome
Mat Gamel
Jason Bay
Scott Kazmir

Pack 17

Ted Lilly
Josh Johnson
Collin Balester blue
Tyler Yockey
Julio Teheran
Justin Erasmus WBC gold
Nino Leyja chrome
Andrew Rundle chrome

Matt Holliday
Carlos Delgado

Pack 18

Adam LaRoche
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Chris Ianetta
Justin Erasmus WBC
Juan Carlos Sulbaran WBC
Johnny Damon gold
Yefri Carvajal chrome
Patrick Ryan chrome
Ryan Dempster
Shairon Martis

Pack 19

Carlos Gomez
Greg Golson
Brett Myers
Oscar Tejeda
Jason McEachern
Matt Antonelli gold

Miguel Fermin chrome
Angel Morales chrome
Adam Dunn
Armando Galarraga

Pack 20

Travis Snider
Mark Buehrle
Justin Greene
Joshua Collmenter
Ehire Adrianza gold
Sean Conner chrome
Alexander Smit WBC chrome
Howie Kendrick
Jamie Moyer
Kila Ka’aihue

Pack 21

David Price

Johan Santana
Jose Ceda
Michael Cisco
Jeff Baisley gold
Phillipe Aumont chrome

Dominic De La Osa chrome
Victor Martinez
Matt Antonelli
Jorge Cantu

Pack 22

Aubrey Huff
Joe Mauer
Rene Garcia
Curt Smith
Fu-Te Ni WBC gold

Zach Moore chrome
Stolmy Pimentel chrome
Chase Utley
Aramis Ramirez
Zack Greinke

Pack 23

Justin Upton
Adam Wainwright
Neil Ramirez
Saywer Carroll
Jack Cawley gold
Kelvin de la Cruz chrome

Matthew Moore chrome
Phil Coke
Adam Jones
Nate McLouth

Pack 24

Felix Hernandez
Torii Hunter
Andrew Rundle
Phillipe Aumont
Joshua Collmenter gold
Abraham Almonte chrome
Pat McAnaney chrome
Alex Rodriguez

Edinson Volquez
Yadier Molina

All in all, I’m really pleased with the box, especially for the discount price I got. Tons of Nationals, and some cool ones, at that. Thanks to my girlfriend’s family for so generously giving me the gift certificate to pick this up!

Saturday Break #2: 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum

I mentioned earlier that I picked up a blaster of 2009 Spectrum. Rather than cover every card laboriously, I thought I’d hit the box highlights. Oh, and this is probably the laziest issue I’ve seen in a few years, featuring players in their 2007 uniforms yet labeled as their 2008 team. Pretty unacceptable in a 2009 issue, I’d think. You’ll see what I mean. Not to say I don’t like the cards, though. I have a Ryan Zimmerman and thought it was nice enough to buy the box, after all, and I don’t regret it.

Magglio Ordonez, Ryan Howard, Hanley Ramirez

Justin Morneau Spectrum Swatches (I’ve pulled his auto and a swatch now – beginning to think I should collect him), Jake Peavy, Dennis Eckersley 20th anniversary set

John Smoltz (second Smoltz of the day – Definitely a theme), Xavier Nady (see what I mean? He was a Yankee for a good portion of 08), CC Sabathia (same applies here, too)

Joba Chamberlain, Aaron Rowand blue, Alex Rodriguez

Adam Dunn, David Ortiz, Brandon Phillips

Jonathan Papelbon, Erik Bedard, B.J. Upton

And that was my Saturday Break! I’m happy with what I got overall.