I Opened 60 Packs of 2010 Upper Deck

In my collection: 5 #445, 2 Season Biography #SB-11, 2 20^th Century Heroes #BHA-1, 1 Supreme S-92 Green, 1 Supreme S-92 Blue

Griffey looks: in full-on swing away mode

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  This is Junior’s sunset card from the brand that he helped build.

The set: 2010 Upper Deck was doomed from the start.  The brand was dealing with lawsuits and licensing issues that contributed to this being their last flagship baseball set.  See my other post for limited details.

Decent pulls from this set are very few and far between.  I know this because I bought a hobby box and a jumbo box from dacardworld.com a few months back for incredibly cheap just for the joy of ripping all those packs.  That’s 60 packs and I still didn’t get very much bang for my buck.  Don’t get me wrong, I got a ton of cards and a whole lot of keepers, but the product lacked the excitement I had come to associate with box breaks and Upper Deck products in general.  If you still want to buy some, take a look at this and this.

A lot of standard action shots and a few that were clearly taken in a portrait studio.  None of the photography here is exceptional.  I did notice a whole lot of cards featuring pitchers at the plate, though. 

There was some value in the packs I opened.  I pulled the Posey rookie, but there was only one out 1,080 cards.  

The gold parallels (#/99) are nice but they’re a really tough pull, and there are so many cards in the checklist that it’s barely worth hoping for a good one.  I pulled two and already shipped one off in trade packages.  The other one is no Griffey but still pretty good:

I also got a couple of Portrait, Pure Heat and All World inserts, but the seeding was incredibly sparse.  You would think they’d be numbered for as rare as they were:

One high point of the product is the cool Joe DiMaggio Heroes Set:

This design is done to death, but I pulled a nice quantity of these cards and now have mild interest in completing the set.

Another thing they did this year that I love is the inclusion of stadium cards.  Even the photography on these is outstanding.

This one is the best-looking of the group.

And these two, which while I don't count them as Griffey cards, are stored in the Griffey binder.

There are also these bizarro Celebrity Predictor cards.  I’m still pretty clueless as to what the point is, but there’s something about them that makes me want to collect every one.  I pulled a whopping eight of the 10-card set (though they’re numbered as though it’s 20 cards).  I am missing CP-1/2 Jennifer Aniston & John Mayer and CP-17/18 Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt.  I’m not a big celebrity guy, but I do want these.

Upper Deck also added these things called Double-Takes which are short-printed base cards that have been lightly photo-shopped.  The differences are so slight that they can be difficult to spot.  I don’t have any to scan because I wasn’t looking for them when I opened these boxes.  At 1:96 packs, I could very well have landed one and already given it away.  Oh, well.

You are guaranteed one relic card per hobby box.  I pulled Nick Markakis, but I traded it away pretty soon after that.  The jumbo box on the other hand contained zero relics.  

Besides what you see here, this set is nothing to get your panties in a twist over.  Let’s just get to the Griffey:

 

It’s a nice horizontal shot of Junior in full-on swing away mode.  I really like this picture, but I can’t help wondering what it would have been if they knew this was going to be his sunset card.  

This could have been a great sunset picture or even a cool unnumbered SP considering Junior’s history with the Upper Deck brand.  I think including it in the above insert cheapens this awesome card.

Another reasonably cool insert design.  There is an autographed version of this card that is hand-numbered out of 90.

These strike me as a 1:1 or 1:2 seeded insert, especially considering the 100-card checklist, but they’re much harder to pull than that.  Green is the more common of the pair at 1:8 packs and Blue is seeded a sparse 1:27 - apart from the color, the cards are identical.  Why were they so stingy with the inserts in 2010?  I am assuming these were going to come in more colors that were slated for release in series 2 which never happened.

 

Here are the Griffeys I’m missing from 2010 Upper Deck:

#445 Gold #/99

20^th Century Heroes Art Card Signatures #BHA-1 #/90

Upper Deck Game Jersey #UDGJ-KG

Upper Deck Game Jersey Patch #UDGJ-KG #/25

Also #546 U.S. Cellular Field

The Ultimate Griffey Card Giveaway: Results!

I’ve been pouring over Griffey love for the past week, and it’s been tough picking the winners; but after mulling over everyone’s submissions for a few days, I feel pretty good about how everything turned out.  Here's a link to the original giveaway post.  Now without further ado…..

Honorable Mentions:

While I can’t list every single submission I got, I will show the ones that made the final cut.  If you see yours below, it was in the running for the top three.  Go ahead and send me your address if I don’t already have it so I can send you a prize.  In no particular order, here are some of the best:

Sweet left-handed swing
Made me look past backwards hat
And root for Junior
Jim (garvey cey russell lopes) - I was expecting a lot more in the way of haikus, but Jim sent me the only one in the whole contest.  Nice work, too.

When you're a 12-year old left-handed hitting outfielder in Little League during Griffey's rookie season, it was a no-brainer for me to gravitate towards The Kid. His swing was sweet but his defense is what won me over; I'd purposely get a late break on fly balls in the hopes of laying out and making a Griffey-esque catch. Plus, all my knucklehead friends were collecting Jerome Walton rookies and me, being super savvy and not an idiot, would trade Waltons for Griffeys all day, every day, twice on Sunday.

Casey (Drop the Gloves!) - I like how personal Casey gets.  You can tell he’s been a Junior fan since the beginning.  I also took late breaks for fly balls in the outfield, but it was mostly because I was terrible. 

Never have I feared a player more. 

The swing, the swagger, the smile. 

He was the ultimate Yankee killer. 

AJ (The Lost Collector) - I like the perspective here of a fan of another team and the begrudging respect one can have for an opposing team’s star player.  That’s how I feel about Tom Brady when the Saints play the Patriots.  Great submission.

I was a 5 year old in 1989, and I couldn't afford Upper Deck, so I bought Donruss. The first pack had a Griffey in it, and the guy at the card shop gave me a penny sleeve and toploader.  It's still my most prized card, and it has never been taken out of that toploader.

Spankee (My Cardboard Mistress) - Very relatable.  That was also my first Griffey and my first prized card in general.  I still have a couple that have never left that cases I put them in at the card shop.

The Swing.  The Backwards Hat.  The Smile.

Judson (My Cardboard Habit) - Simple, to the point, and I like the all-caps as though these aspects were trademarked.

In 1988, according to Wikipedia anyhow, Ken Griffey, Jr. attempted to take his own life by swallowing nearly 300 aspirins.  Had he succeeded in this fatal deed, the world would have never known Junior's sweet swing, graceful outfield defense and his genuine, engaging smile.  Truly, the future-Hall of Famer's tragedy-to-triumph story should serve as a gleaming example of not just perseverance in sport, but also ultimate victory of the human spirit in the face of self-despair.

Mark (This Way to the Clubhouse) - This struck me on a personal level having lost several people in my life to suicide, one in particular to whom I was very close.  This is not an easy subject to talk about for people who have personally experienced its effects, but it’s true that Junior is a great example of coming through that adversity and making the best of it.

Griffey is the man. On the field, off the field, he's just the man. Man.

Nick (Dime Boxes) - The first submission I got, and truer words have never been spoken.  He is the man.  It’s just that simple.

Ken Griffey Jr. played the game the way it was meant to be played.  His unbridled enthusiasm and joy on the field made it impossible for this Texas Rangers fan not to like him.   I lived near Seattle in 1989-90 and one of the highlights of my baseball fandom was seeing Griffey Jr. and his father hit back to back homeruns.  It was a moment I later shared with my father on the phone and something we talked about years later when we watched Griffey Jr. hit a grand slam in Arlington.

Brian - I can’t tell you how jealous I am of you getting to see Junior hit a grand slam let alone he and Senior’s back-to-back dingers.  I only got to see Griffey play once - he went 0-for-3, and it was still one of the best days of my life.  Nice.

Those were all great.  Again, if one of those was yours, send me your address.  You get a prize!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Now for the top three.

3^rd Place:

SCRUMTRULESCENT
CINCINNATI
RED

Matt (Red Cardboard) - The humor, the great reference, the stark simplicity - yes, this is a fine submission, indeed.  Sometimes it’s hard to find the right adjective to accurately describe something - such is the folly of language.  Matt, however, nailed it.  I also like seeing some pure Griffey love from Cincy as I’ve witnessed a lot of Red fans displaying ambivalence about Junior’s time there.  Plus it’s the only one that made me laugh aloud.  If you haven’t seen Will Ferrell as Leonard Maltin, go check it out.

2^nd Place:

I like Ken Griffey Jr. for wearing his hat backwards, running into walls and living up to the hype.  I like Ken Griffey Jr. because he never tried to sell me tagless t-shirts.  I like Ken Griffey Jr. for going quietly, and taking his place among the all time greats with grace and dignity.

Corey (Tim Wallach) - Dude, great work.  This submission is clever and impactful.  I love the positive spin on Junior’s infamous wall collision as well as his sudden retirement.  I will admit that it was extremely difficult to pick between first and second place.  Plus, and it had no impact on who won this contest, I think we all know who your favorite player is... 

This is every bit as deserving of the grand prize as the winner, so I’ll be sure and send you something cool.  You’ve already got all my Wallachs, so give me a minute to grab some more for you.

Sadly there can be only one grand prize winner, and here it is.

1^st Place:

Ken Griffey, Jr. will forever be my favorite athlete.   From the wrinkled Donruss card that started it all to the hours spent in front of the bathroom mirror mimicking the man's swing, I spent my childhood following every moment of his career.  There will never be another player that steps on a diamond that will do what twenty four did for me in his time.

Patrick - Patrick sounds like someone who loves Junior as much as I do.  I can relate to everything he wrote, it has a nice personal touch with a little self-deprecating humor.   It makes me wish I’d allowed more sentences.  This guy sincerely loves Griffey.  Nice job. 

I have a 1989 Upper Deck #1 Griffey rookie card for you, sir.  Let me know your address and what else you collect, preferably teams, and I’ll put together some more stuff for you.

Thanks for all the participation, guys!  I was pleased with the turnout as well as the quality and positivity of what everybody sent.  I promise I’ll put together another giveaway in the near future, probably one that doesn’t involve creative writing.  A certain retired slugger has a birthday coming up in a few months.  That may be a good time…

O.J. “The Juice” Simpson, Scourge of the Gridiron!

I'm making progress in choosing a winner for my Ultimate Griffey Card Giveaway.  In the mean time, here's a look at a few of the more bizarre "player" collections I've assembled through the years.  This time it's O.J. Simpson:

Numerous T.V. appearances?  You don't say....

Orenthal James Simpson He had been a successful running back at USC where he led the nation in rushing yards two years in a row.  He is also a world record-holding sprinter in the 4x110 relay, a record that stands to this day.  O.J. went on to win the Heisman trophy in 1968, and naturally he was the first overall pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 1969 NFL draft.

It took him a couple of years to get acquainted with pro football, but it didn’t take long for the gloves to come off.  From 1972 through 1976 he never rushed for less than 1,000 yards in a season.  O.J. made defenses beg for their lives in 1973 when he became the first player to rush for over 2,000 yards.  He was also guilty of 16 counts of touchdown in the first degree in 1975, taking only 14 games to do it.

Simpson moved on to play for the 49ers where he padded his numbers for two more seasons before retiring in 1979.  Thereafter he pursued an acting career, appearing in numerous TV shows and movies.  He became a household name as a commentator for network television and on Monday Night Football.  He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, his first year of eligibility.  

O.J. had a heck of a football career; and he followed it up right by becoming a popular sportscaster, something not many former players have the charisma to do.  In 1994, O.J. gained international media attention when he reprised his role as the hilariously unfortunate Detective Nordberg in The Naked Gun 33 1/3: the Final Insult.  

Mr. Simpson is remembered to this day for his remarkable talent, magnetic personality, and friendly smile.  He currently resides at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada.


 

Andre the Giant, the Eighth Wonder of the World!

I'm making progress in choosing a winner for my Ultimate Griffey Card Giveaway.  In the mean time, here's a look at a few of the more bizarre "player" collections I've assembled through the years.  Up first is Andre the Giant:

Andre the Giant was cool even before his image started getting stenciling it all over walls and telephone poles in New York City in the late 90’s.  If you weren’t into wrestling, you might remember him as Fezzik in the Fred Savage/Billy Crystal vehicle The Princess Bride wherein he delivered the immortal line “Anybody want a peanut?”

Andre Roussimoff was a Frenchman with a condition known as acromegaly or gigantism.  The 7’ 4” gentle giant was raised to be a farm worker; but having decided that was not his bag, he learned to wrestle and travelled the world instead.

He hit the big time when he came to the WWF in the United States and started tearing it up in general.  Here he was voted both the most popular and the most hated wrestler both within a six-year period.  He had a famous rivalry with Hulk Hogan.  He could also put away beer like no other - it was once reported that Andre drank 156 tall-boys in one sitting.  That’s 34 2/3 six-packs.

Sadly, Mr. the Giant passed away in his sleep in 1992 which was also the third time in four years he was named “Most hated wrestler” by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter which, having read that fact, I now hate.  In 2002 he was posthumously named the first inductee into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. 

He is most recognizable today from the use of his image by street artist Shepard Fairey in his infamous Obey propaganda campaign.  He is also very good in The Princess Bride if you haven’t seen it.

I Had an Epiphany Today - Yes, it's about Baseball Cards

It took a while, but it finally dawned on me why I collect.

Simply put, I like bringing order out of chaos.  I like having the freedom to create my own systems completely from scratch and put them into effect on a whim.  I like spotting needs for improvement no matter how slight and immediately making appropriate adjustments on my own terms and at my own pace, and I like getting measurable results from those changes.  All the rules and regulations are mine, and every one is mutable, even breakable when appropriate. 

Really, without a system, these thousands upon thousands of little paper rectangles would be an utterly untamable cardboard clusterbonk.  It is the dedication and organizational skill of the collector that makes this hobby practically feasible.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s also the fan-dom and the coolness of the cards themselves - the historical significance and personal connections, too.  But at the root, I like being the master of a complex, somewhat inexplicable, and very personal system that is ever-moving towards perfection. 

I like how my system is always improving. 

I like the ebb and flow from simple to complex and back to simple. 

Every new card is a dare.

Every new unsorted or unsearched box is a challenge.

I like conducting my own experiments in efficiency (such as where my money is bestspent for optimal real growth or how one storage system may be easier to usethan another) and building a list of best practices to share with other collectors.

I like answering to no one - well, except my wife; but besides her, no one.

I like how working on a problem involves playing around with baseball cards. 

When I come home from the card shop with a new mystery long box, I imagine a fierce, white-capped river raging towards a bank of concrete ridges that stifle and shape the flow into even lines, sifting out the rapids and creating a smooth, silent artery of water.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Is it a power trip?  Maybe.  At least it keeps me off the streets.