Pack Pair Wars: 2009 Fan Pak

It's been quite awhile since I've been able to purchase any new cards. Thanks to the end of the month (and the corresponding paycheck), a quick trip to Target allowed me to replenish the 'ol card cabinet with fresh packs to bust.

First, I saw box full of "Fan Pak" packs. A cheap pack with six different things in it - sounds good enough for me to try out...even if that savings is from a result of not spelling the word "pack" correctly on the wrapper.

For a little fun, I decided to purchase to "Fan Paks" and have a pack war with them. Scoring will be more arbitrary than usual...and if you've seen past pack wars, you know the scoring is extremely arbitrary to start with!

First the closest thing to typical baseball cards:

Pack 01:
Top Story 09. Vladimir Guerrero (o points. I never disliked Vlad, but I've never really liked him either.)
Top Story 23. Rick Ankiel (1 point for his nice comeback after his disastrous pitching career, but then -1 point for being a Cardinal, so 0 points overall.)

Pack 02:
Top Story 07. Red Sox World Series Champs: (ooh, not a good start pack two. I don't like the Red Sox much - and the '04 season is a big reason why the Red Sox are almost as annoying as the Yankees today. Minus 4 points.)
Top Story 16. Ichiro: Ah, that's better. I never minded the Mariners - and Ichiro is a fun player to watch. +1 point.
Current standings:
Pack 1: 0 points
Pack 2: -3 points
Ouch, the "Fan Pak" has been a "Dud Pak" so far.

Next, each pack contained two pop up cards:

Pack 01:
Jose Reyes (Ugh, a Met. Reyes isn't my least favorite Met, but still, he calls New York home... Minus 2 points for that.)
Carlos Zambrano (Heh, a Cub and a Met in the same pack. Not cool "Fan Pak", not cool. Minus 1 point.)

Pack 02:
Jimmy Rollins (Hey, a Phillie! +1 point for that, +1 more point as an extra incentive to beat the Yankees in the World Series. Total +2 points)
Brian Roberts (The Orioles have always been a team I have no problem rooting for. It's a shame that they've only managed to be marginally better than the Reds this decade... +1 point for Mr. Roberts.)


Current standings:
Pack 1: -6 points
Pack 2: 0 points
Oh my. There might be a reason why these packs paks were only $1.99 each...


And now for the first of the one-ofs, a MLB Trivia & Mini Games card:

Pack 01: The front of the card has a zoomed in picture of the Red Sox logo (minus 1 point), a triple play question that includes 2 (out of 3) questions from pre-1900 trivia (old history is cool, +2 points for that), and a "name that mascot" challenge dealing with the Tigers (+1 point, +1 more because I didn't know the Tigers mascot's name was Paws.) The back includes the full Red Sox logo (minus another point), a Did You Know dealing with the difference between Spring Training Leagues (yep, I did know, minus 1 for not teaching me anything new), and a Baseball, Paper, Scissors icon in the top right corner of Scissors (0 points). If that icon was Spock it would have been an automatic win for pack 1 - just sayin'. Grand total: +1 point.



Pack 02: The same basic information as the card in pack 1, so let's briefly summarize the points. (Oriole logo on front, +1. Trivia where the Reds is an answer, +3. Name the Pirates mascot, +1. On the back, full Oriole logo +0, Did You Know factoid about the mud - I did know but it's actually interesting, +1. Name of the Pirate's mascot - Pirate parrot, seriously? That's dumb...minus 1. Paper for the Baseball, Paper, Scissors thing...guess I need to give Pack 1 an extra two points because Pack 1's scissors beat Pack 2's paper. Total for pack 2: +5 points. Revised pack 1 totals: +3 points.


Current standings:
Pack 1: -3 points
Pack 2: 5 points

And finally, tattoos - because of course you don't can't possibly have a Fan Pak without tattoos!

Pack 01:
Reds (Oh yeah. Finally a Reds related something for pack 1. +5 points.)
Homer! (Chicks dig the long ball right? +2 points)
Weird Baseball icon thing: (Eh, this doesn't do anything for me. 0 points)

Pack 02:
Yankees (Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. -3 points)
Brewers (Booooo. -1 point)
Strange MLB logo (Booooooring. 0 points)

Current standings:
Pack 1: 4 points
Pack 2: 1 points

So there you have it! Pack 1 pulls off a crazy win thanks to the Reds tattoo. I'm not sure these two "Fan Paks" were really meant for me though - not a single actual card of a player that I'm a fan of. Oh well - it was fun... Everything listed is available for trade - check out my want list and make an offer.