A Mini PWE Bomb From 2x3 Heroes.

Not all that long ago, I received a trio of PWEs from Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes.  Jeff is known for distributing PWE bombs on (unsuspecting?) people in the blogosphere - and I was one of his targets.  Actually, the note in the first of the three envelopes specifically said that this was NOT a PWE bomb...but three PWEs in a short time frame certainly should count for something!

Let's see what goodies Jeff had for me - we begin with envelope #1 (which he numbered):

The first envelope held a small assortment of 2013 Gypsy Queen and Allen & Ginter's cards for me.  Of the six cards in the package, I picked my two favorites to show here.

First up, this Curious Cases card of Roswell/Area 51.

The story (and legend) of Area 51 is something that people love to talk about and speculate about - which means it's a perfect subject for an Allen & Ginter's insert set!  I will say that a lot of the A&G photos could use some work from the past couple of years (many are too grainy or look like they were blown up much too large and became fully pixelated).  However, for a card like Area 51, that grainy effect works well (whether Topps meant to do it or not)!

The second highlight from the first envelope was this gorgeous mini (sepia?) of Reds' starter Mat Latos.

This card is serially numbered 21/50 on the back which is cool too!  I don't usually pull serially numbered cards of my own team so getting one in a trade (and out of the blue at that) is always appreciated!

Moving on to the second PWE, we find a cachet of 2013 Gypsy Queen base cards.  My favorite of these?  This Chris Davis card.

Davis singlehandedly helped me (almost) get to the championships of my fantasy baseball league that ran this past summer.  Unfortunately for me (and him), the Orioles ran up against a lot of good pitching in the final week or two (mostly the Rays if I remember correctly) and Davis was more or less shut down in terms of hitting home runs.  That, in turn, shut my fantasy team down and I stumbled to a fourth place finish in the league (out of sixteen).  Despite the cooling down at the worst time, I can't fault Davis because he (along with fellow teammate Adam Jones who was also on my fantasy team) carried my offense for most of the year.

The third (and final) PWE envelope contained a smattering of Reds from various sets.  It was hard to choose only two, so I expanded the photos to include three (of the six) cards from the third PWE.

First up, this Panini card of Sparky Anderson.

I miss the days when the Reds had a competent manager - but I am happy that Dusty Baker is gone at least.  I'm fearful the Reds will hire another "old school thinker" guy and we'll end up with another season full of sacrifice bunts and Brandon Phillips batting cleanup because he gets RBIs but we shall see.

I've said this before but I don't usually buy much in the way of Topps Chrome.  I typically like the set each year - but I can't afford a set that only yields four cards per pack which is something I always attribute to Chome.  As such, whenever I get some Reds' chrome cards in a trade, I'm happy!  Jeff sent me three but I chose two to highlight today.

The first is this Brandon Phillips (the aforementioned 100 RBI guy for the Reds).

Phillips has been a pretty good hitter - and a great defender - for most of his tenure as a Red.  Unfortunately, I fear he is due for some serious regression over the next few years so I won't be upset if Cincinnati deals him over the winter (even though I like the guy for the most part).

Finally, here's an orange bordered rookie card of Reds' catcher Devin Mesoraco.

Mesoraco consistently has a frightened expression on his face - this might be one of the least-offensive images of him that I've seen.  That alone is worth the scan!

Thanks for the great cards Jeff!  And, as always, should anyone else feel like sending me cards you can find my want list here.