My Box of 2000 Fleer Tradition!

Although I don't have to teach in the summer, I'm still required to occasionally make my way in to work for a meeting or two.  Unfortunately for me, this week I had meetings all day today and I have to go back tomorrow for more follow-up meetings.  I'm hopeful after this week that the issues are settled and then my summer can begin in earnest.

...and before you get all jealous of my summer "off," let me tell you that "off" actually means I'll be spending my time creating lessons, homework exercises, etc. for two different courses that I've never taught before - Calculus III and The History of Mathematics.  I assure you that this won't feel like a summer off to me...but at least I can work from home most of the time rather than 104 miles that I have to drive to get to and from work during the school year.

And that time saved by me not having to spend it in my car?  Well, I can use that time for my many hobbies (and mowing the lawn of course).  Since I mowed the lawn this past weekend, tonight is free to open up some baseball cards...and I've had this box of 2000 Fleer Tradition staring at me for a few days now, so let's get ripping.

Before I open the box, here's what we can expect to find in the 450 card, single series set.  There are 358 player cards, 10 league leaders, 10 postseason recaps, 6 award winners, 30 team cards, 30 prospects, and 6 checklists in the base set.  Luckily for me (since I'm trying to collect the entire set), there are exactly zero short prints!

Now, I'm interested in the base cards from this box, but there are a variety of inserts as well:

• 15 Who to Watch (1:3 packs)
• 15 Dividends (1:6 packs)
• 10 Ten-4 (1:18 packs)
• 15 Hall's Well (1:30 packs)
• 15 Grasskickers (1:30 packs)
• 10 The Ripken Collection (1:30 packs)
• Fresh Ink autos (1:144 packs)
• Club 3000 (1:36 packs)
• Club 3000 relics (numbered, no pack odds given)

That's a fairly diverse line up of inserts, so this should be a fun rip.  The hobby box contains 36 packs with 10 cards per pack...here's hoping I can make a serious dent in my want list!

Without any further delay, let's rip a couple of packs tonight, shall we?

Pack 1:

26.  Juan Gonzalez

The first card out of the first packs is....a duplicate.  That's a bummer!

32.  Nomar Garciaparra

48.  Orlando Hernandez

132.  Jose Lima

178.  Eric Milton

257.  Darin Erstad

272.  Red Sox Prospects (Wilton Veras and Tomokazu Ohka)

289.  Chuck Finley

415.  Jermaine Dye

Who to Watch:  15.  Adam Kennedy

I have a few of the Who to Watch cards already, but I don't expect that I'll end up chasing the full set.  Once I open the entire box and sort all the cards, I'll probably create a list of trade bait just in case anyone else is still interested in this set.

And with that, Pack #1 is in the books.  Out of the 10 cards in that pack, I only needed 3...but at least I did get a bit closer to the full base set.  So long as I make progress each pack, I'll be satisfied!

Pack 2:

98.  Mark Kotsay

148.  Armando Benitez

173.  Bobby Howry

174.  Chris Singleton

223.  John Halama

357.  Pirates team card

390.  Rickey Henderson

403.  Blue Jays Prospects (Casey Blake and Vernon Wells)

435.  Award Winner:  Carlos Beltran

Dividends:  6.  Frank Thomas

I won't ever complain about getting a nice insert of "The Big Hurt."  In fact, I always liked Frank Thomas when I was a kid.  In terms of base cards, this pack yielded another three cards for my set as well.

Through two packs, I've nabbed six new cards for my set plus a pair of inserts.  Not a bad start - and certainly not bad for a Monday!  Tomorrow it's another day of meetings for me...and hopefully another evening of opening up more packs out of this box of 2000 Fleer Tradition!