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Barry Larkin Collection 703: 2002 MLB Showdown Pennant Run - #103

Barry Larkin
Year:  2002
Brand:  MLB Showdown Pennant Run
Card number:  103

The MLB Showdown brand was both a card set and a card game, both of which I thought were designed quite nicely.  In fact, I actually remember buying a starter deck of MLB Showdown and playing a few games of it with my youngest brother.  What I didn't realize is that MLB Showdown was produced from the year 2000 until the year 2005. 

As I recall, the game itself consisted of players making lineups and then rolling a D20 to see what happened during each at bat.  It was a simple game in concept but there were also additional strategy cards that you could play which might help you make die results more favorable, etc. which added a decent bit of depth to the game. 

Ignoring the game, the card design is actually pretty nice as well.  For this particular card, we get Larkin's Super Season stats based on his 1995 MVP year.  I no longer recall the rules for making a deck but I think there was some sort of limit on the number of superstar caliber cards you could have in a lineup.   

Overall, I actually like this set quite a bit - and the MLB Showdown line overall quite a bit.  Baseball and card/board games seems like a natural fit so I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before we see another company try and do something similar to what MLB Showdown did.  Of course, to be successful that company will need to be able to use team logos (like Wizards of the Coast, makers of MLB Showdown did). 

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