1999 Pacific: Diamond Dynagon Insert Shows Up

Here we are, pack #23 in the box and we still aren't quite two-thirds of the way through the box.  For someone who is ripping one pack per day, this is a box that'll last for over a month...  You can't say that about most boxes of baseball cards from the 2010s.

Pack 23:
81.  Brant Brown
120.  Brett Tomko

Been awhile since I pulled a Reds' card.  Still no sign of Barry Larkin though, that's disappointing.

144.  Derrick Gibson
169.  Justin Thompson
220. Trenidad Hubbard
301.  Jorge Posada
355.  Ray Lankford
386.  Robb Nen
429.  Ivan Rodriguez

Head shot card.

Diamond Dynagon:  5.  Ben Grieve

Woah, an insert card!  Not many of those in the set...this is the second such Diamond Dynagon card that we've found through the first 23 packs.  That's a bit off the expected pace since they are seeded 4:36 packs.  Truth be told, I'd rather get one more of the rarer inserts...or even another base card I need over the extra Diamond Dynagon card.  There's nothing wrong with the card per se, it simply doesn't interest me all that much is all.

1999 Pacific: What Makes for a Good Pack of Baseball Cards?

There's something fun, and old school, about opening up pack after pack of cards without expecting autographs, relics, parallels, or even inserts...  If that sort of thing sounds interesting to you, I'd recommend you pick up a box of 1999 Pacific for yourself - more base cards than the eye can see (and at 36 packs, it's a hefty box to open...and sort)!  We've made it through 21 packs so far, here's the 22nd.

Pack 22:
37.  Marty Malloy

Lots of rookies in the set - and many of them get a head shot variation.  

79.  Manny Alexander
123.  Sandy Alomar, Jr.
204.  Jeremy Giambi
213.  Larry Sutton
305.  Bernie Williams

It seems like each pack has one or two recognizable stars and then a whole lot of has beens and never was.  Still, with solid (though mostly unspectacular) photography, packs are a quick, fun rip.

338.  Francisco Cordova
341.  Jason Kendall
360.  Donovan Osborne
440.  Tom Evans

Solid, but unspectacular is probably a good way to describe the majority of the 1999 Pacific packs.  Still, with just enough inserts in the box, this is a fun rip (at least so far).

Barry Larkin Collection 553: 1995 Topps Stadium Club - #24 - Virtual Reality

Barry Larkin
Year:  1995
Brand:  Topps Stadium Club
Insert set:  Virtual Reality
Card number:  24

The Virtual Reality cards made up a partial parallel set in the 1995 Stadium Club set.  Each Virtual Reality card has computer generated statistics which were meant to show what might have happened had the 1994 MLB season not been cancelled due to the strike.  The front of the card is the same as Larkin's regular base card (other than the Virtual Reality stamping).  The back of the card has the modified statistics (and a new card number) but otherwise that remains the same as well.

Looking back at the set, I'm not sure how I feel about partial parallels.  I think that it worked fine for the 1995 Stadium Club set (given the "weirdness" of the strike the year before) but I don't think I want to see any partial parallel sets in modern card releases.  The OCD set collector in me actually cringes a little bit thinking about the chaos that might unleash.

1999 Pacific: A Fun (?) Jog Down Memory Lane

Another day, another pack of 1999 Pacific.  Today's pack features a few players that should give you definite flashbacks of the late 90s if you were a baseball card collector back then.

Pack 21:
25.  Devon White
40.  Alex Rodriguez

A-Rod as a Mariner seems less annoying to me than A-Rod as a Yankee.  To be fair to A-Rod, I did kind of like his announcing abilities in last years (I think?) playoffs.

57.  Rafael Palmeiro

Headshot variation.

82.  Mark Clark
210.  Dean Palmer
Palmer is one of those guys who I seemed to pull a lot of cards of despite him not ever really doing all that much to warrant having so many cards.
248.  Matt Lawton
326.  Doug Glanville
415.  Quinton McCracken
Another late 90s name that brought back memories for me.  Pulling Rays has never been an ideal thing in packs...and McCracken is the perfect Ray in that nobody knows who he is and nobody really knows why he is in the pack.
421.  Will Clark
449.  Shannon Stewart

Well, that does it for that pack.  A fun jog down memory lane...or at least, it was a jog.  I don't think there is any such thing as a "fun jog" now that I think about it.  #runningsucks  #itriedtorunthissummer

1999 Pacific: When Does Spring Training Start?

It's hard to believe that we are nearing the end of September already.  Before you know it, spring training will be here.  Oh, too soon?

Well, speaking of baseball, I'm still working my way through my old school box of 1999 Pacific.  This is the 20th pack out of the box.

Pack 20:
12. Chipper Jones

The head shot variation of the pack shows up immediately.

69.  Darren Lewis
121.  Pat Watkins

Watkins was the Reds' top draft pick in 1993.  He never really did all that much for the team, however, which makes him a "bust" to Reds' fans.

211.  Jose Rosado
247.  Denny Hocking
263.  Vladimir Guerrero

Nice, albeit standard, photo of Vlad.

321.  Alex Arias
417.  Bryan Rekar
423.  Juan Gonzalez
439.  Carlos Delgado

Another pack down, I'm still making some solid progress toward completing the set.  Time will tell how close, exactly, I get to the finished set.