Barry Larkin Collection 754: 2004 Donruss Team Heroes - #104

Barry Larkin

Year:  2004

Brand:  Donruss Team Heroes

Card number:  104

The 2004 Donruss Team Heroes set isn't terrible, but for me it's kind of entirely forgettable with much of the other Donruss releases around that time.  The base set doesn't have any particular standout (or interesting) features and while there's nothing glaringly bad about it, it simply doesn't "stick" in the memory like say 1987 Topps might or even 1991 Fleer.

As for Larkin's card in particular, I can't say it's a favorite.  The action shot is alright but I hate how Donruss managed to chop off three of Larkin's four appendages in the framing of the photograph.  The back of the card is also perfectly adequate though the layout is a little weird given that the top half is about Larkin specifically and then the bottom half is about the Reds in 2003 but also the Reds in 1869.  Like I said, it's not terrible but it's not exactly good either.

In addition to the base card, there exists three parallels as well.  There is a Showdown Bronze (#/150), Showdown Silver (#/50), and a Showdown Gold (#/10).  It's also worth noting that the entire 2004 Donruss Team Heroes set was a retail-only release (which probably explains the lack of any one-of-ones which is perfectly fine by me)!  Interestingly enough, despite it being a retail-only release, the autograph list for the set is actually quite large (in fact, it's a partial parallel of the base set).  Barry does have an autographed card in the set.

In what's a common refrain for me, I'm still missing all of the Larkin parallels from this particular set as well as the autograph card.  I certainly wouldn't turn any of those down if someone offered them up to me but I can't honestly say that this set is at the top of my "must have" list in terms of parallels to try and track down!