Sunday, January 5, 2014

Christmas boxes- part 2

The first larger box I opened was a 2004 Upper Deck S1 hobby box. These can be had for cheap and I never collected that set so it had to be part of my Christmas order.

The box promised two relics.


I think I remember hearing this guy's name once or twice back in the mid 2000's. Or at least saw it when scanning box scores in the paper. Still, I like this one cause it's always nice to get a jersey relic that isn't boring old white or grey. 


Mike Hampton...probably the worst signing by the Braves since I've been a fan. He was decent for them in 03 and 04 but once he got hurt in 05 he became a very well paid long-term disabled list occupant. But nonetheless it's a Braves relic of a player I didn't have. Except that the back of the card states that the swatch is from a jersey he "supposedly" wore in a Mets game. The only season he played for the Mets was 2000. That annoys me greatly. I know normally relic cards don't give that much disclosure but I can't believe that UD would take a jersey that was four years old that a guy wore two teams ago and put it in a card featuring him wearing the jersey of his current team, and then actually admit on the back that it was probably just from the shreds of a jersey they had sitting in the back of the warehouse that they wanted to get rid of. Stuff like this is why I'm not really sure I mind that Upper Deck doesn't have a baseball license anymore.

Anyways...back to the box. There were some interesting insert sets.


I'd forgotten about how incredibly unhittable Gagne was back then. So good that he won the Cy Young as a closer. He was probably juicing like everybody else but I'm sure for Dodger fans it was fun to watch him pitch.



They could make a set of this with only Yogi Berra and it would be awesome.

The box also contained a mini-box that contained a 50 card update to a set called Play Ball. It appears that the set was prospect focused. Nearly all of the players featured are guys I've never heard of. But there were a handful that did stick in the majors.



Overall this was a fun box break. Nothing outstandingly special but it was cheap. 



More boxes to come soon!







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