Groundhog Day Part 2

Today will be different....today will be different.....today will be.....

Nope. So far, same routine, same day as yesterday.

Same goes for today's post, same-well sorta-post as yesterday.

Yesterday I showcased a bunch of unopened cans and promised to open one today.

I had many to choose from but I like to keep the better ones sealed so I chose the lesser of them and went with Juan Gonzalez.

Not that he was a bad player himself.

Juan was a 3X All-Star, 2X AL MVP, and is in the Texas Rangers Hall Of Fame. But still doesn't get enough hobby respect. So you know what that means, he is the chosen one here.

Inside of each can there is 10 cards with random inserts from easy to hard to find. Cans at the time were roughly $2.99 each.

In order to open one of these, you don't need to fingers, you need two hands and a can opener. Hopefully some soup isn't in here.

Make sure to only open these with Adult Supervision. I made sure my wife, a nurse, was nearby. You just never know.

Here is what you find on the inside. Won't need to make any grilled cheese today.

After pulling out the pack, we find Atlanta Braves catcher Javier Lopez as the top card. I find it interesting to see the stats on the front of the card. I actually don't mind it as the design is solid and makes the stats fit.

Now to carefully open up the pack.....

 

Card 1 was as I stated, Javier Lopez, or Javy Lopez as most of us knew him by played for the Braves for roughly 12 years and was sort of a face of the team alongside their incredible pitching aces.

The base set in 1998 Pinnacle Inside is built up of 150 cards. That included rookies, Inside Tip subset and a couple of checklists. Most of the base set is veterans.

PC HIT! Can't ever go wrong finding a Junior. Pretty sure I have this one but I like looking back at the stats of a man who did it the right way.

I always forget that Chan Ho Park played with the Yankees at one point. I always remember him as a Dodger.  It's probably because most of his career was spent there while he bounced around towards the end of it.

Painting The Corner is a subset. Nothing to special looking about the card other than it featuring one of those Braves aces I spoke about above with Greg Maddux.

And speaking of Braves aces....John Smoltz was my friends favorite pitcher on the Braves back when he was a Braves fan. He moved to Mass a long time ago and became a *gag* Red Sox fan. But I remember playing backyard baseball with him and he loved it when Smotlz came up in his "rotation". I didn't . For some reason or another the days he was Smoltz was the days I couldn't hit. We used to keep stats on all of this. Not sure where those ever went.

Barry Larkin looking pretty cool here. He was a great player who just played for the Reds and was under the radar I think because of it.

Stand Up guys insert. These fall one-per-pack. The top is the front the bottom is the back. This card may look confusing to you, but its a puzzle. You gotta find the second part and slide it into the slot to complete the card that features four players.

Seems like I saw someone who collects Edgardo

Randy Johnson, DA BIG UNIT. If you ever wondered what my father looks like, well Randy in this stage of his career is a good comparison.  The other fun fact about Randy is when I played as him in my backyard battles with my friend Brian, I would dominate. My fastball had some extra spin on it those days.

We do the Hokey Pokey Reese and turn ourselves around....

Here's the inner flyer that I found in the pack as well. If this existed today, I would so join in on Team Pinnacle. Sounded like a lot of fun. Too bad companies don't do something like this today. Once again this is just something that proves why the 90's were the best.

No big insert or parallel finds in this break, but I always enjoy a trip down memory lane.

There is a difference between revisiting a memory time and time again vs living every day the same. I hope the fact that I opened a can today and showed its contents instead of just showing off the cans again, that it will break the worldwide curse of the Groundhog Covid-19 Day.

If not, had fun regardless and wouldn't mind re-living the day again to do another.