Oren's Top 12

Yes, it's that time again. Time for another mail day reveal from my latest trade with blog reader Oren.

Since everyone loves a good countdown (sorry Jon from Penny Sleeves) and Oren partially suggested it, I am counting this one down from 12 to 1 and letting you see which cards were ranked my favorite from our trade. Not that I didn't enjoy all of the cards, but there is always one or two that are more favored than others.

Now time for the countdown (my inner Casey Kasem)

12.Upper Deck Special Report Foreign Focus subset card.

11.Hall Of Gold Manny Ramirez

10.Big Bats Manny Ramirez

9. Big Bats Kenny Lofton

8.Donruss Elite Elite Series

7.Black Diamond Diamond Debut

6.Leaf Rookies and Stars Dress For Success Dual Relic Curtis Martin

5.Topps Lords Of The Diamond Nomah

4.Upper Deck Rock Solid Foundation

3.Pinnacle Aficionado Cal Ripken Jr and Mo Vaughn

2.Leaf Limited Lumberjacks Juan Gonzalez

And you're NUMBER ONE...........

1. Donruss Preferred X-Ponential Power Manny Ramirez

It wasn't easy to do the Top 6, but I think my selections fit what I really like about 90's inserts. Shine, unique textures and acetate.

I want to know your thoughts on my selections and then I want you to make your Top 12 below if you don't agree with mine.

Summer Of Wes Card #91

Lords Of The Diamond

 

For a few months now, @Jake1725 and myself have been working on and off on a trade and knocking out the details on it. I knew in the end we would work it out like we always do, its just sometimes it takes a little longer to do so.

I didn't know completely what I was getting on my end from Jake and on his end was the same from me. All I know is kicking it off with this beautiful Lords Of The Diamond Ken Griffey Jr is a heck of a start.

Wanna feel older? This was Topps 55th anniversary design. We are now in Year 70....Also, remember when we used to be able to spot a gold parallel from Topps easier?

Juan's gone the right way. If you know Donruss 90 and this card, you will get that.

Another new Griffey Jr! Big Fly Zone, he definitely sent plenty of balls that way.

The Franchise Big Hurt

Alex Rodriguez

Three more new Griffey Jr's. I like the Drawing Power insert but the photography on Big Shots takes the medal here.

Five-Tool Talent A-Rod. His sixth tool was cheating the game.

Revolution always came out with a nice base card design, I believe this is my first taste of the 1998 baseball.

I hate to admit it, I like Stick Ums

Randy Johnson Proview. Except this is the gold version I have never seen before.

Some fun 90's chromed inserts

Upper Deck MVP had some nice cards despite being on the same level as Collectors Choice as a brand and cost. These Swing Times also are foiled.

Super Tools. Revert to the comment above about MVP

Some shiny Topps inserts. I wished Topps would do more of these and not so much bland like today's

Bonds Home Run cards. Not sure how many of these should count

Up next, I know it's Collectors Choice and that these Star Quests fell one-per-pack, but these were probably the most eye-pleasers of this group of cards for me.

The blue ones/one star are the easiest to find falling one-per-pack

The green falls 1:8 packs. A tad tougher than the blue level

The Red level falls 1:23 packs.

Almost a complete rainbow of Clemens, just lacking the Gold. That one is really tough to find and numbered to 100. I tried to look on eBay for one just for kicks and didn't see one.

Thanks to Jake for another terrific trade and looking forward to more.

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.