Happy Father's Day

In honor of Father's Day, I thought I would post a pic of a card that I pulled a while back that commemorates a father and son that both played the game of baseball. The card is a 2007 Topps Co-Signers, Co-Signers Autographed card of Floyd and Brian Bannister, both featured playing for the Royals.

This got me thinking about some of the other father-son baseball combos out there. I think that the Griffeys are probably the most famous (could be a little biased because Griffey Jr. is my favorite player) because they played as teammates. Remember their back-to-back homeruns in 1990. Other father-son baseball combos include the Ripkens and Boones. Let me know who else comes to mind. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there.

Card Shop 6/19/09

I went to my local card shop, AZ Sports Cards http://azsportscards.com/ looking for a few packs to open. I saw some boxes of 2008 Upper Deck Documentory on the shelf and was intrigued by the statement on the box, "CHRONICLING EVERY GAME OF THE 2008 SEASON". At $27 a box, I knew it must not be that great,(in fact the owner lower the price to $25/box while I was there) but then I saw that there were some single packs available for $1.50 each and so I thought I would give it a try. I bought 4 packs. I also bought a Grab Bag for $1. I am going to post what I got out of the packs and the grab bag.

1st pack of 2008 Upper Deck Documentary
1876 CIN66 - Griffey Jr. (my favorite player)
2465 CWS85
1251 CHC41 - Soriano
2298 OAK78
2288 NYY78 - A-Roid
2278 NYM78
570 TAM20
560 STL20
599 WAS19
3940 KCR131
3937 HOU131
3934 FLA131
3931 DET131
223 SDP3 GOLD Parallel
YSL 3393 Yankee Stadium Legacy - Roger Maris 09/05/1965

2nd pack of 2008 Upper Deck Documentary
42 BOS2
1840 BAL70
2427 ATL87 - Chipper Jones
2236 KCR 76
2226 HOU76
2317 PIT77
2307 PHI77
2346 SEA76
ASG -RL - Ryan Ludwick
3624 TEX121
3621 TAM121 - Rookie Card
3618 STL121 - Pujols
3570 COL121 - Diamondbacks vs. Rockies (card shows Helton at 1b, with St. Louis Cardinal 1b coach in the background)




















3567 CLE121
215 PIT5 GOLD Parallel

3rd pack of 2008 Upper Deck Documentary
1893 COL63 - Todd Helton (exact same picture used on card 693 COL23)















1584 CLE 54
1872 CIN62
1972 NYM62
1962 MIN62
1952 MIL62
293 WAS3
283 TOR3
273 TEX3
3933 DET133
3975 SEA133
3972 SFG133
3969 SDP133
245 SEA5 GOLD Parallel - Ichiro
YSL 3543 Yankee Stadium Legacy - Joe Pepitone 08/16/1967

4th pack of 2008 Upper Deck Documentary
2464 CWS84
2154 CHC74
693 COL23 - Todd Helton (exact same picture used on card 1893 COL63)
1991 OAK 61 - Rookie Card
1981 NYY61 - Jeter
1971 NYM61
263 TAM3
253 STL3 - Pujols
292 WAS2
3966 PIT133
3963 PHI133
3915 BOS133
3912 BAL133
3909 ATL 133
225 SDP5 GOLD Parallel

My opinion about 2008 Upper Deck Documentary. I won't buy another pack. I only bought 4 packs and I have already seen several flaws. If you are going to create a card from each game played during the season, then why not have the picture on the card from the game that the card is about (see card 3570 COL121 - Diamondbacks vs. Rockies, card shows Helton at 1b, with St. Louis Cardinal 1b coach in the background). Also, I know that there are 4,980 cards in the set, but don't use the same photo on more than one card, that just tacky (see card 693 COL23 - Todd Helton, exact same picture used on card 1893 COL63). I think the concept is cool, but is anyone really going to put together an entire set. You would have to buy at least 15 boxes to complete the entire set and that is if you didn't get any doubles. I wouldn't mind putting a set team set together (Arizona Diamondbacks), but I'm not going to buy boxes or more packs to try to put together a team set. Another thing about this set that I don't like is that I have no idea who the player is on the front of the card. The blurb on the front of the card should be about the player picture.

Grab Bag
2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History Parallel - #79 Greg Maddux #'d 23/75
2007 SP Legendary Cuts - #21 Nellie Fox
2006 Topps Turkey Red - #478 Hudson Street
2006 Topps Turkey Red - #480 Phil Nevin
2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History - #185 1st Heart Transplant
2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball - #USA-93 Jacque Jones
2007 SP Legendary Cuts - #40 Don Sutton
207 Topps Heritage - #1 David Ortiz
2007 Allen & Ginter's - #49 J.J. Putz
2007 Allen & Ginter's - #195 Mike Piazza
2007 Allen & Ginter's - #45 Carlos Zambrano
2007 Allen & Ginter's - #78 Carlos Guillen
2006 Topps 52 - #62 Ruddy Lugo (Rookie Card)
2004 Donruss Leather & Lumber - Rivals #LLR-5 Mike Piazza/Roger Clemens #'d 0872/2499
2006 Bowman - #DP32 George Kontos (Rookie Card)
2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History - #93 Michael Young
2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History - #148 Bill White (Rookie Card)
2007 Allen & Ginter's - #74 Ervin Santana
2009 Topps Heritage - #283 Jeff Clement
2005 Donruss Diamond Kings - Heritage Collection #HC24 Steve Carlton

20 cards for $1, two of them numbered featuring 1st ballet Hall of Famers (I'm referring to Maddux and Piazza, sorry Roger). Not too shabby for only a buck!