Pack Attack: The Strangest Pack I Ever Opened

As I alluded to in my last post I used to spend the majority of my earnings as a teenager on 12 pack/$9.99 re-pack boxes from Target, Shopko or K-Mart. It's not much of a stretch to say that the cards from these boxes compose around 20-25% of my total collection--an amazing number when you consider that I haven't bought one in years (the quality has really gone downhill). I pulled quite a few hits from these boxes, including the Randy Johnson previously showcased, but I'm not quite sure what to call the strange card I pulled from one very unusual pack of 2003 Bowman Heritage.

The pack was supposed to contain eight cards total and it did contain eight Bowman Heritage cards (2 Roberto Clementes, Willy Mays, Jason Giambi, Sean Rodriguez RC, Arnie Munoz Signature Parallel, Brandon Webb RC and Eric Chavez). From a Bowman Heritage standpoint, I was pretty happy with this pack...problem is, it also contained one 2002 UD 40-Man Jorge Sosa.

It's not the first time I ever pulled an extra card in a pack, but it certainly was the first time I pulled an Upper Deck card from a Topps product. I've actually still got the cards in the original wrapped in a drawer, and although there is no way to prove this actually happened, it did make me a little wary about purchasing repackaged products.

Any else ever run into a situation like this?

One of these things is not like the others...

Card of the Week: 1990 UD Ken Griffey Jr.

Easily one of my favorite early issues of Ken Griffey Jr (yes, even more than his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card) 1990 UD features a young Junior flashing his megawatt smile that would capture the hearts of fans in Seattle and across the rest of the nation. Fresh of a rookie season that saw the Kid hit .264 with 16 HRs, 61 RBIs and 16 SBs, M's fans had plenty of incentive to scoop up this card after his 3rd place finish in the ROY voting (finishing behind such well known players as Gregg Olson and Tom "Flash" Gordon)...and he was just scratching the surface of his unbelievable talent.

The back of the card reads: "Considered best rookie everyday player in AL in 1989 as he made impressive jump from Double-A in only 3rd pro season. Ken and his father are baseball's first father/son combination to play simultaniously." Apparently they spelled simulataneously different back in 1990, but I still love the candid shot of Griffey which shows why he has been adored by fans for so long: his love for the game and omnipresent smile made it impossible not to like the Kid. His joy for the game was contagious and he brought hope for the future to an otherwise dismal baseball team. There will never be another player like Ken Griffey Jr and I hope everyone who follows baseball got a chance to see him play...he truly was one of a kind.