Pack Sampling: 1999 Bowman series 1

                             
I wasn't paying much attention to major league baseball in 1999, well, actually that's a bit of a fib, as I was paying absolutely no attention to major league baseball in 1999. I know that many peoples interest in the sport had been rejuvenated by the previous year's steroidic (that really should be a word) display from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, but I wasn't one of them.

I'm not gonna claim to know that I knew that they were juicing during their sudden outburst of power, but even at 16 I knew that something was fishy, especially with McGwire. I knew enough about the human body to know that people don't usually continue to add that kind of bulk naturally as they age. Fat bulk, yes. Muscle bulk, no. And he just kept getting bigger and bigger as time went on. It was suspect for sure, and I'm sure it was noticed by many, but was not being vocalized at the time. I guess folks were just too caught up in the ensuing circus to say anything that might dampen everyone's good time.

It's funny too, because before it got to the point in the season where people started talking about one of them breaking Roger Maris' record (which he still holds in my eyes), I actually was watching more games on television then I had in the previous few years. But once those two got going, and then the media got going, I got going, as in I stopped watching games, and didn't resume doing so again until 2001.

With this in mind, and with me recently mentioning that I stopped collecting baseball cards in/or around 1993, it should come as no surprise to hear that I wasn't opening up any baseball card packs in 1999. In fact, I was all but done with cards in general by 1999, and can only remember opening up packs from two different basketball sets that year. So this pack, which was part of a prize pack that I received from, Brian, of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary fame, will go down as the first pack of cards that I've ever opened from a 1999 baseball set. And with prices being what they are these days, it might end up being the last pack of baseball cards from 1999 that I ever open as well.

I tried to scan the odds for you, but as you can see, it didn't turn out so well.

Having never collected a baseball set from this particular year, and with me not following the sport at the time, I have no idea who, if any, were the hot rookies that year. And other than the refractors, which I've seen in many a dime box, I can't say that I know anything about any of the other inserts/parallels either. I could've looked up some of this info before opening the pack, but that isn't very fun. It's much better to go into something like this with as little information as possible, that way you don't get your hopes up, and subsequently can't be let down when the pack doesn't yield whatever it is that you were hoping to land. 

My only hope going into the pack was that the cards wouldn't be bricked, and I could tell from the shiftiness of contents within the sealed pack, that they weren't, so I there'd be no letdown on my part.

First card out of the gate is... Mitch Meluskey?!?! Yeah, no idea who he is, bUt It'S a RoOkIe. Looks like he was a catcher with great potential on the offensive side, but was less then stellar on the defensive end. Oh, and apparently he has some attitude problems, and couldn't, or wouldn't, get along with his teammates (punching one of them probably didn't help his cause any). His retired in 2004, to very little fanfare it would seem.

He would go on to have much more success elsewhere (five rings, five All-Star appearances, and a Cy Young), but to me David Cone will always be a Met, if only because that's who he was with when I first started out collecting cards. 1999 proved to be a good year for David, he got a ring, was an All-Star, went 12-9, and had himself a perfect game against the Expos on July 18th. 

I wonder if our resident Barry Larkin collector needs this one? Probably not, but still worth checking.

Think your scribble is long enough there, Larry? Almost ran out of room! I didn't know of any Braves fans when I was a kid (growing up in Oregon might've had something to do with that), but have come across quite a few as an adult. I always wonder with Braves fans, especially those around my age, if their fandom grew organically, or if it came about because of the TBS factor?

Quick, someone pull the SICK HIT alarm! In case you can't read the poorly scanned odds up top, these Late Bloomers were seeded at 1:12 packs. Good looking card too, much shinier in person though. Since he sent the pack, Brian has first dibs on this one. Nick just mentioned his Mark Grace fandom again the other day, so he'll have the second option on it. If neither of them wants it, I'll just add it to my TCDB trade fodder.

It should come as no surprise that I'm not familiar with Brent Butler either. Looks like he got about 2½ seasons in the bigs, all with Colorado.

Looking at his career stats (2,134 hits, 332 HRs, 1,287 RBIs, and 421 doubles, all while batting .303), I have no doubt that if Moises would be a HOFer if had played during the 1920's, 30's, or 40's. Unfortunately for him, he didn't, and as such will only ever make it as far as some SABRmetrics nerds "hall of very good" list.

I wonder if our resident Pudge collector needs this one? [We sure have a lot of resident so-and-so collectors!]

Hey, it's another rookie card of someone that I've never heard of. Julio Ramirez played for four teams in five seasons and is now a position coach in the Dominican league. And I hadn't noticed it until I was here doing the post, but I see that Bowman did the whole red logo for the A.L./blue logo for the N.L. thing. Scrolling back up, I see that it worked out pretty well on a few of the cards (Larkin, Pudge, Ramirez), looks-wise that is, but still isn't something that I care either way for.

I had to go back and look at the pack to find out what the deal with this chromey was (it's the one-per-pack Bowman International). I like the idea of one-per-pack parallels, unfortunately mine was a rookie, and a Rockie! Todd Sears played in parts of two seasons, neither with Colorado. Looks like he showed some power during his limited time, and there's no mention of him being injured, so I don't know why he didn't see more playing time. Now the question is, does our resident Rockies collector need this one? I sure hope so, because nobody else probably will.

Despite the lack of any keepers, this was still a very fun pack to open. And while I have no plans to ever acquire too many cards from the set, I really do like the overall look of it, I mean it's certainly better than the modern Bowman cards (not that that's hard to accomplish). I suppose my only complaint would be about getting so many rookies in the pack, but I don't know if every pack was like that. Plus too, I've never been gaga over rookie cards, so this complaint could just be a matter of personal taste; take it with a grain of salt!

And as per usual with this series, if you see anything here that you can't live without, don't be shy about saying so.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.