Sunday, January 31, 2021

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.

26 comments:

  1. Not bad. Was wondering what that International Card was going to be. I was not paying attention to baseball either in 1999. Although late 1990s insert cards seem to be a hit recently. Cool pack for sure.

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    1. Basketball inserts have increased in popularity, and value, but other than those from some of the bigger names, I haven't seen much of a jump in the 90's baseball stuff.

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  2. In 1999, I was collecting everything baseball, every brand, every set, every insert set, and space was starting to dwindle. It would take a few more years before wifey #3 said hey. So, we come up with an arrangement we were both good with, but it didn't work...space was steadily disappearing.....Now....Today... I'm much happier.... I have my cards, and plenty of space. Wifey I mean ex-wifey doesn't have to worry about it anymore. Just making lemonade.

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    1. Yeah, that's one way of looking at it!

      I can imagine how much space that kind of collecting would've required, but it sounds like you're okay with how things turned out, so that's all that really matters :)

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  3. I discovered the International set a couple years ago when I realized that it's doing some extremely cool things with the players form non-English-speaking countries. I cannot even begin to imagine Topps caring about that level of detail today.

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    1. I guarantee that Topps would care if they knew that more money could be made from it.

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  4. I started collecting in 1975. 1999 is one of two years since then (1996 is the other) in which I bought exactly zero cards. Judging by every card thing that I've seen from 1999, I chose the perfect year to ignore cards.

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    1. I can't judge that year's cards too harshly, if only because I can't picture what any of them (other then this set) look like at the moment :)

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  5. Sick hit! I say pay it forward to Nick or any other Cubs or Grace collector out there. That looks like a pretty fun pack as far as 1999 Bowman goes!

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    1. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to open one!

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  6. Thanks for pointing out Alou's numbers. Had no idea he had that solid of a career. I really need to track down one of his certified autographs for my Expos collection.

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    1. He was sneaky good... for a really long time!

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  7. Um, I'm a sabrmetrics nerd :)

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    1. I think that most younger fans are. I don't really care if people are or aren't, but please do me one favor, no "hall of very good" posts, please!

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  8. "Fat bulk, yes. Muscle bulk, no."

    Hah! That had me laughing. Thanks for sharing that pack. Pretty decent result, especially with that 1:12 insert.

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    1. It was an okay pack, and probably would've been really good back in '99.

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  9. I didnt pick up much Bowman in 1999 so there are some cards you've shown here that I'm seeing for the first time - like the Grace insert and the Brent Butler.

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    1. And I didn't even know that Bowman was making cards again at that time, at least not until I started collecting cards again.

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  10. Pudgey wudgey... I called my Pudge collection complete, even whittled it down a bit. I spent a lot of money on 99 Bowman. WHY?????????????????? I do not have a good answer. I have a Grace collection too, also complete. He was a favorite Cub, along with Sandberg. Mark and I share the same birthdate...so that's how old I am. ;)

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    1. So, what you're saying then is, that you're Mark Grace years young? :)

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  11. You know I had to drool over the Late Bloomers card....

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    1. Great, now the card has drool all over it! :)

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  12. The first year I taught, there was a card store that was 5 minutes from my school. I need a bag of ice for science class one day, there was a 7-11 next to the card shop, so I stopped during my lunch break for literally two minutes and bought a box of 1999 Bowman. Opened the box slowly over the afternoon. Lots of fun. Brent Butler was on the Durham Bulls the first year I moved to North Carolina. He was not very good, but he's from somewhere around here and always had a cheering section on the weekends.

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    1. People always like the hometown boys, even if they're not that good. I realize that it was few years ago now, but do you remember getting anything particularly great from that box?

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