2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions & Topps Ticket to Stardom

2009 UD Goodwin Champions
Base set completion: 74 of 150 (49%)
Short print set completion: 16 of 40 (40%)
Super short print set completion: 4 of 20 (20%)
Goodwin Champions was the only other 2009 UD release  — aside from the flagship — that I had been looking forward to. It’s hard to not to be enamored with the [...]

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Isn’t ESPN Boston redundant? Like, the same thing as an ATM machine or a PIN number? Isn’t saying ESPN Boston the same thing as saying ESPN ESPN?
Is the world of New England sports underrepresented somehow by the worldwide leader in sports? Are we lacking in Tom Brady status updates? Are there not enough of Peter [...]

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Big series this past weekend for the Dodgers. Fortunes turned up well for the Dodgers, who took two out of three from the reeling Giants.
The not-so-great part? Trying to watch the games on the blasted television. The Friday and Saturday games were carried nationally in HD on the MLB Network, and were carried locally (in [...]

Continue reading about MLB, blackout rules, DirecTV, HD …. insanity »

Sort of live-blogging (watching the Dodgers-Giants on DVR delay):
- What a ridiculous, unnecessarily aggressive slide by Eugenio Velez. Matt Kemp’s throw was high, and Velez clearly saw Russell Martin had his back to him. There was no chance of a play at the plate, so to knock down Martin — while he was airborne, no [...]

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You know, I believe in the economic idea that competition between companies means a better product for the consumer. However, given the recent slate of releases from Upper Deck, combined with the swings and misses from Donruss, it’s safe to say that there is no real competition for Topps.
When you have beyond-mediocre releases such as [...]

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Andre Ethier has five walk-off hits this season, including three home runs. He has eight since the beginning of 2008, the most in the majors during that span.

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We need a major-league second baseman now!

We need a proven major-league closer now!

We need a major-league top-of-the-rotation ace pitcher now!

We need a major-league centerfielder now!

No really, we need a major-league centerfielder now!

From the top:
- RHP Pedro Martinez traded for 2B Delino DeShields. Pedro went on to win three Cy Young awards.
- RHP Edwin Jackson and [...]

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It was a given that the Dodgers would finally stumble into a three-game losing streak. And as disappointing as it is, you have to give credit where credit’s due. It’s no small task to play 100 games and lose three in a row just once.
But I absolutely hate, hate, HATE that it had to be [...]

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I was watching KCAL’s miserable — kept dropping in and out of HD — feed this weekend, and I saw this come up:

On the lower half of the screen is the same “searching for signal” pop-up that shows up on the DirecTV in our living room. So is MLB.TV using DirecTV’s video feeds, streaming sattelite [...]

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“It was one of the best moments in my career. I’m just glad it happened in LA.”

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I was somewhat interested in UD’s baseball Icons release. I saw a lot to like — small (100) base set, the option to totally disregard the numbered, short-printed rookie set, and design that hearkened back to 2005-era UD designs. There’s also plenty to dislike, such as the ridiculous hobby price point ($80-ish; 10 packs/6 cards [...]

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Found these bad boys at the local Toys R Us

It’s no Manny bobblehead, but they’ll do until I can finagle my way into getting the real thing!

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8 cards per pack/24 packs per box
By the box:
Box 1:
Short Prints: 12
National Pride: 24
Highlight Sketches: 4
Ginter Code parallels: 2
Relics: 3
Minis: 12
Allen & Ginter back minis: 5
Black-bordered minis: 3
National Heroes: 2
World’s Greatest Hoaxes: 2
Box 2:
Short Prints: 11
National Pride: 24
Highlight Sketches: 3
Ginter Code parallels: 2
Relics: 4
Minis: 11
Allen & Ginter back minis: 5
Black-bordered minis: 3
National Heroes: 2
World’s Greatest [...]

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21 packs per box:
17 regular packs/7 cards per pack
4 jumbo packs/20 cards per pack
Base set completion: 138 of 178 (78%)
Short print set completion:10 of 22 (45%)
Base doubles: 45

Impressions
This seemed like a reasonable enough deal — Charm City does these hobby boxes for $55. With that many cards coming in a hobby box, it seemed pretty [...]

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San Bernadino 66ers mascot Bernie, at yesterday’s game:

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This is the Padres’ Fourth of July (a.k.a. Manny’s back, game #2) stadium giveaway:
I’m fairly confident that no Dodger promotion, past or present, has mentioned any other team, and especially not the Padres.
But it’s nice to know they’re still thinking of us, even when they’re sitting 15 games back behind in the standings. Besides, [...]

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Want a Bluetooth headset? Don’t bother buying one from Samsung. Well, just hope it doesn’t ever break on you and you go for the mendacious act of taking them up on warranty service!
On 6/3/09, I received authorization to return a defective WEP170 Bluetooth headset for warranty service. The headset was then sent back to [...]

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Jeff Kent, along with a number of other Hall of Famers and retired MLB stars during the Hall of Fame Classic this weekend. Kent of course ended his career with the Dodgers, but played six seasons with the Giants.
I would imagine this pretty much confirms which hat he’s going to be depicted wearing at Cooperstown.
As [...]

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As I’m sure you’ve read, the never-ending saga to relocate the Portland Beavers out of PGE Park now has city officials unable to decide how exactly they want to spend tax dollars. Whether it’s Lents Park, the site currently occupied by the Memorial Coliseum, or who knows where else, the pols can’t make up their [...]

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It’s clear the folks out in Los Angeles do like to get down, so to speak, legitimate reasons or otherwise. So when hundreds of inebriated Laker fans decided to turn the area surrounding Staples Center into a warzone, it comes as no surprise, really.
I mean, we’ve already seen this sort of thing before, whether [...]

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On my way home Sunday, I decided to drop into a market that frequently has deeply discounted wax. This time, I found 2005 Fleer Patchworks packs going for a $1. If I recall correctly, they also had full hobby boxes available as well
When I made it home, I browsed through Beckett and saw that 05 [...]

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My new Mac Mini barely had any time to settle into its shipping box. I ordered it from the Apple Store Sunday evening, and by 9:oo AM Pacific, it was on a FedEx plane from Shenzen, China. By Tuesday afternoon it had made its way to Anchorage. Tuesday evening it was already in Oakland. As [...]

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Rather than giving each box its own post, I figured I’d condense by compiling everything into one post.
First up, Upper Deck. Most of us already know what the base cards look like. A pretty easy task considering many players had double issues in this set — among the Dodgers, Ramirez, Blake, Billingsley, Martin, Kemp, Loney, [...]

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I’ve been opening all sorts of UDS2 packs, and found these two cards:

Two versions of the #855 card, Ken Griffey Jr. A quick and dirty eBay search turns up quite a few more. I’m assuming these are going to be mega-super-duper short prints, a la “Jon” Smoltz.
All I want to know is which is the [...]

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5 cards per pack/18 packs per box
Base set completion: 75 of 84 (89%)

Inserts

Hits

Impressions
Can’t complain when a hobby box is 1. available at deep discount, and 2. produces nearly the entire base set.
I look so fondly on 2004-2006. It just seems that small, fun sets such as this one were bountiful. And now, just a few [...]

Continue reading about 2006 Upper Deck Ovation hobby box »

No, not the Beach Boy. The guy who Casey Blake hit a HR off Sunday. The guy who does that weird crossed-arms “X” thing after he closes out a game.
This guy:

So as it turns out, Mr. Wilson was pretty irritated about Casey Blake doing this, after hitting the HR off him.

Considering Blake doesn’t exactly have [...]

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Does a tree falling in a forest make a sound if there’s no one there to hear it?

Jose Canseco called a press conference in Beverly Hills yesterday soon after the Manny Ramirez story broke. The point was basically for him to say “I told you so,” which is fine, he did tell us so, and [...]

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On a day such as today, you can’t help but think of the old cliche, “you can’t win them all.”
And then the Dodgers go out and do just that, losing the Nationals in spite of holding a six-run lead at one point. This, without their dreadlocked leader, whose suspension began today.
I don’t think it’s fair [...]

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Another 2009 UD release, another lackluster design.

If the only difference between this year’s cards and last year’s is Derek Jeter’s and Ken Griffey Jr.’s disconnected visage, was it really necessary to bring this back again?

Someone thought it a good decision to drop Masterpieces, but do 09 Goudey instead, replete with the usual amount of stupid [...]

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24 packs per box/five cards per box
Base set completion: 60 of 73 (81%)
Base duplicates: 9
Insert/parallel sets:
1941 Reprints: 10 of 15 (67%)
Mini: 14 of 74 (19%)
Red Backs: 22 of 74 (30%)
Ted Williams Tribute: 1 of 15 (6%)
Summer of 1941: 1 of 15 (6%)
The Yankee Clipper 1941 Streak: 3 of 56 (5%)
“Hits”

Impressions
This was a nice surprise to [...]

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I mean, what is the logical, rational response to this latest monstrosity (courtesy of 2009 Upper Deck Artifacts):

An event as impactful as this, and the best UD can scrounge up is hastily thrown together Comic Sans MS typeface nonsense? There was no other illustration or photo available to UD that could’ve been used for this [...]

Continue reading about I can’t stand Donald Trump, but I have to fight the overwhelming urge to tell Upper Deck “YOU’RE FIRED!” »

The Good: Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Andre Ethier all had a great series against the Padres. Eric Stults getting another chance to start.
The Bad: Russell Martin, Manny Ramirez, Rafael Furcal, and Orlando Hudson didn’t. Hiroki Kuroda getting injured.
The Ugly: Good grief! I know young pitchers struggle with their control, but to see Chad Billingsley, [...]

Continue reading about TWIDB: This Week in Dodger Baseball »

Is there anything that Upper Deck produced this year that doesn’t elicit complaining? The flagship set was nice as usual — though not without its issues. As for everything else? Well, Spectrum, as its always been, was a dud. Now SPx comes crashing through the door, and it’s essentially Upper Deck X, part III. Really, [...]

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After breaking three hobby boxes of 09 Heritage, this is what I ended up with:
Base set: 337 of 425 (79%)
Short print set: 24 of 75 (32%)
Insert sets:
New Age Performers: 4 of 15 (27%)
News Flashbacks: 4 of 10 (40%)
Baseball Flashbacks: 6 of 10 (60%)
Then and Now: 5 of 10 (50%)
Base duplicates: 200
Non-base duplicates: 1
Duplicates (box 1): [...]

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Look, I know things aren’t all that rosy for you these days. I understand the economy’s in the tank, and people just don’t have the sort of discretionary income they used to.
And then there’s that whole “we lost our NBA license” thing on top of the “we lost our Yu-Gi-Oh license” thing.
I also understand you [...]

Continue reading about Good grief, Upper Deck »