Just Call Me "Josh Sr."

Right before the Super Bowl, Colbey at Cardboard Collections ran a Football Group Break.  That's something we don't see around here too often, so I had to jump in.  There's just one problem, I don't have one team that I root for, that is "MY team" like I have in baseball.  This is the result of growing up in a state with no NFL team and a father who was into college football way more than pro ball. 

Anyway, so I had to pick teams.  I decided I would try to get a Tebow (and grabbed the Broncos) or a Peyton Manning (and grabbed the Colts). 

No Tebow, but got 3 Peytons!  Here were my two favorites.

Peyton Manning

Here were my top picks among the other cards.  Got an Andrew Luck Score rookie, and a very sharp-looking Eric Decker.

It was a buy-one-get-one random team setup.  My random teams were the Falcons and Lions (not too shabby).  I got lucky and picked up a Lions hit.  Mr. Titus Young.

Or should I say "Titus Young Sr."  Why would I say that?  The guy is only 23.  "Sr." gets affixed to your name when you are in your 40's at the earliest, right?

Nope, Titus cared enough about naming his son Titus that he had the "Sr." put on his jersey last season. 

It's spreading!  Mikel Leshoure was doing it, too.  Oh, Detroit.

I doubt we'll be seeing much more of Titus Young now that his name is mostly seen in headlines like:
TITUS YOUNG SUCKER PUNCHES TEAMMATE and TITUS YOUNG RUNS WRONG ROUTES ON PURPOSE.  He doesn't get the privilege and opportunity that he could have had.  The Lions cut him after the season, he was picked up by the Rams, and then cut by them after nine days.  Have fun in the Arena League, Titus.  It's too bad....that's an awfully pretty card and blue swatch.

With that, my first football group break post is done.  Thanks to Colbey Hopper Sr. for making it happen!

Nobody NEEDS an Angel Berroa card

2004 Upper Deck - Angel Berroa

As I was opening up my package from Spankee's most-recent Moneyball Group Break, (he's a NEW DAD, btw) I was showing the cards to my wife.  At first I excitedly said "Here's an Angel Berroa card that I still need!"  Then I came to my senses and realized that, as my post-title implies, nobody needs an Angel Berroa card.  I complained a lot about him during his time in KC, so my wife would prefer not to have anything in the house by which to remember him.

2009 SP Authentic - #23 - Zack Greinke

SP Authentic was one of my favorite recent sets.  Clean design, white base stock, very nice.  This Greinke is a great example of it.

Here were a few more prospect beauties.  Although Salvy is up in the bigs now and doesn't look like he's going back to the minors anytime soon.

1983 Topps - Paul Splittorf

I don't know why this was in the group break.  Maybe it came from one of those "oddball" repacks or something...I doubt Spankee was opening a 1983 wax pack.  Anyway, I still love it.

2002 Donruss Super Estrellas #39 - Carlos Beltran

Jardinero!  Jardinerrrroooooooo...........!!!!!

What's this junk?  An expired code to go to the 2008 All-Star Game?  I think that game has already occurred.  After all that good stuff at the top, Spankee, I think your break is really going to the dogs.

2012 Allen and Ginter - Man's Best Friend - #2 - Dalmatian

Yeah.  It's DEFINITELY going to the dogs.  No way this break can be redeemed now.  :-)

2007 Topps Chrome Autograph - Angel Sanchez

Consider yourself redeemed!  This was a throw-in from our gracious host. I didn't know this one existed, so it was super-fun to see this come out of the envelope.

Indeed I do, Sad Harry Potter clone!  Indeed I do.  Thanks, Spankee.

Spankee, Sweeney. Sweeney, Spankee.

I had left the box from Spankee's group break unopened for some time.  Not because I didn't want to open it, but I had other stuff going on.  Besides, it was a group break - you already know what's in there, right?

Wrong.

There was no Royals hit in the break, but unbeknownst to me Spankee tossed this gem into my pile.

2007 Upper Deck Game Materials #MS - Mike Sweeney Jersey Relic

Dude....I LOVE Sweeney!  Thank you so much - that was incredibly generous.

Shiny Parallels and their Non-Shiny Brethren

I never expected to use the word "Brethren" in this blog, but look in the title -- there it is!

I have to show off some brethren cards that I got in Colbey's most recent group break (check out Cardboard Collections for good cheap group breaks on a regular basis).  KC was the big winner on parallels in this break (several Pinnacle products).  The checklists for each team were not super-deep, so I was able to get the base cards for them, too.

These are all 1995 Pinnacle Summit.  The base cards are on top, while the "N-th Degree" parallels are below.  They are pretty shiny, as the scan indicates. 

1995 Pinnacle Summit #120 Joe Vitiello, #121 Jon Nunnally, and #139 Joe Randa

These guys were from the 1996 Pinnacle Aficionado box that Colbey opened, too.  These cards are really neat in that the faces on the right are a dot-picture (like you would see in the Wall-Street Journal), but the texture of them is such that the dots are raised above the level of the card stock so you can feel it as you run your fingers across it.

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado #65 Kevin Appier and #128 Johnny Damon

The final product that I wanted to show off featured a young (that is, short-haired) Johnny Damon and a young (that is, still thin) Sal Fasano.

1996 Summit #124 Johnny Damon and #169 Sal Fasano

I love discovering these less-prominent sets that I completely missed during my hiatus from card collecting.  Thanks for bringing them out into the open, Colbey.

Spankee's Group Break

One of my favorite bloggers is Spankee over at My Cardboard Mistress.  He is running a group break with a CRAZY amount of recent packs.  See the stack:

You can bid on all the teams through the end of this week.  Here's the link:
http://mycardboardmistress.blogspot.com/p/group-break.html