I guess I’ve never picked up on this, but there are two colors to these “World’s Greatest Pack Chase” blasters. I can’t remember where I got each of these from, but I think it was different stores. My guess is that one came from Walmart and one came from Target. I’m going to guess the brown was from Target. I’m sure I got these because, like other trips, I didn’t find the cards I went looking for, but I did find these.
So this time for Pack v. Pack I’m going to pit these two different colored blasters against each other and see who comes out on top. I figured going in that we’d have more chances to see Hall of Famers because of the age of the packs I expected to find. I also didn’t expect much in the way of parallels and inserts for the same reason.
I like to collect unopened packs though so I am not opening everything. I am actually opening one less pack in blaster two. I’ll list what packs I got in each and highlight what I opened.
Check out the initial Pack vs. Pack scoring for more info.
Pack No. 1
The packs I found in this one are below and I’ve put asterisks around the packs I actually opened:
- 1988 Score
- *1988 Topps*
- 1990 Bowman
- *1990 Fleer*
- 1990 Score
- 1990 Topps
- 1991 Donruss Series I
- 1991 Stadium Club
- 1991 Score
- *1991 Upper Deck*
- 1992 Ultra
- *1992 Upper Deck*
- *1994 TSN*
- *2016 Donruss*
The Hall of Famers
As I wrote earlier, when you are dealing with older packs your chances of Hall of Famers increases by a lot. In the first packs I found Paul Molitor, Frank Thomas, Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, Robin Yount, Andre Dawson and Ken Griffey Jr.. I picked out these to take a look at because of the uniforms. I look at older cards a lot, but even still I had forgotten about these.
First the old Brewers faded blue had apparently faded from my memory. The elastic is definitely classic 80’s. I was actually in Pittsburgh recently on a Sunday and they had some uniforms in that kind of style. These days it just looks awkward to me. As for the Thomas card, I actually really like those White Sox uniforms compared to their uniforms these days. I guess the black and white of these days is maybe more traditional possibly (I’m not up-to-speed on my White Sox uniform history), but I really dig these.
The All-Stars
As for all stars, I found Ken Caminiti, Fred McGriff, Keith Hernandez, Orel Hershiser, Eric Davis, a Mattingly/McGwire card (counting as one), Frank Viola, Tom Gordon, George Bell, and Cecil Fielder.
I really love that Fred McGriff card. It’s a great example of the pictures that you could find in Upper Deck. When do you get a picture of a throw to first? But what makes it is that its a more macro picture and you get the opposing player and a little umpire in there. And then he’s just getting the ball, but not yet. It’s just the right timing to make it interesting.
I was checking out Hershiser’s Baseball Reference page and man this guy did a lot: Cy Young, World Series, All-Star, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, Postseason MVPs… and that really is just the awards.
The Stars
In the same way that Hershiser had a lot on his page, Zeile didn’t. But he sure as hell has a lot of numbers on his page. He was definitely a name in the game and I feel like he was a rookie I followed even though he wasn’t on the team I followed (until later on – but what team wasn’t he on).
Sierra made a bunch of All-Star games, but I don’t know why I don’t think of him that way. Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t as much a Ranger fan. He played for a ton of teams too and had some great years. The other “stars” in this first pack were Dwight Evans, and Juan Samuel. I don’t know why I didn’t consider those guys on my All-Star level. Maybe just because of when they were All-Stars and I saw more of the ends of their careers. That’ll be something to consider with the score.
The Mets
As for my Mets, you are looking at the totality of what I found. The Elster is a nice card as is the Viola. But I don’t think any of these are really my favorite cards for these players. I should definitely consider sending the Elster out for a TTM. I don’t think I have that one signed by him.
Parallels, Inserts, Etc.
I didn’t even know parallels existed for the TSN set. In a way this one is a modern take on this set with the nickname idea. The Donruss cards are fine, but they just aren’t my favorite versions of throwbacks or Diamond Kings.
I really like the Griffey card though and it doesn’t hurt that it’s numbered to 99. It’s a sharp looking card with all that red on there.
Pack No. 2
Same deal…, the packs I found in this one are below and I’ve put asterisks around the packs I actually opened:
- 1986 Topps Mini Leaders Super Glossy
- 1987 Sportflics
- 1988 Donruss
- *1988 Topps*
- *1990 Score*
- 1991 Fleer
- 1991 O-Pee-Chee Premier
- 1991 Stadium Club
- *1991 Topps*
- *1991 Upper Deck*
- *1992 Babe Ruth Collection* (I didn’t count each of these as a Hall of Famer)
- *1992 Upper Deck*
- 1993 Upper Deck Series I
- *2016 Donruss*
The Hall of Famers
These were almost all the Hall of Famers I got out of this pack whereas the first pack was pretty full of them (Tony La Russa was also part of this box). My favorite of the bunch is the Henderson card. I like the look of him in an Athletics uniform and I like how simple the card is. A nice turnt up collar doesn’t hurt.
Looking at that Boggs card, the way they captured him it reminds me a lot of Daniel Murphy and a pose we might see him in on a card. I don’t want to say they have the same swing by any means, but they really look similar. With the beard and a little bit of hair sticking out the back, plus the look on his face…. It’s a little scary.
The All-Stars
So I have to admit something I did when I first opened these. In one pack I considered George Bell (2) a Star and in another an All-Star. So I had to go back and even that up. The other guys that I considered All-Stars in this box were Dwight Gooden, Ron Guidry, Doug Drabek, Lance Parrish, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Nolan Arenado.
There’s some Cy Young award winners and multiple World Series champions in that lot. You have to think that some of those more recent players will get into the Hall one day though.
The Stars
As for stars I got the following: Chris Archer, Chuck Finley (2), Howard Johnson, Darren Daulton, Ken Griffey Sr., Bernard Gilkey, Mark Langston, Jack Clark, Steve Avery, Ron Darling. It always hurts me a little bit when I see Darling as an Athletic. I just like seeing him in a Mets uniform of course.
I think some of these other guys I picked more for name recognition than for anything else.
The Mets
The only additional card I got to these was a repeat of the Elster card from the first pack. The HoJo and Dwight cards are my favorites of this lot. The Gooden card is interesting to me because I don’t know if I ever really noticed it saying “Right Hand Pitcher” on the card. I’m guessing they included one rightie and one leftie as All-Stars in the set.
Normally I don’t like sets that have their own color scheme that doesn’t go with the team’s color scheme. 1990 Score is an exception to that rule. It could be that it was part of the prime of my collecting possibly. It could also be that I don’t have a whole lot of it. But I have always like that set. I’ve always been a HoJo fan as well.
Parallels, Inserts, Etc.
This box was a bit disappointing with parallels and inserts. I do like the nod to ’88 Donruss on the Refsnyder card though.
The Final Scores
What ends up being odd is that I opened one more pack in blaster two and yet it still was 11 points behind in the end.
Pack 1 – Points: 74 Pts
- Favorite Team – 3 – 3 Pts
- Stars – 5 – 5 Pts
- All-Stars – 10 – 20 Pts
- Hall of Famer – 7 – 35 Pts
- Rookie – 2 – 2 Pts
- Parallel – 3 – 3 Pts
- Insert – 1 – 1 Pt
- Numbered 51-150 – 1 – 5 Pts
Pack 2 – Points: 63 Pts
- Favorite Team – 7 – 7 Pt
- Stars – 11 – 11 Pts
- All-Stars – 9 – 18 Pts
- Hall of Famer – 4 – 20 Pts
- Rookie – 5 – 5 Pts
- Parallel – 1 – 1 Pt
- Insert – 1 – 1 Pt
Somewhat close, but I actually thought it might be closer. I wonder how it would have turned out if I opened more packs. Pack 1 definitely relied on the HOFers a whole lot. That and the numbered Griffey card probably got it out in front a bit.
Check out the Pack vs. Pack Scoring System.