Bowman, home of the rookie card. I think this is a nice follow up to my last post about rookies. I remember this set coming out because there was so much hype around the pack’s claim. Topps guarenteed that the 1998 Bowman set would be worth a minimum of $125. That is a hell of a claim. When I first saw this pack, I figured they set it so there were lots of short print cards thus jacking up the price artificially. Well looks like their claim fell a little short since I can get this on eBay for $10. Some other funny things on this pack include Garciaparra, Rolen and Grieve autographs and an international card in every pack. I tried to find a picture of the pack but couldn’t, I might have a scanner by next month so just have to bear it until then. If you have a picture of it email it to me at superbadwax@yahoo.com.
With 10 cards and you know a good chunk are rookies, I am expecting some fairly good cards in this pack, either that or I will be validated as to my rant about rookie cards. The big cards to look for in this set would be the Rollins and Ordonez rookie cards looking to run about 5 dollars each. So let’s rip shall we?
1. Jimmy Rollins – SS – Phillies – 181 – Wow, top card, what about that? Here is one of those examples though, Jimmy is a budding superstar in this league. He may not be as potent as Henderson was in his prime, but who wouldn’t want his numbers on thier team? Statistically even better than Jeter in some respects. Last year’s MVP is no fluke and in all honesty he could become a 40/40 guy. I think he’d be happy being a 30/30 guy though. Why is his card only worth 5 dollars?
2. Mark Kotsay – OF -Marlins – 218 – A 300 hitter with 20 home runs in AA on this card, should we send him to the HOF? Well we know what happens to Kotsay he turns into a 15 HR / 10 SB / 0.290 hitter. So your average 3rd OF on any team. Since this is his rookie card I wonder how much was worth in 1998?
3. Nathan Haynes – OF – A’s – 177 – Old Nate finally cracked the bigs in 2007 with the Dodgers. He looks like a typical AAAA type player, very good in the AAA, crap in the majors. In a side note he had more stolen bases than hits as a high school senior 18 vs. 17, that has to be a misprint 17 hits in his senior season and this guy was a 1st round pick? Shortest season ever?
4. AJ Hinch – C – A’s – 216 – Classic case of not living up to the hype. He’s actually retired now, retired in 2004, he just was never the hitter they thought he was going to be. His did you know was that he was drafted 3 times all three times in the 3rd round or higher.
5. Jason Brester – P – Giants – 173 – Retired in 2000, never getting out of AA. I don’t know much about him other than his picture looks like he is trying to teach the cameraman how to throw a curveball. Looked like he was a power pitcher who got injured and never regained his fastball.
6. Ryan Minor – 3B – Orioles – 107 – Trivia alert, he played for Ripken, the day the streak ended. He was being groomed for 3B, just struck out too much and never really panned out. On a nice note he was voted most desirable male by an Oklahom City radio station. So he has that going for him. Which is good since he’s out of baseball now.
7. Checklist 2 of 2 – I hate checklists!!! Why should that count against my 10?
8. Dan Serafini – P – Twins – 163 – Former first round pick, still floating around the majors as a spot starter, but not really a semi-star even. The good news is he attends Stanford University during the off-season, so at least he has something to fall back on.
9. Scott Rolen – 3B – Phillies – 2 – I hope at some point he ends up on the Red Sox so I can really pour my hatred into him. For now I can just put him right below Schilling as my public enemy number 2. My hatred of him came when he spured me for an autograph, because he said I was too old. I was 25, apparently Scott thinks autograph seekers should be no older than 7.
10. Heath Murray – P – Padres – 102 – Retired in 2002 after spending 4 years in the bigs mainly as a spot starter middle reliever. There was some hope though back in 1998, he beat Greg Maddux in his first start. He can always tell his grandkids about that I guess.
11. Vinny Castilla – 3B – Rockies – 62 – How can you not like Vinny, I can’t think of a nicer guy in baseball, plus the guy mashed the ball and revived his career in Colorado. I think any current young third baseman should try to become like VInny. Just a fun guy to watch.
How cool is Bowman not to count the checklist against me. Kudos for that one! I have to say I have always liked how the Bowman card looked back then. They came a long way since there crappy 1989 issue. I’d like to think I would have tried to collect the set back then, but it would have been a lie. I do wonder what the card prices were on this set in 1998, so if anyone saves Becketts from back then let me know. Here are my ratings:
Cost of pack – $2.50 – 2.0 stars – Price was jacked up because of the $125 claim and the fact there were tons of rookies in the set.
Cards in pack – 10 – 4.5 stars – This was pretty repectable for the year we are talking about. The fact they didn’t include the checklist as one of the 10 made me add a full star to my rating.
Stars in Pack – 3 – 1.5 stars – Rolen, Rollins, and Castilla, the Rollins card really was outstanding to get, I have to admit I’m a little psyched about that one!
Value of pack – around 6 dollars – 3.5 stars – Would have been cooler to get Ordonez and Rollins in the same pack but I’ll take it.
Desing of Card – 4.0 stars – Like I said, I like this design. The autograph is off to the side so it’s very clear. The pictures are profiles instead of action shots. I miss those, in this day and age, I can get an action shot anytime I want to on ESPN. I want to see what the player looks like. Here is a picture of the Rollins card:
Overall we’re looking at 3.1 stars, one of the better packs I have opened so far. I have a couple more of these packs, so we can see if I can get the Ordonez. That would be very cool. Also some of these cards I’m going to be giving away so stay tuned.
