Bad Wax Review – 2005 Fleer America’s National Pastime

This pack has some wonderful packaging! seriously, it’s got that old time guy with the bat, even the set name invokes a vintage style feel to it. So it goes without saying that I am looking forward to this pack simply because of the possible vintage look to the cards. I picked up this pack a while ago, when I went to Walmart and bought 6 blaster boxes of Topps 2007 series 2 cards. This pack was in the storage box I purchased which also contained the 1994 Flair pack. That Flair pack was pretty good too, it yielded a Delgado rookie insert which was nice. Hopefully I’ll get a nice insert in this one too. Here is what the pack looks like:

At $2.99 for 5 cards, this better be something spectacular. I know it won’t be but at least they should look entertaining right? I have no idea what the target cards are for this set since it isn’t listed in Beckett. Not that it matters, I haven’t met a vintage card I didn’t like. So let’s tear into it!

1. Gary Sheffield – OF – Yankees – 40 – Wow could I be more off on this set? No way! They do not look like vintage cards at all, they look like every other Upper Deck set. What an injustice. Anyways back to the Sheff. I was excited when he became a Yankee and I was excited again when they dumped his butt. What a prima donna! He couldn’t wait to get out of Atlanta onto a contender, then bitched his two seasons in NY about getting a new contract. Now he’s the Tigers problem, isn’t that where all good players go to die?

2. Mike Piazza – C – Mets – 48 – Boy can’t think of a card I want less, oh wait yes I can it’s the Piazza A’s card. What’s sad is that he wanted to be remembered as the greatest hitting catcher of all time. The bad part is, that he should have retired two years ago and he would have been. By extending out his career he is diminishing his image and in the end, lessening his chances of getting in the Hall of Fame. I might get some disagreements here, but I think he is Hall worthy and should get in. He has over 400 homers, and a career batting average of 0.308 (as a catcher).

3. Johan Santana – P – Twins – 6 – What can I say, he’s the best pitcher in baseball hands down. He may go on to become one of the best of all time. Here is the thing though, he is 29 years old and has logged a lot of innings on that arm of his. Everyone says the Mets got a steal, I’m going to disagree. My feeling is that in as little as 3 years you’ll start to see a decline in his stats. will he be an ace for those 3 years, sure! Will he win a Cy Young award, probably at least one. Once those 3 years are up and he’s 32, those innings will take a toll and you’ll start to see a sharp decline. In the meantime the Twins got some nice prospects that might even be around in 3 years.

4. Adrian Beltre – 3B – Seattle – 50 -Why is everyone so surprised about his numbers in Seattle? Other than his contract year he always hit the same thing, actually his average numbers are better in Seattle than LA. He had one fantastic year and if I had to guess he was on the juice for some of it. Got the big contract cycled off and fleeced Seattle for millions. Sound about right?

5. Khalil Greene – SS – Padres – Look at that picture, are you telling me there wasn’t a better shot of him, anywhere else? How could they ok that picture? Anyways, Greene has the power, generates the RBIs, but I don’t think he will ever be more than a 0.260 hitter (and that’s generous). In the end it will cost him his job, but until then hack away my friend!

Overall with this pack I was very disappointed. First off, don’t have an old time looking wrapper if you are just going to pump out the same card design we have been seeing for years. A pack like this should have been vintage looking and it was a huge let down that it wasn’t. There was no thought that went into the card, no imagination in the design and overall very disappointing pack, both from a card and design aspect. Now that I have ranted enough, let’s rate it!

Cost of Pack – $2.99 – 0.5 star – Yawn, we’ve seen this price time and time again. We get nothing for our money except a card that design wise looks like every other set. Thumbs down big time on this one.

Cards in Pack – 5 – 2.0 stars – I’m pissed that I have to give it the two stars. But truth be told, they could have really put the screws to us and only put in 3 cards.

Stars in Pack – 3 – 3.0 stars – 3/5 not bad in the star department with Sheffield, Santana, and Piazza. All three could be HOF members some day (although I doubt all 3 make it).

Value of Pack – $1? – 0.5 stars – It just isn’t worth a whole lot. I could lie and tell you it’s worth 5 bucks just to make me feel better, but basically, they are worthless.

Card Design - 0.5 star – Once again, Upper Deck / Fleer get a bad grade with laying the foil down and creating a card that has been done time and time again. Come up with something innovative like Goudey, just stop feeding us the same garbage, year in and year out.

Overall I gave it a 1.3 star rating. Higher than what I expected but not by much. I guess I was very critical on this pack, but why oh why much Upper Deck put out the same design every year? I mean if I placed this card in front of you and asked you to tell me which year it was from you’d have no clue. Meanwhile if I dropped a 1986 Topps card on you you’d know it immediately. Topps and Upper Deck need to get back to that product recognition. Topps is almost there, Upper Deck has a long way to go.