I’m bored.

The 2012 baseball season has not even begun, but I am already bored with the current selection of baseball cards.  Well, that’s probably because as I write this the only one on the market is 2012 Topps Baseball.

Actually, I take that back.  2011 Panini Contenders baseball is also out, but the boxes are sitting sealed on my hobby shop’s shelf because they are refusing to “pack it out” and are selling them as whole boxes.  The price is more than $150 a box, which I can’t afford, so that’s not an option to me.

It’s a good thing this particular card shop is well-diversified in its wax.

There were hundreds of other options, but what really caught my eye was a fresh stack of 1982 Topps Rack Packs that were sitting in the show case with an $8 price tag.

Eight Bucks?!  For a rack pack?  The equivalent of three packs?

I’ll take one of those!

The packs were in the showcase and I was not going to be a jerk and ask the sales person to pull them all out so that I can choose what packs had the best cards showing.  But from the three rack packs that were showing on top of the stacks, my decision really came down to a pack with a Nolan Ryan/Astros team leader card, or one with Bruce Sutter and his masterful beard.

You know I chose the beard, baby!

Look at that Sutter card.  How could you possibly pass that up!

And then I turned the rack pack over and saw even more goodness.

Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and solid Major Leaguer Bob Horner are showing.  I knew this was going to be a good pack.

Clearly the chase in these packs of the Cal Ripken Jr. rookie.  In case you forgot what they look like, here is mine:

Sadly, there was no Hall of Fame rookie card in my pack. The sole Future Star card featured Jay Howell and Ty Waller.

BUT … I did uncover eight hall of fame players in my packs:

and …

Kind of amusing that I pulled this Nolan Ryan card because I almost chose the other pack that had this card showing.

Those were the highlights, but I wanted to juxtapose two sets of cards from this pack for different reasons.

Here is a battle of the beards:  Bruce Sutter vs. Bob Owchinko

And an interesting statistical comparison between pitching veterans Gaylord Perry and Jim Kaat.  (Click the image to get a larger view)

Some interesting notes through 1981:

– Jim Kaat led Gaylord Perry in seasons pitched by three.

-Gaylord Perry edged Jim Kaat in games started 628 to 623

– Gaylord Perry led Jim Kaat in wins 297 to 278

-Gaylord Perry led Jim Kaat in strikeouts 3,336 to 2,407

-Gaylord Perry led Jim Kaat in 20-win season: 4 to 3

-Gaylord Perry led Jim Kaat in ERA 2.99 TO 3.44

-Gaylord Perry led Jim Kaat in shutouts 52 to 31

-Gaylord Perry led Jim Kaat in Complete Games 294 to 180

-Gaylord Perry had six seasons in which he had more than 20 complete games

-Jim Kaat led Gaylord Perry in saves 15 to 11

This entry was posted on March 13, 2012 at 8:41 am and is filed under Box / Pack Break with tags baseball, baseball cards, Bruce Sutter, epic beards, Hall of fame, Topps, vintage baseball cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.