2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 5 - Another Two-Pack

 Back to the ol' repack pile, and the continued football/baseball alternating, albeit this time, in the same post.

Here's the opener -  a very diagonal Donruss entry.

The first hidden card is a pretty cool one. I think this is the only release that featured Edgerrin James both listed with, and also pictured with Seattle. He'd play 7 games with them. Aside from that, the Drewery is a pretty cool photo showing how every inch matters when you're advancing the ball.

Steve Broussard rocking the Zubaz! 

And here's the hit. I have zero memory of this player, but at least it he was good enough to get an autographed card at one point in Bowman Sterling. That's closer than I'd ever get. It also ties the Colts and Seahawks with 3 cards each in this repack.

Nothing too interesting in the final grouping. I'm getting really bored with all the Quarterback Challenge in all these. They seem like the only constant - seems like the 1990 Bowmans in their older hockey repacks.

A defensive player for the finale is somewhat different when considering modern cards.

I did get shorted a card in all this, but a couple interesting ones with the fashionable Broussard and the Seahawk-shown James help to make up for it.

How does the baseball one compare? The opening card is a little higher end than the opener in the football one. Bowman's Best > Donruss.

Definitely not the most interesting opening cards.

And these aren't much more interesting.

But the hit, coming out of 2019 Topps Tek definitely picks things up. An acetate auto of somebody I'd actually heard of is an improvement over the football one. Mind you, I'm 99 percent sure I only know of Tucker through cards. 

This time, the bunch of cards is a lot more interesting. The angle on Horton's photo isn't a very common one for pitcher photos. That's nicely followed up with a HOFer, and then there's some of the Wrigley Ivy right behind it. On the bottom, 1981 makes an appearance, and it is of the only player drafted first overall twice. 

Oh well. The finale isn't the most interesting, but at least Pena did reach the big leagues (albeit with the Brewers).

From a repack carried by the base cards to one carried by the hit, it was a typical repack experience. And that's all I ask for.

There you have it!

Harry Colon has Competition

 For the most unfortunate name in the 2/14 collection.

I can't think of a way to pronounce his last name that doesn't make it seem like some sort of horrific assault on a woman. Soft 'i' ? That's bad. Long 'i'? At least she isn't mangled. Like former NHLer German Titov? That still seems really painful. 

Having a first name now associated with an Italian stereotype doesn't help.

At least his dogs are cute.

I added a few more first-timers into my collection with this ebay seller as well. The Reneau wasn't promised as auto'ed, but I'll take that as a bonus. 

There you have it!

"That's Italian for Adrienne Barbeau"

 AKA Urbano Barberini - my newest MST3Ked movie autograph!

He was Cabot from episode #519 Outlaw. It's the movie where they spend the closing segment brainstorming direct to USA Network original movie titles.

Sadly, no autographed cards seem to exist of Russel Savadier, who played Watney, the "comic-relief" sidekick in the movie.

Football, Oddball Canadian Rules

 January. 2 months after the Grey Cup. 4 months away from training camps opening. Perfect time for a CFL post to show off the 3-down game cards that have been accumulating in my to-be-posted box.

First up, the player that inspired the title of this post. Jeshrun Antwi has become the CFL king when it comes to onside punting the past few years.

Which is this play that he will bring out on occasion. Want to reset the downs to 1st and 10 in a long yardage situation? Don't want to throw a desperation pass? Here's how! I imagine all sorts of hell breaking loose if such an option became legal in the NFL, but in the CFL, it is just another play.

See! Antwi is the master of it!

Here's an interesting view of a pick 6 from one of Antwi's teammates on the 2023 Grey Cup winning team. This was also his cardboard debut, although he'd get base cards in the 2024 UD flagship release.

Cards like this is why I kinda miss the 200 card sets of the past. Deep checklists mean long snappers get cards. And parallels.

Technically, this isn't a CFL card. But since Stavros, who managed to get one of the more hilarious Pick 6 plays out there (the announcer's call makes it better), didn't have a CFL card until UD's most recent release, this had to do.

I've really feel I've included more video in this post than every other one I've done combined.

 

The reduction of the the base set last year to 100 cards (80 players) means some players didn't even get card. They had to rely on eventual Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player getting cards in their weekly Game-Dated Moments release. 

GDM also would be only the choice for a card for North Dakota State alum super collectors looking for a Destin Talbert card for their collection.

Dane Evans' time in Hamilton may not have been among the best, but at least I got this pretty great patch out of the deal.

In contrast, Danny McManus' time in Hamilton was much better. He is still the QB that lead them to their most recent Grey Cup victory in 1999. For an 8/9 team league since then, that's a nice, albeit really depressing memory. 

There you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 4.2 - Repacks in Trade

 Here's the baseball version:

It contained these packs:

There's also the listed loose cards that I'll end this post with.

First out is a card of a player far more famous for his escapades in a Dollar Tree parking lot than his on-field efforts. At least what Castellanos is famous for is more of a baseball thing. Who doesn't want to be know for a drive into deep left field?

Jays content! WOO-HOO! Other than that, there's a celebratory McHugh. 

And there's some City Connect jerseys. And another happy player.

The photos may have been interesting, but the player content really wasn't in the flagship packs. Better luck with Big League?

With a Met, a future Met and a star player, I guess that's better luck.

Some players breaking through the border, and a shiny SP.  Yup, Big League > Flagship. At least here.

Yes, that's a pretty nice choice for me for the promised purple parallel. Not just one of the better rookies in 2023, but a Mets one as well. It is even in pretty good shape for something found loose in a repack.

And here are the promised 9 other cards. Only one MLB-licensed issue in here, and that's perfectly fine when it provided the best photo in the repack. There's even a completely random NPB appearance. Again - that's perfectly fine. Long live oddness. Among the Panini stuff, there's even a couple parallels. The Albies is obvious, but the less obvious is the holo Trout insert.

A rare repack where the best stuff was just the random inserts.

There you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 4.1 - Repacks in Trade

 My most recent mailer from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders included a couple repacks.

Since football, at least the gridiron variety, is a little rarer on this side of the border, I'll start with it instead of the baseball.

Here's the football. Considering I haven't busted any SAGE packs in quite the while, I'm somewhat excited about opening those.

It's exactly what I expected. Although it really does lack the charm of Brett Smith's sartorial splendor. 

It also provides me with one of the more obscure alma maters I've ever seen on the back of a football card - The University of the Incarnate Word, as represented by Lindsey Scott Jr. It still will never surpass seeing the Colorado University of Mines on Isaac Harker's CFL cards.

Does that Keon Coleman count as a Bills card? Of course it does!

Prestige from its 'diagonal lines" phase of design. I don't know if their more recent 'faded silver background' is an improvement, but I did like seeing something different.

These particular Score packs include one orange parallel per pack. I got the cover boy!

Finally, the 5 random cards. They really loved the East with these 5. As I type this up, it looks like one of these players has booked their ticket for New Orleans in two-weeks.

But this is why I love repacks - my favourite card in the whole bunch is the one of a guy I'd never heard of from a University I'd never heard of.

There you have it!

That's Terrific Bass!

 

I'm probably cursing the Bills to lose later today, likely by 2 points after yet another 'wide right'. 

Still, I wanted to show this off. I figured Tyler Bass' 61-yard game-winner would get a nod from Panini Instant, and went looking for it on the site, before being repulsed by a shipping cost more than twice the card's cost. 

Fortunately, an ebay re-seller was doing PWEs to Canada, and I had a source for it.

Only 117 of these out there, too!

I just wish I noticed Tyrell Shavers got a card later on in the season as well. But that's what wantlists are for.

There you have it!

Everything Else(*) from Sportlots

*Everything Else in the sense that I don't want to bore you with 2024 Score base set completers.

Opening this, an oddball position. I've seen a few PH cards out there - Jose Tolentino, Wallace Johnson, probably others, but this is the first I've seen it paired with a DH listing as well. Given his baseball reference page lists a grand total of one defensive appearance in MLB, on third base, that seems like a very appropriate designation.

Given the ghastly photoshop job done on his entry in Topps Update, at least Joey Votto's comeback attempt with the Jays was  better done by his cards from Chrome Update and Stadium Club. The re-used photo is forgiven, because I saw the alternative.

Things get acrobatic the rest of the way through the baseball portion. Given how the Mets were during their early years, there's even odds as to whether Marv is attempting to grab a line drive, or merely trying to keep a throw to first base from heading into the dugout. If I had to pick it would be the latter.

This is probably the only place outside of a pro-wrestling card which features a folding chair as such a prominent part of the photo.

WHEEEEEEE!

This is one of those cards that, when leafing through my misc baseball binders, I'm somewhat surprised that I didn't already have this card in my collection. 

The recent post-strike PWE frenzy from Kerry added the first Kelly Olynyk cards to the Raptors collection. Here's yet another entry out of Haunted Hoops - the slime variation. 

A quartet of Jamal Murrays for his PC, but these ended up as only 3 since the Monopoly one was a dupe.

Baseball isn't the only sport to see 'cool catch' photos. Marty himself seems surprised that he managed to snag the ball.

Given that it was only used for a bit, there aren't too many cards out there that feature the Jeff Alm memorial helmet sticker. This is one of them. 

When you think of Houston, you think of sandy beaches and surfing. It's even worse than that, since Kent was drafted after the team moved to Tennessee. 1997 was the year that Upper Deck had their rookie photo shoot session at some coastal theme park. That resulted in some really strange entries. The shame didn't discriminate. Whether you went on the hall of fame, became a punch line or ended up in prison, nothing good came of it.

There you have it!