My Top 50 Ottawa Senators cards - 50 through 41

I've been planning this since at least the late summer. Maybe now it is finally time to get down to doing this. The only qualifications to make this list are:

1) The card is currently in my possession.
2) The featured player(s) on the card are in an Ottawa uniform or listed as an Ottawa Senator
3) Cut-off set is this year's Upper Deck flagship release

That's it. As can be expected with some of my other personal collections, Daniel Alfredsson and mask card will be all over this list.

And away we go.

50. 1992-93 Score Canadian #512 - Ottawa Senators

The Sens made a couple early appearances on cardboard that predated their on-ice re-debut. O-Pee-Chee featured a mock-up of the Senators jersey in their 1991 release. There were some "now with" cards in 1992, as well as posed shots of the expansion drafted players. Nice, but I'm only going to have too manye staged shots in my top 50. This one is a simple logo, but on the back:

A list of their expansion draft picks. It's a rogue's gallery, for sure. John Van Kessel? Kent Paynter? Ouch. There's a reason they won one road game that season.

49. 2011-12 Pinnacle #347 -  Mark Borowiecki

I love shiny cards. There are going to be a few of them in this portion of my top 50. This one is a lot more legible in person that in this scan. In fact, the name is even legible from any angle in hand. He's still in the system, always a bonus. In fact, this one might have been higher if it scanned better.

48. 1998-99 OPC Chrome #B15 - Board Members Wade Redden

It's another shiny card, this one from a subset that saluted some of the better defensemen in the league at the time. The background of someone being rocked along the boards is spectacular. If only Ottawa had elected to shell out the big bucks to keep Zdeno Chara as opposed to Wade.

47. 2007-08 Upper Deck #141 - Dany Heatley

This is among my favourite photographs in my Senators collection. There's probably about 15 or so that will be in this list solely for the picture chosen. This one should be higher, but considering the circumstances that lead to Dany's trade from here, it's going to be lower than it should be.

46. 2010-11 Score Rookies & Traded #631 - Robin Lehner

The first one to make it into my top 50 based solely on the mask. You can see the one-time alternate Sens jersey patch on the side of the mask. The back also gives the factoid that Robin was the youngest ever starting netminder for the Senators.

45. 2012-13 Rookie Anthology Prizm #89 - Mark Stone

I promise. This is the last one in my top 50 solely for shininess reasons.

44. 2007-08 Upper Deck Ovation #207 - Jason Spezza

This is one of my odder choices for the list, but it is the uniqueness of it that made me add it. It is here because it is the only one where the player isn't pictured wearing an Ottawa Senators jersey. He's wearing an all-star jersey here, but the Senators logo still makes an appearance on the shoulder patch. All-Star jerseys have been making appearances in base cards for UD's Artifacts set over the past few years. Still retaining the Senators colours for the background is another bonus.

43. 2010-11 Upper Deck #67 - Brian Elliott

A classic photo of a save, combined with of Brian's many Casey Jones appearances. What's not to like?

42. 2002-03 Stadium Club #82 - Daniel Alfredsson

It took all the way to #42 for Alfie to make an appearance? There's lots more of Daniel to come as I work my way up to the top. This one's here for the choice of the photo, which features a look at the huge ice surface behind him as he's almost up along the end boards for this shot, but is still focusing on the puck despite the cramped quarters, and an Islander zoning in on him. Full bleed on the bottom 90 percent of the card couldn't have worked out better. This card is also thick, and is part of a decoy card subset. Hey, it's a better idea than just a plain cardboard dummy.

41. 2010-11 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Parallel #63 - Daniel Alfredsson

And to wrap up the lower 20 percent of the to 50, here's a retro-ish card. I really like that "what if" ness of this. Since the Senators weren't around for the original release of this set, this gives me the chance to see what a base card would look like. This might actually have been higher, if not for the paper thin card stock used on the card.

10 down. 40 to go. It was pretty easy working out which card would be in my top 50. TRying to place them in order is a lot tougher.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 6

I'm a sucker for the classics. 15 hockey cards for $1 at Ye Olde Dollarama.

2009 Between The Pipes - Tyson Sexsmith - The name doesn't quite rip apart the Filth-O-Meter like Grant Clitsome, but it still makes my inner 13-year old chuckle. He must have spent some time on the San Jose bench, as he did earn a card in last season's releases. He hasn't played a minute in the NHL, and is now in Europe. It is a nice patriotic mask for the binder.
1991 Score - Bryan Marchment RC
1990 Score - Craig Janney
1990 UD - Al Iafrate

2002 OPC - Jocelyn Thibault - This mask shows why the face on the Chicago jersey is a profile.
1993 UD - Brian Benning
2003 Be A Player - Olli Jokinen

1989 OPC - Tony Granato RC - Not a bad rookie card to pull from a repack, even if it is the junk wax era.
1992 UD - Nikolai Semin
1989 OPC - Stephane Richer

1991 Pro Set - Arena Designs - Pro Set gets a lot of heat in retrospect for their overproduction (even by the time's standards) and their many errors, but one thing they did right was including classic photos from the Hall of Fame in their set.

1996 Score - Joe Juneau

1993 UD - Joé Juneau - I guess Upper Deck's graphics department had the ability to add an accent aigu to names.
1990 Bowman - Guy Carboneau

2005 Heroes & Prospects - Eric Lindros - In the day, pulling Lindros in a Generals uniform would be a beautiful pull. Now, not so much.

Several keepers here. And that's all I ask for from a repack.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 5.1

And now, the 50 card portion of the repack.

Well, actually the 51 card portion, as I'll lead with the bonus item.

Minis are always welcome as a bonus item. It's still not on par with the George Scott hostess card, but a mini is always welcome in my collection, especially when it's from a set I didn't buy packs of at the time.

And now, let's open the 50 card-box.

1991 Toys 'R' Us Greg Vaughn - Oddballs are always a fun way to open a package.

1989 All-Star Glossy Willie Stargell - I don't think I ever pulled a single one of the All-Star glossies from anything prior to coming across Fairfield repacks. Now, I can't open one of their repacks without ending up with several of them. In this case, it's a pretty nice one.
1990 All-Star Glossy Carl Yastrzemski
1990 All-Star Glossy Kevin Mitchell
1990 All-Star Glossy Eric Davis
1990 All-Star Glossy Benny Santiago
1990 All-Star Glossy Wade Boggs
2010 Topps Jon Lester
2012 Topps Nate Schierholtz

2012 Topps Josh Reddick - More 2012 Topps base celebration cards that aren't SPs. Be still my heart.
2011 Bowman Gold Wade Davis

2009 A&G Jeremy Bonderman - I don't think I've ever pulled a Ginter card from one of these. First time for everything, even though seems more relaxed than intense during his pitching process.
2009 UD Ryan Franklin
2010 Topps Matt LaPorta

1986 Donruss The Rookies Bip Roberts - BIPPED! By a pre-rookie Bip. Or a Bip XRC. Either way, this Bip is my first 1986 card of his.
1988 Fleer Rafael Belliard

1986 Topps Bud Black - How much blue can one fit on a single card?
1986 Topps Ozzie Virgil
1986 Topps Andre Thornton
1990 Donruss Juan Agosto
1992 Pinnacle Check Finley

2007 Fleer Alvin Colina - I had no idea who Alvin Colina was. I was just interested in how this card was set up with the blue background. Turns out I'd pulled one of his cards out of a dime box not that long ago. He's got 10 cards at COMC, which feature 4 different images. And I've posted two of them.
1993 Fleer Dave Martinez
1992 Pinnacle Scott Servais
1988 Donruss Mike Felder

2001 Topps Mark Grudzielanek - One of my favourite names.
1991 Topps Kevin Seitzer
1988 Donruss Steve Jeltz
1987 Donruss Roy Smalley
1987 Donruss Don Robinson
1991 Score Ken Griffey Sr.
1989 Score Traded Chris James
1993 UD Hipolito Pichardo
1989 Donruss Brook Jacoby
1989 Donruss Tom Bolton
1988 Donruss Greg Mathews
1993 Donruss Greg Hibbard

1993 UD White Sox Checklist - Robin Ventura - Sketch cards are always keepers.
1989 Donruss Deniis Rasmussen
1989 Donruss Bob Brower

1992 Score Lance Blankenship - 2 of my favourite last names in this same repack.  Grudzielanek. Blankenship. All it needed was an appearance of Hiram Bocachica.
1987 Topps Sid Bream
1987 Topps Toby Harrah
1992 Fleer Storm Davis

1990 Classic Jose Offerman - Jose's daughter is now a WWE diva, wrestling under the name Jojo. Considering his name autocompletes with "bat attack", I await his run-in during one of her matches. Criminy, the "Post-USA major leagues" portion of his wikipedia
1993 Donruss John Patterson

2010 Topps Neil Walker - Play. At. The...third base bag.
2010 Topps Daniel Hudson
1987 Topps All-Star Wade Boggs

1989 Topps All-Star Gary Carter - And to wrap this up, the only Met from the repack portion of the repack.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 5.0

Another trip through Target, another repack. This time, 50 cards, 4 packs and a bonus. Time to dig in. It's pretty even in terms of content volume, so I'll do the packs now and the rest later in 5.1.

2013 Gypsy Queen

Tom Seaver
Warren Spahn - No Hitters
Jon Jay - Glove Stories
Matt Moore - Mini
Johnny Bench
Gary Carter

Not a bad pack. 2 inserts. 2 Mets. Pretty good from only just 6 cards.

2012 Topps Update

David Freese AS
Ian Kinsler AS
Fernando Rodney AS
Ryan Braun AS - Enough with the All-Star cards!
Jason Isringhausen

Tony Gwynn - Golden Greats - I wasn't a big fan of these inserts, but I'll confess that the design works really nicely with Padres brown.

Will Middlebooks - 1987 mini
Yasmani Grandal RC

Chris Johnson - My favourite photo choice in this pack. I think that's the blue skies of Southern California above Dodger Stadium.
Manny Parra
Austin Kearns
Yuniesky Betancourt

2008 First Edition Update (Naturally)

Miguel Tejeda
Melvin Mora
Sean Casey
Orlando Cabrera
Brad Penny
Ben Broussard

Johan Santana - A Met.

Rich Harden - And a Canadian are the highlights here.
David Murphy
Daisuke Matsuzaka

2012 Topps Series 2 Rack Pack

Shin-Soo Choo

Jose Valverde - I guess I really love a nice celebration photo. At least only some of them were SPs in 2012.
Heath Bell
Alexi Casilla
Shane Victorino
Huston Street
Garret Richards RC
Joe Savery RC
Manny Ramirez

Cliff Lee - 1987 Mini
Golden Giveaway - Johnny Bench
Chris Young
Paul Goldschmidt
Derek Lowe
Gavin Floyd
Zach Britton
Jordan Walden

Jed Lowrie - I really don't mind the photoshopping into the new uniform, but you would think they would try to use a non-Fenway shot for it. At least they went for the road uniform.
Matt Harrison
Prince Fielder
Mark Buehrle
Johnny Giavotella
Carlos Lee
Davan Viciedo

Yoenis Cespedes RC - I guess this was probably the best card here if I cared about value.
Dave Sappeldt

Tyler Clippard - Gold Sparkle - But this shiny beauty was the best card for me in this portion of the repack. Shiny, and a member of the 2/14 club! What more could I ask for? Other than, maybe, a 1/1 printing plate. OK. I could ask for something a little rarer, but it is still my favourite card.

Troy Tulowitzki - Career Day - And the last insert. This card design seems to have the look that's perfect for a sticker autograph or a relic, but there's only the latter at COMC and they're all limited to 50.
JJ Putz
Michael Bourn
Edinson Volquez
Fernando Salas
Henderson Alvarez
Alezandro De Aza
Ryan Vogelsong
Jonny Venters

So, that's 4 packs of fun. There's definitely enough keepers in this one.

A dime-boxy PWE

I've been dropping PWEs onto Nick @ Dime Boxes with some level of regularity. It's only right that one of them get sent my way in return. 4 cards is just the perfect fit for a PWE, and they were all nice vintage-y Mets.

Might as well start with my favourite of the bunch. 1971 is filled with interesting photos, and with this being one of them, it's an easy choice for my fave of the bunch. While it doesn't quite reach the level of Bud Harrelson's play at second or Art Shamsky on an inside pitch. But it is still a great addition to my Mets collection, and it is someone who was a key part of the Amazing Mets of '69. Thanks, Nick, for this beauty.

My first 1964 Mets card! WOO-HOO! I think I only need one from '63, '66 and '67 to get at least one from each year in the Mets first 20 years.

And to wrap it up, a pair of 1975 minis! With that being my birth year, I finally put together a team set from the Mets from that year. Now, I'm tempted to do the same with minis. I should probably have a nap now before I get the temptation to actually do this.

Thanks for the PWE, Nick! I await the next small cardboard trade.

Just One Pack - 2013 Bowman Draft Hobby

Same as yesterday, only with just 7 cards to the pack.

It's always nice to have the first card be a familiar name. In this case, since the Chrome scans really badly, it's Michael Wacha. This is one the chrome parallel of the base cards in the set.

Now we're into the draft picks portion of the set, and guys I've never heard of. He was a second round pick of Tampa, and thanks to the fact they are somewhat detailed on the back, a second-generation baseball player. This isn't his cardboard debut, though, as he also appeared in some Team USA subsets.

Now this is someone making their cardboard debut. He's another second generation player as well, being the son of Eddie Williams, who you might find lurking in your junk wax piles.

The closest thing to a hit out of these packs was this, and it is a /500 of Miguel Sano. Not a bad parallel to pull.

I'll probably be including this one whenever I send a new package to 2*3 Heroes.

GAAH! What the heck is this? I've seen Diamond King cards where the subject looks more like a human than this! Creepiest card of 2013. I thought nothing would surpass the mannequin-like Cody Asche, but this one does. Why just give the uniform the impression of a photoshopping when you can do everything on the card?

And to wrap it up - a Yankee. The nightmare continues.