When I left my old school, they gave me a $50 Amazon gift certificate as a going away present. I thought about getting the complete collection of Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, but, come on, this is me we're talking about here. I spent in on the 2011 Baseball Prospectus and a blaster of 2011 Topps instead. You know, the one that comes with the manu-patch in each box.

What better way to celebrate Opening Day than by opening some cards while watching baseball? This is part one of a two-part post.

After breaking my jumbo box, I was about 20 cards short (actually, 21). Well, now I'm exactly 20 cards short because the first five packs yielded one card I needed. That's about at the odds, when you think about it. There were roughly 25 base cards in those five packs, and with 95% of the set collected, you'd think 95% of those cards would be dupes. Anyway, this is that card.



I'm not going to show all the cards, just the ones that I didn't have before. So it's mostly going to be inserts. Two hot rookies from last year trying to avoid sophomore slumps. Can you read the categories on the cards? They're laughable examples of Bill James's "We can form a group" theory from his book Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame? (I liked its original title, The Politics of Glory)


Another Card Your Mom Threw Out 60 Years of Topps card. The power of Yount compels you!





And now, a bunch of insert cards I have no interest in collecting, so they're up for grabs. Of course the diamond shiny card is Neil Walker. The preponderance of parallel Pittsburgh Pirates in my portfolio is perturbing.


Okay, I have to say, 2011 Topps Series 1 is probably my favorite set of all time, if only because of the number of special cards I pulled out of it. First Sandy Koufax in the jumbo box, and in this blaster, the original Hebrew Hammer (sorry Ryan Braun). The Greenberg parallel is a significant upgrade over Miguel Cabrera (the "real" card #150).


How can I top that? I can't really. So here's the patch card:


April Fool! We'll save that for part two.