What's the cure for getting up at 3:30 in the morning and spending an eight-hour shift at the filling station? Opening a box of baseball cards when you get home, of course. I decided to go with one of my blaster boxes because I would open slightly more cards than a jumbo pack, plus I'm really intrigued about the Retired Number patches. I hope a get a good one.

I'm going to break this down, old school. Pack by pack, with the highlights and the interesting cards. It will take a while and make for a long post, but I view this as my triumphant return to the world of baseball card blogging. Like the title of the post says, away we go...

See, I really do have the cards. In the background you can see the binder, all loaded up with 37 plastic sleeves and ready to store some cards.


Here's the patch card. I think I'll save it for last. One year ago today, I pulled the ol' hidden patch trick. I promise I won't do that this time. No April foolin'.

No lie, the first card staring me in the face was a freakin' Yankee. Not only that, it was a Yankee who's not even a Yankee any more (Jesus Montero). This is not a good omen.



If these are representative examples of the insert sets, I won't have any problems not collecting them. Color me underwhelmed with Golden Moments and Classic Walk-Offs. Still, it's nice to get a Votto in the first pack.


Also, I'm not too impressed with the Photoshopping techniques used to blur out the other players in these two cards. They look really, really sloppy. I'd just as soon Topps didn't retouch the photos. I understand wanting to put the focus on the player whose name in on the front of the card, but there are better ways to do that than this.


Thoughts from Pack 2: The Chris Sale card was the first one I was really excited to get...Nice to see that Topps got the new Marlins logo on the front of the cards, even nicer to see they didn't feel the need to airbrush everyone's hat and uniform to reflect the change...Are Golden Moments and Classic Walk-Offs the only insert sets? Once again, I got one of each...Randy Wells really needs to get more fiber in his diet.


Thoughts from Pack 3: Nice to see Joey Bats get the coveted #100 for his card...Just when I thought the insert sets couldn't get any worse, I pulled a Gold Standard card. Worse yet, it was A-Fraud. I refuse to scan it on the grounds that doing so would violate the Geneva Convention...I think I like the gold parallels more than last year's diamond parallels, but I wasn't aware that the 61st anniversary was the Golden anniversary...I also pulled an Austin Romine card. If you're scoring at home, that's two Yankees catching prospects in three packs. Who says there's a New York bias in the checklists?


Thoughts from Pack 4: FREDDIE!!!...You can imagine my excitement when I opened the pack to see an Angels logo and the word "Albert", followed by my disappointment when I saw "o Callaspo"...I got my first Golden Giveaway card. I assume the principle is the same as the Diamond Giveaway and the Million Card Giveaway. Is the gimmick as least good? I liked the virtual rings for some reason...I forget; is R.A. Dickey called "The Thing," or is it his weird off-speed pitch, or his freakish, ulnar-ligament-free pitching arm?


Thoughts from Pack 5: I got my first Oriole (Alfredo Simon) and first Athletic (Andrew Carignan), so I'm just waiting on my first Reds base card...The one exception I have to my staunch anti-Yankees on baseball cards stance; anything that involves Jason Giambi's porn stache (RIP). Not even A-Rod's second appearance in the blaster can ruin that...Casey McGehee's 2012 card may have the best picture used for a baseball card in the past decade.


Time for a mid-blaster break. So far, I have pulled only three insert cards that I deem worth keeping. The Votto card was one. Above are the other two.

You know what? I just looked at a preview of this post. It's already pretty long, and adding the other five packs is just going to make it longer. So I'm going to split it up into two posts. See you in a couple of hours with part two.

Oh, Donruss. Your name will be forever sullied in my mind due to the absolute crap you spewed out in the '80s. Although I'll give you credit, you did come up with some pretty decent cards in the '90s, after you got bought out, of course. But those crap-ass 1980s cards will be your legacy. As a kid, I was always disappointed whenever I got Donruss cards.

I've included this card because it is actual photographic evidence that Don Aase won an American League pitcher of the month award. Take a moment to let that little nugget of information digest. I know it's hard to fathom - you're fighting the urge to call Ripley right now, aren't you?


See, it really did happen, back in May 1985. Here's the circumstances surrounding that shocking incident.


Speaking of the 1980s, here's the only Donruss Diamond Kings card in the lot. Ken Singleton. I'll have to look, but I'm pretty sure it's from the same year as that bakery card. That was his career-best season, after all.


When it comes to crappy Donruss cards, they don't come much crappier than the 1982 set. Unless you count the 1981 set. With Dave Trembley's firing less than a week ago, I've chosen to commemorate the event with the last Orioles skipper to be fired in the middle of an absolutely dreadful season. Cal Ripken Sr. was fired after going 0-6 to start the 1988 season. Blog namesake Frank Robinson got the job and promptly steered the club to fifteen more losses in a row, for a record 0-21 start. He got to keep his job because he's Frank Freakin' Robinson. The next season, the O's had a winning record and finished 2nd in the AL East.


Frankly, I think this is a bit harsh on Cal Sr. and unnecessary on Donruss's part. Did they really have to highlight his failure to reach the Bigs by putting "Did not play major league baseball" and leaving all that white space on the card? Why not include his minor league stats, or his record as a minor league manager?


Apparently, according to the back of Cal Sr.'s card, his son was "one of the most highly regarded prospects in the Oriole system." I don't know - I never heard of the guy. Cal Ripken Jr.? Sounds like the name of a character actor or insurance salesman. But I was able to find a 1994 Donruss card of him. And then, a few cards later, the same card, but with lots of super-shiny gold foil.


The final couple of cards showcase the photography that made Donruss cards pretty decent near the end. I wish I could figure out what Robby Alomar was looking at in this picture. He's looking up - do you think he just skied a pop-up?


And here's the great Lee Arthur Smith, the one-time career saves leader and should-be Hall-of-Famer. Of course, on this card, it's all about the insert picture. Notice how Lee Arthur is stroking his goatee, all contemplative and such? What could he possibly be thinking about?

In 1994, Lee Arthur's only season with the Orioles, he saved 33 games, good enough for the league lead. I doubt we'll ever see such a paltry number on top of the leaderboard again.

Next up on Eight Bucks Worth of Orioles are highlights of my cards from Leaf. It turns out, I've already posted a Leaf card and didn't even realise it. That Jerry Adair card that I had no idea about is actually a 1960 Leaf (thanks, Adam!), and the second-oldest card in my collection. Sometimes you get lucky, and the person who sells you the stuff doesn't know what they have. Of course, sometimes you don't know, either!

Here's that Jerry Adair card again, now posted in its "correct" place:

On to some more recent Leaf cards. Here are a pair of 50th anniversary cards from 1998. There were actually about five in the lot, but I chose these two in particular.


Eric Davis was selected...well, I hope I don't need to explain why! In the late '80s, when I was old enough to start following baseball religiously and actually have a clue what was going on, ED was the man for the Reds. He will always give me fond memories, and I was glad to see him revive his career with the Orioles.

Mike Mussina, on the other hand...well, to this day I still can't believe he signed with the Yankees. It seemed like a cruel joke when I heard the news. And yet, I still can't help but like the guy. Let's move on.


Oh Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey. You were supposed to be the one. The next great Oriole outfielder. What happened to you? Maybe it's because your parents misspelled your name.

I like the full-bleed photography on the card (that's what it's called when the picture goes all the way to the edge and there's no border, right?) I'm a big fan of full-bleed (man I hope that's the right term and I don't end up looking like an idiot).

Finally, let's end this post with a bang. How about some Ripkens?


There were plenty of Leaf Ripkens in the pile (at least four or five). I picked the '91 Studio card because of the black-and-white photography. I think that black-and-white photos, when done well, can be absolutely stunning. I love how this photo, even without color, still captures Cal's famous steely-blue eyes.

There's also a lot to like about the '93 Studio. Full-bleed design. A shiny (albeit replica) autograph. The fact that it's a Cal Ripken card. But the best part is the prominent nature of the best name of any logo in professional sports history, The Ornithologically Correct Bird.

Yes, it was sad to see the (cartoon) Bird go from the caps. But the '80s were nearly at an end, and the '90s ushered a new era of seriousness. But an organisation as classy as the Orioles couldn't just call the new logo a "lifelike" bird. Oh no, that wouldn't do. So a dictionary was consulted. And the 13-year-old me learned a new word.

Don't believe me on the logo name? Here's the proof.

aving dealt with the Reds, and (sort of) the Mariners, it's time I posted a Orioles card. But first...why the Orioles?
When you grow up, as I did, in North Carolina in the '80s, your choices were the O's on Home Team Sports (before the days of MASN, kids - ask your parents) or the Braves on TBS. I was firmly in the O's camp. First of all, I just watched more HTS because it showed, well, sports. I really didn't care about all the Andy Griffith re-runs that The Superstation showed throughout the day and during rain delays.

Secondly, let's face it - the Braves stunk. Remember this was the mid to late '80s, before the Braves pulled the worst to first trick and became the National League juggernaut that nobody saw coming. To be fair, the O's weren't that good, either - they hadn't been the same since Joe Altobelli won the World Series in '83 with Earl Weaver's team. But there was a sense that they were at least trying, and were on the cusp of something...until 0-21 happened.

I'm trying to think...how much hair was left under that hat? (You'll discover that I have an obsession with people's hairlines - probably because mine is in full-fledged retreat mode.) Then I thought...oh, how I loved the Oriole Bird. I should really get one of those throwback hats.

At any rate, it's good to see St. Cal of Aberdeen make an appearance in the blog, especially since I wasn't planning on it. I was looking straight down the barrel of a Tom Niedenfuer, for goodness' sake.

"One of the few bright spots for the lowly Orioles." Oh, how 1988 sucked.