Random Blaster: 2013 Panini Cooperstown Baseball

So while I was on the hunt for a horse head mask for my son’s Halloween costume, no luck, I hit a number of stores including 2 Walmart stores and a Target and while I had no luck on the mask I stopped by the card aisles to see if anybody had one of Panini’s Monster Boxes, no luck. So after a successions of strike outs I grabbed a blaster of Panini Cooperstown baseball at the last Walmart I hit so I didn’t end the day empty handed. The blaster included a handful of packs plus 3 Green Crystal parallels. I like the designs this year, the darker border and close up images just come over a lot better. 

 

There is a pretty good variety of Hall of Famers, whenever I see Johnny Evers I think of Baseball’s Sad Lexicon poem about the Chicago Cubs with the line “Tinker to Evers to Chance”. Evers had a solid early career, winning the World Series three times and being named the 1914 NL MVP player.

 

Dan Brouthers was an old-school player, he began his career in 1879 with the Troy Trojans. He played 17 seasons and retired with a .342 batting average, which puts him as the 9^th highest batting average in MLB history. What made me laugh was the description on the back of the card that says he was called “Big Dan” because he was 6-2” and weighed 210, a size that would now earn him the nickname “Dan”. I think CC Sabathia would eat Brouthers lunch and then give him a wedgie. But when you consider the time period he was the big boy on the block at that size.

 

Satchel Paige, this guy was just a freak of nature for his talent. It is said that he was the Negro League’s answer to Babe Ruth. His MLB record of 28-31 with a 3.29 ERA is no indication of his true accomplishments. He is said to have had 300 career shutouts and a win total in excess of 1,500 wins in the Negro Leagues. He won a Negro League World Series title with the KC Monarchs and MLB World Series titles with the Cleveland Indians. He was 60 when he pitched his final professional game for the minor league Peninsula Grays, the catcher? Johnny Bench.

 

A couple of Green Crystal parallels including Frank Chance, to go with my Johnny Evers. Mr. “Baseball is ninety percent and the other half is physical” himself Yogi Berra and the long time St' Louis Cardinals's Red Schoendienst, this guy won 4 World Series titles as a player and another one as a manager.

 

A couple of Colgan’s Chips disc cards, I am very happy with my group.

 

I closed out with a Lumberjack wood card. This is the second wood card that I have pulled, I pulled one from a Topps basketball release a couple of years ago, and while these cards are very cool you need to be careful because the wood will actually crack and split if you handle them to roughly.

This is a very cool product and there is a great on-card autograph checklist with players like Reggie Jackson, Cal Ripken Jr. and Brooks Robinson. The best thing about the set is that every card is a Hall of Famer, so you can not really go wrong.