Breakin' Series 2 Twins Boogaloo

I haven't been to a store that sells baseball cards in a few months, so getting Series 2 Topps was a tall order. Thankfully, we still have the Internet, so I went to the "electronic Bay" which is an online marketplace of sorts... and bid on a Case Break of Series 2 Topps Jumbo Boxes.

My goal was to try to cash in a lottery ticket for some of the more rare Eddie Rosario parallels so I could build my Rosie Rainbow, but I struck out there. 

Series 2 is a great place to catch up with the new kids on the block - Homer Bailey is still wearing his Royal blue cleats, Yadi Molina is making a cameo on Josh Donaldson's card, most likely with Donaldson still playing for Atlanta on this card. Dick Mountain is more than likely in a Dodgers uniform here.

There sure are a ton of horizontal cards in the Twins Series 2 set - and these aren't even the alternate / short printed variations! The only Rosario I pulled from the break was the base card, but that was good, I still needed it! 

This was a fun one, I like that the more recent issues are continuing the 50s / 60s combo card craze. 

Finally the rookie base cards - there's a Dobnak photo variation too - I'll be on the lookout for a cheap copy of it. Dobnak, you may recall, was famous for being an Uber Driver before getting the call from the Twins to be a minor league signee. 

Inserts include "Decades' Best" and a tribute to the 1985 set, which I think is just fine. Rod Carew has been getting some more love the last couple years, which is much deserved!

There were some good cards in the silver bonus packs that came with the Jumbo case - including chrome variations of Decades' Best. Pulled a couple parallels too!

Two cards could be called "hits" - first a Joe Mauer Gold Parallel numbered to 50. Mauer won three batting titles in the 2000s, and was a video game cover guy. The Twins weren't able to reach the World Series in the Decade, but they were AL Central Division Champs 6 times between 2000 and 2010. 

And finally this card made the break worth what I spent to win it - a cool 1985 design autograph of the hitting machine Luis Arraez. He hit .334 last year as a mid season call-up, subbing in for and overtaking Jonathan Schoop as the Twins' everyday second baseman. Arraez has been compared to Rod Carew and Tony Gwynn in terms of his batting stance and willingness to spray line drives all over the field. 

Have you tried a Group Break before? What did you think of it? Thanks for reading!

This Break Won't Break Your Budget

Middle Relievers, Rejoice! Colbey from Carboard Collections just ran an awesome Affordable Break which is exactly what it sounds like. For under $10, I was able to pick a team (The Twins!) and was randomly assigned a second team (The Diamondbacks!). In addition to 2003 UD Fortyman and 2002 UD Diamond Collection, Colbey pulled a random assortment of junk wax gems to add to the pile. 

Here's the back of the Fortyman - J.C. Romero was filthy - he was traded away from the Twins in 2005 to get Alexi Casilla from the Angels - I would have preferred to keep Romero, but those are the breaks!

The back of this card was really optimistic about Pridie's chances of making the Twins' rotation. He was 3rd on the AA team in Strikeouts, but didn't mention that he allowed more hits than innings pitched, with an ERA over 5... He didn't make it to the big leagues, but after a shoulder injury derailed his on field career he's now a scouting director for a baseball agency that represents pros like Jay Bruce, Eric Thames, and current MN Twin Max Kepler.

Inserts!

LaTroy was in his middle relief phase at this point as well - he was a year removed from his final season as the Twins' closer, but would have quite a lot of baseball left in him.

There are the three Diamond Collection base cards - these were my favorite Twins teams since the World Champs.

Speaking of, here was the haul from the extra packs!

Let's not forget about the Diamonbacks as the second team in the break!

Here's the backs for the Diamond Collection.

HEY, what do you know? A Hit!

Plot twist #1 - These are Pants!
Plot twist #2 - These are Phillies Pants!

Thanks for the break Colbey, these were a lot of fun to go through!

A Little Extra Grande

Ok, OK - I got a scanner. I couldn't handle the shame... I broke!

 Speaking of Breaks... Nachos Grande hosted a great break of 2015 Product, and included some awesome extras.

 Here's some from Topps Uvula... I mean, Topps Update. Plus a bonus BOOF.

 That might be the first Pacific Aurora card. Jack Morris in his hometown duds, always a welcome sight!

 Here were some of the highlights from the main part of the break - Kennys Vargas was a fantastic pull for me, as he's a main PC guy of mine.

 Pitchers at the plate, fantastic! Ron Coomer crashed the party on Molitor's card.

A Denard rookie,  and some more great 90's "junk." Skybox Thunder is a real thing!

Thanks for all the extras, Chris! And of course congratulations on another successful break!

A Fantastic Break

I joined the break for Fantastic Catch's propsects boxes, and as expected, I took the Twins. This was actually my first group break ever, so I'm excited to share these cards today! Weston busted boxes from 2008 Tristar, 2011 and 2012 Elite Extra Edition. That meant a ton of prospects, and right in the sweet spot of the best draft positions for the Twins in several years.

 Adam Brett Walker, Jose Berrios, and J.T. Chargois 
Walker is still leading the AA Chattanooga Lookouts in Homers -
Berrios, also in Chattanooga, is just 21 years old and is striking out about 9.8 batters per 9 innings -
Chargois had a pretty serious injury and missed pretty much all of 2013 and 2014. This year he dominated high A ball and was recently promoted to the Lookouts as well. These Twins have a bright future.

 Hey - there's Aaron Hicks and Byron Buxton - that Diamond Kings card is awesome.

Former Twins CF'er Ben Revere, recently promoted to MLB outfielder Eddie Rosario, and Mason Melotakis. Melotakis had Tommy John surgery before the start of the year so it remains to be seen what will happen next year. 

Here's the hit from the break - very cool green ink auto numbered to 10. Dan Osterbrock is now pitching in the independent leagues, but it's still a very cool card.

Thanks again for hosting the break, these cards are fantastic!

An Extra Grande Group Break

I joined my first Nachos Grande group break for the 2015 Topps Heritage set. I completed the 2014 set because I loved the 1965 Topps design, but I'm not really in love with the 1966 version. Joining the break was great for me, I planned on limiting myself to just Twins and maybe a few singles here and there for the set, and that's pretty much exactly what I'm getting.

Here are some of the highlights:

An original 1966 buyback of Sandy Valdespino, who was certainly a fan favorite in his days with the Twins, though he didn't make the same impact as his countrymen like Tony Oliva.

Sandy has the interesting distinction of being a Seattle Pilot, but NOT an "original Seattle Pilot." He was traded to Seattle (with Danny Walton) in August of 1969 from Houston. The Pilots only played one season in Seattle, and Sandy had to settle for being an original Milwaukee Brewer instead.

Ok, history time is over. Hey, what's the deal with those non-Heritage cards? Well Chris joined my Group Trade, too, so included in his package to me was the return for the Cincinnati Reds that I sent to him. You can see a pretty awesome Killebrew in the top left, along with a Koskie, Morneau, and Mauer from years I missed.

Here's everything at once:

My part of the Group Break included the Rockies as well. This works out great for me since the Rockies have two former Twins, Morneau and LaTroy Hawkins, and in general they've been one of my favorite NL teams.

The other "hit" from the break was the Advertising Panel:

Super Cool! Now, how do I store it?

Just a quick digression back to the first image:

Some awesome Mini Munnatawket originals, can't beat that.

This was the second group break I've signed up for - it was a ton of fun to watch the break, and I'm looking forward to many more in the future!

If anyone is looking to add some Rockies or Twins to their 2015 Heritage collection, I've got doubles! I plan on keeping one copy of everything, though, so the hits are probably staying with me. Oh, but if you recall I do have another post with more 2015 Heritage Trade Bait 

Speaking of Group Breaks . . .

I'm setting up this Group Trade because it seems like Group Breaks are a lot of fun to participate in.

If you haven't seen it yet, Nachos Grande is putting one together for 2015 Heritage and has added some other great products to sweeten the pot.

It's the first big buy-in break I've joined, and spots need to fill up for it to go through!

There are still several great teams left (some are even grouped together- which means even more cards for you!), you can read all about it HERE

Be amazed like Delmon Young!