2000 Bowman Chrome Hobby Box Break

2000 Bowman Chrome Hobby Box
24 packs, 4 cards per pack
Parallel set:
Refractor 1:12
Inserts:
One oversized Chrome box topper card.
Bowman Retro-Future 1:6 (Refractor 1:60)
Rookie Class 2000 1:24 (Refractor 1:240)
Teen Idols 1:16 (Refractor 1:160)
Bidding for the Call 1:16 (Refractor 1:160)
Meteoric Rise 1:24 (Refractor 1:240)

Cost:  $19.95 (Blowout Cards - Black Friday deal)

Leading off:  McGwire in full bash mode.

Shiny is as Shiny does.  In this case Shiny doesn't scan quite the way it looks in person.  But most everyone reading this has some of these cards.

By the way my box topper card was Eric Munson (not scanned).

Big Frank Thomas.

As sometimes happens with chrome type cards from several years back, the cards in the packs were fused together.  Fortunately separating them did not damage any of the cards.

I've opened some other older shiny card packs that were so stuck together most of the cards ended up damaged when pried apart.  Took the coating right off.  I don't know a trick to prevent that from happening.

Zito rookie.  I am still a fan of Zito.  Despite being 31-43 with a combined era around 4.50 the last three seasons, Zito will be just age 32 in the 2010 season.  He's always healthy and racks up a lot innings every year, he's shown flashes of regaining his form, he pitches in a pitcher's park, he's a lefty so he may linger around until age forty or later, and he has 133 lifetime wins.

Zito has a good shot at 250 career wins which is nothing to sneeze at, but the Hall of Fame career many had expected has faded away.  It seemed a shoo-in that at least one of the Zito, Hudson, Mulder trio would make the Hall of Fame one day.  Hudson seems the only one with an outside shot now.  Gesundheit.

Chipper.  His .364 batting average in 2008 at age 36 was a final exclamation mark on a superb career.

Furcal and Vernon Wells.  Two players who never quite lived up to expectations.

Luis Gonzalez, Ben Sheets (rookie), Carlos Pena, Chavez, Giambi, and Smoltz round out the rest of the star/semi-star cards in this box.

Now the inserts:

Two refractors (as expected).  These scan much better than the base even though in person the shine is not dramatically different.

Urquiola.  Wow.  That's a lot of vowels.  One of four 'Retro-Future' cards.  Cool tv set/screen look.

Chris George had a lifetime era of 6.48 in the majors.  The Royals must have thought highly of him because they kept throwing him out there (four partial seasons).  Although the Royals weren't exactly known for their pitching depth (2001-2004).

Career Line:  237.1 ip, 300 hits, 95 walks.

Holy spanked.  George just turned 30. He pitched in AAA for the Orioles and Red Sox in 2009.  With a lifetime minor league era of 4.76 in over 1200 innings, it is amazing he keeps getting chances.  The number one most likely reason:  George is a lefty.

Rico Washington played 12 years in the minors before getting 19 at bats (.158 ba) with the Cardinals in 2008.  He appears to have retired right after the brief call up, indicating he had been fighting all those years just to prove to himself he could make it to the Big Show.

I gotta respect players like these two.  Perseverance is always an interesting story to me.

I love this card.  Another card I've never seen.  At least I got a star 'Retro-Future' card.  And a big one.  A Big Hurt one.

'Rookie Class 2000'.  Corey Patterson.  Ankiel and Vernon Wells are the best players in this 10 card insert subset.

'A Meteoric Rise' Chipper Jones.  There's 10 'Meteoric Rise' players.  They did a super job with player selection.  No duds in the bunch:  Ripken, Griffey, Ramirez, Garciaparra, Randy Johnson, Piazza, McGwire, Maddux, and Ivan Rodriguez.

'Bidding For The Call'.  Nick Johnson.  Ah, what could have been.  In seven full big league seasons Johnson has only reached 500 ab once.  And he was excellent that season:  .290 ba, 46 doubles, 23 hr, 110 bb, .948 OPS.  With a lifetime .402 OBP the only thing holding Nick back is his inability to stay healthy.  I wouldn't mind seeing him on the Orioles just the same.

Of the 15 players in this subset, only Alfonso Soriano and Josh Hamilton have defined themselves as stars.

'Teen Idols'.  Bobby Bradley.  There are 15 players in this subset as well.  Some of the good ones are Arod, Sabathia, Josh Hamilton, Andruw Jones, Griffey, and Juan Gonzalez.

Bobby Bradley's lifetime minor league era was a sparkling 3.25.  He was a number one draft pick by the Pirates in 1999.  He was picked ahead of Zito, Sheets, and Brett Myers.  Bradley was hit with a series of injuries:  Tommy John surgery, surgery on his shoulder, surgery for nerve damage.  He is another guy that kept battling.

Don't feel too sorry for Bradley, he purportedly won a 2008 Vegas poker tourney with a purse of $96,000.

Another 'Teen Idol'.  Sean Burroughs.  I definitely got unlucky on these two pulls.  The percentages were in my favor to pull at least one star from this subset.

The son of former major leaguer Jeff Burroughs (one time MVP winner), Sean Burroughs never lived up to the high hype.  He is a bit puzzling.  Sean hit for mammoth batting averages in the minors.  And he did so at high levels at a young age.  He hit .359 as an 18 year old in A ball and .322 in AAA as a 20 year old.  Sean looked like a phenom.  A Wade Boggs type.

I believe it was expected that his power would develop or that he would hit .320 consistently.  Neither occurred.  He didn't walk often, he didn't even hit many doubles (let alone home runs), and although he did manage a lifetime .280 batting average in the majors (1537 ab), his career OPS of .698 wasn't enough from the third base position.  By age 26 he was out of baseball.

So that's it.  I yammered on because I was in the mood to take a look at some of these lesser known players.

My luck in this box seemed below average, but I actually had a great time opening these packs.  It is the kind of box that makes you want to bust ten more.

If I could get a few more at $19.95, I'd do it.  But I see they normally sell for around $30 when shipping is factored in, so this may be the first and last 2000 Bowman Chrome I bust.

If Blowout Cards discounts these again next sale, I'm on-board.

Thanks for reading!