Pharmacy Box Break

Public service announcement for the same people that need news stations to tell you what day it is: Sunday is Mother’s Day.

Today I ran over to Walgreens for a couple greeting cards. Naysayers, say what you will about baseball cards being worthless pieces of cardboard, but they’re cheaper than cardboard bearing the Hallmark logo. Jeez.

Anyway, grabbed a $5 pharmacy box. Ooooo, new packaging. No more preview window.

“Hits?” None.

The pack: 2019 Opening Day

New packaging, same disproportional and disappointing stack of 1989 Topps.

Quite a bit of 1981 Donruss too (a design I’m actually fond of).

Newest cards: 2019 Series 2. Oldest card: Darrell Evans, 1978 Topps.

Evans was a two-time All-Star (1973, 1983), a World Series champion (1984), and the AL home run leader in 1985. Bill James rated Evans as “the most underrated player in baseball history.” He had 414 career home runs. His skill in drawing walks (1,605) contributed to a .361 career on-base percentage.

Hall of Famers.

OK… Three favorites:

#1 Charles Johnson, Team USA [1991 Topps]

Things I like: 1991 Topps design, Team USA cards, Goofy angles. Trifecta.

Johnson was a two-time All-Star (1997, 2001), a World Series champion (1997), and a 4x Gold Glove Award (1995-1998). He caught three no-hitters (1996 – Al Leiter, 1997 – Kevin Brown, 2001 – A.J. Burnett).

#2 Roger Erickson, Yankees [1983 Topps]

I assume hair like this is the very reason for the headshot design.

Erickson had a 35-53 record over six years with the Twins and Yankees. He threw 265.2 innings as a 21-year-old rookie in 1978, carried a 3.96 ERA, and posted his only winning season (14-13).

#3 Jay Buhner, Yankees [1988 Donruss]

For obvious reasons: