2009-10 Panini Studio Basketball Rack Pack

I grabbed a rack pack of this stuff at Wally World the other day just to check it out for myself. I'd seen what the base cards and some of the inserts look like and overall, it's a decent set. The rack pack contained the odd number of 31 cards. I will review the base cards only here because, guess what? That's right, that's all I got. Not 1 insert in the entire pack. Lame.


Since the set is called Studio, you would think that it would contain posed studio shots, but that doesn't appear to be the case. What we get ON EVERY SINGLE CARD, is a full color bust shot (at least they aren't cut of at the junk again in this set) on the left superimposed over a faded black & white photo on the right. The background shot then fades to white at the edge of the card. Does Panini actually make a set that doesn't have a white gradient on it somewhere? Man they overuse that design element.

One good aspect of this set is it proves that Panini does have access to decent action photography, if only in the backgrounds. My major gripe with Panini is their lack of action photography in ALL of their releases. Except for an occasional insert they like to stick with shots of guys shooting straight up jumpers, pulling uncontested rebounds or just dribbling up the court. Cut of at the junk, of course! Now they just need to take the background photos and make a set featuring them.

Another Panini complaint is they seem to design their base cards with autos & relics in mind, even though the majority of the cards will simply be base cards. This trend continues here. While the card design isn't terrible, to me it just screams, "Hey there should be an auto here on the right side! Or a relic." They need to stop this lazy design in my opinion. Make a nice base card set and design a TOTALLY DIFFERENT card to use for autos/relics. Preferably a different one for each. I don't want the same card 3 times: 1 blank, 1 auto & 1 relic. I WANT VARIETY!

Of course, I didn't get any variety here. Just a bunch of the same thing over and over again. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn't get one single insert. I know TJ is collecting the Skylines set and I've got a Dirk of one of the other sets. Too bad I can't show them to you here.

And, here's some more of the same. Like I said not terrible, but plenty of room for improvement. I really hope Panini steps up their game next year, there is too much sameness in their stuff right now. I need to drive over to their offices in Arlington and give them some tips, I guess! I'll be keeping the Kidd, Paul, Howard, Williams, Lopez & Garnett for myself and the boys. The rest are up for grabs. Let me know. Later.

Now for something completely different! And that's no bull!

Okay, basketball is done (Frickin' Spurs) so let's move on. I'm really hating that Topps is the only licensed maker of baseball cards. We've got Series 1 built, don't care for Heritage and Finest is too expensive except for singles here and there. We need more variety!! Well, since they won't give it too us, we'll have to find it ourselves. Which we did!
I'd seen these packs of PBR cards for awhile at our local Target, so I grabbed a pack just for kicks. They're made by Press Pass and have 5 cards per pack. The odds are pretty low on the back of pulling autos and event used equipment such as shirts, pants, hats, ropes, etc. We didn't get any hits, but I'll show you what we did get. (By the way, Nobie loved the cards and wants to go after the set now.)

We don't follow the PBR per se, but I have watched my fair share of rodeos over the years, both on tv and in person. I've even made a special trip to Cheyenne for the Daddy of 'em All before.
The card stock is pretty average stuff, but with a nice glossy sheen. The Rider cards have a different full bleed photo on the back (sorry, forgot to scan) with a little write up. Interestingly enough, some of them, like 'ol Sean here have a list of injuries sustained. During the 2007-2009 time span Sean endured a strained right forearm, sprained high ankle, bruised left ankle, concussion and a strained left groin on his way to earning close to $1 million. Maybe it was all worth it after all.

We also got a clown card, though I'm pretty sure they prefer the term bullfighter. Flint here, used to be a schoolteacher. I think I'd rather pal around with bulls, too!

This Luck of the Draw card recaps the legendary match up between Chris Shivers & Mossy Oak Mudslinger. (Don'tcha just love sponsorships?) Chris would have won $1 million dollars for the one 8 second ride, but the 3 time "Bull of the Year" bucked him off in 2 seconds. Not much of a match I'd say!

This Bulls card was Nobie's favorite and we got a good one in our first pack! Code Blue here has never been ridden in 14 tries including 3 "outs" at the 2009 PBR World Finals. He's a Bad Ass! Maybe Night Owl should add him to his "I'm a Bad Ass and You're Not" Club

The last card in the pack was a nice little Spur (man I hate that word) Crazy insert. It didn't scan well, but it is quite shiny! This card is of a retired rider by the name of Cody Lambert, who if I'm not mistaken, was one of the characters in the movie 8 Seconds. That movie focused on the short life of Lane Frost (played by Luke Perry) who was tragically killed while competing. Cody Lambert was one of Lane's "sidekicks" who liked to dabble in poetry (at least in the movie). It's a pretty good flick if you haven't seen it.

So, there you go. Something a little different. Like I said, Nobie wants to collect the set. It's 100 cards I think and I checked the "stats" of a hobby box and you get 3 autos and 3 relics in 24 packs, which seems pretty good to me. I don't know if we'll ever pull the trigger or not, but we'll see. Later.

NBA Playoff Word Scramble For You

NOS FO A IBTCH!

Don't count us out just yet!

Thanks to a monster night (finally) from Caron Butler the Mavs are still alive. It was good to see them much more aggressive in getting to the basket and it payed off big time. The Mavs routed the Spurs to close the series to 3 games to 2 with another big showdown in San Antonio on Thursday. Besides Butler, Dirk had a solid if not spectacular outing and Haywood was much more effective than Dampier has been. Now we just need a repeat performance on Thursday. Can't wait! Later.

Big Box from Tim!

I went to the mailbox the other day and pulled out an unexpected box. It was from Tim at the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame.

Packed in side were all kinds of cards for me and the boys. I've got a lot of pictures to show, so I'll go easy on the words.

I hope Tim's health is fine, because he seems to have left his entire Jake Peavy collection to Nobie. He sent enough cards for not one...

not two...

but three photos! Nobie was shocked and didn't have most of them.

Nobie also scored cards of Ryno...

several mini Cubs (wait, aren't all cubs mini?)...

and new Hall of Famer "The Hawk" and friends.

Tim made sure to throw in a few of my faves as well. Gotta love the 90s cheese fest that is Pacific Crown-whatever.

We also got a big 'ol pile of old school Rangers, most of whom I don't really remember much about.

Ah, but not these guys. These guys I know. These are some of the cleanest guys in baseball history. Played the game the way it was meant to be played with a lot of hard work and integrity. The billboard between Juando and Jose's heads says it all. POWER. I wonder where all that power came from?

Cowboy superstar QBs were also in the box along with...

some Hall of Famers...

a bunch of Metal Men...

and some random gladiators of the gridiron. Thanks a ton for all the cards Tim! Hope you make a speedy recovery! Just kidding. No, wait, I'm not kidding, am I? I mean, if you're really on your deathbed, I do hope you pull through. I'm pretty sure you're fine though, so there's no need for a recovery. Is there? Later.

Switching Gears.

Okay, so basketball is pissing me off royally at the moment, so let's try something a little different. I grabbed a pack of 2010 Press Pass Nascar cards the other day, just for kicks. Now, this may seem like a stretch since I've never mentioned my liking of motor sports on this blog before, but it's really not.

When Texas Motor Speedway opened however many years ago, I had season tickets for the first few years. I was (notice I said was) also a big time die cast car collector back then and I also dabbled in cards a little. I even sent Tim from the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame his firs Dick Trickle cards. I used to TAPE ON VHS every Winston Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck race and watch them every weekend as well as all the Indycar races. Needless to say, that was before the kids got so involved in activities, so I don't have time for that anymore, but I still follow racing and watch ON DVR what I can. So like I said I enjoy racing so let's see what we got here.

Here is the wrapper featuring "Smoke" himself. I've liked Tony Stewart since his Indycar days and hated to see him leave that series, but he's done well for himself in Cup. I'd still like to see him try the Indy 500 again some day though. The wrapper says we'll get 6 cards inside.

I scanned the back so you can see the odds on the inserts and hits. They are much smaller that anything you see in the big 3 sports. The largest odds of anything is 1:600. Man, that's practically 1 per pack compared to some of the odds I've seen on baseball wrappers. Let's check out the cards.

Rookie Recap card of Scott Speed. With a name like that, what else are you gonna do for a living? The cards are a little on the thin side stock wise, but do have a little splash of foil decent enough design. The backs typically show some portion of the car rather than repeat a photo of the driver. Gotta keep those sponsors happy!

Here Tony shows off the size razor he needs to keep that 5 o'clock shadow at bay.

These two base cards feature Mark Martin and one of my favorite drivers, Elliot Sadler, though I hate to say his career hasn't amounted to much. He's got a great Virginia accent though, love to hear him talk. Mark Martin has never been one of my favorites, but I respect his ability and he's really had a resurgence of sorts since driving for Hendrick Motorsports. He still looks about 15 years older than he really is though.

It's hard to tell, but this card here is a blue parallel. They are retail inserts that fall one per pack. The foil on the MPH and the speedo are blue. Dumb thing is, Cup cars don't have speedos, just tachometers. Oh well.

This next card is a Jimmie Johnson Unleashed. The Unleashed cards are kinda neat, they are foily and embossed, but don't scan well. They fall 1:6 packs. Jimmie has won the last 4 Cup Championships which ties him with mentor Jeff Gordon for 3rd on the all-time list, if I'm not mistaken. I wonder how soon till Jimmie is considered the master over Jeff. They have been feuding publicly with each other the last couple races. I don't think they are on such friendly student/teacher terms anymore. It makes for nice drama though!

So there you go. Something you probably didn't expect from me, but I've got a couple other racing packs to review in the next few days or so. I haven't seen anyone else reviewing racing cards, but to be honest, I haven't really been looking either. Later.

WTF, Mavs? George Hill? Seriously?

I don't even know what else to say. This sucks!!!