A tale of four packs - Donruss, Heritage and Opening Day

Oh man, has this past weekend morphed into one crazy week.

On Sunday (once I got the date correct), I got some great cards at the Urbandale American Legion Sports Card Show (I'm saving those for another upcoming blog). Later that afternoon, the Iowa Wild hockey team recognized me as "Hero of the Game" during Sunday's 2-1 win over San Antonio. That's where they take a moment to recognize a member of the military during the game.

Monday proved to be a long day, as I hooked up with my bagpipe band. After a traditional Bloody Mary breakfast, we marched in Des Moines' St. Patrick's Day parade, and played at the downtown Marriott hotel. We then settled into the Royal Mile British Pub, where we had a couple more drinks and played a few more songs. Our evening concluded around 8:30 p.m., after playing at Dublin Bay restaurant in Ames. That's me in the middle with the bass drum.

 

When I fianlly got home, my wife informed me our washer had died after 16 years of faithful service as she was trying to get the laundry done.

So tonight, while we were pricing washers and dryers, we swung by Target to pick up a couple of birthday cards. While my wife shopped for the birthday cards, I decided to do a little card shopping of my own, picking up a 7-card pack of Topps Opening Day, a pair of 8-card packs of Donruss and a 20-card Jumbo pack of Topps Heritage.

What's funny, is the pack I expected the least from provided the biggest bang for my buck (or in this case 99 cents). For that price, I have to admit I was a bit impressed with what I pulled (not that it takes much, actually).

In the Topps Opening Day pack was a Michael Cuddyer Blue Foil S/N 1016/2014 (38), a 3-D Topps Opening Day Stars Giancarlo Stanton (ODS23), a Matt Davidson RC (174) and Travis D'Arnaud RC (214). I also got a Albert Pujols (66),  Sean Doolittle (167), Evan Longoria (198).

In the two packs of Donruss, I manged to scrape together three "decent" cards. First and foremost is a Padre player who's making quite an impact this Spring -- Tommy Medica Rated Rookie (45), as well as a Rickey Henderson Donruss Stat Line Season (187) S/N 82/130 and a Donruss Breakout Hitters Manny Machado (14).

I am not at all impressed with the 2014 Donruss. Besides the airbrushed logos and uniforms, the cards are too glossy and retain none of the charm and coolness of its '80s predecessor. Among the other cards I pulled were Alex Gordon (47), Allen Craig (48), Brandon Phillips (64), Paul Konerko (73), Craig Kimbrel (77), Paul Goldschmidt (127), Eric Hosmer (131), Giancarlo Stanton (132), Marlon Byrd (151), Kyle Lohse (169), Aramis Ramirez (174), Osborne Smith (189), and Pete Rose (192) (Really?).

The only memorable card I pulled from the Topps Heritage pack was a Red Border Jared Weaver (140). Other cards I pulled included 2013 American League Batting Leaders (1), Brett Wallace (45), Francisco Liriano (73), Jenrry Mejia (93). Daniel Hudson (105), Lance Berkman (113), Mike Leake (128), 2013 World Series Game 5 (136), Juan Pierre (146), Ryan Ludwick (173), Jason Vargas (209), Doug Fister (214), Junior Lake (220), Jonathan Lucroy (263), Ryann Howard (290), Jhonny Peralta (288), Munenori Kawasaki (312), Kyuji Fujikawa (348), and Flashbacks Juan Marichal (JM).

I'm not sure how I feel about the 2014 Heritage set yet. On first glance, the design appears to be rather cool, with some nice-sized photos and the unique pennant team logo, but I'm not quite sure whether I really like them or not. Maybe if I bust a couple more packs, I can let you know what I really think.