The Electric Friar

$2007 Topps Finest "Blue Refractor" Kevin Kouzmanoff Autograph$

Pack Break: Two Packs of 2008 Allen & Ginter

Posted by ElectricFriar on September 16th, 2008 in Pack Breaks

I purchased these two packs over at Sports Card Forum a few weeks ago. I just haven’t gotten to posting about it until now. One thing that struck me is the seemingly high number of players posing with their bats. I busted two packs, which amounted to sixteen total cards. Of those sixteen, nine featured players posing in some sort of fashion with their bat. That’s a bit above 56%. In fact, when you break down the seven cards which didn’t feature a bat, here’s what I found:

Harriet Tubman, doesn’t count. She was never a baseball player, but organizer of the Underground Railroad. So having her pose with a bat would just be plain ludicrous.

Two of the cards were pitchers – John Maine and Brandon Webb. While they are National Leaguers and do pick up the lumber from time to time, it does make sense that a bat would not figure prominently in their cards. [singlepic id="135" w="" h="125" mode="" float="" ]

Russell Martin and Jason Varitek, both catchers, are shown in their catching gear instead. [singlepic id="123" w="" h="125" mode="" float="" ]

That’s five cards with a plausible reason why they do not feature a baseball bat. Which leaves only Ryan Garko and Mark Texeira as the only cards missing bats. I wonder if their bats not available at the time their photos were taken? This may be a good side project – figuring out how many position players in this set aren’t posing with a bat.

[singlepic id="137" w="" h="125" mode="" float="" ]Where’s my bat?

Now let us break down the different poses featuring bats.

First you have the classic “Bat Over the Shoulder” pose. You can do it with two hands like Garret Atkins and Adrian Beltre, or one hand a la Jimmy Rollins. Or you can be like Ty Wigginton and do it looking like a crazy person. [singlepic id="126" w="" h="125" mode="" float="left" ] [singlepic id="127" w="" h="125" mode="" float="" ]

Then, there’s the classic “Swing the Bat” pose. Capably demonstrated here by Rickie Weeks and Carlos Beltran. [singlepic id="129" w="" h="125" mode="" float="" ]

Or you can do the “Point the Bat” pose. You can point it at the camera, like Derrek Lee. Or you can go the “Fertility God” route, like Nick Johnson. [singlepic id="132" w="" h="125" mode="" float="" ]

And of course, there is the “Use the Bat as a Prop While You Look to the Sky, Knowing Full Well That at Age 37, You’re Probably Not Worth 4 Years, $52.4 million“.