2009 Baseball Card Season Now Open

I finally got my 2009 card fix in the form of two boxes of 2009 Topps.  The first card I saw was Andy Sonnanstine of the Tampa Bay Rays.  All in all I was pretty happy with this set.  Topps finally got its head out of its rear end and finally made the card about the picture instead of the border.  I just wish they had the crispness of the photo that Upper Deck has.  There are some spectacular photos in the Topps set that just aren't as crisp as they could be but overall it isn't a major problem.  I pulled an interesting card, probably the most intriguing one I have ever pulled.  It is an Ian Kinsler Silk Collection card numbered 12/50.  It is a standard size card that has a small silk card of Ian Kinsler inside of it.  There is a small opening in the plastic which you can feel the silk through.  I also pulled a Prince Fielder jersey card.  The best part of this card is that the jersey piece came with a stripe.  Joining the Fielder is a Justin Morneau game used bat card.  Not bad pulls if you ask me.  Both will go in my game used collection.

Two other interesting pulls were World Baseball Classic redemption cards.  I entered the code found on the back of the card on Topps' website and registered so we will see what two cards I get in return and what they look like.  Something to look forward to.

As for the Yankees in this set, well it is an interesting mix.  First off, there is no Derek Jeter.  It looks like Topps is holding him back until Series 2.  What they should have done is hold back the big free agent players like C.C. Sabathia (who is pictured in his Brewers uni) and Mark Teixeira (who is pictured in his Angels uniform) until Series 2 and let them be the reason to dig into Series 2 instead of random stars being left out of series 1.  There were plenty of Yankees rookie cards in this set though which made it fun for me.  Francisco Cervelli, Humberto Sanchez, Juan Miranda, and Phil Coke round out an interesting class.  Cody Ransom, Hideki Matsui, Xavier Nady, Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Chien Ming Wang, Carl Pavano, Ivan Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, and Mickey Mantle rounded out my Yankee pulls.  I also managed to grab a Darryl Strawberry and David Justice Ring of Honor cards.  It was a nice and interesting Yankee grab.  Plus, I can look forward to Series 2 cards of Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher, Andy Pettitte, and possibly Edwar Ramirez, Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, Jose Molina, Brett Gardner, Melky Cabrera, Dan Geise, Alfredo Aceves, Jose Veras, David Robertson, and Phil Hughes.  This should be a fun collecting season.