Off Hiatus Baseball: The First Shot is Fired

Y'all outside the SEC know that we SEC fans tend to support each other when we go out of conference, and we like to point out that we are in the SEC when we are winning out of conference as well:

When we play in conference, though, all bets are off. The rivalries in the SEC are legion and legendary. There's Georgia/Florida, Alabama/Auburn, Georgia/Auburn, Alabama/Tennessee, Tennessee/Florida, Ole Miss/Mississippi State, and Steve Spurrier/Everyone, to name a few.

The war is now extending to card collecting, and we can add Jaybarkerfan/Off Hiatus to that list of internecine rivalries.

As with all wars, sometimes it takes hostilities a while to get underway. The first shot came from Alabama on Monday, complete with its own banner:

Those were the messages on the front of the pennant, and this is what was on the back.

Inside, there was a single card inside a taped-up toploader...it read:

(sorry...I had ripped some of the tape off before I got that scanned)

You know when JBF starts a war, he likes to bring the big guns out. So, I was not surprised to see something awesome inside the toploader:

Now, I know that some folks were not pleased to have this card show up in their mailbox. The Daily Dimwit, in particular, was quite unhappy to have this card replacing a 2012 Bowman Platinum Auto/Relic Refractor of Jose Altuve. Basically, this was a card manufactured specifically to replace a bunch of redemptions that never could be satisfied. It has no card number, no serial number, and nothing about Gary Carter other than a picture and a sticker auto.

I still love it because I collect Carter, and I probably would never have been the wiser about this card's existence if it hadn't shown up in my mailbox.

A heck of a nice first shot, don't you think? But that is far from all that came in this first bubble mailer.

The rest was shininess and serial numbers. Like all these Ryan Brauns

Serial Numbered to 250

Bowman's Best Insert

Serial Numbered to 249

Serial Numbered to 240

Serial Numbered to 500

Serial Numbered to 249

Some Spahnie as well!

2015 Museum Collection, SN/99

Copper Framed Parallel

There are always a bunch of Rickie Weeks's cards available to those who look or ask, and JBF must have been looking to get rid of these for a while!

Gold Century Proof, SN/100

A Dave Nilsson Refractor from 15 years ago. Seriously. Who still has these cards and isn't a Brewers' collector?

JBF does, that's who.

But don't leave big Prince Fielder out, either:

Neither of these were serial numbered, but a jersey swatch and a shiny Finest insert? Yes, please.

By the way, do you think the card companies targeted the larger guys for relic cards so they'd have more uniform to work with and therefore more cards to make?

Oh, back on track. SEC! SEC!

Wait. Ben Sheets only went to Northeastern Louisiana. Why would a Baton Rouge kid go to Northeastern? Trust me -- LSU Fans have asked this themselves on their message board, Tiger Droppings, especially since Ben's cousin Andy Sheets (who played in the bigs himself) had attended LSU already. Likely answer: Skip Bertman didn't think Ben was good enough.

I think this blue refractor is good enough, though, as is this really screwed up parallel that someone at Topps in 2007 thought was a good idea -- a photo-negative version of Dave Bush peering eerily over Sheets's shoulder. Talk about nightmare fuel.

Okay, back to the good stuff. Last PC guy in the package:

That one is serial numbered 1318 of 1952, in honor of that 1952 rip-off set that Topps put out for rookies in 2007.

Finally, here are the rest of the cards. Again, shiny happy and serial numbered are the words of the day here!

SN/300

Ugly, garish, pink, and SN44/99

SN/554

SN/549

Sepia, SN/75

Die cut and SN100

Stickergraph SN/150

Yo this is purple Marquis baby, are you down with it?

This was a good first salvo in the battle. There is a strong possibility, though, that I am going to win the first battle. In fact, trust me when I say that that will happen. My return fire went out in the mail today, JBF.