26, All Stars and low numbers.

Here's pack 26, there's nothing here.

Pack 26 (+7)
(duplicates are indicated by bold text)
70 Tim Wallach
75 Darrell Evans
90 Bert Blyleven
185 Mike Krukow
200 Bill Ripken
205 Brian Dayett
312 Jose Nunez
328 Bill Dawley
225 Steve Garvey
424 Len Matuszek
436 Donell Nixon
333 Rupert Jones
515 Von Hayes
530 Jim Clancy
535 John Franco
615 Sid Fernandez
620 John Farrell

I've gone over this a few times, but it's really starting to irk me a bit that I'm not pulling any low numbered cards. I still can't find any printing information out there about these cards, but I'm not really sure where to look. Google doesn't seem to do much for me, and being away from the hobby for so long, I don't know if there's anywhere else I should look.

I imagine that this being a first set, the print runs were probably relatively low to guage interest and sales. But not one single digit card out of 26 packs (442 cards!) and only one out of who knows how many packs I bought back in 1988. That just doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.

We're nearing the home stretch with this thing and I don't see myself make any progress on those first 40 cards. Any ideas what's up with this?

*****

And as I mentioned yesterday, I want to talk a bit about the All Star game.

I'm happy to see Chipper starting this year, and happy to see Brian McCann make it for a third straight year being voted in by the players. But I see the Braves all the time, and that's what I want to talk about.

The All Star game is something special because it gives fans a chance to see players they never get a chance to see play. All of that has changed a little over the past decade with Fox Sports Net and ESPN showing more games than in the past, and satellite packages that give you just about every game every day.

I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that there's so much baseball out there, it's great. But it takes a little something away from the All Star game. It's still fun to watch and it always will be, but it's just not as exciting any more.

I remember looking forward to it every year just because I'd get to see so many different players. The only baseball I got to see in the late 80's through the mid-90s was the Braves on TBS and the Saturday Game of the Week on NBC, CBS (when they bothered to show a game) and then Fox.

The All Star game is a whole lot of fun and I'm still looking forward to it, and I'll be on the couch for it week, but it won't be an all day build up of excitement.

All of this said, the only criticism I have for the All Star game is the idea that it means something. It's an exhibition game and should have no bearing on home field advantage for the World Series. What a stupid idea that was.

At some point during one of yesterday's seventeen innings, Braves announcer Joe Simpson theorized that this idea stems from the outrage of the 2002 tie. I wouldn't be surprised if he's right. But why should players from the entire league fight for one team's home field advantage?

It's a break for the players, let them play the game and let them have fun, and let us have fun watching it.