Revolution Shadow

That almost has a dark fantasy sound to it, doesn't it?  This is one of my favorite of the Pacific parallel types.  I like the dark coloring of the foil.  It is also a fairly rare numbered card, numbered to just 99.

Card #388: 1999 Skybox Thunder Rant #37

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Skybox
SET: Thunder
NUMBER: 37
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: Rant
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Skybox Thunder took the place of the Circa sets as sets appealing to the younger generation.  With bold colors and ridiculous text on the back, the cards were somewhat embarassing.  This is the Rant parallel with purple foil lettering.

Red Auto

I have been acquiring Sandy's new stuff in a strange order.  I still do not have the base auto or the regular insert, but I have two of the serial-numbered autos now: the red and the blue.  This is the red and it is numbered out of just 50.   Oddly, I got it for a lot cheaper than I did the blue, which was numbered out of 199.

Card #387: 1999 Pacific Paramount Red #70

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Paramount
NUMBER: 70
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: Red
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Ho hum, another Pacific parallel.  Paramount is one of my least-favorite sets from Pacific, and I say that as a pretty big fan of the brand.  It just did not add anything really new.  At least the red parallels had nice colorful foil.my co

Card #386: 1999 Pacific Prism Holographic Purple #41

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Prism
NUMBER: 41
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: Holographic Purple
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Here is another of the parallels from 1999 Pacific Prism.  I don't like this set quite as well as the next year's set when there were many more parallels available.  Still though, the parallels in this set were pretty damn cool.

Card #385: 1998 Donruss Elite Aspirations #54

YEAR: 1998
BRAND; Donruss
SET: Elite
NUMBER: 54
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: Aspirations
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I always liked the Donruss Elite parallels from this set.  I like die-cut cards in general, and I also like the colors that were used.  The deep red of this card is particularly impressive.

First Recollection in Awhile

It has been quite awhile since I have been able to add one of these Recollection autographs to my collection.  This was not one of the ones I wanted the most, but it is definitely a nice one that I am very happy about.  It is the All Star subset card and features Alomar in his chest protector, so it is a pretty good addition to my collection.  It also crosses one of the cards off from the ones that I tried to acquire last year in an ill-fated deal.

Card #384: 1997 Bowman Chrome International #94

YEAR: 1997
BRAND: Bowman
SET: Chrome
NUMBER: 94
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: International
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I really like the International parallels of this set.  The player's country flag makes up the background of the card.  The Chrome version is even nicer than the regular Bowman card as well.

Card #383: 1999 Pacific Prism Holographic Blue #41

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Prism
NUMBER: 41
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: Holographic Blue
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Going back to my Jason Varitek focus, Prism has been one of my favorite Pacific sets.  The parallels were significantly different from each other and from the base cards.  So when I picked up my Sandy Alomar Jr. collection again, I had to complete the Prism rainbow.  The blue is my personal favorite, and also the rarest.

At Last...

I have been hoping that something like this would happen for a long time and now it finally has.  Sandy Alomar Jr. has some new cards.  I always figured that Archives would be the most likely set to finally do it, and it was.  Sandy Alomar Jr. was the very definition of a fan favorite in his years with the Cleveland Indians.  So I always thought he would make a good addition to the Topps Archives Fan Favorites set.  And that is exactly what has finally happened.  This is the blue parallel and is numbered out of 199.  Alomar has a few other cards in the set as well.  I will be picking them up as I can.  This was a good start though.

Card #382: 1989 Broder Rookies Superstars Final Series NNO

YEAR: 1989
BRAND: Broder
SET: Rookies Superstars Final Series
NUMBER: NNO
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: NA
TEAM: San Diego Padres

There are about a million of these things.  Which is good, but it makes the Padres the team for whom Sandy Alomar has the second-most cards.  Even though he only played in eight games for them, compared to the White Sox, for whom he played parts of four seasons.

¿Amigos de Beisbol o Hermanos de Beisbol?

This card lists them as friends, but obviously Sandy Alomar Jr. and Roberto Alomar are brothers.  It always seems strange to me to see them side by side.  Sandy is huge compared to Roberto.  Their father was more Roberto's size.  This was the last card I needed from Pacific's Amigos de Beisbol insert set.  There were three such inserts featuring Sandy.

Coming Soon: Archives released and actually featured a number of new Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.  I have not picked up all of them yet.

Card #381: 1988 Broder Rookies IV Final Series #10

YEAR: 1988
BRAND: Broder
SET: Rookies IV Final Series
NUMBER: 10
SUBSET: NA
INSERT: NA
TEAM: San Diego Padres

Just another unlicensed Broder card here.  These things and the Star sets make up the bulk of my Padres cards of Alomar.