2008 Allen and Ginter-The HITS Revealed!

So for those of you have followed my stories about the amazing hobby box of 2008 Allen and Ginter that I ripped at Christmas time you know about the miniature shark I pulled, you know about the awesome mini Ancient Icons card (Beardy's claimed this one) I pulled and you know about my super patriotic trio of jersey swatches. You've seen all of those cool cards (and seeing them again now), but I am going to reveal the remaining two hits in this very post, so read on... No sooner than the packs were ripped that night, the cards that I needed found a home in the Ginter binder, so I don’t have many scans of base cards. I was thrilled to pull card #307 of Pat Neshek (opps, forgot to scan, eBay image) short print (could use a second for my PC). I got Carlos Pena, Akinori Iwamura, James Shields and BJ Upton from the Rays, too. I got this sweet trio of miniature awesome authors and I pulled Brian Roberts as well. What I haven’t shown you yet are the two best hits. The best pull came in the very first pack I ripped. My wife ripped her pack and got nothing and then in my second pack I pulled the first card I am gonna show you… Now before I go on-Drew from Drew from the Drew’s Cards blog posted this weekend about putting together Trifectas of certain players. By this he means having said player’s rookie card, a relic card and an autograph. It made me think of whom I have the Trifecta of… My collection isn’t too big and I don’t have many. I have 2 of the 3 of many, but I only have the full Trifecta of Jonny Gomes, Scott Kazmir, Jason Bartlett, Steve Garvey, Brian Roberts, Carl Crawford and Cal Ripken Jr. There are a lot of players I would love to add to this list… Danny Tartabull, Quinton McCracken, Steve Carlton, Roberto Clemente… Okay, I am dreaming now… Anyway, back to my magical box of Allen and Ginter. Before I continue with my hits, I do want to thank everyone who came forward to help me out with finishing off the set. After opening that second box I was only 70 cards away, now thanks to all of the awesome folks in the blog-o-sphere e I am only 18 cards away… Thanks to everyone who has offered to help me out! The cards I am still looking for are: 30,96,99,156,168,171,187,209,228, 250,284,305,307,318,328,341,343, and 348-the complete list with State Cards and minis is here. I have to say this set is going together MUCH easier than the 2009 one. I bought like 4 hobby boxes and 20 blasters and still had to trade like crazy… I got more hits in these 2 (2008) boxes than I did in all 24 boxes of ’09, too. Anyway… I love suspense and I am trying to build some. Is it working? Okay, this card came out of the second pack I opened… It is card #AGR-PF, a “swatch cut from a game-used bat of Prince Fielder, star first baseman of the Milwaukee Brewers”. This is the first bat relic I have pulled from Allen and Ginter from any year… I had long considered collecting Prince for a few reasons. His Dad was awesome! I love watching Big Daddy Cecil hit! I am really close with my Dad and I really appreciate father/son big league legacies. Aside from having our Dad’s as our heroes, Prince and I have a few other things in common… We are both heavily tattooed with really big neck tattoos and we are both vegetarians… I guess the similarities end there. He was born in Canada and outweighs me by about pounds, plus he makes more money in one day than I will make in 10 years, but… The guy can ball though. He led the NL with 141 RBI this year and his 46 homers was 1 shy of Pujols for the league lead… So yeah, I was pretty psyched with that pull. Outside of sets I have zero cards of Prince. I have a knack for pulling his cards, but as long as Ed from Roll out the Barrel collects him, I will keep on sending them to him… I do know that Ed already has this card, so I think I will hang onto this one… That was a pretty good pull, I was pretty thrilled with it, but it didn’t compare to the hit I got out of the FIRST pack I opened… I wish I scanned the back of this one because I really like the design with the parchment and quill, but I did scan the front… It is card #AGA-PF. This card is “bearing the signature of Prince Fielder, star first baseman of the Milwaukee Brewers”. That’s right-in my first two packs (right off the top) I pulled an autograph card and a bat card of Prince Freaking Fielder!!!! I could not believe it! I can count the number of autographs that I have pulled in my lifetime on one hand-I normally just have really bad luck when it comes to ripping packs. There was something special about this box. It ended up producing 3 jersey relics, 1 bat relic, 1 certified (on-card) autograph, 1 Ancient Icon, 1 World Leaders and 1 shark card. Not too shabby… Anyone have a rookie card of Prince that they want to trade so I can complete this Trifecta? Like I said, I have the worst luck when it comes to ripping boxes, so I am feeling pretty good right about now… My 2008 Ginter want list can be found here. Thanks to everyone for reading…. Also, another HUGE thank you to Duane from the Democratic Roadkill blog for making this all possible!!! You rock Duane!!!!!!! Freezing my Troll ass off out here! Go Prince! Oh... Don't forget to place your vote in the 2009 Gummie Awards poll!!!! My 2008 Allen and Ginter wantlist is right here. Troll out!