This is it, this is the FINAL pack of 1994 Pinnacle!!! We are gonna roll through it quick… I really liked these cards a lot. Original photography, decent design, cool players, but after ripping 24 packs of it over 2 months, I don’t care if I EVER SEE ANOTHER PACK OF IT!!! Here we go!#295 Mike Mussina Baltimore Orioles (It still blows my mind that the Moose won games for the first time in his 18th season and after winning 20 he retired. That is really awesome… What isn’t awesome is-had he stuck around for 3 more seasons of mediocrity, he could have hit the magical 300 wins plateau and been guaranteed a ticket to Cooperstown. As is he left at the top of his game, didn’t stick around to accumulate stats, and-who knows?…)
#331 Archi Cianfroco San Diego Padres
#387 Geronimo Berroa Oakland A’s
#406 Nate Minchey Boston Red Sox (Minchey set a career high with 2 wins for Boston in ’94. Yep, 2 wins)
#419 Mariano Duncan Philadelphia Phillies
#440 Kent Mercker Atlanta Braves MUSEUM COLLECTION (Mercker won 9 games as the 5th starter for the Braves in ’94, he was on the ring winning squad in ’95 and in 1996 he was traded for Eddie Murray. That’s a career there)#490 Chris Sabo Baltimore Orioles (Had I scanned this card of the 1988 ROY you would see a nice close up of Spuds and his goggles)
#526 Mark Kiefer Milwaukee Brewers (Kiefer was 5-1 in 44 games over his career. I must have missed all 44 of those games cuz I never heard of the dude)
#500 Bip Roberts San Diego Padres (This card is a loaded weapon. Be afraid, be VERY afraid!)#504 Bruce Hurst Texas Rangers
#391 Brad Ausmus San Diego Padres (Ausmus was a 48th round draft pick who won 3 Gold Gloves and spent 17 seasons in the big leagues getting 1565 hits. Here he is saying “Wait, I’m supposed to tag you, get back here!”)
#297 Chris Gwynn Kansas City Royals (The Dodgers used their first round pick in 1985 (10th overall) to snag Gwynn out of San Diego State cuz they thought everyone named Gwynn could hit like a Hall of Famer)#403 Paul Carey Baltimore Orioles (File Carey under “Big power hitting first baseman who don’t work out at the big league level”-the Carey era lasted less than 20 games)
#367 Todd Zeile St. Louis Cardinals (Zeile spent the first seven years of his career in St. Louis and then became a tumbleweed that blew into 11 different cities over the last half of his career)
#495 Eddie Murray Cleveland Indians (Lets end this box with the greatest switch hitter of the generation)
Done, it’s done!!! Two more packs of X Press and this rip is over! Woo hoo! Oh, guess who says come back in an hour or two for more blogging excitement?
Everyone's favorite former Blue Jays outfielder Shannon Stewart, thats who! After these last two packs go up I will finally start opening my mail again and get around to posting some of the AMAZING stuff I have received these past 2 months. Go Rays! Troll out!
23 Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves (the Braves stack is getting TALL!)
#122 Bobby Abreu 1997 Rookie Houston Astros (wow, I had almost forgot that Abreu broke in with the Stros…He just signed another 2 year contract with the Angels and the guy can still score and drive in runs. He swiped 30 bases this past year and has 348 in his career-that’s 6th best active and 108th All Time. His 256 homers are 36th among active players)
#13 Tony Gwynn San Diego Padres (Speaking of great hitters… One of the best, EVER! The first HOFer in this pack)
#14 Eddie Murray California Angels (HOF number 2, the greatest switch hitter of all time! Murray hit 22 homers for the Angels in ’96)
#3 of 20 Andruw Jones Atlanta Braves Melting Pot insert, serial numbered 149/500 (There are 20 cards in the Melting Pot set and they are seeded 1:288 packs-this is a CASE HIT!!!! Numbered to 500 is like being numbered to 5 now. Remember they used to serial number to 20,000 back then. Regardless of whom it is or who gets it, this is a freaking case hit and I am excited!!!)
#81 Jim Edmonds California Angels (Edmonds hit .304 with 27 homers in ’96)
#94 Paul Molitor Minnesota Twins (This is the 3rd HoFer in this pack! Molitor batted .341 in ’96 and drove in 113 runs with only 9 homers. AMAZING!)
and card #707, a four player rookie card featuring Tigers shortstop Allen Trammel and Hall of Famer Paul Molitor!!! 
Again, this was a total and complete surprise so you can only try and imagine the complete elation of your long-winded Troll who was actually rendered speachless. 
With these two cards safely secured in the binder I was down to needing just 4 more cards to finish this set that I started working on over 30 years ago. 
From carrying packs home in my pocket on my bicycle, to discovering proper storage methods, this has been a very long quest for me. The blog-o-sphere has helped immensely! I still need to upgrade a few more cards. I used the checklists as checklists
and I often carried certain cards for good luck. Like card #580 that went in my back pocket before my first non-tee-ball Little League game. I was the leadoff hitter and second baseman on my team. We were the AJ Ahrens Paint Company Yankees and we went on to be city champions. I was 3-5 with a triple in that game. My first at-bat I got on with a bunt base hit and I am certain that I was guided in that at-bat by the man in my pocket, Rod Carew. 
As of 1978 Rod had spent his entire career with the Minnesota Twins and he owned a .335 career batting average and 6, yes SIX batting titles at this point. He has won the crown in 1977 with a .388 average. 
I really can’t believe I still have this card after all these years. I also can’t believe that I remember that game… I don’t think that I will ever get rid of these old cards, but I would like to upgrade them for the sake of the set. I do want to take a moment to thank Dan, Greg, Frank, Louie and anyone else who has helped me along the way. I want to send a huge THANK YOU! to Wicked Ortega for getting me so much closer. That package gave me the two biggest cards in the set and brought me to within 4 cards of completion, but it wasn’t the last package I got from Senor Ortega. I mentioned the package of around 50 Negro League players, 
Roberto Clementes and Rays cards which I still need to post, but he sent another one after that. This package, although it didn’t have quite the same level of star power did include three cards of superstars of their eras. Three All Stars, three more cards that I desperately needed for this set. He sent another package including 6-time All Star Hurler Vida Blue (wearing a shirt that is undeniably his own), 
Nine time All Star and main cog of the Big Red Machine, Dave Concepcion
and another 4 person rookie card, this time featuring Allen Tramell’s double play mate for many years, Lou Whitaker
who was a 5-time All Star himself. This post has said thank you many times, but those thanks are well deserved. Alfredo went above and beyond the call of blogger duty to hook me up with these cards. He didn’t owe me anything in trade, he just knew that I needed them and sent them over and I appreciate it SO MUCH! So, with those 3 cards in tow, I need just 1 more card to finish this set completely. One more card to have each and every card numbered 1 up to 726. Who is this thorn in my side coming between me and the fulfillment of a 30 year long quest? Of course, it is a member of the Boston Red Sox, it is card #295 of 1973 All Star pitcher “Spaceman” Bill Lee. 
Slap this card up on a Wanted poster or slap in it an envelope and send it my way. My card shop doesn’t have it and none of the shops in my general area have it either. It is the only thing standing between me and the completion of a set that I began to collect as a five-year-old. One last thank you to my friend Alredo “Wicked” Ortega and a promise from me that this will be the second to last post on this blog regarding ’78 Topps cards. If and when someone sends me the Spaceman card, I will post it there, otherwise all posts will be relegated to my new blog- 
Troll out.
