Mike McCready, the lead guitarist from Pearl Jam played the National Anthem July 7 at Angel Stadium and during batting practice, he came over to the camera well closest to first base - signing autographs for the pros who got him on all sorts of photos and records.
I wasn't even aware McCready was going to be making an appearance, so assuming he was the guy in Pearl Jam who is apparently a Mariners fan - I got him to sign a 2009 O-Pee-Chee Seattle Mariners team card.
There was four box-bottom cards - Alfonso Soriano, Miguel Cabrera, Derek Jeter and Grady Sizemore.
There were scratches on the box-bottom cards already because of the 'normal' wear-and-tear of handling a box perhaps - but it was fun to hand cut the cards individually with a scissor, even though the process may literally be more of a hack job, than anything remotely precise, exact or professional.
I paid $37 for the box, which is probably the equivalent of two blaster boxes and about six more packs - plus the idea of having a hobby box, instead of retail product [s] in my hands.
I'll concede this isn't a product you bust for hits or future value - it seems more like a $25 a box product which seems to be designed for beginning collectors to be able to build sets perhaps.
The non-glossy base cards [by my count I pulled 161 out of 600] are nice looking, somewhat reminiscent of the 1976 Topps/OPC design - but then the borders sort of resemble the 1989 Topps design as well.
The ink from the text on the back of some of the cards had left imprints - on top of the one-per-pack black parallel cards, usually in the middle of the pack.
1 New York, New York (30 cards, 1:36): A.J. Burnett
It would have been nice to have at least one autograph [1:216 actual odds posted on wrapper] and/or one game-used memorabilia card [1:108 actual odds posted on wrapper] inserted in the box - I'm not busting this for nostalgia and there maybe other boxes [in the $30-$40 range perhaps] where I can pull a random autograph and/or memorabilia card.
O-Pee-Chee hockey David Wright insert - only card that tangibly reminds me, that this product was supposed to be inspired by the Topps / O-Pee-Chee brand.
I pulled 35 black parallels, one blank-backed black parallel of Andy Pettitte - and one mini black parallel of Kerry Wood [1:36].
Mark Sanchez was the big man on campus at USC and was the No. 5 overall pick by the New York Jets in the 2009 NFL draft - he made an appearance at Angel Stadium to throw out the first pitch a few weeks ago and towards the end of the game, I saw where he was signing for kids. I knew he'd be making an appearance, because I'd heard on TV, but I ended up bringing nothing of significance to get signed.
When I approached him to get his autograph - he asked for my name and personalized my 2009 O-Pee-Chee Angels team checklist card.
I'm pretty sure I overheard the woman standing next to me [who I think was with Sanchez' party] say the reason Sanchez personalizes - is because he doesn't know where the autograph will be going [meaning they might be sold or whatever].
A person I knew got what I assume was a 'cheap football' personalized and signed - it looked like Sanchez had 'spanked it' letter for letter.
Despite the deal with the personalizations - Sanchez was seemingly accomodating and signed without a problem. The person I knew took a 'photo-op' with Sanchez and I should have taken one as well, but was really 'too shy' to ask for one.