Who Says Sox Are A Bad Christmas Present?

Recently I've been the recipient of a couple of awesome trade packages that it's high time I got around to showing.  The first of them came from my good buddy Mark Kaz over at This Way to the Clubhouse.  I've shipped him a couple of PWEs worth of Mets cards in recent weeks, and in return Mark sent a truly awesome package of Red Sox randomness...

I have only a couple of cards from the 2003 Flair set which were picked up in re-packs, but Manny Ramirez here represents my first Red Sox card from this particular set.

I get mixed up with all the Bowman/Bowman Chrome/Bowman Draft/Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects sets over the years, but I do enjoy the cards.  That's especially the case when they depict a really obscure player from Red Sox past like this one does.  Aaron Bates' 5 games played with Boston in 2009 constitutes his entire MLB career to this point, although supposedly he's still kicking around the Dodgers organization.  The poor guy went 4-for-11 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI and a walk, seems like he should've gotten some more at-bats with those numbers.

Kolbrin Vitek was a first-round pick for the Sox back in 2010, but he never panned out.  In fact, he never made it past AA ball, and filed his retirement papers this past Spring...

Ryan Kalish had the most success of the three players I received Bowman cards of in this package.  He appeared in close to 90 games with Boston between the 2010 and 2012 seasons, even clubbing 4 HR and 29 RBI.  Last season he saw a good deal of action with the Cubs, and he's apparently been picked up by Toronto heading into 2015...

Inside the envelope were a trio of these 1981 Topps Super Team Photos.  These are the first that I've received, and for those of you who don't know they are much larger than your traditional trading card:

Joining Dwight Evans are teammates Carney Lansford...

...and Jim Rice.  These are really cool oddball items featuring some nice portrait shots.  I'll have to try to track down the rest of them at some point.

Those weren't the only over-sized cards that Mark included though.  This 1983 Donruss Action All-Stars Yaz card brought back some memories.  When I was a kid I had the Nolan Ryan from this set, can still recall it to this day!

Continuing on with the oversized oddball theme, there were a couple of cards from the 1986 Topps Super release, again a first for me.

These are larger than a standard trading card as well, roughly the same size as the '81s.  The best part about these though is they have complete card backs:

A couple of other Red Sox legends from this set joined Bill Buckner in the envelope in the form of Dwight Evans...

...and HOFer Jim Rice.

Perhaps my favorite part of the package was this "so terrible it's awesome" Roger Clemens bonus pack, which promises a dozen unique Rocket cards!

Out of the 12 cards contained within, I was able to pull 4 that were needed for my collection.  Not too bad, I'll take those odds for the junk wax era any day!

Wow, that is a lot of green!  This is 1991 Donruss at its worst if you ask me.

This, on the other hand, I would consider 1991 Donruss at its best.  Always loved the Diamond King subset, regardless of year.

Here's one from the 1990 Topps Mini League Leaders set, another nice oddball.

In closing, my favorite Clemens of the bunch, from '88 Donruss, a set that looks much better on the Red Sox.

Mark, thank you for the awesome and thoughtful package.  I count our getting to know each other and our back and forth trades as one of the best things to happen to me hobby-wise in 2014, and look forward to another year of swapping cardboard in 2015!!!