Top of the Order

The latest PWE to arrive as part of the never ending back and forth between Mark Kaz of This Way to the Clubhouse and I was possibly the most random assortment yet.  For example, I wasn't even sure what this Roger Clemens game card was when I first laid eyes on it.  Turns out it's from a game Donruss released in 1995 called Top of the Order.

Mark must have run across a nice stash of these at some point, because he included four in this particular PWE.

I didn't bother to take it to the level of researching how to actually play the game, but these are certainly nice oddball additions to my Red Sox collection.

From there let's take a look at another odd card from a set I'd never seen before...

This one hails from 1995 Classic Five Sport.  Aside from baseball and basketball I'm assuming football and hockey are on the checklist, not entirely sure on the fifth sport.  A unique addition to my Nomar collection in any event.

My third Red Sox card from 2003 Fleer Rookies & Greats.  Maybe not the world's most exciting design, but with only 75 cards in the set I think the trio that I have may represent a full Sox team set!

Continuing on with the random and obscure, I doubt (m)any of you have heard of Reid Engel before.  I certainly hadn't prior to receiving this package, but there were a pair of Reids to be found...

Reid never advanced any further than AA ball and hung up the spikes for good after the 2009 season.  The various parallels that exist of this card, two of which I have here, plus a TriStar Projections base card are the only officially released Engel cards that I can find.

This is my first 1999 Pacific Invincible card, and I have to say that I dig the design.  Like most collectors I've heard weigh in on the subject, Pacific is hit or miss for me but you certainly have to admit that they were innovative at the very least.  This particular design has the inset portrait printed on a plastic type material and looks pretty slick in hand.

Closing out this envelope is this killer "Seventh Inning Stretch" Looney Tunes card from Upper Deck.  This one brought back some memories for sure, as my brothers and I had quite a few of these cards in our childhood collections.  This is the first one that's made it into my present day adult collection, and it's perfect.  Not only does it fit my Nolan Ryan collection, but the animated character is rocking a Red Sox uniform so it doubles as a new Sox card as well.

Mark, you've outdone yourself this time, every card in this post but the Manny is from an entirely new set for me!  Thanks as always, I packaged up a return PWE for you this morning that will be in tomorrow's mail...