Ultimate Super Jumbo Bip

(Don't forget to check out today's CMC card: 800 - Bob Ayrault, Time Will Come)



I opened my second Ultimate Super Jumbo Pack the other day, second of six, and among the cards I got was this one to your right. Yes, that one. Seriously. The card, the official 1987 Bip Roberts Topps card, will become more important later in the post, especially considering the fascination that the former Padre received in the blog world earlier this year. And this importance that will manifest itself later in the post is CMC-related.

Anyway, as I posted recently, I picked up six of these Ultimate Super Jumbo Packs on our vacation to my home state of Iowa. These were repacks with a variety of cards, 50+, for just a buck. I couldn't resist grabbing them all. My first pack I took three posts to get through. This one, I'll try and tackle in one.

Each of the packs promised one guarenteed Hall of Famer. This pack had two, a Steve Carlton 1984 Topps and Wade Boggs 1998 Topps. That's them up top. This is actually a perfect Carlton to have related to his blog. His pitching coach in 1983, the year the Phillies went to the World Series, was Claude Osteen, a coach in the CMC set.

As far as interesting cards, there was this 1982 Topps John Henry Johnson with a certifiably 1982 photo. There was a Donovan Osborne 1993 Score Select card of Donovan Osborne. Bo, over at Baseball Cards Come to Life! had a discussion on Osborne's first name recently.

Another player Bo has covered also popped up in this Ultimate Pack. There was Jeff DeWillis' 1988 Score card, a card DeWillis confirmed to Bo was his only card majors or minors.

DeWillis, the back of his only card reads, singled in his first major league at-bat on April 20, 1987 and in the same game the catcher DeWillis threw out two runners trying to steal second. Then, five days later, he hit his first major league home run. He played only 13 games for the Blue Jays that year, his only major league time.

Then there were the CMC players. In these kids of packs, I'm always looking for players who were in the CMC set in other sets. In this pack I found six, seven counting the actual CMC card of John Mizerock included in the repack.

Though I've gone through 250 of the 880 cards in the set, I haven't yet written about any of these seven players. There was Shawn Hillegas' 1992 Score card. Hillegas pitched parts of seven seasons with five clubs. His card back indicates he made a "strong comeback" in 1991, after spending most of 1990 in the minors. He was a solid middle reliever for the Indians, the card reads.

Hector Villanueva's 1991 Score card was included. The back of the card includes the phrases "shaggy mustache," "almost be called rolly-polly," "well liked" and "no matter what, the man can hit." Villanueva hit six home runs in 68 at bats by mid-season, mostly against lefties, the card reads. He hit one in his second major league at-bat, a 430-foot shot off Ken Dayley. "Let's assume that Dayley is one guy who isn't too happy with Hector" the card concludes.

From there, there was Derrek May's 1994 Donruss card, a card with limited information on the back. There were two of May's card in the repack. The previous pack had a couple doubles. But a double of a CMC set member, I can live with that.

This was also the second repack to have a Chris Hammond card. Here, he's with the Reds on his 1991 Leaf entry. Hammond had a sensational year at Nashville in 1990, the card reads, earning him a spot in the Reds' rotation for 1991.

There was also Dave Otto staring down his card owners on his 1992 Topps card. Otto attended the University of Missouri, the card reads, "he was a superb pitcher and one of the Big Eight Conference's top hitters."

The other CMC set member in the pack was Torey Lovullo. He was on his 1994 Score card, with the Angels. Lovullo stuck in the majors in 1993, the card reads, after coming up briefly three times before. "He's been a perfect filler" an unnamed observer is quoted on the card as saying. "With Torey we keep ticking and don't skip a beat."

That brings me to why Mr. Roberts is an important member of this pack. The evidence is below:

There were five, count them five, Torey Lovullo cards in this repack. Like I said with May, it's not so bad to get doubles, in this case a good half-Bipping, when it's a CMC player.

658 - Claude Osteen, So Many Scenarios, 7/30/10