Pack of the Day 120: 1994 Fleer Ultra Series 2

Here is another pack from the retail card purchase that I made a couple of weeks ago. This pack of 1994 Fleer Ultra Series 2 Baseball came from the repack I got. It promises 17 cards, with the back of the pack guaranteeing that one of the cards will be an insert. I wasn't really collecting baseball when this pack came out, so for the most part only the big names are familiar to me.

And here's the insert from the pack. It's an Ultra All-Star card of Cal Ripken Jr., who certainly qualifies as a big name. He won a couple of MVP awards, a World Series ring, appeared in approximately 3 million games in a row, went to the All-Star game a buttload of times, and eventually waltzed right into the Hall of Fame.

I recognize three of these dudes, so that's a pretty good percentage so far. Eric Davis threw me off for a second, because I was really only familiar with him as a player for the Reds. His first stint with them roughly lined up with my family living in Ohio, where I went to my first (and last) professional baseball game. I had to look up his Baseball Reference page to make sure it was the same guy. I also recognized Palmeiro and Bell. Sorry, Todd Benzinger, I have no idea who you are. Apparently he picked up a World Series ring in the same year that Eric Davis got his, though.

Another 3 for 4 scan for me. Curt Schilling is kind of a loudmouth but he also helped to keep a complicated board game I (try to) play (Advanced Squad Leader) alive by joining up with Multi-Man Publishing to buy the rights from Hasbro when the original publisher (Avalon Hill) finally died. I'm also somewhat familiar with Larry Walker and Chan Ho Park. David Nied is the odd man out here for me.

The card backs are photo-heavy, with three pictures of the player and just a couple lines of stats. I guess that's all right, but I think I prefer a smaller photo and full career stats on my card backs.

I guess this was a decent pack for me as far as name recognition goes. Shawon Dunston is the most recognizable name for me here, although I am familiar with Bret Boone and Alan Trammell. Dunston was apparently a member of the Hall of Hanging Around, because his numbers don't seem to support the 18-year career he had. Tony Tarasco hung around for a little while, but his name isn't familiar to me at all.

And here is where things fall apart for me. Mike Lieberthal is the only name here that rings a bell for me. Those other guys don't show up on my radar at all. Maybe if I thought hard enough about it I could convince myself that I've heard of John Burkett and Rod Henderson, but science says you can manufacture memories of events that never happened if you try hard enough. Dave Staton is a guy I'm pretty sure I've never heard of before.

And that's the end of that pack. It was nice to get something that I'd never opened before. That Cal Ripken insert is decent if you like zany red backgrounds on your cards. The rest of the cards feature piles of gold foil and okay photos, although there's a bit too much torso-mania for me. I probably wouldn't seek out a box of this stuff, but one pack out of a repack was okay.