Inbound and Down #45: Too Many Verlanders

Dennis over the years has been very good to me.  In the comments of my post from the other day, he congratulated me on 7 years and called me "SNI guy".  I guess that's an appropriate moniker considering my love for serial #'d cards over the years.

Dennis has also been very keen on keeping that moniker intact for me, as he has contributed to the SNI baseball and hockey sets on a regular basis.   Out of the blue last week he sent me another envelope, 20 cards in total to put another small dent in the set.

The last couple of envelopes that Dennis has sent have had quite a few Pacific cards from the early 2000's inside, and this one was no different.  There are 20 cards above, all from the 2002-03 Pacific Heads Up set. 

You have to look closely, but you can see a stripe across just more than half of them, which indicates that they are "Hobby Ltd" parallels, numbered to 299.  The rookies on the bottom are numbered to 899.  As with most sets, most of the rookies didn't pan out.  The notable exceptions are Joni Pitkanen who played over 500 games in the NHL, and Antoine Vermette who played in his 1000th career game in the NHL last season as a member of the Anaheim Ducks.  At age 35 he may find it tough to get another contract in the NHL, although his faceoff skill and durability may help him find a PTO with someone.

Dennis, thank you very much for the envelope, it really is appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert