2009 Bowman

I read on the blogs that 2009 Bowman, Topps Series 2 and Upper Deck Series 2 were out. So last Friday I took a tour of the big box stores and scored packs of Bowman and Topps and a blaster of Upper Deck. Here's the Bowman.

I bought 13 10-card packs of the Bowman for $2.99/pack. I'd have done a little better with a blaster but didn't see any.

The base cards have a black border which continues a trend since 2001. The border is a little wider this year, cutting down on the picture size. Also, the the facsimile signature box is a bit larger. I got 49 base cards. I like the baseballs with the player uniform number and position in the bottom corners. The cards also feature silver foilThis year, some of the cards are horizontal. I don't think the design lends it self to a horizontal orientation. Also, this Pujols card represents another problem in general with the cards. There are a lot of photos with the crowd in the background. Albert in his red and white uniform almost disappears into the red and white crowd.
As they have for many years, the rookie cards hava a green interior border. I pulled 13 (2 of them gold parallel).
Now here's something I hate. I saw the Victorino and thought, another card of Shane running the bases with his tongue between his teeth. When I compared it with the Topps card, I see it's the same photo!
This Tejada card, while not exactly the same photo are clearly the same play, the pictures must be only seconds apart.
The set has gold, blue, red and orange parallels. I got 6 of the gold, none of the others. Do you like baseball cards which feature a pitcher batting?
Bowman continues with the Prospects set with different numbering from the main set. I still find this confusing but at least I'm used to it now. I got 21 of these and another 5 gold parallels.
The Prospects Gold parallel. The Prospects cards feature a blue interior border, and as last year, a different design from the base set.
Topps got the World Baseball Classic series cards this year. The cards have the same basic design as the Prospects cards but without the facsimile signature block. These come in gold, blue, orange and red parallels but I didn't get any. There are 20 of these and I pulled 5.
Another annual practice is to include Chrome Prospects cards, 2 per pack. Here's Neil Ramirez again. I got 21 of these. No refractors.
The other Chrome cards are the WBC cards. I got 4 of these. This guy is Alexander Smit, signed by the Twins, from The Netherlands.
The only refractor I got was one of the WBC cards. Li is from China. These are numbered to 599.