2012 Pete Rose Cards

I started seeing blaster boxes of "Leaf The Living Legend Peta Rose" cards last year. Only a few boxes and they were pretty expensive compared to Topps blasters. I wouldn't mind having pack but wasn't willing to put out for a blaster.

Last week I saw yet another variation of the Fairfield repack - the 250 card cube. These used to be available but it's been a few years since I saw one. The cube (really a rectangular plastic box) was sealed in an opaque shrink wrap which left the ends exposed. On one end was a pack of these Pete Rose cards. So, of course, I bought it. I haven't got through the rest of the cards, those will be for a later post.

If I had been asked, I would have though that Leaf was owned by Panini these days since Leaf and Donruss were co-companies in the past. But apparently not. Wikipedia to the rescue. Does anyone remember Razor cards? Brian Gray founded Razor Entertainment in 2005. The company produced high end sports cards. I remember some discussion of this company (maybe in Becket magazine) but didn't know much about it. In 2010, Gray acquired the Leaf name and the Leaf Trading Card company was launched and Razor shut down.

On to the cards. There are 50 cards in the set, with an autographed parallel of each. The pack had 6 cards, no autos. On the Leaf web site, the auto cards look like sticker autos. The cards appear to be a random collection from Rose's career, with a short explanation of the photo on the front.

I'd be curious as to what my readers think of these. Did you buy any?  would you?

I'm only going to show you the back of this one, since they all look the same, with the same photo of Rose on each card. Here's an exciting photo of Pete reading a newspaper, clearly early in his career.

Card #17. Here's Pete getting a hit at Shea Stadium on 7/25/79. Leaf, of course, doesn't have a license from MLB. They chosen the old fashioned way of airbrushing (or more likely these days, Photoshopping) out the logos. Clearly a Reds uniform however.

Card #23. Pete in action against the Braves in Atlanta on 8/2/78.

I was glad to get a couple of cards with Pete as a Phillie. No matter what you say about Pete Rose, he was part of the 1980 Phillies World Series winning team so he'll always have a special place in a Phillies phan's heart. I showed the back of this one because the text doesn't really have anything to do with the photo and it was easier to show it then try to explain it.

This is from a spring training game on 3/27/82, against the Dodgers, in the Phillies Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater. Anybody recognize that guy standing up?

Here's player/manager Pete scoring the game winning run in the 10th against the Giants on 4/19/85.