2000.
The St. Louis Rams beat the Tennessee Titans to become NFL champions, making my college town in Southern Illinois freak out a bit.
The Los Angeles Lakers come back into the championship fold, giving Kobe his first title over the Pacers. On the WNBA side, the Houston Comets continue to dominate with their fourth straight title (over New York again).
Evander Holyfield wins the Heavyweight Boxing title for the fourth time.
Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France. Oh, oops. Wait. No he officially didn’t.
Tiger Woods wins every major golf tournament except the Masters. That green jacket went to Vijay Singh
The New Jersey Devils deny the Dallas Stars their second straight Stanley Cup.
Major League Baseball dissolves the National and American Leagues as separate legal entities, which I would have thought was done a long time ago, but wikipedia says it was this year. They’re never wrong.
The Yankees win yet another World Series title against the Mets. I think I’ll call it “The Subway Series.” Pretty clever right? I just thought of it.
And in 2000, card manufacturers released 306 cards of Greg Maddux that I deemed worthy of my collecting efforts.
Thanks to the generosity of reader Jeremy, originally mentioned in our landmark 500th post (and in my 1993 Overload post, and 1994 post, and 1995 post, and 1996 post and 1997 post and 1998 post and 1999 post), I now have 30 more of those cards as I did before.
2000 Before Jeremy – 27/306 cards – 9%
2000 After Jeremy – 57/306 cards (including zero upgrades) – 19%
1999 was the first year to reduce the number of cards, going down by 250, and 2000 fell another 100. That’s honestly quite amazing, and my overall card spending is grateful.
In the many years since Jeremy’s package, I’ve acquired 24 more 2000 cards, bringing my total to 81 for the year ’00, and putting me at over 26% for that year. Still, as always, there’s plenty of progress yet to be made. For now, let’s focus on what Jeremy sent.
That is not his fan autograph signature
As always, we start at the top of the alphabet and work our way down. In 2000, Bowman still hadn’t caught parallel fever on the paper side. I only need the gold parallel #/99 and the retro-future insert. Not too bad.
Rays from el rey
Crown Royale is back with the die cuts once again. If you covered the date in the corner, would you be able to tell which year is which? I can’t, but I still like the die cut.
Ruby plated crowns are a thing, right?
The red foil Pacific used was probably the best part about their cards. Although if I were to get the Platinum Blue, then maybe THAT would be the best.
Gaming through this one
I’m pretty convinced that by this point Fleer forgot how to make good base sets.
Relegated to the bottom
I mean, who wouldn’t find this league leader card appealing?
Stepping into/out of a portal
Even the Metal cards are lazy. Sure there’s etched foil, but it’s a random-ass pattern and nothing’s happening in the background.
Like a giant coming over the wall
Alright, maybe the acetate cards are the best thing Pacific has done.
Should have used the red foil for the diamond suit
I appreciate this insert set, but it is a tiny bit bland. A little bit of background in that inner rectangle would have gone a long way
My favorite Pacific product
About a year ago now, I opened a box of 2000 Prism. Maybe one day I’ll post that, too… I didn’t get any new Maddux cards there. Here is the regular version.
When in doubt, look up a guide online
This is the rapture silver with an assumed print run of 916. Now that I have the two most common ones out of the way, I only need 14 more cards from the set!
Color wheel
The 1999 Private Stock looked better. This is a sturdy card that is trying to be like Topps Gallery, but it needs some happy little trees.
The dominion is cloudy
The Skybox Dominion set has several cards and insert parallels that I don’t think I’ve ever seen like the Double Play Plus or Eye on October. Maybe some day.
Gold glover
When did SP Authentic become so bland? Was it always that way? I think it has.
Does the logo need to be in the pennant?
I need only 3 more Stadium Club Chrome cards. That’s the same amount I need from the 2017 set where it was treated like an insert. Think about that.
Subset, not an insert
I hate to complain this whole time, but I think the “gallery” part got away from Topps here. At least the card stock has some tactile interest.
Okay, but why are they “Classes?”
The best years of Gold Label are when they put the class number on the front of the card, like this one.
Here’s class 3
For this year, I’m missing the Gold parallels for each of them, all numbered to 100. I’m still largely in the dollar or less phase of my collection so it may be a while.
Is it like an alternate Stadium Club?
And for the HD set, which was a thing, I’m “looking for” the Platinum parallel. Fewer cards in 2000, but a lot of them are low numbered.
You’re gonna be a star, kid
In a strange turn of events, Topps Stars scaled back its product even more and I only need one parallel for each of the two base cards. Metallic blue. That should look cool!
Time for Name the Tek Pattern
Pattern #10 – Position Position Position
The triumphant return of the Tek naming game is immediately deflated by having a card that names itself, mostly.
Ice cold blue
I bet you can’t guess what cards I’m missing from this set. Yup, the low numbered parallels.
False advertising
Not a hologram, don’t care. But, I do only need 2 unnumbered inserts here.
Do you know what I’m missing?
So, clearly we’re into Upper Deck territory, so we’re nearing the end. This is the Legends set. There’s the snippet explaining why he’s a legend if you didn’t think so already.
Low numbered parallels and a relic
Oh, and here’s another card that basically says the exact same thing. 4 Cy Youngs deserve 2 cards, though.
Don’t care for the bar code vibe
MVP is a set that kind of wore out its welcome as well. I’m really cynical today, aren’t I?
Not standing, though
Okay, here’s a good one. I like cards that utilize texture. Ovation has the bumps and grooves. That’s cool enough to get a pass.
Send the design back to the minors
And now we’re back to the bland stuff. Another common theme with Upper Deck is overlapping boxes.
More overlapping boxes
Shouldn’t the boxes have things in them? Wouldn’t that be a better attitude to have? Maybe the Stats that are so full of “tude.”
Kinda looks like the lightning’s coming from his butt
We end things with an insert from the Vanguard set. I like the regular base cards. This insert isn’t too bad. There are too many parallels of it, though. So while I tried to end on a positive, it’s mired by the recurring problem of collecting.
But, how about this positive? I’m finally in the home stretch of this massive package received from Jeremy over five years ago. I’m sure he’s long abandoned reading the blog, but I often think about his generosity and I’m determined to share more of it soon. Thank you very much!
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