#bowmaning

Sometimes, you've just got to beat the odds.

Lately, I've been having good luck in doing so.

Two blasters of Gypsy Queen netted me two jersey swatches and two rare Travis Snider mini parallels.

When 2013 Bowman came out this past week, I fully expected my luck to change.

Of course, I have always had quite excellent luck with Bowman.

Just not this good.

Two blasters of the stuff pulled me in a few nights ago as a freshly stocked Sprawl*Mart shelf beckoned to me after the more-often-than-not barren Target shelves left me longing for some guys  have never heard of.

It was an easy spend. And as the first thing I've opened since GQ, it felt good.

Of course, Bowman 2013 is no Bowman 2012, 2010 or even 1997. But it's a nice set, and something not everyone devotes much time to. And I like it. It's collecting, not conforming, so I think I will stick to Bowman, while everyone bitches and moans and mopes and waits up Series 2 comes out and then they can bitch about that again, too.

So let's get into it. Bowman, of course, has base cards. This year, the design just isn't that great. The card stock is nice, the cards have a good weight, and the sheen is nice.

There's also that new-card smell.

Very few stick out as favorites, photograph-wise, but these will do for show-and-tell:

That;s a greast shot. Mostly because you no doubt know what just happened. I'm a bit puzzled as to what "blue" team catcher that is in the background. My hunch says AJ Ellis.

That's a great looking base card. Notice both of these blokes are cut off around the knees. This is a theme in 2013 Bowman, and I hope it doesn't continue. On the other hand, I wish Starling Marte all the world of continuance in his performance. I'm becoming a big fan of his, and am also starting up a nice collection. Might have to rainbow this card with at least the colored paper parallels.

I like prospect, unlike pretty much everyone else of late (GET OFF MY LAWN!!!), and Bowman is chock o'block of them.

That last little bit was brought to you by my Volcanology professor, a rather uppity Scots(wo)man.

Schoop is one of the few bright spots in the 2013 Bowman Prospects class. It's just not that good of a year.

As with every Bowman release, there is"The One." The One prospect that fully numb-brained prospectors lose their shit over, and this year, Carlos Correa is The One. An argument can be made that Byron Buxton is also The One for 2013, but I didn't pull his card. So, there's that.

PS Correa is better.

Anywhoooo, there are also gold cards.

I wouldn't mind if the gold cards went away from Bowman. They work better for The Mothership, so just leave it. The good news is this one is going away, with the help of a well-time trade with a Kemp Kollector, well-known in the parts.

While I prefer the simplicity of the Top 100 sets of years past, the chromification of the insert this year isn't so bad. I wonder, though, what they'll do for the Chrome release.

Double Chrome?

These fall at 1:12, so pulling out two of them from 16 packs was quite welcome. I would welcome more of these.

Going against my pre-set theme of posting from common to scarce are the International, or if you're 'Merican!, hometown parallels. Luckily I got a Blue Jay. Unluckily, it's Tyler Gonzales, who excites me about as much as steamed celery. That's a Texas flag behind him, if you were wondering. Yet, if you cannot recognize a Texas flag, you're probably from, of, I don't know, Croatia or something.

The one behind the substantially-awesome-name Socrates Brito (say that outloud to yourself) is a Dominican flag. If you rip enough of 13 Bowman to pull some Internationals, chances are you'll see quite a few of those.

The Cody Ross and Jurd Weaver flaggers similarly show off the draped flags of New Mexico and California, respectively. I really like the Ross, which is something I never thought I'd say. I'm curious as to whether Nick Swisher is in the set or not, as his flag would be that of Ohio - the only US state not featuring a rectangular field to their flag.

I like minis, and I like refractors. However, these fail as the former. They're not very mini at all. More like the minis that Topps has been stuffing down our throats in '12 and '13. I did, however, pull some prominent Prospects, both of which are hanging in the Bigs right now.

That is if Rondon hasn't walked in seven runs at once yet.

But he throws 100 MPH!!!

Meh.

Hey! MOAR refractorz!! Sort of. I guess these are paper refractors, but don't call them that. They're silver ice parallels and normally, they drop 1:24, yet I picked up two in 16. I'm down with it. Aside from one being a Met, the other is Jairo Beras, a lesser-known but still very legit prospect in the, you-guessed-it, Texas Rangers org.

But like I said, I really spanked the odds with these boxes. How much so? How about two cards falling at 1:34 packs:

 ...I'm always a fan of Bowman autographs, but it seems like every auto is on a sticker now. Think the companies are listening to our cries for on-card autos? Think again. In case you cannot read the foil on the autos, they are Danny Salazar of the Cleveland Indians organization and Jamie Callahan of the Sawx. He'll fit in at Fenway if he ever makes it

Last but certainly not least, the highlight of my two boxes, falling at a wholesome 1:67:

Mmmm. Orange. Elvis is following me around of late after I criticized his new mega deal with the Rangers. But that's fine, I like him as a player. And I like orange.