Back in My Bowman's Arms

No matter how hard I try, year after year, I always end up buying Bowman Baseball. The past few years I tried to avoid it altogether and probably ended up with more of it than I've had in many years. So much for avoiding it. I'm pretty sure that the reason I am so drawn to the Bowman line of products is because it was the product to have for the best rookies of most players when I was younger and heavily into collecting. Ahhhh, the '90's...

This year was no different. I told myself that I wasn't going to buy any packs of Bowman this year. Well, that lasted all of 3 or 4 days past its release date(the only reason it lasted that long is because I didn't see any on shelves any earlier. When I finally found some, this is what I came across.

Like I said, I'm a sucker for Bowman, but I guess if you get technical, I didn't buy any packs since this was a hanger box. I like this year's design. The one flaw is that the use of foil makes it pretty tough to read the player's name. Otherwise, I think it's a solid design for prospects, rookies, and veterans. Here are the highlights from my 35 card box.

I did OK with the prospects. It's hard to read, but that is Kris Bryant and his fellow, highly touted Cubs prospect Kyle Schwarber. I also pulled a Nelson Gomez who is apparently one of the Yankees' up and comers.

I hear this Colin Moran kid is pretty good too, and it doesn't hurt that he played college ball at nearby UNC. I decided to show this Altuve for two reasons. First, I think it's a great shot of him tipping his cap(batting helmet). Second, I'm on the fence about whether I'm going to start collecting him as well. The box contained a few rookies too. Jake Lamb was on fire for the Diamondbacks before hitting the DL. This box also had a Javier Baez(not shown). I sure hope he gets his act together, because I apparently am a magnet for his RC's so far this collecting season. Let's move on to the chrome portion of the program.

Again, not too shabby. I got another Yankee up and comer and a top prospect of the rival BoSox. Archie Bradley was throwing well for Arizona before joining Lamb on the shelf. I think I bucked the odds when the next 2 cards fell out of the middle of the box.

Two minis in one box. I really like the shimmery(is that a word?) background on these. As much as I hate it, Castillo is likely to be quite a force in the Boston outfield at some point this season.

But wait, that's not all!

Here are 4 of the 5 yellow parallels and a few serial numbered parallels just for good measure. This would have been a perfect box for a Cubs fan, as the Albert Almora yellow rounds out a trio big name farm hands(or former farm hands).

I haven't heard of Chism from the Mets, but the green parallel is numbered /99. It's far too early to tell if all the hype around Yasmany Tomas was warranted, but I'll take this gray/slate colored parallel limited to 499. I guess maybe that's supposed to be the 'silver' parallel. 

There are the highlights of the box. No big 'hits', but I definitely think it was a good box. I wish I could say that now that I've ripped a box, that my desire to open more of this has been satisfied, but that is not the case. Guess I'll see what the next trip to Target holds.