2008 jacksonville suns team set review

2008 Jacksonville Suns
Official Score – RBI DOUBLE
Manufacturer: Grandstand
Sponsor: Jacksonville Sports Cards, WQIK 99.1 and WTEV 47
Retail price: $8.00

The Jacksonville Suns served as the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 through the 2008 season. A word of warning that the Suns website now contains a tragic collection of hideous advertisements that have absolutely NOTHING to do with baseball that will insult your intelligence until you navigate away, or close your browser in disgust. I guess that is how all minor league websites are going to appear now that they have been taken over by Major League Baseball Advanced Media (BAM). Sad…

The 2008 Jacksonville Suns team set includes three manager/coach cards, a dozen pitchers, two catchers, six infielders, four outfielders, and five cards that barely warrant taking the time to type them up for the official checklist.

1 – [35] Brain Akin (p)
2 – [44] Mario Alvarez (p)
3 – [45] Marlon Anderson (p)
4 – [13] Rick Asadoorian (p)
5 – [38] Mark Bellhorn (if)
6 – [15] Jesus Castillo (p)
7 – [11] Ivan DeJesus, Jr. (if)
8 – [5] Glenn Dishman (pitching coach)
9 – [23] Adam Godwin (of)
10 – [8] Adolfo Gonzalez (if)
11 – [9] Juan Gonzalez (if)
12 – [36] Clayton Kershaw (p)
13 – [54] Zach Hammes (p)
14 – [43] Jamie Hoffman (of)
15 – [7] Greg Jacobs (of)
16 – [28] Shane Justis (if)
17 – [50] Brent Leach (p)
18 – [25] Lucas May (c)
19 – [17] James McDonald (p)
20 – [14] Russell Mitchell (if)
21 – [40] Danny Muegge (p)
22 – [31] Rene Rivera (c)
23 – [3] Luis Salazar (hitting coach)
24 – [12] John Shoemaker (manager)
25 – [37] Eduardo Sierra (p)
26 – [41] Tanyon Sturtze (p)
27 – [6] James Tomlin (of)
28 – [na] Carlos Olivas (trainer)
29 – [na] Trevor Doian (strength coach)
30 – [na] Southpaw (mascot)
31 – [na] Brent Martineau (CBS 47 sportscaster)
32 – [na] “The Big Show” (99.1 WQIK radio personalities)

The two cards of catchers are evenly split with photos demonstrating both the offensive and defensive views of the game. Seems like common sense to break it down like this, but you would be surprised at how many team sets fail to do so. Another plus is that the photo selected for Rene Rivera in full gear actually allows fans to see what he looks like. Well done!

The 2008 Jacksonville Suns team set also demonstrates diversity among the twelve cards of pitchers. Featured are four different uniforms, a swell mixture of live action photos with varying backgrounds and camera angles, and a few three-quarter view posed headshots where the only problem is the shadow created by that difficult mixture of bright sunlight and the bill of the player’s cap.

I am posting scans of two pitchers in spite of the fact that they are wearing the same style of uniform. Clayton Kershaw gets the nod simply for name recognition, and I know there are readers who are interested in players who have attained major league status. Enjoy!

James McDonald is included due to my bizarre attraction to baseball cards with horizontal alignment. Again, enjoy!

Of the six cards of infielders, five contain photos of players wearing a baseball glove waiting for something to happen. If Joseph Heller had a card in this set, I would include a scan of it. Since he does not, here is a scan of Mark Bellhorn’s card. At first and second glance, it would appear that Mark is working on employing the hidden base trick by covering it with dirt. You gotta dig minor league baseball!

The four cards of the Jacksonville Suns outfielders also lack variety. In each case, the player is holding a bat and standing either in the batter’s box, or is close enough that anyone could tell you that when each photo was taken would have been a poor time to leave your seat for popcorn or another brew. Representing the outfielders then is Jamie Hoffman- chosen simply because I think he is going to be one of the starters for the 2009 Albuquerque Isotopes.

Speaking of the Albuquerque Isotopes… a whopping TWENTY of the cards in the 2008 Jacksonville Suns team set are of players who are currently on track to potentially appear in the Duke City this season, either on the Isotopes Opening Day roster, or at some point during the season as roster moves in Triple-A are commonplace. Thus, the “value” of this particular team set is quite high right now, and is expected to increase once graphers begin snapping them up on the secondary market as they begin to shake off their sluggish winter habits and start thinking spring.

Overall, the photography is very strong, and the red and blue Grandstand template tends to complement the images. Card thickness is typical for a minor league set.

Surface treatment is of the semi gloss variety. Sharpie testing on the CBS affiliate broadcaster card revealed that although surface preparation is not required prior to obtaining autographs, it may actually help prevent smearing- especially if you are having a player sign more than one card and he wants to slide a freshly autographed card under the others instead of handing it back directly to you. The backs consist of four-color printing over a mottled grey background, typical player stats and short bios, and a significant amount of corporate logos.

If you act now, you can still pick up a 2008 Jacksonville Suns team set online– directly from the team for only $8.00. Just for fun, I entered the maximum allowable number of 100 sets in my shopping cart. I have no idea if they actually have that many sets left, but if they do, and you are interested, that order would run you $879.95 with sales tax, shipping and handling. Once they run out and you are forced to shop on the secondary market, expect to shell out between $14 and $20 (plus shipping) for a single set.

– Kris

Tags: Albuquerque Isotopes, Double-A baseball, Kris, minor league baseball, team set review