2004 Topps "Cracker Jack" Baseball cards
Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd! Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks!
2004 Topps CRACKER JACK Major League Baseball card set is designed to match the extremely popular original 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack cards.
The baseball card set was released in March of 2004. Cracker Jack teamed up with Topps to re-introduce this design to modern collectors, and it did so with success. As always with the famous Cracker Jack products, each pack of cards contained a "Secret Surprise" sealed card that could be either a sticker parallel card, checklist, relic card, autographed card, or even an authentic original Cracker Jack card! That's right, Topps bought back 550 original 1914 CJ cards and randomly inserted them into packs of 2004 Cracker Jack cards. The average odds of finding an original Cracker Jack card are 1 in 2598 hobby packs, and 1 in 3084 retail packs.
To entice hungry collectors, Topps even included one bag of Cracker Jacks inside each box of 2005 Topps Cracker Jack baseball cards!
Oh yeah, back to the cards...
A beautiful but simple red background with a fantastic image of the player is pictured on the card fronts. All of the details that vintage collectors have loved about the original 1914 Cracker Jack cards make a comeback in the equally as beautiful 2005 Topps Cracker Jack set.
After looking at the backs of the cards, most collectors will notice that some of the card backs on the are upside down. Topps did this on purpose to replicate the 1915 Cracker Jacks. In 1915, a custom Cracker Jack collectors album was available to collectors via a mail-in offer. The cards were created with upside down backs so that when a collector would lift the card, the reverse could be viewed right side up.
The base set has four parallel sets also, which are: Mini (red), Mini (blue), Mini (white) and the Mini Stickers. The Mini White cards (meaning they have a white background) are 1/1's (limited to only 1 of each card).
The base set includes 237 numbered cards, but of course there are several interesting variations. The set also includes 40 short-printed cards, with the SPs seeded 1:3 packs.
The short prints are:
#1 Jose Reyes, New York Mets
#13 Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays
#20 Scott Rolen, St. Louis Cardinals
#35 Brian Giles, San Diego Padres
#50 Eric Gagne, Los Angeles Dodgers
#51 Ichiro, Seattle Mariners
#60 Richie Sexson, Arizona Diamondbacks
#80 Sammy Sosa, Chicago Cubs
#87 Raul Ibanez, Seattle Mariners
#100 Mark Prior, Chicago Cubs
#108 David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox
#109 Austin Kearns, Cincinnati Reds
#126 Mark Teixeira, Texas Rangers
#145 Rich Harden, Oakland A’s
#163 Brandon Webb, Arizona Diamondbacks
#165 Marcus Giles, Atlanta Braves
#166 Angel Berroa, Kansas City Royals
#167 Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
#172 Bo Hart, St. Louis Cardinals
#175 Javy Lopez, Baltimore Orioles
#179 Delmon Young, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
#182 Jeremy Reed, Chicago White Sox
#184 Casey Kotchman, Anaheim Angels
#186 Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
#192 B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
#193 Khalil Greene, San Diego Padres
#195 Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee Brewers
#196 Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals
#198 Vito Chiaravalloti, Toronto Blue Jays
#200 Jon Knott, San Diego Padres
#206 Kyle Sleeth, Detroit Tigers
#209 Lastings Milledge, New York Mets
#210 Rudy Guillen, New York Yankees
#211 Blake Hawksworth, St. Louis Cardinals
#214 Erick Aybar, Anaheim Angels
#216 Tim Stauffer, San Diego Padres
#220 Josh Beckett, Florida Marlins
#226 Miguel Cabrera, Florida Marlins
#232 Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
#236 Jorge Posada, New York Yankees
There are also 10 short-printed variations:
Alex Rodriguez (short print has #17 on back)
#3 Albert Pujols (short print has him swinging)
#25 Jim Thome (short print is fielding)
#95 Gary Sheffield (short print is Yankees)
#140 Curt Schilling (short print is Red Sox)
#178 Edwin Jackson (short print has #104 on back, same as Kevin Brown)
#181 Felix Pie (short print has #80 on back, same as Sammy Sosa)
#201 Dioner Navarro (short print has #236 on back, same as Jorge Posada)
#224 Ivan Rodriguez (short print is Tigers)
#229 Jason Giambi (short print has him fielding)
Finally, there are three non-short-printed variations:
#55 Dick Hoblitzel/Dick Hoblitzell (correct spelling)
#66 Nap La Joie/Nap Lajoie (correct spelling)
#86 Burt Shotten/Burt Shotton (correct spelling)
2004 Cracker Jack "Mini" Autographs
Topps stated these could be found on average of 1 in 258 packs. The set includes six players: Gary Sheffield, Javier Vasquez, Brandon Webb, Marcus Giles, Luis Castillo, Miguel Cabrera. The Gary Sheffield card is reported to be limited to only 50 copies.
"Secret Surprise Signatures"
An 11 card set featuring: Aubrey Huff, Brian Giles, Cliff Floyd, Dustin McGowan, Dontrelle Willis, Felix Pie, Jerome Williams, Mike Lamb, Merkin Valdez, Scott Posednik, and Scott Rolen.
There are two different "Relic" or "Game Used" sets in the 2004 Topps Cracker Jack product, one being called "1-2-3 Strikes You're Out" and the other being "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." Both sets feature a terrific selection of some of the biggest names in baseball for the 2004 season.
