COMC haul #22: Party like it's 2002

(Note:  all COMC haul posts can be accessed here)

2012 may be history in just a few hours (or maybe it already is by the time you're reading this), but today's COMC haul post seemed like a good time to reminisce about the way things were 10 years ago with a binder page-worth of J.J. Putz PC pickups.

Putz is a Michigan native who pitched for the Wolverines from 1996-1999, when he was a sixth-round pick of the Mariners.  Interesting fact courtesy of Wikipedia:  he roomed with Tom Brady while there.

Seattle made him their closer in 2006 before flipping him to the Mets a couple years later.  He then signed with the White Sox before ending up with his current team, the Diamondbacks, as a free agent in 2010, and has pitched well for them since.  In fact, he's arguably the Michigan pitcher who's experienced the most success among current Wolverines in the bigs.

Over the last few months I picked up nine of his rookie year cards from COMC, and those go along with my only other Putz from that year--his Topps Traded RC.  Still, this puts me almost halfway to his 23 non-1/1 cards from that year, so that's a start.  Here's what I got:

J.J. Putz 2002 Bowman Chrome RC

J.J. Putz 2002 Bowman Chrome Refractor (#154/500)

J.J. Putz 2002 Bowman Chrome X-Fractor (#233/250)

J.J. Putz 2002 SP Authentic RC (#0223/1999)

J.J. Putz 2002 Topps Chrome Traded Black Refractor (#15/100)

J.J. Putz 2002 Topps Chrome Traded RC

J.J. Putz 2002 Topps Traded Gold (#2002/2002)

J.J. Putz 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man Electric Rainbow (#32/40)

J.J. Putz 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Connection RC (#1007/1500)

The Bowman Chrome Refractor and Topps Chrome Traded Black Refractor were my favorite of the bunch, but the UD 40-Man parallel was a close number three.  The way it looks kind of made me wish the whole 40-Man set had looked that way, but regardless, it's a very cool insert.

Rainbows weren't The Thing 10 years ago, so there aren't many parallels of the cards you see above, though I'm not complaining since that makes it that much easier to collect a player like Putz!  His IHAS count jumps to 27, including two 1/1s, and before much longer I'll sail past 10% of his non-1/1 print run, though I expect that'll keep growing at least a bit since he's actually been good enough to merit inclusion in a number of sets the last few years, a trend that I hope continues.

So back to that reminiscing thing:  on New Year's Eve in 2002 I would've been back home celebrating the holidays after the fall semester of my second year at Michigan.  I was eagerly anticipating yet another New Year's Day Michigan bowl game after a season in which the Wolverines defeated MSU but lost to both Notre Dame and Ohio State.  Michigan would be heading down to Tampa to face an SEC team (Florida) in the Outback Bowl.  Wow, that sounds an awful lot like THIS year, doesn't it?!  By the way, Michigan won that game, 38-30, mainly on the back (and legs) of RB Chris Perry and his three TDs.  Maybe QB-cum-everything Denard Robinson can duplicate that effort?

I'll do my best to throw up a quick post tomorrow celebrating the new year and discussing said bowl before I head home to watch the game and party (in that order).  That said, I hope everyone has an outstanding (and safe) HAPPY NEW YEAR, and GO BLUE!