Here is the only true (as in first year of production before the rookie card rules) Hamels rookie card. Ah, you may say, what about the 2002 Bowman Chrome Draft card? And I would respond with a comment about your astuteness and how you could surely read the list of available rookie cards for said player. And then you would say, do you not read the same lists that I do? And I would say, I do indeed, however, I do not agree with the assertion that you have just posited.
After all, in yet another strange twist from 2002, Bowman decided to package the Draft product as two separate sets with chrome cards being inserted at a rate of two per pack. Why build one 165 card set when you can build two at the same time and never get close to either? I'm not sure if this has been apparent before, but I would like to express disdain for all parallels. As a standalone set, Bowman Chrome is fine, but I will now be disdainful of the Bowman paralell mania that apparently began as an innocent gesture to have autographed base cards that were not parallels of any other card in the main set.....yes, making sense yet again. This has only become worse through the years as the Bowman proliferation of the multi-set beast has expanded and devoured the prospecting collecting set into a neverending chase for the virtual parallel (chrome), the cast aside parallel (gold), the cool kid's parallel (refractor), and the ultimate going to stay up all night jumping because I finally got one parallel (superfractor). Stamp it, number it, and call it a day.
Back to Mr. Hamels. He was a risky first round pick because he had had a broken humerus in high school, I believe. What a happy, clean shaven face expectant of the career ahead. I do like this card, it was so nice to rip open the envelope where it was stored. This is the beginning of phase III.
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