The Long Story of This Card

1998 Collector's Choice #125 Jaret Wright

Jaret Wright is a real Cinderella story. He came outta nowhere. Well not literally nowhere, but from the other side of Cleveland. Ever since he was in middle school, he wanted to play in the NHL, hopefully for a future hometown Cleveland team when the NHL next expanded. He didn't exactly get his expansion wish, but eventually the IHL Cleveland Lumberjacks started play in the small arena near his house. He went to games as often as he could, and, as it turns out, minor league hockey tickets are dirt cheap in a city with NFL, MLB, and NBA teams, so he was practically a season ticket holder.

Jaret went to a small private high school, which didn't have a big budget for a hockey team, so he and his pals started a club team with some generous monetary help from their parents. However, Jaret knew he should help out too, so he tracked down the owner of the Lumberjacks (which is much easier to do for a minor league owner), Dr. Stevens, know as Doc, and talked him into giving him a job. He didn't really want to sell beer or tear tickets, so the owner told him he could drive the Zamboni. This very public task made Jaret a little nervous, but he figured it couldn't go too wrong. In the worst case, what could happen? He'd make the ice too smooth? He took the job despite not yet having a driver's license.

It is cold down near the surface of a hockey rink's ice of course, which Jaret hadn't really considered when he arrived for his first day of work. After shivering through the first intermission and consequently bumping the boards and glass with the Zamboni a few times - ok, more than a few times - he called home and asked his mom to bring him a hat a jacket. She felt a little silly for failing to do the typical mom thing and make him take one in the first place, but it was 80 degrees outside, so she could forgive herself. She grabbed his warmest pullover, which had the Indians logo, and figured she might as well get his matching fitted wool Indians hat so he'd look spiffy. Moms like using words like spiffy.

With 2 minutes to go in the second period, Jaret got his jacket and hat. He wasn't so sure about wearing another professional team's logos, but he didn't really have time to worry about it. He fired up the Zamboni and lined it up at the entrance to the ice. When he rolled into the ice, the public address announcer noticed his Indians gear and decided to have some fun with it.

"Ladies and Gentleman, we have a special guest tonight, straight from your Cleveland Indians!"

The crowd roared, as crowds often do when their favorite teams are mentioned.

"We're not sure who he is of course, but he definitely looks like he belongs on grass and not ice."

Jaret could hear the laughs from the crowd, and felt a little embarrassed. He did the only thing he knew how to do: roll with it. He tipped his cap to the fans as he drove by, and they all cheered for him loudly as he passed. It was mostly just to have fun, they weren't really seriously cheering him. When he finished smoothing the ice for the second period, he dismounted from his vehicle and got ready to go home. His boss stopped him and said, "whoa whoa whoa, we've got a 2-1 game here, this could easily go to OT, you're not off the hook yet."

Jaret watched the rest of the game, but no more goals were scored, so he finished cleaning up and went home for the night. He really started thinking about the crowd reaction, and wondered if that would happen any time he wore his Indians clothing. He decided he'd wear it another night to see how it went. The team was on the road for 10 days, giving him some free nights to practice his skating and shooting. He noticed he was slowing down a bit.

The next 10 days passed quickly, and Jaret went back to work. He decided to bring a baseball along as a prop to go along with his baseball attire. When the first period came to a close that night, he drove the Zamboni again, and the announcer played up his Indians gear again. Jaret decided to go for it, and flipped the baseball in the air just a few feet. He caught it and the crowd cheered. He started throwing it a little higher, and it was actually kind of impressive, and delighted the crowd. When he finished his circuit, the Doc  was waiting for him. He thought that his 3 trips around the rink might be as far as he was going to get in this job.

Instead, Doc loved the gag. He ordered one of his lackeys to go straight to the sporting goods store and buy a few dozen baseballs. He didn't want anything fancy like an official Rawlings ball, but just the cheap ones with the weird sawdust-like substance inside. He directed Jaret that he would be tossing these balls to the crowd, reasoning that if Jaret could catch balls while driving, he certainly could toss a bunch of them if he didn't to worry about the catch. A Lumberjack tradition was born.

When he went out for the second intermission, the crowd cheered him without any prompting from the announcer. It seems everyone loves a gimmick. Jaret tossed one of his baseballs into the crowd, catching a fan off-guard and plunking him in the head. He flinched a bit, but the guy was ok and his friends were all laughing at him. Everyone in the small arena was paying attention now though, so he was able to safely toss the baseballs wherever he saw some kids, hoping the parents or surrounding adults would make sure they got safely to the kids.

The team noticed ticket sales started increasing. They finally found the secret to marketing long ago discovered by companies like Disney and McDonald's: hook the kids, and they'll annoy their parents to buy your product. The team ordered 5 dozen baseballs for every game, with another 2 1/2 dozen on reserve in case of extra intermissions for overtimes.

Jaret kept up the tradition, throwing out 60 or more balls a night. He thought it'd be cool to get some into the upper deck, but he could never quite reach it. The goalie on his hockey team told him he could help him out, and grabbed his glove. He told Jaret to just wind up and throw him the ball as hard as he could after every practice; his goalie glove could take the heat. Over a few weeks, Jaret's throws started getting harder, and he was also able to really place the baseballs near the fans he wanted to get them. The hard throws weren't a problem, as most of the arena was now bringing baseball gloves to the hockey games.

During one of the after-hockey throwing practices, Jaret's high school's baseball coach, Coach Weber, happened to see these two hockey players tossing a baseball around. Always on the lookout for someone who could play, he watched for a few minutes. He was amazed how hard Jaret could throw, and his accuracy.

You can probably imagine what happened from there. Jaret became a two-sport star at his high school, and got drafted by his hometown team. But it was baseball, not hockey, that would become his career. When Upper Deck showed up at the stadium to take photos of all the rookies, Jaret asked them if they wanted some off-the-wall shots. Since Upper Deck was putting out about 20 sets at that time, the answer was yes of course. They needed lots of different photos to avoid reusing the same shots and poses. Jaret told the photographer to meet him at the hockey arena in an hour, and went by his parents' house to pick up his old pullover. He called a pal at the arena to let him in, and got his photo taken sitting on that fateful Zamboni. Of course, due to trademark and licensing issues, Upper Deck couldn't show the Zamboni or any Lumberjacks logos in the background, but they really liked the shot. It was cropped, the background was blanked out, and it became Jaret's favorite card.

This has been a fictional completely true story written for Nachos Grande's Contest, Round 1. Everything on Jaret Wright's Wikipedia page about his career and personal life is a lie!

eBay Wins #39

I picked up this 2009 Heritage card for 6 cents, my theory being that if I could get all the base cards that cheap, I'd have the set for an easy sum.

2009 Topps Heritage #366 Ervin Santana

Also, Ervin is on my Fantasy Baseball team this year, the Uggla Sticks, and is doing alright for us. See? I can be mature and root for an Angel despite the Pujols situation. This shows real growth on my part. I deserve a cookie. Mmm, cookies.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2011
Total Spent	$38.43
Per Card	1.911 cents

Mailing This One In

You've gotta love a pun title, don't you? It's an excuse to write a joke that doesn't even have to be funny.


Fuji threw one final question to us bloggers to really challenge us to write an interesting post, by giving us a seemingly mundane topic: Which method do you find best for shipping cards?

I don't think I'll be breaking any ground here, but so far I haven't had any complaints of packages arriving in bad shape. Like most bloggers have written, it all depends on the number of cards being mailed.

Up to 4 cards, depending on thickness

For a small trade, I'll get a toploader thick enough to hold all of the cards with a little slack, and pinch the top together in the middle in such a way it doesn't damage the cards. Then a piece of plain scotch tape can hold it together without any danger of getting the cards sticky. With cards protected this way, I've had no trouble with a plain white envelope.

4 cards in an extra-thick relic toploader

Up to a 1/2 inch tall stack

These cards go into a team bag, and a toploader is placed under and over the stack. Then a liberal amount of tape is used to keep the precious cargo between the hard plastic. We're not worried about leaving residue on the toploaders, as these are mostly reused from previous trade packages. Up to 2 of these stacks can go into a small bubble mailer, or 4 or more in a large one.

40 cards or so. Yes, there's a team bag in there

Anything more

If I have at least 100 cards (or enough thick ones to equal a stack of 100 regular cards), I'll usually buy a 200 count box and tape the holes to make it a bit more water resistant just in case. I learned one handy trick from Sam at The Daily Dimwit: use crumpled pack wrappers for packing material. Typically I'll only put the wrapper-facing card in a sleeve, and trust the box to protect the rest. I don't think I've mailed any boxes bigger than the 200 yet.

By the way, these photos are crystal clear, if you can't read the cards, you've obviously got vision problems. My wife did not leave our nice camera at work, forcing me to an old one I've kept around from about 2001 with a broken screen.

Thanks to Fuji for making us work so hard on this contest. The schedule was a little grueling at the end, but it forced me to write some quality posts to intersperse with some of my dryer documentary-style posts.

A Fantastic Contest at Fantastic Catch

Go check it out. You could win a slot in his group break consisting of:

2006 UD Artifacts

2006 UD Ovation

and 2012 Topps Series II

as detailed in this post. Don't forget to get your entry by following him, and by leaving your favorite trade of the season in the comments. Good luck!

Nachos Grande Contest, Round 0 entry

And now, an awful fictional story based on this card. Nachos says jump and I say "How high, sir?!" Also, let me commend him on starting the round count from 0, it warms this programmer's heart.

2012 Allen and Ginter - Crack the Code - Price Laughton

Detective Donald Russ pored over his case files, and zeroed in on one Price Laughton. Even her name sounded fancy. She was the window of Thomas, the town's big businessman before his peculiar death. She professed to love him, but seemed to care much more about his success. She also showed favor for the murder victim in his current case, Lennie Guttman. Don had a fleeting thought about how it was slightly coincidental that these two men, loved by the same woman, were now dead.

Russ called in Lt. Leaf, who had more information from completing interviews of the parties involved in the murder, including Ms. Laughton.

"What's Price done with her life?" Russ asked. "Has she always been in town here?"

"Oh no, lots of travel around the country and the world before she met Thomas."

"Were these just vacations?"

"Well, sort of...some were more like really long dates."

"Dates?"

"Yeah, she always seemed to be in the company of guys who could afford to take her anywhere."

"Anyone we'd have a file on?" Russ was hoping for some sort of lead here.

"Well, no criminals that we know of, at least not our type. Plenty of white collar crime I'm sure. Heh heh heh. Let's see, she was with J.R. Ewing until right before he got shot. And J. Howard Marshall before he left her for Anna Nicole Smith, and died shortly thereafter."

"She seems a little unlucky, wouldn't you say? Between those two guys, Thomas, and now Lennie?"

"Come to think of it, she does. She was also associated with a state lottery winner for awhile, but he suddenly got very paranoid and went into hiding. He kept rambling about not having enough money to pay the price of...wait...was he talking about a price, or Price?" Leaf wasn't the brightest guy, and felt pretty good about making this connection.

"I have no idea, but we need to find this guy; everyone else from her past is dead. Did you get his name?"

"No, he claimed the prize anonymously using a shell corporation, Diamond King Enterprises. What an odd name. Maybe we can search for some of their registration paperwork with the state."

"Good call, you check that out, and I'll check the rest of these files. Let me know what you find."

My Prized Possessions

Now Fuji wants to know: What are your three most prized possession in your collection?

I thought about this for awhile before I started writing. Should the answer be my Ozzie Smith rookie card I featured a few posts ago? Or my Mark McGwire rookie card? Maybe one of my autographed baseballs? Those are pretty good cornerstones of my collection, but I decided to go to a few of the most unique items, that would be hard to impossible to replace if lost or sold.

I think I'll do this David Letterman style, starting from #3

"And now, from the home office in Wahoo, Nebraska, The top 3 most prized possessions in the Tenets of Wilson collection."

<Drumroll>

#3. A special edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, sold outside Busch Stadium after Mark McGwire's 61st homerun.

I actually have 2 of these since they were 50 cents apiece and it was easier not to deal with making change in the crowds. As I've written before, I tried to project out his homerun pace a few months in advance to try to see #62, so I came close but didn't quite get there. I'm sure there were thousands of these printed, but I'm not sure how many have survived the nearly 14 years since that day.

<Audience laughs awkwardly at the non-joke>

<Drumroll>

#2. A 1987 Cardinals World Champions Pennant.

I didn't call attention to it, but this pennant appeared on my blog before in the background of another shot. So why's it a prized possession? I'm sure any Twins fans already know. The Cardinals didn't win in 1987, they lost in 7 games. This must have been printed up to sell in case the Cardinals won. I think something like this would be much harder to find these days, since MLB seems to control the merchandise much more tightly. I really don't remember where this pennant came from, because I didn't know enough about baseball history to find it significant until it had been hanging in my room for years. I'm surprised my Dad never mentioned anything about it before I noticed, since he certainly remembers who won 1987.

<Audience looks utterly confused at the lack of jokes>

<Drumroll>

And finally, the #1 most prized possession in the Tenets of Wilson collection: A Nomar Garciaparra pointillism created by Wilson himself in 10th grade!

I went to a college prep high school, and thus was required to take a minimal amount of fine arts. I wasn't going to be singing or acting, so art was the winner. I wasn't very good at it, but I didn't hate it. The big final project, which we worked on for at least the last 4 weeks of class, was to be a pointillism of a photo we had. My immediate thought was to create one of a baseball player. The teacher encouraged us to make it of a family member or close friend, since it would be so much work and we wouldn't want to feel like it was wasted effort down the road, so I got sneaky. As I've detailed before, Todd Stottlemyre is a distant cousin, so I told her that, and said I'd be finding a photo of him to use, which she said was fine. I legitimately tried to find a good photo, but the best I had were a few baseball cards without the detail and shadow contrasts she told us to look for. I flipped through my SportsCards magazines and found a full page photo of Nomar, and decided I'd try to pull it off. I took it to her for final approval, and when she said in a genuinely interested voice "So you say you're related to him? Do you know how exactly?" I sort of hemmed and hawed for a second and said I couldn't find a photo of the guy I was looking for, but this guy was Rookie of the Year! Since I had waited until quite late, she said that would be OK as long as I understood her reasoning for telling us to pick someone we knew, and still really wanted to put in all the effort. In retrospect a lie might have made it go smoother, because I doubt she knew who either of these guys were. If you're wondering, and still reading, I'd say it's about 12" by 16".

So that's it, a 14 year old newspaper, a black-market pennant, and a true 1/1, my favorite 3 items of my collection.

Why I Collect

Fuji brought a question with some potentially complex answers for his contest this time: Why do you collect?

Just about everyone's replies I've read have had multiple reasons, and mine will be no different. Without getting too deep, I think I've come up with 2 solid reasons.

First, I enjoy it. It seems like a simple explanation, but I think it's important to do things I enjoy. I do a fair amount of volunteer work and make an effort to jump right in to help friends and family when they computer help or someone to help them move. I take my role as "helper" very seriously. However, I have to take care of myself as well, so some leisure time and silly enjoyable activities are important. Collecting certainly isn't the only thing with which I choose to fill my free time, but it's one of them. Luckily my wife, who is a play therapist, understands this, and even insists that everyone needs some time to play in their life.

Another reason is that I like to learn. I entered my Master of Science program simply because it looked interesting (and my work would pay for it), knowing at the time my salary wouldn't go up for completing it. I did eventually get a higher paying job at a bigger company, and have now started a Doctor of Philosophy program, again for the sake of learning. When I first started watching baseball, I wanted to learn every single rule of the game, including the complexities of the infield fly rule, what could happen if a batter swings at a wild 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded, and everything in between. When I started collecting 1992 Topps, there were helpful stats on the back with italics showing me season leaders, giving me even more to absorb. That helped solidify my card-collecting habit.

It didn't start off this way, but reading all the blogs I've found in the last two years, and completing trades, has been a nice reinforcement for a fun hobby. I got a few Heritage singles from another blogger in 2011 and just liked something undefinable about them, so decided then and there to collect that set. I think I could probably list 100 other great things about collecting, like meeting others who share my interests, but they are excellent bonuses, not the reasons I'm here in the first place.

Hey Big Spender

Fuji's working us like dogs for this contest, and now wants to know: What's the most you have ever spent on a single sports related item?

I bet I'm not the only one to use this post title.

I'm sure my biggest single purchase is well below the price of some others', but given that I was about 13 and had no job when I bought it, I feel like there should be some sort of multiplier in play.

1979 Topps #116 Ozzie Smith RC

The thick plastic sort of caused a washed out look when I scanned it, but it's actually quite bright. The back has a little fading damage, perhaps from gum. If I remember correctly I bought this around 1995 or 1996, when Ozzie's career was ending. In retrospect I should have waited, but I saved for a long time to get this card. I'm pretty sure it was booking for $80 or so at the time, and that's about what I paid for it. I really don't know how I got to that much money, because I remember checking it out at my LCS for a long time before buying it. I probably saved everything I got, allowance, birthday money, showing the grandparents my good report card money, and who knows what else.

I figured that wasn't a bad price given the good condition and the fact that I was buying it in the St. Louis market. I'd guess the value has taken a bit of a dive in recent years, because little did I know Tony La Russa and Ozzie would not get along. La Russa decided Royce Clayton would be the starting shortstop in 1996, prompting Ozzie to immediately declare it his last year. They were both a bit bull-headed about the whole thing, teaching me an important lesson about not idolizing and emulating every trait of professional athletes. He then refused to have much to do with the Cardinals while La Russa was around, which of course lasted until the end of 2011.

If I wanted this card today, I don't think I'd pay $90 for it. I'd probably go $50 just because he's a hometown hero, but I'd have to really talk myself into it. Of course, it's quite liberating to look at it and think what I would pay, and not worry about what the book says I should pay.

The Ugliest Card Set, as Chosen by Me

Fuji chose this set as a boring one in his post, but it's the first that came to my mind as soon as I read his question: What is the ugliest card set you've ever seen?

I had to pick 1990 Donruss, because I feel compelled to collect it despite its bad artwork. It really presaged some of the ugly '90s design elements that were not only in baseball cards, but advertising and artwork in general.

1990 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-16 Bobby Bonilla

1990 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-1 Bo Jackson

Even Bobo and Bobby Bo can't save this set. I'll admit the red borders look kind of cool on Cardinals, but they are just silly for teams like the Pirates and Royals as shown above. But, the paint splatters on the side look just thrown in there. I am by no means a graphic designer, and I have a friend who's great at it. I suppose if I had more time it would be cool to get his take on it.

Despite all this, I'm still passively trying to collect this set. I got a bunch of it cheaply years ago, and I have to justify all those commons and duplicates taking up space somehow, right? I'm no rational economist, that's for sure.

My Favorite Sets

Fuji asks another question, via The Daily Dimwit: What are your all-time favorite products to collect in each sport?

I only really collect baseball actively, but I've come into some cards from other sports along the way, and I figure, I have enough to pick a favorite of each. Here they are from least favorite to favorite sports.

Basketball

Since there's no team in St. Louis, my interest in the NBA peaked with Michael Jordan's success with the Bulls, and quickly dwindled as that dynasty ended. Even so, I have a few basketball cards, so let's see my favorite:

1990-91 NBA Hoops #308 Phil Jackson

I mostly love this one because it's such a cheesy shot. Phil looks like someone dared to call a foul on Michael! Thus, 1990-91 NBA Hoops wins this prize.

Football

I love watching football, but never got into the cards much. I'd say my favorite product would have to be the 1993 McDonald's GameDay set. Of course, the fact that a "pack" (really an uncut sheet) of cards yielded nothing but superstars probably made it seem pretty great. For some reason the cards weren't regulation-sized though. I remember collecting points on their products, which peeled off much like the monopoly game, but the pieces would be worth 6 (TD), 3 (FG), or 1 (PAT) points. I think it took 10 points for a sheet, and I must have managed to get 30. Usually when it came to McDonald's giveaways, I'd get some bonus pieces from my Grandpa when he'd come to our house to sneak in his unhealthy lunch on Saturdays when my Grandma wasn't aware. But, I digress. Also, I remember worrying they may not let me turn in 3 FGs and a PAT, because how could you have a PAT without a TD?

1993 McDonalds GameDay Sheet A

1993 McDonalds GameDay Sheet B

1993 McDonalds GameDay Sheet C

I actually went and borrowed a Junior Seau scan from CheckOutMyCards as I was drafting this post, but then found these in my basement. I forgot I had the complete set. I never cut the sheets because I had no idea what I would keep the cards in.

Hockey

Hockey is a new collection to me, but I've won several cool cards via SportsCardInfo's contests, and some others. I steal from Fuji on this one and choose a newer version, 2010-2011 Panini Zenith, because I won this nice 5x7:

Which, as you can see, I tore into. And I found this:

An autographed rookie of the #1 draft pick, no big deal or anything.

Baseball

This is the only one that really has a well-considered answer. The others were mostly "what's the neatest thing I've got in this sport?" I decided it needed to be a set that I bothered to complete, which led me to 1997 Studio.

I don't think I actually completed the base set, but I did get all 24 of the 8x10s. These make for a pretty cool binder to flip through, and these are the only cards I keep in a binder. I bought many packs of this product, as this was right around the heaviest of my card buying. The packs were awfully awkward since they had an 8x10 in each one. Eventually I purchased the remaining 8x10s at a Flea Market and 2 local card shops. I found 3 McGwires in my binder, so I really wonder if I lucked into my favorite player from the set, or bought multiples on purpose.

So there you have it, my favorite sets in the Big 4 sports. Also, if there were an "other" category, I'd say the TMNT cartoon cards, but I couldn't find mine anywhere to scan.

The Beginning of My Collection

Inquiring Fujis want to know: How did you first decide to collect sports cards, and when?

I think I may have covered this before, but I couldn't find it, so here it is again.

When I was in 4th grade, which was the 1991-92 school year, I signed up for the Cub Scouts. I'm not really sure why I decided to, even though my two best friends were in it, I don't remember that being the reason. I went to an informational meeting at which they were giving away free Cardinals tickets to any kid who showed up. Up to that point I was only moderately aware of sports, and had never attended a game. I could tell you which teams we had in town, but probably no players other than Ozzie Smith.

We went to a game on Saturday, May 9. Here's the box score, because baseball-reference.com is so awesome. I guess this was in the days before promotional passes were limited to Monday through Thursday. Down 8-0 in the 3rd, I remember my Dad jokingly (I think) ask if we were ready to leave. The Braves scored again in the 4th to make it 9-0, but the Cardinals managed 3 in the bottom of the 4th. Of course, the Cardinals didn't have any recent success, so the fans around me still figured this game was already lost. I assumed they were right, but still watched what happened, since I'd never been to a game before. I can still feel the excitement I felt when Felix Jose hit a HR in the 8th to give the Cardinals the lead. And, it gave my Dad a chance to do one of his favorite things: teach me stuff. He explained that when Lee Smith came in to pitch the top of the 9th, if no one scored, the game was over and the Cardinals didn't even have to bat in the bottom of the 9th! At first I felt cheated out of a half inning despite seeing 23 runs, but I sort of reasoned through it and was satisfied it would be pointless. I immediately started following baseball closely, reading every story in the sports section and examining the standings and stats every in every Sunday paper.

So when do we get to cards? I don't have dates quite as exact on that one, but I do know that over summer I started at a new daycamp, as my previous babysitter had moved. I didn't like it that much, because no 9-year-old like change. But, there was one kid there, whose name I can't remember now, who I got along with well and was really into sports. One day he brought in some baseball cards, in a little 4-to-a-page album. He was so excited by them, and I thought they looked really cool too. I asked him lots of questions, having no idea about them, and he told me Topps was the best. So you can all blame him and me in some small part for the Toppsopoly today.

Most Sundays after church my family and I would stop by a local grocery store which sold cards, so I started occasionally picking up packs of 1992 Topps. This is when Topps started inserting Topps Gold cards, so that's where my love of that insert set comes from. Somewhere along the way, someone told me it was possible to purchase complete sets. It was probably the same kid from daycamp. I thought this made a lot more sense, since I was starting to get duplicates, and only had a few Cardinals. I went to a local card shop after my birthday and bought the 1992 Topps factory set. The owner told me I could instead buy a hand-collated set, which I think he called a boxed set, for a few bucks cheaper. That would have been the smart move, because of course I opened the factory box as soon as I got home. I sorted the cards many different times, by number, by team, into binder pages 18 to a page, then 9 to a page so I could see the backs, and ultimately back into the box when I couldn't bring myself to throw out the box nor keep an empty box around. At that point I was officially hooked into collecting.

2012 Heritage Blaster #2

In the past I've donated blood every 8 weeks, which is the minimum interval, or sometimes 9 weeks if I was traveling or due to do some heavy lifting on day 56. Since I last gave on March 31, and rewarded myself with a Heritage Blaster, I was eligible May 26. Unfortunately I was out of town that day for a Memorial Day weekend trip, and kept putting it off every subsequent Saturday. I finally decided it had been long enough last Saturday, and again, decided to reward myself with another Heritage Blaster. At this rate I'll never get enough to complete the set, so I'll have to find some more reasons to buy. This was one hard-earned box though, as they had trouble finding a vein, had to poke around a bit with the needle, and I ultimately got dizzy enough that they had to lay my head back. Then the blood stopped flowing after the bag was filled, so they had to stick my hand to fill the test tubes. It's about the most traumatic experience I've had with it, but hopefully it goes to help someone. I've donated 30 units lifetime now.

Just for fun, this time I'll do the classic pack-by-pack breakdown, with photos of inserts, short prints, and Cardinals.


Pack 1
15 Darwin Barney
26 Scott Baker
158 Steve Lombardozzi/Pedro Florimon Jr./Matt Dominguez/Devin Mesoraco
291 Stephen Strasburg
309 Ryan Dempster
333 Joe Benson/Liam Hendriks/Chris Parmelee/Kyle Waldrop
346 Santiago Casilla
408 Ian Kinsler
433 Rickie Weeks

2012 Heritage #433 Rickie Weeks SP

Pack 2
21 Drew Stubbs
56 Cliff Lee
60 Jesus Montero
67 J.P. Arencibia
325 Brian Wilson
331 Josh Hamilton/Albert Pujols
391 Matt Moore
421 Kyle Farnsworth
Blue Parallel 84 Doug Fister

2012 Heritage #331 Josh Hamilton/Albert Pujols

"Hey Josh, after this is over, let's go sign in LA; the weather's great. Oh, you've got another year on your contract? Just start slumping before the deadline, I'll work out the rest."

2012 Heritage - Blue Parallel #84 Doug Fister

This was a new one to me. Apparently it's a Walmart exclusive, and not every card gets a blue parallel. I'm not sure how Doug Fister got chosen in that case.

Pack 3
7 NL Pitching Leaders
16 Juan Pierre
18 David Ortiz/Adrian Gonzalez
110 Chase Headley
121 Drew Storen
131 Kevin Gregg
220 Ricky Romero
414 Corey Hart
478 Roy Oswalt

2012 Heritage #478 Roy Oswalt SP

Pack 4
35 Chris Sale
93 Johan Santana
136 Jonathan Papelbon
157 Melky Cabrera
297 Derek Holland
340 Russell Martin
374 Tom Milone
396 Emilio Bonifacio
Chrome Parallel HP89 Rick Porcello

2012 Heritage - Chrome Parallel #HP89 Rick Porcello #0608/1963

It'd be cool to have a whole set of these Chrome cards, but at 1/blaster so far, I think it'll take me awhile.

Pack 5
1 NL Batting Leaders
132 Cole Hamels
163 Matt Cain
186 Joe Mauer
226 Skip Schumaker
233 Terry Collins
239 Cleveland Indians
395 Daniel Hudson
Baseball Flashbacks BF-HA Hank Aaron
Checklist C4

2012 Heritage #226 Skip Schumaker

2012 Heritage - Checklist C4

2012 Heritage - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-HA Hank Aaron

I already got this Aaron card in the last blaster. Oh well, it's one more insert for the trade list.

Pack 6
69 Michael Morse
103 Michael Brantley
166 Kirk Gibson
214 Joakim Soria
254 Carlos Quentin
273 Wilin Rosario
343 Joe Maddon
388 Pablo Sandoval
Stick-ons 41 Victor Martinez

2012 Heritage - Stick-ons #41 Victor Martinez

Again, my obsession with not lowering the condition of my cards means I'll probably never peel this sticker.

Pack 7
36 Jason Kipnis
183 Mark Teixeira
307 J.J. Putz
329 Francisco Cervelli
365 Jose Valverde
373 Michael Young
375 Daniel Descalso
416 Stephen Drew
486 Josh Hamilton

2012 Heritage #375 Daniel Descalso

Hackenbush was right (I'm not linking my post a 3rd time!), Daniel's look here is very Don Mossi. Also, now I have 2 of this card too.

2012 Heritage #486 Josh Hamilton SP

Pack 8
53 Freddie Freeman
116 Vance Worley
222 Jed Lowrie
269 Justin Morneau
280 Brett Lawrie
328 Elvis Andrus
330 Jorge Posada
360 Chad Billingsley
361 Alex Rodriguez

There you have it, 73 more cards (counting the checklist) toward my set. I thought about reordering the packs so that #8 wasn't left image-less, but I figured that wouldn't be honest; sometimes you go out with a whimper. Interestingly, I had a few former Cardinals in the last blaster, but none in this one if you don't count Pujols, since he's in the uniform.


If you're interested in any of the inserts or duplicates let me know and we can work out a trade.

eBay Wins #38

Another seller put some 90s commons up for sale, and I just couldn't refuse. I picked these 9 cards up for a total of 9 cents. And 3 of them go in my vast PC of "Anyone who was a Cardinal, ever".

1990 Topps #567 Ron Gant

I remember when Gant, Jordan, and Lankford formed one of the most power-hitting outfields in MLB, at least that's how I remember it.

1990 Topps #35 Benny Santiago

It's rare to see a catcher neither batting nor in his gear, so that gives this card a little quirk.

1990 Topps #34 Tony Fossas

Here's another former Cardinal a few years before he got to us. I can't tell if that's a scowl or he's trying to hold back a smile.

1990 Topps #754 Bob Walk

1990 Topps #658 Donell Nixon

1990 Topps #228 Dave Martinez

1994 Stadium Club #26 Tony Fossas

Hey look, it's Tony Fossas again. It's still pre-Cardinals though, as he came to the team for 1995-1997.

1994 Stadium Club #154 Chris Haney

1994 Stadium Club #270 Checklist

 Normally I wouldn't include the checklist, but this one just screams "90s" even more than the base cards.

Let's see how my stats are looking.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2010
Total Spent	$38.37
Per Card	1.909 cents

Two Eli Marrero Autographed Cards

Here Fuji goes again, pushing bloggers to write some posts with real substance and stories. This time he wants to know: Describe your best or worst IP autograph experience.  Who was it?  What made it special/memorable?

First I'll show you the autographs, so you won't know if it was good or bad and the suspense will make my writing seem interesting. I should really stop revealing my dastardly plans out loud, like a James Bond villain.

1997 Fleer Ultra #549 Eli Marrero

1997 Collector's Choice #477 Eli Marrero

In case you can't tell, those are in white-bordered toploaders. I'm not sure why, they were probably just the two most special-looking protectors I had at the time.

His autographs were free with admission to a card show near St. Louis. If I recall correctly, I have two because it was 1997 or summer 1998, before I could drive, so I actually convinced my Mom to take me to a card show. In retrospect, I can't imagine how boring that must have been for her, knowing only a little about baseball as it was. But, she was entitled to a free autograph too of course, so I brought along two cards.

As we approached the table I saw Eli seemed to be taking a long time on each item; I thought maybe he was inscribing something. He didn't speak English very well, so there wasn't much conversation, but he did give everyone a "Hi" and a big smile as they handed him their items. I saw why he was taking so long. He was just being extra careful to sign his name very big and very legibly. He signed his full first name, Elieser. I was toward the end of the line, and even after a long time at the table, he still had a great attitude about meeting fans and signing for them, so I count Eli among my best in-person autograph experiences.

Two Contests to Promote

I always debate whether or not I want to write a contest-promoting post to get the bonus entry, but usually wind up justifying it to myself and doing it. Let's see what kind of weak reasoning I come up with this time!

First, there's a contest at The Angels, In Order to promote a new 1995 Skybox E-motion blog. At least with this one it's a brand new blog, so nearly everyone who finds the contest via my post finds a new blog too, right? Also, you could win some cards from the set, including this Cal Ripken, Jr. You'll need to follow both blogs to get in.

1995 Skybox E-motion - Ripken #8 Shortstop HR Record

Next up, a contest at All Trade Bait, All The Time to celebrate 10,000 hits. This one's a bit simpler, at least to start. Also, you can win this card, which is a nice prize despite featuring a Cub. I can't talk my way out of this one, but at least it's not its own post, right? Boom, nailed it.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen - Autographs #GQA-MB Marlon Byrd

2012 Opening Day Rack Pack #3

Rather than buy a whole bunch of these at once, or a whole box, I've just been picking up one whenever I'm at Target and feel like indulging my card-buying appetite. After three packs, I finally got my first Cardinals (Dan Haren notwithstanding).

2012 Topps Opening Day #206 David Freese

2012 Topps Opening Day #60 Adam Wainwright

2012 Topps Opening Day - Opening Day Stars #ODS-4 Adrian Gonzalez

When will scanning technology catch up to 3D cards? Imagine all the beautiful Sportsflics holograms we'll be able to see on blogs in 2050.

2012 Topps Opening Day - Elite Skills #ES-13 David Wright

Squibber. It's a funny word. Say it out loud six times. Squibber. Squibber squibber. Squibber squibber squibber. Also, "Barehand the Squibber" is one of my new favorite euphemisms for almost anything.

2012 Topps Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-3 Dan Uggla

I used to have Dan Uggla on my fantasy team, and then named it the Uggla Sticks, which I stole from an Onion article.

The base cards:
6 Bud Norris
19 Mat Latos
23 Troy Tulowitzki
28 Michael Young
31 Evan Longoria
32 Anibal Sanchez
45 Mark Melancon
60 Adam Wainwright
62 Ervin Santana
63 Pablo Sandoval
79 Hanley Ramirez
88 John Axford
89 Drew Pomeranz
142 Tommy Hanson
149 Adrian Gonzalez
151 Johnny Cueto
162 Ricky Romero
202 Starlin Castro
206 David Freese
218 Clay Buchholz
NNO (220) Carlos Lee

I know I've read this on multiple blogs already, but here's one more PSA for everyone: The unnumbered Carlos Lee seems to be an uncorrected error, so no more rare than any other card. So don't go making any crazy bids on eBay to get one.