Baseball Cards from Bo, Part II

[Part I]

Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life contacted me about a trade, and he even did all the work picking cards from both my wantlist and tradelist to set up the swap. Here's another part of my haul.

1984 Fleer
#323 David Green
#332 Jamie Quirk
#336 Ozzie Smith

Here are 3 of the 17 Cardinals I didn't have from 1984 Fleer. I don't really know Jamie Quirk, and I was only somewhat familiar with the name David Green, but I definitely know the gentleman on the right.

1990 Fleer #260 Ozzie Smith

Another Ozzie! The cool thing about Hall Of Famers from the overproduction era is that there are lots of cards available.

1993 Hostess #21 Benito Santiago

I sent off several of my 1993 Hostess duplicates, and got this one in return, leaving me 7 left to go in the set.

1990 Donruss

In part I, I mentioned Bo and I worked out this trade while madding was sending me a prize. So here's yet another part of this trade that got duplicated by madding. Maybe I can put together 2 full 1990 Donruss sets, though I have no idea why I'd do such a thing. I bet I would be the only guy ever to do so if I did.

Since the 1990 Donruss isn't as exciting as it originally was, the best part of this trade is left for the 3rd and final post of this trade.

Baseball Cards from Bo, Part I

Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life contacted me about a trade, and he even did all the work picking cards from both my wantlist and tradelist to set up the swap. Here's the first part of my haul.

1990 Bowman
#187 Frank DiPino
#189 Howard Hilton
#192 Ray Lankford
#193 Todd Zeile
#196 Milt Thompson
#198 Vince Coleman

So a funny thing happened, I negotiated this trade while madding was putting together a prize package he obviously pulled mostly from my wantlist, so you may have just seen some of these cards.

1990 Kmart
#10 Doc Gooden
#17 Don Mattingly
#20 Cal Ripken
#21 Jose Canseco
#23 Rickey Henderson
#26 Bret Saberhagen
#27 Jeff Ballard
#31  Fred McGriff
#32 Mark McGwire

1990 Kmart
#33 Tony LaRussa and Roger Craig

Bo knocked out 10 of the 28 I still need for the K-mart set. It's a little cheesey, but I like it. This set sort of borders on oddball, but it does have the familiar little Topps logo there. Of course it doesn't hurt that the set is entirely stars.

1998 Score Rookie and Traded
#RT207 Jeff Suppan

Sometimes I browse Zistle.com for random Cardinal players, and tick the wantlist icon on any of their cards I don't have. I'm sure that's the reason this Suppan showed up on my list. I never even knew he was a Diamondback.

That's all for this round; I'm out of tag space!

eBay Wins #41

Another 1-card purchase, but this time I spent a whole dime.

2011 Topps Update
Walmart Parallel #U-298 Yorvit Torrealba

I can't quite tell what happened in this photo, maybe I should have sent this in for Nachos Grande's revenge round. It appears he may have just swung and lost his bat. But he also might have had a bug fly into his mouth.
For me, this guy has one of the most memorable modern names in baseball, just ahead of Raul Casanova.
Coincidentally, of the dozen or so red-border parallels of this set I have, I also have a Yorvit I just happened to pull from a pack. I suppose Rangers collectors really like the Target/Walmart Red/Blue border parallel system, since both are considered primary uniform colors. I know I think the Cardinals look much better in the red borders.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2013
Total Spent	$38.54
Per Card	1.915 cents

March Radness Win, Part VII

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]
[Part V]
[Part VI]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

I've reached the end of this prize, but this post has the most cards of all. Lucky for you, they're not all scanned. You'll see what I mean at the end.

As I flipped through the 1990 Donruss from the package, I set aside anyone who was a Cardinal. This wasn't based on research, just memory, so I may have missed a few. And I actually had to look up Chris Sabo because I thought I knew he was a Cardinal, but I don't really remember it, if that makes sense. As it turns out, he played 5 games for us after the White Sox released him in 1995, but was again released during September.

1990 Donruss
#41 Andy Benes
#42 Delino Deshields
#210 Dennis Eckersley
#230 Will Clark
#242 Chris Sabo
#349 Tom Henke
#378 Jamie Moyer
#578 Larry Walker
#674  Pedro Guerrero

1990 Donruss
#695 Eric Davis
#697 Mark McGwire
Bonus MVPs #BC-12 John Smoltz
#BC12A John Smoltz (Erorr)

I've bid on this Tom Glavine/John Smoltz error card on eBay a few times, but it always seems to go a bit high because of its perceived value.

So, how many non-Cardinals were there from 1990 Donruss? Oh, about this many:

1990 Donruss, sleeved and ready to be sorted

I haven't gone through them completely yet, but it looks like if this doesn't complete my 1990 Donruss set, it brings me very close. What an awesome prize for a blog contest. Now of course, I realize if my want list consisted of refractor parallels and cards numbered to 25, instead of lots of cards widely considered junk wax, I'd probably have gotten a much lighter envelope, but I love these cards. That's the cool thing about collecting instead of investing in cards; show me a bunch of ugly 1990 Donruss card and I can get as excited as one fancy relic "from no particular event". To sum up, thanks again to madding, and go follow Cards on Cards.

March Radness Win, Part VI

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]
[Part V]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

We're up to part 6 for you non-Romans out there.

1990 Bowman
#187 Frank DiPino
#188 John Tudor
#189 Howard Hilton
#192 Ray Lankford
#193 Todd Zeile
#195 Ozzie Smith
#196 Milt Thompson
197 Terry Pendleton
#198 Vince Coleman

There is a good mix of relative unknowns - i.e., Frank DiPino and Howard Hilton - and big stars in this group. Notice Todd Zeile has a catcher's mitt there; this was before his move to 3B due to his hitting and speed.

1990 Donruss
#279 Vince Coleman
#418 Scott Terry
#710 Ozzie Smith

Here are 3 more 1990 Donruss towards my set. I love those late 80s Cardinals uniforms.

There's just one more part to this win, which will be revealed tomorrow night.

March Radness Win, Part V

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

How much more can there be? In this post, I'll show a good mix of late 1980s Cardinals.

1987 Topps
#7 Todd Worrell
#440 Willie McGee

It's weird for me to see Todd Worrell as the closer, since he was the setup man by the time I started paying attention. And doesn't the 1987 set just scream wood paneled station wagon?

1988 Topps #380 Joe Magrane

The younger people in town learned the Cardinals used to have a pitcher named Joe Magrane earlier this year, when his daughter was briefly on American Idol.

1989 Topps
#259 Larry McWilliams
#578 John Morris
#640 Willie McGee

Two guys I've honestly never heard of, and St. Louis's favorite standing ovation target, Willie McGee.

1990 Score #68 Jose Oquendo

The Secret Weapon! He's played every position for us, including Manager (fill in), 3B Coach, and I think even 1B Coach (fill in again).

1990 Bowman
#183 Joe Magrane
#185 Todd Worrell
#186 Jose DeLeon
#194 Willie McGee
#200 Jose Oquendo

Some nice 1990 Bowman here, with a lot of repeated players from above, and Jose DeLeon.

1990 Donruss
#516 John Morris
#536 Jose DeLeon

Finally, here's two more 1990 Donruss for my longest project ever, completing this set. I think it's been about 18 years since I bought a bunch of these and started trying for the set.

March Radness Win, Part IV

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

That's right, there's still more cards to go in this series. Kerry outdid himself on this prize.

1994 Fleer Extra Bases
#356 Rene Arocha
#359 Gregg Jefferies
#362 Mike Perez
#364 Bob Tewksbury
#366 Todd Zeile

This is a cool set, but if you've ever seen them, you know these aren't minis, these are larger than usual cards. Without doing any research or measuring at all, I'd say they're 1 inch taller than a regular card, so 2.5" by 4.5". Does anybody have any good ideas for how to store these? The best idea I have off the top of my head is storing them in a 500 count box front to back instead of side to side, but I only own 5 of them now. Surely I can't get ambitious again and put another set on my wantlist when I only have 5, can I?

1991 Score #677 Donovan Osborne

My favorite Donovan Osborne memory was at a game when he came to bat with the bases loaded. I told my Dad it'd be cool if he hit a Grand Slam. My Dad laughed, and Donovan delivered. Thanks to baseball-reference.com, I just learned I witnessed his only career Home Run. That's kinda cool.

1992 Score #516 Geronimo Pena

I don't remember as much about Geronimo Pena, except he was a solid platoon second basemen for a few years.

1992 Baseball Enquirer - Unopened Pack

Here's another unopened pack. I don't know anything about this set, but it looks to be unlicensed, a gag they explain away by calling them "Mystery Interview" cards. That's obviously a certain famous gambler on the back betting his card will be worth a fortune. I haven't opened this pack yet, so maybe I'll save it for the same day I open the 1988 Donruss pack.

March Radness Win, Part III

[Part I]
[Part II]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

First up in this batch of cards is the Series I 2008 Upper Deck Cardinals I needed.

2008 Upper Deck (Series I)
#61 Adam Wainwright
#62 Joel Pineiro
#63 Brad Thompson
#65 Troy Percival
#67 Albert Pujols
#68 David Eckstein
#69 Jim Edmonds
#70 Rick Ankiel

Together with the 8 cards from part II, and the 4 from a previous contest win, I have all of the Cardinals from this set, and never bought a pack.

2011 Gypsy Queen
#38 Walter Johnson
#117 Dallas Braden

That's 2 more off the wantlist, leaving me just 125 left to go for Gypsy Queen. It would seem I tend to get a little over ambitious with the wantlists sometimes, desiring a whole set after getting a few packs.

1988 Donruss Wax Pack

Ah, the mystery of an unopened pack. I'm not going to open this yet. Maybe I'll wait for the 30th anniversary in 2018. More likely, I'll break down and open it when I finally sort through my 1988 Donruss cards, because I'm a weak, weak man.

March Radness Win, Part II

[Part I]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

2008 Upper Deck (Series 2)
#651 Chris Carpenter
#652 Mark Mulder
#653 Juan Encarnacion
#654 Skip Schumaker
#655 Troy Glaus
#657 Cesar Izturis
#659 Chris Duncan
#660 Matt Clement

2007 Topps #207 Mark Mulder

Another Mulder to go with his 2008 UD above.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions
#KC-15 David Price
#KC-36 Hanley Ramirez

For awhile I had the idea I'd collect the Kimball Champions set. It may happen, but man is it ever going slow. I still need about 75 of the 100 from Series 1 and 2, and some of the Topps Updates ones as well. My guess is it'll finish sometime in 2027.

2011 Goodwin Champions #55 Bill Walton

This wasn't on a wantlist, and isn't even a baseball player, so I was unsure if this was thrown in accidentally. Then I realized, the fact that it's not a baseball player is probably the key. The Contest was for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, after all, so it's only fitting to have a basketball player in the mix.

March Radness Win, Part I

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

2010 Upper Deck
#460 Colby Rasmus
#465 Julio Lugo
#467 Adam Wainwright
#468 Brad Thompson
#473 Kyle Lohse
#474 Chris Carpenter
#475 Ryan Franklin

I just traded for Colby and Thompson in my last trade, which was in the mail the same time as this prize, but the rest put me 5 cards closer to completing the 2010 UD team set.

Coincidentally, part 2 of that trade also included some 2011 Opening Day, also seen here. There wasn't much overlap. Not that I'd complain about the overlap; I've found the best way to complete a set is usually to swap duplicates of that same set with someone else, so those would likely make a trade easier. Here's Yadi and some inserts.

2011 Topps Opening Day

#46 Yadier Molina
Presidential First Pitches #PFP-5 Richard Nixon
Stadium Lights #UL-5 Miguel Cabrera
Toppstown #TTOD-5 Jon Lester
Toppstown #TTOD-14 Brian Matusz

And all the base cards:
38 Mike Stanton
44 Omar Infante
46 Yadier Molina
68 Jeremy Jeffress
71 Jon Niese
101 Brian Wilson
138 Chris Young
144 Brett Gardner
150 Matt Cain
156 Ryan Zimmerman
164 Grady Sizemore
170 Logan Morrison
179 Prince Fielder
194 Delmon Young

There's a whole lot more to this trade package, but like I've said before, I just can't not tag a Cardinal or a set.

Jose Valentin

2001 Stadium Club #107 Jose Valentin

I assume this photo is from the 2000 season. I also assume it's a stolen base we're seeing. In 2000 Jose tied his best base-stealing season, with a blazing 19 stolen bases. And I think it's a safe assumption, but this looks like a road uniform, although the shadows make it tricky to tell white from gray. That means it's from one of 9 games in which Jose stole at least 1 base on the road: Toronto (2 in one game), Minnesota (2 again), Oakland, New York (2 games), Anaheim, Texas, Tampa Bay, Baltimore. That's about as much as I can divine from this image alone, although some other shots of road-gray White Sox from the set could provide additional clues.

...

I'm bored with this analysis. The mustache is too much for me. In this shot, he kind of reminds me of Keith Hernandez, actually.

Keith left the Cardinals before I knew much about baseball, but wore my favorite number, 37. The move to the Mets was probably a good one for him, since Al Hrabosky and Mike Shannon have been dominating our former-player-broadcaster positions for quite some time.

But back to Mr. Valentin. He also played for the Mets, although considerably later than Mr. Hernandez. He played all 7 games of the 2006 NLCS against the Cardinals at 2B. He hit .250 with a .333 OBP, not horrible for a second baseman, but the Cardinals pulled it out in game 7 when Adam Wainwright struck out Carlos Beltran looking (sorry Carlos, I know you're one of the good guys now).

Based on the angle of that base, and the angle he appears to be looking, I think he's looking at the ballboy - or ballgirl, we're equal opportunity here at Tenets of Wilson - in left field foul territory. I'm not sure why, maybe for some sort of complicated hidden ball trick. Those are very rarely pulled off on offense, and even more rarely with help from the opposing team's employees. Ah, so that's it, the left field ballboy is a plant!  Jose's just waiting for him to whack the 3B on the head with those tiny stools they sit on so he can advance. My statistical sources say he neither stole third nor got ejected in those 9 games, so the plan must have been interrupted. There can only be one rational conclusion reached from this. The game was in Texas, and this guy saved the day for the Rangers:

2011 Topps Opening Day - Mascots #M-23 Rangers Captain

Do you enjoy crazy rambling disguised as lateral thinking? Or vice versa? Or verse visa? Do you want more? Vote for me in Nachos Grande's contest.

eBay Wins #40

Did you know Jonny Gomes full name?

It's Jonathan Johnson "Jonny" Gomes. That's kind of awesome, like Willie Wilson, or Raymond J. Johnson, Jr.

2006 Upper Deck #443 Johnny Gomes

This one's only in OK condition, with some iffy corners, but for the low low price of a penny, I'm certainly not going to complain.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2012
Total Spent	$38.44
Per Card	1.911 cents

A Fantastic Trade, Part II

I always enjoyed using Roman Numerals, except VI sorts lexicographically after IX, which just messes everything up.

In case you missed Part I, go check it out.

It's always good to find a new trading partner, and I recently got an email from Fantastic Catch with an offer of a bunch of cards from my wantlists, and I was able to send him some stuff for his player PCs and set needs.  Of course as a fellow Cardinal fan, he sent so many he triggered my obsessive need to use up my all of my available tag space , so here's part 2 what I got in my 2-piece box:

2011 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-21 Matt Holliday

Opening Day is a set I really like, and I've bought enough I've decided to collect the inserts too. I'm working on 2012 too, but I won't put up my wantlist until I've finished buying packs. From this 2011 set I also got:
SC-5 Ubaldo Jimenez
SC-17 Prince Fielder

2011 Opening Day - Mascots #M-23 Rangers Captain

And also:
M-6 Gapper (Reds)
M-24 Toronto Blue Jays
M-25 Screech (Nationals)

2011 Opening Day - Spot the Error #2 Jason Heyward

He also sent a good pile of base cards from my list, with no Cardinals, oddly enough:
3 Jon Lester
13 Carl Crawford
25 Johan Santana
35 Vladimir Guerrero
38 Mike Stanton
43 Jered Weaver
44 Omar Infante
54 Ian Stewart
57 Zack Greinke
61 Jason Bay
71 Jon Niese
91 Andres Torres
92 Nick Markakis
101 Brian Wilson
112 Andre Ethier
120 Roy Halladay
138 Chris Young
156 Ryan Zimmerman
165 Carlos Zambrano
170 Logan Morrison
192 Dustin Pedroia
194 Delmon Young
212 Vernon Wells

I guess I had a lot less of that set than I realized.

2011 Lineage #12 Elvis Andrus

There was just a single 2011 Lineage card, but this is another set I'm working to complete. A lot of people kind of trash-talked it last year, but I liked it; I'm not sure why.

2010 Topps Update - Vintage Legends #VLC-30 George Sisler

2010 Topps Update #TR128 Chris Carpenter

2010 Update was what really brought me back into collecting, and I have a ton of extra base cards, so it's nice to a few inserts, since I definitely won't be buying any more packs of it.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update - Star Quest Common #SQ-32 Albert Pujols

Good old UDFEU for short.

Thanks again for the trade, and go check out Fantastic Catch if you're not following it yet.

A Fantastic Trade, Part I

Again with the pun title?

It's always good to find a new trading partner, and I recently got an email from Fantastic Catch with an offer of a bunch of cards from my wantlists, and I was able to send him some stuff for his player PCs and set needs. Of course as a fellow Cardinal fan, he sent so many he triggered my obsessive need to use up my all of my available tag space, so here's part 1 what I got in my 2-piece box:

2010 Upper Deck #460 Colby Rasmus

2010 Upper Deck #464 Joe Thurston

2010 Upper Deck #466 Yadier Molina

2010 Upper Deck #468 Brad Thompson

2010 Upper Deck #469 Denys Reyes

2010 Upper Deck - Season Biography #SB-79 

I've now got 7 of the 17 Cardinals from 2010 Upper Deck. I like this set because it manages to get some interesting photography despite no MLB logos allowed.

2011 Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-9

2011 Heritage - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-10

I also got 2 more Heritage inserts toward my set, and 3 base cards:
137 Babe and Mgr. Huggins
217 Don Mattingly
256 Ruben Tejada

1999 Upper Deck - Textbook Excellence #T21 Mark McGwire

And a nice Mark McGwire insert to finish off this half. More tomorrow!