Christmas Cards, a Few Months Late

I seem to always be trying to catch up, so here's some cards that arrived sometime in December, from ATBATT's 3rd Annual Operation PWE. There's something about an envelope of mostly different players and sets that just brings joy to opening the mail.

1991 Topps #343 Jose Oquendo
1992 Pinnacle #381 Andres Galarraga
2015 Topps #220 Shelby Miller
2015 Topps #336 Matt Carpenter
2015 Topps - Archetypes #A-11 Mark McGwire
2016 Topps Heritage #89 Trevor Rosenthal

I'm bad at staying on top of acquiring the Cardinals inserts when new sets come out. That Mark McGwire is a card I definitely should have already had, but didn't. As always, I'm surprised when I don't already have junk-era cards I receive, because it seems like I have so many cards from those years. But both the Oquendo and Galarraga fill holes in my collection.

1988 Topps UK Minis #72 Ozzie Smith
2016 Topps #254 Matt Holliday

I like these UK Minis, and I actually have a couple copies of the Ozzie card now. All the more reason to chase down the Vince Coleman and Willie McGee cards from that set. Then there's Matt Holliday, who just won't seem right in a Yankees uniform this year.

Thanks to Stealing Home for the PWE!

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part V

Part I II III IV


I've got a lot of McGwires to go through. I'm nowhere near the St. Louis years yet.

1990 Starline Long John Silvers #9 Mark McGwire
1990 Starline Long John Silvers #11 Mark McGwire (x2)
1990 Kmart #32 Mark McGwire
1991 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-9 Mark McGwire
1991 Score 100 Superstars #39 Mark McGwire
1991 Score #324 Mark McGwire (x3)

I think those Green-Bordered cards were some sort of Long John Silvers giveaway, from some searching around the web.

1991 Upper Deck #174 Mark McGwire
1992 Donruss #348 Mark McGwire
1992 Fleer Ultra #115 Mark McGwire (x2)
1992 Pinnacle #217 Mark McGwire
1992 Upper Deck Fanfest #32 Mark McGwire

The 1992 Upper Deck FanFest set is another new one for me. It's increasingly rare for me to get a card from a set I don't already have cards from, but that one and the Starline cards were both new sets to my collection.

Zistle Trade #13

I recently received a flurry of trade proposals on Zistle, so I'll have a few of these to post in the next few days. This small batch of cards cost me a JFK, a Harry Truman, and a Nate McLouth. In return I got 3 Cardinals I didn't have yet.

1991 Studio #231 Bernard Gilkey
1992 Pinnacle #304 Allen Watson
2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-65 Bob Gibson

I have no way of proving this, but I think I very recently added the Gilkey and Watson cards to my wantlist. When I'm adding cards to my collection, if I'm not in a hurry I'll go through the rest of the set and add any missing Cardinals to my want list, since I'd like one of every Cardinal, even from the junk wax sets. I think I did that recently for 1992 Pinnacle and 1991 Studio.

I've had the entire Kimball Champions insert set on my wantlist for several years now, but I haven't made any great efforts to complete it. It's just out there as a reminder that I like the ones I have and I want more. Luckily for me, my trading partner had one of my top wants from that set, Bob Gibson.

All-Star Winnings, Part 6

Way back in July 2012, I won a contest at Cards On Cards. The premise was to pick the Cardinals player who would have the biggest impact on the game, determined Sabermetrically. I picked the right player, and got a pile of Cardinals for my trouble. They've been sitting in that same pile, haunting me, for quite some time, so now is the time to show them to you.
Part [ I | II | III | IV | V ]


Today we'll go all the way back to the 1990s. Come to think of it, that's where a large portion of these cards and posts go anyway.

1993 Triple Play
#62 Brian Jordan
#114 Felix Jose

2 Cardinals RFs from the same year can only mean one was going to be pushed out, and Felix Jose left after 1992. Oddly enough, Brian Jordan is only 2 years younger than him, but 1992 was his rookie season due to his time with the Atlanta Falcons.

1994 Upper Deck #223 Brian Jordan

1994 Score #201 Brian Jordan
1997 Donruss Limited #146 Brian Jordan
1999 Pacific Crown Collection #230 Brian Jordan

Jordan was one of the players victimized by my Jersey/Shirsey curse. It seems that usually, whenever I buy a jersey or one of those jersey-look t-shirts with a current player featured, he leaves shortly thereafter. I'm much more judicious these days, and only bought my Scott Rolen shirt from a thrift shop long after he left.

1992 Classic Draft Picks - Foil Bonus #BC11 Sean Lowe

I was all ready to dig into another lost prospect story, but apparently Sean Lowe pitched a few games for the Cardinals in 1997 and 1998, then for some other teams. I must have been too caught up in the McGwire-mania to notice.

1992 Pinnacle #589 Rex Hudler/Roger Staubach

Finally, this is the first Rex Hudler card on my blog, according to my tag history at least. And he's very tiny on the card. That's Roger Staubach in the background. There's very little information on the back of the card linking the two, except that Rex Hudler's favorite athlete is Roger Staubach.

A Trade Post is in Order, Part I

Can't...resist...bad...puns...

Thanks to my obsessive need to scan and post every insert card I receive, I got an email from The Angels, In Order about the Tyler Chatwood in this contest win post. He sent me a pile of Cardinals, and - I must admit - I still owe him his card once I get a big enough pile of Angels together to send along. Here's the first part of the trade.

1992 Pinnacle
#6 Ozzie Smith
#69 Tom Pagnozzi
#186 Omar Olivares
#195 Lee Smith
#239 Jose Oquendo
#341 Jose DeLeon

 Now I have to try to get a full team set from 1992 Pinnacle. I can't have this many and not try for more!

1992 Topps Kids
#26 Pedro Guerrero

Topps Kids is one of the sets I like for some unknown reason. I think I'm drawn to the simpler, cheaper, kid-targeted sets.

2002 Topps
#245 Jim Edmonds

I think this is the first 2002 Topps card I've owned. I took a little hiatus from 2000-2010 from collecting.

2004 Donruss Studio
#179 Dan Haren

This card hurts me. To think, Dan Haren could still be in St. Louis, along with Carpenter and Wainwright. Although, I think it's that same type of rotation the Cardinals desired that led him to be traded for Mark Mulder in the first place. He's now with the Angels, so maybe I'll be sending one of him back.

A Rookie Contest Win, Part 2

[Part 1]

In Mid-June I won a contest at all the way to backstop by going 3 for 3 in guessing the Rookie cards in his big stack. My prize: the stack, and some other cool stuff he picked out for me.

I can tell my wantlist was well-searched, because I also received 7 cards of one of my favorite players, and a distant cousin, Todd Stottlemyre.

1991 Score #39 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Donruss #263 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Fleer #342 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Pinnacle #240 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Fleer Ultra #153 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Fleer Ultra #293 Todd Stottlemyre

1994 Collector's Choice #269 Todd Stottlemyre 

Also from my wantlist, 1993 Topps Gold cards. And some base cards to boot.

1993 Topps #425 Joe Girardi

I've gotta show former Cardinals, no matter how brief a stint they had in St. Louis. Here are the rest of the base cards:

425 Joe Girardi
562 Bob Zupcic
598 Rico Brogna
606 J. Owens
613 Joel Adamson
622 Ben Rivera
699 Chad Curtis
732 Travis Buckley
747 Carl Willis
773 Cliff Brantley
790 George Bell

1993 Topps - Gold #483 Brian Griffiths

Not to be confused with Brian Griffin

1993 Topps - Gold #787 Mike Matthews

I'm trying to complete a set of 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold, and maybe 1994 as well. I haven't organized them all into my have and want list, but I don't have too many so there's a good chance any I get are unique for now, and a quick check of my "to enter in Zistle" box says these two bring me 2 cards closer to the 825 card set.

Once again, thanks to all the way to the backstop for the great cards.

Big Pile, part 1

Have you ever set a bubble mailer aside and totally lost track of it, then found it months later? That's what I did with the Big Pile contest at Royals and Randoms. Based on his blog posting about when he sent it out, and being extremely conservative with postal delivery times, I'll say I've had these for a full 4 months. Oops.

Well, I figure I'm better late than never in posting the cards and sending him a big thanks, so here's part 1.

1992 Pinnacle #9 Andy Van Slyke

I don't remember Andy Van Slyke as a Cardinal, but he does to the Fox Sports Midwest studio commentary for the Cardinals now. Of course, his son just helped the Dodgers finish off a sweep of us the other night with a late-inning pinch hit HR.

2005 Topps Chrome #16 Chad Tracy

Oooh, shiny.

2000 Fleer Twizzlers #8 Sammy Sosa

At first I thought this was a Fleer Tradition card, but the back is numbered 8 of 12 and has a subtle Twizzlers logo.

2010 Allen and Ginter #235 Carlos Guillen

2009 Goudy #85 Alex Gordon

2007 Turkey Red #29 Alex Gordon

I'm no Alex Gordon fan per se, I just happen to really like both Turkey Red and Goudey.

1990 Topps Mini League Leaders #56 Mike Scott

1990 Topps Mini League Leaders #47 John Smoltz

Former Cardinal John Smoltz, I don't care if it was only 7 appearances, that's what he'll always be to me.