Zistle Trade #16 Part II

My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.

Part I

1983 Fleer #613 Gary Gaetti
1990 Upper Deck
#225 Ozzie Smith
#278 Milt Thompson
1992 Donruss
#116 Kent Mercker
#163 Brian Hunter
#208 Tony Pena
#424 Chris Sabo
1993 Hostess
#18 Andres Galarraga
#25 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Since I made these trades at the same time, I wound up trading for the Chris Sabo card twice. But, I'm not too upset about it. The main draw in this trade was the Hostess cards. I'm not sure how many Hostess Baseballs I ate in the summer of 1993, but I feel like it was on the order of dozens. Before these two, I had 25 unique cards from the set, and 9 duplicates. A quick blog search indicates I've received 4 in trade, and sent off a few, so that probably means I got at least 30 from eating the baseball cakes. Most importantly, I now need only 5 more to finish the set.

I found it surprising that these are the first cards I'm posting of Andres Galarraga, Brian Hunter, and Kent Mercker. I'd especially expect a card of Galarraga to have come up by now.

Another nice card in the trade is the Gary Gaetti rookie card. He first played a few games in the majors in 1981, and in an era before the modern Bowman, he didn't get a rookie card until he completed his first full season in 1982.

All-Star Winnings, Part 3

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 ]

Today, it's wall-to-wall Ray Lankford, with a touch of Mark McGwire.

2001 Stadium Club #52 Ray Lankford

1993 Hostess #5 Ray Lankford
1993 Studio #175 Ray Lankford
1993 Topps - BlackGold #10 Ray Lankford
1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack #76 Ray Lankford
1996 Zenith #38 Ray Lankford
1998 Collector's Choice - Starquest #SQ42 Ray Lankford
1999 Stadium Club #95 Ray Lankford
1999 Upper Deck Ovation #53 Ray Lankford

Ray Lankford. Ray Lankford. Type it enough and the words lose all meaning. Ray was a starter from before the time I started watching baseball in 1992 through 2001, and early on, he was really one of the biggest stars on the team, so he's got quite a few cards in the small sets and insert sets like Hostess and BlackGold. I didn't have most of these cards, except the Hostess card, and many of them were specifically on my want list as well. Curiously, every Lankford card in this bunch pictures him with a road blue hat/helmet.

2001 Stadium Club #100 Mark McGwire
1999 Upper Deck Ovation #53 Mark McGwire

Since I sort my cards by set, here are two McGwires from two of the sets represented in the Lankford scans above. It's not often you see a running shot of Mark McGwire. Usually it's exactly how that Ovation card looks, the follow-through of the bat, implying a home run swing, or him standing at the ready on defense at first base.

My Second Jaybarkerfan PWE

As I mentioned before, Jaybarkerfan of Jaybarkerfan's Junk has been dropping PWE bombs on anyone who gave him their address and a favorite team. I just got another one, with more great Cardinals.

2004 KC Life #29 Chris Carpenter

I'm not 100% sure, but based on the Kansas City Life Insurance Company logo on the back and the weird size, I think this is from a set given away free to kids at a Cardinals game. I have some similar sets with the same sponsor from 1993-1996 or so.

1993 Hostess #5 Ray Lankford

I love this 1993 Hostess set, so I'm happy to get this card even though I already had it. I can always find good reasons for spare Cardinals.

1990 Upper Deck #68 Vince Coleman (Team Checklist)

Checklists should always have players on them. That is all.

2011 Bowman - Prospects #BP66 Matt Carpenter

I just posted my first Matt Carpenter card, and now here's my second.

2009 Upper Deck Icons #92 Ryan Ludwick

This card showed up in the first PWE too. All the easier to trade with my fellow Cardinals fans.

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes - Charcoal #124 Ozzie Smith

Of course, any package with an Ozzie is a great one to me, even if the rest were Bip Roberts and Mario Mendoza. This card was tricky to figure out since I don't have a lot of the 2008 Baseball Heroes set. At first I thought it was a Black parallel, but those are numbered to 250. It turns out, it's a Charcoal.

Thanks to Jaybarkerfan for all the Cardinals. And go follow Jaybarkerfan's Junk; I'd do it even without the bribe.

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.

Number 5 Type Collection's Cardinals Giveaway, Part 3

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
Matt at Number 5 Type Collection gave me way too many Cardinals in a recent contest.  Here's part 3:

Let's start off with some former prospects now traded away.

2007 Tristar Prospects Plus #81 Joe Mather

2007 Tristar Prospects Plus #80 Colby Rasmus

 It's a little weird to see a modern Cardinal wearing Yadier Molina's #4, but this is from the minors (AA) of course.  It does make me wonder if any of the minor league players are allowed to wear the MLB Cardinals' retired numbers

1988 Fleer - 1987 World Series #5 Throw Smoke! (Todd Worrell and Tony Pena)

 These guys are a little before my time, though I vaguely recall Tony's crazy catching stance when my dad watched games and I wasn't too interested. By the time I was really paying attention in '92, Todd Worrell had been reduced to setup man for the powerful Lee Smith.

1993 Hostess #5 Ray Lankford

I actually laughed out loud when I saw this card. It brought memories flooding back to me about seeking out and eating way too many Hostess Baseballs in 1993. What can I say, I was 10. I think I even tried to convince my dad to try them, hoping he'd replace any other sugary snack he might have with a baseball, and I'd get another box with more cards sooner. I went and grabbed my pile of hostess cards and noticed something interesting. I guess I got into the game late, because they're all numbered 17 or higher of 32, which would seem to be evidence they issued the cards in two series.

2005 Topps Total #206 (STL5) Chris Carpenter

2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #88 Chris Carpenter

1990 Fleer All-Stars #5 Joe Magrane

I have a few Joe Magrane autographs, as he hung around St. Louis a few years after he retired, making the occasional appearance. He played with the Cardinals until mid 1993, so I can recall about a year and a half of his career here.

1999 Topps - Lords of the Diamond #LD5 Mark McGwire

2000 Topps - 20th Century's Best #232 Mark McGwire

Mark McGwire was a favorite player of mine long before he came to the Cardinals, so I got even more into baseball when he was traded here. Sadly he was apparently using some illegal substances during his amazing Home Run binges. I'm glad to see he's back with the Cardinals as a hitting coach, hopefully he can rebuild his legacy that was tainted by his bad choices. He's apparently a pretty smart guy when it comes to hitting, though, and the players really seem to get a lot from him. We'll need that experience and confidence with a brand new manager this year.

More to see tomorrow...