Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XII

College football will be here again before we know it, so I've got to get my prize from last season's Bowl Pick 'Em contest at Cards on Cards posted! My prize for a second place tie was a very generously sized box of cards, so I felt a bit overwhelmed even sorting through them. I finally sorted them out by player, and, as usual, I'll plan to post them all eventually, but I might quit halfway through, we'll see.

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI


Today's going to be an Alan Benes kind of day. I don't even know what that means.

1995 Upper Deck Minors #161 Alan Benes
1995 Bowman's Best #55 Alan Benes
1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Special Edition #11 Alan Benes
1995 Fleer - Major League Prospects #3 Alan Benes (x2)
1996 Leaf #212 Alan Benes
1996 Topps #216 Alan Benes (x2)
1997 Topps #351 Alan Benes

Alan Benes was overshadowed a bit by his brother Andy, who joined him on the Cardinals in 1996. The Cardinals also drafted their other brother Adam, but he never made it to the majors.

1997 Topps Finest #208 Alan Benes
1998 Pinnacle Inside #66 Alan Benes
1998 Donruss #53 Alan Benes (x2)

I'm surprised this is the first 1998 Pinnacle Inside card I've posted. I bought a whole lot of those cans in the late 90s. At least I thought it was a lot. A quick search tells me I now have 33 of the 150 cards in the base set.

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part II

Several weeks ago, I read a post at Johnny's Trading Spot titled Instant mini collections up for grabs. "Up for Grabs" always gets my attention, so I threw my name into the mix. They were supposed to be randomly assigned, but through a lucky draw and one trade, each of the winners wound up with exactly what they originally wanted most. For me, that was cards with batting donuts.

Part I

I don't have much time to write much today, so just enjoy these donuts, along with an inordinately large number of Dan Walters cards.

1994 Score
#478 Jeff Gardner
#556 Darrell Whitmore
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT165 Matt Williams
1995 Collector's Choice Special Edition
#31 Chili Davis
#77 Ray Lankford
#111 Robby Thompson

1993 Topps
#85 Sandy Alomar
#273 Dan Walters
#318 Willie Wilson
#324 Willie Randolph
#326 Gary Varsho
1993 Topps - Gold
#85 Sandy Alomar
#318 Willie Wilson
1993 Stadium Club #175 Dan Walters
1993 Upper Deck #632 Chris Gwynn

1994 Score #60 Lenny Dykstra
1995 Stadium Club Members Only #46 Manny Ramirez
1993 Upper Deck #172 Dan Walters
1995 Studio - Gold Series #44 Lenny Dykstra

All-Star Winnings, Part 8

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 | VI | VII ]

1989 Fleer #652 Ken Hill/Dennis Cook

1989 Score Rookie/Traded #98T Ken Hill
1995 SP #100 Ozzie Smith
1995 SP #102 Ken Hill

Ken Hill was traded for Andres Galarraga before I started paying attention to baseball, but he returned for a bit in 1995, before being traded again for David Bell among others. And since I had 2 cards from the 1995 SP set, there's a certain All-Star shortstop in the middle of that scan.

1994 Post #28 Gregg Jefferies
1994 Stadium Club #531 Gregg Jefferies
1995 Collector's Choice Special Edition #80 Gregg Jefferies

Gregg Jefferies was the player I most associated with #25 before Mark McGwire arrived, although, David Bell and 2 others each wore it for a bit in 1995.

2005 Fleer Tradition #62 John Mabry

Speaking of 1995, this card is from Mabry's third stint with the Cardinals, but the first started way back in 1995, under Joe Torre. John always seemed like a solid and reliable player, although he didn't excel in any one area. Now, he's the Cardinals' hitting coach, after a year as Mark McGwire's assistant.

A Prize For My Prescience, part 5

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
[Part 4]



Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project sent me a whole bunch of cards for picking the Cardinals to win the World Series, and it is of course my duty to show you the cards and link to his blog.

In no particular order, some Mark McGwires!

Did you know Mark appeared in no less than 6 cards in 1993 Upper Deck? It might have been more, but I'm sure not going to go look it up. I do have evidence of 6 though, all sent in this package.

1993 Upper Deck #566 Mark McGwire

1993 Upper Deck #493 Award Winners - Mark McGwire

1993 Upper Deck - On Deck #D18 Mark McGwire

1993 Upper Deck - Future Heroes #60 Mark McGwire

I have other cards from this Future Heroes insert set. I must say I don't really get it, as it features current stars. Maybe it should have been Future Legends or something.

1993 Upper Deck #420 Checklist/Mark McGwire

There's a nice play at the plate in the background in case you can't see it. Mark appears to have decided to hit the catcher in the face rather than slide into home.

1993 Upper Deck #49 Bash Brothers Ruben Sierra/Mark McGwire

I think we could have let the Bash Brothers thing go when Jose Canseco left.

1988 Bazooka #13 Mark McGwire

Here's another oddball set I like. At just 22 cards, I think 1988 Bazooka is going to go in my want list as well.

1988 Rite-Aid Team MVP's #23 Mark McGwire

This one will probably not go on my want list. If nothing else, because of the misplaced apostrophe in MVP's.

1995 Collector's Choice #130 Mark McGwire

1995 Collector's Choice - You Make the Play #25 Mark McGwire

1995 Collector's Choice Special Edition #45 Mark McGwire

1993 Stadium Club #478 Mark McGwire

1993 Fleer #710 Mark McGwire

The back of this card refers to Mark as the "Lone Basher" now than Jose Canseco left. Fleer must not have gotten the memo about Ruben Sierra's promotion.

1994 Fleer #268 Mark McGwire

I always though Mark had squinty eyes for a baseball player, which you can really see in this card. Maybe they just caught him after contact here, but he always looked like he was struggling to see in St. Louis.

That's it for today. I'll wrap up the end of this package in post #6.