Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXXV

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE IS OVER, 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 XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX
XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV

Let's sort some cards!

1998 Bowman's Best #146 Braden Looper
1998 Fleer Tradition #397 Kent Mercker
1998 Fleer Tradition #415 Braden Looper
1998 Fleer Tradition #541 Cliff Politte
1998 Topps #485 Braden Looper/Cliff Politte/Brian Rose
2009 Topps #612 Joel Pineiro

I've apparently never posted a Cliff Politte card, and now here I have 2. He only played one year with the Cardinals, and started just 8 games. I sometimes amaze myself at how much more time I must have had for baseball in those days. I could easily lose track of a guy like that now, but I can easily remember him on the team. Braden Looper is another one I remember from his first stint with the Cardinals, which was only 4 appearances. He came back after some time in Florida and New York, though.

1997 Topps #477 Braden Looper/John Patterson
2009 Upper Deck #880 Joel Pineiro
2014 Munnatawket Allen and Ginter #34 Matt Carpenter

That Matt Carpenter isn't just your average Allen and Ginter mini (which are also good cards, for the record). It's from a custom set made by a friend of Nachos Grande, in the 2008 Ginter style, but with an ad for Munnatawket bats on the reverse. I've seen these on a few blogs in the past, but usually as part of the full set. This set might be harder to chase than something from the 60s, so I'll probably just be content with my anachronistic Matt Carpenter card, appearing to feature him 3 years before his MLB debut and 1 year before he was drafted.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXII

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, 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 XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI

1996 Topps #232 Matt Morris
1997 Bowman's Best #197 Matt Morris
1998 Donruss #110 Matt Morris
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT56 Matt Morris
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT203 Ron Gant
1998 Topps #128 Matt Morris
1999 Upper Deck MVP #173 Matt Morris
2002 Topps Total - Award Winners #AW25 Matt Morris

Matt Morris came along just as the Cardinals were starting to get good for the first time in my baseball-watching life. He had several really good years, culminating in a third place finish to Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling for the Cy Young award. He couldn't quite get them to split the vote and sneak in there.

1999 Topps #131 Ron Gant
1998 Upper Deck #203 Ron Gant
1998 Fleer Tradition #380 Ron Gant

Ron Gant was in my first in-person baseball game, although on the Braves at that time. In my head it feels like he was a big part of the team for a long time, but he was only here 3 years, and played 5 seasons afterwards and 9 before.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XIX

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, 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 XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII

1992 Fleer Ultra - All Stars #15 Tom Pagnozzi
1993 Studio #198 Tom Pagnozzi
1994 Pinnacle #439 Tom Pagnozzi
1995 Pinnacle #37 Tom Pagnozzi
1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice #193 Tom Pagnozzi
1996 Donruss #278 Tom Pagnozzi
1996 Topps #131 Tom Pagnozzi
1998 Topps #431 Tom Pagnozzi

Tom Pagnozzi was a member of the Cardinals when I started watching baseball, and never went to another team, so he was one of my favorite players as a kid.

1995 Fleer Ultra - Award Winners #10 Tom Pagnozzi
1996 Score #403 Tom Pagnozzi
1997 Topps Stadium Club #274 Tom Pagnozzi

Being a catcher also bumps him up on my favorite players list, although I just learned that in 1988 he actually started more games at first than catcher. He had to wait around awhile for Tony Pena to leave and Todd Zeile to be moved to third before he became the everyday catcher.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part IX

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII


Today I've got even more McGwires, including a good chunk of an all-McGwire set.

1998 Upper Deck Mark McGwire's Chase For 62
#1, #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11

1998 Upper Deck Mark McGwire's Chase For 62
#12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19

There are 30 cards in Upper Deck's Chase For 62 set. I got 2 of them in a prize package 2 years ago, but I believe this was a boxed set, so I would expect most people would either want all 30 or none of them, and most of the sets are still together. But, I now have 17 of the 30, so we'll see how it goes.

1998 Collector's Choice #220 Mark McGwire
1998 Topps #325 Mark McGwire
1998 Topps #478 Mark McGwire (x2)
1998 Metal Universe #110 Mark McGwire
1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated Then and Now #113 Mark McGwire
1999 Topps HD #70 Mark McGwire
1999 Upper Deck Victory #429 Mark McGwire

Those last 2 cards - the 1999s - are both from sets I didn't previously have in my collection. My collecting started waning in 1999, so it's fun to see "new" sets from around that time. Sometimes I still get that "new set" rush and want to collect the whole thing, and Topps HD might become one of those.

PWE Time!

Stealing Home, from All Trade Bait, All The Time recently sent me a PWE. If you're sick of seeing Cardinals on my blog, well I'd suggest you don't read it? But this one has more than just Cardinals, have a look.

1991 Studio #235 Joe Magrane
2013 Topps - Chasing History Gold Foil #CH-87 Lance Lynn
2014 Topps - #157 Lance Lynn

OK, I tricked you. the first 3 were Cardinals, including a nice shiny Gold foil parallel I wasn't really aware existed. If not for the rainbow shininess of the card, I probably would have just filed the Lance Lynn away with my other Chasing History cards.

1998 Topps #268 Nomar Garciaparra
2000 Upper Deck MVP - Pure Grit #G9 Nomar Garciaparra
2002 Donruss #12 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf #23 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf - Certified Samples #LC-14 Nomar Garciaparra
2004 Topps #200 Nomar Garciaparra

I get lots of Cardinals in various ways, but I don't get as many Nomars, mostly because among players I collect, he's the only one that never played for St. Louis. 5 of the 6 were new cards to my collection. I inexplicably already have 3 copies of that 1998 base card, and a search of my blog doesn't show any of them arriving in the last few years, which means I probably had them all in 1998. I thought I had the 2004 card, but it turns out I have the Opening Day version. My Nomar collection isn't all that big, so these are a nice addition and gives it a relatively large boost.

Thanks for the PWE, Stealing Home!