Red Cardboard's Mostly Reds Cardboard Draft, Part 1

A long, long time ago, Red Cardboard held a draft, and I received my cards, looked through them, and put them in my "to post" pile. I'm going to have to implement a queue rather than a pile, I think, or else some stuff's just going to never get posted.

As a Reds fan, most of the prizes offered were Reds, but I managed to find the former/future Cardinals in disguise, along with cards from a few sets I just like. Here are the first few cards from the results.

1970 Topps Super #31 Vada Pinson
1975 Topps #623 Rookie Infielders (Phil Garner, Keith Hernandez, Bob Sheldon, Tom Veryzer)
1977 Topps #23 Dan Driessen
1993 Denny's #22 Joe Oliver
1996 Metal Universe #149 Barry Larkin
1997 Bowman - International #76 Brett Tomko
1999 Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion #10G Brett Tomko
1999 Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion #146G Dmitri Young
2003 Upper Deck Victory #29 Adam Dunn

I envisioned this looking a bit more like a collage and a bit less like a poorly played round of Tetris, but what can I say? That Vada Pinson really threw off everyone else. It's got some markings on it, but it's my first card from 1970 Topps Super. Since I keep the bulk of my cards in standard sized boxes, I now even more urgently need to implement some sort of plan for oversized items, much like a library does.

Two other nice vintage cards are Keith Hernandez in his pre-mustache days, and a rough looking Dan Driessen. All 3 of the oldest cards features guys who made at least a stop with the Cardinals, along with Dmitri Young and Brett Tomko. For some reason I always think Joe Oliver was a Cardinal too, but he wasn't, and I can't figure out who I must be confusing him with.

There are plenty more, but as usual, the blogger label limit tells me when I've had enough for one day.

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You III: Turkeys in Time

If you get that sequel reference, you're probably just about my age, and, like me, you felt that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could do no wrong in 1993. Anyway, let's see the last of the Turkey Red trade from 2 by 3 Heroes.

2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-16 Albert Pujols
2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-32 Albert Pujols
2006 Fleer Ultra #38 Jim Edmonds
2007 Fleer Ultra #149 Jim Edmonds
2013 Gypsy Queen #80 Bob Gibson
2007 Topps #660 Yadier Molina
2003 Upper Deck Victory #88 Mark McGwire
1993 Topps #191 Sean Lowe

That's a nice pile of Cardinals to finish off the trade. With all the Cardinals cards I have stockpiled, I'm always kind of impressed to see just how many simple base cards are out there that I don't have, even though I know that shouldn't surprise me.

All-Star Winnings, Part 13

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 | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII ]

1976 Topps #478 Lynn McGlothen
1987 Donruss #604 Steve Lake
1988 Donruss #31 Lance Johnson
1990 Topps #533 Tim Jones

You can tell I'm nearing the end, with this random assortment of 1970s to 1990s cards. I admit I don't know who Lynn McGlothen is, but a 1970s card is always a welcome addition. Also, that's right White Sox and Mets fans (and Cubs and Yankees near the end), Lance Johnson was a Cardinal for a bit in 1987. We traded him and Ricky Horton for Jose DeLeon prior to 1988, though.

2001 Topps #50 Mark McGwire
2002 Upper Deck Ovation #119 Mark McGwire
2003 Upper Deck Victory #88 Mark McGwire
2003 Upper Deck Victory - Tier 1 Green #88 Mark McGwire

Here I have more McGwires that didn't fit in the last post. These are all my sole representatives in their sets, like many of the previous McGwires. My collecting really dropped off in 1999 and was almost non-existent in 2000, through late 2010, so cards from that era always feel like they're helping to bridge the gap.