Tis The Season Winnings, Part VIII

Sometimes, I procrastinate posting and sorting some cards. Normally I don't pay too much attention to how long a particular item has been sitting on my desk, but given that this one was the Tis the Season contest from 2013, I've probably had it in my possession for a little over a year now. But, even with the long delay, I still want to throw Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes some referral traffic while I show off my prize.
Part I II III IV V VI VII

Now we're moving into the mid-00s, when Upper Deck issued so many sets they're hard to track.

2005 Donruss #127 Pedro Martinez
2005 Topps #576 Matt Clement
2006 Topps #355 Jon Papelbon
2007 SP Legendary Cuts #7 Cy Young
2006 Upper Deck - Play Ball with Derek Jeter #PBDJ-5
2007 Upper Deck Artifacts #3 Manny Ramirez

I always have to double check whether Matt Clement ever played for the Cardinals, no matter how many times I find the answer is: No, he signed for 2008, but injury recovery kept him from ever reaching the majors before he was released. Cy Young, on the other hand, played for the Cardinals under their current and previous name, the Perfectos.

2007 Fleer Ultra #152 Adam Wainwright
2007 Upper Deck #69 Dustin Pedroia
2007 Upper Deck #590 David Ortiz
2006 Fleer Ultra #135 David Ortiz
2007 Upper Deck #573 Josh Beckett

Wainwright was the only modern Cardinal from the cards I got for these years, and he's one of my favorites. I also enjoy the two David Ortiz cards, showing him in his two natural positions: swinging, and homerun trotting.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 14

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
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2007 Topps
#127 Chris Duncan
#249 Tony La Russa

If not for the different uniforms, I'd like to think these are 2 shots from the same play, and Tony's taking Chris Duncan out for a defensive replacement. Sorry, Chris, I like you on the radio though.

2007 Topps Updates and Highlights
#UH44 Scott Spiezio

Spiezio might be responsible for the silliest Cardinals phenomenon until the Rally Squirrel. He had very long facial hair growing under his lip, and at times he dyed it Cardinal red. Of course, people cut up red fabric and made their own faux hair, and I think there may have even been an official promotion night around it.

2007 Turkey Red
#72 Chris Carpenter
#87 David Eckstein
#172 Kelvin Jimenez

Zoom in really far on that David Eckstein card. He's got quite the zombie eyes in that drawing.

2007 Turkey Red
#48 Prince Albert

I'd love to know what happened on this pitch, if this is based on a real photo. It could be a home run, a fly out, or even just strike 2. It looks like Albert might be swinging a little low for the ball.

2006 Topps
#36 Jeff Suppan
#228 David Eckstein

Here's Eckstein looking much less Zombiefied, and journeyman extraordinaire Jeff Suppan. He wore my favorite number (37), so I almost bought a jersey when we won the World Series in 2006. Luckily I didn't because he quickly left for Milwaukee. One day I may get one anyway, along with Todd Wellemeyer and Kent Bottenfield.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part V

When I claimed the Cardinals - and Mark McGwire and Todd Stottlemyre - in the pack-per-day giveaway held at TribeCards, I had no idea just how many cards I'd wind up with, and how many different players. So that I can tag all of the sets and Cardinal players, I've broken this up into a series of who knows how many posts. Thanks for all the cards, David.
[ I | II | III | IV ]

2004 Topps #137 Brett Tomko

This is the first 2004 Topps card I have. That falls right about in the middle of my collecting hiatus.

2006 Topps
#339 Yadier Molina
#491 John Rodriguez
#198 Brad Thompson

I've bought a few 2006 packs from Target's bargain bin, but only have a small part of the set, so all 3 of these are also new to me. The Yadi's obviously the star of the bunch, but I can never see John Rodriguez without remembering some of our old, unhip announcers trying to get J-Rod to catch on. That was almost as good as Al Hrabosky encouraging the crowd to yell Puuuuuu for Albert Pujols, since we were already doing a similar cheer for Isaac Bruce over at the Rams games.

2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic
#4 Yadier Molina

Another Yadi! It looks like if the Cardinals want him - i.e., don't trade him - he'll be a Cardinal for life, since he's been signed through 2017 with a team option for 2018.

2011 Topps Attax
#59 Colby Rasmus
#232 Angel Stadium of Anaheim

I didn't realize this stadium carries forward the silly nomenclature of the team. At least it only mentions one city instead of two. Also, I got Cardinal Colby Rasmus.

2009 O-Pee-Chee
#463 Chris Perez
#587 Colby Rasmu

I think these might be the best looking cards of this post, I've been a fan of 2009 O-Pee-Chee ever since I got the David Freese card. I wish we still had Chris Perez, especially with Motte out for awhile, possibly all year. But I didn't like the trade at the time. I almost never like trades though, so maybe that's just me Monday-Morning-Quarterbacking. I guess I didn't like the Colby Rasmus trade either at the time, although I'm ok with it now. I'm just full of unbridled optimism for promising prospects.

The pile is shrinking...

2006 Topps Value Pack #3

[Pack 1]
[Pack 2]

Oddly enough, on another trip to Kansas City, I found yet another 2006 Topps pack at Target in the $1.59 bin. Here's the good stuff:

2006 Topps #461 Placido Polanco

 Wait a minute, this looks familiar.

2006 Topps #452 Jake Westbrook

So does this one.

2006 Topps #449 Jason LaRue

There we go, one that wasn't in that last pack. I was starting to worry. 

2006 Topps - Mantle Homerun History #MHR2

 This is a decent looking card, but it appears all of them in the set look the same on the front except the number in the upper left.

2006 Topps - Opening Day Team vs Team #OD-BP Brewers vs Pirates

When I saw this I thought  maybe there wasn't an Opening Day set for 2006, but there is. 

If you recall, these packs had 3 Vintage cards in them, so far all from 1985-90 for me

1989 Topps #253 Jose Alvarez

I've got the 1989 set, so this will go in the trade list.

1986 Topps #266 Keith Moreland

 1986 is just old enough to not be part of the overproduction era, I think. At least, I don't have a ton of these sitting around.

1986 Topps #205 Tony Perez

There we go, a Hall-of-Famer. I'm glad to see one guy I recognize among the 80s cards. 

Here is the full base card listing:
344 Doug Davis
354 Grady Sizemore
356 Luis Matos
363 Jermaine Dye
429 Francisco Cordero
432 Brett Myers
436 Keith Foulke
449 Jason LaRue
452 Jake Westbrook
454 Bobby Jenks
461 Placido Polanco
469 Josh Willingham
569 Mike Jacobs
580 Frank Thomas
610 Cincinnati Reds
651 Jose Reyes/Kaz Matsui
Series 2 Checklist 2 of 3

I really wonder how much longer I'll keep finding single packs of the product at Target. I like what I've been getting, so I'll keep picking them up.

2006 Topps Value Pack #2

After searching 3 Targets in the St. Louis area to only find 1 pack before, would you believe I went all the way to Kansas City for this one? No? OK, so I happened to be in the KC area last weekend, with about 4 hours to kill, and a Target near my hotel. I figured I'd give it a look since bloggers all across the country had posted about the packs. Sure enough, I found just 1 again. Since I can't resist the mystery vintage, I bought it (along with some cookies, and the cookies were delicious).

As I like to do, first I'll show you the past/current/future Cardinals:

2006 Topps #461 Placido Polanco

I think a big reason I like baseball cards is the history they provide on the back. I can look right there and see that we traded Polanco to the Phillies in 2002. As I recall it was part of the deal for Scott Rolen.

2006 Topps #452 Jake Westbrook

Here's Jake Westbrook pre-Cardinals. The stats history doesn't help me too much here, but luckily there is always baseball-reference.com to tell me he showed up at the 2010 trade deadline.

2006 Topps - Trading Places #TP-JP Juan Pierre

This is a good idea for a subset, because if I had all of them I could look at it as a retrospective of the 2005-2006 off-season activity.

1990 Topps #363 Dan Petry

Doesn't ring a bell to me.

1989 Topps #345 Charlie Hough

I have this factory set as I previously posted, so here's one more on the trade pile.

1985 Topps #82 Joe Price

I can't say I've heard of him off the top of my head, but at least 1985's just a bit before the overproduction era; my earliest "vintage" in the last pack was a 1988. All in all the Vintage weren't overwhelming, but it's still a cool little bonus in the pack.

And here's the 2006 base card listing:
344 Doug Davis
354 Grady Sizemore
363 Jermaine Dye
381 Odalis Perez
405 Miguel Tejada
418 Johnny Estrada
422 Aaron Cook
431 Julio Franco
439 Ben Broussard
452 Jake Westbrook
461 Placido Polanco
471 Runelvys Hernandez
557 Chris Burke
579 Javier Vazquez
600 Ned Yost
615 Arizona Diamondbacks
648 "Brothers Orlando" - Orlando Hernandez/Orlando Hudson
Series 2 Checklist 1 of 3

2006 Topps Value Pack

By now you've seen some other blogs about the old packs of 2006 Topps showing up at Target for $1.59 each. I went to all 3 of them near my home and work, and came away with a total of 1 pack. Nothing blogworthy, right? Wrong! There are 3 mystery Vintage cards within. I can tell the suspense is killing you.

No, I can't wait to open until after I scan

First up, a base card just to remind you what 2006 looked like:

2006 Topps #511 Dmitri Young

And now the obligatory Gold Parallel, which is actually somewhat rare at 1:6 packs.

2006 Topps - Gold Parallel #564 Yorvit Torrealba #0873/2006

Now, the mystery cards

1988 Topps #271 Ken Gerhart

Ooooh, 1988...

1989 Topps #695 Carlton Fisk

It's a 1989, but at least it's a Hall of Famer

1990 Topps #480 Sid Fernandez

And an uninspiring finish.

Those 3 cards actually showed up in that order. Seeing an '88 common on top I felt sure a '79 to '83 or so would be lurking somewhere beneath. Oh well, I bought the pack without expectations, and at least now I have a few 2006s, since those fell during my lull in collecting.

Here's the full list of 2006 base for completeness
338 Livan Hernandez
383 Russ Ortiz
391 Casey Blake
423 David Ortiz
468 Johan Santana
483 Jose Guillen
495 Adrian Beltre
506 Michael Cuddyer
511 Dmitri Young
527 Jose Vidro
580 Frank Thomas
582 Francisco Rodriguez
584 Jorge Sosa
604 Washington Nationals
630 Ronny Paulino
645 Paul Maholm
653 Prince Fielder/Rickie Weeks
Series Two Checklist 2 of 3

It's nice to get the advertised number in real cards, without cheaper filler couting against the pack total (ahem, 2010 Topps). In total there were 23 pieces of cardboard: the promised 18 2006 cards, 3 vintage cards, plus a checklist and a Topps of the Class ad.