Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot

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.

In a lot of the photos, I wouldn't have even noticed the donut right away. Luckily the ones featuring a donut only on the back side were flipped appropriately when they arrived.

1998 Fleer Tradition #169 Ray Lankford
1998 Fleer Tradition #234 Bobby Higginson
1998 Fleer Ultra #267 FP Santangelo
1999 Skybox Thunder - Rant #191 Bobby Higginson
1999 Skybox Metal Universe #87 Bobby Higginson
2000 Upper Deck Victory #122 Todd Hollandsworth
2003 Topps #175 Terrence Long
2006 Upper Deck #192 Jeff Conine
2009 Topps #331 Luke Scott

1996 Fleer Ultra #463 Hal Morris
1997 Donruss #29 Rondell White

I've got more to scan and post. I like to sort things logically, so I split them up by year. These are the latest cards from the package, and I've got about another 20 years backwards to cover.

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.

eBay Wins #107

Looking through my post history, this is my 4th largest eBay purchase in terms of the number of cards, and the top two were full 792-card sets. However, there were only 34 unique cards of the 81 I purchased, so the other 47 will go in my trade list. They're all from the Diamond Debut insert set in 2006 Upper Deck.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-41 Takashi Saito
#DD-42 Kenji Johjima
#DD-45 Taylor Buchholz
#DD-46 Josh Barfield
#DD-47 Brian Bannister
#DD-48 Nick Markakis
#DD-49 Carlos Martinez
#DD-50 Macay McBride
#DD-51 Brian Anderson

This portion of the set is guys who actually debuted in 2006 or late 2005, so it's mostly some hit-or-miss prospects. Nick Markakis is obviously one of the hits.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-52 Breddie Bynum
#DD-53 Kelly Shoppach
#DD-55 Ryan Shealy
#DD-56 Chris Resop
#DD-58 Mike Jacobs
#DD-59 Cody Ross
#DD-60 Jose Capellan
#DD-61 Dave Gassner
#DD-64 Paul Maholm

We're gradually moving towards 2004 and 2003 debuts, but I'd say Paul Maholm is the only widely known guy from this bunch.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-65 Nate McLouth
#DD-66 Ben Johnson
#DD-69 Brandon Watson
#DD-70 David Wright
#DD-71 David Ortiz
#DD-72 Alex Rodriguez
#DD-73 Johan Santana
#DD-74 Greg Maddux

Now we're into the All-Stars. That may be my only card of David Ortiz as a member of the Minnesota Twins, since he came up right around the beginning of my collecting hiatus.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-75 Ichiro
#DD-76 Albert Pujols
#DD-77 Hikeki Matsui
#DD-78 Vladimir Guerrero
#DD-79 Pedro Martinez
#DD-80 Mike Schmidt
#DD-81 Al Kaline
#DD-82 Robin Yount

Now we've got All-Stars and Hall of Famers. Guys like Vladimir Guerrero and Pedro Martinez changed teams relatively early in their careers, so we get some very young photos of them to illustrate their debut team. But, with Mike Schmidt and Robin Yount being single-team guys, they're clearly a bit older than the 22 and 19 years of age they were at their debuts.

Also, when I first saw Al Kaline's name as a kid, I assumed it was a made-up placeholder, since I knew of alkaline batteries. I think my Dad finally set me straight on that once he realized what I was thinking.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2709
Total Spent	$45.65
Per Card	1.685 cents

eBay Wins #105

I won 34 cards from 2006 Upper Deck, and they were all inserts from the Player Highlights set. There were some doubles since I bid on multiple auctions, but here are the 22 unique cards.

2006 Upper Deck - Player Highlights
#PH-2 Manny Ramirez
#PH-4 Johnny Damon
#PH-6 Chris Carpenter (x3)
#PH-7 Derrek Lee (x2)
#PH-8 Jason Bay
#PH-9 Jason Varitek
#PH-10 Ryan Howard (x2)
#PH-11 Mark Teixeira

2006 Upper Deck - Player Highlights
#PH-12 Carlos Delgado (x4)
#PH-13 Bartolo Colon
#PH-14 David Wright
#PH-15 Miguel Tejada (x2)
#PH-17 Paul Konerko
#PH-18 Jermaine Dye (x3)
#PH-19 Ichiro
#PH-20 Brad Wilkerson

2006 Upper Deck - Player Highlights
#PH-21 Hideki Matsui
#PH-23 Chris Burke
#PH-25 Brian Roberts
#PH-26 David Ortiz
#PH-28 Ken Griffey, Jr. (x3)
#PH-34 Scott Podsednik

At a penny each, that's 34 cards for 34 cents. Not bad for some big stars.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2608
Total Spent	$44.74
Per Card	1.715 cents

Contest Winnings, Part II

A good friend of mine likes to say - jokingly, I think - that second place is the first loser. When Daniel of It's like having my own Card Shop, opened up a contest to help Pack War reach 100 followers, I joined in, and the Randomizer put me in 6th for 4 prizes. But, since 2 people won the top 4 prizes, he was kind enough to throw some cards to the 5th and 6th position to still have 4 people as winners. Consequently, I got some cool stuff for being the 5th loser.

Part I

The cards in this portion of my prize cover the years I wasn't collecting, which means it's quite probable any card will be a card I didn't have.

2002 Fleer Tradition
Glossy #462 Bill Ortega #057/200

Hmm. Bill Ortega. Doesn't ring a bell. According to baseball-reference he had 5 ABs in 5 games in 2001, likely as a PH, but no further MLB stats. Such is the risk with prospect cards. This one's a glossy parallel of the base set, and numbered to just 200.

2002 Fleer Ultra #251 Bud Smith

Here we have the 4th most popular Smith to play for the Cardinals, after Ozzie, Lee, and Lonnie, but probably ahead of Bryn. Bud Smith caused an uproar when the Cardinals assigned him recently-retired Willie McGee's number 51, and they actually switched him to 52 mid-season because of it. People get a little number-retirement-happy here, and there's still a movement to retire #51 for Willie.

2006 Upper Deck
Star Attractions #SA-AR Anthony Reyes

Anthony Reyes wasn't a big star at the time this set was printed, so I'm curious about the Star Attraction title. Maybe it was speculative, like Mr. Ortega up top. This one turned out a little better though, as Reyes played a few years for the Cardinals.

2007 Topps
Own The Game #OTG22 Chris Carpenter

I can't quite tell what patch is on Chris Carpenter's hat here. It could be from the 2006 All Star Game, but I think it's from game 3 the World Series, which he won 5-0.

2008 Upper Deck Documentary
All Star Game #ASG-RL Ryan Ludwick

2010 T206
Mini Old Mill Back
#150 Ryan Ludwick

Finally, for today, here are 2 Ryan Ludwick inserts. For some reason there was no controversy around him getting Lee Smith's number, likely because 7 other players had it in between. We love handing out #47 for some reason, though John Mabry may have a claim to it now that he's coaching for us after 3(!) playing stints. I can't help but root for former Cardinals like Ryan Ludwick, even though he played for division rivals Pittsburgh and now Cincinnati. And everyone loves minis, right?

eBay Wins #88

This time around I picked up some 2006 Upper Deck inserts. These paralells look almost identical to the base, except for the gold foil and number to 299. These ran a penny each.

2006 Upper Deck - Gold
#557 Alex Cintron #145/299
#580 Scott Hatteberg #013/299
#593 Brian Fuentes #060/299
#717 Bubba Crosby #156/299

Short-term Cardinal Brian Fuentes got the dreaded horizontal card. Dreaded because then I can't scan it easily with the vertical cards, that is.

2006 Upper Deck - Gold
#524 Mike Remlinger #051/299
#537 Coco Crisp  #140/299
#583 Danny Graves #265/299
#591 Scott Sauerbeck #045/299
#662 Robb Quinlan #116/299
#736 Milton Bradley #001/299
#746 Tom Gordon #107/299
#748 David Dellucci #228/299

The old eBay 1/1 showed up for Milton Bradley. My favorite player of this group is probabaly Tom "Flash" Gordon, for playing so many years, and for getting my fantasy baseball team lots of Holds in his years setting up for Mariano Rivera.

2006 Upper Deck - Gold
#821 Doug Wachter #102/299
#828 Travis Harper #221/299
#829 Ty Wigginton #032/299
#838 Kameron Loe #134/299
#845 Bengie Molina #156/299
#853 Justin Speier #032/299
#861 Gary Majewski #121/299
#880 Brandon Webb Diamondbacks Team Checklist #291/299

A former Cardinal - Ty Wigginton - and a current Cardinal coach - Bengie Molina - highlighted this bunch for me.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2477
Total Spent	$43.62
Per Card	1.761 cents

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 15

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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2006 Fleer
#86 Tyler Johnson
#91 Mark Mulder

I didn't own a single card from 2006 Fleer before these two. Now, my want list has had a net gain because I've added all Cardinals from the set.

2006 Fleer Ultra #40 Mark Mulder

I also didn't own any 2006 Fleer Ultra, but that one only added 5 Cardinals to my want list. Now, look at this card, then look at Mulder's Fleer card above. They look suspiciously similar, don't they? I'm pretty sure these were taken from the same game. How can I be so sure? I can't be 100% positive, but here is my evidence:

• Those are the Cardinals Home Sunday caps. They don't mess around and wear them on special days; they're for Home Sundays.
• Mulder had no relief appearances in 2005, narrowing my search to his starts.
• He only started 1 Sunday game at Busch Stadium in 2005, on July 3.

Mulder was actually healthy in 2005, with 32 starts. It looks like he got a few extended breaks between starts down the stretch, but that may have just been because the Cardinals had a sizable lead and won 100 games. But I suppose 32 chances is many fewer than 150-162 a photographer would have to get a shot of a position player, making something like this slightly more palatable.

2006 Upper Deck #808 Gary Bennett

Gary Bennett was a solid, dependable backup to Molina for 2 years, but he wasn't near the character Jason LaRue was.

2005 Opening Day
#32 Chris Carpenter
#65 Woody Williams (x2)
#154 Scott Rolen
#156 Edgar Renteria
#157 Larry Walker

2005 Opening Day #17 Jim Edmonds

The Cardinals seem to pick up a lot of aging stars for their final years, but they seem to work out to be productive years. When Larry Walker came to St. Louis, I enjoyed getting to see a player I had known to be a superstar for a long time, and he did quite well in his final year and a half with us. 2005 Opening Day is another new set for me, despite my fondness for the current Opening Day sets.

All-Star Winnings, Part 7

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 ]

Today's theme is "The Ghosts of Free-Agents Past".

2006 Upper Deck #807 Braden Looper

I distinctly remember being up in arms when I found out we traded Braden Looper for Edgar Renteria. But a look at the stats shows he pitched only 4 games for the cardinals before that point. 4 of his 10 outs were Strikeouts, but still, I don't know why I was so sure we needed him. We picked him back up just in time for the 2006 season, and he got to pitch in 7 playoff games including 3 in the World Series. Eventually he left for Milwaukee.

2010 Upper Deck #473 Kyle Lohse

2012 Topps #26 Kyle Lohse

Speaking of Milwaukee, Kyle Lohse turned his 16-3 2012 season into a 3-year, $33M deal with the Brewers for 2013-2015. So far it's not going quite as well at 2-6. At least that matches his jersey number, and 2012 card number.

2010 Topps Attax #121 Ryan Ludwick

I'd make a horrible GM. I'd never want to let any players go. It appears the Cardinals traded Ludwick at a good time, but in return we got Jake Westbrook, who is only recently off the DL again.

2009 Goodwin Champions #149 Ryan Ludwick
2009 Goudey #177 Ryan Ludwick
2009 Upper Deck Icons #92 Ryan Ludwick
2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic #47 Ryan Ludwick

These 4 Ludwick cards make me want the Topps monopoly to end. All 4 are Upper Deck products, and I think all 4 look really good.

eBay Wins #40

Did you know Jonny Gomes full name?

It's Jonathan Johnson "Jonny" Gomes. That's kind of awesome, like Willie Wilson, or Raymond J. Johnson, Jr.

2006 Upper Deck #443 Johnny Gomes

This one's only in OK condition, with some iffy corners, but for the low low price of a penny, I'm certainly not going to complain.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2012
Total Spent	$38.44
Per Card	1.911 cents