Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part VIII

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

2011 Bowman - Prospects
#BP13 Alex Castellanos
#BP40 Deryk Hooker
#BP75 Brian Broderick
2011 Bowman Platinum
#22 Daniel Descalso
Prospects #BPP87 Adron Chambers
2011 Bowman Chrome #195 Daniel Descalso
2011 Bowman Chrome - Prospects
#BCP13 Alex Castellanos
#BCP40 Deryk Hooker
#BCP90 Adron Chambers

Bowman really just vexes me, with a lot of confusion around whether certain inserts are part of Bowman flagship, Bowman Chrome, or Bowman Draft. I really like the look of the cards, it's just the organization that bugs me, because I want to get it perfect. I'm pretty sure I found the right sets for all these, and since the sets are pretty small, the three cards each nearly completes the Cardinals in the Prospects insert set for both Bowman and Bowman Chrome.

2013 Topps - Blue Parallel
#190 Daniel Descalso
#261 Trevor Rosenthal
2011 Topps #87 Daniel Descalso

I'll finish off with a few more Daniel Descalso cards, and a Trevor Rosenthal just because it's from the same blue parallel set.

2012 Heritage Blaster #5

Let's open up another Blaster and see all the Cardinals, Inserts, and my completion status.

2012 Heritage
#8 AL Pitching Leaders
#54 2012 Rookie Stars
#95 2012 Rookie Stars
#129 Chris Perez
#144 World Series Game 3
#172 Yadier Molina
#206 Lance Lynn
#250 Jon Jay
#313 Jaime Garcia

It's too bad Adron Chambers is with the Cubs now, because that decreases the chances of him signing autographs at some random St. Louis area location. I have so many Rookie Stars cards I could have him sign. I got a few more former Cardinals with Dan Haren, Chris Perez, and Albert Pujols, but 4 that are still with the team, too.

2012 Heritage
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#472 Alfonso Soriano
#476 Prince Fielder
Blue Parallel #76 Jon Lester
Blue Parallel #130 David Freese
Checklist #C5
Chrome Parallel #HP14 Paul Konerko
News Flashbacks #NF-PS Penn Station

More Adron! I had forgotten the Blue Parallel is not a full set, but only 30 cards, so I can't get blue versions of all the Cardinals base cards, but in addition to Freese, there is a Jon Jay, Albert Pujols, and Yadier Molina available. Unfortunately the two SPs are both duplicates, leaving me at only 12/75 complete.

2012 Heritage
Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCR-YG Yovani Gallardo
Stick-ons #31 Curtis Granderson

This box had a relic in it, that nice gray Yovani Gallardo swatch. I'm not a big relic chaser, but I've always thought Heritage has made pretty good ones. I do prefer a bat to a jersey for some reason, though.

So how is my quest going?

Base: 243/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 3/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 4/100
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 1/71
New Age Performers: 2/16
News Flashbacks 4/15
Stick-ons: 5/46
Then and Now: 1/10

2012 Heritage Blaster #4, Almost 3 Years Later.

I bought several of these boxes from Dave and Adam's quite awhile ago, sometime after 2013 came out I'm sure. Since the last one I posted was #3 in late 2012, I guess this is #4. I'm not very good at maintaining a FIFO method of opening and posting my cards, so these were just the next most interesting ones in my box of unopened stuff. The others ones will probably be next.

2012 Topps Heritage
#22 Edwin Jackson
#172 Yadier Molina
#206 Lance Lynn
#244 Jason Motte
#265 2012 Rookie Stars
#281 Jason Marquis
#306 Star Receivers
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#357 Allen Craig

I'm not sure why Adron Chambers showed up on multiplo different Rookie Stars cards, but I got two of them. He's on a third version I got in that third blaster. Both cards featuring Yadier Molina came in a pack together, which is nothing more than a statistical oddity, but it was with a Cardinal, so I noticed.

#390 Jason Heyward
#429 Jonny Venters
#434 Shane Victorino
Baseball Flashbacks #BF-AK Al Kaline
Blue Parallel #84 Doug Fister
New Age Performers #NAP-RC Robinson Cano
News Flashbacks #NF-UA University of Alabama
Checklist #C2
Stick-Ons #27 Ryan Howard

I got so many Cardinals they spilled into the Inserts scan, since we picked up Jason Heyward this year. That blue Doug Fister is my second copy, and those are the only two blues I have. Again, statistical anomalies are weird when they happen to you. Something about the more common insert sets in Heritage make me want to complete them all, and I'm not sure what it is. Let's see my current status:

Base: 212/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 1/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 3/100
New Age Performers: 2/16
News Flashbacks 3/15
Stick-ons: 4/46
Then and Now: 1/10

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 3

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.
[ Part 1 | Part 2]

2012 Heritage
#172 Yadier Molina
#226 Skip Schumaker
#336 Jon Jay
#250 Fernando Salas
#375 Daniel Descalso

Jon Jay must not have been at camp the day they posed for Heritage. He definitely stands out in this bunch of 5, with the road cap, and no close-up mugshot.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#41 Yadier Molina
#55 Matt Holliday
#138 Chris Carpenter
#202 Jason Motte
#208 Adron Chambers
#297 Lou Brock

Say, whatever happened to Adron Chambers? He had enough MLB time to get a card in 2012, but he's back in the minors for now. I'm sure we'll see him again in September when the rosters expand.

2012 Opening Day #96 Chris Carpenter

Here's another guy I'm hoping to see in September, or I'll even take just October. The latest rehab news doesn't sound good, though, and it's appearing more and more likely he's done for the year, and done - at least as a Cardinal - for good.

2012 Gypsy Queen Extreme Value Blaster #2

As 2013 Gypsy Queen is hitting stores, I'd like to take you into the past. Allllll the way to the year 2012. I picked up another discounted 2012 Gypsy Queen blaster from Target for $11.99, after the previous one from November looked pretty good. And, I just can't resist a deal.

2012 Gypsy Queen
Mini Parallel #78 Sergio Santos
Mini Parallel #84 Freddie Freeman
Mini Parallel #123 Geovany Soto
Mini Parallel #134 Juan Nicasio
Mini Green #45 Madison Baumgarner
Mini Gypsy Queen Back #29 Ryan Roberts
Mini Gypsy Queen Back #126 Brett Myers
Mini Straight Cut Back #240 Tim Lincecum

Why do I love parallel sets so much? I've got half a mind to try to complete at least the regular mini set.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#143 Dustin Pedroia SP Variation
#250 Ken Griffey, Jr. SP Variation

I only spotted these variations when I noticed 2 of the packs appeared to have 5 standard cards and 1 mini. All of the other packs had 2 or 3 insert cards, so I dug around for the SP Variation checklist.

2012 Gypsy Queen Hallmark Heroes
#HH-FR Frank Robinson
#HH-NR Nolan Ryan

I start feeling old when I see a guy I remember playing, Nolan Ryan, featured as an old-timer with the likes of Frank Robinson.

2012 Gypsy Queen Future Stars
#FS-DH Derek Holland
#FS-DJ Desmond Jennings

Also making me feel old: These guys are both about 4 years younger than me; both are 26.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Sliding Stars #SS-DG Dee Gordon

2012 Gypsy Queen
#208 Adron Chambers
#249 Stan Musial

I already got this Adron Chambers card in the last blaster. He appears to be running from a giant lizard bent on destroying Tokyo. Oh, and there's a Musial, which is good because those are hard to pry away from another Cardinals fan these days.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Glove Stories #GS-BR Ben Revere

Imagine Chariots of Fire playing over this catch in slow motion. It'll be the next big thing: music cards.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Moonshots #MS-FT Frank Thomas

It's even weirder that Frank Thomas is an old-timer now. I've still got a poster of him in my pool room, which I bought as a kid. What can I say, the Cardinals just weren't that good in the early 90s, so I went with the Chicago guy.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Relics #GWR-RK Ralph Kiner

And here's the crown jewel of the box, a Ralph Kiner relic. It was actually in the last pack I opened, which added to the suspense of opening. I don't know much about Ralph Kiner, so I went and read his Wikipedia page. I thought it was interesting that despite playing in only the minimum required 10 seasons, he's in the Hall of Fame. And not only did he barely qualify, he gained entry on his final ballot, and with just 1 vote over what he needed. I bet this guy slams on the gas to zip through yellow lights.

All in all, I was pretty happy with this box, which means I'll keep checking the bottom shelf at Target for discounted year-old blasters.

2012 Gypsy Queen Extreme Value Blaster

I recently picked up a blaster of Gypsy Queen at Target for $11.99. Normally these are $19.99, a little more than I can convince myself to pay for the 48 cards inside. But, for a quarter a card, I went for it. I've decided this set isn't old enough for a pack-by-pack breakdown, so here are the inserts and Cardinals.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#201 Allen Craig
#208 Adron Chambers

 Each pack has 1 mini card, and here's how those broke down.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Parallel
#21 Mat Latos
#158 Rickie Weeks
#177 Nick Markakis
#183 Heath Bell

These are stated at 1:1, but they can be replaced by rarer mini parallels.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Straight Cut Back
#69 Troy Tulowitzki
#115 Kurt Suzuki

I really should have scanned the backs since that's the only difference, but these Straight Cut Backs are inserted 1:6 packs.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Gypsy Queen Back
#261 John Smoltz

Again, I really should have scanned the back. This Gypsy Queen back is also inserted 1:6 packs. And I'm still referring to him as Former Cardinal John Smoltz.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Black Border
#305 Matt Cain

Since the black minis are inserted 1:12 packs, and this has a high number, I figured I had something rare with this one, but apparently the minis 301-350 are not short-printed this year. Still, a cool card of a guy who just won a World Series, and really did a number on my Cardinals in the process.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Future Stars
#FS-JH Jeremy Hellickson
#FS-JU Justin Upton

Future Stars is an interesting name for a set featuring a 2-time All-Star. It's much better than the Bowman gamble on guys that may be no-names in a few years.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Hallmark Heroes
#HH-MM Mickey Mantle
#HH-SM Stan Musial

That's a pretty good pair, Mantle and Musial, especially for a Cardinal fan such as myself.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Sliding Stars
#SS-DG Dee Gordon
#SS-JW Jemile Weeks

Feet first, guys. You'll eat much less dirt that way.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Moonshots
#MS-AP Albert Pujols

Oh, Albert. That Angels uniform still doesn't look right on you.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Glove Stories
#GS-DJ Derek Jeter

This card features the ridiculous play Jeter made against the A's, in which he flipped the ball and it seemed to make a left turn mid-air to get Jeremy Giambi at the plate.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Blue Framed Parallel
#80 Ryan Braun #015/599

Finally, a nice parallel carried over from last year, the framed parallel. Last year was green, and this year's is Blue, and numbered to 599. But mostly I like how cool it looks and feels. I'd like to pick up a few Cardinals from this subset, so if you have any and would like this Braun, drop me an e-mail.

2012 Heritage Blaster #3

I took advantage of Target's discounted $11.99 blasters they've had out lately, but only found one 2012 Heritage box. Still, since I gladly paid $19.99 for my two previous blasters, I figured it was worth buying another. Here's my favorite stuff from the box: the Cardinals, Short Prints, and Inserts.

First we have the base card Cardinals. There were 9 current and 2 former Cardinals in the box, including Adron Chambers twice on two different Rookie Stars cards, and Dan Haren's regular and League Leaders card.

2012 Topps Heritage
#83 Lance Berkman
#95 2012 Rookie Stars
#97 Kyle Lohse
#142 Craig "Pinches" Rangers in Opener
#206 Lance Lynn
#250 Jon Jay
#306 Star Receivers
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#375 Daniel Descalso

I'm now 3 for 3 in choosing blasters with a Descalso.

2012 Topps Heritage
#8 AL Pitching Leaders
#231 Dan Haren

Haren seems to be the most common former Cardinal I find in current products, maybe he's just the biggest star we've let go recently, other than he-who-must-not-be-named-until-we-win-a-World-Series-without-him.

2012 Topps Heritage
#472 Alfonso Soriano SP
#476 Prince Fielder SP

Two big stars on the Short Prints here. I hope Fielder remains ringless through 2012 though, if the Cardinals can defeat the Giants at least.

2012 Topps Heritage
Baseball Flashbacks - #BF-SKO Sandy Koufax
News Flashbacks - #NF-VT Valentina Tereshkova

Sometimes I like to think I'm really into the history of space travel, then I learn that a Russian Cosmonaut was the first woman in space. It sure seems like a real space buff would have known that.

2012 Topps Heritage
Then and Now - #TN-KB

More non-number card numbers. This shouldn't bother me so much. Curiously, Killebrew was the 1963 HR leader, the year this set is supposed to mimic, but Bautista is the 2011 leader. Shouldn't a 1963 tribute set show the 1962 leader? I guess that seems wrong too, but in a different way.

2012 Topps Heritage
Stick-Ons - #5 Jose Reyes

Maybe I'll have these guys adorn my plain white cardboard storage boxes. That'd be somewhat appropriate.

2012 Topps Heritage
Chrome Parallel - #HP61 David Price

And we'll finish this pack off strong with the Chrome Parallel. Everyone loves shiny things, and that this is a David Price is an extra bonus.

This blaster seemed to have a bonus helping of Cardinals along with its regular number of inserts, so that made it extra nice for my $12. Heritage seemed to be unpopular this year, so I'll be keeping my eye out for more deals in the coming weeks.

A Rookie Contest Win, Part 1

In Mid-June I won a contest at all the way to backstop by going 3 for 3 in guessing the Rookie cards in his big stack. My prize: the stack, and some other cool stuff he picked out for me.

First, the promised stack, starting with some 2011 Topps:

2011 Topps - Cognac Parallel #143 Jeremy Jeffress

Base cards:
80 Desmond Jennings
83 Greg Halman
117 Brett Sinkbeil
213 Brandon Snyder
285 Hank Conger
368 Brian Broderick
401 Michael Crotta
418 Zach Britton
446 Brandon Beachy
461 Eric Sogard
503 Nathan Adcock
604 Joe Paterson
605 Brandon Belt
633 Aaron Crow

Next, some 2011 Update

2011 Topps Update - Cognac Parallel #US288 Eric Thames

2011 Topps Update - Blue Parallel #US194 Jason Kipnis

2011 Topps Update - Topps 60 #T60-142 Tyler Chatwood 

2011 Topps Update #US114 Lance Lynn

2011 Topps Update #US39 Eduardo Sanchez

Base cards:
US9 Jose Iglesias
US24 Rex Brothers
US39 Eduardo Sanchez
US47 Paul Goldschmidt
US56 Ryan Adams
US66 Andy Dirks
US73 Juan Nicasio
US103 Josh Collmenter
US112 Lonnie Chisenhall
US114 Lance Lynn
US117 Michael Stutes
US132 Jose Altuve

US136 Brandon Crawford
US151 Cory Gearrin
US152 Julio Teheran
US155 Eric Hosmer
US159 Alex Cobb
US165 Al Alburquerque
US174 Jacob Turner
US177 Rene Tosoni
US179 Michael Pineda
US180 Daniel Moskos
US184 Tyler Chatwood
US186 J.D. Martinez
US203 Juan Nicasio
US213 Louis Coleman
US231 Charlie Blackmon
US254 Dustin Ackley
US282 Brad Hand
US308 Kyle Seager

Then, some 2012 Topps, including Series 2.

2012 Topps Golden Moments Parallel #95 Chris Parmelee

2012 Topps Golden Moments Parallel #36 Michael Taylor

The Gold overlay on all the green in this card makes it look pretty awesome in person.

2012 Topps Blue-Border Parallel #134 Stephen Lombardozzi

2012 Topps #90 Adron Chambers

2012 Topps #559 Brandon Dickson 

And, as usual, the base cards:
9 Jesus Montero
40 Tom Milone
41 Devin Mesoraco
42 Drew Pomeranz
79 Austin Romine
90 Adron Chambers
198 Matt Dominguez
202 Andrew Carignan
218 Kyle Hudson
235 Joe Benson
252 Dellin Betances
274 Alex Liddi
275 Brad Peacock
338 Jose Costanza
432 Wei-Yin Chen
559 Brandon Dickson
570 Zack McAllister
604 Juan Abreu
615 Luis Marte

And here's two Mark McGwire's he threw in off my want list.

1994 Leaf Limited #61 Mark McGwire

1996 Upper Deck SP #140 Mark McGwire

Not only did I get all this, but there's more for my next post as well. Once again, thanks to all the way to the backstop for the great cards.