Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXIV

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 XXII XXIII

Today I'm thankful for prizes, Bernard Gilkey, and Gregg Jefferies. Also family and all that usual stuff too.

1991 Topps Stadium Club #402 Bernard Gilkey
1994 Score #420 Bernard Gilkey
1995 Pinnacle #62 Bernard Gilkey
1996 Donruss #49 Bernard Gilkey
1994 Donruss #9 Gregg Jefferies
1994 Leaf #56 Gregg Jefferies
1994 Studio #51 Gregg Jefferies
1994 Topps - Black Gold #35 Gregg Jefferies
1995 Upper Deck - Trade Exchange #TC5 Gregg Jefferies

I've apparently never posted a 1994 Studio card before, which I find hard to believe, but there it is.

Gilkey was part of the Cardinals when I first started watching baseball. I should really put together some kind of project with members of that team. He's probably better known for his time with the Mets, both due to performance, and being in the biggest market.

1994 Upper Deck
#265 Gregg Jefferies
#406 Bernard Gilkey

I always associate Gregg Jefferies with an episode of Who's the Boss, where Tony was watching highlights from his playing career with the St. Louis Cardinals. I believe it was a game against the Mets, and they didn't show the video, just very fake audio, and Gregg was mentioned as the first basemen.

Zistle Trade #23

This Zistle trade was mostly from the junk wax era, but I haven't quite filled all those gaps in my collection, so there's a smattering of them on my want list. Oddly enough, my trading partner wanted some "junk" in return, so I figured, why not. I'm too lazy to look it up now, but I think it was mostly 89 or 91 Donruss.

1988 Topps #642 Bob Dernier
1990 Score #233 Ken Hill
1991 Fleer #633 Bernard Gilkey
1991 Fleer #636 Felix Jose
1991 Fleer #640 Jose Oquendo
1991 Fleer #645 Lee Smith
1991 Topps #112 Frank DiPino
1992 Fleer #589 Gerald Perry
1992 Score #544 Bernard Gilkey

One of these things is not like the others, and that is Bobby Dernier. The others are all Cardinals, and actually mostly guys I remember playing for the team during my childhood, except for Frank DiPino. As for Bobby, I added that to my list awhile back because he was the favorite player of a good friend of mine when he was growing up. I was looking through my collection for a card of his to perhaps try to get autographed through the mail, but I didn't have any, and thus I added a few I should be able to get cheaply to my want list. Now I just need to track down an address for Mr. Dernier, or figure out who he's working for.

1992 Donruss #427 Bobby Bonilla
1992 Donruss #442 John Smoltz
1992 Donruss #564 Deion Sanders
1992 Donruss #610 Bobby Bonilla

I recently purchased a 1992 Donruss Series 1 set, which actually quashed the first trade this particular trader proposed to me. He did it the day after I bought the set, before I thought to remove the series 1 cards from my want list. Luckily my oversight didn't frustrate him, and we worked out a deal removing those cards. Here are the series 2 cards I still needed. If you're not a Cardinals fan, you may have forgotten that Smoltz and Bonilla both finished their careers in St. Louis. It wasn't very long for either one, but I still consider them players I collect. I've waffled about whether I should start collecting Deion Sanders cards. He'd go well with my other two-sport-star collection target, Bo Jackson. He was also a part of the very first baseball game I ever attended. I'll probably complete this base set eventually anyway, so I went ahead and added it to my wantlist, and now I have it.

Zistle Trade #13

I recently received a flurry of trade proposals on Zistle, so I'll have a few of these to post in the next few days. This small batch of cards cost me a JFK, a Harry Truman, and a Nate McLouth. In return I got 3 Cardinals I didn't have yet.

1991 Studio #231 Bernard Gilkey
1992 Pinnacle #304 Allen Watson
2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-65 Bob Gibson

I have no way of proving this, but I think I very recently added the Gilkey and Watson cards to my wantlist. When I'm adding cards to my collection, if I'm not in a hurry I'll go through the rest of the set and add any missing Cardinals to my want list, since I'd like one of every Cardinal, even from the junk wax sets. I think I did that recently for 1992 Pinnacle and 1991 Studio.

I've had the entire Kimball Champions insert set on my wantlist for several years now, but I haven't made any great efforts to complete it. It's just out there as a reminder that I like the ones I have and I want more. Luckily for me, my trading partner had one of my top wants from that set, Bob Gibson.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part II

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.
[Part I]

1994 Fleer Ultra
#565 Bernard Gilkey
#570 Allen Watson

1994 Fleer Ultra
#564 Clint Davis
#566 Ray Lankford
#569 Rick Sutcliffe

Fleer Ultra is one of the sets for which I'd like to complete the full run (1991-2007), someday, but man, is 1994 the ugliest of the bunch or what?

1997 New Pinnacle #103 Royce Clayton

Horizontal cards just mess up all my scanning plans.

1997 New Pinnacle
#67 Ray Lankford
#77 Andy Benes
#177 Dmitri Young
#188 Mark McGwire

Here's a good bunch from New Pinnacle, which is a weird name for a set when there was also a 1997 Pinnacle. Claiming Mark McGwire specifically also paid off here, since he's pictured on the A's. Card companies don't do many real subsets anymore, which made it take me awhile to track down that the "Aura" card was really just a base card.

2005 Topps #124 Mike Matheny

To finish off these sets, here's a nice action shot of current Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. It's hard to believe he'd be managing the team just 7 years later.

eBay Wins #23

I was feeling random, so I bid on and won 62 "Random 1990s" cards, most of which were from the 1980s, so all the better. Most of the cards are commons of course, but there were a few Cardinals and stars as well.

1983 Fleer #596Charlie Leibrandt

The lone 83 Fleer in the bunch.

1986 Topps #422 Mike Jorgensen

9 years later Mike would take over for a fired Joe Torre as Cardinals manager long enough for us to bring in Tony LaRussa for the next season.

1986 Topps
24 Len Barker
66 Cardinals Leaders (2)
112 Bill Campbell
114 Mike Brown
134 Carney Lansford
140 John Candelaria
150 Joaquin Andujar
161 Lee Tunnell
167 Zane Smith
216 A's Leaders
252 Bobby Castillo
304 Mike Gallego
404 Frank Robinson
422 Mike Jorgensen
433 Chris Codiroli
437 Rick Mahler
439 Rick Honeycutt
543 Jerry Narron
549 Bob Welch
566 Alfredo Griffin
583 Al Bumbry
602 Mariano Duncan (2)
731 Don Robinson
758 Dave Anderson
766 Rick Langford

1988 Topps #170 Rich Gossage

Hey look, a Hall-of-Famer. Junk wax or not, that's cool.

1988 Topps
170 Rich Gossage
564 Frank Lucchesi

1989 Donruss #119 Bert Blyleven

Another (recent) Hall-of-Famer.

1989 Donruss
47 Alex Sanchez
85 Frank White
102 Dave Martinez
109 Henry Cotto
110 Mike Marshall
114 Brook Jacoby
115 Keith Brown
119 Bert Blyleven
121 Tommy Gregg
125 Eric Plunk
131 Jose Uribe
318 Greg Gagne
336 Randy Myers
430 Bob Dernier
447 Glenn Wilson
492 Willie Upshaw
499 Zane Smith
568 Glenn Hubbard
575 Juan Nieves
578 Luis Rivera

1991 Fleer Joe Oliver

The streak had to end sometime. Here's the lone bright yellow 91 Fleer.

1991 Score #164 Jeff Reardon

1991 Score
151 Roy Smith
162 Brook Jacoby
164 Jeff Reardon
167 Gary Mielke

1992 Donruss #376 Bernard Gilkey

I don't remember much of Bernard Gilkey as a Cardinals player, as he never seemed to stand out much. He was a local guy though, and a consistent starter.

1992 Donruss
164 Alan Trammell
347 Dante Bichette
353 Mitch Williams
359 Scott Leius
365 Vicente Palacios
370 Pat Kelly
376 Bernard Gilkey

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1885
Total Spent	$34.91
Per Card	1.85 cents

A Prize For My Prescience, part 2

[Part 1]

Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project sent me a whole bunch of cards for picking the Cardinals to win the World Series, and it is of course my duty to show you the cards and link to his blog.

First up in this post, more set completion, with 1990 Donruss. Here are the highlights, defined by me as my favorites and any past Cardinals.

1990 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-1 Bo Jackson

In 1990 I bet a fair number of people thought Bo would go on to make the MLB and NFL Halls of Fame. It's a shame what injuries did to him.

1990 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-16 Bobby Bonilla

The late-in-his-career Cardinal and rest-of-his-life Mets employee himself.

1990 Donruss #86 Tony Gwynn

He's a hall of famer, of course he's getting scanned.

1990 Donruss #227 Harold Reynolds

I actually didn't realize Harold Reynolds was a player until a few years ago I came across a card with a good closeup of his face and made the connection to the broadcaster, then of course looked it up on Wikipedia.

1990 Donruss #265 David Cone

Anyone else remember the fans-dressed-as-Coneheads phenomenon? I wonder if this guy would have been as big a deal if he played anywhere other that the biggest media market.

1990 Donruss #344 Chuck Finley

Another brief end-of-career Cardinal.

1990 Donruss #346 Rich Gedman

Ditto.

1990 Donruss #426 Norm Charlton

Once again, I cannot escape Norm Charlton.
Example 1
Example 2

1990 Donruss #427 Deion Sanders

I wonder how many other Hall of Famers in any sport spent significant playing time in a different sport. It can't be many, Deion was truly an amazing athlete.

1990 Donruss #466 Jeff Brantley

Jeff Brantley was always a good signer in Saint Louis during and even after his baseball career. I regret not going a little more out of my way to get an autograph when I had chances
Here's the full 1990 Donruss list I got:
10 Brian Downing (Diamond King)
12 Kelly Gruber (Diamond King)
60 Chet Lemon
64 Allan Anderson
66 Mike Greenwell
86 Tony Gwynn
92 Doug Drabek
99 Howard Johnson
113 Kelly Gruber
170 Krick McCaskill
227 Harold Reynolds
231 Jimmy Key
265 David Cone
300 Checklist 232-333
302 Mark Davis
315 Steve Balboni
339 Ted Higuera
344 Chuck Finley
346 Rich Gedman
348 Matt Williams
382 Bill Spiers
416 Gary Thurman
417 Jeff Robinson
420 Dennis Rasmussen
426 Norm Charlton
427 Deion Sanders
438 Steve Olin
466 Jeff Brantley
496 Jeff Kunkel
503 Jerry Kutzler
520 Chad Kreuter
543 Al Leiter
566 Billy Swift
650 Bo Jackson (All Star)
695 Eric Davis (All Star)
Bonus MVPs
BC-1 Bo Jackson
BC-16 Bobby Bonilla
BC-22 Steve Sax

Can I squeeze in a few more Ozzies?

1993 Upper Deck #482 Geronimo Pena, Ray Lankford, Ozzie Smith, Bernard Gilkey

 It's cool to see a team card like this with multiple players, but few enough to name them all and have the faces visible. Really takes me back to the early 90s teams. Even though we weren't very good, I have a lot of good memories from those years.

1990 Scoremasters #27 Ozzie Smith

 I like the minimalist front of this set. From what I can tell it's a standalone put out by Score and not an insert set, but if anyone knows any different please let me know.

1993 Score #522 Ozzie Smith

I've used up all the cards I've scanned so far, so look for part 3 whenever I get some more time to waste. I'm hoping for tomorrow, but who knows!