eBay Wins #248

I left probably the biggest pile of 1989s for last, Topps. I'd guess there were more Donruss cards, but the thicker Topps cardboard made these stack a bit higher and look more daunting.

1989 Topps
#6 Doug Jones (x2)
#11 Bruce Sutter
#13 Doug Sisk
#15 Robby Thompson
#18 Rick Rhoden
#20 Steve Bedrosian
#22 Tim Crews
#27 Orestes Destrade
#35 John Tudor

Sutter and Tudor were both Cardinals, and would make a good name for a comedy duo.

1989 Topps
#38 Paul Runge
#40 Steve Sax (x2)
#47 Carney Lansford
#52 Bob Brenly (x4)
#54 Steve Trout
#56 Pat Tabler
#57 Alejandro Pena
#62 Alfredo Griffin
#64 Alex Trevino

Somehow I had 4 Bob Brenly cards in there.

1989 Topps
#68 Darrell Miller
#76 Terry Blocker
#79 Scott Bankhead (x2)
#83 Jeff Blauser
#84 Bill Bene
#89 Dave LaPoint
#92 Jeff Kunkel
#93 Ken Howell
#94 Chris Speier

Bill Bene was the only player Baseball-Reference's linker couldn't find. It would  appear he never made it to the majors, despite being a high first round pick.

1989 Topps
#102 Mike Gallego
#105 Ron Darling
#113 Lloyd Moseby
#114 Bob Kipper
#117 Dave Anderson
#121 Garry Templeton
#126 Sid Bream
#130 Gerald Perry
#131 Dave Otto

Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but  I seem to be picking up a lot of Garry Templeton cards lately.

1989 Topps
#132 Curt Ford
#133 Bill Long
#142 Mike Diaz
#144 Jay Bell
#145 Dave Stewart (x2)
#154 Don Carman
#158 Mike Aldrete
#160 Jeffrey Leonard
#165 Mike Dunne

Curt Ford was the only uniformed Cardinal in this first batch, a player I used to confuse with Curt Flood as a kid.

1989 Topps
#166 Doug Jennings (x14)
#169 Mike Jackson
#174 Todd Burns(x2)
#175 John Shelby
#179 Ozzie Virgil
#186 Pat Perry
#198 Danny Heep
#210 Dale Murphy
#212 Scott Sanderson

There were 14 of those Doug Jennings cards. 14!

1989 Topps
#217 Joe Price
#218 Mike LaValliere
#219 Jim Clancy
#225 Ramon Martinez
#232 Ricky Horton (x2)
#236 Charles Hudson
#237 Glenn Hubbard (x2)
#241 Brett Butler
#244 Jim Acker

I need more Rick Horton cards, and more importantly, I've got to track him down for an autograph one of these days, since he's in town doing Cardinals broadcasts.

1989 Topps
#248 Tony Phillips (x2)
#249 Tim Leary
#252 Billy Hatcher
#253 Jose Alvarez
#272 Ron Hassey
#273 Jose Lind
#277 Mike Davis
#280 Bob Knepper
#281 Gary Redus

As with the other 1989 posts, there are more of these, but  I'm out of tag space for Cardinals players 86 of these cards were in my half-cent box, which is cleared out for now. Along with all the duplicates, there were 96 total, for a purchase total of 53 cents. The empty half-cent box means I can only asymptotically approach 1 penny per card in the below chart by continuing to buy cards for cent each.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4861
Total Spent	$60.98
Per Card	1.254 cents
Change	-0.015 cents

eBay Wins #247

Here are the rest of the 1989 Fleer cards from my eBay bargain hunting. As you can see, they were mostly from team lots, including Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and LA and Oakland in the last post. Since I usually sort my cards by number, I appreciate a set that keeps teams contiguous.

1989 Fleer
#214 Jose Lind
#215 Junior Ortiz
#216 Vicente Palacios
#217 Tom Prince
#218 Gary Redus
#219 R.J. Reynolds
#220 Jeff Robinson
#221 John Smiley
#222 Andy Van Slyke

Andy Van Slyke started with the Cardinals, and Vicente Palacios nearly finished with them, except he played in Mexico for 3 years after St. Louis and came back to play in San Diego for part of a season.

1989 Fleer
#223 Bob Walk
#224 Glenn Wilson
#283 Mark Gubicza
#385 Dennis Martinez
#421 Jody Davis
#547 Mario Diaz
#584 Milt Thompson
#585 Jose Alvarez (x2)
#586 Paul Assenmacher

1989 Fleer
#587 Bruce Benedict
#588 Jeff Blauser (x2)
#589 Terry Blocker
#590 Ron Gant
#592 Tommy Gregg
#593 Albert Hall
#594 Dion James
#595 Rick Mahler
#596 Dale Murphy

It's hard to believe Ron Gant only played in St. Louis for 3 years, but he was here when they returned to making playoff appearances in 1996.

1989 Fleer
#597 Gerald Perry
#598 Charlie Puleo
#599 Ted Simmons
#600 Pete Smith
#601 Zane Smith
#603 Bruce Sutter
#604 Andres Thomas
#605 Ozzie Virgil
#637 Cannon Arms (Chris Sabo/Bobby Bonilla)

In this photo, Gerald Perry, Ted Simmons, and Bruce Sutter were all Cardinals, as were both of Chris Sabo and Bobby Bonilla.

1989 Fleer
#647 Prospects (Randy Kramer/Miguel Garcia)
#649 Prospects (Jim Corsi/Bob Milacki)
World Series
#4 Dramatic Comeback
#5 Gibson Steals the Show
#10 Series Caps Award-Winning Year
#12 Dodger Blue, World Champs

I'm not sure if the World Series cards were inserts, or were just as common as the base set cards, but I got quite a few of them since two of the lots were LA and Oakland.

1989 Fleer
World Series
#1 Dodgers Secret Weapon
#2 Rookie Starts Series
#6 "Bulldog"
#7 One Swing, Three RBI's
#9 Sax's Speed Wins Game 4
Stickers
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
Pittsburgh Pirates

And it finishes off with the rest of the World Series cards, and some team Stickers. I've got a lot of these around, I should really peel them and put them somewhere around my desk at work or something.

There were only two doubles in this post, which is a good number for my eBay purchases. By my count, that's a total of 53 cards, which rang up 26.5 cents out of the half penny box. See, I told you it would even itself back out.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4765
Total Spent	$60.45
Per Card	1.269 cents
Change	-0.008 cents

eBay Wins #244

I've still got more 1989 Donruss to show. I had a comment on my last eBay post to the effect that he was glad I didn't pay much for these. I definitely am glad about that too. To be clear, I didn't actually go buy a whole bunch of 1989 Donruss from someone, but rather I buy a lot of cards listed as "Random" which I fully understand will be cheap junk wax, which often includes some of these types of cards. Generally there are a few from other sets worth a little more to me, so it all balances out.

1989 Donruss
#452 Rex Hudler
#453 Bob Brenly
#455 Daryl Boston
#456 Mike Fitzgerald
#458 Bruce Sutter
#460 Joe Hesketh
#461 Bobby Witt
#463 Scott Bankhead
#466 Luis Alicea

This post is a lot more dense with Cardinals than the last two. This first scan alone has Rex Hudler, Bruce Sutter, Bobby Witt, and Luis Alicea.

1989 Donruss
#467 John Cerutti
#471 Sid Fernandez
#472 Terry Puhl
#477 Craig Reynolds (x2)
#478 Frank Williams
#482 Eric Show (x2)
#483 Garry Templeton
#486 Tim Crews
#487 Mike Maddux

Garry Templeton was obviously another Cardinal.

1989 Donruss
#493 Jack Armstrong
#499 Zane Smith
#500 Checklist
#505 Doug Jennings
#506 Ken Oberkfell
#512 Mike Bielecki
#516 Larry McWilliams
#520 Craig McMurtry
#521 Ray Hayward

Ken Oberkfell, Larry McWilliams...

1989 Donruss
#523 Mark Lemke
#525 Bryan Harvey
#534 Luis Aquino
#537 Randy Bush
#540 Gene Nelson (x8)
#542 Ken Caminiti
#543 Duane Ward (x2)
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen

Those 8 Gene Nelson's came in that huge lot of A's I'll be showing forever.

1989 Donruss
#560 Pat Borders
#564 Todd Burns (x9)
#566 Darnell Coles
#570 Johnny Paredes
#572 Barry Lyons
#576 Andres Thomas
#579 Chad Kreuter
#583 Andy Hawkins
#586 Van Snider

Pat Borders bounced around a few teams after Toronto, including the Cardinals, before returning to Toronto to finish his career. And I got enough Todd Burns cards to fill a whole binder page.

1989 Donruss
#587 Todd Frohwirth (x2)
#591 Ernie Whitt
#593 Spike Owen
#598 Hipolito Pena
#600 Checklist
#601 Carmelo Martinez
#602 Mike LaCoss
#603 Mike Devereaux
#604 Alex Madrid

1989 Donruss
#607 Terry Clark
#610 Jay Howell
#613 Kevin Brown
#614 Dave Valle
#616 Andy Nezelek
#619 Adam Peterson
#620 Todd Stottlemyre
#625 Ernest Riles
#629 Scott Sanderson

I'll always take another cheap Todd Stottlemyre card, even if I already have several copies.

1989 Donruss
#631 Marvin Freeman (x2)
#632 Mike Young
#636 Scott May

I've got 66 cards shown here, 5 of them had doubles, and one each had 8 and 9 copies! By my reckoning that's 86 total cards, for 43 cents out of my half cent box.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4635
Total Spent	$59.80
Per Card	1.29 cents
Change	-0.015 cents

eBay Wins #215

Today I've got the rest of my 1987 Fleer. People like to sell these cheap.

1987 Fleer
#524 Ed Olwine
#525 David Palmer
#526 Rafael Ramirez
#527 Billy Sample
#528 Ted Simmons
#529 Zane Smith
#530 Bruce Sutter
#531 Andres Thomas
#532 Ozzie Virgil

Ted Simmons and Bruce Sutter, both Braves here, played for the Cardinals. I wondered whether they were teammates in St. Louis, but Simmons left after 1980 while Sutter arrived in 1981.

1987 Fleer
#601 Bill Almon
#602 Rafael Belliard
#603 Mike Bielecki
#605 Bobby Bonilla
#606 Sid Bream
#607 Mike Brown
#608 Pat Clements
#609 Mike Diaz
#610 Cecilio Guante

Bobby Bonilla finished his career in St. Louis, though he's still getting paid by the Mets for something like the next 107 years.

1987 Fleer
#611 Barry Jones
#612 Bob Kipper
#613 Larry McWilliams
#614 Jim Morrison
#615 Joe Orsulak
#616 Junior Ortiz
#617 Tony Pena
#618 Johnny Ray
#619 Rick Reuschel

Tony Pena and Larry McWilliams were reunited in St. Louis for the 1988 season.

1987 Fleer
#620 R.J. Reynolds
#621 Rick Rhoden
#622 Don Robinson
#623 Bob Walk
#624 Jim Winn
#632 Bob Horner
Stickers
 Boston Red Sox and LA Dodgers
LA Dodgers and Cleveland Indians (x2)

I had a Bob Horner in the previous eBay post, but this one commemorates one of the rarest feats in baseball he accomplished in 1986, hitting four home runs in a single game. The next player to do it was Mark Whiten in 1993, and the previous was Mike Schmidt in 1976. He's also one of only two players to do so in a loss for his team, at least according to the record books. The other was in 1896.

1987 Fleer
#649 Ralph Bryant / Jose Gonzalez
#653 Rob Nelson / Steve Fireovid
Stickers
Oakland A's (x2)
Oakland A's and Houston Astros (x2)

I could see these stickers being good for labeling your boxes or binders if you store your cards by team. I work by set, though, so I'll keep them intact for now. As with the last post, these came from my half-cent box, costing me 21 cents, knocking my average below 1.5 cents per card.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3598
Total Spent	$53.88
Per Card	1.497 cents
Change	-0.012 cents

Play at the Plate Contest Winnings!

Brian from Play at the Plate generously offered up roughly half of his recent contest double win, and the randomizer chose me. He even allowed us to pick whether we wanted the vintage cards shown in the post I linked, or a full set of 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces. Vintage was the overwhelmingly favorite pick of the many entrants, but I went with the Masterpieces set.

I didn't really want to scan all 90 cards, so here's a sampling of Cardinals from the set.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces
#9 Roger Maris
#50 Carlos Beltran
#60 Bruce Sutter

All 3 of these are pre-Cardinals photos. And 2 out of 3 are Cardinals World Series winners (1967 for Maris, 1982 for Sutter), since we couldn't quite pull out a win for Carlos Beltran in 2013.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces
#19 Ozzie Smith
#49 Albert Pujols

I love this Ozzie card. Later in his career he'd only do his flip on opening day, and maybe the last game of the year, and for that reason I specifically convinced my Dad to go to the game on those days. Back in the early 90s when they weren't that good, that was an easy ticket to get, not like now when the game sells out in minutes.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces
#38 Albert Pujols

As I mentioned in a previous post on 2007 Masterpieces, when I participated in a group break, there are only 90 cards in the checklist, yet Pujols got 2 cards. Babe Ruth has 3, Cal Ripken, Jr. has 4, Reggie Jackson, Sandy Koufax, Jackie Robinson, Ryan Howard, David Ortiz, Ken Griffey, Jr., Chase Utley, and possibly more all have 2 each. It's a little odd, but the look of the set makes it one I really appreciate.

I also appreciate Brian at Play at the Plate for offering up some of his winnings. Thanks to him for all the great contests, and especially this one.

A Prize For My Prescience, part 4

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]


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.

In this edition, random cardinals Ryan threw in!

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #46 Bob Gibson

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #30 Lou Brock

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #9 Joe Medwick

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #16 Grover Alexander

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #52 Bruce Sutter 

Somewhere deep in my basement, I think I may more of these McDonald's cards, because they look really familiar. One day I hope to get time to dig in and find out.

1993 Ted Williams #90 Bob Gibson

1994 Yoo-hoo #6 Bob Gibson

I think I need this set. The yellow is even more garish in person. Plus I love Yoo-hoo, and there are only 16 cards.

1992 Studio #262 Red Schoendienst/Checklist

I don't care if it is a Checklist, I'll always take a card of Red.

1988 Donruss - HOF Diamond King Puzzle Stan Musial

I found myself wondering how hard it might be to find this completed puzzle. Surely lots of folks who didn't complete the puzzle discarded the pieces, or at least didn't keep them in very good shape. Also I don't think Stan had quite the god-like status he now holds in St. Louis in 1988. Sure, he was loved, but the way the fans react these days, you'd think he invented the game. That's not to say it's undeserved, just makes me wonder how precious collectors would have found this puzzle card 20+ years ago.

1995 Summit - Nth Degree #8 Ken Hill

OK, so Ken Hill doesn't really belong in this crowd. But the card is so shiny!