Tis The Season 2015 Winnings

JediJeff's Tis The Season 2013 giveaway cards sat on my desk about a year before I managed to get them posted in early 2015. I did better this time, as these have only been there less than 2 months. Even though there were many different stacks of cards offered in the contest, I didn't try for any until some 2015 Allen and Ginter popped up, and I came up a winner.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#12 Nelson Cruz
#14 LaTroy Hawkins
#16 Felix Hernandez
#19 Charlie Blackmon
#23 Johnny Cueto
#28 Jayson Werth
#29 Nick Swisher
#31 Frank Caliendo
#32 James Murray

2015 Allen and Ginter
#34 Buster Olney
#36 Anthony Ranaudo
#40 J.J. Hardy
#41 Brandon Finnegan
#46 Andrew McCutchen
#50 Francisco Rodriguez
#54 Javier Baez
#60 Marcus Semien
#65 David Ortiz

2015 Allen and Ginter
#69 Christian Bethancourt
#72 Joe Panik
#74 Casey McGehee
#83 Matt Harvey
#87 Francisco Liriano
#88 Carl Crawford
#90 Darren Rovell
#96 Tim Hudson
#98 Yimi Garcia

2015 Allen and Ginter
#102 James "Clubber" Lang
#110 Victor Martinez
#115 Dustin Pedroia
#131 Josh Reddick
#135 Mark Teixeira
#137 Marlon Byrd
#146 Michael Morse
#153 Brandon Moss
#156 Brian Dozier

Did you know Clubber Lang's first name was James? I didn't, but I guess if you asked me I would assume it wasn't really Clubber. Also, is this the first fictional character in the Allen and Ginter base set? Brandon Moss is the first Cardinal to appear in this post.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#158 Kurt Suzuki
#163 Zach Lowe
#166 Carlos Gomez
#167 Julie Foudy
#171 Anthony Rendon
#174 Joe Mauer
#175 DJ LeMahieu
#180 Scott Kazmir
#184 Marcell Ozuna

2015 Allen and Ginter
#187 Miguel Cabrera
#192 Fernando Rodney
#196 Ian Kinsler
#198 Albert Pujols
#202 Travis Ishikawa
#206 Erick Aybar
#212 Chris Tillman
#221 Doug Fister
#223 Incredibeard

I've seen lots of stuff in Allen and Ginter, and that particular photo of Incredibeard might be the grossest. Also, Albert Pujols is the second Cardinal to show up.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#227 Christian Yelich
#233 Ike Davis
#239 Zach Britton
#243 Jean Segura
#248 Jose Bautista
#249 Bryce Harper
#253 Carlos Beltran
#261 Yu Darvish
#264 Matt Kemp

Carlos Beltran is the third and final Cardinal in this prize package. None of them were in uniform, though Moss did join the team in 2015 and is still here for 2016.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#268 Jimbo Fisher
#269 Jeremy Roenick
#276 Alex Rodriguez
#282 Adeiny Hechavarria
#286 Addison Reed
#287 Jon Lester
#288 Robinson Cano
#295 Joe Nathan
#303 Denard Span

2015 Allen and Ginter
#306 Stephen Drew
#310 Chris Coghlan
#312 Gerrit Cole
#317 Hunter Strickland
#320 Dallas Keuchel
#325 Aroldis Chapman
#326 Mitch Moreland
#331 Alcides Escobar
#334 Nick Tropeano

2015 Allen and Ginter
#335 Collin Cowgill
#340 Neftali Feliz
#343 Angel Pagan
#348 Aaron Sanchez
#350 Masahiro Tanaka
Ancient Armory #AA-13 Taiaha
Great Scott! #GS-3 Polio Vaccine
Great Scott! #GS-6 Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Great Scott! #GS-9 Fingerprints

Is that Incredibeard again with the Taiaha? Great Scott is an insert set that celebrates scientific breakthroughs. At first I thought maybe it was forensics-focused when I saw Fingerprints and DNA, but the Polio Vaccine clearly isn't forensic.

2015 Allen and Ginter
Menagerie of the Mind #MM-11 Zombie
Menagerie of the Mind #MM-13 Cyclops
Menagerie of the Mind #MM-14 Djinn
Starting Point #SP-33 George Springer
Starting Point #SP-68 Cliff Lee
What Once Would Be #WOULD-3 Robot Housekeepers

That zombie still isn't as gross as Incredibeard.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#105 Daniel Norris
#121 Wei-Yin Chen
#194 Zack Cozart
#259 Jonathan Schoop
#293 Philae Probe
What Once Was Believed #WAS-5 Alchemy
What Once Would Be #WOULD-6 Giant Airliners
What Once Would Be #WOULD-9 Vacuum Tube Trains

That was a quite a pile of cards, 104 in all. Thanks to JediJeff for this contest, and all his annual Tis The Season contests!

A Discounted 2015 Gypsy Queen Hanger Box

I found some hanger boxes of 2015 Gypsy Queen, a denomination I didn't know existed for that set, in the 40% bin at Walmart. Ozzie Smith's big smiling face and non-flapped helmet grabbed my attention, and I decided to spend $5.98 for the 24-card box. Here's what was inside.

2015 Gypsy Queen
#24 Joey Votto
#74 Julio Teheran
#103 Taijuan Walker
#131 Zack Wheeler
#193 CC Sabathia
#154 Ryan Howard
#162 Jonathan Lucroy
#163 Willie McCovey

2015 Gypsy Queen
#176 Yasiel Puig
#189 Daniel Norris
#238 Carlos Beltran
#248 Jose Quinana
#259 Mike Foltynewicz
#271 Lance Lynn
#281 Wade Davis
#290 Jay Bruce

I purchased a base set back in July, so these will all go in my duplicates list, hence why I only considered the box on clearance. But now, we get to the new stuff to my collection. I was hoping for a Short Print, but had no such luck.

2015 Gypsy Queen
Mini #122 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Mini #251 Ervin Santana
Mini Red #46 Adrian Beltre #19/50

Part of the reason I really like Gypsy Queen is the casual inclusion of hall of fame players. That Ken Griffey Jr. card is just a regular mini, so just as common to pull as a Steve Cishek.

2015 Gypsy Queen
Walk-Off Winners #GWO-9
Pillars of the Community #PC-RC Robinson Cano

If I had known this Ozzie Smith card existed, I'd have been chasing it since it came out. This is probably the most-played moment in Cardinal highlight reels, when he hit a homerun - already a rare and unexpected event for Ozzie - to win game 5 of the 1985 NLCS. The card doesn't mention it, but that was when Jack Buck's famous call of "Go Crazy, Folks" was made. I heard a story that may have been apocryphal, that he was slightly worried right after he said that, that there might be celebratory rioting in the streets and he'd be run out of town.

2015 Gypsy Queen - Framed Paper White
#7 Yordana Ventura
#43 Josh Hamilton
#79 Andre Dawson

As always, nice-looking parallels are my weakness, and now I want all the Framed Paper white cards. Just 97 more to go!

A Rodney Hampton Contest Win

I'm falling a little behind on posting due to several days a week of NFL projections and NCAA Football Power Rankings, so now's the time I start catching up. I won this contest back in September, by guessing how many Rodney Hampton cards were in a lot purchased at Sport Card Collectors. If you follow that link, you'll see everything I won, but here it is again anyway, because I like cataloging stuff, as well as posting my winnings to show my gratitude to the generous contest-runner.

1995 Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion #14 Bert Emanuel
1995 Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion #15 Jeff George
2014 Sage Hit #51 Blake Bortles
2014 Sage Hit #60 Jimmy Garoppolo
2007 Topps - Ring of Honor #RH41-PM Peyton Manning
1995 Fleer - Gridiron Leaders #10 Steve Young
2014 Sage Hit - Autographs #A58 Travis Swanson
1990-91 Topps - Team Scoring Leaders #12 Wayne Gretzky

I didn't wait until today to post this for any particular reason, but now's a great time for a Peyton Manning card. He's getting ready to play in what is probably his last Superbowl, and possibly his last professional game. On the opposite end, there are some nice pre-draft rookies, and a hockey player you may have heard of.

1995 Flair - Preview
#10 Barry Sanders
#18 Dan Marino
#28 Chris Warren
2014 Sage Hit #7 Jadeveon Clowney
1996-97 SPx #17 Doug Weight
2014 Topps Chrome - Refractors #179 Carlos Beltran

These are all the horizontal cards from the prize package, because I despise scanning whitespace. There's another pre-draft rookie in Jadeveon Clowney, and some top football players from 1995. There were only two hockey cards in the package, and both features former Blues players, this one being a holographic Doug Weight. And, that Carlos Beltran is the first 2014 Chrome card in my collection. I need to expand my horizons into Chrome more often, because I always like how they look.

Since I like to label all my posts with every card set and hometown player shown, I'm out of space for this post. I'll cover the rest in the next one, including what's inside the unopened packs.

July Card Show Purchases

In addition to my autographs, I did make one purchase at the card show; a full set of 2015 Gypsy Queen, without the SPs.  I have so many sets I haven't quite completed, that this one felt like a good idea when I saw it. I might still buy a few packs for a smattering of insert, and put the extra base cards in my trade list.

I decided to pull out all the Cardinals and players I collect to show, and as it turns out there were 24 of them, so I split them into two posts so I can tag them all. I tried a few different ways to sort them into two equal groups of 12, and couldn't quite get there, so I just sorted them numerically. Here's the second half first.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#141 Nomar Garciaparra
#184 Michael Wacha
#197 Matt Adams
#228 Jhonny Peralta
#238 Carlos Beltran
#263 Mark Buehrle

I went with the second half of the cards first because today is Nomar's Birthday. He's 42 today, and I'm glad to see him showing up in current products. In addition to the 4 Cardinals, there's also my hometown compatriot Mark Buehrle.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#265 Jason Heyward
#271 Lance Lynn
#273 Allen Craig
#274 Dan Haren
#284 Trevor Rosenthal
#299 Kolten Wong

Some local sportswriters have talked about the possibility of Dan Haren making his way back to the team by the trade deadline, although I don't know how likely that really is. All told from this half I got 7 uniformed and 3 former Cardinals.

A Pack Stash Kind of Day

Every now and then I'll buy a box with some old packs, or get a bonus with an online order. Often those will just go into a big pile of "I'll open those when I feel like it". I believe this rack pack of 2010 Topps Series 2 is the former, from a box of 10 packs, though I can't really be sure once something's in the pile.

As I usually do, let's start with some base cards and move on to the inserts.

2010 Topps
#349 Felix Pie
#356 Angels Franchise History
#376 Esmil Rogers
#385 Torii Hunter
#398 Carlos Gonzalez
#405 Dustin McGowan
#416 Ruben Tejada
#431 John Raynor

Is that a cardboard cutout of Esmil Rogers standing in the bullpen? The photo makes him look very flat.

2010 Topps
#435 Nelson Cruz
#445 Miguel Olivo
#475 Johnny Damon
#491 Rafael Furcal
#501 Jake Peavy
#513 Scott Sizemore
#516 Marlon Byrd
#531 Matt Cain

The first Cardinal appears, Rafael Furcal. So far it doesn't appear anyone has picked up the 37-year-old shortstop for 2015 yet.

2010 Topps
#560 Ryan Rowland-Smith
#562 Carlos Quentin
#573 Johan Santana
#591 Fernando Rodney
#597 J.R. Towles
#615 Justin Verlander
#622 Indians Franchise History
#624 Carlos Beltran

Another Cardinal showed up, Carlos Beltran. Like Furcal, he is also 37, but he'll be playing for the Yankees this year, at least until/unless they decide to dump some salary.

2010 Topps
#655 Ryan Madson
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT85 Eddie Murray
Copper Parallel #590 Ryan Howard #140/399
Peak Performance #PP-61 Hunter Pence
Topps Attax - Lance Berkman
Turkey Red #TR96 Magglio Ordonez

This Lance Berkman Attax code card is just a little expired, but feel free to try to use that code. It wasn't until the second time I flipped through these cards that I noticed that Ryan Howard card wasn't the #/2010 Gold Parallel, but a #/399 Copper Parallel. I might need some better lighting around my desk. I'm also a big fan of the Turkey Red insert set, and this Magglio Ordonez gives me one more card toward completing that.

2010 Topps
#400 Alex Rodriguez
#410 Oakland Athletics
#411 Jack Wilson
#642 Padres Franchise History
#656 Jon Lester
Million Card Giveaway #TMC-20 Carl Yastrzemski

For ease of scanning, here are all the horizontal cards in one shot. I'll bet A-Rod doesn't get one of Topps' "star numbers" like 400 this year, but maybe a good 2015 will earn one for him in 2016. At the end there's yet another expired code card, this time from the Million Card Giveaway, which was lots of fun in 2010. I did a decent job of trading in that promotion, turning large numbers of more common cards into vintage cards and Cardinals I collect.

2013 Allen and Ginter Set

You read that title right; we're throwing back allllll the way to 2013.

I bought the full set (almost) from Nachos Grande last year, and it's been sitting on my shelf as I procrastinated entering the cards into my Zistle account. I actually purchased the non-SPs only, and this was also at the beginning of Puig-mania, so a Puig-free set was offered at a substantial discount, so I decided to take a chance that Yasiel Puig would cool off a bit, along with the prices for his cards. So far that doesn't seem to be happening, though. In any case, the set I purchased was 299 of the 300 base cards. In a separate purchase, I bought all 50 of the SPs, so I'm at 349/350, needing only a Puig to finish off the set.

I decided while flipping through the cards again that I'd go ahead and post the Cardinals like I normally do, but there were a large number of them by my criteria. I tried to split them up somewhat logically, though with all of the retired players the divisions became a bit fuzzy. Today was supposed to be players who have moved on from the team.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#5 Albert Pujols
#12 Dan Haren
#20 John Smoltz
#27 Shelby Miller
#46 Colby Rasmus
#93 A.J. Pierzynski

The Shelby Miller trade caught me off guard, and I had to re-scan my cards. Also, I don't know what I was thinking putting A.J. Pierzynski in this pile, even though he is technically a free agent right now. He could still be a Cardinal next year, though he may just as easily be playing somewhere else. Also, Smoltz retired after a partial season with the Cardinals, so one could argue he should have been in the next post, with guys like Ozzie Smith.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#183 Ryan Ludwick
#189 David Freese
#208 Allen Craig
#235 Carlos Beltran
#245 Mark Buehrle
#284 Will Clark

Will Clark's another guy who finished with the Cardinals, though he clearly had the most productive years of his career elsewhere. And Mark Beuhrle has never been a Cardinal, though I still suspect he'd give them a pretty good hometown discount. I like to track his cards just because he grew up in the same town as me.

In conclusion...these are some random 2013 Allen and Ginter cards of guys I collect for reasons not limited to playing for the Cardinals?

2013 Topps Update Jumbo Pack #8

I'm coming into the home stretch in the metaphorical horse race that is this Jumbo box. Man, I should enter that terrible writing contest.

2013 Topps Update
#US22 Carlos Beltran
#US221 Allen Craig
#US282 Brock Peterson

These 3 Cardinals are now members of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers. Brock Peterson got called up at the age of 29 in mid-2013, and played just 23 games, which I guess is enough to get a card in Update.

2013 Topps Update
Emerald Parallel #US182 Luis Valbuena
Gold Parallel #US155 J.B. Shuck #0251/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-48 Craig Kimbrel
Postseason Heroes #PH-7 Reggie Jackson

There were no particularly flashy inserts in this pack. I think my favorite of this group is the Reggie Jackson.

2013 Topps Update
Chasing History #CH-138 David Ortiz
1971 Topps Mini #TM-46 George Brett

I grew up liking the Royals moderately, since they're Missouri's other team. That changed a little when interleague play began, and they were our yearly rival. Still, I appreciate a good hall of famer card, especially a mini like this George Brett.

I had another perfect pack, 44 for 44 new cards. That hardly seemed possible at this point, except for the fact that packs are obviously not exactly random groupings of cards. My last 2 packs just need to finish off 45 base cards total. 44 is the highest base card total I've seen, I think, so I double checked to see if any were variation SPs. As far as I can tell none were, but I'll give the set a once-over after pack 10 and report the results.

Update Series Completion: 285/330 (86.4%)

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #9

I've made it to pack 9, which means there's just one left after this one to complete Series 2.

2013 Topps
#527 Carlos Beltran
#27 Mike Trout SP
Chasing History #CH-100 Phil Niekro
Gold Parallel #479 Kelly Johnston #0811/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-25 Stephen Strasburg
World Baseball Classic #WBC-13 Joe Mauer

I didn't even blink the first time I saw the Mike Trout card above. When I open my packs, I usually flip through them face-up, separate out the inserts and Cardinals, and then look at the backs to sort them by number. 27 was a suspiciously low number for Series 2, so a quick search online showed me there is 1 SP variation of his card in Series 1, and 2 different variations inserted in Series 2. Things like that always make me paranoid that I should re-check my other Topps sets, especially since the variation doesn't stand out that much. Usually I just double check any duplicate I'm trading, and assume that I wasn't lucky enough to pull 2 or more of a given SP.

2013 Topps
Emerald Parallel #486 Jason Kubel
1972 Topps Mini #TM-75 Willie Stargell

The streak of horizontal Emerald parallels continues with this pack, and I got one more of the minis I might one day get ambitious enough to chase.

Only 7 of the 42 base cards were new this time, leaving me in danger of not completing the set without a near-perfect pack for #10. If I was betting, I'd say I won't finish the set, but maybe the collation is good and I just happened to leave a pack chock full of non-doubles for last.

Series 2 Completion: 292/330 (88.5%)

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #7

Onward to Pack 7!

2013 Topps
#378 Joe Kelly
#562 Jason Marquis
Gold Parallel #348 Jonny Gomes #0936/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-24 Manny Machado
World Baseball Classic #WBC-9 Carlos Beltran
1972 Topps Mini #TM-86 George Brett

I'm back in the red - which is a good thing in this terrible-pun case - with this pack containing 3 current and former Cardinals. The George Brett mini isn't too shabby either. And the Making Their Mark with Manny Machado makes me want to write an M-based tongue twister, but I'm no writer, as any of my readers can attest.

2013 Topps
Emerald Parallel #456 Pablo Sandoval
Cut to the Chase #CTC-27 Ralph Kiner

All but one of the Emerald Parallels in this box have been horizontal cards. There's your useless fact of the day.

This box once again had the full complement of 42 base cards, and 38 of them were new. I'm hoping my 2 Auto's and 1 Relic are contained in packs 8, 9, and 10, because I haven't seen any in this box yet.

Series 2 Completion: 247/330 (74.8%)

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #1

I've decided to jump right into my Series 2 Jumbo box, and show another 10 packs of year-old Topps. I got in ahead a little ahead of the 2014 Series 2 release. Now I just need to finish this one before Update hits the shelves.

2013 Topps
#527 Carlos Beltran
Gold Parallel #588 Jordan Zimmerman #1002/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-12 Zack Cozart
The Elite #TE-5 Sandy Koufax
World Baseball Classic #WBC-2 Anthony Rizzo
1972 Topps Mini #TM-78 R.A. Dickey

The first pack only had one Cardinal in it; the Carlos Beltran base card. The Gold Parallels and Minis are the same as Series 1, and "The Elite" is just about the same as "The Greats", but more greater? And still thick enough to make you think you've got a relic on your hands. And, maybe I'm a sucker for a good marketing ploy, but I like the World Baseball Classic. But, looking over the set checklist, I think Anthony Rizzo is probably the lowest on the totem pole among the 15 stars featured, and that's not just my anti-Cubs bias.

2013 Topps
Chasing History #CH-55 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Chasing the Dream #CD-3 Ryan Zimmerman
Emerald Parallel #523 Wandy Rodriguez

Ken Griffey always reminds me of all the Wheaties and Frosted Wheaties boxes I had saved from the late 90s. Sadly, at one point I felt bad taking up the bottom of my parents utility closet with my boxes full of cereal boxes, and recycled them.

Unlike Series 1, I began this journey fresh, owning no cards from Series 2. That does, however, mean all 37 base cards contributed to set completion, keeping me ahead of the 10% per pack pace.

Series 2 Completion: 37/330 (11.2%)

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.

2013 Opening Day Blaster

Nearly a year after its release, I'm finally opening this Opening Day blaster. I haven't had it for a year; I think I bought this one toward the end of the season, but my "to blog" pile is getting ridiculous. At some point I may just have to declare blog pile bankruptcy, and rip open every pack without scanning and sharing them. But today, here are some new-to-me 2013 Opening Day cards.

2013 Topps Opening Day
#9 Mark Buehrle
#13 Carlos Beltran
#91 Adam Wainwright
#197 Jhonny Peralta
Mascots #M-2 Phillie Phanatic
Mascots #M-3 Mariner Moose
Ballpark Fun #BP-21 Jurickson Profar
Ballpark Fun #BP-22 David Price
Opening Day Edition #179 Wade Miley #0670/2013

I threw a bit of everything in this first scan. I pulled Buehrle and Wainwright last time I opened some packs of these, as well as the Jurickson Profar card. Here I've also got a card of new Cardinal Jhonny Peralta, and now-former Cardinal Carlos Beltran. The Mascots are one of my favorite insert sets, and I got 2 in this box. Finally there's a parallel with too many colors: the blue border, red team color, and purple throwback uniform. I challenge you to find me an uglier card in this set. Nothing against Wade Miley, of course.

2013 Topps Opening Day
Superstar Celebrations #SC-8 Ryan Zimmerman
Play Hard # Dustin Pedroia
Superstar Celebrations #SC-20 Prince Fielder
Play Hard #PH-18 Carlos Ruiz
Opening Day Edition #65 Will Venable #1584/2013
Play Hard #PH-16 Matt Kemp

3 packs had a Play Hard insert, and one had another Blue parallel that could have been used on a Play Hard card as well. The Prince Fielder is yet another duplicate from my previous packs.

2013 Topps Opening Day - Opening Day Stars
#ODS-16 R.A. Dickey
#ODS-19 Bryce Harper

I dare you to enlarge the scan of these 3D cards and stare at them for 2 minutes without getting a headache. I dig 'em in person though.

2013 Topps Opening Day
#141 Yadier Molina

To finish up, here's Yadier Molina, with a nice cameo from Adam Wainwright, since I couldn't scan 7 horizontal cards in one nice block.

March Radness in September

Remember the NCAA basketball tournament from about 6 months ago? I mostly made safe picks this year, and predictably scored "okay" on a scale from awful to fortune teller. However, the rest of the pool in madding's March Radness contest didn't pick enough of the right upsets to defeat me, and I wound up a winner. My prize was a 2013 Heritage blaster, as well as first pick among some singles before 2nd through 4th place got to pick.

First off, the single card

2008 Topps Heritage
T205 Mini #HTCP1 Albert Pujols

This Pujols card is very red, and a little gold. I like it.

With 8 packs in the blaster, I decided to rank them worst to best, based on the insert, short print, or Cardinals contained within.

Pack 8:
114 Cody Ross
126 Craig Kimbrel
162 Hitting Area (Bryce Harper/Chipper Jones)
186 Casper Wells
204 Gregor Blanco
318 Kendrys Morales
371 Cole De Vries
408 2013 Rookie Stars (David Lough/Jack Odorizzi)
497 Jonathan Lucroy SP

2013 Topps Heritage
#497 Jonathan Lucroy SP

Nothing personal, Jonathan, but someone had to finish last.

Pack 7:
25 Andrew Cashner
60 Will Middlebrooks
132 Rickie Weeks
140 Carlos Pena
210 Jacoby Ellsbury
231 Jeff Francoeur
322 Scott Baker
400 Kris Medlen
430 Mike Trout SP

2013 Topps Heritage
#430 Mike Trout SP

An All-Star Rookie trophy solidifies Mike Trout at #7.

Pack 6:
64 Brian Wilson
135 Domonic Brown
155 Red Sox Sockers (Will Middlebrooks/David Ortiz)
252 Yonder Alonso
373 Ted Lilly
379 Nyjer Morgan
398 2013 Rookie Stars (Jeurys Familia/Collin McHugh)
421 Welington Castillo
New Age Perfomers NAP-DW David Wright

2013 Topps Heritage
New Age Performers #NAP-DW David Wright

Wright beats Trout based on rarity; this is a 1:8 insert.

Pack 5:
18 Adam Lind
30 Chad Billingsley
94 2013 Rookie Stars (Henry Rodriguez/Tony Cingrani)
255 Salvador Perez
292 Trevor Cahill
368 Ryan Dempster
391 Andy Pettitte
402 Will Venable
Memorable Moments MM-DP David Price

2013 Topps Heritage
Memorable Moments #MM-DP David Price

I think this set is new to Heritage this year. I like commemorating yearly achievements, and 20 wins is pretty rare these days.

Pack 4:
69 Alex Rodriguez
96 Jeff Samardzija
174 Derek Norris
203 Alcides Escobar
229 Jed Lowrie
360 Mark Teixeira
397 Clint Barmes
417 Juan Francisco
Then and Now TN-MG Juan Marichal/Gio Gonzalez

2013 Topps Heritage
Then and Now #TN-MG Juan Marichal/Gio Gonzalez

A 1960s star out of a 2013 pack is always fun.

Pack 3:
24 Anibal Sanchez
87 Bruce Bochy
106 Mike Leake
160 David Freese

2013 Topps Heritage #160 David Freese

223 James Loney
246 Josh Hamilton
344 Andrew Bailey
364 Russell Martin
Target Red Border 190 Derek Jeter

2013 Topps Heritage
Target Red Border #190 Derek Jeter

This was the first pack with 2 "hits" by my generous definition. We've all grown attached to David Freese in St. Louis, but there are rumblings of an offseason trade with such cheap infield talent at AAA ready to arrive. That may also make the Cardinals lots of merchandising money, because plenty of folks will want to go replace their Freese jerseys and t-shirts purchased after his amazing 2011 postseason.


Pack 2:
40 Carlos Beltran

2013 Topps Heritage #40 Carlos Beltran

159 Desmond Jennings
176 Ervin Santana
197 Mark Buehrle

2013 Topps Heritage #197 Mark Buehrle

264 Vernon Wells
267 Marco Estrada
276 Nick Swisher
396 Jeff Karstens
437 Billy Butler SP

2013 Topps Heritage #437 Billy Butler SP

A 3-hit pack, only because I count Mark Buehrle. And I'll deduct points for a card of a DH, even if it is the likable Billy Butler.

Pack 1:
1 2012 NL ERA Leaders (Clayton Kershaw/R.A. Dickey/Johnny Cueto)
13 Adam LaRoche
21 Joe Girardi

2013 Topps Heritage #21 Joe Girardi

Is that Joe Girardi, or Vince McMahon in a Yankees cap?

218 Brandon Beachy
254 Nathan Eovaldi
268 Justin Ruggiano
Baseball Flashback #BF-EB Ernie Banks

2013 Topps Heritage
Baseball Flashback #BF-EB Ernie Banks

Even a Cardinals fan has to enjoy a card of Mr. Cub.

Clubhouse Collection Relics CCR-BP Brandon Phillips

2013 Topps Heritage
Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCR-BP Brandon Phillips

Madding picked up a good blaster for me, since these are seeded 1:55 packs, or a little more than once every 7 8-pack blasters. Based on that alone, this pack has to win the blaster.

For once, I managed to cram one of Cards on Cards' contest results into a single post. Thanks to madding for the blaster and the mini!