Me Too!

I've seen lots of 2015 Update boxes with the Chrome cards on your blogs, and had to get one myself. Let's see how I did. As usual I like to show off the Cardinals and inserts, lest I spend a ton of time scanning 9 cards at a time.

2015 Topps Update
#US106 Shelby Miller
#US214 Yadier Molina
#US338 Pete Kozma
#US373 Mitch Harris
#US393 Dan Haren
Pride and Perseverence #PP-8 Jon Lester
Rarities #R-3 Daniel Nava
Rookie Sensations #RS-6 Nomar Garciaparra
Rookie Sensations #RS-20 Tom Seaver

Shelby Miller's got an ugly hat, and Yadi's got a ridiculous gold chest protector, but I like All-Star game cards. It's not Topps' fault the game has started to look a bit silly.

Pride and Perseverance is a good idea for a set, featuring players with unique challenges, mostly medically related from the checklist. I think it might have been better if it didn't just look like a brown parallel, though. The other insert card of note in the first bunch is the Nomar Garciaparra, one of the very few players I collect that hasn't played for the Cardinals.

2015 Topps Update
Highlight of the Year #H-76 Hank Aaron
Tape Measure Blasts #TMB-11 Mark McGwire

Here are two more retired players feature on inserts. I guess it's a nice easy way to please everyone, having insert sets featuring not only the biggest stars of today, but all time. The McGwire card features a specific long home run he hit just a few months before being traded to St. Louis in 1997, and breaking the single-season record in 1998.

2015 Topps Update - Chrome
#US237 Craig Kimbrel
#US238 A.J. Cole
#US309 Howie Kendrick
#US308 Joey Butler
#US319 Will Harris
#US392 Odrisamer Despaigne
#US398 J.T. Realmuto
2015 Topps Update - Rookie Sensations Chrome #RSC-2 Ichiro Suzuki

Here's the big draw for these boxes, the Chrome parallels. There were 8 and they scanned nicely this way, so apologies to Joey Butler's card for being sideways. I didn't get any Cardinals in the Chrome packs, but I did get an Ichiro insert. The exclusive nature of these means I might be tempted to grab another box or two, and then try to trade for or buy the rest secondhand.

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.

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

A Repack Hit From 2010 Topps

I spoiled the end a bit in the title, but let's see a 2010 Topps Series 2 pack I pulled from my pack stash, originally from a repack box.

2010 Topps
#361 Washington Nationals
#372 Phillies Franchise History
#545 Fred Lewis
#558 Ronny Paulino
#652 Chipper Jones

I don't hate horizontal cards. I just don't like how they mess with my scanning groups. Also, even though it's been a few years, it's still weird to think that Chipper Jones is retired.

2010 Topps
#345 Chris Volstad
#355 James Russell
#386 Dan Haren
#413 J.J. Hardy
#424 David Herndon
#440 Willie Harris
#450 Omir Santos
#479 Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter represents the lone uniformed Cardinal from the pack, but I also got a Dan Haren, whose cards haunt me and remind me we traded him away for 55 games of Mark Mulder.

2010 Topps
#514 Rafael Soriano
#515 Mariners Franchise History
#520 Randy Wells
#523 Phil Coke
#525 David Huff
#532 Hunter Pence
#561 Ryan Zimmerman
#571 Brandon Lyon

Those Franchise History cards would look good in a binder, if they were all consistently vertical or horizontal.

2010 Topps
#592 Brian Roberts
#595 Mike Lowell
#610 Alex Gordon
#614 Kelly Johnson
#632 Daric Barton
#650 Dustin Pedroia
#654 Collin Balester
#657 Chris Young
#659 Nick Blackburn

Call me an anarchist if you want, but I really hope Alex Gordon and 6 or 7 more Royals start in the All-Star game. Frankly I hope they get all 9 fan-voted slots, and Ned Yost brings in a Royals pitcher before he replaces the first position player.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT66 Warren Spahn
History of the World Series #HWS18 Paul Molitor
Topps Attax #JM Justin Morneau
Turkey Red #TR97 Chase Headley
Peak Performance #PP-52 Lance Berkman
Peak Performance Autos #PPA-DS Daniel Stange

I got another Cardinal with Lance Berkman, but the big hit is the last card, of Daniel Stange. Now he's certainly no superstar, but I'm always happy to add another autograph to my collection. Just because I have his card, I looked up his stats, and it appears he's now out of baseball, last playing in the 2014 Venezuelan Winter league. Still, I'm surprised to get this out of a repack, and glad to see that not every rack pack is apparently searched.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part II

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

The prize nearly filled an 800 count box, so I've got a few more posts to write. This one's all 2012 Allen and Ginter base cards and inserts, and a pretty good start on completing the set. There were a few duplicates too, which will pad out my trade list a little bit.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#1 Albert Pujols
#4 Yu Darvish
#5 David Price
#7 Mickey Mantle
#19 Bob Knight
#20 Miguel Montero
#21 Matt Moore
#27 Ricky Nolasco
#28 Dustin Ackley

2012 Allen and Ginter came right out of the gate and poked me in the eye with card #1 featuring Albert Pujols in his new uniform. I've made peace with him leaving, though, helped greatly by the Cardinals making it to the NLCS all 3 years he's been gone, and to the World Series once.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#37 James McDonald
#43 Josh Johnson
#44 Brandon League
#51 Don Denkinger
#55 Colin Montgomerie
#56 Jordan Pacheco
#63 Zach Britton
#65 Alex Rios
#69 Kurt Suzuki

Don Denkinger is a well-known umpire in St. Louis, for making the wrong call in the 1985 World Series against Kansas City. Some like to blame that call for the loss of the series, but that was game 6, and the Royals won game 7 11-0.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#73 Joakim Soria
#73 Jordan Zimmermann
#82 Giancarlo Stanton
#86 Nyger Morgan
#89 Edwin Jackson
#92 Craig Kimbrel
#99 Sandy Koufax
#102 Huston Street
#107 C.J. Wilson

This post has been dotted with former Cardinals, including brief Cardinal Edwin Jackson. That's a nice looking Sandy Koufax card too.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#111 Wandy Rodriguez
#115 Carlos Santana
#116 Brandon Beachy
#120 Mariano Rivera
#129 Michael Phelps
#135 Michael Morse
#146 Josh Beckett
#157 Roger Federer
#165 Alex Avila

2012 Allen and Ginter
#181 Joe DiMaggio
#186 Jemile Weeks
#194 J.J. Hardy
#196 Lou Gehrig
#197 Ty Cobb
#202 Jaime Garcia
#208 Martin Prado
#214 Yunel Escobar
#216 Corey Hart

I'm not sure what Jaime's doing in this photo.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#217 Brian Wilson
#225 Roger Maris
#232 Kate Upton
#256 Brandon Morrow
#258 Doug Fister
#259 Wade Davis
#260 Alex Liddi
#264 Brian McCann
#265 Chris Parmelee

2012 Allen and Ginter
#266 Carlos Ruiz
#269 Mike Schmidt
#270 Anthony Rizzo
#271 Mark Reynolds
#279 Brett Gardner
#286 Neal Walker
#289 Brandon Phillips
#290 Derek Holland
#292 Greg Gumbel

This is my first card of Mark Reynolds since he became a Cardinal. I'm not sure how he'll work out, but hopefully they'll slot him in the right situations for success.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#299 Jeff Niemann
#303 Ivan Nova
#310 Russell Martin
#314 Michael Buffer
#330 Mike Napoli
#331 Carl Crawford
#340 Marty Hogan
#341 Colby Lewis
#342 Ryan Dempster

2012 Allen and Ginter - Worlds Tallest Buildings
#WTB2 Taipei 101
#WTB3 Petronas Towers
#WTB5 1 World Trade Center
#WTB6 Empire State Building
#WTB8 40 Wall Street
#WTB10 Metlife Building
Historical Turning Points
#HTP4 The Reformation
#HTP10 Discovery of Electricity
#HTP19 Sputnik I

Ginter always has some curious insert sets, like 2012's Tallest Buildings and Historical Turning Points. They're not exactly chase cards, but they're at least interesting. Also, a fun game to infuriate people is to insist that Russian satellite's name is pronounced "Spootnik".

2012 Allen and Ginter
#26 Hunter Pence
#29 Hanley Ramirez
#40 Jimmy Rollins
#71 Curtis Granderson
#76 Michael Bourn
#84 Andre Ethier
#104 Ian Desmond
#162 Jeff Francoeur
#215 Dan Haren

Back to the base cards, here are the horizontal ones. Dan Haren is another Cardinals in the box, though Jaime Garcia remains the only one actually wearing the Birds on the Bat in 2012.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#229 Ichiro
#231 Todd Helton
#274 Derek Jeter
#317 Jason Heyward
What's in a Name
#WIN14 Chipper Jones
#WIN37 Jason Heyward
#WIN50 Mike Schmidt
#WIN95 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Another new Cardinal for 2015 is Jason Heyward, and I got a short print and insert featuring him.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#346 Lefty Kreh
Baseball Highlight Sketches #BH-21 Willie Mays

Finally, I have the two cards that didn't fit when I scanned all the horizontal cards, and didn't fit with anything else. Why a fisherman is a Short Print, I have no idea, but the famous over-the-shoulder catch by Willie Mays makes a nice sketch.

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 #4

Pack 4 has my first hit - of sorts - from this box, though it's not an autograph or relic. I also got 2 former Cardinals.

2013 Topps Update
#US67 Kyle McClellan
Emerald Parallel #US225 Chris Getz
Gold Parallel #US289 Kevin Correia #0168/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-35 Aaron Hicks
Postseason Heroes #PH-18 Bret Saberhagen
1971 Topps Mini #TM-32 Carlos Gonzalez

Even though Bret Saberhagen hung around in the major leagues into 2001, I still remember him best as the first reliever for the AL All Stars in RBI baseball. I spent quite a bit of time playing that game, either as the NL or the Cardinals. Usually I liked to play the AL when I was the NL, otherwise it just didn't seem fair.

2013 Topps Update
#US41 Dan Haren
Chasing History #CH-134 Tony Cingrani
League Leaders Pins #LLP-MT Mike Trout

You can't tell from the scan, but if you're familiar with the set, you know that Trout card is a shadow-box style card, probably as thick as 6-8 regular cards. I put it on the pile with the other two thick inserts from Series 1 and 2, and I figured, hey, it's time to go get some toploaders of the correct size, since they're probably 10 to a pack, and I need at least 3. But, after examining the cards, all 3 are a different thickness, leaving me with the choice to buy 3 different sizes, or storing 2 in a toploader thick enough to allow them to wobble. Oh, the woes of the frugal collector.

The extra-thick Trout card cost me a few base cards, so there were only 38 in the pack. Still, all 38 were new, so I'm now over halfway done with the set, after just 4 out of 10 packs.


Update Series Completion: 168/330 (50.9%)

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #6

We're on the downslope now, with the first pack of the second half of the box.

2013 Topps
#24 Dan Haren
#261 Trevor Rosenthal
#321 Allen Craig
#327 Jhonny Peralta

I pulled 5 current/former/future Cardinals from this pack, including new SS Jhonny Peralta, which is why I said "future".

2013 Topps
#207 Matt Holliday
Gold Parallel #81 NL ERA Leaders #0013/2013
Chasing History #CH-34 Robin Yount
Chasing The Dream Relics #CDR-CS Chris Sale

Here's the 2nd of the 3 hits promised in the box, a Chris Sale relic. It could simply be confirmation bias speaking, but there seems to be an awful lot of Chris Sale in this box.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-9 Devin Mesoraco
Emerald Parallel #318 Hiroki Kuroda
1972 Topps Mini #TM-45 Cal Ripken, Jr.

Of course, the 3 Chris Sale inserts are at least of a current player. This is the second Cal Ripken, Jr. insert in as many packs. I'm not complaining, just noticing.

There were 41 base cards in this pack, and 25 were new to me. The set is starting to come together, and with 60% of the box busted, I've got over 60% of the set. I will need a little over 28 new cards per pack to finish it off.

Series 1 Completion: 217/330 (65.8%)

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 3

Sometimes when I win a contest, I set the prize aside until I have time to fully rummage through all of it. In this case I won a contest back in late September, and I think the "Small Flat Rate Box" arrived by early October. I opened it immediately, but it's been sitting on my desk, too daunting of task to sort, since then. I finally felt the need to dive into it, and give jaybarkerfan his proper thank you post.

Part 1, 2

Yesterday included a giant stack of 1981 Topps. Today's stack is decidedly more modern.

2012 Topps
#72 Rex Brothers
#161 Dee Gordon
#280 Ryan Howard
#289 Casey Kotchman
#330 Matt Kemp
#367 Chris Volstad
#381 David DeJesus
#398 Buster Posey
#415 Rafael Furcal

2012 Topps
#424 Vladimir Guerrero Checklist
#428 Jordan Schafer
#438 Juan Uribe
#476 Ramon Hernandez
#288 Nick Swisher
#493 Ryan Madson
#505 Fautino De Los Santos
#513 Gaby Sanchez
#519 Gio Gonzalez

2012 Topps
#520 Ryan Adams
#525 Paul Maholm
#526 Casper Wells
#529 Luke Hughes
#570 Zach McAllister
#571 J.J. Hardy
#572 Hiroki Kuroda
#574 Kerry Wood
#593 Marco Scutaro

2012 Topps
#601 Dan Haren
#610 Cody Ross
#615 Luis Marte
#632 Joe Nathan
#634 Jose Contreras
#635 Brett Gardner
#645 Kyle Seager
#656 Carlos Santana
Gold Futures #GF-37 Jordan Walden

2012 Topps
#347 Craig Gentry
#397 Hector Noesi
#410 Jeff Locke
#460 Thomas Field
#585 Jimmy Paredes
Golden Moments #GM-9 Ryan Howard

I'd hardly call the 2 inserts junk. Though I suppose we'll have to give Jordan Walden a few more years for a final verdict on that card. After all those 2012 Topps, there were also some 2012 Topps Update cards, including Randy Choate, the old man of our extremely young pitching staff.

2012 Topps Update
#US21 Buster Posey
#US50 C.J. Wilson
#US77 Miguel Batista
#US100 Ryan Dempster

2012 Topps Update
#US101 Casey McGehee
#US107 Randy Choate
#US293 Shane Victorino

And to finish off today, here's another sampling from the cards with no set-mates in the box.

1997 Collector's Choice - All Star Connection #39 Vinny Castilla
1996 Collector's Choice #538 Quinton McCracken
1999 Skybox Premium #246 A.J. Burnett
1995 Bowman's Best #B63 Alex Ochoa

There's still so much left in the box...

This Break is so 2007, Part V

When CaptKirk42 of the aptly named CaptKirk42's Trading Cards Blog opened up a break of 5 boxes of 2007 baseball cards, I jumped right in to claim the Cardinals and my 2 random teams. It was slow to fill so each slot wound up with 3 random teams, which also caused me to pick up the Dodgers as well in hopes of a Nomar Garciaparra card or two. In all I got the Athletics, Braves, Cardinals, [Devil] Rays, Dodgers,  Mariners,  Royals, and Twins.
[ I | II | III | IV ]


I might be a sucker, I might be behind the times, I might just dig in my heels when people disagree with me, but so help me, I like both Heritage and Turkey Red.

2007 Heritage
#27 Dan Haren
#41 Anthony Reyes SP
#65 Chris Narveson
#106 Scott Rolen
#199 Ronnie Belliard
#287 Chris Carpenter
#337 Jason Isringhausen
#476 Albert Pujols
#492 Brad Penny SP

I landed 2 SPs among the Cardinals, although one was Brad Penny, who pitched 9 games and hit one Grand Slam for us in 2010.

2007 Heritage
#216 2006 Cardinals
#289 Justin Verlander/Jeff Weaver

World Series winners usually get some bonus cards in the following year's set, such as this Verlander/Weaver card.

2007 Heritage
#103 Carl Crawford SP
#339 Jarrod Washburn SP
#357 Eric Stults SP
#419 Scott Kazmir SP

Here are the other SPs I received. I like having all of the SPs in the highest numbers like 2011-2013 Heritage, because then I feel like 1-425 can be seen as the base set. Also, I know when I flip through the cards by number which ones are SPs. To track these down, I had to go to some shady user-generated content sites, so hopefully they're correct.

2007 Heritage
Flashbacks #FB7 Eddie Yost
New Age Performers #NP11 Chipper Jones

These inserts don't seem to fit the set as well as other years of Heritage. But a Chipper's always a good thing.

2007 Heritage - A-Rod Road to 500 #71

Finally, my randomly assigned Seattle pays off again. This set was inserted across Topps products, so it'd be a bear to put together through pack buying.

That's it for the break. It was a lot of fun going through my giant box of cards, covering 5 different products and 8 teams. And, of course, I now own 5 more partial team sets of the Cardinals, so my wantlist has only increased.

This Break is so 2007, Part I

When CaptKirk42 of the aptly named CaptKirk42's Trading Cards Blog opened up a break of 5 boxes of 2007 baseball cards, I jumped right in to claim the Cardinals and my 2 random teams. It was slow to fill so each slot wound up with 3 random teams, which also caused me to pick up the Dodgers as well, in hopes of a Nomar Garciaparra card or two. In all I got the Athletics, Braves, Cardinals, [Devil] Rays, Dodgers,  Mariners,  Royals, and Twins.

First up, we have the 2007 Bowman cards, confusing subsets, insert sets, and all.

2007 Bowman - Prospects
#BP46 Trey Hearne
#BP68 Jarrett Hoffpauir

I don't think we're going to see either of these guys back in MLB, though Hoffpauir actually played for the big club in 2009, enough that I remembered his name.

2007 Bowman
#56 Dan Haren
#59 Jim Edmonds
#124 Chris Carpenter
#138 John Smoltz
#163 David Eckstein
#175 Albert Pujols
#183 Jeff Weaver
Gold #27 Brian McCann
Gold #105 Eric Chavez

As usual, here are all the base cards of anyone who ever wore the birds on the bat. McCann and Chavez didn't, but I only had 7 for this scan, so why not add some Gold, right?

2007 Bowman - A-Rod Road To 500
#130, 139, 151, 156

This was one of the best parts about landing the Mariners; a whole insert set of one player. As for a fun Cardinals connection, 3 of the 4 pitchers mentioned played for the Cardinals. There was Chris Carpenter, Jeff Suppan, and Arthur Rhodes. Not bad for a career AL player.

2007 Bowman Chrome - Propects
#46 Trey Hearne

Trey Hearne again. Cards like this are what make Bowman a little disappointing when it's a few years old. It's Chrome, and it's my team, but I've never heard of the guy.

2007 Bowman - Blue Parallel
#56 Dan Haren #024/500

It's an eBay 1/1! #024 and he's wearing #24! I'm rich!

2007 Bowman - Prospects Blue
#BP133 Jarrod Saltalamacchia #188/500

Finally, this was the big hit from Bowman, a Jarrod Saltalamacchia autograph. I kind of feel bad for the guy for having to sign such a long name 500 times for this card, although it looks like he's got a bit of a shortened version going here. Salty has been a player I've liked for some time, maybe because of his unique last name, maybe because he's a catcher like I sometimes tried to be. Either way, with many less impressive autograph subjects in the checklist, this is great pull.