Tis The Season Winnings, Part VII

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 II III IV V VI

Yes, this prize package is still going. The Cardinals/Yankees/Red Sox singles continue with the early 2000s.

2002 Donruss Fan Club #162 Edgar Renteria
2005 Fleer Showcase #62 Scott Rolen
2005 Upper Deck MVP #80 Scott Rolen
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #54 Curt Schilling
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #64 Tim Wakefield
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #298 Reggie Sanders
2005 Topps Update #UH8 Matt Lawton
2005 Topps Update #UH126 October is Month of Reggie
2005 Upper Deck All Star Classics #11 Derek Jeter

These Cardinals are the team that started the resurgence that has resulted in success over the last 11-12 seasons or so. The 2004 Team was swept by the Red Sox, but they returned to the NLCS in 2005, and would win the World Series in 2006. I enjoy cards with cameo appearances, like the clear shot of Larry Walker on the Reggie Sanders postseason card. Jeter, Schilling, and Wakefield are some nice additions too.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 16

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.
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2005 Upper Deck #184 Edgar Renteria

I felt like Edgar Renteria was ageless, having already had a World Series winning hit before arriving at the Cardinals, playing here for 6 years, and then 7 more seasons elsewhere after that. Of course, he was actually quite young on arrival, and he was only 21 in that World Series win for the Marlins.

2005 Upper Deck #185 Jason Isringhausen

I think I see some Wrigley Field ivy in the background of Izzy here.

2004 Fleer Legacy
#8 Sammy Sosa
#48 Hideo Nomo
#53 Richie Sexson

These cards were a little dinged up and sort of used as packing material on the outside of each stack in the team bags. Still, those are some medium to big stars on the cards (Sorry Richie, you necessitated the "medium to" there).

2003 Topps
#469 Brett Tomko
#567 So Taguchi
#702 Jim Edmonds

I'm continually surprised that I keep finding sets I don't have cards from. 2003 Topps was one of those as well, which is even stranger, since Topps base cards from any year seem to just float around and settle in my card boxes.

2003 Upper Deck Game Face
#102 J.D. Drew
#104 Scott Rolen
#106 Tino Martinez

Game Face is a bit more of an obscure set, so it's not surprising I didn't have any of it. Rolen has a legitimate focus-on-the-pitch game face. However, it would appear someone caught J.D. Drew after fouling a ball off his shin, and Tino before a dugout tirade.

1991 Upper Deck
#636 Stolen Base Leaders (Lou Brock/Ricky Henderson)

1991?! That's right, there's a bit of a gap in the cards I received as prizes, from 1992 to 2002. Given that it took me 16 posts to get through the 11 years of 2003-2013, I figure that saves you about 16 more posts of reading. We're at the beginning of the end now. Or is the end of the beginning, since I'm going reverse chronologically?

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 15

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.
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2006 Fleer
#86 Tyler Johnson
#91 Mark Mulder

I didn't own a single card from 2006 Fleer before these two. Now, my want list has had a net gain because I've added all Cardinals from the set.

2006 Fleer Ultra #40 Mark Mulder

I also didn't own any 2006 Fleer Ultra, but that one only added 5 Cardinals to my want list. Now, look at this card, then look at Mulder's Fleer card above. They look suspiciously similar, don't they? I'm pretty sure these were taken from the same game. How can I be so sure? I can't be 100% positive, but here is my evidence:

• Those are the Cardinals Home Sunday caps. They don't mess around and wear them on special days; they're for Home Sundays.
• Mulder had no relief appearances in 2005, narrowing my search to his starts.
• He only started 1 Sunday game at Busch Stadium in 2005, on July 3.

Mulder was actually healthy in 2005, with 32 starts. It looks like he got a few extended breaks between starts down the stretch, but that may have just been because the Cardinals had a sizable lead and won 100 games. But I suppose 32 chances is many fewer than 150-162 a photographer would have to get a shot of a position player, making something like this slightly more palatable.

2006 Upper Deck #808 Gary Bennett

Gary Bennett was a solid, dependable backup to Molina for 2 years, but he wasn't near the character Jason LaRue was.

2005 Opening Day
#32 Chris Carpenter
#65 Woody Williams (x2)
#154 Scott Rolen
#156 Edgar Renteria
#157 Larry Walker

2005 Opening Day #17 Jim Edmonds

The Cardinals seem to pick up a lot of aging stars for their final years, but they seem to work out to be productive years. When Larry Walker came to St. Louis, I enjoyed getting to see a player I had known to be a superstar for a long time, and he did quite well in his final year and a half with us. 2005 Opening Day is another new set for me, despite my fondness for the current Opening Day sets.

This Break is so 2007, Part III

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.
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Turkey Red was the biggest reason I got in this break. Ever since I jumped back into collecting with 2010 Update, which had a Turkey Red insert set, I enjoyed the look and feel of the cards. I gather from other card blogs some folks were getting tired of Turkey Red by that point, but I was just getting started. I was quite tempted to try to get some 2013 Turkey Red, but the price, scarcity, and resale shenanigans just put me off.

2007 Turkey Red
#25 Albert Pujols
#37 Edgar Renteria
#72 Chris Carpenter
#87 David Eckstein
#135 Jason Isringhausen
#172 Kelvin Jimenez

Here we have the Cardinals base cards, including an Edgar Renteria as an Atlanta Brave.

2007 Turkey Red
#25b Albert Pujols - Ad Back SP

This is a variation SP, where it appears Albert has held his pose from above long enough for the sun to go down.

2007 Turkey Red
#48 Prince Albert

Here's yet another Albert, this time in Checklist form.

2007 Turkey Red - Chrome
#102 Elijah Dukes #0528/1999

The shininess of this card didn't really come through in the scan, although it doesn't have quite the same finish as the usual Chrome cards.

2007 Turkey Red - Relics
#TRR-AJ1 Andruw Jones

I'm still a sucker for relics, so this is a pretty cool Andruw Jones card, especially since it still shows him in his Braves heyday.

2007 Turkey Red - Cabinet Cards
#DP-DY Delmon Young

I could be fooling you with simply resizing the picture, but I assure you I am not. This is the one-per-box Cabinet card, about twice as wide and tall as a regular card. I wish it had been a Cardinal, but still it's a nice looking card. Now I just have to figure out how to store it. Between this and the Chrome, this was a good box for the Devil Rays.