November Card Show Autographs

I got a little behind on posting, so hey, let's catch up. The last autographed balls I appear to have posted was from the 2 shows I went to in October 2017, so let's see what November brought.

Gary Gaetti                                                 Joe Cunningham

Part of the reason I write these posts is to show off the new piece of my collection, but another reason is to make a note of how the experience was getting the autograph. Nothing unusual happened when meeting Joe Cunningham, but for Gary Gaetti, the guy in front of me in line had a pretty interesting project. He had created prints using graphics from RBI Baseball (probably the greatest NES baseball game). I'm actually not sure he only had them for players in the game, or if he made ones for other players, but Gaetti was on the Minnesota roster in that game. I've talked before about starting an RBI Baseball collection of some sort, but this guy went above and beyond. The funniest part was that the guy left his binder with all his hard work behind on the table. And he had apparently done all his card show shopping and the autograph was his last stop, because someone had to go catch him in the parking lot.

I already had Gary Gaetti's autograph on a ball, but that one didn't fit my collection very well. It has several other players on it I met at the Cardinals Winter Warmup one year. I figured since I had the chance, I'd upgrade to a ball that fit with all my others.

Zistle Trade #16 Part II

My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.

Part I

1983 Fleer #613 Gary Gaetti
1990 Upper Deck
#225 Ozzie Smith
#278 Milt Thompson
1992 Donruss
#116 Kent Mercker
#163 Brian Hunter
#208 Tony Pena
#424 Chris Sabo
1993 Hostess
#18 Andres Galarraga
#25 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Since I made these trades at the same time, I wound up trading for the Chris Sabo card twice. But, I'm not too upset about it. The main draw in this trade was the Hostess cards. I'm not sure how many Hostess Baseballs I ate in the summer of 1993, but I feel like it was on the order of dozens. Before these two, I had 25 unique cards from the set, and 9 duplicates. A quick blog search indicates I've received 4 in trade, and sent off a few, so that probably means I got at least 30 from eating the baseball cakes. Most importantly, I now need only 5 more to finish the set.

I found it surprising that these are the first cards I'm posting of Andres Galarraga, Brian Hunter, and Kent Mercker. I'd especially expect a card of Galarraga to have come up by now.

Another nice card in the trade is the Gary Gaetti rookie card. He first played a few games in the majors in 1981, and in an era before the modern Bowman, he didn't get a rookie card until he completed his first full season in 1982.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part I

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.

1996 Leaf
#2 Dennis Eckersley
#70 David Bell
#98 Sandy Alomar, Jr.

I guess the Eckersley and Alomar were randomly assigned to me as duplicates, or no one claimed the A's and Indians. Even so, Eck is definitely a player I liked even before he got to the Cardinals, so that's a great card to me.

1996 Leaf
#142 Brian Jordan
#212 Alan Benes

Two more from 1996 Leaf, Brian Jordan, and the middle Benes brother, Alan. The Cardinals once had all 3 Benes brothers in their system, but Adam only made it up to AA Arkansas.

1997 Pinnacle
#41 Brian Jordan
#81 Ron Gant
#122 Ozzie Smith

1997 Pinnacle
#136 Gary Gaetti
#185 Dmitri Young

1997 cards bring me good memories of the Cardinals resurgence from mediocrity in the mid 90s, to make the playoffs in Tony LaRussa's first year in 1996.

1998 Stadium Club
#114 Alan Benes
#232 Gary Gaetti
Checklist 2 of 2

Here's another Alan Benes and Gary Gaetti from 1998, as well as...

1998 Stadium Club #74 Todd Stottlemyre

Todd Stottlemyre! Of course, I would have gotten this card even if I only claimed the Cardinals, but I wanted to be covered in case any of his Blue Jays or A's cards came up.

1998 Stadium Club - Royal Court #RC5 Mark McGwire

And here's another of my favorites, Mark McGwire, in an extra sparkly Stadium Club insert. Since he's a Cardinal, I double-claimed this one too.

That's it for now, look for this series to end sometime in mid-2015.

My Autographed Balls

It's time for the next question from Fuji's contest: Do you have autographed balls in your collection? If so, do you have a favorite? Why is it special?

Oddly enough, I actually mentioned in My Favorite Childhood Player that I didn't have an autographed ball of Mark McGwire. However, I do have a few Hall of Famers, and a few not so famous Cardinals as well. Here's the entire collection in one glamour shot.

Left to right, here's what we've got:

• Lou Brock, which I acquired in person at a store opening, a Sears I think.
• Ozzie Smith. I've gotten autographs from him on a few occasions, but I think this was at an event at his restaurant.
• Gary Gaetti on the sweet spot, because he's the first guy I got to at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up. I only brought one or two balls with me that day, so also on the ball are Ron Gant, David Bell, Ray Lankford, Royce Clayton, and Scarborough Green.
• Kyle McClellan, who was signing for free at a local college open house last fall. He was really nice, even to the people who handed him 4 balls to sign (a bit much I think), and happily signed with the blue pen I provided.
• Bob Gibson, also from a Cardinals Winter Warm Up.
• And on top, not quite a ball, but close enough, is a T.J. Oshie puck. I think this technically belongs to my wife as her sister got it for her. Even so, it sits with the rest of my collection.

Other than the Oshie Puck, I actually acquired each of these in person. I don't think I'd be opposed to buying an autographed ball of a player I really liked, but it's also cool to have the memory of meeting the players, even if some of the memories are a bit fuzzy now. I haven't been to the Winter Warm Up since my return to collecting, but writing this post makes me really want an Oquendo, McGwire, Matheny, and La Russa ball now. Some other favorites of mine have moved on to new teams, but maybe after their retirement I'll be able to find Scott Rolen or even Albert Pujols at a local event.

eBay Wins #19

I won a big ol' lot of 3 junk wax cards for a mere 6 cents shipped, and another lot of 2 Carters for another 6 cents.

1991 Fleer #395 Lenny Dykstra

Much like Lenny's mullet, this card is business in the front, party in the back. He's listed as Len on the front of the card, but Lenny on the back.

1991 Fleer #9 Dave Henderson

I dig anything A's, they've been my second favorite team forever.

1991 Fleer #609 Gary Gaetti

I remember when we signed Gary to play 3B for the Cardinals. I couldn't like him at first because in my young mind, Todd Zeile should have been our 3B forever. For some reason my most vivid memories of him are from a time he had to pitch. Apparently that was either 97 or 98, and he also pitched in 99 for the Cubs. I bet not many position players have pitched in 3 consecutive years.

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #194 Joe Carter

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #29 Gary Carter

I don't know if these two cards were lumped together because they're both Carters, both playing on Canadian teams, or what, but I figure, why question it?

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1798
Total Spent	$33.36
Per Card	1.86 cents