eBay Wins #257

There's still a whole lot of 1990 cards left, and here's the smallest stack out on my table, 60 cards from Topps Traded, cut down to just the Cardinals.

1990 Topps Traded
#15T Tom Brunansky
#39T Keith Hernandez
#90T Tony Pena
#117T Bryn Smith
#122T Bob Tewksbury
#124T John Tudor

When I arranged these by number, I figured that the set was arranged by team, but then I saw Cleveland's Keith Hernandez splitting up Boston's Tom Brunansky and Tony Pena. It's alphabetical order by last name, and I just happened to get some Cardinals all between S and T. Keith Hernandez is a player I'd really like to get an autograph from, but with him having a solid job in the Mets booth, he doesn't seem to get back to St. Louis for appearances.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5302
Total Spent	$65.39
Per Card	1.233 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

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 #246

I'm firmly entrenched in the junk wax era, going through my eBay purchases sorted by year. Today I've got more cards from the half cent box, from 1989 Fleer.

1989 Fleer
#1 Don Baylor (x2)
#2 Lance Blankenship
#3 Todd Burns
#4 Greg Cadaret
#6 Storm Davis
#8 Mike Gallego
#9 Ron Hassey
#10 Dave Henderson
#11 Rick Honeycutt

There are 4 (!) Cardinals in this scan, counting their former hitting coach Don Baylor.

1989 Fleer
#12 Glenn Hubbard
#13 Stan Javier
#14 Doug Jennings
#15 Felix Jose
#16 Carney Lansford
#18 Gene Nelson (x2)
#19 Dave Parker
#20 Eric Plunk
#21 Luis Polonia (x2)

Felix Jose was one of my first favorite players, as one of the heavy hitters for the 1992 Cardinals.

1989 Fleer
#22 Terry Steinbach
#23 Dave Stewart
#24 Walt Weiss
#25 Bob Welch
#26 Curt Young (x2)
#53 Dave Anderson
#54 Tim Belcher
#55 Mike Davis
#56 Mike Devereaux

1989 Fleer
#57 Kirk Gibson
#58 Alfredo Griffin
#59 Chris Gwynn
#60 Jeff Hamilton
#61 Danny Heep
#63 Brian Holton
#64 Jay Howell
#65 Tim Leary
#66 Mike Marshall

1989 Fleer
#68 Jesse Orosco
#69 Alejandro Pena
#70 Steve Sax
#71 Mike Scioscia
#72 Mike Sharperson
#73 John Shelby
#74 Franklin Stubbs
#75 John Tudor
#77 Tracy Woodson

Tracy Woodson was a curious case, who played in parts of 3 seasons before spending 2 whole seasons at AAA. He then played parts of 1992 in AAA and St. Louis, and all of 1993 in St. Louis, before again being in AAA from 1994-1996.

1989 Fleer
#78 Marty Barrett
#94 Larry Parrish
#95 Carlos Quintana
#114 Brian Harper
#131 Paul Gibson
#172 Van Snider
#201 Rafael Belliard
#203 Bobby Bonilla
#204 Sid Bream

Here's your annual reminder that the Mets still owe Bobby Bonilla his deferred salary for another 18 years.

1989 Fleer
#205 Benny Distefano
#206 Doug Drabek
#207 Mike Dunne
#208 Felix Fermin
#209 Brian Fisher
#210 Jim Gott
#211 Bob Kipper
#212 Dave LaPoint
#213 Mike LaValliere

I was curious if Dave LaPoint and Mike LaValliere were battery-mates on the Cardinals, but they didn't quite overlap, with Mike arriving and Dave leaving between 1984 and 1985.

With 63 cards and 4 duplicates, these 67 total cards cost me 33.5 cents. Obviously I didn't actually find a way to spend half a cent, but I ran out of space to add Cardinal players to the tags on an odd numbered card. It'll even out by the time I finish off the cheap cards from this set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4712
Total Spent	$60.185
Per Card	1.277 cents
Change	-0.011 cents

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 18

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.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 ]

1988 Jiffy Pop
#7 Vince Coleman

Here we have another classic case of the 1980s oddball, which is MLBPA licensed, but not MLB licensed. Thus, all logos are airbrushed away. I'm surprised the Cardinals team name appears, though. I would expect just a "St. Louis" for his team. I'm not sure how I'll store this, because it's just wide enough not to fit in a card sleeve. It'll still fit in a regular storage box, so maybe I'll just put in in one of those and hope for the best.

1987 Topps
#8 Terry Pendleton
#110 John Tudor
#367 Jeff Lahti (x2)
#647 Tom Lawless

We've quickly jumped back far enough that I don't remember these guys as players, except Terry Pendleton, but he looks odd in Cardinal red to me to this day. From my earliest baseball memories, he was a Brave. I actually used to have a very similar jacket to the one Jeff Lahti is wearing on his card, but that when when I was about 10, so I quickly outgrew it.

1985 Fleer
#220 Joaquin Andujar
#224 David Green
#230 Kurt Kepshire
#236 Terry Pendleton
#231 Jeff Lahti

I do have a little context about these players, because my dad and uncle loved to tell me about the Cardinals. In fact, they still do. I appreciate the first-hand accounts of players I've only seen on cardboard or in 5-second blips in highlight reels. Joaquin Andujar in particular brings my uncle's stories to mind, because he had a few completely dominant years with the Cardinals, especially the 1982 season and World Series.

1983 Topps #337 Tito Landrum

Finally, and I do mean finally, we have the oldest card of the whole prize, a 1983 Tito Landrum. Tito won the 1982 World Series with the Cardinals, was traded to the Orioles in 1983 for September and the playoffs, where he won another World Series, then was traded back to the Cardinals before the 1984 season. That's about all I know about Tito, but I do love that powder blue uniform. I understand those were seen as a bit odd or even ugly at the time, but now, they're a classic. It's funny how time does that. Time and World Series appearances, I guess. Also, this card is 30 years old, so it's officially vintage now, right?

That's it. That's the whole thing. I posted them all! A big thanks to madding for giving me a ton of Cardinals, and 18 posts worth of material. It's always fun to go back through the years and reminisce about players I remember seeing, and players I never knew we had, and even see some players before my time.

Random Cardinals from Josh, Part I

I won a little contest at Royals and Randoms, just for doling out an opinion. The randomizer fell my way, and here's what showed up in the mail.

1983 Topps #734 Steve Braun

 The oldest card of the bunch, nearly as old as me. I must admit I don't think I've heard of Steve Braun though.

1987 Sportflics #173 John Tudor

I'm not sure why I even scan Sportflics cards. They never look nice like they do in person.

1991 Classic Game
#29 Joe Magrane
#173 Todd Zeile

Now we're getting to the guys I remember.

1991 Fleer - Team Stickers - Cardinals 

I wish I wasn't so hung up on keeping my cards in good condition so I could stick these stickers on things.

1995 Flair #410 Brian Jordan

 This is my first 1995 Flair card, I think, unless there are some in my unsorted boxes.

2005 Turkey Red #39 Preston Wilson

I like all of the Turkey Red sets, so I've got most of the Cardinals (and former/future Cardinals) on my wantlist. This knocks one more of them off, which is always appreciated.

More next time...

March Radness Win, Part VI

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]
[Part V]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

We're up to part 6 for you non-Romans out there.

1990 Bowman
#187 Frank DiPino
#188 John Tudor
#189 Howard Hilton
#192 Ray Lankford
#193 Todd Zeile
#195 Ozzie Smith
#196 Milt Thompson
197 Terry Pendleton
#198 Vince Coleman

There is a good mix of relative unknowns - i.e., Frank DiPino and Howard Hilton - and big stars in this group. Notice Todd Zeile has a catcher's mitt there; this was before his move to 3B due to his hitting and speed.

1990 Donruss
#279 Vince Coleman
#418 Scott Terry
#710 Ozzie Smith

Here are 3 more 1990 Donruss towards my set. I love those late 80s Cardinals uniforms.

There's just one more part to this win, which will be revealed tomorrow night.

eBay Wins #33

I bought this lot of 23 cards with some stars peppered in for 49 cents. They're from 1988-1991, but for just over 2 cents apiece I figured I couldn't go wrong, and I'd get a nice long blog post taking me, and maybe you, down memory lane

1988 Score #7 Wally Joyner

1988 Score #275 John Tudor

I only vaguely recall John Tudor as a Cardinal, and I think mostly I've just heard the name over and over, I don't actually remember him playing.

1988 Score #278 Jerry Browne

1988 Score #481 Kevin Mitchell

The yellow border goes nicely with the Giants, so much so I didn't even remember Score has colored borders by card number, not by team, until I went to file this one with the rest of them.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-22 Will Clark

Speaking of the Giants, it's MVP and former (future?) Cardinal Will Clark.

1989 Score #193 Dwight Evans

1989 Score #221 David Cone

1989 Score #429 Tim Leary

1989 Score #534 John Costello

Another Cardinal I've never heard of. Maybe he was traded to whichever team Jim Abbott was on to give the local sportswriter an easy headline season.

1989 Topps #5 Orel Hershiser

1989 Topps #300 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #390 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #478 Doug Drabek

If I was going to get some 1989 Topps, these are pretty good cards to get. I always think of the guys who were aging superstars in 1992-1995ish as the greatest cards ever, corresponding with the first time I started paying attention to baseball. And of course Doug Drabek was on the last successful Pirates teams.

1990 Donruss #269 Kirby Pucket

The lone 1990 Donruss was one I already had, so this will go on my trade list. Not that anyone will trade me for a 1990 Donruss, so it'll probably languish there for awhile until I clean house.

1990 Fleer #314 Ruben Sierra

1990 Fleer #399 Orel Hershiser

I like the look of 1990 Fleer, and another Orel Hershiser isn't bad either. I'm kind of surprised to see he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2007 on just his second try. He seemed like a plausible candidate to me.

1991 Donruss #433 Ryne Sandberg

1991 Donruss #490 Kirby Puckett

I like the green 1991 Donruss better than the blue for some reason, but both designs scream 90s.

1991 Upper Deck #193 Mitch Williams

1991 Upper Deck #418 Jeff Reardon

1991 Upper Deck #744 Bo Jackson

Of all the non-Cardinals out there, Bo Jackson is a player I've really considered collecting for awhile. I really like every time I get one of his cards, but I can't bring myself to add another player to my list. Although, there must not be too many of him out there for the few years he played, right? That's it, I've talked myself into it. Bo Jackson is now a player I collect.

1991 Upper Deck #768 Vince Coleman

Here's Vince Coleman trying not to get run over by a tarp.

1991 Upper Deck #769 Mitch Williams

In case I lost you along the way, notice that's the second Mitch Williams from 1991 Upper Deck. Without looking it up, I assume the cards were put out in two or more series that year, giving them time to print up a new card with Mitch on his new team. According to baseball-reference, he was traded April 7, the day before opening day for the Phillies. That seems strange, but I don't see any "crazy" stories about the trade online anywhere.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1926
Total Spent	$37.52
Per Card	1.948 cents