College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 14

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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2007 Topps
#127 Chris Duncan
#249 Tony La Russa

If not for the different uniforms, I'd like to think these are 2 shots from the same play, and Tony's taking Chris Duncan out for a defensive replacement. Sorry, Chris, I like you on the radio though.

2007 Topps Updates and Highlights
#UH44 Scott Spiezio

Spiezio might be responsible for the silliest Cardinals phenomenon until the Rally Squirrel. He had very long facial hair growing under his lip, and at times he dyed it Cardinal red. Of course, people cut up red fabric and made their own faux hair, and I think there may have even been an official promotion night around it.

2007 Turkey Red
#72 Chris Carpenter
#87 David Eckstein
#172 Kelvin Jimenez

Zoom in really far on that David Eckstein card. He's got quite the zombie eyes in that drawing.

2007 Turkey Red
#48 Prince Albert

I'd love to know what happened on this pitch, if this is based on a real photo. It could be a home run, a fly out, or even just strike 2. It looks like Albert might be swinging a little low for the ball.

2006 Topps
#36 Jeff Suppan
#228 David Eckstein

Here's Eckstein looking much less Zombiefied, and journeyman extraordinaire Jeff Suppan. He wore my favorite number (37), so I almost bought a jersey when we won the World Series in 2006. Luckily I didn't because he quickly left for Milwaukee. One day I may get one anyway, along with Todd Wellemeyer and Kent Bottenfield.

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.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part VI

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.
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2005 Topps Total
#492 So Taguchi

I'm surprised this is the first So Taguchi card I'm posting to my blog. I'm still making up for my lost decade of collecting.

1998 Stadium Club
#48 Delino DeShields

When trying to sort through the huge number of cards, I mis-sorted this 1998 Stadium Club away from the others in Part I.

2007 Upper Deck
#948 Kelvin Jimenez

I still can't believe there are over 1000 cards in 2007 Upper Deck.

1986 Topps Traded
#46T Mike Heath

Traded cards are much harder to come by than regular flagship cards, so I'm always glad to get one of these, especially a Cardinal.

2006 Upper Deck First Pitch
#184 Reggie Sanders

I rooted against Reggie Sanders for so many years with the Reds, and in 2001 with the Diamondbacks, I had to flip 180 degrees when he signed with the Cardinals.