Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part VII

College football will be here again before we know it, so I've got to get my prize from last season's Bowl Pick 'Em contest at Cards on Cards posted! My prize for a second place tie was a very generously sized box of cards, so I felt a bit overwhelmed even sorting through them. I finally sorted them out by player, and, as usual, I'll plan to post them all eventually, but I might quit halfway through, we'll see.

Part I II III IV V VI

1974 Topps - Team Checklists - Cardinals
1978 Topps #143 Keith Hernandez
1978 Topps #170 Lou Brock
1979 Topps #371 Keith Hernandez
1984 Donruss #475 George Hendrick
1985 Topps #60 George Hendrick
1985 Topps Traded #15T Bill Campbell
1985 Topps Traded #30T Ivan de Jesus

I decided to post some of the oldest cards in this prize package today. Above we see clear evidence Keith Hernandez should always keep the mustache. I'm still pondering a purchase of a powder blue Hernandez jersey, the style of which you can see much more clearly on the George Hendrick cards.

1974 Topps #204 Tommy Harper/Lou Brock
1976 Topps #205 Al Hrabosky/Rich Gossage

These are some nice league leader cards, with a bit of wear around the corners of course. They're 40+ years old after all. If you're like me, you might be wondering how Al Hrabosky and Goose Gossage scored 35 "points" in 1975. Never fear, I'll do your research for you. The Sporting News gave out a "Fireman of the Year" award to each league from 1960 to 2000. The scoring appears to have changed over time, but at least through 1975, relievers got 1 point for a save and 1 for a win in relief, and the top point earner in each league was the winner.

A PWE of Kindness from 2 by 3 Heroes

JediJeff of 2 by 3 Heroes is a fellow 2010 Topps Turkey Red collector, and we traded some awhile back. When he picked up a handful for his wantlist and got some duplicates, he kindly forwarded a few to me, along with some other Cardinals.

2010 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR76 Chris Coghlan
#TR77 Luis Aparicio
#TR99 Ryan Ludwick
2010 Topps Update - Turkey Red
#TR116 Jonathan Broxton
#TR120 Curtis Granderson
#TR122 Ben Sheets
#TR133 Lou Brock

Like I've said before, there's just something about these cards I really like. They look like framed gallery portraits. Also, the longer I wait to finish it, the more of them are Cardinals, like Jonathan Broxton, who joined the team this past year. I still need 70 of the 100 from the flagship set, but only 12 of the 50 that came in Update.

This was only about half the package, but since I like to tag every Cardinal and set, and blogger limits me, I'll have to leave those for another post.

eBay Wins #203

Today I continue to sort through my eBay wins with 12 cards from 1985. 11 of them are from Topps flagship, but 11 doesn't divide up nicely and scan well, so I added in Lou Brock at the end there, also from 1985. I can't find a lot of info about that "Collector's Series" set, except that Zistle claims it came from Woolworth's. I now have 2 cards from that set, and both are Lou Brock.

1985 Topps
#36 Fred Breining
#102 Tom Dunbar
#103 Randy Lerch
#105 Ron Kittle
#216 Jerry Don Gleaton
#283 Fran Mullins

Of the other 11 players shown, only Bill Dawley played for the Cardinals, in 1987. They made it to the World Series that year, but he had no postseason appearances.

1985 Topps
#364 Richard Dotson
#487 Frank Williams
#592 Jeff Robinson
#634 Bill Dawley
#696 John Rabb
1985 Topps Collector's Series #5 Lou Brock

I only had 37 unique cards from 1985 Topps before this pile, and none of these are duplicates (except for Brock as I mentioned). For any of you who still need someone to do the math for you, now I've got 48, just over 6% of the 792 card set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3405
Total Spent	$52.52
Per Card	1.542 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

2013 Allen and Ginter Set, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post of Allen and Ginter cards, I bought an almost-complete Allen and Ginter set (minus Puig), along with a separate purchase of the 50 Short Prints. Before I file it away with my "sorted" cards, here are the rest of the Cardinals from the set.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#108 Bob Gibson
#115 Stan Musial
#139 Red Schoendienst
#161 Enos Slaughter
#254 Lou Brock
#341 Ozzie Smith

6 Hall of Fame cards is a pretty good number out of a single set that mostly features current players. These players all have numbers retired by the Cardinals.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#125 Matt Holliday
#172 Jon Jay
#276 Lance Lynn
#283 Jason Motte
#340 Yadier Molina
#342 Adam Wainwright

There were also 6 Cardinals pictured in uniform in the set that are still on the team, though Motte hasn't been re-signed yet. Everyone else will be back, though.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#96 Jayson Heyward

Finally, here I have the newest Cardinal, Jason Heyward. I'll be interested to see how his 2015 goes, since it's his contract year, and what that ultimately means for his next contract, whether its with St. Louis or elsewhere. His acquisition puts 2 2014 Gold Glovers in the Cardinals' 2015 lineup, and may be the tipping point to make me decide to attend the Cardinals' Winter Warmup this year, to get an in-person autograph before he even plays his first game here.

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 10

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.
[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 ]

2008 Goudey
#171 Albert Pujols
#173 Lou Brock
#174 Chris Duncan
#175 Vince Coleman
#193 Troy Glaus

In his rush and/or zealous generosity (or is that generous zeal), madding sent me 2 of each of these cards. That's an easy mistake to make though, and I didn't even realize it the first time I looked through them, because there were simply so many cards. Eventually I sorted them out by set and lo and behold, my 10 Goudey cards only had 5 unique. So, I've got one each of these to keep, and one to trade.

2008 Upper Deck #70 Rick Ankiel

I'm starting to build up quite an Ankiel collection now. I wasn't collecting during either of his heydays with the Cardinals, so I never pulled one of his cards in a current pack.

2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic
#78 Matt Holliday

SP Authentic is a set that makes me want Upper Deck back in the game. It's got a very clean look that appeals to me.

2009 Upper Deck X #97 Colby Rasmus

And on the flip side, we have Upper Deck X. It's a little too busy for my taste, but I always love getting a new Cardinal card.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 3

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.
[ Part 1 | Part 2]

2012 Heritage
#172 Yadier Molina
#226 Skip Schumaker
#336 Jon Jay
#250 Fernando Salas
#375 Daniel Descalso

Jon Jay must not have been at camp the day they posed for Heritage. He definitely stands out in this bunch of 5, with the road cap, and no close-up mugshot.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#41 Yadier Molina
#55 Matt Holliday
#138 Chris Carpenter
#202 Jason Motte
#208 Adron Chambers
#297 Lou Brock

Say, whatever happened to Adron Chambers? He had enough MLB time to get a card in 2012, but he's back in the minors for now. I'm sure we'll see him again in September when the rosters expand.

2012 Opening Day #96 Chris Carpenter

Here's another guy I'm hoping to see in September, or I'll even take just October. The latest rehab news doesn't sound good, though, and it's appearing more and more likely he's done for the year, and done - at least as a Cardinal - for good.

2012 Update Hanger Pack #3

I'm moving on to my 3rd 72-card hanger pack.

2012 Topps Update
#US242 Joe Kelly
#US251 Kyle McClellan

Here are two Cardinals I didn't have yet, Joe Kelly, and Kyle McClellan. Kyle left us for Texas this year, but Joe's made his way into the rotation. And with those glasses, he reminds me of a cross between Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn and Bill Hader recently of SNL.

2012 Topps Update
#US60 Edwin Jackson
#US227 Mark DeRosa
#US247 Ryan Ludwick

With the Red and/or Navy uniforms, I can almost pretend these guys are still Cardinals. Unfortunately all 3 are duplicates.

2012 Topps Update
#US25 Joe Mather
#US149 Octavio Dotel

Two more former Cardinals. If everyone collected like me, demand for Octavio Dotel cards would skyrocket, since he's played for 13 teams.

2012 Topps Update
Blockbusters #BB-12 Tom Seaver
Golden Greats #GG-89 Lou Brock
Gold Sparkle #US321 David Carpenter

The 70s pinstriped helmets make an appearance on the Lou Brock card. Also, it's Lou Brock! I don't have many of his playing-days cards, so I'm always glad to see him included in insert sets.

2012 Topps Update - WalMart Blue Border
#US99 Chris Johnson
#US321 David Carpenter

If you believe in Fate, Karma, or getting what's coming to you, this is my punishment for complaining about red borders for blue teams. Blue borders for red teams! This box came from Walmart, obviously, hence the blue parallels. Along with the Gold Sparkle above, I can give someone a good start on a David Carpeter rainbow. He's pitched 1/3 of an inning this year and has a 108.00 ERA. But that one out was a strikeout, so there's potential, right?

2012 Topps Update
Golden Moments #GM-U4 Josh Hamilton
1987 Topps Minis #TM-144 Mark Trumbo

Here we have 2 more Angels, one's just in Rangers clothing. I still like those 1987 Minis, and I really didn't think I would when I first saw them.

2012 Topps Update - Gold Border
#131 Ian Desmond #1812/2012
#304 Brandon Morrow #1217/2012
#US199 Nate Schierholtz #1204/2012

Three more gold parallels. I want to not want to attempt this set, but the gold is so...gold. I don't really like the Stars and Stripes program MLB runs with the red/white/blue/camouflage hats/jerseys each Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Canada Day for Toronto, but I do appreciate Topps documenting such events by getting that image of Brandon Morrow. In case you haven't seen it, and can't make it out in the scan, Toronto usually gets the red and white treatment, like the Canadian flag, so there's a red hat with a white front panel, and all-red Blue Jays logo.

As I've said before, my inserts are generally available for trade, though probably not the Lou Brock this time.

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.

A Prize For My Prescience, part 4

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]


Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project sent me a whole bunch of cards for picking the Cardinals to win the World Series, and it is of course my duty to show you the cards and link to his blog.

In this edition, random cardinals Ryan threw in!

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #46 Bob Gibson

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #30 Lou Brock

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #9 Joe Medwick

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #16 Grover Alexander

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #52 Bruce Sutter 

Somewhere deep in my basement, I think I may more of these McDonald's cards, because they look really familiar. One day I hope to get time to dig in and find out.

1993 Ted Williams #90 Bob Gibson

1994 Yoo-hoo #6 Bob Gibson

I think I need this set. The yellow is even more garish in person. Plus I love Yoo-hoo, and there are only 16 cards.

1992 Studio #262 Red Schoendienst/Checklist

I don't care if it is a Checklist, I'll always take a card of Red.

1988 Donruss - HOF Diamond King Puzzle Stan Musial

I found myself wondering how hard it might be to find this completed puzzle. Surely lots of folks who didn't complete the puzzle discarded the pieces, or at least didn't keep them in very good shape. Also I don't think Stan had quite the god-like status he now holds in St. Louis in 1988. Sure, he was loved, but the way the fans react these days, you'd think he invented the game. That's not to say it's undeserved, just makes me wonder how precious collectors would have found this puzzle card 20+ years ago.

1995 Summit - Nth Degree #8 Ken Hill

OK, so Ken Hill doesn't really belong in this crowd. But the card is so shiny!

Number 5 Type Collection's Cardinals Giveaway, Part 2

[Part 1]
Matt at Number 5 Type Collection gave me way too many Cardinals in a recent contest.  Here's part 2:

1986 Fleer Box Bottoms #C-5

I bet this set would be pretty hard to complete, even though there are only 8 cards total.

1985 Topps Collectors' Series #5 Lou Brock

Lou Brock, good guy.

2005 Fleer Tradition #293 Larry Walker

The cardinals like to pick up aging stars, but it always seems to work out OK. Will Clark, Larry Walker, and hopefully now Carlos Beltran.

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini Baseball Icons #BI11 Johnny Mize

2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH246 Kelvin Jimenez

2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH243 Joe Mather

2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH164 Jason LaRue

My favorite Jason LaRue quote went something like this, regarding a Yadier Molina injury. "I ain't no doctor or nothin', but that looked like it hurt".

2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH273 Chris Perez

I really wish we'd held on to this guy, he was showing great potential, and we gave him up for Mark DeRosa.

Once again, more to see tomorrow