August Card Show Autographs

From my post history, it appears I didn't go to a card show from March until August. I made up for lost time, though, and got 3 autographs last month.

T.J. Mathews
Tom Lawless #12
Luis Alicea

T.J. Mathews was there along with his dad, Nelson Mathews, but I opted not to get his autograph, since he was never a Cardinal. T.J. was traded away in the deal that brought Mark McGwire to St. Louis in 1997, and was signed as a free agent again for 2001. He was released, played for Houston, then re-signed with St. Louis in August 2002, but never made an appearance.

Tom Lawless took his time signing his ball, and it shows in his perfectly legible signature. I always appreciate the extra touches like his #12.

Finally, there's a ball that appears to have some sort of cuneiform scrawled on it, but I promise that was written by Luis Alicea.

Zistle Trade #29, Part II

Today's the rest of the Zistle trade I started on Thursday. It's all 1989 Upper Deck, and all Cardinals.

1989 Upper Deck Main Set #281 Luis Alicea
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #306 Pedro Guerrero
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #348 Tim Jones
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #514 Jose Oquendo
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #531 Greg Mathews
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #602 Tom Pagnozzi

However, we can play the old game of "One of these things is not like the other". The first five all show the Cardinals in BP gear, most likely in spring training. Tom Pagnozzi, on the other hand, is in full game uniform, and almost looks like a painting. I can't really explain it, though. He was on the team in 1987 and 1988, so surely would have been at 1989 Spring Training, since they bring in a whole lot of catchers to work with all the pitchers.

eBay Wins #249

I'm tired today. So here's a wall of cards with no commentary!

1989 Topps
#284 Jim Leyland
#285 John Candelaria
#290 John Franco
#292 Jim Corsi
#293 Glenn Wilson (x2)
#294 Juan Berenguer
#296 Ron Gant
#298 Chris James
#299 Steve Ellsworth (x2)

1989 Topps
#301 Charlie Leibrandt
#303 Felix Fermin
#306 Tracy Woodson
#307 Lance McCullers
#309 Mario Diaz
#316 Walt Weiss
#322 John Smiley
#323 Gary Thurman
#327 Mark Lemke

1989 Topps
#328 Rick Honeycutt (x2)
#337 Calvin Schiraldi
#340 Kirk Gibson
#341 Jim Deshaies
#350 Andy Van Slyke
#357 Jerry Reuss (x2)
#366 Herm Winningham
#368 Brian Holton
#374 John Wathan

1989 Topps
#375 Terry Pendleton (x2)
#379 Tim Flannery
#384 Mark Salas (x2)
#388 Bobby Bonilla
#392 Andy Van Slyke
#398 Julio Franco
#414 Jim Fregosi
#420 Joe Carter
#423 Brian Fisher (x2)

1989 Topps
#424 Luis Polonia
#425 Jay Howell
#430 Mark Gubicza
#433 Albert Hall
#440 Bobby Bonilla (x2)
#446 Rob Murphy
#448 Eric Plunk
#453 Tom Prince
#454 Paul Assenmacher (x2)

1989 Topps
#456 Tim Belcher
#462 Jose Guzman
#474 Bob Rodgers
#475 Dave Parker
#477 Dick Schofield
#478 Doug Drabek
#482 Steve Peters
#483 Mickey Hatcher
#488 Kevin Coffman (x2)

1989 Topps
#504 Bob Walk
#512 Donnie Hill (x2)
#513 Jesse Orosco
#514 Chet Lemon
#522 Randy Kramer
#523 Andres Thomas
#527 Dave Henderson
#537 Pete Smith
#547 Mark McLemore

1989 Topps
#551 Randy Ready (x2)
#552 Greg Cadaret
#564 Russ Nixon
#566 Al Pedrique
#569 German Jimenez
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#575 Juan Samuel
#576 Greg Minton
#580 Harold Reynolds

1989 Topps
#581 Gene Nelson (x3)
#582 Mike Marshall
#586 Joe Boever
#588 Luis Alicea (x2)
#592 John Cangelosi (x3)
#598 Ken Gerhart
#599 Tom Candiotti
#605 Bob Welch
#606 Rick Dempsey

1989 Topps
#607 Willie Ansley
#621 Rick Mahler
#622 Stan Javier (x2)
#634 Marvin Freeman
#641 Curt Young (x2)
#653 Tommy Barrett
#658 R.J. Reynolds
#678 Dion James (x2)
#681 Jeff Robinson

I scanned 90 cards, and there were 19 duplicates and 2 triplicates, for a total of 111 cards. For you math whizzes out there, at a penny each that's  $1.11.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4972
Total Spent	$62.09
Per Card	1.249 cents
Change	-0.005 cents

eBay Wins #244

I've still got more 1989 Donruss to show. I had a comment on my last eBay post to the effect that he was glad I didn't pay much for these. I definitely am glad about that too. To be clear, I didn't actually go buy a whole bunch of 1989 Donruss from someone, but rather I buy a lot of cards listed as "Random" which I fully understand will be cheap junk wax, which often includes some of these types of cards. Generally there are a few from other sets worth a little more to me, so it all balances out.

1989 Donruss
#452 Rex Hudler
#453 Bob Brenly
#455 Daryl Boston
#456 Mike Fitzgerald
#458 Bruce Sutter
#460 Joe Hesketh
#461 Bobby Witt
#463 Scott Bankhead
#466 Luis Alicea

This post is a lot more dense with Cardinals than the last two. This first scan alone has Rex Hudler, Bruce Sutter, Bobby Witt, and Luis Alicea.

1989 Donruss
#467 John Cerutti
#471 Sid Fernandez
#472 Terry Puhl
#477 Craig Reynolds (x2)
#478 Frank Williams
#482 Eric Show (x2)
#483 Garry Templeton
#486 Tim Crews
#487 Mike Maddux

Garry Templeton was obviously another Cardinal.

1989 Donruss
#493 Jack Armstrong
#499 Zane Smith
#500 Checklist
#505 Doug Jennings
#506 Ken Oberkfell
#512 Mike Bielecki
#516 Larry McWilliams
#520 Craig McMurtry
#521 Ray Hayward

Ken Oberkfell, Larry McWilliams...

1989 Donruss
#523 Mark Lemke
#525 Bryan Harvey
#534 Luis Aquino
#537 Randy Bush
#540 Gene Nelson (x8)
#542 Ken Caminiti
#543 Duane Ward (x2)
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen

Those 8 Gene Nelson's came in that huge lot of A's I'll be showing forever.

1989 Donruss
#560 Pat Borders
#564 Todd Burns (x9)
#566 Darnell Coles
#570 Johnny Paredes
#572 Barry Lyons
#576 Andres Thomas
#579 Chad Kreuter
#583 Andy Hawkins
#586 Van Snider

Pat Borders bounced around a few teams after Toronto, including the Cardinals, before returning to Toronto to finish his career. And I got enough Todd Burns cards to fill a whole binder page.

1989 Donruss
#587 Todd Frohwirth (x2)
#591 Ernie Whitt
#593 Spike Owen
#598 Hipolito Pena
#600 Checklist
#601 Carmelo Martinez
#602 Mike LaCoss
#603 Mike Devereaux
#604 Alex Madrid

1989 Donruss
#607 Terry Clark
#610 Jay Howell
#613 Kevin Brown
#614 Dave Valle
#616 Andy Nezelek
#619 Adam Peterson
#620 Todd Stottlemyre
#625 Ernest Riles
#629 Scott Sanderson

I'll always take another cheap Todd Stottlemyre card, even if I already have several copies.

1989 Donruss
#631 Marvin Freeman (x2)
#632 Mike Young
#636 Scott May

I've got 66 cards shown here, 5 of them had doubles, and one each had 8 and 9 copies! By my reckoning that's 86 total cards, for 43 cents out of my half cent box.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4635
Total Spent	$59.80
Per Card	1.29 cents
Change	-0.015 cents

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part II

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

1991 Stadium Club #379 Gerald Perry
1992 Stadium Club
#10 Joe Carter
#58 Rich Gedman
#103 Luis Alicea
#338 Gerald Perry
#386 Omar Olivares

I have less old Stadium club in my collection than I expected, but now I've got a half-dozen more. I think Joe Carter a buffer card stuck on the outside of a stack of Cardinals, but it's in decent enough shape to go into my collection too.

1992 Fleer Ultra
#563 Cris Carpenter
#566 Rich Gedman
1992 Upper Deck #478 Omar Olivares
1993 Leaf #438 Omar Olivares
2015 Topps
#628 Peter Bourjos
#678 Sam Freeman

I think I've said this before, but Cris Carpenter was the cause of much confusion on my part when the Cardinals brought in Chris Carpenter in 2004, and I thought they had reacquired Cris. I figured Cris had to be ancient by that point, though he was actually only 39.

Bourjos and Freeman are the first cards in my collection from 2015 Series 2, which is sort of splitting hairs because I do have some Series 1.

eBay Wins #161

1994 wasn't the strongest Fleer Ultra set. They went a little overboard on the gold foil in the bottom 20% of the card. But, for a penny each, I'll take 2 more cards toward the set.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#321 Brian Anderson
#562 Luis Alicea

These two cards make 23 unique cards out of the 600 card set in my collection. I already had a copy of Luis Alicea's card.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3263
Total Spent	$51.13
Per Card	1.567 cents
Change	0 cents

eBay Wins #140

Today I have the set I generally consider the ultimate Topps junk wax set, 1989. This might not beat 88 or 89 Donruss for the overall junk set champion. But, with the 25th anniversary parallels in 2014 flagship bearing the 1989 design, maybe now is the best time to sell. I bet I could get twice my money back! "My money" was just 60 cents for 60 cards, of course.

1989 Topps
#5 Orel Hershiser
#8 Dave Eiland
#30 Doc Gooden
#42 Jim Eppard
#44 Jim Snyder
#45 Kal Daniels
#80 Cory Snyder
#89 Dave LaPoint (x2)

Two Daves don't make a right, right? At least that's what I always told my two friends named Dave in college.

1989 Topps
#105 Ron Darling
#110 Paul Monitor
#129 Terry Clark
#131 Dave Otto
#139 Mike Flanagan
#190 Mike Witt
#196 Denny Walling
#197 Neal Heaton
#200 George Brett

Fun fact, which is only relevant to this particular arrangement of cards: George Brett's first Hall of Fame Ballot was also Mike Witt's. Brett got 98.2% of the vote. Witt got 0.

1989 Topps
#206 Roberto Alomar
#209 Jeff Bittiger
#210 Dale Murphy
#253 Jose Alvarez
#267 Jeff Robinson
#275 Danny Tartabull (x2)
#330 Eric Davis
#339 Scott Bailes

1989 Topps
#340 Kirk Gibson
#367 Johnny Paredes (x2)
#387 Ryne Sandberg (x3)
#390 Darryl Strawberry
#408 Greg Walker (x3)

As a Cardinals fan, I feel like I'm supposed to have this hatred for the Cubs, but I just can't muster it. I think part of the reason is that when I was first starting to watch baseball, the daycare I attended would let us turn on WGN in the afternoons and watch the Cubs day games. I got to know several of their players well, especially Ryne Sandberg. So this Three-of-a-kind of Sandberg isn't cringe inducing to me, as it might be to some St. Louis fans.

1989 Topps
#410 Jack Clark
#427 Eric Show
#449 Carmelo Martinez
#485 Hubie Brooks
#488 Kevin Coffman
#502 Duane Ward
#527 Dave Henderson
#531 Dave Hengel
#536 Joel Skinner

Jack Clark is all over these late 80s/early 90s posts.

1989 Topps
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#584 Randy Velarde
#588 Luis Alicea
#604 Paul O'Neill
#624 Jack McKeon
#651 Tom Niedenfuer
#693 Pat Borders
#704 Carlos Quintana

Here we have a decidedly unfamous Billy Ripken card, relatively speaking, and a Jack McKeon's magnificent mustache. Also a former, current, and future Cardinal as of the printing time of these cards, Tom Niedenfuer, Luis Alicea, and Pat Borders.

1989 Topps
#736 Jeff Hamilton
#744 Roger Craig
#750 Bret Saberhagen
#751 Ken Oberkfell
#579 Astros Leaders
#669 Dodgers Leaders

This last scan is brought to you by laziness and miscounting, but it worked out alright in the end. I thought I only had 59 cards and thus would have a row of vertical and a row of horizontal cards for the last scan. Thanks to the miscount, I discovered my scanner is almost exactly (2 card widths + 1 card length) wide.

Right now I would need about 2000 cards for $1.47 to get my average to 1 cent per card. That's not a particular goal of mine, but that is an interesting round number to help put the change values into perspective.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3194
Total Spent	$50.47
Per Card	1.58 cents
Change	-0.011 cents

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 17

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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1987 Fleer Update #U-71 Joe Magrane
1988 Donruss #170 Tony Pena
1988 Fleer #38 Steve Lake
1988 Leaf #181 Jack Clark
1988 Score #202 Todd Worrell
1989 Donruss #466 Luis Alicea
1989 Topps #1 George Bell
1990 Donruss #531 Carlos Martinez

Glorious Junk Wax! There are probably plenty of copies of most of these cards floating around, except perhaps the Donruss Doppelganger that is 1988 Leaf.

By now you've probably heard about Jack Clark's recent troubles caused by his big mouth, when he said he knew for sure that Albert Pujols has been juicing for years. Those are big allegations that require at least a little bit of evidence before you go mentioning them on the air. To give a local perspective, his co-host is notorious for being a sports shock-jock, and fired from nearly every station in town that ever employed a sports talk guy. I can't stand him, and I'm always glad to hear him go, so I don't stumble across his show when radio-surfing. Jack Clark has now retained one of the biggest names in high-priced attorneys in St. Louis, Chet Pleban. It's not clear to me whether this is to sue his (former) employer, or defend himself against the lawsuit Pujols has publicly threatened.

I knew Jack Clark has a bit of a reputation as a hothead, but I guess since St. Louis media don't usually hammer their hometown guys too hard, I never really knew his whole story. Apparently he's had trouble with Hall of Famers ranging from his Managers Frank Robinson and Lou Piniella, his teammates Ozzie Smith and Tony Gwynn, and now likely Hall of Famer Albert Pujols. As a side note, can we get Lou Piniella in the Hall of Fame as a manager please? Clark's apparently just got an attitude problem, and has for years.

I don't like negative posts, so let's end this one with Tony Pena making John Olerud feel silly.

...and then another guy named Brian Johnson.

Stay on your toes out there; it's the only way to save yourself from trick plays.