Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXII

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, 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 VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI

1996 Topps #232 Matt Morris
1997 Bowman's Best #197 Matt Morris
1998 Donruss #110 Matt Morris
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT56 Matt Morris
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT203 Ron Gant
1998 Topps #128 Matt Morris
1999 Upper Deck MVP #173 Matt Morris
2002 Topps Total - Award Winners #AW25 Matt Morris

Matt Morris came along just as the Cardinals were starting to get good for the first time in my baseball-watching life. He had several really good years, culminating in a third place finish to Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling for the Cy Young award. He couldn't quite get them to split the vote and sneak in there.

1999 Topps #131 Ron Gant
1998 Upper Deck #203 Ron Gant
1998 Fleer Tradition #380 Ron Gant

Ron Gant was in my first in-person baseball game, although on the Braves at that time. In my head it feels like he was a big part of the team for a long time, but he was only here 3 years, and played 5 seasons afterwards and 9 before.

Zistle Trade #4

There are no small trades, only small traders, or something like that. However, I manged to snag these 5 cards for just a Bryce Harper base card in a PWE. This trade came in when Zistle.com first announced their free trial of their enhanced features, which seem to allow for easier matching of want and trade lists, and my trading partner found me.

1993 Upper Deck #428 Dmitri Young
1997 Collector's Choice #471 Matt Morris
2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #87 Scott Rolen

The cards above were nice, and on my want list, but the two below are of players I really collect.

1990 Leaf # Ozzie Smith
1997 Fleer #193 Mark McGwire

Even though these are two base cards of fairly common sets, I didn't have them yet. The McGwire is especially surprising to me given how much wax I was buying in 1997, and how much McGwire stuff I bought from my LCS in 1998-99.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part VII

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.
[ I | II | III | IV | V | VI ]

2006 Sports Illustrated for Kids
#8 Jim Edmonds

Some said Jim Edmonds was a showboat, some said he only had to dive for all those balls because he was bad at getting a jump off the bat, but one thing's for sure, he had the coolest hair on the team. I was glad to see him back in camp this year.

2005 Fleer Ultra
#10 Matt Morris

I like Fleer Ultra, and I like Matt Morris. I approve of this card. I think I tend to like the Matts on the Cardinals more than anyone, since that's also my given name. This year's been a good Matt year, with Holliday and Carpenter getting plenty of playing time, and Adams even showing us he deserves some too.

2008 Upper Deck
#654 Skip Schumaker
#702 Brian Barton

I don't quite understand the decision to move Skip to 2B, except that he was probably our least tenured OF at the time. I think he's still got a lot of potential, so I really hope the Dodgers - and reunifying with Mark McGwire as his hitting coach - will treat him well.

2008 Topps Updates and Highlights
#UH136 Classic Combos Hanley Ramirez and Albert Pujols

This is a great card, but sadly the only Albert Pujols I managed from the whole giveaway. Since both players and teams could be claimed, someone got in and claimed Albert before I got the Cardinals, so this must have been a duplicate.

eBay Wins #18

Another 1 card for 1 cent I couldn't pass up. At least is was a Cardinal this time.

1999 Skybox Thunder #177 Matt Morris

I really enjoyed Matt Morris with the Cardinals, probably at least somewhat because we shared a first name. I was kind of sad to see his career end so badly with the Pirates. For a few years here, he was the best pitcher we had seen in quite some time.

This hasn't changed much of course; 1 card in a pile of nearly 1800 can't change the average too much.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1793
Total Spent	$33.24
Per Card	1.85 cents