Pull Tab Awareness Week Win Part 2

Here's the rest of my win for Pull Tab Awareness Week, 2016.
Part 1

2014 Panini Donruss #339 Michael Wacha
2014 Bowman Platinum - Prospects #BPP78 Stephen Piscotty
2015 Topps #522 Sam Tuivailala
2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #47 Lance Lynn
2016 Baseball Card Breakdown - Jose Canseco (91 Donruss)
2016 Baseball Card Breakdown - Aledmys Diaz (75 Hostess)

The 2014 Donruss and Bowman Platinum cards are from sets I never bought, so those are great additions to my collection, but I think my favorite card in this bunch is the Jose Canseco. I remember watching Homer at the Bat as a kid. It actually first aired just a bit before I started watching baseball, so maybe my fond memories are all from reruns. Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire were my favorite non-Cardinals at that time, so I was happy to see Jose in the episode, along with Ozzie Smith. These aren't officially licensed cards, but customs made by defgav himself. The back mimics the 1991 Donruss set as well, but makes clear these are from the 2016 Baseball Card Breakdown set. The Aledmys Diaz card is also a custom, styled after the Hostess cards from 1975. It's so well done I actually didn't realize it was a custom and tried to find it in Zistle by its card number, before noticing it also carried the Baseball Card Breakdown name.

A belated thanks to Baseball Card Breakdown for the contest, and the excellent customs.

September Card Show Autographs

Last weekend I attended another local card show, and this one had plenty of current Cardinals players and 1 coach/former player. Originally there were to be 7 total signers, and I bought a ticket for each. Tony Cruz was added after I purchased my tickets, so I was going to buy an autograph ticket for him on the day of the show. Right around the time Xavier Scruggs was designated for assignment a few weeks ago, I also saw a note on the website saying he would not be at this show, so I figured I could swap his ticket for a Cruz, which I did.

Tommy Pham	Kolten Wong 16
Mitch Harris 40	Jose Oquendo
Sam Tuivailala 64	Tony Cruz 48

Tommy Pham

Kolten Wong 16

Mitch Harris 40

Jose Oquendo

Sam Tuivailala 64

Tony Cruz 48

If you did the math up there, you can see I still should have had 7 autographs. Well, as it passed 11am, when all the signers were supposed to start at 9:30, 10, or 10:30, an announcement came over the PA that Pete Kozma would not be coming. The announcer wasn't very diplomatic about it either, and placed the blame squarely on Kozma's agent.

I've run out of plastic cubes for my autographed balls, so these are still in half of the box of a dozen I purchased.  I'm probably going to try to get a bunch that are identical so they stack nicely, or maybe even some multi-ball cases.

The show itself was one of the most crowded I've been to. Part of that is because there were 7 autograph tables set up in close proximity, and the lines of people were all crossing each other. It was pretty cool to meet 5 different players all in one day. Tommy Pham had the longest line by far, because his price was set back when he was called up, and he's been playing really well lately. Kolten Wong had a bit of the opposite issue, with a price set when he was really doing well, but he's been struggling a bit lately. People asked for some pretty funny inscriptions from Tommy Pham, including "Phamtastic" and "Phambino". He looked almost embarrassed to write it, but he obliged. Another interested moment came at Jose Oquendo's table. Apparently he won't sign "The Secret Weapon", I assume due to some exclusivity deal he's got. The guy in front of me purchased Jose's full uniform from the 1985 throwback game against Kansas City earlier this year, and had him sign the jersey, pants, and cap. He asked Jose to write "1985 NL Champs" on one of the items, but Jose quickly reminded him he didn't get here until 1987. He wasn't really declining, he just said "I don't want to mess up your jersey, you know?".  But the collector agreed that probably didn't make sense, and had him write something else.

All in all, it was a fun morning, and I got to meet 6 Cardinals. There should be some more opportunities to track down Pete Kozma for an autograph, if nothing else perhaps at the annual Winter Warmup run by the Cardinals.