July Card Show Autographs II

There was another, much smaller - as detailed by CardinalsFan16 on All Cardinals All the Time - card show at the same location as the normal monthly one, but just 6 days later. I've been to their Saturday shows before, and they are typically smaller, but this one was practically nonexistent. There were 3 autograph signers though, all relatively recently retired former Cardinals that I didn't yet have in my collection.

Fernando Tatis          Octavio Dotel 28         Skip Schumaker 55

I promise that says Fernando Tatis on the left. It's at least consistent with other images I see online of his signature, but I made sure to catalog that one right away, because I might never decipher that if I had to. He's probably most well known in St. Louis for hitting 2 Grand Slams in one inning against Chan-Ho Park in 1999. Several people had him inscribe something related to that, though I wonder if those turned out legible.

Octavio Dotel was only a Cardinal for half a season, but it was the second half of 2011, meaning he was part of the World Series team.

Skip Schumaker was also a part of that 2011 World Series team, and was the player at the plate when the infamous Rally Squirrel ran through the batter's box, as you may recall seeing in 2012 on a Topps short print. That card is still tough to find reasonably priced, but there were several people with giant photos of the event for him to sign.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part X

Sometimes, I procrastinate posting and sorting some cards. Normally I don't pay too much attention to how long a particular item has been sitting on my desk, but given that this one was the Tis the Season contest from 2013, I've probably had it in my possession for a little over a year now. But, even with the long delay, I still want to throw Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes some referral traffic while I show off my prize.
Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Now for more of the teams everyone loves to hate, the Cardinals, Yankees, and Red Sox.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition #321 Julio Lugo
2010 Upper Deck
#346 Andy Pettitte
#347 Jorge Posada
#473 Kyle Lohse
#589 New York Checklist

The Yankees aren't the team I follow the most, but it's hard to escape stories about them. As an outsider, I'm really indecisive about whether Pettitte and Posada's numbers should be retired. On one hand, they were great players for the team, but it just feels like too much too soon, and it lowers the bar for number retirements. I think the Cardinals have a decent unofficial policy on this, which is that for the most part, only Hall of Fame entrants get their numbers retired.

2009 Upper Deck #562 Kevin Youkilis
#883 Adam Wainwright
2010 Upper Deck
#97 Jed Lowrie
#100 Takashi Saito
#462 Skip Schumaker
#470 Mitchell Boggs

Today, someone told me Waino was already hurt. It made me hurt. It was listed as abdominal pain, so I'm hoping it's nothing that will keep him out of baseball for long, and to a greater degree nothing serious for his overall health.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition #189 Mike Lowell
2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update
#314 Josh Beckett
#320 Jacoby Ellsbury
#420 Mariano Rivera
#473 Troy Glaus
2009 O-Pee-Chee #239 Mike Lowell

I remember when the Cardinals and Blue Jays traded third basemen, one for one. We sent Scott Rolen, and we got Troy Glaus.  I don't believe any cash changed hands, and no minor league add-ins were involved. I remember thinking "someone's going to get the clearly better end of this deal, and someone's getting the worse end". I'm pretty sure the Cardinals got the worse end. Rolen only played 1.5 seasons in Toronto before being traded to Cincinnati for another 3.5, which at least got the Blue Jays Edwin Encarnacion. Glaus played 2 years in St Louis, one good and one not so good due to injury, and was granted his free agency to play one final year in Atlanta.

2013 Topps Update Jumbo Pack #7

Some say 7 is lucky, but I've never really found that to be the case. Let's see how Pack #7 works out

2013 Topps Update
#US171 Nick Punto
#US201 Adam Ottavino
#US253 Shelby Miller
#US261 Skip Schumaker
#US270 Edwin Jackson
Emerald Parallel #US Dylan Axelrod
Gold Parallel #US40 Tim Collins #1277/2013
Black Parallel #US278 Jose Alvarez #61/62

Believe it or not (and why wouldn't you, really?), these are the first cards of Nick Punto and Adam Ottavino I've ever shown on my blog. I would have figured their cards would have come up before. On another note, I pulled another black parallel from this pack, numbered to 62.

2013 Topps Update
#US189 Kyle Lohse
Chasing History #CH-144 Yasiel Puig

This pack had quite the rogues' gallery of former Cardinals, with 4 in the first scan, and Kyle Lohse in the horizontal section. Along with him I have another card of this Puig fellow who seems to be showing up a lot.

2013 Topps Update
Franchise Forerunners #FF-2 Yasiel Puig/Matt Kemp
Making Their Mark #MM-39 Kevin Gausman
1971 Topps Mini #TM-2 Babe Ruth

And here I have yet another Puig along with Matt Kemp. It must be good to be a Puig collector these days, unless you're a completist. Then I'd guess it gets a little pricey.

This pack had the full 43 base cards after subtracting out the "standard" inserts. 30 of them were new, keeping me ahead of the pace to finish the set; with 70% of the packs busted, 73% of the set is complete.

Update Series Completion: 241/330 (73.0%)

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 11

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.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ]

2008 Heritage
#223 St. Louis Cardinals

2008 Heritage
#345 Chris Carpenter
#504 Todd Wellemeyer
#507 Skip Schumaker
#558 Adam Kennedy
#603 Joel Pineiro
#630 Ryan Ludwick
#669 Aaron Miles

The single horizontal card and prime number of other cards strikes again. I'm a big fan of Heritage, so these cards are great for me. I'm hoping to eventually complete all the Cardinals from all of the years, and who knows, maybe the full sets eventually.

2008 Stadium Club #130 Brian Barton

A random Brian Barton appears!

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update
#472 Skip Schumaker

This is the second Upper Deck First Edition Update card I have. That's quite a set name. It looks like this is a set akin to Topps Opening Day for Topps flagship; it looks like Upper Deck but without the foil. Don't let Topps get any idea though, or I'll be chasing the 110 card Opening Day Update set every year too.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 6

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 ]

2010 Heritage
#11 Adam Wainwright
#91 Colby Rasmus
#118 Yadier Molina
#127 Joel Pineiro
#139 Tony La Russa
#178 Matt Holliday
#295 Rick Ankiel
#358 Skip Schumaker

Matt Holliday is the odd man out in this heritage collection, like Jon Jay in 2012, wearing his blue hat and road grays. And, a quick note about Rick Ankiel. I don't ever remember seeing him with a beard, but as you'll see in coming posts, he shows up on multiple cards like that. Maybe that's an issue with the Topps monopoly, and they just went and photographed him on one day. Somehow he managed 45 games played by June 8 this year, despite a week off after his release by the Astros, but then got released by the Mets at that point and hasn't caught on elsewhere yet.

2010 Heritage
#47 NL Wins Leaders
#347 St. Louis Cardinals
#404 Rogers Hornsby

I didn't realize the Cardinals had the top 2 NL wins leaders in 2009. Unfortunately it didn't help in our 3 game sweep by the Dodgers in the NLDS.

2010 Topps T206 #1 Matt Holliday

When I shave my head, I like to pretend I look like Matt Holliday. Unfortunately I'm a little heavier and a lot shorter, and look a little more like post-baseball John Kruk.

2010 Topps Chrome
#99 Chris Carpenter
#161 Yadier Molina

I'm keeping these chrome cards small so you can't see how badly they scan. I owe that much to the best battery the Cardinals have had in recent years.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 5

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 ]

2011 Heritage
#18 Manager's Dream (Albert Pujols/Ryan Braun)
#106 Yadier Molina
#344 Fernando Salas
#370 Matt Holliday
#372 Jaime Garcia
#395 Matt Holliday

Plantar fasciitis and a 65-game suspension is no Manager's Dream this year. I got 2 more Holliday cards to go with the 2 from Allen and Ginter in part 4, which is great, because I'm a big Holliday fan.

2011 Topps
#87 Daniel Descalso
#138 League Leaders (Albert Pujols, Carlos Gonzalez, Joey Votto)
490 Matt Holliday 

2011 Topps #429 Skip Schumaker

2011 Topps - Diamond Duos #DD-HHO Rogers Hornsby/Matt Holliday

Again, 2 more Holliday cards and another Pujols card. Just for fun, note the different jersey number in the base set and the insert set for Holliday. He wore 15 for his partial season with us, then switched to 7 after signing a 7-year deal.

2011 Bowman #6 Albert Pujols

Yet another Albert Pujols. Part of me wants to root against him now that he's left, but then the logical part of my brain says that what's done is done, and his performance from this point forward won't affect how the Cardinals do, except in the 3 games every 2 or 3 years we might play against the Angels. So I quickly turn back around and root for him. I'm sure he'll hit homerun #500 early next year, or maybe even this year if he can return in time.

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.

2010 Upper Deck Bonus Pack #8

Today I have my last free bonus pack.

2010 Upper Deck
Portrait #SE-35 Roy Oswalt
Season Biography #SB-177 Mark Teixeira

There were 2 inserts in this pack. The Portraits set is a little underwhelming. I'd have been more excited about it if the Cardinals had managed to sign Roy Oswalt a few years ago when he was a free agent. Also, I went 8 for 8 in getting a Season Biography card in each pack.

2010 Upper Deck
#219 Kiko Calero
#462 Skip Schumaker

This pack had 2 Cardinals, with 2 of the stranger names for players we've fielded in recent years. Kiko and Skip sounds a bit like a bad 1990s homage to 1980s buddy cop shows.

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.

March Radness Win, Part II

[Part I]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

2008 Upper Deck (Series 2)
#651 Chris Carpenter
#652 Mark Mulder
#653 Juan Encarnacion
#654 Skip Schumaker
#655 Troy Glaus
#657 Cesar Izturis
#659 Chris Duncan
#660 Matt Clement

2007 Topps #207 Mark Mulder

Another Mulder to go with his 2008 UD above.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions
#KC-15 David Price
#KC-36 Hanley Ramirez

For awhile I had the idea I'd collect the Kimball Champions set. It may happen, but man is it ever going slow. I still need about 75 of the 100 from Series 1 and 2, and some of the Topps Updates ones as well. My guess is it'll finish sometime in 2027.

2011 Goodwin Champions #55 Bill Walton

This wasn't on a wantlist, and isn't even a baseball player, so I was unsure if this was thrown in accidentally. Then I realized, the fact that it's not a baseball player is probably the key. The Contest was for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, after all, so it's only fitting to have a basketball player in the mix.

2012 Heritage Blaster #2

In the past I've donated blood every 8 weeks, which is the minimum interval, or sometimes 9 weeks if I was traveling or due to do some heavy lifting on day 56. Since I last gave on March 31, and rewarded myself with a Heritage Blaster, I was eligible May 26. Unfortunately I was out of town that day for a Memorial Day weekend trip, and kept putting it off every subsequent Saturday. I finally decided it had been long enough last Saturday, and again, decided to reward myself with another Heritage Blaster. At this rate I'll never get enough to complete the set, so I'll have to find some more reasons to buy. This was one hard-earned box though, as they had trouble finding a vein, had to poke around a bit with the needle, and I ultimately got dizzy enough that they had to lay my head back. Then the blood stopped flowing after the bag was filled, so they had to stick my hand to fill the test tubes. It's about the most traumatic experience I've had with it, but hopefully it goes to help someone. I've donated 30 units lifetime now.

Just for fun, this time I'll do the classic pack-by-pack breakdown, with photos of inserts, short prints, and Cardinals.


Pack 1
15 Darwin Barney
26 Scott Baker
158 Steve Lombardozzi/Pedro Florimon Jr./Matt Dominguez/Devin Mesoraco
291 Stephen Strasburg
309 Ryan Dempster
333 Joe Benson/Liam Hendriks/Chris Parmelee/Kyle Waldrop
346 Santiago Casilla
408 Ian Kinsler
433 Rickie Weeks

2012 Heritage #433 Rickie Weeks SP

Pack 2
21 Drew Stubbs
56 Cliff Lee
60 Jesus Montero
67 J.P. Arencibia
325 Brian Wilson
331 Josh Hamilton/Albert Pujols
391 Matt Moore
421 Kyle Farnsworth
Blue Parallel 84 Doug Fister

2012 Heritage #331 Josh Hamilton/Albert Pujols

"Hey Josh, after this is over, let's go sign in LA; the weather's great. Oh, you've got another year on your contract? Just start slumping before the deadline, I'll work out the rest."

2012 Heritage - Blue Parallel #84 Doug Fister

This was a new one to me. Apparently it's a Walmart exclusive, and not every card gets a blue parallel. I'm not sure how Doug Fister got chosen in that case.

Pack 3
7 NL Pitching Leaders
16 Juan Pierre
18 David Ortiz/Adrian Gonzalez
110 Chase Headley
121 Drew Storen
131 Kevin Gregg
220 Ricky Romero
414 Corey Hart
478 Roy Oswalt

2012 Heritage #478 Roy Oswalt SP

Pack 4
35 Chris Sale
93 Johan Santana
136 Jonathan Papelbon
157 Melky Cabrera
297 Derek Holland
340 Russell Martin
374 Tom Milone
396 Emilio Bonifacio
Chrome Parallel HP89 Rick Porcello

2012 Heritage - Chrome Parallel #HP89 Rick Porcello #0608/1963

It'd be cool to have a whole set of these Chrome cards, but at 1/blaster so far, I think it'll take me awhile.

Pack 5
1 NL Batting Leaders
132 Cole Hamels
163 Matt Cain
186 Joe Mauer
226 Skip Schumaker
233 Terry Collins
239 Cleveland Indians
395 Daniel Hudson
Baseball Flashbacks BF-HA Hank Aaron
Checklist C4

2012 Heritage #226 Skip Schumaker

2012 Heritage - Checklist C4

2012 Heritage - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-HA Hank Aaron

I already got this Aaron card in the last blaster. Oh well, it's one more insert for the trade list.

Pack 6
69 Michael Morse
103 Michael Brantley
166 Kirk Gibson
214 Joakim Soria
254 Carlos Quentin
273 Wilin Rosario
343 Joe Maddon
388 Pablo Sandoval
Stick-ons 41 Victor Martinez

2012 Heritage - Stick-ons #41 Victor Martinez

Again, my obsession with not lowering the condition of my cards means I'll probably never peel this sticker.

Pack 7
36 Jason Kipnis
183 Mark Teixeira
307 J.J. Putz
329 Francisco Cervelli
365 Jose Valverde
373 Michael Young
375 Daniel Descalso
416 Stephen Drew
486 Josh Hamilton

2012 Heritage #375 Daniel Descalso

Hackenbush was right (I'm not linking my post a 3rd time!), Daniel's look here is very Don Mossi. Also, now I have 2 of this card too.

2012 Heritage #486 Josh Hamilton SP

Pack 8
53 Freddie Freeman
116 Vance Worley
222 Jed Lowrie
269 Justin Morneau
280 Brett Lawrie
328 Elvis Andrus
330 Jorge Posada
360 Chad Billingsley
361 Alex Rodriguez

There you have it, 73 more cards (counting the checklist) toward my set. I thought about reordering the packs so that #8 wasn't left image-less, but I figured that wouldn't be honest; sometimes you go out with a whimper. Interestingly, I had a few former Cardinals in the last blaster, but none in this one if you don't count Pujols, since he's in the uniform.


If you're interested in any of the inserts or duplicates let me know and we can work out a trade.