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?

182 Packs Giveaway, Part VI

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.
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2005 Topps Total
#492 So Taguchi

I'm surprised this is the first So Taguchi card I'm posting to my blog. I'm still making up for my lost decade of collecting.

1998 Stadium Club
#48 Delino DeShields

When trying to sort through the huge number of cards, I mis-sorted this 1998 Stadium Club away from the others in Part I.

2007 Upper Deck
#948 Kelvin Jimenez

I still can't believe there are over 1000 cards in 2007 Upper Deck.

1986 Topps Traded
#46T Mike Heath

Traded cards are much harder to come by than regular flagship cards, so I'm always glad to get one of these, especially a Cardinal.

2006 Upper Deck First Pitch
#184 Reggie Sanders

I rooted against Reggie Sanders for so many years with the Reds, and in 2001 with the Diamondbacks, I had to flip 180 degrees when he signed with the Cardinals.