Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part VI

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 II III IV V

2016 Topps
#46 Jhonny Peralta
#106 Jordan Walden
#107 Kevin Siegrist
#134 Yadier Molina
#146 Stephen Piscotty
#217 Lance Lynn
#244 Matt Carpenter
#319 Adam Wainwright

I still haven't bought any 2016 Topps cards. The other was from winning the subcontest within this same contest, picking the Belk Bowl. The only Cardinal in that prize was Pat Neshek, now with the Astros, so these were still all new to my collection.

2016 Topps
Back to Back #B2B-9 Red Schoendienst/Stan Musial
Berger's Best #BB-16 Steve Carlton
Pressed Into Service #PIS-6 Stan Musial
Perspectives #P-25 Ozzie Smith

Here we have more 2016 Topps, all inserts and all Hall of Famers. I'm glad to see Ozzie Smith has been included more and more in sets with older players. And I'm always happy to get Musial and Schoendienst cards.

A Discounted 2012 Topps Rack Pack

This rack pack was 40% off the original price at Walmart, so down to $3 from $5. I picked it up awhile ago, don't think they've suddenly restocked some old packs.

2012 Topps
#342 Kosuke Fukudome
#344 Nelson Cruz
#357 Aaron Harang
364 Brandon Beachy
371 Jim Thome
378 Brandon League
385 David Murphy
422 Austin Jackson
425 Carlos Zambrano

2012 Topps
440 Chien-Ming Wang
465 Michael Schwimer
473 Evan Meek
484 Hisashi Iwakuma
492 Rickie Weeks
497 Andrew McCutchen
500 Alex Rodriguez
506 David Ortiz
514 Brian Roberts

2012 Topps
527 Aaron Hill
543 Josh Johnson
547 Jason Giambi
577 Dallas Braden
580 Tony Campana
607 CC Sabathia
611 Neftali Feliz
618 Eric Chavez
658 Juan Pierre

2012 Topps
247 Craig Gentry
397 Hector Noesi
410 Jeff Locke
460 Thomas Field
591 Aubrey Huff
Career Day #CD-4 Stan Musial

There were no Cardinals base cards in this pack, but it redeemed itself with a nice Stan Musial card, commemorating the day he hit 5 home runs. Those of you with important baseball stats committed to memory probably know the record in a game is 4, but there was a double-header that day, and Stan hit 5, a feat that has only been done one other time since then.

2012 Topps
Gold Sparkle #438 Juan Uribe
1987 Topps Mini #TM-53 Matt Kemp

I'll finish the pack with the other two inserts, a Gold Sparkle Parallel and a 1987 Mini. I had forgotten 2012 was Topps' year of gold, and at first I thought this was a more rare yellow parallel, but that was 2011. As for the 1987 mini, it looks like it really could be from 1987, thanks to the Dodgers uniform consistency through the years. The only think that really gives it away as new is the sharp photo, and of course Matt Kemp.

2013 Allen and Ginter Set, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post of Allen and Ginter cards, I bought an almost-complete Allen and Ginter set (minus Puig), along with a separate purchase of the 50 Short Prints. Before I file it away with my "sorted" cards, here are the rest of the Cardinals from the set.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#108 Bob Gibson
#115 Stan Musial
#139 Red Schoendienst
#161 Enos Slaughter
#254 Lou Brock
#341 Ozzie Smith

6 Hall of Fame cards is a pretty good number out of a single set that mostly features current players. These players all have numbers retired by the Cardinals.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#125 Matt Holliday
#172 Jon Jay
#276 Lance Lynn
#283 Jason Motte
#340 Yadier Molina
#342 Adam Wainwright

There were also 6 Cardinals pictured in uniform in the set that are still on the team, though Motte hasn't been re-signed yet. Everyone else will be back, though.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#96 Jayson Heyward

Finally, here I have the newest Cardinal, Jason Heyward. I'll be interested to see how his 2015 goes, since it's his contract year, and what that ultimately means for his next contract, whether its with St. Louis or elsewhere. His acquisition puts 2 2014 Gold Glovers in the Cardinals' 2015 lineup, and may be the tipping point to make me decide to attend the Cardinals' Winter Warmup this year, to get an in-person autograph before he even plays his first game here.

2013 Topps Update Jumbo Pack #5

With this pack, I'm half done with the box. Before this pack, I was already half done with the set.

2013 Topps
#US4 Matt Adams
#US67 Kyle McClellan
#US104 Matt Carpenter
#US165 A.J. Pierzynski
Emerald Parallel #US215 Travis Blackley
Franchise Forerunners #FF-7 Matt Harvey/David Wright
Gold Parallel #US108 Ryan Kalish #0169/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-42 Wil Myers
1971 Topps Mini #TM-27 Stan Musial

Thanks to the recent pickup of A.J. Pierzynski, this pack had 5 Cardinals in it, including a mini Musial. I mentioned when I pulled an Emerald parallel that I was hoping the Cardinals would pick him up to replace the injured Yadier Molina, and so far he seems to be worth the risk.

2013 Topps Update
Chasing History #CH-103 Anthony Rizzo
All-Star Stitches #ASR-DB Domonic Brown

Here's one of the hits in the box, a Domonic Brown jersey. I'm always a little ambivalent about the all-star jersey cards. On one hand, it's the wrong color for many teams. It'd be weird to have an orange Cardinals jersey swatch, but it's not quite as jarring for a guy that doesn't play for my home team. Still, he's a Phillie, and shouldn't be in orange. However, this jersey is from a specific day, and doesn't contain the standard disclaimer of most relic cards about not being from a specific game, event, or even season.

This pack had 41 base cards, and I already had all 41. On its face that feels a little disappointing, but I was bound to get that many doubles eventually, and I think it gives me a little insight into Topps' collation practices. Assuming my box contains a full set, this pack is completely unnecessary to build it. It would seem that the 330 cards are mechanically distributed among 9 or less packs, and this pack comes off of another line, which makes some sense because it contains one of the guaranteed hits of the box. I'm not sure I can explain how that relates to the other 2 hits, though, because even at 45 base cards per pack, 7 "regular" packs wouldn't quite finish the set. There must be just a bit more complexity at work.

Update Series Completion: 168/330 (50.9%)

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #10

It's the end of the road for my Jumbo Box; one last shot to get the final 36 out of 330 cards. Do I have faith in Topps' collation?

2013 Topps
#50 Adam Wainwright
#182 Randy Choate
#220 Octavio Dotel

First we have a few Cardinals base cards. The Randy Choate and Octavio Dotel were new to me in this pack, so that's 2 towards completing the set.

2013 Topps
#4 Yadier Molina
#125 Matt Holliday

And here are some horizontal Cardinals base cards, with Matt Holliday also filling a gap in the set.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-14 Pablo Sandoval
Chasing History #CH-2 Roberto Clemente
Chasing the Dream #CD-23 Jose Altuve
Emerald Parallel #224 Jon Jay
The Greats #TG-14 Stan Musial
1972 Topps Mini #TM-8 Dan Uggla

Finally there's a nice collection of inserts, except the Altuve I already got in Pack #2. I actually wound up with 3 duplicates from the Chasing the Dream set. The Jon Jay card is particularly green, I think because he takes up less space on the card in this far-away shot than the average close up you see in the base cards above. So the greening of the background got almost the whole card. The Musial card is the second one from the "The Greats" set that I got, but the other was Albert Pujols (though as an Angel). Since I'm 2 for 2 on Cardinals, I thought I'd check the checklist, and so I added 2 more to my want list: Bob Gibson, and John Smoltz just for completeness (yes, he was a Cardinal for a bit).

But the grand drama that has been building is whether or not I could complete the base set. I'm happy to say, I did, though when I first checked, my list showed I was missing Jason Isringhausen, which I knew I pulled in a previous pack. Once that was rectified, I've got all cards 1-331 (minus 7) checked off.

Series 1 Completion: 330/330 (100.0%)

Zistle Trade #6

I made another small Zistle trade, for 4 Cardinals and a Heritage SP. I'm finding that as long as I put cards in my want list, and mark duplicates in my trade list, Zistle makes it fairly easy to put together trades that cherry pick my wants from my trading partner's trade list, and vice versa.

2011 Topps Update - Diamond Duos #DD-12 Matt Holliday/Colby Rasmus
2012 Topps  - Walmart Blue Border #291 David Freese
2013 Topps - Chasing History #CH-74  Stan Musial
2013 Topps - Chasing History #87 Lance Lynn

2011 Topps Heritage
#427 Will Rhymes SP

This card leaves me with about 19 High Number SPs to go for 2011 Heritage, and 76 total cards if I count all the variations available. As I get closer I'll figure out how close I really am to a "complete" 2011 Heritage set.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 7

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 | Part 6 ]

2010 Allen and Ginter #127 Albert Pujols

I don't recall ever seeing horizontal A&G cards, so I was wondering if this was some sort of short print. Evidently I'm just very unfamiliar with the set.

2010 Allen and Ginter
#28 Felipe Lopez
#58 Colby Rasmus
#182 Chris Carpenter
#343 Brad Penny

My scanner seems to have a little trouble with the backgrounds of 2010 Allen and Ginter. The pale blue fading into the amorphous white border causes it to totally lose its bearings. But the important parts are all there.

2010 Topps
#325 Julie Lugo
#452 Allen Craig

How about that, an Allen Craig rookie. And 51-game Cardinal Julio Lugo.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs #CMT-111 Ichiro/Albert Pujols
Legendary Lineage #LL-48 Stan Musial/Matt Holliday

Ichiro, Pujols, Musial, and Holliday on just 2 cards? I'll take that any day of the week. That Ichiro/Pujols reprint took me a while to figure out, though, since it's an original back version. The word "reprint" appears in small print on the back, though, along with a 2010 copyright date, which helped me narrow it down.

2010 Topps Update
#US-125 Adam Wainwright
#US-176 Felipe Lopez
#US-278 Brad Penny
Peak Performance #PP-109 Colby Rasmus

Brad Penny and Felipe Lopez both started 2010 with the Cardinals, yet they showed up in the Update set for some reason. Even more curious, both are in the A&G group above. I suppose the later release date allows Allen and Ginter to have more up-to-date rosters. This is the set that brought me back to collecting, when I bought a pack on a whim while killing time in Target. Consequently, both it and 2010 flagship - because it has the same look - bring me fond (recent) memories.

A Real Lineage Blaster, Extreme Value Style

I thought I was clever and "beating the system" when I built my own blaster last time, but then I found this Extreme Value Blaster at Target for $11.99. For the same price (give or take a few pennies) as 56 cards in 4 of those packs, I got 8 packs of 7, so 56 cards, plus a relic card. Foiled again by the discount store sales cycle!

2011 Lineage
#40 Stan Musial
#141 Ozzie Smith

First up are 2 Cardinals Hall of Famers.

2011 Lineage
#9 Matt Holliday
#178 Albert Pujols
#189 Jaime Garcia

And 3 present-day Cardinals (as of 2011 at least). I got Pujols and Garcia in my last grouping, but Holliday is new.

2011 Lineage - Platinum Diamond
#19 Larry Walker
#157 Wandy Rodriguez

Here are some more not-really-that-blue Platinum parallels.The blue scan makes the purple Rockies uniform clash horribly; the real card is slightly less offensive. He is still wearing a purple jersey, after all. But it's former Cardinal Larry Walker, so I'm happy.

2011 Lineage
Diamond Anniversary #184 Josh Hamilton

Sometimes I look back at gimmicks like these Diamond Anniversary parallels and think they were dumb, but in this case, I kinda really want to get all 200 of these.

2011 Lineage
Topps Rookies #TR6 Jake McGee

This guy's listed at 6'3", 190lbs. There's no way that's right unless this is a terribly awkward angle.

2011 Lineage
Topps 3D #T3D15 Evan Longoria

Another Tampa Bay Ray, this time in threeeeee-deeeeee.

2011 Lineage
Stand Ups #TS14 Joey Votto

Here's a card that will never live out its destiny, since I can't bring myself to break the perforations.

2011 Lineage
Cloth Stickers #TCS11 Jackie Robinson

And another, unless I can find an excellent, permanent place to put this sticker.

2011 Lineage
Checklist 1 of 4

Boom, finished the Checklists subset! Ok, I know, that's not really a subset. But whatever, I've got all 4 now.

2011 Lineage - 1975 Minis
#145 Adrian Gonzalez
#161 Luis Aparicio

Minis! Neither variety of Sox is the team I primarily root for, but these look good enough I just might want to grab all 200 of this parallel too.

2011 Lineage
1975 Mini Relics #75-NR Nolan Ryan

Finally, we have the money card: the mini relic. Nolan Ryan has to be one of the biggest stars in this set, at least in my mind. He's also one of the first guys I knew as a storied veteran since I started really watching baseball in 1992. I'm really happy with this card. The jersey swatch even has a little character in it, as it appears that it might be where a button was, due to the 4 holes.

Who am I kidding, the guy who wrong that last post was foolish; this relic was well worth getting the blaster.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part IV

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 ]

2006 Opening Day #19 Scott Rolen

I'm sure I've noted this before, but I was at Rolen's first home game for the Cardinals, sitting in a friend's rich uncle's close seats. As he ran from his stretches in right field back to the dugout, someone in my section yelled out "Welcome to St. Louis, Scott!" and everyone around me cheered. A little schmaltzy, but it got a smile out of him.

2009 Upper Deck Icons #85 Rick Ankiel

I was at Ankiel's first game as an Outfielder too. I wasn't nearly as close that time, I had tickets we bought through my wife's cheap company. Luckily they were in foul ground on the third base side, so we had a clear view of RF that night. Also, now I have 3 of the 4 Cardinals in this small set.

2008 Goudey #193 Troy Glaus

Glaus was obviously supposed to be pictured as a Blue Jay in 2008 Goudey, because he's surrounded by Blue Jays in the checklist, and the Cardinals are a few cards back.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#197 David Freese
Hallmark Heroes #HH-SM Stan Musial
#237 Bob Gibson

Ah Gypsy Queen, one of my weaknesses, because I'm a bargain shopper, and they're 50 cents a card in retail packs. Yet, I feel the need to collect it. I've actually got 2 of the Musials now, after pulling the same card from a discounted blaster.

2012 Opening Day #60 Adam Wainwright

2012 Opening Day #206 David Freese

We've see these two guys together before too. More Cardinals for my trade list.

2012 Topps #559 Brandon Dickson

I can't get enough of this guy either. I was hoping he'd be our next young fireballer, but he has left for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan.

2012 Gypsy Queen Extreme Value Blaster #2

As 2013 Gypsy Queen is hitting stores, I'd like to take you into the past. Allllll the way to the year 2012. I picked up another discounted 2012 Gypsy Queen blaster from Target for $11.99, after the previous one from November looked pretty good. And, I just can't resist a deal.

2012 Gypsy Queen
Mini Parallel #78 Sergio Santos
Mini Parallel #84 Freddie Freeman
Mini Parallel #123 Geovany Soto
Mini Parallel #134 Juan Nicasio
Mini Green #45 Madison Baumgarner
Mini Gypsy Queen Back #29 Ryan Roberts
Mini Gypsy Queen Back #126 Brett Myers
Mini Straight Cut Back #240 Tim Lincecum

Why do I love parallel sets so much? I've got half a mind to try to complete at least the regular mini set.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#143 Dustin Pedroia SP Variation
#250 Ken Griffey, Jr. SP Variation

I only spotted these variations when I noticed 2 of the packs appeared to have 5 standard cards and 1 mini. All of the other packs had 2 or 3 insert cards, so I dug around for the SP Variation checklist.

2012 Gypsy Queen Hallmark Heroes
#HH-FR Frank Robinson
#HH-NR Nolan Ryan

I start feeling old when I see a guy I remember playing, Nolan Ryan, featured as an old-timer with the likes of Frank Robinson.

2012 Gypsy Queen Future Stars
#FS-DH Derek Holland
#FS-DJ Desmond Jennings

Also making me feel old: These guys are both about 4 years younger than me; both are 26.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Sliding Stars #SS-DG Dee Gordon

2012 Gypsy Queen
#208 Adron Chambers
#249 Stan Musial

I already got this Adron Chambers card in the last blaster. He appears to be running from a giant lizard bent on destroying Tokyo. Oh, and there's a Musial, which is good because those are hard to pry away from another Cardinals fan these days.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Glove Stories #GS-BR Ben Revere

Imagine Chariots of Fire playing over this catch in slow motion. It'll be the next big thing: music cards.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Moonshots #MS-FT Frank Thomas

It's even weirder that Frank Thomas is an old-timer now. I've still got a poster of him in my pool room, which I bought as a kid. What can I say, the Cardinals just weren't that good in the early 90s, so I went with the Chicago guy.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Relics #GWR-RK Ralph Kiner

And here's the crown jewel of the box, a Ralph Kiner relic. It was actually in the last pack I opened, which added to the suspense of opening. I don't know much about Ralph Kiner, so I went and read his Wikipedia page. I thought it was interesting that despite playing in only the minimum required 10 seasons, he's in the Hall of Fame. And not only did he barely qualify, he gained entry on his final ballot, and with just 1 vote over what he needed. I bet this guy slams on the gas to zip through yellow lights.

All in all, I was pretty happy with this box, which means I'll keep checking the bottom shelf at Target for discounted year-old blasters.

2012 Gypsy Queen Extreme Value Blaster

I recently picked up a blaster of Gypsy Queen at Target for $11.99. Normally these are $19.99, a little more than I can convince myself to pay for the 48 cards inside. But, for a quarter a card, I went for it. I've decided this set isn't old enough for a pack-by-pack breakdown, so here are the inserts and Cardinals.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#201 Allen Craig
#208 Adron Chambers

 Each pack has 1 mini card, and here's how those broke down.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Parallel
#21 Mat Latos
#158 Rickie Weeks
#177 Nick Markakis
#183 Heath Bell

These are stated at 1:1, but they can be replaced by rarer mini parallels.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Straight Cut Back
#69 Troy Tulowitzki
#115 Kurt Suzuki

I really should have scanned the backs since that's the only difference, but these Straight Cut Backs are inserted 1:6 packs.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Gypsy Queen Back
#261 John Smoltz

Again, I really should have scanned the back. This Gypsy Queen back is also inserted 1:6 packs. And I'm still referring to him as Former Cardinal John Smoltz.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Mini Black Border
#305 Matt Cain

Since the black minis are inserted 1:12 packs, and this has a high number, I figured I had something rare with this one, but apparently the minis 301-350 are not short-printed this year. Still, a cool card of a guy who just won a World Series, and really did a number on my Cardinals in the process.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Future Stars
#FS-JH Jeremy Hellickson
#FS-JU Justin Upton

Future Stars is an interesting name for a set featuring a 2-time All-Star. It's much better than the Bowman gamble on guys that may be no-names in a few years.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Hallmark Heroes
#HH-MM Mickey Mantle
#HH-SM Stan Musial

That's a pretty good pair, Mantle and Musial, especially for a Cardinal fan such as myself.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Sliding Stars
#SS-DG Dee Gordon
#SS-JW Jemile Weeks

Feet first, guys. You'll eat much less dirt that way.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Moonshots
#MS-AP Albert Pujols

Oh, Albert. That Angels uniform still doesn't look right on you.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Glove Stories
#GS-DJ Derek Jeter

This card features the ridiculous play Jeter made against the A's, in which he flipped the ball and it seemed to make a left turn mid-air to get Jeremy Giambi at the plate.

2012 Gypsy Queen - Blue Framed Parallel
#80 Ryan Braun #015/599

Finally, a nice parallel carried over from last year, the framed parallel. Last year was green, and this year's is Blue, and numbered to 599. But mostly I like how cool it looks and feels. I'd like to pick up a few Cardinals from this subset, so if you have any and would like this Braun, drop me an e-mail.