Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 5

Sometimes when I win a contest, I set the prize aside until I have time to fully rummage through all of it. In this case I won a contest back in late September, and I think the "Small Flat Rate Box" arrived by early October. I opened it immediately, but it's been sitting on my desk, too daunting of task to sort, since then. I finally felt the need to dive into it, and give jaybarkerfan his proper thank you post.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4

1999 Pacific
#100 Wil Cordero
#102 Jaime Navarro
#337 Lou Collier
#141 Dante Bichette
#159 Frank Catalanotto
#165 Seth Greisinger

1999 Pacific
#309 Ryan Christenson
#343 Abraham Nunez
#365 Ken Caminiti
#377 Rich Aurilia
#438 Jose Cruz Jr.
#446 Pat Hentgen

Back in the mid-to-late 90s, I used to buy a different pack of cards each week, which is about all I could afford. Typically it'd be whatever new release Sportscards Magazine convinced me I should get. If multiple new sets came out in a week, sometimes I'd buy two, and sometimes I'd just have to wait and get caught up. That buying started tailing off in 1999, which I can tell because while I have a few cards from many different sets in 1999, I don't have any Pacific. I'm sure these weren't a high-priced set, which is the only other reason I would have skipped them. But now, I've got a pack or more, with the 12 above and one in the next scan.

1999 Pacific #450 Woody Williams
1997 Fleer - Million Dollar Moments #31 Bob Gibson
1996 Pinnacle #305.3 Paul Molitor
1995 Topps - Cyberstats #140 Darrin Fletcher
1994 Collector's Choice #649 Terrell Wade
1993 Fleer - All-Stars #AL4 Pat Listach

I figured I'd throw the remaining horizontal cards into this scan with the Woody Williams. I've got so many of the Million Dollar Moments cards that it's frustrating that I'll never be able to complete the set. At best I can hope for the 45 commons out of the 50 that were needed to collect the grand prize. With regard to that Paul Molitor card, I like the decimal number. Maybe Topps could implement this for their silly SP variations. The reason here is that he hit .3053 for the season, and Jeff Bagwell hit .3056. Other players who hit from .300 to .308 were featured on cards 300-308, but I guess Pinnacle couldn't decide on which .305 guy to leave out.

1995 Bazooka #87 Chili Davis
1995 Stadium Club #166 Brent Gates
1996 Upper Deck #232 Alex Ochoa

Finally we have a few more random singles out of the box. I want to love the Bazooka set, but the design is almost too simplistic. Sometimes less is less. Also, this is my second Alex Ochoa card from this prize pack.

We're finally starting to empty the box...

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 15

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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2006 Fleer
#86 Tyler Johnson
#91 Mark Mulder

I didn't own a single card from 2006 Fleer before these two. Now, my want list has had a net gain because I've added all Cardinals from the set.

2006 Fleer Ultra #40 Mark Mulder

I also didn't own any 2006 Fleer Ultra, but that one only added 5 Cardinals to my want list. Now, look at this card, then look at Mulder's Fleer card above. They look suspiciously similar, don't they? I'm pretty sure these were taken from the same game. How can I be so sure? I can't be 100% positive, but here is my evidence:

• Those are the Cardinals Home Sunday caps. They don't mess around and wear them on special days; they're for Home Sundays.
• Mulder had no relief appearances in 2005, narrowing my search to his starts.
• He only started 1 Sunday game at Busch Stadium in 2005, on July 3.

Mulder was actually healthy in 2005, with 32 starts. It looks like he got a few extended breaks between starts down the stretch, but that may have just been because the Cardinals had a sizable lead and won 100 games. But I suppose 32 chances is many fewer than 150-162 a photographer would have to get a shot of a position player, making something like this slightly more palatable.

2006 Upper Deck #808 Gary Bennett

Gary Bennett was a solid, dependable backup to Molina for 2 years, but he wasn't near the character Jason LaRue was.

2005 Opening Day
#32 Chris Carpenter
#65 Woody Williams (x2)
#154 Scott Rolen
#156 Edgar Renteria
#157 Larry Walker

2005 Opening Day #17 Jim Edmonds

The Cardinals seem to pick up a lot of aging stars for their final years, but they seem to work out to be productive years. When Larry Walker came to St. Louis, I enjoyed getting to see a player I had known to be a superstar for a long time, and he did quite well in his final year and a half with us. 2005 Opening Day is another new set for me, despite my fondness for the current Opening Day sets.