As promised, here's part 2 of the bounty of treasures sent my way from
IBC. A. Again, you should check out his blog and the contest that was held. Rumor has it that there may be more of this sort of thing in the future.
First up, two Allen & Ginter cards from past sets that I never bought anything from - Chris Carpenter (2007) and Jason Isringhausen (2006). The cards pretty much look exactly the same as this year's version, which is a good thing. It also reminds me that I need other cards from those sets, which is probably not so good. Someday I'll get on those wantlists so I know what to tell you folks that e-mail me about trading. (Blind trades are fun, though... hint hint.)
2004 MLB Showdown Jeff Fassero - Is it a card... or is it a game? It could be a playing card, but there's no number or suit anywhere. Fassero does get +2 for CONTROL, which could be a good thing but could also mean he can barely reach the plate as I have no reference point for this set.
2007 Ultra Adam Wainwright - Ultra seems like the most timeless set of all the sets that still exist from way back when (the early 90's) and hasn't seemed to have changed a bit. But I'm just basing this on the card designs alone. Full bleed photos are great, even when they feature the slightly off-putting combination of the home hat and road uniform, which you'll only see in spring training from St. Louis. Have I ever mentioned here that I strongly dislike the high percentage of spring training photos on baseball cards through the years? The players with little-to-no major league game experience I can understand, but...
2008 Bowman Prospects Kyle Mura - I've never heard of this guy, so it's time to check the
baseball-reference.com. Mura is a 23 year old righty-starter that made it up to AA Springfield this season. I can't find a whole lot about him other than that he was a 42nd round pick in 2006, so it seems like him being up at AA is pretty good progression for him so far. I'll have to keep an eye on him.
2008 Bowman Gold Yadier Molina - Ooh, it's a shiny gold TV set. If you turn it on its side, anyway. But if you do that, Yadi will look strange and sideways.
2002 Fleer Box Score Jim Edmonds - I'm not sure what the concept is behind this set, as there is no box score on it. I received other cards with box scores on them that were not called "Box Score" something-or-other, but this doesn't even have stats on the back and just features a tiny blurb. It's an Edmonds card I didn't have, though, and I'm always happy to get those.
2005 Fleer Patchworks Albert Pujols - This is a pretty nice card for being one of those busy background cards.
1999 Ultra Gold Medallion Edition Willie McGee - Willie! Hell yeah! That's pretty much exactly what I said outloud when I saw this. And it's gold Willie, too. 1999 was Willie's last season in the league. At one point there was a fairly serious campaign going on ("Retire 51") to get McGee's number retired in St. Louis, but now I see that
retire51.com actually points to a similar effort to honor Bernie Williams. The team, for what it's worth, seems to be taking a McGwire-like stance with 51, as no one gets to wear the number but it's not officially retired. They say they will retire numbers if a player makes it to the Hall of Fame, but I don't think Willie is headed there. McGwire is another story, but I won't get into that now.
Ozzie cards I don't have! Here we have 2003 Fleer Fall Classic, a 2002 Topps Archives (1987 Topps design, of course), 2005 SP Legendary Cuts and the stuck-in-shiny-jail look of 1996 Pinnacle Summit. Any Ozzie card I didn't already own scores huge points in my book.
2002 Ultra Darryl Kile - Finally, here's DK, looking on at some game action from the dugout.
As promised, here's part 2 of the bounty of treasures sent my way from IBC. A. Again, you should check out his blog and the contest that was held. Rumor has it that there may be more of this sort of thing in the future.
First up, two Allen & Ginter cards from past sets that I never bought anything from - Chris Carpenter (2007) and Jason Isringhausen (2006). The cards pretty much look exactly the same as this year's version, which is a good thing. It also reminds me that I need other cards from those sets, which is probably not so good. Someday I'll get on those wantlists so I know what to tell you folks that e-mail me about trading. (Blind trades are fun, though... hint hint.)
2004 MLB Showdown Jeff Fassero - Is it a card... or is it a game? It could be a playing card, but there's no number or suit anywhere. Fassero does get +2 for CONTROL, which could be a good thing but could also mean he can barely reach the plate as I have no reference point for this set.
2007 Ultra Adam Wainwright - Ultra seems like the most timeless set of all the sets that still exist from way back when (the early 90's) and hasn't seemed to have changed a bit. But I'm just basing this on the card designs alone. Full bleed photos are great, even when they feature the slightly off-putting combination of the home hat and road uniform, which you'll only see in spring training from St. Louis. Have I ever mentioned here that I strongly dislike the high percentage of spring training photos on baseball cards through the years? The players with little-to-no major league game experience I can understand, but...
2008 Bowman Prospects Kyle Mura - I've never heard of this guy, so it's time to check the baseball-reference.com. Mura is a 23 year old righty-starter that made it up to AA Springfield this season. I can't find a whole lot about him other than that he was a 42nd round pick in 2006, so it seems like him being up at AA is pretty good progression for him so far. I'll have to keep an eye on him.
2008 Bowman Gold Yadier Molina - Ooh, it's a shiny gold TV set. If you turn it on its side, anyway. But if you do that, Yadi will look strange and sideways.
2002 Fleer Box Score Jim Edmonds - I'm not sure what the concept is behind this set, as there is no box score on it. I received other cards with box scores on them that were not called "Box Score" something-or-other, but this doesn't even have stats on the back and just features a tiny blurb. It's an Edmonds card I didn't have, though, and I'm always happy to get those.
2005 Fleer Patchworks Albert Pujols - This is a pretty nice card for being one of those busy background cards.
1999 Ultra Gold Medallion Edition Willie McGee - Willie! Hell yeah! That's pretty much exactly what I said outloud when I saw this. And it's gold Willie, too. 1999 was Willie's last season in the league. At one point there was a fairly serious campaign going on ("Retire 51") to get McGee's number retired in St. Louis, but now I see that retire51.com actually points to a similar effort to honor Bernie Williams. The team, for what it's worth, seems to be taking a McGwire-like stance with 51, as no one gets to wear the number but it's not officially retired. They say they will retire numbers if a player makes it to the Hall of Fame, but I don't think Willie is headed there. McGwire is another story, but I won't get into that now.
Ozzie cards I don't have! Here we have 2003 Fleer Fall Classic, a 2002 Topps Archives (1987 Topps design, of course), 2005 SP Legendary Cuts and the stuck-in-shiny-jail look of 1996 Pinnacle Summit. Any Ozzie card I didn't already own scores huge points in my book.
2002 Ultra Darryl Kile - Finally, here's DK, looking on at some game action from the dugout.
Heh-heh, glad ya liked 'em! :-)
ReplyDelete