There's Nothing Wrong With Yankees Fans

I may have dropped hints here on this blog - I'm not sure (I don't like to read my own writing) - but before I was a Cardinals fan my favorite team was actually the Yankees. And it seems like even back in my earliest memories, like when the Yankees faced the Dodgers in the '81 World Series, I have always defended that team. It mostly came from my dad, who, like his father, faithfully wore a Yankees hat and talked a lot about the old days. He had old cards, of course, and his mother threw out all of his old cards, of course. He had Mickey Mantle cards, of course. I was 6 years old and I liked Reggie Jackson, of course. Nevermind the fact that both of my parents would shake their head every time he'd stand back and admire one of his home runs or curse his name when he'd strike out for the kabillionth time.

But they were my dad's team. Eventually, I found a team of my own to root for and the Cardinals took their foothold. To this day, however, I still enjoy rooting for the Yankees when given the opportunity because I feel like I'm rooting for an underdog. Everyone around me always seems to hate them. Anyway, there are great Yankees fans out there like Eric, who has sent countless numbers of bloggers great cards in the mail. I got a second package from him on Friday, and it was the biggest box of cards I've ever received in the mail that didn't come from an eBay transaction. I could easily spend a week's worth of posts talking about what I got, but I have so many stacks of cards on my coffee table right that I need to try and take care of this all in one shot. (By the way, Eric has started a blog, so you should check it out. And don't diss the Yankees while you are there.) And I knew it was going to be a great group when the first card I pulled out of the box was a playing card featuring Ozzie Smith, something I didn't have already.

1989 Upper Deck - Jose Oquendo (This was one of a good stack of 1989 Upper Deck, which kicked pretty much every other late 80's set to the curb. There were several cards in the stack that I didn't immediately recognize, which means there's a good chance I didn't have them already.)

1990 Fleer Soaring Stars - Todd Zeile (I believe these were inserted into rack packs. Maybe it was cello packs. I'm not sure. Beckett's site is down yet again, so I can't use the only thing Beckett is really useful for. This used to fetch two or three bucks back in the day, and thus I never owned one. I was never into buying singles when I could buy a pack or four for the same price.)

1990 Best - Tim Lata (I have no idea who Tim Lata is. But this is good timing, as I received a handful of minor league Cardinals from the same era as the cards I've been offering up as giveaways. According to The Baseball Cube, Lata never made it out of single A.)

1991 Bowman - Aaron Holbert (Holbert is one of the early 90's draft picks that I have tons of "draft pick" cards of but never actually found out if he made it anywhere. This card is goofy, as it's another one of those early 90's cards where they seemed to take a young prospect, dress him up in a major league uniform that he had probably never worn and send him out to a local park to pose.)

1982 Topps - Orlando Sanchez (From the "I've never heard of..." department, here's Orlando Sanchez. But this is cool, because "I've never heard of him" also means "I don't own his cards." But now, I do.)

1988 Fleer World Series - (Tommy) Herr, Out at First? (I got a few of these cards, which I believe were a factory set insert. This is Don Denkinger II, though not as bad. I still don't want to talk about it, though.)

I'll just let the back of the card tell the story.

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights - Kyle Lohse (My first Lohse Cardinals card. I got a few others from the U&H set in this box, so I'm down to only missing 3 base Topps cards for the year. Lohse got a multi-year contract as last season was winding down, which I'm not quite so sure was a great idea. Hopefully he can be nearly as good as he was in 2008.)

2008 Upper Deck Timeline - Albert Pujols

2007 Upper Deck - Albert Pujols (There were a good number of Pujols cards in the box, many of which I didn't own. I think he has something like 24,847 different cards. Good thing I'm not a Pujols "Super Collector", though I seem to want every card of every Cardinal ever, which is bad enough.)

1995 Score Hall of Gold - Ozzie Smith (Here's another Ozzie card that I didn't have. This is great.)

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes - Albert Pujols / Stan Musial (I like this card a lot. I much prefer when older legends like Musial are paired with modern players that actually shared something in common with the, like the team for starters. A lot of times it seems like the way they pair up players on cards like this is totally random.)

2008 Topps Heritage - Yadier Molina (Yadi! Don't get too close to this card, however. It looks a little strange up close. Not only is this from the set for me to collect, but it's a short print, a Cardinal, a Cardinal I didn't have, and Yadier Molina. Our Yadi is an awesome Yadi.)

2005 Fleer Authentix - Jim Edmonds (I only picked this card to show because I've never seen another Edmonds card that looked less like Edmonds. It's kinda goofy, but I'm not sure why.)

2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor - Albert Pujols 425/559 (Here's the grand finale. Wow! I never expected to get a card like this out of the blue. The photo I took doesn't do justice to the shinyness/rainbowriffic factor.)

Thanks again to Eric. I have cards to send out to him soon. Portland is in a deep freeze right now, but hopefully I'll be able to get some packages in the mail once things thaw out a bit.