Memorabilia from Ryan's Memorabilia

The mail keeps on rolling in! Not that I discourage it, of course. If anyone is interested in working out a trade, please contact me. I have much work to do on my general wantlist, still, as there's probably at least 759,000 more Cardinal cards that I'd like to add to my collection. And that doesn't count the crazy black 2009 Topps cards that have infected everyone with stealth parallel fever.

This package came from M. Ryan of Ryan's Memorabilia Blog. He agreed to send over an Adam Kennedy jersey card, a few more of the pesky Allen & Ginter cards that I need and threw in a few bonus Cardinals cards for good measure. As much as I like the minis in the A&G, I have to say that I like the framed relic and autographed cards even more. I might have to chase down more of these cards (at least the Cardinals ones) even though I usually try to avoid investing time and money on autos and relics.

James Shields is another guy to watch out for as fantasy baseball draft times start to draw near. I barely had heard of "Big Game James" when my girlfriend smartly grabbed him last season. Somehow I managed to win one of the four leagues I was involved in last season, though, so I guess I'm not completely oblivious. Or perhaps I just get lucky...

I got to see Jack Cust play a bit as a member of the Portland Beavers, the current AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres. He was a really interesting player: twice as likely to walk as strikeout, and if he put his bat to the ball it was almost always crushed. Yet he struck out so much that his plate discipline was constantly questioned, even with the ridiculous amount of walks that he took. Couple that with his limited defensive skill set and he seemed to be destined to be another Bernardo Brito and never get a true shot at the majors. But then, of course, Mr. Moneyball came calling and Cust has been a major leaguer ever since.

Here's one of the extra Cardinals cards that were thrown in. Fleer's Rookie Sensations were about the best thing ever as far as early '90s inserts went. It seemed like these were much more sought after in basketball products (Glen Rice! Tim Hardaway!), but I do remember this card being expensive enough to be out of my price range at the time. I know I spent a fair amount of cash and trades on funky Lankford cards like this back in high school, but this is the first time I've owned this card.

Make sure you check out Ryan's Memorabilia Blog... when you're done drooling over the new black Topps cards, of course.