Surprise Package from White Sox Cards

Somehow I've been lucky enough to be the recipient of four bubble mailers full of Cardinals baseball cards in the past 5 non-Sundays. The most surprising thing about it all is that none of these cards were solicited by me. I really have to say that all my ramblings here have been more than worth it with all of the fun stuff that my fellow bloggers, er, associates have sent me (as well as some very kind readers.) After this week's mailings and the ones I have coming up, I plan on kicking another 1000-ish sports cards out the door. I am a huge fan of this free exchange of ideas and 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch symbols that we have going on here.

Today's package, which is to say, a package I received last Friday comes from Steve of White Sox Cards and Things Done To Cards. I did some things to a card the other night that I'm not completely proud of, but I have no regrets. I won't even say that I won't do it again. I briefly considered asking Steve for membership consideration until I later realized that I perhaps took the blog title a bit too literally.

The first card that "popped" was a 2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor of Todd Wellemeyer. The Colonel has mixed in a stellar start with a couple of lousy ones, but has at least managed to keep the ball inside the ballpark for now. His performance was a huge surprise last season and he managed to be one of the team's more consistent pitchers over the course of the season. We've come to expect these things from Dave Duncan Projects, however. Incidentally, stuck to the back was a Nick Blackburn Heritage Chrome card that initially made me think that Welley's card was some sort of error card. I'm fairly certain that the Blackburn card wasn't intended for me, so please let me know if you want it back, Steve. Otherwise, I'll probably stash it in case of a future Twins/Cards trade ('87 style.)

Hmm, something is missing here, but I can't quite put my finger on it. This must have been a photo from back when Gibson pitched for the St. Louis Blanks. They were too punk for logos.

This card goes immediately into Erin's stash. One of my incomplete projects is integrating Erin's wantlists into my blog somehow. A preview: she collects Cardinal cards, Yadi Molina, Anthony Reyes, Tim Lincecum, Bazooka cards, Sportflics, cards sponsored by various food products, and guys who think gravity is for chumps. (Just to name a few...)

I'm totally using this card to get in the door next time I'm in line at the club.

I really like the Topps gold border parallel cards. I don't really sense a lot of enthusiasm for them from others, but I hope they don't go away anytime soon. I still don't understand what the huge empty black space on the 2005 Topps playoff highlight cards is all about, though.

Goooooooch! Erin recently discovered through the aid of an unverified trivia quiz that So Taguchi was the lightest member of the 2007 Cardinals baseball team. You might want to jot that down.

I saved the best for last. Red framed Masterpieces cards of Cardinal players are pretty much the best thing you can get out of modern sports cards. Other colors probably wouldn't evoke the same kind of reaction. I never want to hear the words "carpenter" and "injured" again in the same sentence for the rest of my life, though.