Grand Cardinals

I traded with Grand Cards for the first time recently, which was, well... a grand experience. (I have to apologize right now. I'm really short on creativity this morning.) In addition to knocking some recent stuff off my want list, I also got a nice little bunch of older Cardinals. This Albert Pujols Home Run Derby card brings my 2007 Topps base set want list down to one card. I consider Updates & Highlights (aka "Traded Set") cards an extension of the base set, somewhat out of laziness and also because they are just configured that way, I suppose. Pujols is expected to be back in the Home Run Derby this year, whether he likes it or not, as St. Louis is hosting the All-Star Game. From what I hear, the guy puts on a show during batting practice every gameday anyway, so I don't see it being an issue.

I got a few of the Target-exclusive throwback Topps cards from 2009 including Jason "Max Effort" Motte. After blowing it in his first couple of save chances this season, Motte has settled in as the 8th inning guy and has fared better than Chris Perez so far even though Perez was the much more highly touted prospect.

AHHH! Bizarro Topps! I got five of the Black Wal-Mart Cardinals cards, which gives me a grand total of 5 Black Wal-Mart Topps cards in my collection. I was never successful in finding boxes of these cards in stores in my area, but at least part of that probably had to do with my aversion to giving that horrible company my hard-earned cash in the first place. (I do sneak into that place on occasion to stake out the card section, but I try to make sure no one recognizes me.)

Here's a rather hopeful looking Chris Duncan. Duncan seems to be back to his old self, physically, except that he's in a rather horrible slump and hasn't shown almost any of the power that he had in his half-seasons in 2006 and 2007. He managed to kick the chewing tobacco habit, however, so I can at least applaud him for that.

Four of the 2009 Turkey Red insert cards were included. Ludwick's card was far and away the best of the bunch, so I chose to scan him here. He's struggled a bit at the plate since coming off the DL recently, but he was showing some encouraging signs last night of snapping out of it.

There was a nice pile of cards from 1986, the first year I started collecting cards. I remember being particularly intrigued by Mike Jorgensen, because not only did his cards always seem to elude me, but I never once saw him playing in a game on TV. Of course, I could count on my hands the number of Cardinals games I got to see on TV in any given season back then because I've never lived anywhere near St. Louis and it was before ESPN's contract with MLB.

I love a good oddball card. Actually, I'll let you in on a little secret. I have several rather tall stacks of oddball cards in the room that houses the bulk of my collection. I leaf through these piles liberally when it comes to making team-for-team trades with bloggers and readers, partially because it's fun just to flip through all of the crazy cards and partially because I hope that fans of Team X will get some sense of joy out of obtaining baseball cards sponsored by Chuck's Slightly Used Auto Parts because they've never seen them before. At least, I hope that's what's happening there.

Thanks again to Grand Cards! I won't give him a pass on Kenny Rogers, though...