Night Owl Cards on Cards

Being a "Team Collector" (primarily, anyway) means that you'll never ever be satisfied. That's probably a healthy thing in this sort of hobby, however, because this will never get boring. No matter how many blind trades I pull off and no matter how many packages I receive of random Cardinals from great blogging types like Night Owl, I can guarantee you that there will be a healthy stack of cards to add to my collection even though my want lists remain woefully inadequate and incomplete.

Here's a chrome Rick Ankiel Heritage card to add to the collection. At first glance I thought I already owned one of these, though I would probably hoard as many of these types of cards as possible considering that they're serial numbered and I can rationalize my need for them because each numbered card is "unique". But it turns out that I own the chrome refractor version of this card... fancy, I know... but not the regular chrome one. Until now, that is. Ankiel has suddenly become a very important cog in the Cardinals lineup, at least when he's playing. Colby Rasmus has been in slump/hurt mode for awhile and Ankiel himself has seemed to finally pry himself out of the same sort of situation. He failed miserably in a crucial late game situation against the Dodgers Thursday night but thrived the next night against the hated Astros. Personally, I would love to see the Rick Ankiel Story continue to have more chapters, hopefully positive ones.

Another thing that is great about receiving random Cardinals cards is the chance of getting something that you would never consider spending money on even for a few seconds. Such is the case of Topps Attax. I won't say anything negative about Topps Attax, though. At least someone is trying, somewhere. It's still unclear what the Cards plan on doing with Glaus right now, because he's apparently unable to make the throw across the diamond to 1st and the Cards obviously don't have any openings at 1st or DH.

Another set that falls into the category mentioned above is this year's Upper Deck style O-Pee-Chee. Kyle Lohse looks like he's trying to figure out where he is and why there is a large camera pointed at him.

Somehow this Yadi Upper Deck Award Winner card was ommitted from my want list, but I needed it just the same. It just so happens that I didn't know that it existed. And now I do. And it's awesome. Thanks! (Also, for any haters out there - I'm looking at you, Captain Canuck - just check this and shut it. Thanks.)

(P.S. I'm fully aware that ESPN sucks, but... they make a great point!)

This has to be one of the worst looking Cardinals cards of all-time. Frankly, I'll be a little disappointed if this isn't nominated for Night Owl's Worst Cards of '09. I can't stop staring at Ankiel's face... it's like a traffic accident, without all the gore and broken glass. Why did someone think this look was appropriate and satisfactory for printing on a baseball card?! Stuff like this does not help me want to buy O-Pee-Chee, which is otherwise priced at a value very much in line with something I would allow for purchase in my budget. Something is just horribly wrong with this set.

I love the Bowman TV set. Rolen got sent back to the NL Central now, so it's just a matter of time before the whole La Russa/Rolen drama is rehashed by baseball announcers. I'll just wait around to see what kind of reception Rolen gets by the Busch Stadium crowd. I'm going to guess that it will be better than Rolen gets in Philly.

4-in-1! This is the insert card I coveted the most from this year's Goudey set. I'm not sure Ludwick fits with the others quite yet, but I do really like him as a player.

Mmm... prospects. Guys I've never heard of. I don't really know if this guy is a future Redbird or some 45th round draft pick, and I have yet to look him up. These cards are still kind of fun because there is some percentage of these guys that do end up moving on to make an impact on the league.

I like getting these cards, though. I think this easily makes me feel better about my recent Bowman pack purchases because it lets me know that someone else out there hasn't had a problem in buying up the occasional Bowman pack or two. I actually kind of like the base card design (the unnecessarily large signature space notwithstanding) so I will probably end up with another pack or two of this stuff before everything's all said and done.

Thanks again to Night Owl Cards. The pile of Dodgers cards to send out is building up here as usual.