Playoffs for Night Owls

The Angels and Yankees are locked into an epic playoff battle right now as I write this, in the bottom of the 12th of game 2 of the ALCS. This game is reminding me of some of the battles between the Yanks and the Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series. And it's makes nice timing for this post. I recently received some pretty nice Chone Figgins cards in the mail from Night Owl Cards as payback for a certain Clayton Kershaw autographed Heritage card that I sent over. I have to say that I really like Figgy as a player, though these cards are actually for my girlfriend. It wasn't her Kershaw card that I traded, though, so wait... how does this work again? Figgy broke out of his slump in extra innings to give the Angels a 3-2 lead, which happened to be erased by an Alex Rodriguez solo HR. (Does quitting PEDs suddenly make you a good postseason player?)

Full disclosure: I'm rooting for the Yankees in the playoffs now that my Cardinals are out.

Night Owl sent over a nice looking autograph, as well as this Upper Deck Icons which contains a "piece of baseball memorabilia." Nice.

Also thrown in was a Figgy card with one of the rainbow of parallels from 2008 Baseball Heroes. Actually, I'm not sure that grey is officially part of the rainbow.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Cards on Cards trade without some choice Cardinals cards. I've just chosen a few of the high caliber selection that Night Owl went with. Larry Walker wasn't around for long, so I don't have many St. Louis cards of his. Shiny Chrome cards in trades are always a good thing.

And we head to the 13th inning...

Izzy! I appreciate Jason Isringhausen much more as a pitcher now that's he moved on. Ryan Franklin may well have been one of the best relievers in the league this season, statistically speaking, but he doesn't have a power arm and absolutely can not be trusted in high pressure situations. When right, Izzy was one of the best at shutting teams down with men on base. Of course, those men were often put there by his own doing.

I'll probably miss Upper Deck's boring, pointless sets next season because at least they were licensed sets. Hopefully they don't plan on putting out a No Logos version of something like this next year. (I always feel bad when I rip on cards that other people send me. I still want these boring, pointless cards if I don't own them. So, thank you.)

Smilin' Gibby is not something people got to see all that often.

Carp and Mulder were quite a duo for one season, at least. They'll always have 2005. Mulder's train fell off the tracks in 2006, sadly.

I have a feeling this golden Yadi will not be staying in my collection long.

Here's another Larry Walker card. There was definitely a golden theme to this trade, which is really nice. I love these cards. They're not too difficult to pull from packs and have a sparkly tinge to the borders, which is something that most gold-colored cards lack. Also, I'm a sucker for serial numbered cards, even if it means that there's thousands of cards out there just like this one.

Finally, it's good ol' Stan the Man. Is emerald part of the rainbow?

Thanks again to Night Owl, who is also the winning recipient of another Clayton Kershaw auto thanks to his Dodgers knocking the Cards out last week. I guess I need to start digging.