The Contest Winner Gets His Post

I held a little impromptu contest the other night to see if anyone was paying attention, and the winner in a manner of minutes was Smed's Baseball Card Blog. Yes, this is the same guy who has almost single-handedly kept the Airbrushed Fridays posts alive. Meanwhile, boxes keep showing up at my dwelling with his return address on them. No matter how many times I tell the mailman to keep those blasted kiddie bubble gum cards away from my yard, they keep finding their way indoors. I'll delve into another one of those here. By the way... Garrett Stephenson? Who knew he was so memorably crappy?

Here's a very moody, if not downright sullen Colby Rasmus on his short printed 2009 Topps Heritage High Series card. I actually managed to get ahold of the Chrome version of this card before the regular one, and now I need one more to actually put toward the set. I really hope Rasmus works out for this team. He has shown a ton of talent along with plenty of head-scratching moments. I still think he's on the right path.

While not exactly The Big Pull that I somehow managed yesterday, a couple of serial-numbered Pujols cards here aren't too shabby.

I have to say that I'm used to Topps Cardinals parallels that are more of the middle infielder variety than the big star.

This is another much needed addition to the Ozzie Smith collection. I've been slowing down on adding Ozzie cards of late, which is not helped by the fact that I still haven't managed to put a proper list together and post it on the internet somewhere.

I'm collecting the 2008 50th Anniversary All-Rookie team insert set, but not the Chrome versions. However, I do collect Matt Holliday, another player whose cards I need to actually log somewhere. I don't have many of his, though, so it shouldn't take nearly as much time.

In addition to Cardinals and player collection needs, there was a healthy stack of stuff from the sets I torture myself with. In the interest of brevity, I chose just two cards to represent that particular stack, and here's one of them. CC's got a really tiny head on him here.

Cole Hamels, in 2010 Topps Heritage Short Print All-Star form, looks like he's about 15. At least it isn't as annoying as that commercial he was in where his "dad" walks to the pitcher's mound.

And finally, what great trade package would be complete without the proverbial hit? There were several actually, but I've chosen to highlight an expected and a very unexpected one here. I was given a heads-up about this Joe Mather autograph. Give Topps a lot of credit with at least doing something right and putting out an on-card autograph with Stadium Club. They did a lot wrong with 2008 Stadium Club, however, as many collectors have realized.

And finally... wow! Here's a piece of history. Not everyone is into the stadium relic concept, most likely because they don't seem to feature a player or specific event, but I think this is a pretty cool snapshot of history nonetheless. That being said, someone could probably pry it off my hands given the right set of circumstances. (By the way, how do you return the favor to someone who seems to have all but completely rejected the notion of all things non-base card? Maybe I need to figure out how to print my own cards.)