You Can Thank the Dodgers

The Cardinals sunk to a new low this season when they were swept by the Dodgers in late August. In the midst of the sweep, I made an uncharacteristically negative post about the team that was actually rather tame compared to how I really felt inside. There was no life in the team. They had given up on the season and it showed. La Russa needed to go. The Rasmus trade was terrible. Furcal had arrived several months too late. A season that kicked off with such promise, featuring an offensive juggernaut that would rival the 2004-2005 years, had basically circled the drain by the time the final out was recorded against Los Angeles at Busch of all places. The team had a heart-to-heart after the game - clearly, something stirring must have been said - and the rest of the story is well-documented now that they are officially under the World Series microscope. It's meant as no slight to the Dodgers, who have two of the league's greatest talents in Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw, but the Cards had no business being swept at home by a team that for the most part spun its wheels all season long. What a strange season.

Now that you've suffered through that paragraph, here are some cards to look at. These all came out of one of those Boxes Formerly Known As Cereal Boxes that Topps put out this year.

With a postseason run that's involved squirrels, pet turtles and a childlike "happy flight" chant, I think Brendan Ryan would have fit in with this bunch wonderfully. It's too bad that he was one of the first casualties of last season's underachieving squad.

I guess I see what Topps is doing with this card. Just do yourself a favor and don't look at the stats comparison on the back, unless you like humor or something.

Topps has gone from inserting cheesy refractors in this product to still cheesy but not shiny exclusive inserts to just straight up colored parallels.

At least you get two?

I'll have you know that I redeemed a 1990 Dennis Eckersley card with this code. Also, no one wants to trade anything I'm interested in for my die-cut Yovani Gallardo, but that's another story.

Goldie Big Papi. You like?

Bedazzled Yankee... a fitting match, I guess.

I will have a Kimball Champions trade post coming up soon. I am officially not collecting them.

Here's a very nauseating Mets parallel.

Part of me was really hoping the Tigers would make it to the World Series this year, just because it worked out so well last time.

I guess it's too easy to thank the Dodgers for the Cardinals success this season, when there are so many other things that happened in the last month that could have easily gone against St. Louis. One of the more obvious things was the Braves collapse, which the formerly unhittable Craig Kimbrel had a heavy role in.

Ahh, I'm going to make some Tigers fan very happy considering all of the Tigers stuff I've pulled lately.

If you're looking for some Topps Update stuff, just drop me a line and let me know. I'm not keeping any of it unless it involves the Birds on the Bat and/or Ozzie Smith.