Home Field Advantage

With a win over the Giants tonight, the Cardinals have now won 12 of their last 13 at home. They're also fortunate enough to be in the middle of a stretch that sees them play 16 of 19 games at Busch. It's nice to see the club finally taking advantage of some home cooking, especially after they struggled earlier this season.

Cards in this post came to my hands from a JABO's group break. If it wasn't for group breaks and trades, the number of cards entering my house lately would be pretty close to zero.

I know a lot of people complained about all the seemingly unnecessary peripheral sets that were around when there were actually more licensed cards companies beyond Topps, and sometimes I agreed. When I see something like this Jim Edmonds 2006 Artifacts card, however, I really miss those other card companies.

I'm going to come out and say that I like these Opening Day blue parallels better than those glittery golden ones from the flagship set.

Where have you gone, John Gall? This serial numbered card makes me think about taking back everything I said above in regards to the Edmonds card.

I wish Topps would do more stuff like this, although with less border perhaps. I feel like they might have worked with an outside graphics designer on this project, as it looks nothing like anything else they've released that I can recall.

I scanned this card twice and it still chopped off what was left of the border. Sure, it's off-center, but it's not that off-center. Yeesh. This wasn't part of the group break, but it's cool to get a needed McGee rookie.

I know people are tired of Ginter. I'm not tired of Ginter. I'm tired of people being tired of Ginter. That's what. So there.

A number of former Cardinals from the teams between the championships (2007 through 2010) have surprisingly turned up on major league clubs this season, with pretty dismal results. P.J. Walters made 7 starts with the Twins this season at a 5.40 ERA clip. He was actually part of the Rasmus trade last season, so he probably earned himself at least a partial share of last year's World Series cheddar.