A Loose Definition of Junk

Robble robble.

A couple of months back, the legendarily generous Jaybarkerfan's Junk was getting rid of... wait for it... some junk. In particular, the Hamburglar by day (and collector by night?) was looking for people to claim his extra NBA and NFL cards. There happens to be an NBA team I have followed since I was learning to speak and an NFL team I sometimes forget to casually ignore. I'll take a look at those bounties a little later on, but in the spirit of the season I thought I'd show off a bunch of the Cardinals he tossed in for no good reason at all. I suppose I don't make any secret of my Cardinals fandom.

Those jokesters at Panini did a terrific job of making a lot of players look like they could be almost anyone. I am somewhat tempted to find a bunch of these stickers and plaster them all over my neighborhood, though.

I love these Archives sets (the ones that were thick and cardboardy, not so much the recent issues), but there's something I like even more...

Vintage-y goodness. It's great to see these cards side by side, and there were actually two copies of the original from 1969 Topps in the package. Now is probably a good time to mention that Jaybarkerfan is collecting certified autographed cards of all sports and all sorts. I'm in the process of digging some up for him, and you should be, too.

Here's some more goodness from the late '60s, complete with vintage pen markings. Maybe.

Switching gears for a minute, can I just say how great it is that baseball is finally back? Big City was on the field last night for the Cardinals opener in the construction site / humongous outhouse that is Wrigley Field. Was that the longest winter ever? (Yes, that was the longest winter ever.) Should I stop asking myself questions? (Yes...)

Here's another huge guy who played first base for the Redbirds. Apparently he loved getting up early in the morning, and being home by 7 in time for Matlock.

Trevor Rosenthal is still the closer and looked good last night. Let's hope last season's struggles (i.e. putting loads of baserunners on) are behind him.

Finally, here's the prize of the bunch, a low numbered (12/25) 2013 Bowman Sterling parallel of the Cardinals starting second baseman. Such great stuff!