Down the Stretch They Come

The baseball races have gotten interesting all of a sudden.

The Cardinals are finally starting to get a little bit healthier as the last few weeks of the season are upon us. (For some reason, the regular seasons stretches several days into October, meaning that the bulk of the World Series will be held in miserable November weather and subject to numerous weather delays. Great job, guys!) Matt Adams finally made a start after a couple of pinch hit appearances, Matt Holliday is technically active and Adam Wainwright is threatening to dance his way onto a roster even if it probably isn't medically reasonable to return from a torn Achilles in 5 months instead of the usual year or more.

For the second night in a row, I'm featuring some cards received in the mail from a nice guy named Jeff. This Jeff is a Braves fan, and he runs the quality blog called Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum. Sadly, none of the cards I received smelled like bubblegum or had any gum-like residue on them, but you only have to back about 5 or 6 years to find Topps Heritage packs with the sugary menace in them.

Much like the underrated 1997 Upper Deck baseball set, UD's 1996-97 NBA offering puts a date and a caption to every base card. I cannot understate how seriously cool this is to me. I wish every card photo taken outside of a studio had a date and a caption behind it somewhere.

Jimmy Reed. Jimmy... Reed. Jimmy Reed? Nope, nothing is coming to mind. He was apparently a 6th round pick out of Maryland a couple of years ago and finished his season at AAA Memphis this year, so it's possible we could see him on the big stage soon if things fall into place.

This is just a nice looking mini card of one of my favorite players. Matt Carpenter has had a strange season statistically, with career highs in HRs and Ks.

Super thick possibly hobby-only insert card from 2013 of the Wizard! Nice!

When Matt Adams first went down and looked to be lost for the season, it looked like Xavier Scruggs would get a huge boost in playing time. I'm not sure what went wrong, but he was quickly jettisoned in favor of veterans (and eventually Stephen Piscotty in a roundabout way) and didn't even get a September call-up. Next year, maybe? He has a cool name!