What Will Waino Do?

The latest #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax includes shiny cards from the long time Cardinals battery and the original Topps Heritage. 

 

It's difficult what path forward remains for Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina, both nearly inseparable for their long careers, as they both enter free agency. With budgets being slashed right and left, retaining the two players may be the only thing the team spends on this offseason. That they've entered free agency in the first place just adds to the uncertainty, though. It's a bit nerve-wracking to this Cardinals fan.

Coincidentally, Waino and Yadi cards were at the forefront of another week's worth of box breaks from Crackin' Wax. Wainwright's black refractor from 2019 Topps Heritage High Number is one of the nicest cards I've seen in awhile, and it's numbered to just 70. This one is exclusive to the Walmart "monster box" configuration. I also pulled a Vlad Jr. black refractor from the same set last year, but it's numbered to 69. I'm not sure of why there's an inconsistency. (I suppose they were honoring 1970 Topps and the year 1969 all at the same time?)

I seem to have terrible luck with getting cards for my team collection out of Panini Chronicles, but the truth is that there just aren't that many cards to be had. This green Certified Yadi parallel does really look nice in hand, though, and was a nicer pull than one of the regular base cards. (Does anyone know what the regular base cards actually look like?)

 

For the trade bait pile goes this Anthony Rendon Spectra card, as the Angels must have been one of my randomly assigned teams. These are very chunky and could probably inflict some considerable damage if I tossed one across the room.

What is this... is this gum?! Decades old gum? That must mean one thing.

Old school Topps Heritage cards! In fact, this break was for the very first Heritage set from 2001. Unfortunately, the break went live too early in the morning for me to have a decent chance at snagging the Cardinals, but given that I collect Heritage cards and have relatively few from 2001, I ended up buying in anyway. I took the Dodgers on the off chance there was a Duke Snider autograph somewhere in the box as he was one of the bigger names on the "hits" checklists from the remaining available teams.

My randomly assigned team was the Royals. Mike Sweeney is a black back variation.

There were no rare Duke Snider cards for me, but I did get one of the original Then and Now inserts.

I also ended up with a checklist. A checklist! Actually, this is really cool. I'm not sure that I have any checklists from this set, and I always try to get the checklists and some packaging material to set aside for each of the Heritage sets.

It was another interesting bunch of breaks. Who knows what awaits me in my mailbox later this week? (Probably spiders.)

"New to Me" Heritage and Turkey Red

NBC used to do some sort of promos for summer reruns that went something like "if it's new to you, it's not a rerun." Something like that, anyway. While their attitude might have been a little suspect (assuming that someone has not seen your show means it probably isn't very good) I think their selling point could easily apply to other things in life. Other things like... oh... I don't know... baseball cards?

You can probably see where I'm going with this. Cardboard Junkie's own dayf, who really needs no introduction, had some extra Topps vintage tribute cards (or is that tribute vintage?) and he found the right place to send them to. I have this rather insane idea of eventually putting together all Topps Heritage sets as well as the Turkey Red sets, and I got some extras from sets that came out before I was really aware and interested. Meanwhile, I have yet to complete a single set since I started this blog a year and a half ago.

I actually managed to pick up a healthy stack of 2006 Topps Heritage on the cheap at a card show this past fall, so I am in better shape with this set than the rest that I'm going to talk about here. There are some really nice looking cards in this set as some of them completely avoid the vintageification process and just concentrate on picture quality. One of the cards I received was a short-printed Pat Burrell card, which is highly appreciated.

Heading back to the start of the Heritage line, here's Izzy on the familiar 1952 design. My scanner decided to further accentuate the pinkness in Izzy's cheeks for some reason.

From a younger, fresh faced Jason Isringhausen to a cagey vet named Eric Davis. Eric the Red eventually became Eric the Redbird. For awhile in the La Russa era, it seemed like a lot of well-known '80s/'90s players made a stop in St. Louis before they headed off into the sunset. Ron Gant, Gary Gaetti, Dennis Eckersley, Will Clark, Larry Walker... all Cardinals near or at the end.

Moving onto 2002/1953, here's Larry Walker himself. With these cards, it looks like they started with player photos and sort of drew over them to make them look less photographic.

This design is far from my favorite design, although I'm not really certain why.

The backs look great, however. Without giving it too much thought, I might even be inclined to say that these are the best looking Topps card backs of all-time.

Did anyone know that Benito Santiago was still around in 2004? I certainly didn't. Santiago looks old enough to be a coach at this point.

I really think card companies should attempt to capture players in vintage uniforms on retro-style sets as often as possible. This Eric Chavez cards looks nice, even if the corresponding uniform may not have been used in the era that this design came from (1956?)

Now, it's onto Turkey Red. There was a nice, juicy stack of the 2005/2006 set (the numbering sequence that began with 2005 continued with the 2006 set and the design is exactly the same, so the lines are fairly blurry when it comes to which set is which) which included a handful of rookie logo rookie cards.

My only complaint with the 2007 set, which I am far closer to completing than anything else mentioned in this post, is that it was missing the colored parallels that were present in the first two retro sets. If there's ever a return to a full proper Turkey Red set (and I'm not saying there should be necessarily) then I hope that they bring back the red, black, white, etc. colored parallels.

Dayf was also kind enough to include a smattering of Cardinal goodies. I needed this Edmonds card for the player/team collection. In fact, I don't think I have any other 2004 Donruss Team Heroes cards now besides this one.

This is a Matt Morris Cracker Jack mini, which in true Cards on Cards fashion actually has a slightly larger than standard photo.

I would love to see a return of a Topps Archives or Fan Favorites type set in 2010. I think there's some sort of restriction on an all-retired player set now, though. I'm not sure if this carried over into Topps's new contract or not, but I would much rather buy something like this if it was released again than I would that Natinal Chiclets set.

Bazooka! Gadzooks! This card is more Cracker Jack than Bazooka, because it was definitely the surprise inside. I really like the newer Bazooka stuff and I do not have nearly enough bat cards to my liking, so this is great.

Thanks again to dayf. I hope to put another package to send again soon. But what do you get for the Junkie that has it all?

2001 Topps Heritage

Want List:

1 Kris Benson (Black Back)

1 Kris Benson (Red Back)

2 Brian Jordan (Black Back)

2 Brian Jordan (Red Back)

3 Fernando Vina (Black Back)

3 Fernando Vina (Red Back)

4 Mike Sweeney (Red Back)

5 Rafael Palmeiro (Red Back)

6 Paul O'Neill (Black Back)

6 Paul O'Neill (Red Back)

9 Kevin Millwood (Red Back)

10 Chuck Knoblauch (Red Back)

11 Derek Jeter (Red Back)

12 Alex Rodriguez (Black Back)

13 Geoff Jenkins (Red Back)

14 David Justice (Red Back)

15 David Cone (Red Back)

16 Andres Galarraga (Black Back)

16 Andres Galarraga (Red Back)

17 Garret Anderson (Black Back)

19 Randy Velarde (Black Back)

19 Randy Velarde (Red Back)

20 Carlos Delgado (Red Back)

21 Quilvio Veras (Black Back)

23 Corey Patterson (Black Back)

23 Corey Patterson (Red Back)

24 Jorge Posada (Black Back)

24 Jorge Posada (Red Back)

25 Eddie Perez (Black Back)

25 Eddie Perez (Red Back)

26 Jack Cust (Red Back)

27 Sean Burroughs (Red Back)

28 Randy Wolf (Red Back)

29 Mike Lamb (Red Back)

31 Barry Bonds (Black Back)

31 Barry Bonds (Red Back)

32 Tim Hudson (Black Back)

32 Tim Hudson (Red Back)

33 Tom Glavine (Black Back)

33 Tom Glavine (Red Back)

34 Javy Lopez (Black Back)

34 Javy Lopez (Red Back)

35 Aubrey Huff (Black Back)

35 Aubrey Huff (Red Back)

36 Wally Joyner (Black Back)

36 Wally Joyner (Red Back)

37 Magglio Ordonez (Black Back)

37 Magglio Ordonez (Red Back)

38 Matt Lawton (Red Back)

39 Mariano Rivera (Black Back)

40 Andy Ashby (Red Back)

41 Mark Buehrle (Black Back)

42 Esteban Loaiza (Black Back)

42 Esteban Loaiza (Red Back)

43 Mark Redman (Red Back)

44 Mark Quinn (Black Back)

44 Mark Quinn (Red Back)

45 Tino Martinez (Black Back)

45 Tino Martinez (Red Back)

46 Joe Mays (Black Back)

46 Joe Mays (Red Back)

47 Walt Weiss (Black Back)

47 Walt Weiss (Red Back)

48 Roger Clemens (Black Back)

48 Roger Clemens (Red Back)

50 Richard Hidalgo (Black Back)

50 Richard Hidalgo (Red Back)

51 Orlando Hernandez (Black Back)

51 Orlando Hernandez (Red Back)

52 Chipper Jones (Black Back)

53 Ben Grieve (Black Back)

54 Jimmy Haynes (Red Back)

55 Ken Caminiti (Black Back)

55 Ken Caminiti (Red Back)

56 Tim Salmon (Red Back)

58 Darin Erstad (Black Back)

58 Darin Erstad (Red Back)

59 Marquis Grissom (Black Back)

60 Raul Mondesi (Red Back)

61 Bengie Molina (Red Back)

62 Miguel Tejada (Black Back)

62 Miguel Tejada (Red Back)

63 Jose Cruz Jr. (Black Back)

64 Billy Koch (Black Back)

65 Troy Glaus (Black Back)

65 Troy Glaus (Red Back)

66 Cliff Floyd (Red Back)

67 Tony Batista (Black Back)

67 Tony Batista (Red Back)

69 Billy Wagner (Black Back)

69 Billy Wagner (Red Back)

70 Eric Chavez (Red Back)

72 Andruw Jones (Black Back)

73 Shane Reynolds (Black Back)

74 Barry Zito (Black Back)

74 Barry Zito (Red Back)

75 Roy Halladay (Red Back)

76 David Wells (Black Back)

77 Jason Giambi (Black Back)

78 Scott Elarton (Black Back)

79 Moises Alou (Black Back)

80 Adam Piatt (Black Back)

80 Adam Piatt (Red Back)

84 Tony Armas Jr.

89 Carmen Cali

97 J.T. Snow

100 Matt Wheatland

104 J.D. Drew

110 James Baldwin

114 Alfonso Soriano

116 Terrence Long

165 Hideo Nomo

172 Dominic Rich

187 Corey Koskie

198 Dan Moylan

200 Ken Griffey Jr.

209 Kip Wells

221 Josh Kalinowski

225 Josh Axelson

229 Alex Serrano

230 Deivi Cruz

255 Jay Bell

256 Steve Cox

289 John Halama

290 Steve Smyth

300 Vladimir Guerrero

305 Randy Johnson

(SP)

311 Doug Glanville

312 Jay Payton

313 Troy O'Leary

314 Francisco Cordero

315 Rusty Greer

316 Cal Ripken Jr.

317 Ricky Ledee

319 Robin Ventura

320 Todd Zeile

321 Francisco Cordova

322 Henry Rodriguez

323 Pat Meares

324 Glendon Rusch

325 Keith Osik

326 Bob Keppel

327 Bobby Jones

328 Alex Ramirez

329 Robert Person

330 Ruben Mateo

332 Carl Everett

333 Jason Schmidt

334 Scott Rolen

335 Jimmy Anderson

336 Bret Boone

337 Delino DeShields

338 Trevor Hoffman

340 Mike Williams

342 John Wetteland

343 Scott Erickson

344 Enrique Wilson

345 Tim Wakefield

346 Mike Lowell

347 Todd Pratt

348 Brook Fordyce

349 Benny Agbayani

350 Gabe Kapler

351 Sean Casey

352 Darren Oliver

353 Todd Ritchie

354 Kenny Rogers

355 Jason Kendall

357 Ramon Martinez

358 Edgardo Alfonzo

359 Phil Nevin

360 Albert Belle

361 Ruben Rivera

362 Pedro Martinez

364 Pat Burrell

365 Mike Mussina

366 Brady Anderson

368 Sidney Ponson

369 Adam Eaton

370 Eric Owens

372 Matt Clement

373 Derek Bell

374 Trot Nixon

375 Travis Lee

376 Mike Benjamin

377 Jeff Zimmerman

378 Mike Lieberthal

379 Rick Reed

380 Nomar Garciaparra

381 Omar Daal

382 Ryan Klesko

383 Rey Ordonez

384 Kevin Young

385 Rick Helling

386 Brian Giles

387 Tony Gwynn

388 Edrague

391 John Valentin

392 Melvin Mora

393 Royce Clayton

394 Jeff Fassero

395 Manny Alexander

396 John Franco

397 Luis Alicea

399 Kevin Jordan

400 Jose Offerman

401 Jeff Conine

402 Seth Etherton

403 Mike Bordick

405 Mike Piazza

406 Armando Benitez

407 Warren Morris

(Classic Renditions)

CR2 Nomar Garciaparra

CR7 Frank Thomas

CR10 Ken Griffey Jr.

(New Age Performers)

NAP2 Sammy Sosa

NAP3 Alex Rodriguez

NAP4 Barry Bonds

NAP5 Ken Griffey Jr.

NAP6 Chipper Jones

NAP7 Randy Johnson

NAP11 Jeff Bagwell

NAP12 Pedro Martinez

NAP14 Vladimir Guerrero

(Then and Now)

TH3 Willie Mays / Ken Griffey Jr.

TH6 Jackie Robinson / Alex Rodriguez

TH7 Johnny Mize / Mark McGwire

TH10 Warren Spahn / Randy Johnson

[updated 9/6/26]