Contest Reminder! And... Nado, Chuck and the Unwanted Dodgers

Catching up with a @nightowlcards summer trade package. 

Before we get into it, there's less than 24 hours left to sign up and make your picks for my annual Bowl Pick 'Em Contest. Picks are locked in at the start of each game.

 

Back in August, I received a small envelope of cards from Night Owl which was chiefly comprised of Dodgers cards. This is, of course, both the blessing and the curse of being a team collector. You end up with a lot of cards of the players that play for your favorite team, and you end up with heaps of dupes. Next thing you know, you find yourself in the midst of listing more than 8000 dupes on your "For Trade" list on TCDB (well, maybe that's just me.) Fortunately, Night Owl found an outlet for a few of his unwanted extras because of this Cardinals collector's bad habit of trying to put together old sets without actually opening packs.

I did find a couple of Redbirds in the package, including this charmingly off-center Chuck Taylor (not the inspiration for the Converse shoes?) and a nice red framed Diamond Kings Nolan Arenado. The Cardinals always look good in red.

The rest of the envelope was dedicated to Bowman Heritage cards from the '00s. The 2004 set is one of the few where I've actually picked up a handful of packs to open, so I actually have a decent amount of it. Someday I might feel brave enough again to buy loose packs on eBay, but now is still not the time for that.

I'm also partial to the 2005 set, which is based on the 1951 design. There's something nice about the simple block letters on the black background. I wonder if it felt modern at the time.

Cesar Izturis shows up again here and gets an action shot. Half of these guys are actually former Cardinals.

The first Bowman Heritage set, from 2001, is one of the most boring. You're stuck with modern black and white head shots which largely fail to look like the original 1948 set. It wasn't until the final two Bowman Heritage sets from the '00s where the level of boring approached this again. I have opened plenty of packs from 2006 and 2007, but there's virtually no chance of me opening a 2001 pack as it's the Pujols and Ichiro year.

I See You on My TV Set

A #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax features an old set I'm very fond of. 

 

I don't normally go for group breaks where completely random teams are involved, but I have a soft spot for the old Bowman Heritage sets. (Not so much the new ones.) The old TV set design from 1955 Bowman is probably my favorite. From the very moment it was designed, it couldn't have been anything but "retro", even when television must have felt like the cutting edge of technology at the time.

I ended up getting assigned with the Mets and A's in a 2004 Bowman Heritage group break at Crackin' Wax. I think the set does a nice job at paying tribute to the original. Let's check out just a few of the cards that I was able to tick off my want list.

The set has two basic designs, depending on the league each team belongs to. The lighter colored borders, like Tom Glavine, are assigned to NL teams while Oakland's Mark Mulder gets this darker TV cabinet.

While Glavine and Mulder were among the relatively few familiar names in the bunch, Bowman has always been very rookie/prospect focused since its Topps revival. Here we get a first year card of someone named Brad Sullivan. The black & white parallels in this set feature a thicker card stock and a facsimile signature, something which appears in other Bowman Heritage sets of the era.

While it was nice to take a few more things off my want list, this Eric Chavez bat chunk card is heading to my trade box. While Eric Chavez didn't quite put together a Hall of Fame career, he is a memorable player. There are quite a few good to great players to pull bat and jersey cards from in these boxes from the 2000s, as evidenced by a 2006 Bowman Heritage box I bought a couple of years ago. It's just a shame that they're so expensive now.
 

Unlike the 2006 box, there weren't any significant box toppers in the 2004 product. I did request this scouting report/checklist poster (there wasn't a lot of demand for it) and Christopher was kind enough to send it my way. This includes a blurb about each prospect in the set, and a full checklist is also included on the back. If you zoom in on the upper left corner, you can see what they said about a certain Molina brother. (There's not a lot of "scouting" on these reports.) The whole thing is much larger than my scanner bed, but I'm sure you get the gist.

Getting Spring Cleaning In Order

A trade post on a late Mon... wait, Tulo got traded?!

Angels fan Tom from "The Angels, In Order" is among the latest to send over some stuff in exchange for his participation in my Spring Cleaning event. We actually completed this swap a couple of months ago, but such is life when you're in perpetual catch-up mode.

This is a Pinnacle Inside card, which means this card was in a can. The card was in a can, man! That's wild.

As a youth, I remember the Boardwalk and Baseball set that Topps put out being something of a luxury item for whatever reason. I'm fairly sure that these go for pocket change in today's market, like most oddball '80s stuff. Maybe I had the name confused with the prized Monopoly property?

Tom hit up some of my Bowman Heritage wants, which is always appreciated. I'm still working on a solution for getting my want lists linked up in the mobile view of this blog. If only I knew someone who worked with computers all day and was smart about these things. (Time to punch myself in the face now...)

I have no idea who Richie Robnett is, but he apparently topped out at the AAA level in the 2009 season. I just appreciate a baseball card framed in a TV set design.

Oh yeah, and Tulo got traded. Wow.

Tourney Update and Other Nonsense

As we head into the Final Four in the big college basketball tournament, I thought I'd take another look at the contest leader board. While Speigel's "Bracket of Nomo" has the most total points, it is The Lost Collector who in the driver's seat for most total possible points right now. It will most certainly come down to the wire, as there are 7 others with a solid chance of walking away with the top prize, most of whom picked Louisville. I could run the scenarios for everyone, but that would take more effort than I'm willing to put forth for college basketball, especially with my team having been eliminated in the round of 16. Unfortunately, I can with all certainty announce that reader Danny, the defending champion of the Bowl Pick 'Em contest, has clinched last place. How the mighty have fallen!

Tonight's post features cards sent to me by blog favorite GCRL. Garvey Cey Russell Lopes is, as the name would suggest, a Dodgers-centric blog, but it's well-written enough that it doesn't even matter that there's a team I don't care about at its core. (How's that for mixed praise?) GCRL sent over some Cardinals that I needed and filled a few often overlooked set needs from nearly a decade ago.

This is normally the part of the post where I complain about my scanner cutting off images for no good reason, but this Bob Forsch card is actually just centered very poorly. Fortunately, it's a far more interesting than it looks O-Pee-Chee card, with the highly lovable jagged borders. Are OPC cards actually the hipsters of the baseball card world, always just a little askew and trying to be different? Also, were the Canadian presses not afforded a proper paper cutter? So many OPC cards seem to have been cut with kindergarten style safety scissors, especially ones from the 1978 set.

I tried to read an article on Grantland about the band Perry today (no, wait, that's The Band Perry... seriously, that's their name.) I just couldn't get over the name, though. I can read almost anything written about anything resembling modern music, even if it's about something mindbendingly awful like Buckcherry, but this article didn't hold my interest. And I just can't get over that band name. Anyway, the Player Perry fits into my Cardinals collection as I was never able to afford the 1991 Fleer Ultra update set back in the day.

Turning the page to the set needs, here's one of those funky Bowman Heritage TV cards that I like. Scott Elbert is still in the Dodgers system, apparently, which is more than you can say about most of the First Year cards in this set.

Wonderful, it's another Perry! Well, this is actually a short print from the 2003 Topps Heritage set. Jason Perry played all of 4 games in the majors with the Atlanta Braves, but that was 5 years ago and he's out of the game now.

Finally, here's a peak at a base card from the plain old 2003 Topps set. I've cooled a little bit on this set as other flashier things have tugged at my interests lately. It seems to be a condition sensitive set during an era that has no real excuse for such things. It doesn't really make me feel great about a Topps base set released today would hold up under the varying temperatures of storage conditions for a decade. Basically, I just want Topps to stop making the same thin (cheap) card set with UV coating year after year. Picking up a card manufactured in the last 20 years will just never feel the same as one from the '70s, no matter how many years removed we are.

5 on the 5: 2004 Bowman Heritage

I've been sort of "stealth collecting" Bowman Heritage cards from various years for awhile while being very hesitant to add another set or three to my want lists. I've already put a good dent into the annoyingly complicated 2007 Bowman Heritage set, but I haven't really accumulated enough cards from any of the other releases. One of my favorites of those less attainable sets is the 2004 set, which is an homage to the classic TV set designs that Bowman used. I really like these cards, even though they're a little quirky. I picked up 5 packs recently for $2 a piece.

Pack 1:

126 - Melvin Mora - There he is, in glorious extra-color.
140 - Brian Giles
136 - Paul Lo Duca

210 - Ray Liotta - Yes, this guy's name is actually Ray Liotta. This is also a short print, apparently. There were at least a couple of different kinds of short prints in this set. The actor Ray Liotta is famous for, among other things, portraying the infamous White Sox player Shoeless Joe Jackson. This guy got to pose in a White Sox cap on a baseball card once. He was actually a 2nd round draft pick in 2004 and reached the AAA level at one point before calling it a career.

98 - Andy Pettitte B&W - Bowman Heritage always has a one-per-pack parallel card, and for this ode to TVs past they made the thick parallels to be black & white televisions. Fun.
14 - Brad Radke - Before the Cardinals acquired him, I always got Kyle Lohse mixed up with Brad Radke.
275 - Tom Mastny

63 - Javier Vazquez - Some TVs are dark and other are a lighter wood panel.

Pack 2:
339 - Logan Kensing

221 - Chris Lambert - Lambert was traded by the Cardinals to the Tigers for Mike Maroth in 2007 in a desperation move. Maroth may have been the single worst player in Cardinals history. I guess it was Detroit's revenge for the previous World Series. Lambert wasn't able to hang around the game long, as he fell off the map after 2009.

332 - Lastings Milledge - Former super prospect.
237 - Zack Jackson
127 - Miguel Tejada B&W

247 - Jerry Crawford - In another strange twist, there are umpires in this set. Umpires! Just imagine what people might do with NFL referee cards if they produced them this season.
85 - A.J. Burnett

153 - Jamie Moyer - The erstwhile Jamie Moyer.

Pack 3:
105 - Zack Day
281 - Mike Reilly - Another ump.

48 - Pedro Martinez

Wait a second, Victor... Martinez? This is the more rare "error" version of Pedro's card in which his bio was mostly switched with Victor Martinez. There's a similar Victor Martinez "error" card with Pedro's info, apparently. This is supposedly another homage to the original set it emulates.

100 - Roger Clemens - This is a short print and one of the more expensive cards in the set. I couldn't show Roger's stupid face on this blog, though.
289 - Marland Williams B&W - Yeah, I don't know him either.

171 - Robin Roberts - There's also a smattering of retired greats in this set, which is a nice touch.
27 - Jack Wilson
131 - Aramis Ramirez

Pack 4:
126 - Melvin Mora
140 - Brian Giles
136 - Paul Lo Duca
210 - Ray Liotta

113 - Rich Aurilia B&W - So this is essentially the same pack as pack 1 aside from having a different B&W parallel. Needless to say, those dupes are up for grabs.
14 - Brad Radke
275 - Tom Mastny
63 - Javier Vazquez

Pack 5:
258 - Billy Buckner - Not the guy who had a "special" moment at first base.
230 - Taylor Tankersley

226 - Philip Hughes - There are some nice rookies in this set, include Phil Hughes.
254 - K.C. Herren
192 - Alex Gonzalez B&W

143 - Don Newcombe - I must say that I really like the player selection for the retired players, since they aren't the same dozen or so players you always see in the current Topps sets.
202 - Reed Johnson

41 - Bobby Abreu - Bobby Abreu... signing off.

2004 Bowman Heritage

Want List: 

10 Derek Jeter

11 Rafael Furcal

20 Ronnie Belliard

23 Al Kaline

24 Mike Maroth

26 Mark Buehrle

28 Oliver Perez

30 Yadier Molina

33 Paul Konerko

35 Ivan Rodriguez

40 Victor Martinez (Victor Martinez stats)

43 Johnny Estrada

44 Russ Ortiz

45 Kenny Rogers

47 David Ortiz

48 Pedro Martinez (Pedro Martinez stats)

49 Austin Kearns

52 Kerry Wood

62 Matt Morris

67 Don Larsen

68 Gary Sheffield

69 Jorge Posada

70 Bernie Williams

73 John Thomson

74 Jim Edmonds

76 Chris Carpenter

79 Victor Zambrano

81 Lance Berkman

82 Mike Sweeney

83 Ken Harvey

90 Larry Walker

91 Vladimir Guerrero

92 Garret Anderson

98 Andy Pettitte

107 Khalil Greene

114 Edgar Martinez

119 Carlos Delgado

120 Roy Halladay

124 Luis Gonzalez

134 Juan Uribe

138 Kevin Brown

139 Brian Giles / Marcus Giles

148 Cliff Floyd

152 Bret Boone

154 Ichiro Suzuki

165 A.J. Pierzynski

169 Greg Maddux

173 Carlos Lee

181 Frank Thomas

183 Alex Gonzalez (Padres)

184 Matt Lawton

207 Mark Rogers

211 Eric Campbell

212 Thomas Diamond

227 Kyle Waldrop

231 Blake DeWitt

241 Matt Fox

244 Jon Poterson

253 Yusmeiro Petit

263 Ervin Santana

285 Zach Duke

287 Jesse Crain

293 Javier Guzman

301 Chin-Lung Hu

316 Chad Bentz

320 Blake Hawksworth

325 Wanell Macia

328 Shingo Takatsu

329 Joaquin Arias

330 Juan Cedeno

335 Jon Knott

(SP)

2 Mike Piazza

9 Alex Rodriguez

21 Eric Gagne

25 Magglio Ordonez

40 Victor Martinez (Pedro Martinez stats)

46 Hank Blalock

50 Ken Griffey, Jr.

55 Rafael Palmeiro

61 Scott Rolen

77 Aubrey Huff

80 Alfonso Soriano

87 Miguel Cabrera

89 Todd Helton

95 Richie Sexson

104 Nick Johnson

109 David Wells

130 Curt Schilling

132 Sammy Sosa

141 Nomar Garciaparra

189 Zack Greinke

204 Jon Zeringue

206 Kurt Suzuki

208 Jason Vargas

213 Gaby Hernandez

216 Wade Davis

220 Josh Johnson

224 Matt Macri

228 Matt Tuiasosopo

240 J.C. Holt

234 Jordan Parraz

243 Daryl Jones

246 Lucas Harrell

268 Carlos Quentin

270 Jeff Salazar

271 Akinori Otsuka

282 Kaz Matsui

291 Jose Capellan

304 Brad Halsey

318 Nyjer Morgan

327 Kazuhito Tadano

334 Tim Stauffer

342 Felix Hernandez

348 Barry Bonds

(B&W - HAVE:) 6, 12, 14, 16, 22, 24, 34, 38, 41, 54, 69, 84, 86, 95, 98, 108, 109, 113, 124, 127, 131, 141, 157, 158, 183, 192, 193, 216, 229, 243, 246, 250, 260, 263, 268, 289, 290, 296, 300, 304, 306, 313, 314, 315, 324, 329, 339, 343, 345, 346, 347, 348


[updated 5/26/26]