The Ryan Ludwick

I was feeling a bit under the weather today, but I wanted to get a stack of cards off my coffee table and on its way into my somewhat organized collection. I picked up 5 packs of 2004 Topps Heritage off of eBay awhile back and saved them for something to write about when the time was right. Well, the time wasn't really right tonight, and there wasn't a lot to discuss anyway. I took a picture of the only card I really cared about, which is Ryan Ludwick. It's my first Ludwick card. I still don't have anything of his in a Cardinal uniform, and since this isn't a Cardinals card it likely won't stay in my collection anyway. But it's my first Ludwick card.

Ludwick might get dealt this offseason. I can't really fault the Cardinals management if they choose to go that route. It's clear that with the eventual promotion of top prospect Colby Rasmus that someone is going to be squeezed out of some playing time. Ludwick finally played his first full season in the majors this past season, at the age of 30, and responded with a remarkable season that earned him a trip to the All-Star game. He can definitely smack the baseball around, but he's still carrying with him a high probability of what I'd like to call "fluke factor". He doesn't have the best pitch selection skills and there are probably other things wrong with his game that people could point out. Still, he had a great year and I would not complain about him continuing his career as a Cardinal. At the same time, however, if it could improve the team considerably, he wouldn't be a bad candidate to trade. I guess that's all I'm saying. There are, of course, many many scenarios involving that could transpire, trade-wise, that would not please me.

In the five packs, I managed to grab a couple of no-name SPs, an Alex Rodriguez SP variation that has some imperfect corners, and an Ichiro New Age Performers insert. I always get Ichiro cards. Maybe someday I'll find an Ichiro player collector who has a ridiculous amount of unwanted Pujols cards or something. I also found exactly zero Cardinals cards, which is very unfortunate for me. I do like the Heritage cards, though, so I'm not crushed.

The Ducks, by the way, are in another bye week this week, so there probably won't be a post about them. I think my Ducks posts are officially the least commented on blog posts in the history of the internet, but that's okay. I'm off to a card show, hopefully, later today. I hope to pick up some much needed Cardinals cards and maybe a few goodies for other bloggers out there.

What is This?

What is this? I know, it's in disguise. Okay, maybe semi-disguise. This is really an homage to Dinged Corners, one of the most worthwhile baseball card-related reads out there. I'm sure you know all that already. Is this anything? I don't have the patience to hold out on you much longer, so let's see what this really is...

Well, let's see here. This is 3 MLB packs and a "memorabilia card". The disclaimer on the back let's you know that you may not receive the cards pictured on the front. And here I was about ready to take this right back to the squeaky-voiced teenage checker at Fred Meyer's and demand my $9.99 back and an apology because I didn't get some sort of autographed Dice-K jersey card and Jeter blah blah blah pinestripe thing. I'm not sure what compelled me to buy this as I'm not usually much of a baseball card risk-taker. But with low expectations, you never know what might happen.

Here are the promised 3 MLB Packs. The '07 Upper Deck was nothing to write home about, and the '07 Topps Updates & Highlights with Creepy Clemens peeking out at us had one of those ubiquitous Mickey Mantle insert thingies. The '06 Upper Deck Update came complete with several rookies, including Stephen Drew and a short-printed Pat Neshek. I think I've only bought one or two other packs of this stuff ever and this is my second Neshek card. Beckett believes the card is worth up to $8.00, which seems rather high for a non-closer reliever, but the guy is a big card collector, so maybe that's why.

There's also the promised "memorabilia card" in a plain white envelope. I'm mostly expecting Coco Crisp here, or perhaps a relief pitcher from the 90's that I've never heard of. The envelope, please...


It's... it's... David Wright and his pants! You could do a lot worse than a David Wright relic card. I don't think I've owned a piece of anyone's pants before (other than my own), and there's also a Met-tastic stripe on it. Of course, I don't particularly care for the Mets or Gold Glove Thief David Wright (well, of course, it's not his fault that people voted for him) but it's certainly something tradeable nonetheless. So, is anyone interested in Mr. Wright here? Or have I trashed him and the Mets enough already that you've sworn yourself off my blatherings forever?

1989 Score Larry McWilliams

I don't really do a Card o' the Day here, or Card 'o the Week, or anything like that. I have a hard time sticking to schedules while I'm doing something like this. So this is just going to be a Card o' the Whenever I Feel Like It. At least, that's what I am calling it until I come up with a catchy name. Got any ideas? I was thinking about The Cards on Cards Card of the Now or possibly Today's Crappy Score Cop-out Post.

Anyway, here's Larry McWilliams. This card has haunted me since I first saw it in its year of issue. It seems like photos have always grabbed my attention more than design, which might explain why cards like this disturbed me more as a young impressionable sort than any pink/chartreuse/neon/purple/silver concoction that companies were coming up with to attract new collectors by end of the 80s and on into the early 90s. Like many short term Cardinals of the 80s, I don't recall ever seeing McWilliams pitch for the Birds on the Bat. ESPN didn't get their baseball contract until 1989 and so prior to that there were really only Cubs, Braves and the occasional network Game of the Week for me to catch. And unless it was the postseason, a three-plus hour long baseball game was rarely ever able to hold my viewing interest. Eventually, I'd have to run outside and throw tennis balls at the wall of my house and dream of my glorious future as a big league pitcher.

Trading with Thoughts and Sox

Adam from Thoughts on Sox recently sent some Allen & Ginter doubles my way and threw in some extra Cardinals cards, which are scarce for him being that he lives in the great state of Missouri. I sent a few things he was looking for his way as well as some extra Red Sox (goodness knows I have too many of those) and I thought I'd show a few cards that got my attention. First up is some extra-shiny Ron Gant Upper Deck-affiliated card from who knows what set. The fact that I have no idea what was going on with anything in the gawdy mid-to-late 90s era of trading cards makes blind-ish trades like these all the more fun. Who knows what these people were thinking when they came up with most of these designs. I bet a lot of those people are in completely different fields of work these days.

1998 Skybox Dugout Access - Mark McGwire (Here is Mark McGwire, proud American citizen. This is one of the flimsiest cards I've ever touched. There is some tiny photo of Tom Pagnozzi on the back, talking about how many trillions of HRs McGwire hits into the upper deck. I love getting McGwire Cardinals cards in trades because it means I didn't have to spend any money on him.)

2005 Bazooka - Jim Edmonds (This is the first time I've seen a 2005 Bazooka card, and it's another Edmonds card that I didn't have. I also got a Chris Carpenter card from this set. Nice!)

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights - Cesar Izturis (This was my first card from this year's Updates & Highlights. I've since purchased a bunch of packs, which I have been reluctant to post about so far.)

2006 Topps - ??! (What is this? This guy never played for St. Louis, outside of some spring training nonsense, and has never played in MLB since. This card was shocking, to say the least. This definitely goes into the Little PhotoShop of Horrors file.)

As mentioned above, the starting point of the trade was my 2008 Allen & Ginter Want List. Here are a few of the cards that are filling holes in my set:

James Loney ("Loney Baloney" is what Erin calls him.)

Marie Curie (Well, she died doing what she loved... or because of it, I guess.)

Bruce Jenner (I was fond of Bruce Jenner while growing up because of a video game: Bruce Jenner's Olympic Decathlon for the Apple ][. It eventually led to me doing a book report on him or something.)

Make sure you check out Thoughts on Sox, even though it's all about that team from Boston that ESPN loves.

MVP

The voters got it right, for once. Albert Pujols was named the NL MVP earlier today- much earlier, in fact, but I work late and didn't have time to post something before I went to work. Well, some of them got it right, anyway. Whoever voted Pujols 7th, however, seriously needs to be disqualified for voting for anything again, ever. I'm not just talking about silly old sports-related awards, either. Really, the voting should not have been as close as it was. Even if you are "not a numbers kind of guy/girl" I still don't understand how you can say that someone else was better at baseball than Albert Pujols in 2008.

Then again, I wonder if Albert himself has anything to say about who deserved the award this year. Hmm...

Well, I suppose you can go see for yourself. (Beware, it's an ESPN link.)

(Edit: Okay, it's this guy who voted Pujols 7th. Nice. It looks like plenty of people have already let him know how they feel.)

Token Weekly Blazers Post: Road Trip Edition

The Blazers began a 5-game road trip on Monday, which resulted in a 3-1 week with the finale coming on Tuesday against Golden State. Much has been made of the Blazers tough schedule to begin the season (11 of the first 18 games against playoff teams, many road games), but so far they have weathered the storm and held up quite well. The two wins in Florida early in the week were impressive, but after a tough loss at New Orleans Friday night, Portland was able to battle through a really ugly game against Minnesota and come up victorious in the end.


Mostly, everyone seems to be buzzing about Greg Oden. I think it's a pretty strange mentality to be surprised and encouraged by the play of a number one overall draft pick who is still working his way into the lineup, but I am getting used to him and think that he's looked good in some things that he's doing. Give him a couple of months, or even the rest of this season, and then we should know what we are dealing with here. This week is another 4-game week, with three on the road. It would be nice to have to post another 3 cards here on the blog (1 gets posted for each win, plus a bonus if I feel like it.)

About the cards:

• The Walton card was showing on the back of plastic case of 50 Blazers cards that I bought. Along with the 2008-09 Brandon Roy card, this was the only recent issue in the stack, coming from a 2007-08 50th Anniversary (insert?) set. I don't really buy basketball cards anymore (though if you have some Blazers you want to send my way, feel free!) so I'm not entirely sure what it came from.
  
• Terry Porter is now the Phoenix Suns head coach, a team that has been a circus so far this season. Shaq got ejected tonight for a Flagrant Foul 2 (I could see that being a movie name) and he seemed to get into it a bit with Porter while everyone was trying to get him to leave the court. Fleer was the gold standard in basketball cards in the late 80's, but this Porter card came from a set where they never figured out how to turn off the printers. They are probably still running to this day. I have that entire set, plus an blister packed Blazers team set, plus most likely another team set or two's worth of Blazers cards, so if you were seriously thinking of sending me some Blazers cards in a future trade you might want to cross that set off your list (not that I mind doubles that much.)
• James "Hollywood" Robinson is shown on his 1993-94 Upper Deck rookie card, and I think he did something idiotic in his Blazers tenure, but I don't recall what it was. All I remember is that he liked to jack up 3's like nuts, he had some pretty crazy hair, and he was part of the trade that brought J.R. Rider to Portland.

Bonus: This is the ticket stub from my first Blazers game. It was incredibly difficult to get tickets at the time, and the Memorial Coliseum only held 12,000+ people. Now, even when games are "sold out" you can safely walk up to the arena and get a ticket without much worry. Back in the day, a sellout really was a sellout, and you had to know somebody to get one of these. The Blazers had just had a 20-1 streak to begin the 1990-91 season snapped the night before, and barely hung on to beat Dallas. The most memorable part of the night, however, was getting to see Alex English score his 25,000th point in what ended up being his final season.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 12

Huge game today. Danny O'Neil only comes out for huge games. The Ducks are 7-3 and still have designs on a 10-win season. They also have revenge on their minds. Dennis Dixon went down for good during last season's meeting in Tucson while Wildcats fans taunted the injured QB every step of the way. Arizona also blew out the Ducks in the last meeting in Eugene two seasons ago.

Danny O'Neil was the quarterback that led the Ducks to their surprise Rose Bowl bid in 1994. Much has been made, deservedly, of The Pick where Kenny Wheaton led the Ducks to a win over Washington. But it was a week later than the Ducks hung on by a fingernail over Arizona with a 10-9 victory, led by a touchdown pass from O'Neil to tight end Josh Wilcox, a reception that happened right in front of my seat in the crowd. (Oddly enough, I never would have had that seat if I hadn't been late in getting my student ticket. I got stuck with a plain old GA ticket instead, and made sure to get there early so I could get in the front row.) Both teams had some of the stingiest defenses in college football at the time, the Cats with their Desert Swarm and the Ducks' Gang Green. Whenever I see a key late season matchup between these two teams, I always fondly look back at that game.