Trading with Night Owl Cards II

Night Owl Cards, which in my opinion is the most well-written baseball card blog out there, sent another stack of Cardinals my way in a trade. Actually, this wasn't so much a trade as it was an exchange that went something like this:

• Night Owl Cards: "I got some cards over here for you."
• Cards on Cards: "Oh yeah?! Well I got some cards over here, for you!"
• NOC: "Really? Well, I still have cards here for you, and I'm totally going to send them!"
• CoC: "Send cards, you say? Your cards are already in the mail! Beat that!"

Night Owl then proceeded to get the last word in by threatening to send me another package, with Allen & Ginter cards. Yeesh!

I love the Bob Gibson Heroes card and I need to buy more. This one is a charcoal parallel that I believe is retail only. The rest of the parallels are all serial numbered if I recall. I normally am not a huge fan of parallels, but most people seem to agree that they're pretty fun in this set, at least if you're a player or team collector.

1992 Score - Bernard Gilkey (Just a great photo. If I was going to branch out to be more of a unique collector, a la Dinged Corners, I would strongly consider collecting cards where a baseball is in mid-flight.)

2007 Fleer - Jason Isringhausen (I like Izzy. I was really happy when the Cardinals picked him up in 2002. He's given a lot of Cardinals fans some serious high blood pressure and probably even a few ulcers over the years, but when he's on his game he is fun to watch. I hope that if his career is truly over, he sticks around the Cardinals in some capacity. And if he's not done being an effective pitcher, I hope that somehow he gets an opportunity with the Cards again. At a low, incentive-laden cost, of course.)

1982 Donruss - Sixto Lezcano (He just has a cool name. And I still like the cheesy bat and ball logo. I don't know if I would have collected this over Topps if I had started collecting in 1982 instead of 1986, but I definitely bought a number of these when I was younger because at the time they were still pretty cheap.)

1984 Donruss - Darrell Porter (I love getting 1984 Donruss cards because it's one of the only sets of the '80s that does not seem to be extremely plentiful.)

2008 Bowman Chrome - Albert Pujols (I absolutely love getting Chrome cards in trades because I never buy the packs. $3 or more per pack for a miniscule chance of getting a Cardinal card is not very appealing.)

2008 UD Masterpieces - Ozzie Smith (I was really happy to see this card. Ozzie's 2007 Masterpieces card is amazing, and I knew I needed to own this soon when I saw he had one in this year's set.)

1984 Donruss - David Von Ohlen (Someone with the name David Von Ohlen probably wouldn't have been very popular at my grade school, so I wonder if he got teased as a child.)

2006 Topps Autographs - Anthony Reyes (We love Reyes in this household. This is now the third certified autograph I've ever owned. It's extremely awesome of this generous blogger to send this card. Of course, it's terrible manners to criticize a gift, but... why does 75% of this card have to be a giant white space. Did they expect some players to sign with an extra-wide Sharpie? I know, I know... it's much better to have an on-card autograph than those silly stickers. Maybe one day Topps will figure it out.)

Uh, oh. Yikes. Erin, hide your eyes!

Cards on Cards Rescue

The excellent Stats on the Back blog made a decision to pair down a baseball card collection in the most extreme way. Many cards were given the axe and sentenced to life in a dumpster. Like a good dumpster diver, I had to save the expendable Cardinals. While I was expecting to get about 39 Felix Jose 1991 Donruss cards and a slightly moldy stack of Greg Mathews and Cris (not Chris) Carpenter 1989 Topps cards, I ended up receiving a healthy box of stuff containing quite a few cards that I actually needed. Save the Cardinals, save the world is what I say.

Topps Stadium Club works as a classy, full-bleed set with "sharp action photos" and Kodak quality photography. This "Draft Pick" addition (edition?) did not work, and will not work, ever. Come on, these are Senior Photos from their respective high school yearbooks. I'm fairly certain that two of these guys never even played real baseball.

1995 Topps - Jose Oquendo (This is during the period where the Cubs wore minor league uniforms.)

1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice - Ozzie Smith + Ozzie Smith Team Checklist (Nice! Ozzies for the collection. I didn't expect anything above a Tom Brunansky.)

1986 Fleer - Todd Worrell (Nice rookie card of the once and former Cardinal closer. I wish I had spent more of my spare change and squirreled away milk money on 1986 Fleer and less on 1986 Topps and candy. Of course, then I'd have even more beat up Fleer cards.)

1999 Upper Deck - Delino DeShields (I recognize this design from having a Blazers card or two from the NBA set, but this is, as far as I know, the first baseball card that I have from it.)

1987 Fleer Mini - Vince Coleman (I have quite a few Fleer minis - they made them from 1986 through 1988 if I remember correctly
1988 Topps Revco - Vince Coleman (More Vinceness. This looks like it was from one of those small drug store branded boxed sets from the late 80s. Is that what a Revco is?)

1990 Todd Zeile Rainbow o' Donruss

1991 Sporting News Conlon Collection - Charlie Gelbert (I ended up with a number of the Conlon cards. I remember seeing these cards and a bit of hype around them when they first came out when I was working at a card shop in high school and thinking they were silly. I thought any reprints or flashback cards of players beyond my generation were pretty pointless. I am finally starting to enjoy stuff like this now.)

1985 Fleer - Art Howe (I love this set. I need to collect it someday. I probably need at least 90% of it.)

1992 Panini Stickers - Ray Lankford (I just wanted to end this on a positive note. I think this is the first Panini sticker I have ever seen, let alone owned, from 1992. This is a nice design, too. I have quite a few '93 stickers thanks to an oddball eBay auction I won awhile back, but I prefer this look. The '93 stickers are significantly thinner and a bit larger in dimensions.)

Make sure you check out Stats on the Back and maybe one day you too can save cards from an untimely, non-environmentally friendly death.

Trading with Nachos Grande

I have been the lucky recipient of four packages of baseball cards in the mail in the past four days (not counting Sunday, of course, because that would be creepy.) Today's package, which was actually received on Monday, was from FanOfReds over at Nachos Grande. It was chock full of 2008 Allen & Ginter cards that I needed from my want list. There were some flag cards, like the Flyin' Hawaiian up there, some base stuff and some SPs. I'm sure you're all tired of seeing Allen & Ginter posted here, but after watching a tape of tonight's Blazers game and the halftime ceremony in which the Blazers retired Terry Porter's jersey, I am tired and I don't think I can tackle much else.

I'm showing off Bengie Molina because he's a Molina. That's all there really is to say.

My girlfriend's high school was named after James Bowie. His name is not pronounced like David Bowie. It's more like kablooey, only with fewer letters. I should probably track down another one of these cards for Erin. By the way, those are some nice chops, James!

Josh Hamilton is so psyched about the 2009 Major League Baseball regular season that he is apparently not going to participate in the World Baseball Classic. His tattoos on this card look like leeches.

Thanks again to Nachos Grande. Sadly, I still have not sent out the return package in this trade, as I ran out of shipping tape and the weather has been ridiculous in Portland this week. I have about 10-12 packages to mail out, most of which are ready to go, and I hope to have them all out by New Year's. If I actually owe you cards, then your package will get sent sooner rather than later.

There's Nothing Wrong With Yankees Fans

I may have dropped hints here on this blog - I'm not sure (I don't like to read my own writing) - but before I was a Cardinals fan my favorite team was actually the Yankees. And it seems like even back in my earliest memories, like when the Yankees faced the Dodgers in the '81 World Series, I have always defended that team. It mostly came from my dad, who, like his father, faithfully wore a Yankees hat and talked a lot about the old days. He had old cards, of course, and his mother threw out all of his old cards, of course. He had Mickey Mantle cards, of course. I was 6 years old and I liked Reggie Jackson, of course. Nevermind the fact that both of my parents would shake their head every time he'd stand back and admire one of his home runs or curse his name when he'd strike out for the kabillionth time.

But they were my dad's team. Eventually, I found a team of my own to root for and the Cardinals took their foothold. To this day, however, I still enjoy rooting for the Yankees when given the opportunity because I feel like I'm rooting for an underdog. Everyone around me always seems to hate them. Anyway, there are great Yankees fans out there like Eric, who has sent countless numbers of bloggers great cards in the mail. I got a second package from him on Friday, and it was the biggest box of cards I've ever received in the mail that didn't come from an eBay transaction. I could easily spend a week's worth of posts talking about what I got, but I have so many stacks of cards on my coffee table right that I need to try and take care of this all in one shot. (By the way, Eric has started a blog, so you should check it out. And don't diss the Yankees while you are there.) And I knew it was going to be a great group when the first card I pulled out of the box was a playing card featuring Ozzie Smith, something I didn't have already.

1989 Upper Deck - Jose Oquendo (This was one of a good stack of 1989 Upper Deck, which kicked pretty much every other late 80's set to the curb. There were several cards in the stack that I didn't immediately recognize, which means there's a good chance I didn't have them already.)

1990 Fleer Soaring Stars - Todd Zeile (I believe these were inserted into rack packs. Maybe it was cello packs. I'm not sure. Beckett's site is down yet again, so I can't use the only thing Beckett is really useful for. This used to fetch two or three bucks back in the day, and thus I never owned one. I was never into buying singles when I could buy a pack or four for the same price.)

1990 Best - Tim Lata (I have no idea who Tim Lata is. But this is good timing, as I received a handful of minor league Cardinals from the same era as the cards I've been offering up as giveaways. According to The Baseball Cube, Lata never made it out of single A.)

1991 Bowman - Aaron Holbert (Holbert is one of the early 90's draft picks that I have tons of "draft pick" cards of but never actually found out if he made it anywhere. This card is goofy, as it's another one of those early 90's cards where they seemed to take a young prospect, dress him up in a major league uniform that he had probably never worn and send him out to a local park to pose.)

1982 Topps - Orlando Sanchez (From the "I've never heard of..." department, here's Orlando Sanchez. But this is cool, because "I've never heard of him" also means "I don't own his cards." But now, I do.)

1988 Fleer World Series - (Tommy) Herr, Out at First? (I got a few of these cards, which I believe were a factory set insert. This is Don Denkinger II, though not as bad. I still don't want to talk about it, though.)

I'll just let the back of the card tell the story.

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights - Kyle Lohse (My first Lohse Cardinals card. I got a few others from the U&H set in this box, so I'm down to only missing 3 base Topps cards for the year. Lohse got a multi-year contract as last season was winding down, which I'm not quite so sure was a great idea. Hopefully he can be nearly as good as he was in 2008.)

2008 Upper Deck Timeline - Albert Pujols

2007 Upper Deck - Albert Pujols (There were a good number of Pujols cards in the box, many of which I didn't own. I think he has something like 24,847 different cards. Good thing I'm not a Pujols "Super Collector", though I seem to want every card of every Cardinal ever, which is bad enough.)

1995 Score Hall of Gold - Ozzie Smith (Here's another Ozzie card that I didn't have. This is great.)

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes - Albert Pujols / Stan Musial (I like this card a lot. I much prefer when older legends like Musial are paired with modern players that actually shared something in common with the, like the team for starters. A lot of times it seems like the way they pair up players on cards like this is totally random.)

2008 Topps Heritage - Yadier Molina (Yadi! Don't get too close to this card, however. It looks a little strange up close. Not only is this from the set for me to collect, but it's a short print, a Cardinal, a Cardinal I didn't have, and Yadier Molina. Our Yadi is an awesome Yadi.)

2005 Fleer Authentix - Jim Edmonds (I only picked this card to show because I've never seen another Edmonds card that looked less like Edmonds. It's kinda goofy, but I'm not sure why.)

2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor - Albert Pujols 425/559 (Here's the grand finale. Wow! I never expected to get a card like this out of the blue. The photo I took doesn't do justice to the shinyness/rainbowriffic factor.)

Thanks again to Eric. I have cards to send out to him soon. Portland is in a deep freeze right now, but hopefully I'll be able to get some packages in the mail once things thaw out a bit.

Token Weekly Blazers Post: I Got Nothing

What a difference a week makes, huh? I get to post one lousy card, because Portland has lost 4 out of their last 5 games. Martell Webster, last season's starting small forward, returned to the court for the first time since the first game of the preseason, played 5 measly minutes and injured himself somewhere else and will miss the next four weeks. Travis Outlaw bruised his tailbone and hip in the Utah game and is "day-to-day." And the team's all-star, Brandon Roy, tore a tendon in his pinky finger and while he won't miss any games he's going to be playing with some sort of splint for quite some time. Not only that, but the Blazers seem to have figured out how not to play perimeter defense at all, and seem to be doing quite well at it.

About the card:

• Rick Adelman coached the Blazers when they were really good. Not Championship Good, but good enough to reach the NBA Finals twice. Then the Blazers brass started breaking up the team and Clyde Drexler wanted to leave and then Adelman got fired. He's a local guy and still lives in the area. He coaches the Rockets now.

Bonus: ARGH! Steve Blake! Blake missed 4 out of 5 free throws in the final seconds of regulation in what eventually turned out to be a double-overtime loss to the LA Clippers. Brandon Roy was in Hero Mode, but everyone else played like little Mario. Blake had only missed 2 free throws all season prior to Friday night's game. I got this card at a card show yesterday and it's just ridiculous. I don't understand what Topps was thinking when they came up with this chrome design. They may as well have just copied the baseball design, but instead you get this nearly impsossible to read silver shiny thing. I also got a Channing Frye card from the same set, but he didn't miss all of those free throws so you get Blake instead.

Advice for the Team Collector

I am strongly considering a monumental shift in the way I store my Cardinals cards. The timing isn't all that surprising, considering over the past two days I've received large boxes of Cards cards and I will probably be spending hours sorting through them in the coming days. Currently, as in the past, the way I store all of my Cardinals is in binders with plastic sheets, alphabetically, including doubles. I mentioned this to my girlfriend the other day, and she sounded rather surprised about the doubles. It made sense to me for awhile, as I used to only have 4 full binders worth, but now at 7 full binders plus some loose sheets and absolutely no way to hold more cards, I should probably rethink what I am doing. I liked actually looking through each binder and knowing exactly how many... I don't know... 1992 Topps Felix Jose cards I had. But it costs nearly $20 for a binder and a bundle of plastic sheets these days, so I'm thinking about doing something else. Incidentally, Ozzie Smith gets his own binder, but I only keep one of each of his cards in there. Maybe that's the way I should have been doing everything all along.

So I ask you, the team collectors out there, how do you store your cards? Should I get a 3200 ct. cardboard box for my doubles? Is there a fancier, but perhaps still efficient way of doing things?

Basil Shabazz, incidentally, never made it out of AA according to Baseball-reference.com despite having one of my favorite player names of all-time. His card is one of the many that I received the past two days, and I will be doing a post on each of those packages soon.

Rick Ankiel May Not Be a Cardinal Much Longer

I've gotten in the annoying habit of refreshing MLBTradeRumors.com repeatedly over the past week. While Cardinals talk is usually all sound and no fury this time of the year, it seems that they are pretty serious about reducing the glut in the outfield with hopes of improving the pitching staff. Surprisingly, Rick Ankiel seems to be the one most likely to be moved all of a sudden. With Satan himself running the show for Ankiel and a new contract looming after 2009, it's not surprising that the Cards are hesitant to put Ankiel in their long term plans. It is somewhat surprising, however, that other teams seem to be interested. Not long ago it looked like Ryan Ludwick might be moved, but talk has shifted to Ankiel. My surprise stems from the fact that Tony La Russa seems to be unfailingly loyal to certain players, Ankiel being one of them, and also that Ankiel was pretty much shut down for the latter part of last season and still has some issues to work out at the plate. I'll definitely be disappointed if he gets traded as he was a favorite of mine going back to his days as a starting pitcher, but I can see the writing on the wall and do believe it will help the team if they can get a quality starter for him. If they intend to trade him for a closer, however, that's a bad move. There are young pitchers waiting in the wings to takeover the job, and I don't feel like they should be giving up much for someone that they may just need to be a stopgap/safety net.

I picked up this card, by the way, from Thorzul Will Rule's "Trade Me Anything II" contest that went on awhile back. If I had paid a bit more attention, I probably could have upped the ante and tried to get another card or two, but I'm happy with this one as it crosses off another Cardinal card from my list. Speaking of which, I've added the remaining 2008 Topps cards I need for my collection to my General Want List. It will be a tremendous process, but I'm going to work on adding more things to the list (and more lists, perhaps) as time permits.