Cards I Worked Hard For

Just kidding! I got these for free.

Tribecards has done some very generous giveaways in the past, and last year Dave put together his most elaborate one yet. A pack was busted for every single day of the 2013 MLB season with all of the contents painstakingly doled out for free. All the participants had to do was quibble over who got what players via a draft system. The whole thing was so exhausting that apparently he decided to up the ante by bringing it back this year with a rotisserie baseball twist. I don't envy the man with all of the time it must take to put these things together, but I do want to track down some fun wax packs to contribute to the cause.

In the meantime, here's a few cards I snagged from last year's winnings. Allen Craig has settled in to a first base role once again as Matt Adams was struggling mightily versus lefties and is currently nursing an injury. Craig suddenly stopped hitting HRs last season but had otherwise absurd numbers, especially with runners in scoring position. Things got a lot worse this season, but his bat has picked up of late.

This is probably my favorite card of the bunch, if only because it seems to be really tough for me to track down early Waino cards.

Even though he caught the ire of Tony La Russa more than once, I was always a fan of Kerry Robinson as he and I share a first name. He also wore #13 for part of his Cardinals career, my favorite number. Matt Carpenter is currently keeping that number warm and doing a fine job of it if you ask me.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2014 Topps Opening Day #7

Something something evil empire something.

Who is he? Jacoby Ellsbury stole a base once. America stole tacos. Thanks to this amazing fast food promotion during the 2007 World Series, the speedy former Oregon State outfielder Ellsbury made himself a household name. Somewhere, Morgan Spurlock was cringing.

How did he get here? As the Yankees tend to do, Ellsbury became the latest player to play for both sides of the Boston/NY rivalry when he signed this past offseason. He has signed up with evil for the next seven years, but already things have apparently taken a sour turn.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: 2014 Topps Opening Day (Variation) #7

Airbrushed Score: 7

Comments: Zooming in to crop the photo doesn't improve the look when it's Photoshopped.

Listia's Usefulness

Also, it's free, of course.

Listia isn't immensely popular in the real of trading cards, but it has a number of dedicated users. I know they exist because I see some of the same names pop up on bids on my cards with high frequency. It's kind of a ridiculous place to look for or "sell" anything of significant value, but it continues to hold my interest because of auctions like the most recent two that I won.

I spent credits on a Cardinals pocket schedule from this season. Sure, this is a freebie all over Missouri and I'm guessing a few other regions, but I don't get my chance to grab stuff like this unless a kind fan of the blog who happens to be from the area lends me a helping hand. I like pocket schedules, but I wouldn't say I'm a collector. I tend to throw these in my Cardinals binders even though they're all lopsided and puffy and weird.

I never thought I'd fine a virtually pristine Willie McGee O-Pee-Chee (!) rookie card on the site for next to nothing, however. This is the sort of random win that keeps me coming back to the site. It was poorly listed as the auction owner determined that this card was from 1986 for some reason, so it's possible that it helped. In any case, this immediately becomes one of the best cards in my collection. I actually need a ton of 1983 O-Pee-Chee cards for some reason, but it's nice to get the Willie rookie out of the way.

Once Lost, Now Found

I have no recollection of Ricky Bottalico as a Cardinal. None whatsoever.

I received a batch of cards recently from longtime friend of the blog The Lost Collector, which are what I used for tonight's post. What I'm really stewing about right now, aside from another pathetic Cardinals loss, is that Ricky Bottalico was somehow an All-Star once? Yes, it's true. There stands his 1996 season with the Phillies, with 34 saves, a very solid WHIP and an FIP considered to be good by most standards. I don't know what to think anymore.

Okay, I admit it, I'm frustrated with the Cardinals right now. I want Peter Bourjos to get more playing time even though his stats don't really justify it. I want to see what he can do as a full-time outfielder while he's actually healthy for once in his life. The thing is, hardly anyone on the team has the stats to justify unquestioned full-time duties right now. Yikes.

I have a lot of J.D. Drew jersey cards, admittedly, but this is one of the more amusing ones. The atomic nucleus design is pretty entertaining, and you see what they did with the swatch right there? Of course, it takes a vital chunk out of Drew's body, but I can almost live with it. I have no idea what the shiny dead space below his name is for, however.

Kolten Wong hit his first big league HR tonight and it was a grand slam! That was exciting. Unfortunately, the Cardinals coughed up that 4 run lead in a hurry and then coughed up another one later in the game, so Wong's big day was all for naught. I do love these blue parallels out of this year's Opening Day set, though.

TLC also sent me a healthy stack of '90s Blazers cards. This is the first time I've seen the basketball counterpart to the insane 1995 Fleer baseball design, and I have to say that it is slightly less insane, I guess? I don't know what it was about the mid-'90s that made card companies resort to the multi-picture collage where one picture is always a smaller version of the big picture, only with a different color palette (thinking 1996 Topps here, guys), but I don't like it.

Here's James "Hollywood" Robinson, about to throw one down on Tony Massenburg, a guy on a poster if there ever was one. This photo appears to be from the final season that the Blazers played at the Memorial Coliseum, which makes me happy. This seems to be an Electric Court parallel. I don't know what that means, but I like it.

The Guys You're Stuck Collecting

You can't collect sets without collecting cards of players you loathe.

I'm a big fan of the Opening Day Stars inserts of the past several years, so I'm trying to collect them all. I don't know why I enjoy collecting things so much. I will put them in little plastic pockets in a binder and I may flip through the binder a few times, so I guess it's better than putting together a set and stuffing it in a box that it barely fits in, never to be seen again. There is some limited satisfaction in completion. But when you're stuck collecting cards of guys you can't stand like Ryan Braun or Brandon Phillips, just to knock off some numbers from a list, you really have to wonder if you're completely right in the head.

I guess what I'm saying is, send me an email or leave a comment if you're up for a trade. There are a lot of sets that I need help with. And I like the Cardinals, too.

Thanks to ATBATT for the ugly jerkface stupid Braun card, too.

Airbrushed Fridays: 1974 Topps Traded #151T

Or we could talk about Topps Archives, I guess? Nah.

Who is he? Diego Segui could throw a forkball, and he pitched for a long, long time. He was in and out of Venezuelan winter ball and pitched for 6 MLB franchises over the course of a couple of decades, including three separate stints with the Athletics. He's also the father of former MLBer David Segui.

How did he get here? The backs of these early Traded set cards tend to explain it all. In case you don't like looking at the backs of cards for some weird reason, I'll say that he was traded by the Cardinals to Boston as part of a six player deal. He would spend two seasons in Boston before making his final MLB stand with Seattle.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: 1974 Topps #151

Airbrushed Score: 7

Comments: This is clearly from the same photo sessions as his regular issue card as it's shot from the same angle, but he's facing a slightly different direction and looking a bit gloomy about the trade.

Good Enough

Brock Peterson was good enough to get a Major League Baseball card.

It's a frequently used term that can be rather derisive. The whole concept of the quad-A player, a guy who has nothing left to prove in any of the minor league's levels yet isn't a great fit with a big league crew, isn't the nicest thing in the world. We used to have AAA ball in Portland, though, and these were usually the most exciting players you'd see come to the plate. Brock Peterson finally got his shot at age 29 when he spent some time with the Cardinals, but he's back in the minors this year in another organization.

Mark Kaz from This Way to the Clubhouse sent me some cards, including the gold encrusted card of the fairly anonymous Brock Peterson. He was also responsible for what I'm fairly certain is my first 2002 Topps Chrome refractor. I made fun of refractors and their very idea when I first started this blog, but I can't help but love the shiny little devils.

I have no idea what is going on with this design. This might work on a giant poster on someone's wall, but it makes no sense on a card that's only a few inches in any direction.

Had Jesus Montero not been promoted aggressively as some sort of catcher, would it be safe to say that he may have found himself in a similar position as Brock Peterson. He's now a 1B/DH type, even in AAA, and I haven't heard any buzz about Seattle wanting him back any time soon. This card fills a nice short printed size hole in my collection, however.

Hey, it's the Pope, sans Popemobile. More Ginter cards for me! Thanks, as always, to Mark Kaz.