Up For Grabs Cardinalpalooza: Joe Torre

Previously on the Cardinalpalooza: Scott Rolen | Willie McGee | Red Schoendienst | Enos Slaughter | Bruce Sutter | Albert Pujols | Ray Lankford | Mark McGwire | J.D. Drew | Colby Rasmus | Yadier Molina | Allen Craig | Stan Musial | Rick Ankiel | David Freese | Keith Hernandez | Steve Carlton

Joe Torre joined Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa this week in a parade of managers-to-the-Hall, but Torre's career was nearly as memorable as a player as it was with him riding the pine in a Yankees uniform. Managing a team to 4 rings in 6 seasons will fasttrack you to the Hall of Fame easier than 2300+ hits and 9 All-Star appearances as a player will, though.

Torre spent the majority of his playing days with the Braves, but he spent a good chunk of time with the Cardinals as well. Torre arrived in St. Louis after some pretty memorable '60s teams, which nearly parallels the way his Cardinal managerial tenure played out. He came in after the Whiteyball era ended, and... well, let's just say that the first half of the '90s are best forgotten if you're a Cards fan. It's interesting that he took over the Yankees the same season that Tony La Russa became the Cardinals manager. Torre won a ring that first season while La Russa led the Cardinals to their first playoff appearance since 1987. For the Yankees, it would be their first World Series appearance since 1981.

The list:

1971 Topps (NL Batting Leaders w/ Rico Carty and Manny Sanguillen) #62 [no creases but the card is pretty beat up as you can see by the scan]
1982 Topps Kmart #20 [4 available]
1991 Topps #351 [2 available]
1992 Topps #549 [4 available]
1993 Ted Williams #93
1993 Topps (w/ Lou Pinella) #512

Chopped!

Cards cards from a Braves man.

The entire country has basically been frozen over for awhile now, so that's given me a bit of time to contemplate what I'm doing with my time, my collection, and... of course, the blog. There's a contest coming up that will surprise absolutely no one that has read these virtual pages over the years, and I'm still working on trying to drop a bunch of cards on people so I can clean up my desk.

Meanwhile, here are some cards that were sent to me from The Card Chop, who undoubtedly are excited that the Braves longtime manager Bobby Cox will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. His induction was announced this week along with a couple of fellow managers with Cardinal ties.

I'll jump right in to something the kids are calling 2013 Pinnacle. I like how Pinn... er... Panini went a little crazy with the Photoshop to make Craig look like a Giant for some reason. Actually, no, I don't like that at all.

But here's something I do really like, a rare Dizzy Dean base card variation from the 2010 Topps set. In ten years, will most be able to tell the difference between the 2010 Topps set and the 2013 Topps set? I'm pretty sure I won't.

Despite the scan, this card is smaller than standard size. It's a "Cream of the Crop" mini from this year's Bowman product. Actually, scratch that, it's a rare blue wave parallel version of a mini insert because... oh, I give up. It looks great! It's got fireballin' Trevor Rosenthal. That's enough for me.

And speaking of enough for me, I finally have a camoflage card in my collection. And the world can't have enough camo, can it? I actually recently doubled my Camo Card Collection (CCC) and you'll (OMINOUS FORESHADOWING) be able to see what I mean some other day.

Thanks again to The Card Chop, whose horribly delinquent return package should be there Tuesday for a hamburger today. I promise!

Airbrushed Fridays: 1978 Topps #210

Welcome to the Crooked Scan Society.

Who is he? Jose Cardenal was a rangy Cuban-born outfielder who played for nine different teams across parts of three decades. He also very clearly had some awesome hair, though he probably doesn't belong on the podium with Oscar Gamble.

How did he get here? After six years with the Cubs, Cardenal was traded to the Phillies for the proverbial bag of balls - a guy named Manny Seoane that appeared in all of 9 games in his career.

Repeat offender? Yes (1981 Topps #473)

Other versions of this card: None

Airbrushed Score: 7

Comments: Like I said, it's no Oscar Gamble, but with hair like that the hat is going to look silly no matter if it's drawn on or legit.

In Defense of Listia

This is not an ad, but you're welcome to sign up with my referral link!

I'll just get this out of the way. I don't think Listia is the greatest thing ever, but I do spend a fair amount of time with it every week. And why would I do that? For the cards I've received, of course! I've read some critical things about it since I first became aware of the site about a year and a half ago. Much of it is warranted. But I still feel like it's worth my time. I'm coming up on about 500 completed seller auctions in the near future, nearly all of which have been single card sales for low amounts of credits. Slow and steady has won the race for me, though, as I've managed to take in piles of "hits" and other fun things for my collection. This Yadier Molina serial numbered jersey card is just the latest. I've also snagged a pretty healthy amount of base cards from sets that are somewhat difficult for me to come by, like 2006-2007 Allen & Ginter and 2001 Topps Heritage.

I've also picked up cards from other sports that I usually don't touch, because my interests are very narrow. I don't care about the NFL all that much, though I'm finally becoming comfortable with the Eagles again. But plenty of people have cards of former Duck Dion Jordan on offer as he was recently a high draft pick. I wouldn't dare try to buy these overpriced things in a local store, but I am comfortable with trading my earned credits for them.

For the most part, I pretty much break even on the majority of the auctions I list once you factor in the rising cost of envelopes and stamps. There's never going to be a 100% success rate with PWE's, which means I've had to eat credits a couple of times due to people never apparently getting what I've sent them. And a couple of dozen times I've had people fail to send me their mailing address properly, which certainly seems annoying. But I get to keep those credits and relist the item, so it's hardly a problem. I realize the site doesn't fit everyone's needs, but if you stick to the "slow & steady" plan, I think it has a lot to offer fellow card collectors. And I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more cards on the site.

I don't think I mentioned that this card is weird. You can scan the code with your smartphone and get (supposedly updated) video highlights of that player's work. Fun.

I don't know. It's something to do. You can sign up here and I'll get some extra credits. And you apparently get a lot more credits for signing up these days than I did when I did it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Can I buy some time from someone?

Tribecards had a busy summer. That's probably the understatement of the year. Over the course of the past baseball season, the very generous David busted at least a pack every day of the week (often more than that) and has been working through a very complicated distribution system to send them all to his loyal readers for free. To top things off, he also found time to host a group break, and I thought I'd do the honors of showing off a few of the cards I received in that break.

John Gall didn't make much of an impact on the big leagues, but I imagine he did win at least some shares of the World Series pot for his 12 total ABs that he logged during 2006. His name I remember...

But who the heck is Evan Rust? Hardly the "Top of the Class" that Upper Deck purports him to be, Rust apparently was an undrafted free agent that Tampa Bay sent to St. Louis in the Tino Martinez trade. Actually, he basically was the guy that the Cards got for Tino, a former World Series hero. Martinez would go on to have a productive season for the struggling Devil Rays before returning to New York for his last hurrah. As for Rust, he reached the AAA level in 2005, got hurt and disappeared from the face of the earth.

AHHHH! WHERE ARE TODD'S EYES? I might have the entire 1992 Leaf team set at this point, but there's still an unaccounted for period of time in my Cardinals want list where this set falls. I should work on that soon. I got a fat stack of Cardinals that also included the Donovan Osborne Gold Leaf Rookie that adorns the top of this post. Those suckers were tough to pull back in the day, at least when you were trying for a certain player. By the way, I did receive a healthy stack of cards of players that play for other teams in the break, but those are going to be filed away in my expendable collection and various trade stacks.

Here's the big winner of the lot, a Yadi purple refractor thing. Purple refractors look great for some reason. I don't think I would be terribly interested in an all-purple set, but these are just rare enough to look nice when I happen to run across them. I don't think I'd feel the same way about a pink card if I ever happened upon one, though.

Thanks for reading.

Up For Grabs Cardinalpalooza: Scott Rolen

Previously on the Cardinalpalooza: Willie McGee | Red Schoendienst | Enos Slaughter | Bruce Sutter | Albert Pujols | Ray Lankford | Mark McGwire | J.D. Drew | Colby Rasmus | Yadier Molina | Allen Craig | Stan Musial | Rick Ankiel | David Freese | Keith Hernandez | Steve Carlton

The MV3 era was great times. Scott Rolen was acquired by the Cardinals in the 2002 season to bolster their playoff chances, but his fateful meeting with Alex Cintron meant his full potential wouldn't be realized until the post-3 Nights in August season of 2004. That year, the Cardinals could do no wrong. It would be the finest offensive season of Rolen's career, though he was being overshadowed by his own teammates.

When healthy, Rolen was a terrific offensive player, but that always came secondary to his work with the glove. A second, more serious injury in 2005 would effectively doom his chances of ever driving in 100 runs again, but in his prime he was an extremely valuable commodity. The Cardinals improbable World Series win in 2006 when all of the cogs (save for Pujols) were seemingly broken down/old/Scott Spiezio meant that we'll never talk about Rolen the same way as people talk about Carlos Beltran. He did get the ring. So did Edmonds. So did So Taguchi.

Rolen apparently had an icy relationship with the icy Tony La Russa, so the rare "match trade" shipped him out of town for an even more doomed Troy Glaus. Glaus only had one productive season left in him, while Rolen resurfaced as a key member of the Reds, one of Walt Jocketty's first of many ex-Cardinal imports.

Fans of watching baseball likely appreciate Rolen's talents, especially in the field. I don't think he was the type of personality to cross the line between ballplayer and "star", but I can hardly think of any players that played his position better in the past decade-plus.

The list:

2002 Donruss Originals #88
2003 Donruss #346 [2 available]
2003 Fleer Tradition #393
2003 Playoff Portraits #122
2003 Upper Deck Honor Roll #77
2003 Upper Deck Standing "O" #73
2003 Upper Deck Victory #86 [4 available]
2003 Upper Deck Victory (Solid Hits) #124
2004 Bowman #11 [2 available]
2004 Donruss Diamond Kings #104
2004 Donruss Elite #145
2004 Fleer InScribed #66
2004 Fleer Platinum #128
2004 Fleer Tradition #139
2004 Leaf Second Edition #186
2004 Topps (Gold Glove) #709
2004 Topps (All-Star) #722
2004 Upper Deck Diamond Pro Sigs #48 [2 available]
2004 Upper Deck Play Ball #62
2004 Upper Deck R-Class #11
2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot #83
2005 Donruss #342
2005 Donruss Diamond Kings #398 [2 available]
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #299
2005 Donruss Zenith #96
2005 Fleer America's National Pastime #30
2005 Fleer Classic Clippings #31
2005 Fleer Patchworks #61
2005 Fleer Tradition #171
2005 Leaf #184
2005 Skybox Autographics #51
2005 Topps (Gold Glove) #708
2005 Topps (All-Star) #722 [2 available]
2005 Topps Total #295
2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics #43 [2 available]
2005 Upper Deck ESPN #81
2005 Upper Deck MVP #80 [2 available]
2005 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects #18 [3 available]
2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot #21
2006 Fleer #94 [2 available]
2006 Fleer Smooth Leather #SL-12
2006 Fleer Tradition #50 [4 available]
2006 Fleer Ultra #42 [5 available]
2006 Topps #555 [3 available]
2006 Topps Update (All-Star) #UH255
2006 Topps Opening Day #19 [3 available]
2006 Upper Deck First Pitch #185
2007 Bowman #148 [3 available]
2007 Fleer #44 [5 available]
2007 Fleer Ultra #148
2007 Fleer Ultra Retail #148 [6 available]
2007 Topps #85 [6 available]
2007 Topps (Gold Glove) #302 [3 available]
2007 Topps Opening Day #53 [3 available]
2007 Upper Deck Elements #37
2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #87
2007 Upper Deck Goudey Green Backs #91
2007 Upper Deck SP Authentic #49 [2 available]
2007 Upper Deck Spectrum #95
2008 Topps #170 [7 available]
2008 Topps Opening Day #72 [2 available]
2008 Upper Deck Spectrum #88 [2 available]

Why Are Envelopes So Expensive?

The latest roundup of cards I've received in increasingly more expensive little white wrappers.

I'm going to sound like the guy that complains about the size of candy bars these days, and airline peanuts and the decline of the service industry and all of that. I swear it used to only cost a buck or two to get yourself a whole box full of envelopes. Even with the advent of peel-'n'-stick envelopes (I don't want to suffer the same fate as Susan on Seinfeld), I never expected to be forking over so much money for the things. I guess that's what happens when it's been decades since I've written someone a proper letter. Snail mail, feh!

I've received a few PWEs in the past several weeks and thought I'd bundle them up in one package here. First up is a few cards I received, all very much needed, from Fantastic Catch. Superduperman99 is a fellow Cardinals fan, and Cardinals fans are always fun to trade with.

I haven't bought a single pack of 2013 Bowman Platinum, and I'm guessing not many others that I trade with have done the deed, based on the how few cards I've acquired from this set. This is a nice little gold parallel. I've never been a fan of Bowman Platinum and its difficult to decipher parallel scheme, but I'm always interested in taking on new Cardinals cards.

Next up is one of those "Take My Cards" dealies from Crackin' Wax. I snagged a single Allen & Ginter insert plus a few base cards from the latest Topps Chrome set. Crackin' Wax has a birthday giveaway going on this week, so you should probably get on over there.

I was very fortunate to get this Wacha rookie card as part of my "Take My Cards" haul before the hype train arrived. Actually, I think it was probably pulling into the station just about the time that this card was heading into its envelope. Nice!

This card actually has a fairly standard width, but Google/Blogger (Glogger?) does weird things to my images. This is an insert from this year's Panini Cooperstown set, something I know absolutely nothing about because I don't really pay attention to the non-licensed sets. That being said, this is great! Who doesn't love a circular-shaped Whitey card? Sports Cards from the Dollar Store sent this over, along with some great stuff from other sports. Not pictured are some Ducks NFL cards that will likely be saved for a future Good Luck Ducks post.

The other sport represented was the great game of basketball. The Blazers are off to a terrific start this season, with the best record in the West through nearly a quarter of a season. So there's hope, right? I finally made it down to my first game of the season last night to see Portland knock off Indiana, the team with the best overall record in the NBA. It was a thrilling game in what is hopefully part of a thrilling season. All I know is that it's been great so far, and that's all that matters right now.