Randomly Random

A big box of cards from @batcavelv keeps it fun and random. 

Let's throw it back to last fall once again, when Tracy's Box Breaks sent me a big ol' box of fun. I believe at least part of it went back to a group break I participated in, which as usual contained a nice variety of things for an affordable price. (There may still be some slots left in his latest break -- hit him up on Twitter to find out!)

Panini always seems to toss in some random designs for their Donruss set when it comes to their memorabilia cards, and this one is no exception. Aledmys Diaz now has the unenviable task of trying to fill in for superstar Jose Altuve in Houston during his stint on the IL.

Someday! Someday Alex Reyes will finally be the Golden God, but for now I'll have to setting for this gold (/50) manupatch from the 2016 Topps Pro Debut set.

Here he is, Jordan Hicks, the fastest pitcher in all of baseball. And I have his autograph! The internet can be a wonderful thing sometimes.

I wasn't at all familiar with the framed mini design from 2014 Allen & Ginter (it's red?!), so this is really cool. It's even cooler that it's Yadi.

Nick Plummer is still very young, but he's struggled to hit at every level so far. Let's hope that he figures it out soon.

This might be my first serial numbered card of the Cardinals '80s base thieving star. The Rookie Cup set from 2005 had kind of a strange base design, but I like what they were trying to do at least. It is one of the earlier examples of "the rainbow" which, unfortunately, is spiraling out of control (thanks, Panini!)

I'm not even sure what to make of this card, but it's a nice little oddity for my Waino collection. There's lightning involved, which I think makes it a parallel or at least some sort of insert.

There's a lot of detailed numbers on the back. I think this is part of a game, possibly a very complex one?

Here's a total curveball. Fleer teamed up with an artist in the '60s to illustrate each World Series matchup throughout the years. There's a solid article from about a decade ago about these cards if you're curious. And, you know, Google is your friend. (Well, sometimes.)

I've been paying a lot more attention to minor league cards lately in an attempt to document my needs. I'm always interested in minor league uniforms, which tend to vary from being parent club lookalikes to being as far away from their bosses as possible. This is more in the latter category.

Remember when I was talking about an endless stream of Panini parallels? The rainbow?

This color is called "shock". I don't know if they make a shock colored Crayola crayon. Perhaps Panini should design the next batch of crayons. I still do try to collect these things, so I guess that makes me the sucker.

Will there ever be a player-manager again in MLB, after the unpleasantness with Pete Rose? Rogers Hornsby had to do it all in 1926, and he had the series winning tag on Babe Ruth way back when.

My 89 Cent eBay Purchase

I can like relic cards if I want to. 

For about fifty cents less than last time, I took advantage of another eBay code thanks to @WatchTheBreaks and picked up an early-'00s curio featuring my old pal Jim Edmonds. The deal, same as last time, was a code that gets you three dollars off basically anything that is priced at more than three dollars. With many sports card listings on eBay having free shipping, this is one of those rare times where you can actually get something you want for mere pennies.

I know that I'm not supposed to be excited about memorabilia cards anymore, and anyone that has been around these cards as long as I have probably uses Jimmy Baseball cards to blow their nose on. Still, I need to work on my player collections a bit, and this was a nice get (for me.) That's all that matters, folks.

Whatever Works

The Trail Blazers advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. 

For anyone who knows me personally, as a lifelong Blazers fan, I never really fully bought into the Dame-and-CJ vision for the team. They're two small guards who need the ball in their hands and like to take shots. Too much duplication of skills, not enough size and defense or whatever. Two scoring point guards trying to fit in a starting lineup. I've always liked CJ McCollum's game, but have always wondered what he could do in another setting while thinking of what Portland might be able to bring in return for him.

Well, this little experiment has been going on for quite some time, and has finally earned the team a berth in the Conference Finals against another starting backcourt known for long range theatrics. Sometimes, whatever works is whatever works, and it's brought the Blazers this far. With teams bearing down on Damian Lillard, CJ has offered up some incredible games. It's been an exciting season that has led into an even more thrilling playoff scenario. Game after game, round after round... this has been fun! Both teams are beat up, but it's mid-May and there are still more basketball games to be played.

Eight down, and eight more to go!

Super Baseball Card Land

Baseball cards and video games from @CommunityGum rule the night. 

There was a time when this whole blogging thing would threaten to eat up my precious video game time, and vice versa. Over the past half-dozen years or so, however, I've found very little time to make these button mashing escapes. Thanks to my first modern console purchase in the last 15+ years years (PS4 Black Friday deal), I've slowly started to carve out some dedicated video gaming time.

I've always been more of a "retro" guy when it comes to the pixelated games, however. 8 and 16 bits are the sweet spot for me. Back before I even made the PS4 purchase (which tells you how long I've been sitting on this post), I was lucky enough to make a claim to copies of Game Boy classics Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2, thanks to generous trader and longtime friend of the blog Community Gum.

I am nerdy enough to actually own a "Super Game Boy", which was an attachment shaped like a regular Super Nintendo cartridge that had a slot where you could insert the Game Boy games. This also supposedly brings out some of the enhancements of the Game Boy Color on these old games, where the colors are a bit nicer than the original dull green-on-grey that was a staple of the original machine. Basically, I'm playing the 1989 handheld classic on a 1080p smart TV, technically without any software emulation. (I'm not a very technical person despite working in a tech job, so you could easily convince me that there's an emulator inside the Super Game Boy cartridge and you'd probably be right. Whatever, guy.)

I always to remap the classic 'B' and 'A' button positions used for Super Mario Bros. to an SNES controller in my brain. I end up falling in a lot of pits trying and failing to run fast.

And there were cards, of course! Lots of great cards! Perpetual top prospect Alex Reyes suffered yet another setback recently, this time of his own doing when he punched a wall after a frustrating outing for Triple-A Memphis. Fortunately, it was his non-throwing hand (it broke). Unfortunately, it will probably be awhile before we see him in a Cardinals uniform again. If he can get it back on track, this rainbow foil limited-to-25-copies card may yet be one of the better cards in my collection.

Lou Brock, playing for the St. Louis Somebodies! This is a pretty slick insert from 2017 Donruss Optic (powered by Panini) once you get around the lack of logos.

There are some of those logos that I trust. This is both a mini and a short print (SP), which makes it an MSP. (Please don't let that be a thing.)

Buyback cards are very silly, but I have a few that have been sprinkled around my collection. They're an interesting curiosity that I don't totally mind. I don't think I would ever seek them out in quantity, though.

Panini went for an interesting grey look for this limited-to-199 parallel of the former Cardinals outfielder. He wears Blue Jays blue these days.

Jon also sent a big stack of those Honus Bonus weirdo cards. That set even came with its own limited parallel set, which is indicated by the foil stamp in the upper left corner. I do love weirdo cards, I hate to admit.

More Topps for the Rediscoverin'.

And finally, a healthy stack of this package was also dedicated to the 2017 Allen & Ginter set, one of the many recent Topps sets that I'm still working on. I think I need help.

Thanks again to Community Gum!

2019 Topps Heritage Want List is Live

As usual, I need a ton of cards. 

This is a bit later in the year than usual for me, but I finally compiled my list of 2019 Topps Heritage cards. You can check it out here. If you bought a bunch of this stuff and have some dupes to dump, I may be a good resource.

This year, I didn't add any of the rare SP/variation stuff to my list at all. I'm not against collecting these, but I'm also considering trading or selling off the few of these kinds of cards that I managed to accumulate from past sets. I've never seriously entertained thoughts of putting together a master set of any year, even though I like the idea. I just have so many incomplete sets as it is.

Bowman Fever

Last week's #crackinwaxmailday featured new Bowman cards. 

Is Bowman a scam now? I say this with absolutely no shade directed at the good people at Crackin' Wax, who do a tremendous job with their group breaks. (I seriously wonder if they have time to do anything else with their weekends.) It just seems like, beginning with last year's Ohtanimania, Topps went in a different direction with their product, and not in a fun way. I seem to remember opening a few packs -- maybe even a blaster -- every year, and pulling a couple of fun parallels and maybe some trade fodder. It now seems slightly less than impossible to pull anything that isn't a common insert. And the retail prices have been inflated to the point where you only get six packs in a blaster. If you follow the Topps fuzzy blaster math where you get a "free" pack for purchasing a blaster, that equates to roughly $4 a pack of mostly base cards with a shrinking base of veterans. Bowman seems like more of a lottery than ever, which is not super fun for me.

Well, let's look at some of the cards I got in this case break. Genesis Cabrera was one of the prize pieces acquired in last season's Tommy Pham deal. I have complex feelings about that trade.

The base design is... fine. It's actually one of their better designs, at least in my book, because it at least feels distinctive. I have a hard time telling the difference between the 2017 and 2018 cards. This probably won't change anytime soon. I can spot the new stuff easily, though. I can also spot a lousy Photoshop job pretty easily, even when I know to look for it on this card of Paul Goldschmidt in a "Cardinals" uniform.

I think Nolan Gorman was single-handedly the reason why the Cardinals ended up costing a fair amount above the average for this break. This team hasn't really had a super-prospect in awhile. This is another tribute to the 1989 Bowman set, shrunk down to a manageable (storage-friendly) level.

It's also nice that these were my first Gorman cards. Photoshopped!

I have a feeling that Gorman will be higher than #55 next year.

Ryan Helsley is segregated in the "prospects" division of this set, but he made a few appearances with the big club in April.

Andrew Knizner (pronounced Kiz-ner for some reason) is now the new Carson Kelly, because Yadier Molina will outlive us all and never retire from baseball.

Here are some guys that we should be excited about! More Genesis! Knizner, are you number 96 or number 93? Make up your mind!

There ended up being no definitive "hit" in my case break allotment, but I have plenty of dupes if anyone is into plain old Cardinals cards.

The Beast, Unleashed

Retro Cardinals and Topps Heritage set filler. 

Way back around Christmastime, GCA of The Collective Mind sent along a really nice grouping of older Cardinals cards and older Topps Heritage needs. I love cards from before I was born, because they really feel like an artifact of time that I feel like I want to study. I'm not sure today's cards will make that kind of an imprint, but considering the continued love for all things '80s, maybe society will eventually feel nostalgic for... I don't know... 2010?

These two "rookie stars" are just waiting for their call. Just look at them!

1970 Topps is this current year's Heritage focus. After seeing a few of these cards lately, it's easy to see how the 2019 set is just a bunch of guys posing for no apparent reason. There were a lot more close-up head shots like this in 1970, though.

There was a healthy amount of 1975 minis, including this adorably mis-cut Claude Osteen. Just because it's a mini doesn't make the airbrushed monstrosity on Claude's head any less prominent.

It looks like someone told Ron Willis a joke that he doesn't quite get.

What a collection of players we have here! Even if this is water damaged, it's still a great card in my book. Joe Torre might not even deserve to hang out with these guys, but this goes in the Torre section of my binder just the same.

As mentioned above, a good portion of this package was devoted to 2005 Topps Heritage cards that I didn't have already. As time continues to pass, I am growing more and more appreciative of the sets I collect from the days before I thoughtlessly walked back into this crazy hobby. I need more of these! It's possible that time really does heal all wounds, as I don't even mind posting a scan of Barry Bonds and his enormous head here on the blog anymore.

Speaking of heads, the tuberous head of Placido Polanco graces Cards on Cards for the first time in awhile. I always really liked Polanco as a player, though his trade from St. Louis to Philadelphia was instrumental in the Cardinals (eventually!) winning a World Series.

The beast, as GCA stated, was unleashed. It's way past time for me to feed it.