A Breakdown Holiday and a Contest Winner

From @breakdowncards come more greetings of the season, plus a Belking winner announcement. 

The last of the holiday posts comes from cards received from Santa Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. Along with this very limited ornament that would look fantastic on any Christmas tree, Gavin sent over some wonderful additions to my Cardinals team collection.

This seasonally appropriate card will end up in Erin's binder. Erin was a little more enthusiastic about the card stuff when I started up the blog thing, but she still wants all of your Yadis (and Altuves).

Here's a snazzy (yes, I just used that word) pair of refractors from the 2018 Topps Chrome set. I think I'm in the camp that hopes that Ozuna will end up back with the Birds, warts and all. I just don't see anyone else out there in the market or coming up from the minor league ranks who could immediately replace the offensive production Ozuna is capable of.

You can probably tell by the clarity of this scan (from my budget priced scanner purchased at a Circuit City going-out-of-business sale) that this is also a refractor. Descalso was mostly a utility/bench guy for the Cards, but he has turned out to have a pretty lengthy and productive career overall.

I should start calling these ska cards. They have that checkerboard pattern, although they're not quite black and white.

I didn't get a chance to purchase any Topps Finest this year (do I ever?), so I am always happy to find Cardinal needs from this set.

Shortly after receiving the holiday envelope, Gavin and I also met up for another in-person card exchange, which netted me a few primo serial numbered cards. Junior Fernandez is someone I'm pretty excited about, with this blue "paper" Bowman card coming off of my theoretical needs list.

I think I own entirely too many Michael Swinson cards for a guy who topped out at A ball and left the game six years ago. That being said, I didn't own this blue refractor of his... but now I do!

The last card from Gavin was this fancy Leather & Lumber thing from the adventurous set that Panini put out this year. You only get 10 cards, but I kind of want to break another blaster of this stuff. This die cut Miles Mikolas card is numbered to just 25 copies. Fantastic.

Now, if you've made it this far, you're probably here for a contest update. We didn't have all that many entries for the Belk Bowl mini-contest, and probably not coincidentally, no one was all that close. Only a few folks picked Kentucky (correctly) to win, and The Bucs Stop Here was the closest with a score differential of 29. Congrats!

Christmas Cards from Cardboard Collections

More seasons greetings from @flywheels in cardboard form. 

Another fine holiday themed envelope arrived in my mailbox just in time for Christmas with some cards from Colbey of Cardboard Collections. Included were a couple of cards from the almost-too-over-the-top Walmart-exclusive Topps Holiday set. We don't have a conventional Walmart (or at least one that sells cards) where I live, so these through the mail dealings are the only way I can pick up stuff like this.

This one isn't an exclusive, but it sure looks nice. If I was smart and wanted to free up a ton of space, I would get rid of all of my Allen & Ginter cards save for the black minis, because they always look great.

Back to the Holiday set here with Marcell Ozuna, the man without a team. This is one of the extra-sparkly parallels that even has glitter on it. I don't know what the official name is for these. Holiday cheer?

Colbey also sent some brand new Hoops needs for my Blazers team collection. Portland's basketball team is in dire shape at the moment. The less said about them right now, the better, but the cards are always appreciated. It's been hard to find basketball cards at all lately with Zionmania still a thing.

I saved the big one for the end here as Colbey delivered my second Paul DeJong chase card of the week. The All-Star Game was, of course, in Cleveland this (well, last) year - so we get this Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame guitar themed jersey card. Not bad!

Happy 2020, everyone.

Good Luck Ducks: Rose Bowl 2020

More like Piss-consin. 

The new year is the time to reflect on what happened in the past 365 days, but for college football any bowl game is a time to reflect on what happened during the season and how the team got here. I feel that I've been a bit tempered in my enthusiasm with this Ducks team in this space, but this has to be acknowledged: it was a really good year for the Oregon Ducks football team. Short of making the somewhat farcical College Football Playoffs, the Rose Bowl has always been the goal of the Pac-(12) conference teams, and it still feels sweet despite the what-could've-beens.

This will be the final game for QB Justin Herbert, a Eugene native whose childhood photo wearing a Joey Harrington jersey will likely be shown once again at some point during today's broadcast. Herbert was thrown to the wolves immediately and suffered a 70-21 defeat to a bitter rival in his first start. He had nowhere to go but up from there, and he certainly climbed. He won't enter the pro game with the credentials that Marcus Mariota earned, but considering Mariota's current NFL standing, that might not even matter.

The Ducks face off against a very good Wisconsin team, who likewise are ranked in the top ten despite three losses this season. Oregon last faced the Badgers in 2012 in, you guessed it, the Rose Bowl. Some dudes in green uniforms and silver helmets beat some Russell Wilson guy to earn the right to put stems of roses in their mouths. Oregon gains a bit of health today by getting talented freshman receive Mycah Pittman back. After steamrolling Utah and putting some doubts to rest about their offensive scheme, Marcus Arroyo will be in the offensive coordinator position for the last time as he is set to become UNLV's head coach for 2020.

• The Last Game: Oregon thoroughly dominated the Utah Utes in the Pac-12 Championship despite being considered an underdog. Let's just say it was satisfying. Okay, it was super satisfying.
• Know Your Opponent: Badgers fans are still hung up on some sort of fumble from the 2012 game. Hmm.
• The Unis!: In a nod to the Rose Bowl from 8 years ago, the Ducks are going with nightmare green and silver helmets. Close enough, I guess?
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: "I think anything regarding a bowl, an opportunity postseason-wise is always an opportunity to build tremendous momentum." Signs point to yes. 

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: Well, it's more than a bit of a stretch, but 2 Live Crew once sampled a classic Guns 'n Roses song and... well, I'm probably done with this gimmick forever. That's where it's at!

Game time is 2:00 PST on ESPN. Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are on the call. Go Ducks!

But wait, there's more! Loyal friend of the blog Dennis of Too Many Manninghams has many reasons to root against Wisconsin, being a Michigan Man. Dennis has provided many of the cards featured here in the Good Luck Ducks posts over the years, including the awesome Jalen Jelks autographed card shown here today. This "bonus" Badgers card was defaced with the best of intentions, and I feel honored to show it off here.

Yessssss, indeed! Quack, quack, quack!

My Secret Santa Brought Me Turkey

A heaping helping of one of my all-time favorite sets from @cardboardgreats plus some Redbird needs. 

I entered this year's Secret Santa pool, currently operated by Jon of A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts (I happened to draw The Lost Collector). My Santa was Henry of Cardboard Greats, who is a fan of those New England area teams. You know the ones.

Turkey Red is a favorite of mine, and something that tends to get buried in my want lists as the primary sets from their revival are now well over a decade old. As such, it was very exciting receive a stack of these cards, all from the 2005 edition.

Here's one of an active(ish) player, with CC set to hang it up after suffering an injury in the playoffs this past fall.

I really love the color parallels in these sets, which is what made the 2007 set (and subsequent smaller releases) a bit disappointing. Eric Hinske isn't a name we've heard in awhile!

Here's Johan Santana on another red parallel. This one is a variation as it has the Turkey Red ad back instead of the usual text. It's interesting that Santana stuck with #57 for his entire career, considering most guys switch to a lower number once they begin to get established. It must have had some sort of significance to him.

I had never seen one of these gold parallels before. This card of the Hall of Famer (and current Nugenix pitchman) Frank Thomas is numbered to just 50. I didn't even mention these on my wants at the time, but will gladly take any of these. They are so much nicer than the Chrome parallels from the 2007 set.

Henry, er... I mean, Santa also knew that I am a big Cardinals fan, and hit up my want lists accordingly. I can't help but post a scan of every Fleer Greats card that I acquire, including this Dizzy Dean from 2002.

There were several cards from the 2005 Bowman Heritage collection included. David Eckstein will represent the bunch.

Flashing forward to 2019, here's an insert from the current Panini Prizm set. Can someone grant Panini an exception to the Topps exclusivity thing and get some logos on these cards? There's a reason Prizm is so popular in other sports.

And for the grand finale, it's a Paul DeJong 2019 Topps Heritage autograph. There's not much more to say here except that I love it!

I'll have a couple more holiday-related things to show off this week, and then we'll head back to catching up on stuff from the fall.

Contest Update and a Thank You Gift

There's still time to win a prize. 

We're still early yet, but a few people in our group have already established themselves in the 99th percentile of all participants in the bowl pick 'em contest. Jafronius is the leader right now, with maxleemar and GLM1 following close behind. There's been a number of upsets already, which explains my dreadful position. At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself.

If you haven't made your Belk Bowl pick yet, head out to the original post and comment away. This is a simple one as you just have to pick the final score. Closest guess wins some shiny new Topps stuff. The game itself is on New Year's Eve, so you have until kickoff.

Finally, a kind TCDB denizen (and Blazers fan?!) named Steven sent along the badge you see at the top of the post as a thank you for performing some sort of task on the website. It's a souvenir from the first post-9/11 game at the Rose Garden Arena here in Portland. I had never seen one of these before. It's an interesting piece of history for sure.

Let the Kids Play and All of That

The final @CrackinWaxMailday of 2019 is all about the kids. 

There was one product left on the release calendar in the Bowman subscription I purchased from Crackin' Wax way back near the beginning of this year. It's the hobby-only Bowman Draft. I'm probably not as excited about this set as most, because it's strictly for the prospects. However, these cards are always fun to look at several years down the road, where you can play games like "Whatever Happened to That Guy?" and "Wow, That's What He Used to Look Like!"

While there wasn't a big hit to be found for my team, I did manage to get two full sets of Chrome refractors, which is pretty cool. Conner Capel is a guy I've been hearing more about lately. He was one of the players acquired in the much maligned Oscar Mercado deal. Only time will tell with these guys.

There's probably a good case to be made for not going after some of the big 3B names on the free agent and potential trade markets when you have Nolan Gorman waiting in the wings.

Luken Baker was also one of the prospects in the Bowman set at the beginning of the year.

I believe this is one of my first Mateo Gil cards. I have no idea who he is.

Now we're on to the "1st" Bowman guys, which guarantees that I won't know anything about them right now. Pallante is probably not actually wearing a Cardinals uniform here.

Fletcher looks like a little kid.

Hey, here's a guy. Cool.

I've actually heard of Zack Thompson, who was the Cards' top pick this year.

As a bonus, I also managed to snag a "sky blue" paper parallel numbered to 499 of Thompson.

And finally, the best card of the bunch is this green parallel of the team's Draft Progression insert, which is numbered to 99. I am not sure how Zach Kirtley ended up in this group as the representative from the 2017 draft, but it looks like that was probably the year the Cardinals were penalized for the guy who logged into an Astros guy's account and stole some draft and scouting information from the team (which is kind of funny to think about in light of more recent Astros developments). They didn't have a pick until round 3 (Scott Hurst?) and it kind of feels like Kirtley's name was drawn out of a hat.

Thus concludes a fun year of breaks. I'm currently considering my card buying strategy for next year. Does anyone want to bust open some older stuff?

Even More Cards from Bob

A reader sent more cards in between the last post and the post before the last post. 

If these posts were Star Wars movies, this would be more of an Empire Strikes Back rather than a The Last Jedi. As mentioned previously, reader Bob sent a series of packages my way earlier in the fall, and I just so happened to get the order mixed up. Here's a few cards from the second one (which in Star Wars logic is actually the fifth, but whatever.)

Bob sent a healthy grouping of minor league cards, which is timely because I just got around to building a minor league want list this year. This twenty year old card features the late Chris Duncan in his early professional days.

Here's Jimmy Baseball on a Gold Label gold tiered parallel that is fitting for him, I suppose. Gold Label always looks cool, though.

Former Cardinals prospect Dan Haren put together a pretty nice career as a starter. He wasn't quite fully formed as a Cardinal, but he's fondly remembered nonetheless.

There should be more mini posters in card sets. Seriously.