The Breaker's Club Has Benefits

Looking at some cards from the @Nachos_Grande breaker's club. 

 

Over at Nachos Grande, there's a new sign-up for this year's first Breaker's Club that might sound enticing to team collectors who are interested in adding a variety of cards for their team to their collection. You can read the post for details, but the way this works, basically, is that you pay in advance for a bunch of box breaks with your team of choice already locked in. It served me well last year as I was able to add a ton of interesting cards to my collection. Let's check out a few of those cards, which were primarily pulled in breaks from late last summer.

I'm not sure what the people at Topps were thinking with this weird 3D design on this Pristine set from 2004. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, though, so at least it has that going for it.

Leaping forward in time to the 2021 Topps flagship set, I believe this is what you'd call a "green ice" parallel of slugger Tyler O'Neill. I'm not sure that this looks much like ice, however, but maybe the name "green shards of glass" was a no-go.

I'm always excited to be part of a Pacific box break, because I have completed very few team sets from those products over the years. Private Stock is the one that had T-206 sized minis, long before Topps made them cool again.

Brad Miller was impressive enough at the plate in the abbreviated 2020 season to get his own insert card. He won't have many Cardinals cards, but he has this one.

Another thing that I like about Pacific sets is that there are several of them with larger checklists, like the one-off Online set from 1998. Larger checklists mean more obscure players get included, like David Howard. My only other two Howard cards are from regionally produced police sets.

From the "every rookie card is numbered" era comes this Dan Haren card from 2004 Donruss Classics. I'm glad they're not doing this anymore. These are numbered to 1999, which doesn't exactly make it rare, but does make it annoying for anyone who wants to build a complete set.

I do like the idea of having numbered inserts, however, because it's a better way to keep track of rarity than putting dubious odds on a pack wrapper. This one is numbered to 1250.

With Panini apparently owning all of the old Pacific brands, the Vanguard design gets trotted out every now and then. I don't think it's ever appeared on its own in a Panini set, though. The player photo sticks out in a way that reminds me of those life-sized wall vinyl sticker things (Fatheads?)

Here is something interest. Well, first of all -- check it out! It's even-worn Albert Pujols pants! I took a long look at this card and first wondered if maybe Donruss did not have the rights to the Home Run Derby name. I also wondered if, possibly, what we know to be the Home Run Derby wasn't always called that by name. Neither of these things are correct, however. It turns out that this was from a non-MLB sanctioned event that actually was called the Big League Home Run Challenge. It was organized by MLBPA and I'm thinking the lack of logos should have been a big tip-off here that something was amiss. In any case, this is a very cool and rather strange card to add to my collection. I wonder if Pujols signed any of those jerseys that has his own name on the front.

It's hard to top the Albert Pujols strange pants card, but this one does it -- at least for me! Prior to this, I only had a single Jim Edmonds autograph in my collection, despite him being one of my favorite players of all-time. And that card is from one of the cheaper mid-'90s sets, depicting Edmonds with the Angels.

I'm not sure that I can do much better than this, but I did sign up for the newest breaker's club. It's definitely worth checking out, and as more teams are taken more boxes may get added to the pile.

Closure

More Cardinals gems and a couple of Turkey Reds to help put me over the finish line. 

 

Around the beginning of October, I received a nice little package from Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were. It looks like Jeremy has since gone into collecting semi-retirement since I last checked, but I'm sure he knows the internet will still be there if he needs to scratch that itch again, for better or for worse. In any case, he sent another batch of really nice stuff that we'll dig into here momentarily.

The photos in Stadium Club are often so good that they really pop when scanning a Chrome Refractor version like this Goldy card. I'm definitely a fan.

Jeremy also sent a trio of Bowman "1st" Draft cards in refractor form, including young Griffin Roberts. Actually, Roberts just completed his age 25 season at AA throwing just 1 2/3 innings, which doesn't bode well for him. That's unfortunate.

Here's the second elusive retail exclusive color parallel to make its appearance on the blog this week. The "let's make it purple" contract seemingly was handed over from Toys 'R Us to something we don't have here called Meijer after the toy store chain went under. (Their cards were typically very overpriced, so maybe they deserved this in some way.)

There's nothing like a good, classic X-Fractor. They're better than the X-Men if you ask me, whatever an X-Man is.

I wish I had great things to say about this year's Topps Gold parallels, but they're pretty bland and not really even gold now. At least they brought back the foil serial numbers after years of printed black numbers.

This is a good time to mention that I finally finished off my top collecting goal of 2020: Turkey Red! I am now done with the entire run (Series 1, Series 2 and Update) thanks in large part to fellow collector/bloggers like Jeremy, who sent me Hank Aaron and David Dahl's cards from the insert set. I did purchase about a dozen or so of these online to put the thing to bed once and for all, but a good ninety percent of this was accomplished through trades and a few lucky pack pulls.

Pick 'Em Contest Results

The contest is over! Let's see who won! 

 

Bowl Pick 'Em #12 is officially in the books. If you're one of the names mentioned below, please contact me if you haven't already sent your mailing address and any favorite teams/prize preferences.

It was a close contest, but Johnny G takes first place with an overall score of 505 points. Nice job! The runner-up prizes are heading to John S (second place) and Peter L (third place). Of course, this wouldn't be a Cards on Cards contest without a worst place price -- that goes to Brandon L. Thanks again to everyone who participated, and, of course... March Radness is just around the corner!

Five Good Ones

Quality Cardinals cards from a quality Cardinals fan. 

 

When you're a team collector, you surely know the pain of ending up with heaps of doubles when certain people are always sending you their unwanted cards featuring your favorite squad. This is why it's always nice to have someone to trade with that's on your side, so to speak. Every so often I scour the collection of All Cardinals All The Time in hopes of offloading some of my own doubles, and I've had plenty of good Cardinals needs sent back my way in kind. Here's just a few of the Cards cards I received back in September.

This is one of those fancy "metallic snowflake" parallels from Topps Holiday. I'm not sure what makes them "metallic" - is it just the glitter? Nevertheless, I am compelled to collect all of these as the checklist demands it. How much will we see from Jordan Hicks in the future? Will there be any baseball at all in the future?

If I'm not mistaken, this is one of those retail chain exclusive colored parallels that I never see to be able to find on my own. Was this only available at Dollar Tree? Walgreen's? I know I haven't seen cards at a Dollar Tree in at least five years, and I only once stumbled across the fabled yellow (Topps) parallels at a Walgreen's store even though their pharmacies are all over the place in my neck of the woods. I need more elusive color parallels that are only available at certain stores!

Here's a nice little grey jersey swatch from Jack Flaherty on the always welcome 1986 design that was used through the 2021 Topps flagship sets.

We finish things up with an autographed card of the Cardinals backup catcher. This is on the 1985 design, which means it was inserted into one of the 2020 Topps sets. I didn't expect these to be signed "on card", so this is extra nice.

Contest Results and High Heritage

A Bowl Pick 'Em contest update and a #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax featuring Topps Heritage High Numbers. 

 

With the world turned into a real life game of Dr. Mario, it's amazing that any of our bowl games were pulled off. A few teams turned up as replacements in games, while a handful of others got cancelled. I'm sure the only entity that was truly sad about this was ESPN. It's wreaked havoc over the scoring outcome in our annual contest (the only thing that truly matters), but a few people have made it out okay heading into Monday's championship.

Johnny G is sitting pretty in first place with the most total points and the most total possible points. If he makes the right pick, the crown is his. Peter L and Elliptical Man are sitting right back there as well, and John S is poised to make a big move as well if the right pick is made. Don't forget to fill out you tiebreaker score for the title game if you haven't already.

I should have made this disclaimer earlier, but if 2022 Topps becomes more of a fantasy than a reality, I will ask the winners if they would like a replacement prize. With the MLB lockout in full effect, I'm not sure if new sets in 2022 are getting greenlit by Rob Manfred's minions or not. We shall see.

On that note, a big congratulations is in order to Mr. Haverkamp, who takes this year's Mayo Bowl prize. He doesn't get a 4.5 gallon of mayonnaise dumped on his head, unfortunately.

Let's look at some cards while we're here! Crackin' Wax had the overdue 2021 Topps Heritage High Numbers set available in breaks and I picked up the Cardinals as I often do. This Rookie Performers design is one of my favorites that Topps has come up with over the years.

I managed to get copies of the base team set a few times over, plus a single copy of the lone short printed card - Andrew Knizner. With Yadier Molina returning for one more season (assuming there is one), it looks like Knizner will have one more chance to prove that he's up to the task of taking over full time. That's a tough thing to do without actually playing regularly.

Here's a rookie pitcher and possibly one of the last cards of Matt Carpenter in a Cardinals uniform. I would think that he would certainly get opportunities with other teams, but will he be able to land anything more than a minor league deal?

Another longtime Cardinal in his swan song with the team and the guy that ate a lizard.

Seth Elledge is the other rookie card in the team set. Paul DeJong is hoping to win back his job full-time for next season.

Even more so than most years, the High Numbers portion of the Heritage set seems like an afterthought. I do have a hobby box on the way because the price was hard to turn down ($61 shipped!)

Good Luck Ducks: Alamo Bowl Edition

It's Oregon vs. Oklahoma in a battle between teams whose coaches deserted them. 

 

College football is nasty business, isn't it? With head coach Mario Cristobal's sudden but not entirely unexpected departure, the Ducks are a shell of their former selves after a disappointing season. Any season that begins with a road win over Ohio State was bound to find a lower point sometime, but the way Oregon was thoroughly beaten by Utah twice in the final weeks of the season added an already disheartening mood to a season that also saw a boneheaded defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory to Stanford. And then the coach left. The assistants left. Recruits backed out of commitments and current players transferred. The way so many things rely on a single person's job, a person that happens to be one of the highest paid public employees in the entire state, makes it increasingly difficult to root for the school when it's not actually the school that's bringing the players in.

The last thing I'll say about the Cristobal era is that I just felt like the games were a lot less fun to watch than I'm used to, and I imagine that I have similar feelings about writing about them. Today, some interim coaches and players who have managed to stick around (for now) will face off against an Oklahoma Sooners team in a similar situation. They had a season of high expectations that ultimately ended in disappointment. Their head coach bailed (for USC?! That's not even a lateral move these days considering the Trojans haven't been relevant since Reggie Bush was there.) I'm not sure if their recruiting situation is as dire as Oregon's because I don't follow that stuff too closely, but I do know their highly touted first week starting quarterback ended up transferring. Their impending move to the SEC, however, should ultimately have more impact on the future than losing the head coach.

The Sooners are led by true freshman QB Caleb Williams, who took over as the starter mid-season. Williams has had some highs and lows as you would expect from someone that inexperienced. As usual with a Big 12 team, offense is everything, and it will be up to the (remaining) Ducks defense to see if they can slow down Oklahoma. With their ranks depleted on the defensive side as well as at receiver, Oregon will have to bring a perfect game plan and hope to catch the Sooners napping in this post-Christmas late game in San Antonio.

Series History: Oklahoma holds a 6-1 all-time edge over Oregon, with their most recent matchup a notorious win for the Ducks 15 years ago. More on that game in a moment.

Opponent Talk: I was unable to find much of anything written about this game from the Oklahoma perspective, except this hilarious word soup that thinks that three of the four key Ducks players that have left or opted out recently all have the same last name (they don't.) Due to holiday travels, I am writing this about five days before game night, so it's possible that the lack of online content is not due to lack of interest.

That 2006 game was wild, as the Ducks came from 13 down with less than 2 minutes left to knock off the Sooners thanks to some inspired play by Dennis Dixon and some classic Pac-10 officiating. (And they still had to block a field goal!)

Game time is 6:15 PM PST on ESPN. Go Ducks!

Lesser Heritage

 

A look at the annual minor league version of Topps Heritage. 

 

Better late than never, Topps released their version of what constitutes a minor league set these days in the by now all too familiar 1972 Topps format. As far as I can tell, these can be a fun and affordable box break most years, as long as you don't mind players in their minor league uniform. I ended up in a group break via Twitter and ended up with most of the Cardinals affiliated cards for my team collection.

The main complaint I have with these is how nearly every card looks the same. I know part of this is paying tribute to the original set, but aside from Jordan Walker, everyone is captured in the same "photo day" style with some sort of blue sky background. The only card I am missing is Matthew Liberatore's card, as he has two cards in the set and I only ended up with the "Traded" one. (It would have been cool to see "Traded" variations in the major league set, but as far as I know they didn't even attempt this.)

I ended up being randomly assigned the Diamondbacks in this break (as I often do), but this landed me my first ever Hillsboro Hops cards. Topps, what are you doing here with the team names? Neither of these two players were on the team when I attended my one and only professional sports event of the year during the summer, out in Hillsboro. Carroll only played a few games for the Hops in May, and Short hasn't been on the team since 2019.

I like these pack wrapper inserts that take the design of the original 1972 Topps pack wrapper and make a baseball card out of it.

These I'm a little less familiar with. Apparently it's modeled after some sort of stamps in the 1972 Venezuelan release. It's always fascinating to read about those older Venezuelan sets that drew heavily on the Topps cards of the day, but were at times their own thing.