New and Old Wave

A surprise mailer of cards from the spring.

Back in April I was the lucky recipient of another interesting package of cards from Padrographs. I've been deep into the World Cup lately and feel like I've barely had a minute to do much with the blog or the collection, but I found some time during a weather delay before tonight's Mexico/Ecuador knockout match.

First up are a couple of aqua-tastic Cardinals parallels. Matt Svanson, who appears on a rookie year card numbered to just 299, has been in and out of the St. Louis bullpen this year. Willson Contreras has found a new home in Boston this season after finding a new position (first base) beginning with last season.

Next on the docket is a pair of Bo Nix rookie year cards. The Broncos card on the left is the retail version of Nix's card from 2024 Panini Illusions, while the Ducks card is from a Panini Prizm draft type set.

The biggest surprise of the whole package, however, was a team set (?) or at least team lot of some locally issued cards of the 1989-90 Oregon State Beavers basketball team. While I don't normally collect cards from my rival school, like many Oregonians from my era, I grew up rooting for and watching a lot of Beavers basketball. After some hugely successful seasons under Ralph Miller in the early '80s, Gary Payton's final season essentially marked the endpoint of me following the team and rooting for them.

The "Orange Express" nickname will always remind me of listening to their old radio play-by-play voice Darrell Aune. Scott Haskin was just a freshman here, but he would go on to be picked in the 1st round in the 1993 NBA Draft.

Mid-Week PWE Round-Up

A long lost Whitey and more from a couple of familiar Dodger-loving faces.

There have been a couple of old-school '80s variations on my want list for quite some time. It took me a long time to get the "Terry" version of the 1985 Donruss Terry Pendleton card (as opposed to his evil twin "Jeff") and now with a PWE that arrived from gcrl around the beginning of the year, I have an elusive Whitey Herzog variation from 1983.

The more common version of this card has Whitey's "Record as Manager" with a yellow background to match his bio info at the top of the card. I can't say I spent a ton of time searching for this card exactly, but I'm very happy to cross it off my list.

The Hamm King also increased his lead in the race while adding two more Hamms to the Hamm box.

Next up in the not-very-timely review of small envelopes from the first several months of the year is a pouch from, you guessed it: Night Owl Cards! There was a really nice variety in this generous package sent to the west coast in late March, including a numbered card of former prospect (and former Colorado Rockie) Elehuris Montero.

The older they get, the more fun these types of duo insert cards featuring players from opposing teams get. It's fun to look back on a time where we were on the edges of our seats to see what Albert Pujols might do to Mark Prior (or vice versa.)

I wish these '76 Revisited inserts from last year's Topps Heritage set were a lot easier to pull, or that the design was somehow part of its own set. I'd rather collect something that looks like this than, say, Topps Archives in its current state.

Night Owl tossed a few more Ginter minis my way, including a rookie year one of a guy who really borked up his career.

Just when it seemed like people were giving up on the stashes of Jordan Walker cards they were holding on to, the guy has started playing like an All-Star. Is it sustainable? Is the Cardinals relative success in 2026 sustainable? It's tough to say. I still expect the Cardinals to lose a lot of games.

Is there anything more fun than a food issue card? What about a vintage food issue card? This one looks like it was cut from the box by a very intoxicated person (or perhaps, more likely, a young person), but that just makes it all the more special. I need way more of this stuff in my life.

The last set of cards came over in another envelope in April from gcrl, who once again sent a fun Whitey Herzog card. This one is an embossed buyback card that was apparently inserted into the 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites product. If you're having trouble spotting it, the embossment is in the lower right corner on the back of Whitey's red jersey. There's a bit less of a permanence to how they mark these buybacks compared to the foil stamps that are common in more recent sets. Does anyone prefer these?

Also included in the envelope was a four-pack of Cardinals minis from the most recent Allen & Ginter set. It's a nice looking group.

The flagship Topps set has been inundated with parallels, the number of which seems to be growing at an alarming rate since the Fanatics takeover. I have more I could say on this topic, but will anyone seriously be able to identify what most of these parallels are supposed to be in just a few years?

Here's another one of those tougher-than-they-should-be-to-pull Heritage inserts.

Postage stamps have not actually been stamps in quite a long time, and now you can even have cards featuring stamps that are actually stickers. This is from the 2023 Topps Heritage set before they really started messing with all of the inserts and parallels.

When I originally started the collect these Propaganda inserts from the 2009 Topps Update set, the idea of having propaganda style posters of current MLB players seemed like a fun nod to the past. Now these are just kind of unsettling, but I still feel the need to finish these off.

Thanks to the often generous Dodgers bloggers for sending this stuff my way. I always appreciate a nice surprise PWE.

How Are Those Bats? (Heating Up)

More cards from Padrographs!

This is a dizzying time of the year to be following sports. We're already four weeks into the MLB season, soccer is soccering, the playoffs kicked off for two major American sports leagues, and there's drafts-o'-plenty. I've been the lucky recipient of a few unannounced packages of cards from Padrographs in recent times, and today I thought I'd show off some of the contents from one I got back in January after getting a nice kick in the pants a couple of weeks ago when yet another generous package showed up.

These cards were heavily focused on 2025 products, and the gem of the bunch is this Albert Pujols Chrome "silver pack" version of his 1990 Topps inspired insert from the flagship set (Series 2?) This particular one is the rare aqua version, numbered to 199 copies. I have enough trouble collecting each of the regular cards for my team collection each year, so this was a really nice find.

Here's a six pack of some more of those 2025 releases. Nathan Church has settled in to be a regular presence in the outfield so far this season after being called up last August. Strop is an international signee that was only 17 when he got his first card (in Mojo! form), so I don't have much to say about him yet. The rest of the dudes are pretty well famous, with two now ex-Cardinal stars, an all-time legend, a Large Mac headed to my Heritage set binder.

JJ Wetherholt not only made the big club out of spring training this season, he's been on top of the batting order for every start he's made (all at 2B, with Masyn Winn firmly entrenched at his natural position.) His batting average is a bit low thus far, but he's more than made up for it with walks upon walks upon walks.

This is one of those Topps Flagship insert things that I think has something to do with those giant Costco boxes. Not being anywhere near a Costco or being willing to pay above retail price for something like that, it's been a couple of years since I've bought one. The "Flagship" design may well be something that was rejected in the process of coming up with the new base set design (or maybe not), but the ones I've seen do offer a nice alternative to what you usually see.

Rod included some nice in-person autos, including early '90s stalwart hurler Bob Tewksbury.

Adam Moffat also signed a card at one point. He was an expansion pick of the Timbers after logging a few years with the Columbus Crew, but only made a handful of appearances with Portland in their inaugural MLS season.

Last up is one of those "cards that could have been" style custom cards. Driessen's lengthy MLB career concluded with part of a final season with the Cardinals, but he has no official cards as a Cardinal or any kind of "sunset card" with his final stats on the back. (I would very much like to own his 1987 card with the Louisville Redbirds someday, though.)

Contest Results!

 

Another March Radness contest is in the books. Let's check the results!

With Michigan holding off UConn last night, we have some winners to announce in the annual March Radness thing.

Taking home the 1st Place prize is Bump and Run (Trevor P). Congrats! Jafronius was the only other entrant to pick the Wolverines to take it all, and as a result he gets the 2nd Place prize. In 3rd Place with the best non-Michigan bracket was Jeremy D. And finally, Erin who "Does not watch sports" came in hot with the worst bracket.

Congrats to everyone (except Erin, who will be annoyed with me if I try to give her any more cards) and many thanks for participating.

Bonus points to anyone who can spot the relevance of the image above.

Contest Update!

An update before the Final Four and a bunch of Christmas cards.

We're in the home stretch of the latest edition of the March Radness contest, and it all came crashing down for me on Sunday when Duke was felled by the shocking end to their contest with UConn. Huskies alum (and member of the back-to-back title teams) Donovan Clingan was just about to take the floor at halftime of the Blazers game we were at when he found out about the wild ending. While Jeremy sits in 1st place currently, I'm unsure of a path to victory for him as his predicted winner (Florida) is long gone. It all looks like it will come down to who takes the real title to determine our winner, with Trevor riding high with Michigan, both Brendan and Emily in play (Arizona), and Dominic lurking with his Connecticut pick. (Nobody tell Erin that she has clinched the worst bracket this year.)

Speaking of Michigan, we've got a ton of great cards to show today that came from big Wolverine guy Dennis of Too Many Verlanders over the holidays. Incidentally, the namesake of his blog is back in Tiger Town for what could conceivably be his final stop on his MLB tour.

I am pretty sure I have more "fancy" cards of Jeff Ayres (fka Pendergraph) than any of his normal base cards, but such is the way of the young hooper that doesn't blossom into a starring role in the pros. This one comes with a free mystery substance. I'm not going to forensically analyze this exactly, so let's just call it dirt?

I believe I have a lesser copy of this chunky jersey card of the one-time Cardinals closer. This one is a silver (or gray?) version numbered to just 149 copies, though.

Travis Outlaw was a bridge between the "Jail Blazers" era and the good vibes of the B-Roy/Aldridge days. Fun player! This is a fun card as well.

It's sort of amusing that this is called "Color Guard" when there is a distinct lack of vibrant color on it.

Here's a couple of other significantly more obscure Blazers on a signed card (or signed things affixed to a card, at least.) Portland certainly had some misadventures in the draft before landing Damian Lillard. Williams and Babbitt were a pair that didn't work out so well.

One of the things I like the most about Panini's draft sets is that they show players in the fully licensed college uniforms. This insert idea distorts the coloring and patterns of Franklin's Ducks uniform beyond recognition, unfortunately.

Hey, it's picture time! Encased cards don't scan so well, you see.

Here's a quick six-pack of cards from the various teams that I follow. Pacific really had some goofy designs.

And here's a nine-pack of all Ducks! I think my favorite here is the combo Freeman/Mariota card in their college uniforms.

I was fairly ambivalent about the Diamond Kings brand, but I do miss their framed parallels. This one is numbered to 99.

Blog favorite Ugo Amadi checks in here with a silver Prizm autograph from the much beloved Panini Prizm Draft Picks set.

And now we head all the way back to 1982 for a gander at a Garry Templeton Fleer stamp. I still have a lot of needs in the stickers and stamps areas.

The ticket motif that Panini Contenders is based on doesn't always work, but I like this design. The green foil helps as well. (Does anyone use paper tickets anymore? And they certainly aren't perforated, are they?)

It's baseball season! I hope everyone has been enjoying the first week of the long MLB marathon.

Contest Time! March Radness Year 17

Fill out a bracket and win some cards.

March Radness is back for another year! You probably know the deal by now. Fill out a bracket in my contest group and you may win a prize. I'm going with a simplified prize structure similar to the recent football postseason contest as that actually helped me get all of the prizes out the door before the next contest approached.

2026 rules:

• Selection Sunday is today, which means that you should be able to fill out your brackets very soon, if not by the time you are reading this. The games that actually count for the contest will start on Thursday, March 19th.
• Default ESPN scoring rules apply. You must fill out the entire bracket, including the tie-breaking final score of the final game.
• First place wins a 2026 Topps Heritage Value Box (blaster).
• Second place wins a 2026 Topps Heritage hanger box, while third place will win some sort of new(ish) unopened pack, subject to availability.
• As always, the worst (honest) bracket will get something, too.
• Click here now to join, and follow the "Join Group" link. The password is: radness
• Make sure to fill out your entire bracket prior to March 19th!

Contest Alert!

A new contest is around the corner! Plus-- group break goodies!

We're deep in the thick of the various college basketball conference tournaments right now, which means March Radness is just a couple of days away. I should get this year's contest group operational at some point late Saturday night in anticipation of Selection Sunday. I've watched next to zero college hoops this season (oh, my poor, poor Ducks), but I'm not going to let that damper my fun in picking the games.

Today we have a fun little batch of Cardinals cards from Nachos Grande breaks. I'm pretty sure there are still teams available for his monthly subscription through Patreon and he also still has his Discord group going for other breaks as well. I recently signed up for another "breaker's club" batch of a bunch of breaks, so there should be more good stuff like this to show off later in the year.

At 25 with 19 big league starts under his belt, Michael McGreevy already feels like a cagey veteran in the Cardinals rotation pool. That's how young this team is going to be, folks.

Masyn Winn is still running hard around the basepaths while dodging an onslaught of squares and rectangles. It's a stormy one out there.

I'm not sure how these Chrome "lightboard logo" cards are distributed, but they look pretty decent with the old STL logo in the background.

I am a sucker for a nice acetate card, and this Paul Goldschmidt from the 2019 Topps High Tek set does not disappoint.

Let's hope this is the year Tink Hence figures it all out!

Stamped buyback cards are as silly as ever, but they're still always a nice find for my top player collections.

Check back on Sunday for this year's contest details!