Future Baseball Plans

The new Cardinals... maybe not the same as the old Cardinals.

I've tried not to dwell on this too much, but my interest in baseball in general has fallen off of a cliff in recent times. When you combine this with the streamlining of baseball card products in the Fanatics era, I could also say my interest in baseball cards is also starting to crater. I can't dispute the idea that the Cardinals lack of success on the field since the end of the 2022 season has contributed to this, but I still think I would have most of those negative feelings even if the Cardinals had been playing more at the level of their 2010s rosters.

While I won't get into my feelings about the state of MLB in general right here, I will show off some cards that Night Owl sent over back in July. Remember the summer? I miss it already. I guess I'm just having those December feelings right now.

I haven't really prepared any changes in the way I'm going to consume baseball games (or not). I haven't really dramatically changed how I collect cards, either. I'm still going to watch Cardinals games, of course, especially as long as there's free MLB TV access to T-Mobile subscribers, although it appears that deal's days are probably numbered with ESPN's pending acquisition of the platform. (Gross.) There are interesting players on the Cardinals roster on any given day, including speed demon Victor Scott II, shown here on the first "true photo" variation I've added to my collection. I wish these weren't such a tough pull, honestly.

I do nearly all of my trading via TCDB and have managed to add a bunch more Cardinals Topps gold parallels in the past year. The original gold bordered look still reigns supreme, as shown here on Miguel Cairo's card from 2004 Topps.

Will Panini continue to run out its zombie baseball products in 2025? What about the other sports? I know that Panini has a lucrative contract with the WNBA that has been extended by several years, so the company itself won't be going away any time soon. Fanatics supposedly has no interest in acquiring them, and I'm doubtful that they would suddenly start cranking out fully licensed Donruss cards even if they did. If anything, Fanatics seems to want to focus on it's core brands and do the laziest thing possible by applying the same design templates to a million cards a year.

Considering Paul Goldschmidt's Hall of Fame track and the six seasons he spent with St. Louis, I don't think the Goldschmidt want list will ever have a finite endpoint, even though he is no longer a Cardinal.

With Willson Contreras moving to 1B this past season, Pedro Pagés has actually caught the most games the past couple of seasons for the Cards. The entire catching situation is a bit murky right now, though, with Ivan Herrera showing star potential as a hitter and next to zero potential as a backstop. Toss in a couple of prospects on the rise and a cult hero in Yohel Pozo, and you've got a quandary on your hands.

JJ Wetherholt is the prospect of the moment. I honestly thought he would get a late call-up last season (maybe in the 40-man September active roster era), and he certainly has a chance to make it difficult to keep him down much longer if he has a big spring. Will the Cardinals be dreadful again next year? Absolutely. The most frustrating thing about this rebuild is that they should have started it years ago, if that was truly their intentional all along.

Night Owl also tossed in some more set-filling needs, including these inserts from the 2025 Topps Heritage set. Of course, they look very similar to cards from other Heritage and Archives sets, but Fanatics (or whoever) apparently decided they needed yet another insert set of random players on old designs.

We end things in true Night Owl trade envelope fashion with a few more minis from Allen & Ginter sets. Each of these names are of players I haven't thought about in a few years.

Mr. Haverkamp Delivers!

Older set needs and cool Cardinals stuff.

The man they call Mr. Haverkamp has been a frequent participant in my contests over the years, and also found the time to send over some cards I needed from my various want lists. (I need to pay him back... soon!) This particular stack of cards has been sitting in a particular box since early September, which means I really need to come up with a better system of organization. You can check out Mr. Haverkamp's want list right here!

The bulk of the cards I needed came from sets from the 2000's (as in, last decade). It's been awhile since I've knocked off any needs from the 2008 Allen & Ginter set, and I seem to recall these World's Greatest Victories cards being particularly tough to pull.

Check out Baby Dexter Fowler, on his 2006 Bowman Heritage Prospects cards. I do wish there was even a slight difference in design between the base cards in this set and the Prospects set, but, well, there isn't.

Here's Jack Wilson, a non-Prospect. He's wearing the very regrettable Pirates cap that fortunately disappeared with last decade. The classic 'P' is the only way to go.

Taking it all the way back to 2003, Mr. Haverkamp included a quadruplet of Giants cards from this older Bowman Heritage set. Ray Durham gets to represent the bunch here.

Obligatory Cardinals Card Alert! This here is a mini parallel from the 2008 Allen & Ginter set from one of my favorite players of all-time. It goes in the Cardinals collection.

From the Prospects of Yesteryear department, I can't say I know much about Eddie Degerman. I assume people called him "Da' German".

The 2003 Topps 205 minis are much more fragile than the later Allen & Ginter minis, even though they occupy roughly the same dimensions. This is a Polar Bear version of Jimmy Baseball's mini Topps 205 card. I didn't scan the back, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Actually, it turns out that I did scan the back, back in September when I first got this package and was adding this card to my The Trading Card Database inventory. So, there you go.

One Down, Three to Go

It's late at night and I'm kicking back, watching some time-shifted baseball. Things seem right with the world. What's this February thing you say? Surely it cannot still be winter? I must say, in watching this morning's Cardinals/Mets matchup that I put on the DVR, I am thinking this Michael Wacha I've been hearing so much about may just have a future in this here baseball game.

But I digress. Thanks to a certain White Sox fan, I am now just three cards away from completing a set I started 4 1/2 years ago, around the very time I started this blog. Here's a few more cards that JediJeff sent me in the plainest, whitest envelope that he could find.

I am a sucker for these lenticular cards, which is why I added the Archives 3-D set to my ever growing list of things that I am trying to accumulate more of. It would only make sense for me to have added the similar insert set from 2011 Topps Lineage, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet!

This one isn't bound for the Cardinals collection at all. It's my second Albert Pujols Hit Parade of Chumps Champions from the 2008 Goudey set, which means it finally gets knocked off the set want list.

Trolling for Sports Cards

Everyone's favorite Troll, a frequent trading partner over the course of this blog's existence, was kind enough to supply me with some more wares to get me through a long winter. Most of the cards were from set-building want lists, but there were some really nice Cardinals nuggets in the pile as well that I will get to shortly.

I'm down to missing just 4 (!) of the cards from the 2008 Allen & Ginter main set. This is the closest I've come to completing any of the big and somewhat (for me) expensive sets that I set out to do as a side project of this blog. Of course, my main focus has always been to turn my unwanted non-Cardinals (and Cardinals dupes) into useful cards, but some of these sets proved to just be a little too tempting.

Yes, I'm still collecting these. I would really like to work on the 2005 and 2006 Turkey Red sets, but they are still pretty cost-prohibitive from what I hear. In the meantime, I still need some more of the Turkey Red inserts from the 2009 and 2010 products.

I'M A BIG MAN AND I NEED A BIIIIIIIIG SANDWICH! And monies. Lots and lots of sweet, sweet monies.

New managerial candidate Terry Francona may not have the connections to the Cardinals organization that some of the other interviewees have, but his father did spend a couple of seasons in the Birds on the Bat.

First Jon Jay relic! Awesome. Jon Jay may not be the "star outfielder" that the back of this card proclaims, but he's a pretty capable center fielder and may yet have room to grow. He led the team in games played and style points.

But the Jon Jay card can't top this... a Bob Gibson / Jake Peavy dual relic. Of course, I wish this had Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright as the 2000s representative, but I'm in no position to be choosy.

Thanks again to the Troll!

Collation Assistance

I'm not quite sure who initiated what, but I got a chance to exchange baseball cards with Hand Collated, which is always a worthy effort. I've been known to do some collation of my own. In fact, the set that really brought me back to the idea of collecting a set or two was probably the 2008 Allen & Ginter set. I love the 2008 Heritage set and its original design and still do, but let's face it: the set is very intimidating. I'm still collecting it for what it's worth, along with many other sets, but I think at this point it's probably best to focus on finishing something... anything... before the next Allen & Ginter set hits the streets in mere weeks.

Oh, hello, it's my old friend Ryan Rowland-Smith.

So here's the story. I'm down to needing just 6 cards (all SPs) from the base 2008 A&G set, 12 cards (not all SPs) from the base 2009 A&G set and 6 cards (only one SP) from the base 2010 A&G set. I would like to finish them all ASAP. If anyone can knock any of those 24 cards off of my want lists, please contact me. If I can get them in my grubby mitts before I have to look at the hoards of 2011 A&G posts, that will be worth a ton to me and I will make sure to figure out a way to reward you several times over for it. Any inserts sent my way will be a welcome bonus, of course, but my goal is to knock out the 1-through-350s first.

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled trade post - already in progress.

Here is personal fantasy hero Gaby Sanchez. After a very strong rookie season, Sanchez is among the NL batting leaders and is on pace to improve upon his HR and RBI totals from last season.

Sure, I collect other things besides Allen & Ginter, which is what got me into this mess in the first place. I've been picking up a pack or two of 2011 Heritage when I can, but like every year before it, it's such an unending mess. A lovable mess, mind you.

I can't believe some people don't like 1985 Fleer. I really can't. This is the ultimate color-coded set for me. I really need to buy a rack pack of this stuff one of these days just for kicks. I found some on eBay recently, but I let them slip through my fingers.

Karma is a...

With the curtains drawn on the 2010 season for the Cincinnati Reds, we can also officially close the book for good on another Cardinals season as their chief competitors managed to break a record for playoff futility, managing just eleven hits in their series - two fewer than the record and also two fewer than they tallied off of one Roy Halladay start alone earlier this season. While I will certainly try not to let the grudge carry over until next season and beyond, I also can't say I'll be rooting for Brandon Phillips or Johnny Cueto anytime soon. With well-respected ex-GM Walt Jocketty at the helm and a number of ex-Cards dotting the lineup, this team had a chance to be my NL team of choice this year with St. Louis out of the picture. They were one of the only teams in the division that I didn't have a problem with (Dusty Baker aside.) In the end, the 2006 Cardinals stand as the last NL Central team to actually win a playoff series.

Meanwhile, on quite the opposite spectrum lies Night Owl Cards. I received at least the 32nd package from his neck of the woods back east recently and, as usual, it contained an assortment of Things I Tend to Collect. (You can see what is among those Things I Tend to Collect by checking out the sidebar on this very blog. You know, it's the thing... on the side... over there.) Should Night Owl read this post, he'll likely be quite confused about how my first paragraph relates to this trade package and, quite frankly, I am too. I think I just wanted to passively and aggressively complain about the Reds tonight because I (sort of) kept it classy during the season.

Speaking of complaining (see... I'm trying!), Adam Kennedy basically became a metaphor for a couple of lost non-playoff season that the Cards suffered through after the 2006 title. Kennedy was one of the few Cardinal role-player signees that failed to live up to his projections as an adequate player and do anything at all that endeared himself to fans. He talked his way out of town by his second season as much with his mouth as he did with his bat... um, with the uh... hitting instead of talking. Right? Right.

Great card. But is Gibby pitching... in a dream? Where are his teammates? Where is the opposition? Is he pitching in a biosphere? Where's Pauly Shore and the Baldwin guy?

Ahh, I love minis! I love it when people send me minis. I don't ever expect to complete any sort of set of minis, but I will continue to list them and love them when they're sent to me. At some point, maybe their novelty will wear off with people and I'll be around to scoop up the unwanted remains.

Finally, because I like to keep it short these days at 5 cards per trade post (also not coincidentally the maximum number of images Blogger will let you upload in one spell), I'll give Night Owl's team some love because it's the offseason and he sent lots of cards from Heritage and A&G sets that I collect without really buying packs or boxes. Thanks!

Oh, are you hungry for more?

That'll do it.

Ginter Mini Treasures from The Basketball Card Blog

For the second time in as many month's, I received an extremely generous supply of unwanted 2008 Allen & Ginter minis from a fellow blogger. This time, the loot came from The Basketball Card Blog, where all resources seem to be reallocated to an Allen & Ginter style basketball set that Topps put out last year, best known as Murad. And like last time, I will post an image of every single mini that I received, because they're fun to look at in strips like this.

There were a dozen of the regular back minis. I am really starting to think an entire regular mini set might be attainable someday, even though I am still stuck at a handful of short printed cards short of the regular set.

Bengie Molina and Kevin Youkilis are of the regular short printed variety, while there were also five of the Allen & Ginter back versions. (NOT-SO-SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE HERE. SIGN UP FOR MY MARCH RADNESS CONTEST NOW. THANKS.) Getting now former Cardinal Rick Ankiel on a variation card was a nice touch.

I had completely forgotten about EDGAR RENTERIA and his special capitalization. Renteria had a pretty nice run as a Cardinal, and I really didn't see him ending up as one of those guys that bounces around for the rest of his career (Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco... is he still there?) A black bordered version of Jeanette "The Black Widow" Lee is very fitting. I remember seeing her run tables like crazy during many bored Saturday afternoon hours on sports channels in the past.

Here's something I didn't expect - a few inserts, including a rare shark card. The Bull Shark will join the Tiger Shark I already have in my collection as I'm now 40% of the way to a full on Shark Arsenal. And then there's Stephen Drew... what did Stephen Drew's card do to stand out?

Ah ha! This is awesome. As you can plainly see, Stephen Drew's card is in fact a hand-numbered Bazooka back parallel mini. I was lucky enough to pull a Nick Johnson Bazooka back in this set out of a pack, but didn't get anything like this last year. It's stuff like this that makes the writing and preparation here worth its while. It's also stuff like this that makes me seriously delusional about tracking down more cards from this set. If I was going to make any modern baseball card set a long term project, however, I think 2008 Allen & Ginter would make a strong candidate. I liked last season's set and I may like this year's as well, but there's something about the 2008 set that really grabbed me. Maybe it was just because it was my first look at A&G.

Thanks again to G_Moses down at The Basketball Card Blog. It's live, you know... from Rip City. And that city, quite frankly, is better than your city. (Sorry about your city.)

A Barrel Full of Cardinals

(Or is that barrelful?) Here's another trade post from a frequent trader: Ed from Roll Out the Barrel. This wasn't really a trade for anything specific that I recall, but I did recently send him a stack of Brewers and stuff from his want lists.

While everyone seems to be stressing out about what the Cardinals will do at 3rd base should fairly green David Freese prove to be ineffective, I am a bit more concerned about who will be the 5th starter this season, how soon Kyle Lohse will be bounce back and be effective and if Brad Penny will be even somewhat competent. Yikes.

I love this card! This is my first Maris Cardinals card, and I definitely plan on it not being my last.

I do have to say that I miss the Baseball Heroes set. I like all of the rainbowy parallel cards for some reason. I would hope that it made a comeback this season if it wasn't for the fact that there's no way Upper Deck could do a baseball set the right way anymore. I'm not sure what color of the rainbow this is supposed to be. Light Brown? Bran Flake? Raked Leaves?

I love Topps gold cards. I don't know why. I am really not impressed by gold foil and I think gold as a color usually looks bad. Something about their marbled/sparkly borders usually make these look nice for whatever reason. Hopefully Spiezio is able to bounce back from the off-the-field issues that plagued him at the end of his Cardinals career.

I finally bought my first pack of 2009 Upper Deck X not too long ago. I have been hoping blasters would eventually show up with 50% off tags like last year's stuff, but I haven't seen it yet. The Xpontential inserts are pretty nice once again for a cheap set.

Here's a long-coveted Dmitri Young from the 2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team insert set. I've been considering collecting the entire insert set (which means I'd need another one of these) and have so far held onto whatever inserts I've accumulated from it.

No, this isn't a 2010 Turkey Red insert. Ed also sent a few of the 2007s, including the last non-short printed card I needed (Mariano Rivera) and two SPs. I still need a ton more, so if any of you has any of this stuff laying around, I would love to hear from you.

Finally, with this Jason Bay card I'm down to needing just 7 cards from the 2008 Allen & Ginter set. I really need to make finishing off these older sets a priority. In fact, there's an upcoming set that I will not even name that I'm planning on not collecting for once... at least, initially.