Cards and Blazers from a Yankees Fan

More great cards from @Lost_Collector feature both of my favorite teams. 

Back in January, I received a nice package from longtime blogger and trading partner The Lost Collector. I decided to scan some of my favorite cards from said package, and write a few words about it in the process.

The Cardinals have had an up-and-down season so far that's been extremely frustrating to me. Fortunately, they're on the upswing of things. I've had a mental blog post running in my head for awhile now about all of the players that have left the team and gone on to be successful elsewhere recently, but considering the team's good (albeit brief) run of late, I am going to choose to keep it positive for now.

Questionable fonts aside, it was nice to snag this numbered parallel of Fernando Tatis the Elder, even if it documents his exodus from St. Louis to the far north.

Here's another, shinier document of one of my favorite moments in team history. Carp was never the same after a season in which he led all of professional baseball in innings pitched. Ryan Howard was also, unfortunately, never the same after blowing out his Achilles just seconds before this photo.

AJ apologized in advance for sending a bunch of junk wax era Blazers cards, but I was happy to receive them. There were (and likely still are) a ton of needs there, especially in the mid-'90s.

I'm so distracted by the shiny, blurry gold that I can overlook that this one documents the late great Kersey's departure to Toronto via the expansion draft. He bounced around the league for a bit after this, eventually popping up as a key member of a very good Spurs bench early in the Gregg Popvich era.

Meyers Leonard is never junk wax.

Here we have the many faces of Gary Trent the Elder. Actually, this just looks like one face... over and over again. Wow.

My First Ozzie Smith Auto

The title says it all. 

As you may recall, I ran into a rare bit of luck recently and pulled a nice Michael Conforto auto. While my eyes initially turned to dollar signs like one of those greedy guys in the old singing frog Looney Tunes cartoons, I was quickly presented with an offer I couldn't refuse. Deep down, I'm in this for the fun of it, and it's honestly more fun to send someone a valuable card (on the rare chance that I get one) who really wants it rather than sell it to some random person I'll never interact with outside of a financial transation. Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown was the one to pounce, and he presented me with my very Ozzie Smith certified autograph, along with a bunch of other cool Cardinals stuffs. (My apologies for the scan, but I wasn't about to bust the thing out of its case and spill some beer on it or whatever.)

1994 Collector's Choice is firmly in junk wax territory even though it came out after I stopped paying attention. That said, the silver and gold signature parallels can be a tough find, especially the gold ones.

Some years ago, some kind blogger interviewed me via email and asked me some questions about the then-current state of the Cardinals. Of all of the players I could've chosen from at the time, I thought I'd sound smart and say that Daryl Jones was the big up-and-comer. I was not right. Gavin sent over this Topps Pro Debut card of the former DJ Tools, along with a pile of other Pro Debut cards that I didn't have. I love minor league cards, I really do. So much promise... and strange names. Daryl's name is pretty ordinary, though.

Just gonna say... '90s style mushroom trip?

Luke Weaver status report: still on the minor league DL with a busted wrist. Could be back soon, though?

This is the real Archives deal. For the cards released from 2012-present, Topps should have just stuck with the Lineage name because they're not at all the same thing as the old Topps Archives. Also, I have to say, I'm not much of a jersey wearing guy, but I would love to own a Cardinals jersey like that one.

Apparently there's an early '90s oddball Orioles set commemorating past players, and they couldn't actually find a Baltimore picture of this guy? Well, he goes in my Cardinals binder. Sorry, O's fans.

Shelby has super duper struggled with the Diamondbacks this year, a season after he was an All-Star with Atlanta who had the strange distinction of going 6-17.

My first Cardinals game seen in person happened to be So Taguchi's MLB debut back in 2002 in Seattle. The Cards are back in Seattle this June for the first time since then, and I've got plans to make it to the entire series.

Fernando "2 Grand Slams in 1 Inning" Tatis has a signature that would make most doctors envious.

Long before there was Panini's Prizm, we had Pacific's Prism. This card is really, really bright!

Finally, Gavin sent over two customs of The Wizard, including this '91 Upper Deck style from Ozzie's memorable trip to the void of Simpsons existence, the dreaded Mystery Spot. Actual real life ballplayers who I'd wish would take a trip to the Mystery Spot: Bryce Harper, Jonathan Papelbon, Brandon Phillips, Kris Bryant, pretty much all of the Cubs roster...

Go crazy, folks! You may have also heard that Gavin caught a little heat for selling some of these great creations of his, so I want to stress that these were sent to me completely free and without any financial incentive. (Not that, uh, we should feel all that sorry for Upper Deck for all their past shenanigans.)

More Big Guns

The hits, they keep on comin'.

Much like last night's trade post, here we have another ridiculously great batch of cards, this time from longtime friend o' the blog Play at the Plate. While he shares a first name with the sender of yesterday's loot, his interests lean more in the Rangers direction rather than to Twinsdom. PatP has been sending me stuff for years, and I always make sure I kick down my Rangers stuff to him. Rest assured I will be on the lookout for something cool at the next card show.

Tim Cooney got a turn in the rotation this year with Wainwright out and Jaime Garcia dealing with his own annual DL trip. He did fairly well in his six starts, but like most young pitchers he didn't go very deep into games.

Here's another one of those heavy duty Medallion cards from 2015 Topps blasters! I just need Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina and I will have them all. Well, shoot, those guys are pretty popular. And they'll probably throw even more at us in Topps Update.

It's a bright and shiny Stan The Man, which means you've either been staring at your screen too long and your eyes are dying... or it's one of those shiny refractor dealies. I guess your eye doctor won't kill me if I tell you it's the latter.

I just wish we had gotten more amazing on field moments out of Oscar while he was around besides that crazy first home run in the rain, because you just had the feeling that he was going to be full of them.

Fernando Tatis had a habit of dropping in and out of baseball fans' collective consciousness, and he often did it dramatically - like when he hit two grand slams in one inning for the Cardinals in 1999.

These new fangled Diamond Kings are kind of goofy, but this is more inspired than the base designs Panini has been throwing at us at least.

Finally, here's a photo variation of Yadi celebrating the Divisional Series win over the Dodgers. This one is going to Erin. I'd ask my readers out there for another one, but some of you are Dodgers fans and have probably already burned anything that looks like this.