Another Four-Sport Winner

A sportsball trade package. 

The always excellent buckstorecards found another way to smuggle cards across the northern border and into my collection, sending a bounty of Cardinals, Trail Blazers, (American) footballers and even some hockey guys my way. I haven't really figured how how to incorporate hockey cards into the blog yet (or my life, really), but I have a nice little collection of St. Louis Blues cards brewing. They narrowly missed the playoffs this season and narrowly missed the cut for this post.

Minor league baseball cards are always high on the list of stuff I like to see in these sorts of swaps. I even like the new stuff Topps puts out. I just wish the packs were a bit cheaper and more accessible.

Former Cardinals rotation stalwart Jaime Garcia made his last appearances in a Cardinals uniform in last year's flagship Series 1. This is the gold parallel of his Cardinals send off. I miss the old gold borders from past sets.

Marcus Mariota RC Alert! I don't actually recognize what set this is from, but it's a little more substantial than your average set.

Oh, the perils of being a team collector. As I occasionally have to explain, not only do I collect this type of transitional card (player shown with old team, labeled as a Cardinal), but I also collect the reverse of this. If a card depicts a player in a Cardinals uniform, even if he's labeled with his new team, it goes in my collection. (Same rules apply to my Blazers cards.) Does everyone else do this, or am I just weird?

Speaking of the Trail Blazers, it's former big lug of a center Robin Lopez on some sort of red parallel from the 2014-15 Panini Threads set. I bet you already knew that, though, since it says THREADS in huge letters.

The scanner doesn't ever do a good job at showing this, but you can see right through this Nic Batum card. Cool stuff!

Finally, this is a jersey card from Panini's annual "Black Friday" promotion. At the time Black Friday rolled around, it didn't look like Zach Collins would have much of an impact on this year's Blazers team, but he started logging enough key minutes that they eventually sent former lottery pick/project Noah Vonleh packing. (Actually, it's more complicated than that, and Vonleh likely would have stuck around if the team's financial situation wasn't all screwed up right now.)

Let's Talk Jaime

It's like he signed a metallic Band-Aid.

Jaime Garcia had two brilliant seasons and has very respectable career totals. But when he should be entering his peak years, he's sidelined yet again with scary shoulder injuries and giving scary quotes about his surgically repaired shoulder. Being disappointed by a budding star's career threatening injuries isn't something that's uniquely a baseball thing, but it still seems to happen to MLB pitchers more than other pro athletes.

It sucks. The Cardinals have not had a lasting prominent left handed starter since, I don't know, John Tudor? Actually, despite his phenomenal seasons with St. Louis, he wasn't able to put in enough years to get any jersey retirement proceedings going. Maybe this is The Curse of The Tudor? In recent years, the Cards have had huge difficulties batting against lefty starters as well. I can't explain it. I hope Jaime comes back and can contribute this season, but I'm not holding my breath. Poor Mark Mulder probably isn't holding his breath, either.

Once again, Howard sent over some more cards to me recently, and I thought I'd show off some of the oversized gems that were sent my way. I am a big fan of lenticular cards, and he sent over a few McGwire prints from MLB that capture a moment in sports history that you can basically play back and forth with your own two hands.

Truthfully, I really wanted to scan these photo things just to see what my scanner would do with them. They don't look half bad. This is McGwire's record breaking HR that I also have immortalized on an extremely thick standard sized card with a Kodak logo on it. I didn't collect during these years so I am a complete novice when it comes to the HR Chase Era and how it played out with sports memorabilia.

Here's one for Erin's collection, a Tulo box topper from the 2011 Topps Lineage set. I didn't know these things existed.

Nice Cards!

Doozy is the word of the day.

Sometimes I get ready for a trade post and have a hard time picking some cards to scan, because they're all so great. This was one of those trades. Chunter sent me a doozy of a package full of Cardinals and player collection goodies and... did I mention it was a doozy? Some serious "wow factor" going on here.

I have very few of the Topps short print variations that they started including in the base product beginning in 2009, so I was really happy to see this. Gibby's shadow looks like a cane, like the kind they'd hook you off the stage with if you were bombing out there.

It's hard to tell, but this is actually an Xfractor parallel from the Bowman Platinum Prospects set. Carlos Martinez should figure prominently in the Cardinals plans in 2014. This year. I can finally say this year!

This is one of those hanger-pack exclusives, Walmart style. There's usually nothing great about "Walmart style", but when it eradicates a special card need of mine, I'm all for it.

I have a few copies of Matt Holliday's regular Topps rookie card, but this is my first Chrome version. Nice!

It's another rare base set variation! This one looks very colorized.

Here's hoping that Jaime Garcia also figures prominently in the Cardinals plans this year. When healthy, he's been a very good pitcher.

Here's a shiny purple version of what may become one of the key Cardinal rookie cards of this era. There's been some rumblings about Shelby Miller's health among the rumormongers these days, however.

I didn't get into Gypsy Queen at all this year, but this is one of the nicer insert designs I've seen come out of that product.

Finally, Erin received a handful of cards for her player collections, including this blue Tulo Heritage parallel. Not bad!

Another JABO's Group Break

I participated in yet another group break this summer. This one, like a few others that I've been involved in, was put on by Juuust a Bit Outside or JABO's for short. Included in the break were cards from 2004 SP Prospects, notable for its inclusion of a Yadier Molina rookie card, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen and 2012 Bowman Platinum. I already snagged myself a copy of the Yadi rookie card and some of the other Cardinal prospects in the set, but I didn't yet have the Jim Edmonds card. My extra Yadi card is still up for grabs in my Rummage Sale.

Bowman Platinum is something I simply will never buy as its beyond my price point. Its idea of fun is to make every card shiny in some way, which also reduces its appeal to me. I don't mind shiny things, but I don't like to be hit over the head with it on every card. Still, I need the Cardinals in this set as I do with just about everything.

Jordan Swagerty was a second round pick in 2010 but is currently rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. The Cardinals saw their top pick from the 2009 draft promoted today (Shelby Miller) with somewhat little fanfare as his role is a bit uncertain with the Cardinals making their playoff push.

Kyle4KC was kind enough to toss in some extra Cardinals, as he often does, and that included this nice Matt Holliday gold parallel card featuring the slugger wearing his old (2009) number.

I also took the opportunity to buy up this Jaime Garcia 2012 Allen & Ginter jersey card. I'm a big fan of the framed card design this year.

Posting may be limited for the rest of the week, depending on how things go. Musicfest NW is going on here in Portland this week and I will be attending, so my regular schedule will be all out of whack.

Showin' Off

 

In honor of a much needed weekend home sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, here are some scanned images of a bunch of nice Cardinals "hits" that I've procured recently. I hit up a card shop on the west side of town (aka the suburbs) in search of some much needed supplies and found some bargain-priced Cardinals. Did you know that I like the Cardinals? I bet you did!

I find this card pretty interesting because it's a pitcher's game-used bat, and that pitcher went on to become more of a batter. He's never really approached the level he played at when he first re-broke into the majors as an outfielder, unfortunately.

This isn't really a "hit" per se, but it's a short printed Goudey card that chisels another little notch in the old want list. Plus, it was only a dollar!

Cheap Edmonds jerseys were to be had. I had this one.

This is probably just a base card, but I really like it. Does anyone actually collect Triple Threads? I will never fully understand the high-stakes game of baseball card collecting. I would be just as excited (actually, more excited) about receiving a Jaime Moyer 1991 Bowman card, personally. Does anyone have a Jaime Moyer 1991 Bowman card? What about 1991 Stadium Club? No? I really need to get one of those "top X most wanted cards" lists together soon.

This was another one dollar find at the card shop. I am on record as saying that I'm not overly fond of Chrome-ing up the Heritage cards, but when they are done to my own team it's another matter entirely.

Meanwhile, I recently purchased some Yadier Molina cards for Erin's collection (her birthday was last weekend) and took the opportunity to add a couple of cards to my collection as well, mainly to save on shipping charges. I'm a sucker for serial numbers, parallels and blue cards, and this is all of those things.

Wainwright, as we well know, did not pitch at all last season. This photo must be from 2010 (or before?)

I also snagged a bunch of stuff for myself at the monthly card show last month. There's no card show in town this month as far as I know, so I may splurge and finally buy a Heritage hobby box. Here's another Edmonds jersey card for the collection. I will be updating my Zistle account shortly.

Here's a black Matt Holliday workout jersey swatch on a card that features some cacti (because it's Arizona) and some weird diamond pattern (because...??)

I feel like a broken record, but I'm going to say it anyway. Jaime Garcia should be back, hopefully, soon. And, hopefully, he will be able to contribute to the stretch run.

I picked up a pair of Bowman autographs at the show as well. I tried to just choose one of the two Cardinals at the table, but I ended up going home with both. Joe Kelly has been a valuable contributor as a replacement member of the rotation and has even helped win a game with his bat and speed.

Does Kelly have the so-called "upside" that Kolten Wong has, though? This is what made choosing between the two cards a tough decision. I like Joe Kelly because I've seen him play, and there's always a chance Wong never makes the bigs at all. Wong is pretty highly regarded as a prospect, however, and he plays a position (2B) that is always in demand - especially in the St. Louis organization.

I could have sworn I had this Rolen jersey card already, but I wasn't able to find it in any of my boxes where I store these things.

Finally, last but certainly not least, here's a simply amazing Jim Edmonds bat card that Erin purchased long ago. I was finally able to pry it away from her and now it sits in my collection. For now...