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.

"First Trade Post of 2021"

A variety pack of @padrographs cards. 

 

It's back to the grind with catching up on some of the great stuff that's been sent my way recently. For this first non-contest related post of the year, we go all the way back to the beginning of the fall for some cards from Padrographs. (Go ahead and check out that contest if you're so inclined as I didn't feel great about promoting it yesterday for some crazy reason.)

Rod gets autographs from seemingly all corners of the baseball universe, so it's no surprise that he had a signed card of Mark Salas in his one and only appearance as a Cardinal on a baseball card.

It's always great to see a card with the old Civic Stadium in the background. Pittman is likely standing somewhere near where the corner of the pitch lies in the stadium's current configuration as Providence Park, home of the Portland Timbers. I really do miss those chilly summer nights of watching AAA baseball in Portland.

Here's Pete Ward, looking fly. This was during the team's Pirates affiliation. I have no idea where this photo was shot, but it doesn't look like Portland.

I definitely have at least one other copy of this card, which was probably already featured on the blog. Still, it's a nice reminder of when basketball cards could actually be found (and were affordable.)

Here's a couple of Heritage Then and Now cards from 2019 featuring the late Brock and Gibson. These cards sometimes make for some odd pairings, but I can see where Topps was going with these. Still, in today's game, it would probably two or three good Whit Merrifield seasons to equate what Brock was able to do on the basepaths. (Merrifield stole 20 and was caught 10 times in his last real season.)

Finally, here's a few Turkeys. I've made a lot of good progress on the 2020 version of this set (especially thanks to the latest contributor Jeremy) but still have quite a ways to go on Series 2, which makes sense because people have been hoarding those blasters. At this point, I guess I either need to root for Luis Robert to fail or start hitting those online shops for singles. The latter sounds like a better idea.

CardConNW '18: 'Graphs

Cards from another locally based blogger. 

Previously on Cards on Cards...

And even more previously...

As the 10th anniversary here approaches, it bears mentioning that Rod of Padrographs was among the first group of people I traded cards with via the internet. I also got a chance to meet him in the local meet-up back in March. The Lakers fan (really?!) sent me some of his unwanted Blazers cards, as well as a nice batch of Redbird goodies.

Jeff Pendergraph was a draft pick of the Trail Blazers back in 2009, which is probably around the time I first traded with Rod. The rookie, now known as Jeff Ayres, is shown here with his Christmas jersey. This was probably the last time the Blazers were invited to play in the NBA's premium Christmas Day showcase, unfortunately. Ayres hasn't played in the league in a few years, but has kept active professionally in other leagues around the world.

Before I stopped collecting cards (think early '90s), I had no idea Action Packed made anything but football cards. Discovering their baseball stuff and, more recently, their Hall of Fame focused basketball sets has been a treat.

I never saw Damian Lillard play in college, so this card is one of those snippets in time that is a new experience for me. For all I know, Dame traveled to this planet on a spaceship and woke up one morning in the middle of a field with a Blazers jersey on.

We switch sports here. This is another gem from the early '90s that I had never laid eyes on before. This was around the time that Kodak also lent their name to the brand new Topps Stadium Club brand, in an attempt to give it an air of premium...ness.

Even if I didn't collect all things Heritage, I am quite certain I would be interested in this Deckle Edge insert set from 2018, modeled after a set from 1969 as usual.

Finally, is this a real guy? Scott... Hurst? I am not always great with the prospects, but if Baseball Reference says he exists, I guess he exists.