My Topps Million Card Giveaway Results

It was a rough night for the Cardinals, but at least the bats are alive. St. Louis scored 8 runs for the second straight night after tallying 6 in the series capper with the Giants on Sunday. Unfortunately, Arizona scored 13 runs off 2 fewer hits and walked away with the game.

Mel Nelson didn't pitch in the game or any game in the past 42 years, but he's pictured here on his 1969 Topps card, one of two that I claimed right before the deadline of the end of the 2010 Topps Million Card Giveaway.

Nelson's final year in the bigs was 1969. Baseball-Reference.com lists Mel's Cardinals jersey number as 47 and his number in 1960, his original stint with the Cards, as 35. I suppose it's possible that this picture is from the 1960 season, which would be kind of strange.

I know a bit more about Sadecki. This is at least my 4th vintage Cardinal card of his, which must exceed pretty much any player I can think of. Sure, I have tons of Bob Gibson cards, but most of them were made long after his playing career was over. Both of these cards arrived in reasonably good shape, but they're nothing you wouldn't expect to find in a $1 bin (or cheaper) at any given point. Why did I get them shipped? I guess it's just my official document of the year long contest. I can look at these cards and at least have something to show for all of the codes that I entered. I should also mention the fact that the second card I ever redeemed, and only other card that I had shipped, was a certified autograph of a Hall of Famer. I am not complaining.

"ST. L. CARDS" is an interesting way of abbreviating the team that I follow regularly. I've noticed that they are far more frequently referred to as the Cards in earlier times, but I almost want to say that was to save on space and printing costs than the way they were spoken about in those times. The cartoon is great, by the way. You should click on the image to zoom in. Cartoon Sadecki is about to pull some Harry Potter action on that twig there and start busting out stellar Quidditch moves on the Yankees. In the '60s. He's magical.

March Radness Prizes: Winners, Make Your Selections

This is the part of the contest where the winners get to see the spinning room full of prizes and take home what they've won. What have they won? Well, first, let's recap who the winners were:

• Aaron S - "Smalltown Ballers" - gets to choose 3 prizes
• Kevin - has chosen to donate his 2 prizes to a charity to cure the disease that afflicts Boston Bruins fans this time of year. (I can only assume that the Bruins fanbase is the NHL equivalent of the New England Patriots fanbase.)
• Todd Uncommon - gets to choose 1 prize after Aaron S has made his selection
• The Lost Collector - gets to choose 1 prize after Aaron S and Todd Uncommon have made their selections, and is stuck with whatever else I happen to throw his way for finishing las

Here are the prizes. Please respond in the comments with the prizes that you'd like, and please also email me your mailing address. In addition to whatever selections are made, your should include your favorite team(s) or player(s) from any sport as I tend to like to throw in some extra cards in these packages. While my primary focus is baseball, I did throw in some basketball-related prizes just for fun. You're under no obligation to choose any of that stuff.

• 1 blaster currently on the big box retail shelves. I'll do my best to find your request, but it's obviously going to be easier if you pick something like 2011 Topps Heritage or something you've seen recently. (Retail value: $20.00)
• A variety pack of 4 MLB jersey cards that I found in a bargain bin yesterday including the card I used for this post. No Ray Durhams or Juan Uribes here. These are all players that you would want on your fantasy teams, provided that they were healthy.
• Three rookie cards of 2010-11 NBA MVP-to-be Derrick Rose: 2008-09 Topps Murad #171, 2008-09 Fleer #236 (w/ Beasley and Mayo) and 2008 Press Pass #29
• A variety pack of three NBA jersey cards that I have pulled from packs at various times. Two of them are serial-numbered. Feel free to browse the archives here and APTBNL to figure out what cards they are.
• A 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 1 NBA jumbo box. I can't imagine this contains anything great considering I paid $7 for it, but I will certainly have fun opening it if you don't.
• 25 cards of your choosing from your own personal want list. I reserve the right to refuse to fulfill one or more cards from your list if the prize is excessive (i.e. the total value of this prize should not exceed the value of any of the other prizes in this list.) Please make sure the want list is greater than 25 cards in number in case certain cards prove to be difficult to find.
• As many Alex Rodriguez cards as I can find in my collection - at least 25! Somebody has to love this guy, right?
• As many cards of your favorite team(s) or player(s) that I can stuff into a flat rate envelope. (Any winner can choose this prize regardless of whether someone else has taken it.)

Card Show Nuggets in a Lousy Season

It's been a really, really rough start for the Cardinals. There's no way around that. No amount of puff pieces on MLB.com or positive baseball announcer speak can smooth over the fact that this team is not scoring and not winning. That's all I'm really going to say on the matter.

I went to a card show yesterday and, along with a few things for trades and contests and such, I picked up some Cardinals for my own collection, including a few Cadaco discs. These things are pretty flimsy, feature stock MLBPA photos with logos airbrushed away, and seem to have been used for some sort of game. Other than that, I don't know anything about them.

It's tough to pass up a Red mini for 10 cents. So... I didn't.

This card is just hideous. I also don't understand it at all. Is the idea that some sort of perceived greatness progressed from Duke Snider all the way up to Vernon Wells? Is Vernon Wells better than Duke Snider?

This serial numbered Stan Musial card was in a 3 for $1 bin. Can you believe that? This is a great looking card.

Finally, my big ticket item was a Jaime Garcia jersey card from his second year in pro ball (and first year on baseball cards.) It's a little rough around the edges in that a couple of corners are dinged a bit, but I still love it. It cost me three dollars. With Adam Wainwright on the shelf, Garcia is the best pitcher on the staff, which even includes Chris Carpenter. Carp is still very good, but he's not quite as dominant as he was even a couple of years ago. Garcia, meanwhile, is only 23 and has already gone through the whole Tommy John surgery initiation that is mandatory for all Cardinals starters.

Airbrushed Fridays: 1974 Topps #289

Continuing with the Dodgers theme of my last post, here's this week's victim of artistry gone awry.

Rick Auerbach was a career reserve infielder who happened to share a last name with one of the most famous coaches of all-time: the NBA's Red Auerbach. The two are not related as far as I can tell. Rick put up a shockingly abysmal .572 career OPS in 11 major league seasons. One can only hope he was really good with the glove or a "good clubhouse guy" or something to that extent.

Why did Topps airbrush Rick's photo? Auerbach was dealt to the Dodgers by Milwaukee in late April 1973 and spent most of the season in AAA. Milwaukee, for some reason, reacquired him in early September of that season only to sell him back to the Dodgers again after the season was over. Having not actually spent a game in a big league Dodgers uniform at the time the set was produced, someone at Topps was called upon to do something "creative".

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? Wow, just look at that logo. Does he play for Iowa or something? It looks like it could be an 'IA' on his cap, or perhaps a small 'T' and an upside-down 'V'. I don't know what else to say. Really, I don't.

If you are interested in obtaining a card featured here, please send me an e-mail. If you have a card you would like to nominate for Airbrushed Fridays, please get in touch as well. I will require that I am able to see the card in person, either on loan or as a donation, so that I can examine the card and experience it in all its cruddiness.

30 Teams in 30 Posts: #20

My earliest baseball memory goes back to when I was in Kindergarten. I was walking to school with my best friend and his older sister who was in the 4th grade, when the big sister proceeded to explain why the Dodgers were absolutely going to win, something I didn't want to hear. My friend could never admit to this memory, but both he and I were on the Yankees side. Yankees fandom was in my family and as a child I didn't know any better, while my friend was likely on the opposite side of his sister just because that's how things work. In any case, the Dodgers were burned into my brain as a sworn enemy and I've never shaken the feeling.

These days, the Dodgers don't really bug me as much as they used to. I definitely rooted against them in the 1988 World Series. The Cardinals have dominated the Dodgers in recent years, although the pendulum decided to swung the other direction in a severe way in the 2009 playoffs. Guys like Andre Ethier, James Loney and Clayton Kershaw are definitely less hatable than Jeff Kent or Mike Piazza, but the team is still in the lower half of my rankings and have virtually no hope of leaving it.

Favorite current Dodgers player: Andre Ethier. This was a tough choice, but I'm not allowed to say Vin Scully because he isn't on the active roster. Ethier is probably underrated, even after all of the notoriety he's received for being a magnet for the late inning walkoff drama.

Least favorite current Dodgers player: Rafael Furcal. All I get in my mind when I hear that name is Jon Miller talking about "FOUR-CALL" and his unassisted triple play.

Favorite Dodgers player of all-time: Pedro Guerrero. I don't really know if I ever actually liked Guerrero, but I fondly remember his name being used in the classic '80s comedy Short Circuit, and that has to count for something. Guerrero finished his MLB career with the Cards as part of the unfortunate Joe Torre era.

Least favorite Dodgers player of all-time: Kirk Gibson. Gibson was only a Dodger for a brief period, but his place in history also became a particularly sore spot for me. I was never A's Fan Number One, but I rooted for those teams because they were exciting, and the Cardinals were at beginning of a long downward slide. I was fascinated by the magic that Dave Duncan was able to work with Eckersley, Welch and Stewart, which still continues today with the likes of Carpenter and Pineiro.

The Los Angeles Dodgers step up to the plate at #20 in my reverse-ranking of favorite teams as of the moment I picked them on October 4th, 2010. All of these cards are very much up for trade, so please contact me if you're interested.

Cardboard Cardinals

Colbey of Cardboard Collections has been another frequent visitor to my mailbox, which is a good thing because I have a stack of things queued up and ready to send back to him. This latest package was a hybrid Cardinals/Blazers package with a couple of DK Astros cards thrown in for good measure. I'm saving the Blazers stuff for another post, so let's go ahead and look at the baseball stuff for now.

This is a very patriotic looking card, which is apparently an insert from the 1994 Fleer set. I'm not sure if I've seen these before. The huge presence of stars and stripes makes me think of the sets that immediately followed the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001.

A long, long time ago in a world far, far away, inside a dome wearing an off-colored rainbow on his jersey, Darryl Kile threw a no-hitter. It's easy to lose sight of that as he didn't really hit his stride as a pitcher until he joined the Cardinals in 2000.

Here's a sweet Chris Carpenter "workout jersey" card from the 2010 Topps Update set. I'm guessing they make these guys try on several of these jerseys to cut up for memorabilia purposes rather than cut up the only one that they wear during photo ops, practices and events. Who knows?

I'm in agreement with the majority that manupatch cards are senseless and pointless, but that doesn't stop me from wanting them when they have to do with the Cardinals. This patch commemorates the 2nd ever All-Star Game which was held at the Polo Grounds, the home of the Giants.

We Have a Winner (and it's Not UConn)

In what was not only a terrible college basketball game, but was surely the worst championship game at any level of college basketball of all time, Connecticut beat Butler Monday night to conclude the March Radness contest.

Congrats to Aaron S, whose "Smalltown Ballers" bracket defeated everyone in the group. Aaron was the only person to pick either of the participants in the final game and also successfully predicted Connecticut as the ultimate victors. Aaron, I don't know who you are! Please e-mail me as soon as you can.

Kevin and his confusingly-named, possibly Phish-related bracket ended up in second place almost by default. His big win was predicting UConn as one of the Final Four teams. (Kevin, by the way, has a standing agreement to accept his prize in the form of malt beverage and/or tuna melt form, so he won't be stealing anyone's Pedro Feliz relics.) The venerable Todd Uncommon landed in third. All of the above mentioned will receive prizes, which will be announced on Sunday. And finally, it wouldn't be a Cards on Cards contest without a reward for the worst bracket submitted. Quite frankly, I believe almost everyone deserved this award (myself included) but there can be only one "winner". Congrats (?) to The Lost Collector, who unseated Aqua-enthusiast AJ as the new last place finisher.

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Lastly, in a bit of unrelated news, I received this response from Topps in regards to the Diamond Giveaway codes issue:

Response (Arielle) 04/05/2011 02:21 PM Please note that we have experiencing technical difficulties with these codes. We are working on uploading all of these codes for your to do redeem. Please allow one week for this process. If your code/codes still do not work after this time frame please contact us again.

If your error does not fit into this discription please contact us further.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service team (By Phone: 800-489-9149, or by Email:support@etopps.com) if you ever have any other questions, comments or suggestions. A customer service representative will be available to answer your questions between the hours of 8:30am-4:30pm (EST), Monday through Friday.


Thanks,
Topps CS Team