Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #639

What can you say about this guy?

Who is he? What to say about Josh Hamilton? He was the overall number one draft pick in the 1999 MLB Draft, but it would take until 2007 before the can't miss prospect would play in the majors. Hamilton went through years of problems with drugs and an organizational change before he made his debut with the Reds. After a single season as a part time player in Cincinnati, he was traded to the Rangers for a deal that included Edinson Volquez. In Texas, he'd have his best seasons as a pro, though he also proved to be injury prone and continued to battle his personal demons.

How did he get here? Having landed Albert Pujols for a ridiculous amount of money the season before, the Angels threw swimming pools full of gold coins at another player - Hamilton - before the start of the 2013 season. Now at age 34, Hamilton proved to be a massive disappointment and a costly mistake in Anaheim, and after the team selfishly tried to get him suspended for the season to recover some of the money he's owed, Hamilton was never punished by the league and wound up being paid to go away. He's back in Texas now -- and back on the DL, unfortunately.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None, but the original photo is below.

Airbrushed Score: 6

Comments: Not the best, but not the worst?

I Traded with Nachos Grande

And all I got was this lousy t-shirt. (Not pictured: the t-shirt)

I'm almost caught up with March's packages, which means I shouldn't be typing the words "caught up" at all. From longtime blogger Nachos Grande came a trading first for me: I got something functional and wearable from him in the form of a (not actually lousy) Cardinals t-shirt. As a die hard Reds fan, I can only imagine that this was used as a snot rag in his household. I would show it off, but it's buried somewhere within my laundry pile at the moment, so you'll just have to imagine what it looks like (not like this).

Chris also sent cards along with the shirt, including a handful of the good guys including this Rick Sutcliffe 1994 Fleer Ultra you see here. A lot of strange veteran names passed through the Cardinals roster during the mid '90s, like Ron Gant, Gary Gaetti, Eric Davis, Jeff Brantley, Danny Jackson, Tom Henke and, of course, Rick Sutcliffe.

The bulk of this trade was a much needed pile of 2013 Allen & Ginter cards. I don't know why, but I never put much of a dent in the Across the Years insert set. I guess it must be huge.

I already had the Ozzie Smith short print card for my The Wizard collection, but I needed a second copy for the set. Now I have it! Nice.

Thanks to this trade, I'm now more clothed than ever, and I only need 3 more One Little Corner cards!

Completed

Still just a drop in the bucket.

Friday was payday, so I went out over the weekend to run some errands and came home with some cards. You know how this goes. One of the things I punked down some cash for was a 20 packs-for-$20 repack box, which is probably the best way to do repacks. (Stay far, far away from those shady little windowless boxes with a guaranteed hit and little else. That's how you get stuck with Leaf Pete Rose cards.) For possibly the first time in my life, I actually completed something with a card pulled from a pack. I'm now done with the 2014 Topps Heritage base set thanks to pulling a card of a duo of fairly anonymous pitchers, and now only have the myriad short prints, inserts and variations to chase down.

I did snag some Target-exclusive 2014 Heritage cards that I needed as well, but this Kershaw Opening Day Stars card from last year was probably my second favorite pull of the lot. I just really like these inserts and have only recently begun to realize that they're not the easiest things in the world to find for whatever reason.

If you've got any of these lenticular wonders from over the past several years collecting some dust in a corner somewhere, let me know. I did end up with a pile of doubles which I'll have to get rid of. This reminds me that I still have piles of team sorted cards still available of my doubles from sets that I collect if anyone wants them. Check out what teams are still left!

Airbrushed Fridays: 2007 Topps #21

Hi. I play for NEWYORK.

Who is he? Chris Britton was a relief pitcher for a spell. His Wikipedia entry seems neglected and a little sad, mentioning his large weight relative to other players in the league in the present tense even though he hasn't pitched a game in 7 years. There's a quote from the Yankees GM that probably fails the "is it noteworthy?" check pretty hard, damning Britton with faint praise or at least casual indifference. In any case Chris Britton logged three years of MLB service time, three years more than I did or my neighbors did or any of my friends did.

How did he get here? Britton was an 8th round pick of the Orioles in 2001 and reached the majors at the age of 23. The Yankees gave up Jaret Wright to get him, and he would spend the next two years bouncing between the Yankees bullpen and AAA. He struggled in later years in the Padres organization before disappearing from organized ball entirely after 2011.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None

Airbrushed Score: 10

Comments: This card gets the rare perfect score in the Photoshop era. The only thing that could have made it worse is if "New York" was misspelled.

A Crazy Idea?

Matt Holliday playing first base doesn't seem far-fetched to me.

I didn't plan on making consecutive posts about the Cardinals Lego-headed star, but with Matt Adams being lost for the year due to injury my mind has been wandering about how this problem will be addressed. With Peter Bourjos finally starting to approach his potential, Randal Grichuk's light tower power on display, and Jason Heyward sometimes doing Jason Heyward things, it seems like the Cardinals have a glut of outfielders and a shortage of quality corner infielders. Holliday is 35 and certainly in the age range of a player who is moved to a more stationary position to keep his bat in the lineup as often as possible. Is baseball the only pro sport anymore where teams are hesitant to approach their aging stars about career changes out of respect or whatever? I'm a huge fan of the man, but it's not like his defensive skills in left field are irreplaceable. Local media, however, seems to have dismissed this idea as nonsense. I don't get it, and I'm not eager to see Mark Reynolds at first as an everyday thing. He's been solid so far in a utility role, but that's where I'd like him to stay.

On to the cards! The always excellent Junior Junkie sent me an outstanding group of cards some time ago, including this synthetic canvas-like Brian Jordan card from the 1997 Leaf set. I'd never seen one of these inserts before. The '90s continue to surprise.

A bunch of Jim Edmonds cards were in the mix, pushing my unique Edmonds card total into the 470s. This shiny thing is number 94 out of 100.

My scanner sort of munched this card's border, but it's still evident that this is a silver signature parallel of Jimmy's 1995 Collector's Choice card. Even Edmonds even played 1B a little bit, also as his Cardinals career was nearing its end.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this. This is an awful card. This was early on in Panini's baseball run, where they evidently were terrified to show even the tiniest indication that the subject plays for a team and isn't, say, an amateur chef in training.

I don't know what this is at all, but it's numbered to just 30 and reminds of some informational cards I had as a kid that showed safari animals and little factoids about each. It's awesome! I need more like this.

Somehow I completely missed 2013's 75th Anniversary Topps set (must have been a Hobby only thing?), but the buybacks have been trickling out in trade packages of late. If you put this in a time capsule it would probably confuse the hell out of someone down the road.

Finally, here's a swell looking Tulo jersey card for Erin's collection. Erin is still holding on to some hope that Tulo will someday be a Cardinal, but for the time being that position is pretty locked up by a Peralta guy that could be headed to the All-Star Game this year.

Goin' on a Holliday

Matt Holliday ties a Cardinals record by reaching base for the 42nd consecutive game to start the season.

Over the holiday weekend, I hit up a local card shop for some supplies and a few things I needed to fulfill some contest prizes. I decided to buy a few 2015 Topps Heritage packs and was fortunate enough to get the shopkeep to open a fresh box. I picked the three packs across the top of the box (because of course!) and was pleasantly surprised with this Matt Holliday Chrome card numbered (something or other) out of 999.

Another Team Collecting Dilemma

Maybe I am overthinking this.

As if I needed another team collecting quirk to deal with, some cards that Infield Fly Rule sent me earlier in the spring dug up some 24 year old feelings. Back in the early days of Stadium Club, Topps would include a little inset photo of the player's rookie card on the back. I don't know why in all these years I hadn't considered this before, but I might have to include this Mets Tommy Herr card in my Cardinals binders after all.

Here is the issue, of course. There are Cardinals on this card. The team is mentioned. There's even a logo or two if you squint really hard or pull out your jeweler's loupe. If I am going to put a Jaime Moyer Rangers card with "NOW WITH CARDINALS" printed in text in the binders, I am not sure I can consider this any less of a worthy candidate. I know I'm not putting up much of a fight here. I guess I am resigned to admit defeat to weird collecting technicalities.

Adam also sent over some cards for my PCs as well as some not-so-borderline Cardinals. My Darryl Kile collection is fairly neglected at this point, standing at just 89 cards after this junk wax gem. I need to work on this.

Finally, here's a couple of circa-1997 cards of the venerable Cardinals hitting coach. (Pro tip: if you send me cards from 1997, I probably don't have them.)

The other awesome thing about cards from 1997, if they are of the Upper Deck variety, is that you might actually get a date and a factoid with your card photo. Bonus!