Home Field Advantage

With a win over the Giants tonight, the Cardinals have now won 12 of their last 13 at home. They're also fortunate enough to be in the middle of a stretch that sees them play 16 of 19 games at Busch. It's nice to see the club finally taking advantage of some home cooking, especially after they struggled earlier this season.

Cards in this post came to my hands from a JABO's group break. If it wasn't for group breaks and trades, the number of cards entering my house lately would be pretty close to zero.

I know a lot of people complained about all the seemingly unnecessary peripheral sets that were around when there were actually more licensed cards companies beyond Topps, and sometimes I agreed. When I see something like this Jim Edmonds 2006 Artifacts card, however, I really miss those other card companies.

I'm going to come out and say that I like these Opening Day blue parallels better than those glittery golden ones from the flagship set.

Where have you gone, John Gall? This serial numbered card makes me think about taking back everything I said above in regards to the Edmonds card.

I wish Topps would do more stuff like this, although with less border perhaps. I feel like they might have worked with an outside graphics designer on this project, as it looks nothing like anything else they've released that I can recall.

I scanned this card twice and it still chopped off what was left of the border. Sure, it's off-center, but it's not that off-center. Yeesh. This wasn't part of the group break, but it's cool to get a needed McGee rookie.

I know people are tired of Ginter. I'm not tired of Ginter. I'm tired of people being tired of Ginter. That's what. So there.

A number of former Cardinals from the teams between the championships (2007 through 2010) have surprisingly turned up on major league clubs this season, with pretty dismal results. P.J. Walters made 7 starts with the Twins this season at a 5.40 ERA clip. He was actually part of the Rasmus trade last season, so he probably earned himself at least a partial share of last year's World Series cheddar.

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...

Airbrushed Fridays: 1976 Topps Traded #592T

So many posts, so little time! Don't you people understand that there are some Olympics going on? Olympics!

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Why, it's Willie Randolph! To me, Willie Randolph was a product of the Yankees '80s bloated period of extremely low success-to-controversy ratio. In eighteen years, most of them with the Yankees, Randolph manned the keystone position and made six All-Star teams. He also managed the Mets for a few years, including a 2006 team that came up short against a certain Cardinals club.

Why does this card exist? Randolph's rookie season was spent in Pittsburgh. The Yankees swooped him up per the deal on the back of this early Traded set card and the rest was history.

Airbrushed Fridays is a weekly feature as the name seems to imply. If you know of a card with an altered photograph that you'd like to see featured, please contact me. You probably won't win anything other than a hyperlink and a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, a Bip Roberts card, and a Bip Roberts card, but you never know!

Larry Mudlin Presents: Post #1000

Today's entry is the 1000th post in Cards on Cards history. Since your faithful blogger forgot to set his alarm this morning and fire up the ol' bloggerspotter, this momentous occasion will be commemorated in the most fantastical way possible - it's a guest post!

Larry Mudlin here. I have been collecting sporting cards for about 20 years now! When I first happened upon this webbed site that you know as "Cards on Cards", it took me approximately 67 WITTY of the wittiest comments before Kerry finally approved my genius words of wisdom for public display. (And that's crazy-bonkers, right? I mean, he doesn't even MODERATE his comments!)

Since Kerry is far far too busy snorting his coked canes to ever do so much as put together a proper Frequently Answered Questions document (that's an F-A-Q to your n00bers), I thought I'd take the liberty of being super duper helpful rather than just show off his latest batch of J.D. Drew jerseyed cards.

Question #1: What is the best based ball card that has ever graced the blogged pages of "Cards on Cards"?

Well, guys, this is an easy one. It might not be a card, technically, but the answer is Darrell Porter. Darrell Porter! Always. Please send me all your Portered cards! That glorious day upon days when Kerry graced this very blog with his 1981 Topps Sticker sent my based ball loving heart a-fluttering and I went and posted 37 reddits about it.

Question #2: If you could do anything you want in the world besides collecting cards, what would you do?

That's an easy one, folkaroos! I would be redditing my little heart out, of course! I also spend a lot of time on my Twittered account. My "handle" is "LarryAwesomeNES", because I just can't HANDLE how AWESOME the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES to you lame-mans) is! And me, Larry, of course. I'm awesome.

Question #3: If your house was on fire, what based ball cards would you grab and why?

Besides the Darrell Porters, because... DUH... I would take all of the players named Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco, Steve Lyons and Mickey Morandini. And Bryce Harper. Because... he's... the... COOLEST.








Question #4: What's the most rewarding part of being a based ball card blogger? 

All of the amazing promotional opportunities that come the way of the blogger! Obviously. And the piles of cash and fame. Did you know that Kerry sleeps on stacks of $2 bills and uses sewn together bootlegged Mark McGwire Olympic rookie cards as bed sheets? Did you know that he has a jersey made of jersey pieces of Ryan Freaking Ludwick? Did you know that he has TEN UNIQUE DARRELL PORTER CARDS? Eeeeeeeeee. I need to go on the tweeter page about this.

Question #5: What is the worst part of being a based ball card blogger?

Intense media pressure. And your mom won't stop yelling at you to take the garbage out. MOM, it's JUST garbage. It's going to decompose on its own no matter where you put it, amirite?

Question #6: Do you have any hot tips for the n00bers... ahem... new guys out there?

Go for the big hit and then blogger about it! It's a crazy world out there, but who needs rent money when you have sick Tristar autos?
Well guys, it's been a fantastical blast, but I hear Kerry is having a "come down" from his illicit drugular activities.

This has been Larry...

...SIGNING OFF!

30 Teams in 30 Posts: #3

This list is really showing its age now. Since I compiled the list, the Padres AAA affiliate up and left town (i.e. Portland) for Tucson and I no longer have the attachment I once had to this franchise.

Even so, I have nothing against San Diego. They've been offensively challenged for quite awhile, notably since Petco Park became their home. They're in a non-threatening division (NL West) relative to St. Louis and they've mostly been clear of notorious characters like Barry Bonds.

Favorite current Padres player: Chase Headley. I have fond memories of using my first non-loaner digital camera on taking blurry photos of Headley in Portland during his prospect days. He's not quite Tony Gwynn or anything, but he's a solid MLB player.

Least favorite current Padres player: Kip Wells. Are you serious? Someone is still employing this clown? 2007 was one of the least pleasant Cardinals seasons that I've ever endured and Kip's presence in the rotation was pretty much a microcosm of the entire debacle.

Favorite Padres player of all-time: Tony Gwynn. Ozzie didn't truly become Ozzie until he was a Cardinal and I'm tired of picking Dave Winfield for every single team he modeled a jersey for, so I'm going with Gwynn here. He was ridiculously consistent with the bat and always hit for a high average.

Least favorite Padres player of all-time: Roberto Alomar. Spit or no spit, I never really liked the guy. I had tons of his cards growing up and no one wanted to trade for them. His brother Sandy Jr. was supposed to be the next big thing and he wasn't, either. Stupid Alomars.

The San Diego Padres appear at #3 in my reverse-ranking of favorite teams as of the moment I picked them a long, long time ago on October 4th, 2010. All of these cards are very much up for trade, so please contact me if you're interested.

Fun on a Bun

Another day, another group break! This one was put on by Cardboard Collections and featured the 1998 Upper Deck Retro set and the 2001 Fleer Futures set. I wasn't familiar with the former, but I think I had some cards from the latter set in my collection already.

Speaking of Cardboard Collections, they've got a massive Stadium Club group break going on for August. It's cheap, too, and there are something like half the teams still left. Check it out.

I hadn't seen these black parallels in person before, unlike their base counterparts, and they're a lot more impressive in person. They're a bit reminiscent of the Topps black parallels you can find in hobby packs, but even more sparkly.

Here's a really nice Edmonds insert to add to my collection. It looks like garbage in the scanner, unfortunately.

On to the Retro set, I decided that actual retro players trumped then-current players here and went with Gibby. Good ol' Gibby.

I was randomly assigned the Tigers in this break. Any Tigers fans out there? I am building up an army of Tigers cards and still need to find a home for them.

This is one of the subsets of the Retro set, featuring prospects of the future in a newspaper print style of the past. Futurama? Futurama!

Wednesday Morning Ginter

I picked up one of those Value Packs that are all the rage with the kids these days. Little Timmy and Little Suzie are always lined up at the big box stores with these plastic impulse buys in their grubby little mitts, just waiting to get a glimpse of Bobby Ballplayer.

I'm actually working on this set, but I've been hesitant to put up a want list yet. I really don't want to slow the momentum on some of the earlier sets, so 2012 stuff has been less important to me. However, I know that there will never be a time where this stuff is more plentiful and discussed, so it will probably come back to bite me.

Retail Gold Mini Pack:

280 - Brandon Belt (Yes, I went straight to the minis. Scanned, these just look like a slightly more pale version of the black border variations. Brandon Belt hasn't quite put it together, has he?)
271 - Mark Reynolds (Reynolds will probably strike out twice before I finish typing this sentence.)
177 - Stephen Drew (I was hoping the Cardinals would pick up Drew before the non-waiver trade deadline expired yesterday, but they did not.)

Pack 1:
86 - Nyjer Morgan (The less said, the better.)
253 - Jorge De La Rosa
42 - Justin Upton
293 - Cliff Lee (Just the mere discussion that was going on recently, suggesting that Cliff Lee could be traded, means there are scary things on the horizon if you're the Phillies and you're in charge of writing the checks.)

62 - Michael Cuddyer Black Mini

348 - Chase Headley (Headley was the subject of many a trade rumor, but he's still a San Diego Padre.)

Pack 2:
81 - Jerry Bailey
106 - Bud Norris (This one must have gotten stuck in a machine somewhere, because it's got some indentations on it.)
59 - Johnny Damon (I didn't know Damon played for Cleveland. Does he still?)

WTB10 - MetLife Building World's Tallest Buildings (How many of these cards are just ads for large corporations?)

230 - Evan Longoria A&G Mini

WIN83 - Mark Teixeira What's in a Name?

Pack 3:

134 - David Freese (A Cardinal! A welcome sight.)
23 - Yogi Berra
10 - Dustin Pedroia

BH-12 - Justin Verlander Baseball Highlight Sketches (I take back every decent thing I tried to say about this year's sketch cards.)
271 - Mark Reynolds A&G Mini

WIN56 - Aroldis Chapman What's in a Name? (What a mouthful!)