Not Airbrushed Friday

It's Friday the 13th! I can do what I want.

I wasn't feeling super inspired to write about a random airbrushed card today, but I was pretty excited about a card I got in the mail from a Listia auction. I decided to post something about it instead. Hey, if you don't like it, get your own blog! They're handing them out on the corner for free.

Wilmer Mizell pitched for the Cardinals for 7 seasons, a tenure interrupted by two years that he served in the Army. He won 90 games, more than he lost, and had respectable all around numbers. He went on to serve in the House of Representatives for 6 years.

1958 Topps has some great cartoons and has a great comic book feel to it when you flip the cards over. This one is a bit of a confusing read unless you realize that Vinegar Bend was Mizell's nickname (apparently nicknames came with first and last names back then). The cartoon features a guy who seems way too obese to have existed in the '50s, pre-KFC Double Down, giving the ol' hotfoot to his sleep deprived teammate. It's even less believable that this mass of a man could have been a professional athlete at the highest level of competition in his chosen sport, but hey, I wasn't born until the '70s.

A Contest, Some Odds, Some Sods

There's a mega contest. Some cards from a trade post. And, hey, look -- my Chris Carpenter list is finally live.

First things first this evening: Red Cardboard, an ardent supporter of a team I cannot support, is holding a pretty massive spring cleaning style contest. I'm planning on doing a bit of spring cleaning of my own, but it probably won't result in anything that would be worth holding a contest over. Anyway, the gist is that you can get a bunch of free cards while doing relatively nothing, so get on over there! There's vintagey stuff and shiny stuff. Both kinds.

Meanwhile, buckstorecards sent me a few gems from across the border, hitting up several different teams of interest to me. I'm a big Oregon Ducks fan, though you typically only hear about it hear during football season. I have so much unscanned Ducks that I should probably cave in and show off a few of these things every once in awhile. Clemens is still in the league, having signed with the Chargers after spending the last three seasons in St. Louis.

I also got a number of 1988 Leaf/Donruss cards that appear to be in pack fresh form. Many of my cards from 1986 through 1988 suffer from a bit of wear, so I bet several of them will end up in my binders. Lance Johnson had some productive years with the White Sox after getting just a taste of the sweet, sweet Cardinal red. He actually randomly made an All-Star team once, but it was after he was out of Chicago.

Cards I Worked Hard For

Just kidding! I got these for free.

Tribecards has done some very generous giveaways in the past, and last year Dave put together his most elaborate one yet. A pack was busted for every single day of the 2013 MLB season with all of the contents painstakingly doled out for free. All the participants had to do was quibble over who got what players via a draft system. The whole thing was so exhausting that apparently he decided to up the ante by bringing it back this year with a rotisserie baseball twist. I don't envy the man with all of the time it must take to put these things together, but I do want to track down some fun wax packs to contribute to the cause.

In the meantime, here's a few cards I snagged from last year's winnings. Allen Craig has settled in to a first base role once again as Matt Adams was struggling mightily versus lefties and is currently nursing an injury. Craig suddenly stopped hitting HRs last season but had otherwise absurd numbers, especially with runners in scoring position. Things got a lot worse this season, but his bat has picked up of late.

This is probably my favorite card of the bunch, if only because it seems to be really tough for me to track down early Waino cards.

Even though he caught the ire of Tony La Russa more than once, I was always a fan of Kerry Robinson as he and I share a first name. He also wore #13 for part of his Cardinals career, my favorite number. Matt Carpenter is currently keeping that number warm and doing a fine job of it if you ask me.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2014 Topps Opening Day #7

Something something evil empire something.

Who is he? Jacoby Ellsbury stole a base once. America stole tacos. Thanks to this amazing fast food promotion during the 2007 World Series, the speedy former Oregon State outfielder Ellsbury made himself a household name. Somewhere, Morgan Spurlock was cringing.

How did he get here? As the Yankees tend to do, Ellsbury became the latest player to play for both sides of the Boston/NY rivalry when he signed this past offseason. He has signed up with evil for the next seven years, but already things have apparently taken a sour turn.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: 2014 Topps Opening Day (Variation) #7

Airbrushed Score: 7

Comments: Zooming in to crop the photo doesn't improve the look when it's Photoshopped.

Listia's Usefulness

Also, it's free, of course.

Listia isn't immensely popular in the real of trading cards, but it has a number of dedicated users. I know they exist because I see some of the same names pop up on bids on my cards with high frequency. It's kind of a ridiculous place to look for or "sell" anything of significant value, but it continues to hold my interest because of auctions like the most recent two that I won.

I spent credits on a Cardinals pocket schedule from this season. Sure, this is a freebie all over Missouri and I'm guessing a few other regions, but I don't get my chance to grab stuff like this unless a kind fan of the blog who happens to be from the area lends me a helping hand. I like pocket schedules, but I wouldn't say I'm a collector. I tend to throw these in my Cardinals binders even though they're all lopsided and puffy and weird.

I never thought I'd fine a virtually pristine Willie McGee O-Pee-Chee (!) rookie card on the site for next to nothing, however. This is the sort of random win that keeps me coming back to the site. It was poorly listed as the auction owner determined that this card was from 1986 for some reason, so it's possible that it helped. In any case, this immediately becomes one of the best cards in my collection. I actually need a ton of 1983 O-Pee-Chee cards for some reason, but it's nice to get the Willie rookie out of the way.

Once Lost, Now Found

I have no recollection of Ricky Bottalico as a Cardinal. None whatsoever.

I received a batch of cards recently from longtime friend of the blog The Lost Collector, which are what I used for tonight's post. What I'm really stewing about right now, aside from another pathetic Cardinals loss, is that Ricky Bottalico was somehow an All-Star once? Yes, it's true. There stands his 1996 season with the Phillies, with 34 saves, a very solid WHIP and an FIP considered to be good by most standards. I don't know what to think anymore.

Okay, I admit it, I'm frustrated with the Cardinals right now. I want Peter Bourjos to get more playing time even though his stats don't really justify it. I want to see what he can do as a full-time outfielder while he's actually healthy for once in his life. The thing is, hardly anyone on the team has the stats to justify unquestioned full-time duties right now. Yikes.

I have a lot of J.D. Drew jersey cards, admittedly, but this is one of the more amusing ones. The atomic nucleus design is pretty entertaining, and you see what they did with the swatch right there? Of course, it takes a vital chunk out of Drew's body, but I can almost live with it. I have no idea what the shiny dead space below his name is for, however.

Kolten Wong hit his first big league HR tonight and it was a grand slam! That was exciting. Unfortunately, the Cardinals coughed up that 4 run lead in a hurry and then coughed up another one later in the game, so Wong's big day was all for naught. I do love these blue parallels out of this year's Opening Day set, though.

TLC also sent me a healthy stack of '90s Blazers cards. This is the first time I've seen the basketball counterpart to the insane 1995 Fleer baseball design, and I have to say that it is slightly less insane, I guess? I don't know what it was about the mid-'90s that made card companies resort to the multi-picture collage where one picture is always a smaller version of the big picture, only with a different color palette (thinking 1996 Topps here, guys), but I don't like it.

Here's James "Hollywood" Robinson, about to throw one down on Tony Massenburg, a guy on a poster if there ever was one. This photo appears to be from the final season that the Blazers played at the Memorial Coliseum, which makes me happy. This seems to be an Electric Court parallel. I don't know what that means, but I like it.

The Guys You're Stuck Collecting

You can't collect sets without collecting cards of players you loathe.

I'm a big fan of the Opening Day Stars inserts of the past several years, so I'm trying to collect them all. I don't know why I enjoy collecting things so much. I will put them in little plastic pockets in a binder and I may flip through the binder a few times, so I guess it's better than putting together a set and stuffing it in a box that it barely fits in, never to be seen again. There is some limited satisfaction in completion. But when you're stuck collecting cards of guys you can't stand like Ryan Braun or Brandon Phillips, just to knock off some numbers from a list, you really have to wonder if you're completely right in the head.

I guess what I'm saying is, send me an email or leave a comment if you're up for a trade. There are a lot of sets that I need help with. And I like the Cardinals, too.

Thanks to ATBATT for the ugly jerkface stupid Braun card, too.