A New Hall of Fame Cardinal

Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and Craig Biggio never played for the St. Louis Cardinals, but one guy in this year's Hall of Fame class did, albeit quite briefly. John Smoltz made his last 7 career starts for the Cardinals in 2009, along with 2 innings in relief in the NLDS. Of course, almost no one outside of Boston or St. Louis - and probably even very few inside those cities - will ever think of Smoltz as a member of any team but Atlanta, which is where he earned his Hall of Fame plaque.

2009 Topps Heritage #507 John Smoltz

I wasn't sure if there were any cards showing him in a Cardinal uniform at all, or if I had any, but a quick search through Zistle showed me he had several issued, and I own exactly one, this nice horizontal Heritage card. The Cardinals picked him up on August 19, so it's actually pretty impressive that this card made it into the Heritage High Numbers set for 2009.

Looking at the current and upcoming Hall of Fame Ballots, I may be waiting a while for my next post like this. The best chances, though still slim, appear to be Lee Smith, Mark McGwire, Larry Walker, Jim Edmonds, Edgar Renteria, or Scott Rolen, and those last 3 won't show up on the ballot until 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 9

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 ]

2009 Heritage
#40 Ryan Ludwick
#124 Jason Motte
#327 Kyle Lohse
#368 Aaron Miles
#501 Shane Robinson
#507 John Smoltz
#518 Blake Hawksworth
#590 Jarrett Hoffpauir
#652 Tyler Greene

There are quite a few young guys in that bunch, especially Motte and Robinson who are still with the team. The oldest guy is probably Smoltz, who pitched for us late in the year and his whole stint still seems a little surreal to remember. Also, horizontal cards can actually look pretty good when the whole set matches.

2009 Heritage #220 Tony La Russa

...nevermind. At least it's a manager card. But still, this kind of chicanery prevents a set from looking nice in a binder. Maybe if we can get Topps to go all-vertical or all-horizontal by 2015, then 2064 Heritage and beyond won't suffer from this problem. I do like the old Cardinals logo up top, though.

2009 Topps 206 #159 Rick Ankiel

This card only goes with the rest of them in that it's an old-style, current player card, and I figure, that's good enough. Now if we could just get rid of that Ankiel mystery beard...

eBay Wins #39

I picked up this 2009 Heritage card for 6 cents, my theory being that if I could get all the base cards that cheap, I'd have the set for an easy sum.

2009 Topps Heritage #366 Ervin Santana

Also, Ervin is on my Fantasy Baseball team this year, the Uggla Sticks, and is doing alright for us. See? I can be mature and root for an Angel despite the Pujols situation. This shows real growth on my part. I deserve a cookie. Mmm, cookies.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2011
Total Spent	$38.43
Per Card	1.911 cents