Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXV

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, so I've got to get my prize from last season's Bowl Pick 'Em contest at Cards on Cards posted! My prize for a second place tie was a very generously sized box of cards, so I felt a bit overwhelmed even sorting through them. I finally sorted them out by player, and, as usual, I'll plan to post them all eventually, but I might quit halfway through, we'll see.

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV

With Jaime Garcia getting traded today, I thought I'd play one of Deadspin's favorite games: Let's Remember Some Guys. Except I'll throw in some context about how they left.

2011 Topps Allen and Ginter #303 Jaime Garcia
2011 Topps Lineage #189 Jaime Garcia
2012 Topps Archives #34 Jaime Garcia
2012 Topps Chrome #119 Jaime Garcia
2013 Topps #54 Jaime Garcia
2014 Topps Allen and Ginter #84 Joe Kelly
2014 Topps Allen and Ginter #198 Pete Kozma
2014 Topps Archives #28 Joe Kelly
2015 Topps Heritage Minor League #2 Rob Kaminsky

Jaime Garcia went to the Braves after multiple injury plagued seasons here. I hope for his sake he can make it through a season. On the scale of Braves-Cardinals trades, I just need this one to go better than Jason Heyward, and if we're lucky, as good as Adam Wainwright. The return is all prospects, so we'll see what happens.

Joe Kelly was part of the deal to bring John Lackey to St. Louis. I'd say that trade was a success overall, especially since the Cardinals got his 2015 season very cheaply due to a quirk of his contract triggered by an injury earlier on.

Pete Kozma signed with the Yankees after becoming a free agent at the end of the 2015 season. He played all 4 infield positions and 130 games in 2016, but in AAA only.

Rob Kaminsky hasn't even made it to AAA yet, but was sent to Cleveland for Brandon Moss at the 2015 trade deadline. He lasted through the 2016, but is now a free agent. Moss wore my favorite jersey number, so I'll have to have a new default favorite player in 2016.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part XII

Sometimes, I procrastinate posting and sorting some cards. Normally I don't pay too much attention to how long a particular item has been sitting on my desk, but given that this one was the Tis the Season contest from 2013, I've probably had it in my possession for a little over a year now. But, even with the long delay, I still want to throw Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes some referral traffic while I show off my prize.
Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI

Today I have the last of the Red Sox and Yankees. When I sorted roughly by year, no Cardinals showed up in this last bunch.

2012 Bowman #102 Clay Buchholz
2012 Bowman - Prospects #BP105 Xander Bogaerts
2012 Topps Update #US310 Kelly Shoppach
2012 Topps Chrome #4 David Ortiz
2012 Topps Heritage #20 Derek Jeter
2013 Topps Update #US177 David Ortiz

I don't buy much Chrome, for some reason, so it's always nice to get them in the mail. Bowman products are sort of in that same category, because the sheer number of sets and subsets just overwhelms me. But, just like Chrome, I like getting them in the mail, because they're very rarely duplicates.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-6 CLay Buchholz
2011 Topps Update - Kimball Champions #KC-130 Adrian Gonzalez
2013 Topps Update - Blue Parallel #212 Alfonso Soriano
2012 Topps #50 Adrian Gonzalez

Kimball Champions are one of those insert sets that Ambitious Me thought I would finish by now. Maybe someday.

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 1

Sometimes when I win a contest, I set the prize aside until I have time to fully rummage through all of it. In this case I won a contest back in late September, and I think the "Small Flat Rate Box" arrived by early October. I opened it immediately, but it's been sitting on my desk, too daunting of task to sort, since then. I finally felt the need to dive into it, and give jaybarkerfan his proper thank you post.

First up, we have the subject of the contest itself, a serial numbered card. The contest was simple: guess the number, out of 199.

2012 Topps Chrome
Blue Refractors #11 Ian Kennedy #177/199

I was the 4th person to guess, went with #177, and nailed it. The logic for my guess was simply to try to pick a number far from the others, so I didn't do the classic The Price is Right jerk move of outbidding someone by a dollar.

2012 Topps Chrome
Blue Refractors #11 Ian Kennedy #177/199

1984 Topps #115 Andre Thornton
1984 Topps #129 Bill Laskey
1984 Topps #180 Manny Trillo
1984 Topps #188 Bryan Little
1984 Topps #616 Don Robinson
1985 Topps #271 Tim Foli

I got 5 1984 Topps cards, and my scanner's not that wide, so luckily I had a 1985 to even out the scan. Gotta love 30 year old cards.

1990 Donruss Best of the AL
#70 Junior Felix
#71 Craig Worthington
#73 Johnny Ray
#74 Ozzie Guillen
#75 Brook Jacoby
#76 Chet Lemon
#78 B.J. Surhoff
#97 Sandy Alomar

1990 Donruss Best of the AL
#110 Willie Randolph
#113 Tony Fernandez
#116 Luis Polonia
#117 Carney Lansford
#118 Bud Black
#119 Lou Whitaker

I have never seen this blue 1990 Donruss "Best of the AL" set. It's almost like the color parallels you see today, except I think all the images are different from the 1990 red base set. Once I finally finish my 1990 Donruss set, this set would be a nice addition. There's also an NL set, which is also blue.

1991 Score 100 Superstars
#43 Randy Milligan
#46 Brian Harper

Superstars, eh? I beg to differ. Still though, here's another set I don't think I've ever seen.

1994 Tombstone
#19 Juan Gonzalez
#29 Frank Thomas

I vote for MLB to bring back food issues. Surely Topps can allow a little leeway in its exclusive license.

1994 Finest
#53 Ricky Guitierrez
#161 Ben McDonald

1995 Finest
#184 Tim Naehring

1996 Finest
#204 Randy Myers
#210 Ben McDonald
#303 Steve Gibralter

Here's a little evolution of Topps Finest, though 1996 is only "Common" cards. One day I'll finally get the urge to peel the protective film off of these and other Finest cards I have, and immediately regret it.

That's it for today, but there's plenty left in the box...

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 2

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 I]

2013 Topps
#190 Daniel Descalso
#193 Matt Carpenter
#315 Rafael Furcal
#321 Allen Craig

2013 Topps
#4 Yadier Molina
#269 St. Louis Cardinals
Emerald Green #207 Matt Holliday
Chasing History #CH-16 Lance Berkman

I feel torn when I see all the cards Topps gives to the Cardinals when they're winning. On one hand, it's nice that there are 9 pitcher cards (or maybe more) picturing players I collect among the 330 cards of Series 1, and at least 6 batters seen here, and a team card. On the other hand, I know teams like the Astros and Marlins get shortchanged, and that MLB can turn around quickly. St. Louis could be the team with almost no base cards and no inserts by 2015.

2013 Topps Heritage
#40 Carlos Beltran
#406 Jaime Garcia

These are my first two 2013 Heritage cards. Together these two have far-off stares like roommates who don't get along in a bad sitcom. Come to think of is, Carlos and Jaime would probably make for an entertaining pair in a sitcom. The grizzled old (in baseball terms) veteran rooming with the young hotshot; each one learns from the other at the end of each 30 minute episode. It'll be great!

2012 Topps Chrome #91 Allen Craig

2012 Topps Chrome #119 Jaime Garcia

Oh, Topps Chrome. Why do you look so good on the table and so bad in scans? That throwback uniform on Jaime looks great when I hold the card in my hand.

2012 Topps Archives
#85 Matt Holliday
#197 Allen Craig

I never jumped into 2012 Archives like many bloggers seemed to. When I pulled the Holliday card out of the pack I immediately became confused and disoriented. A 2007 Matt Holliday? We haven't had him that long have we? No wait, that's not the 2007 design, that's...1971? Where am I? Then I remembered Archives existed, and the copyright date on the back brought me back to my happy place. I do think there may be much confusion in coming years, with sets masquerading as earlier years tripping me up, because I won't remember exactly which years some of our role players and short-term players played for us.