Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XIII

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


Games have started and I have a whole lot more cards left unposted. I'm about ready to say uncle. At least it's only been one FBS game so far, so I've got about another week before the season is really in gear.

1982 Topps #86 Dane Iorg
1985 Fleer #226 Tom Herr
1987 Boardwalk and Baseball #25 Jack Clark
1988 Donruss #208 Tom Herr
1988 Fleer #31 Doug DeCinces
1988 Fleer - All Stars #11 Jack Clark
1990 Fleer #249 Frank DiPino
1992 Topps - ToppsGold Winner #664 Ken Hill

I'm having a harder time matching players by era, so this post spans from 82-92. I had never heard of the Boardwalk and Baseball set, but apparently it was a theme park in Florida around that time.

1986 Fleer Mini #8 Tom Herr
1986 Fleer Mini #6 Jack Clark

You can't tell by my scan, but these are indeed mini cards. The height is just slightly more than the width of a normal card, and the ratio appears to be about the same, unlike Allen and Ginter minis. These are bigger than Cracker Jack cards, but smaller than the 19xx-style minis Topps has been inserting the last few years.

Zistle Trade #23

This Zistle trade was mostly from the junk wax era, but I haven't quite filled all those gaps in my collection, so there's a smattering of them on my want list. Oddly enough, my trading partner wanted some "junk" in return, so I figured, why not. I'm too lazy to look it up now, but I think it was mostly 89 or 91 Donruss.

1988 Topps #642 Bob Dernier
1990 Score #233 Ken Hill
1991 Fleer #633 Bernard Gilkey
1991 Fleer #636 Felix Jose
1991 Fleer #640 Jose Oquendo
1991 Fleer #645 Lee Smith
1991 Topps #112 Frank DiPino
1992 Fleer #589 Gerald Perry
1992 Score #544 Bernard Gilkey

One of these things is not like the others, and that is Bobby Dernier. The others are all Cardinals, and actually mostly guys I remember playing for the team during my childhood, except for Frank DiPino. As for Bobby, I added that to my list awhile back because he was the favorite player of a good friend of mine when he was growing up. I was looking through my collection for a card of his to perhaps try to get autographed through the mail, but I didn't have any, and thus I added a few I should be able to get cheaply to my want list. Now I just need to track down an address for Mr. Dernier, or figure out who he's working for.

1992 Donruss #427 Bobby Bonilla
1992 Donruss #442 John Smoltz
1992 Donruss #564 Deion Sanders
1992 Donruss #610 Bobby Bonilla

I recently purchased a 1992 Donruss Series 1 set, which actually quashed the first trade this particular trader proposed to me. He did it the day after I bought the set, before I thought to remove the series 1 cards from my want list. Luckily my oversight didn't frustrate him, and we worked out a deal removing those cards. Here are the series 2 cards I still needed. If you're not a Cardinals fan, you may have forgotten that Smoltz and Bonilla both finished their careers in St. Louis. It wasn't very long for either one, but I still consider them players I collect. I've waffled about whether I should start collecting Deion Sanders cards. He'd go well with my other two-sport-star collection target, Bo Jackson. He was also a part of the very first baseball game I ever attended. I'll probably complete this base set eventually anyway, so I went ahead and added it to my wantlist, and now I have it.

Zistle Trade #17

Zistle has allowed me to whittle down my want list bit by bit, while helping others do the same with my doubles. I've got a lot of overproduction-era Cardinals still missing from my collection, so every now and then someone finds me and can knock off quite a few of them. This particular trader just wanted a Joe Carter card in return, and as a Blue Jays fan, had a few Todd Stottlemyre cards for me, too.

1985 Topps #683 Whitey Herzog
1990 Fleer #243 Cris Carpenter
1990 Fleer #251 Ken Hill
1990 Fleer #252 Joe Magrane
1990 Fleer #253 Willie McGee
1990 Fleer #261 Scott Terry
1990 Fleer #263 Denny Walling
1990 Fleer #264 Todd Worrell
1990 Topps #6 Vince Coleman RB

These were the last of the 1990 Fleer Cardinals I needed, so that's one more team set off my list.

1990 Topps #591 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Topps #348 Todd Stottlemyre
1992 Topps #607 Todd Stottlemyre

As I've mentioned before, Todd Stottlemyre and his father, Mel, are distant cousins of mine, which is why I started collecting his cards in earnest. Now since I've widened my collecting net to anyone who has suited up for the Cardinals, I've got two reasons to collect his cards, so I'm glad to have 3 more off my list. The sender wrote a note saying he figured he'd have more Stottlemyre cards I needed, which caused me to check my list and see my want list was far from containing every card of his I don't have, so I've rectified that now. Thus, the net result of this trade for me was my want list increased by several dozen cards. Hooray progress?

Zistle Trade #11 Part II

[Part I]

Yesterday I showed some cards from a recent Zistle trade, all from the junk wax year of 1990. As you can see, the rest were from about the same era.

I'm not sure why I put the Bill Buckner card on my want list, unless his name just stood out due to the famous play he didn't quite make for the Red Sox, while I was adding some other 1989 Fleer to my want list. Ultimately I hope to complete most of the easy-to-find sets like Donruss, Fleer, and Topps from these years, so I'm glad to have it. The rest of the players were all Cardinals at one time or another. I was sort of surprised I didn't have the 1987 McGwire, but I double checked my sorted cards and sure enough, I didn't.

1987 Topps #366 Mark McGwire
1989 Fleer #278 Bill Buckner
1990 Topps #261 Whitey Herzog
1991 Donruss #155 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Fleer #635 Ken Hill
1993 Score #241 Ozzie Canseco

When I first started watching baseball, two of my favorite players besides Cardinals were the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Imagine my surprise in September 1992 when I found out Jose's twin brother was in the minor league system, and came up to the big leagues when rosters expanded. He actually played 9 games in a row that year, from September 2-12 with a few off days, then disappeared for the rest of the year. Then in 1993, he played 6 consecutive games, May 7-13. That was the end of his major league career, though, after 15 games in St. Louis and 9 in Oakland.

eBay Wins #135

Today's eBay lot covers a set nearly as synonymous with junk as my last post. Like 1988, 1989 Donruss cards seem to show up everywhere. Among the piles of penny cards I bought, I had 16 of them.

1989 Donruss
#22 Gerald Perry
#47 Alex Sanchez
#182 Kirby Puckett
#401 Mickey Tettleton
#445 Paul Gibson
#527 Tom Prince
#536 Ken Hill
#544 Norm Charlton

I can distinctly remember having that Tom Prince card when I was a kid, because the picture seemed so odd. He's got on a black jersey, which isn't unusual these days, but you didn't see much at that time except for in batting practice. He also has a forward facing helmet with no flaps, something else that was rare at that time. In this case I assume that's his catching helmet, not a batting helmet, since he has a glove on. Also, he looks utterly confused. This first scan has both of the Cardinals from the bunch, Gerald Perry and Ken Hill.

1989 Donruss
#556 Bud Black
#595 Lloyd McClendon
#623 Keith Miller
#637 Mike Schooler
#638 Rick Leach
#651 Bob Milacki
#654 Paul Mirabella
#658 Kevin Blankenship

Part of the fun of these cards years later is seeing how many of the guys became managers, or did something notable after the card was initially issued. In this case I got 2 current managers, Bud Black and Lloyd McClendon, back when he was still listed as a catcher instead of OF/1B.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3098
Total Spent	$49.51
Per Card	1.598 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

eBay Wins #115

Today I've got cards from 2 of Donruss's more garish 90s sets, which look even worse next to each other. But, these are the cards I grew up with, so they make me happy. It also doesn't hurt that they only cost me a penny each.

1990 Donruss
#82 Milt Thompson
#359 Larry Andersen
1991 Donruss
#461 Ernest Riles
#511 Wally Whitehurst
#525 Kent Anderson
#563 John Shelby
#678 Danny Jackson
#670 Ken Hill
#735 Ken Dayley

That makes 3 Danny Jackson cards in my last 10 eBay posts. That stat sounded like much more of an outlier before I typed it. Nonetheless, he counts as a Cardinal in my book, due to his 2 and a half seasons in St. Louis, so the lot netted 4 Cardinals out of 9 cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2837
Total Spent	$46.90
Per Card	1.653 cents

eBay Wins #113

I won 97 auctions for individual 1991 Leaf cards this time around. The seller couldn't find one of them, and asked if he could replace it with another card from the set, and since I was agreeable to that, he sent me two replacement cards. So this bundle is 98 cards for 97 cents. The cards were just curved enough to make them annoying to scan, so I've trimmed this post down to just the 11 Cardinals in the stack.

1991 Leaf
#23 Pat Borders
#45 Chuck Finley
#139 Delino DeShields
#193 Mike Morgan 

1991 Leaf
#226 Bryn Smith
#227 Todd Stottlemyre
#234 Mark Whiten
#268 Danny Jackson

Mark Whiten made me want to be an outfielder, because it was simply amazing to see him throw the ball from to the warning track to home plate on the fly. I'm not sure how many runners he actually threw out, but he certainly made runners think twice about tagging up, much like Molina seems to give would-be base-stealers pause.

1991 Leaf
#350 Danny Cox
#376 Ken Hill
#403 Lance Johnson

These cards really aren't curved that badly when I put them in sleeves, but for some reason it took me way too long to line them up on my scanner.

Before these 98, I had 23 cards from the 1991 Leaf set. There were a few duplicates, but now I have 116 cards from the set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2821
Total Spent	$46.74
Per Card	1.657 cents

eBay Wins #76

With this purchase, I've added 6 more penny cards to my collection.

1989 Donruss
#196 Neil Allen
#393 Frank DiPino
#536 Ken Hill
#580 Tony Armas

With Donruss's far-off photography, I can pretend these are bigger stars. On the top row we have David Cone, followed by a young Greg Maddux. Ken Hill is Ken Hill because he's a Cardinal, and that particular shot is too close up to mistake him for anyone else. Finally we have Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.

1991 Donruss
#57A Jack McDowell (ERR)
#202 Jeff Russell 

That Jack McDowell is an error card, simply because of a math error in the stats. With 4 games in 1987, 26 in 1988, none in 1989, and 33 in 1990, he's listed with 30 career appearances. Someone forgot to add 1990's 33 when copying over the previous year's stats, I assume. Donruss actually corrected it, though, so there's a version out there with no difference except the 63 career games stat.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2397
Total Spent	$42.82
Per Card	1.786 cents

All-Star Winnings, Part 8

Way back in July 2012, I won a contest at Cards On Cards. The premise was to pick the Cardinals player who would have the biggest impact on the game, determined Sabermetrically. I picked the right player, and got a pile of Cardinals for my trouble. They've been sitting in that same pile, haunting me, for quite some time, so now is the time to show them to you.
Part [ I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII ]

1989 Fleer #652 Ken Hill/Dennis Cook

1989 Score Rookie/Traded #98T Ken Hill
1995 SP #100 Ozzie Smith
1995 SP #102 Ken Hill

Ken Hill was traded for Andres Galarraga before I started paying attention to baseball, but he returned for a bit in 1995, before being traded again for David Bell among others. And since I had 2 cards from the 1995 SP set, there's a certain All-Star shortstop in the middle of that scan.

1994 Post #28 Gregg Jefferies
1994 Stadium Club #531 Gregg Jefferies
1995 Collector's Choice Special Edition #80 Gregg Jefferies

Gregg Jefferies was the player I most associated with #25 before Mark McGwire arrived, although, David Bell and 2 others each wore it for a bit in 1995.

2005 Fleer Tradition #62 John Mabry

Speaking of 1995, this card is from Mabry's third stint with the Cardinals, but the first started way back in 1995, under Joe Torre. John always seemed like a solid and reliable player, although he didn't excel in any one area. Now, he's the Cardinals' hitting coach, after a year as Mark McGwire's assistant.

eBay Wins #60

This round of eBay wins featured 1990 and 1991 Topps. What a difference a few years can make.

1990 Topps
#12 Joe Girardi
#120 John Franco
#222 Kurt Stillwell
#233 Ken Hill
#260 Eric Davis
#350 Bret Saberhagen

I remember Girardi finishing as a Cardinal, but I didn't realize just how little he actually played until I looked it up on baseball-reference.com. Apparently it was a mere 16 games for 26 plate appearances, meaning he likely entered as a double-switch replacement a few times.Even so, he was with the team for the whole year, and provided a veteran presence for the Cardinals. I only remember Ken Hill's second stint with the Cardinals, and not much about it.

1990 Topps
#433 Steve Olin
#493 Jason Grimsley
#608 Eric Anthony
#714 Marquis Grissom

When the Expos left Montreal, I went out and got the hat colored like Marquis Grissom's helmet here. I figured they would be hard to find once the team was gone. Little did I know how big the throwback trend would become. Even so, I'm glad I've got the hat.

1991 Topps
#271 Omar Olivares
#279 Jose Gonzalez
#596 Ronnie Walden

These are the first 1991 Topps cards I've shown on my blog. My most vivid memory of Omar Olivares was opening day, when he showed up wearing 00, and the announcers said it was because they were his initials.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2107
Total Spent	$39.54
Per Card	1.877 cents

A Prize For My Prescience, part 4

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]


Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project sent me a whole bunch of cards for picking the Cardinals to win the World Series, and it is of course my duty to show you the cards and link to his blog.

In this edition, random cardinals Ryan threw in!

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #46 Bob Gibson

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #30 Lou Brock

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #9 Joe Medwick

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #16 Grover Alexander

1992 McDonald's Cardinals #52 Bruce Sutter 

Somewhere deep in my basement, I think I may more of these McDonald's cards, because they look really familiar. One day I hope to get time to dig in and find out.

1993 Ted Williams #90 Bob Gibson

1994 Yoo-hoo #6 Bob Gibson

I think I need this set. The yellow is even more garish in person. Plus I love Yoo-hoo, and there are only 16 cards.

1992 Studio #262 Red Schoendienst/Checklist

I don't care if it is a Checklist, I'll always take a card of Red.

1988 Donruss - HOF Diamond King Puzzle Stan Musial

I found myself wondering how hard it might be to find this completed puzzle. Surely lots of folks who didn't complete the puzzle discarded the pieces, or at least didn't keep them in very good shape. Also I don't think Stan had quite the god-like status he now holds in St. Louis in 1988. Sure, he was loved, but the way the fans react these days, you'd think he invented the game. That's not to say it's undeserved, just makes me wonder how precious collectors would have found this puzzle card 20+ years ago.

1995 Summit - Nth Degree #8 Ken Hill

OK, so Ken Hill doesn't really belong in this crowd. But the card is so shiny!