Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part VII

College football will be here again before we know it, 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

1974 Topps - Team Checklists - Cardinals
1978 Topps #143 Keith Hernandez
1978 Topps #170 Lou Brock
1979 Topps #371 Keith Hernandez
1984 Donruss #475 George Hendrick
1985 Topps #60 George Hendrick
1985 Topps Traded #15T Bill Campbell
1985 Topps Traded #30T Ivan de Jesus

I decided to post some of the oldest cards in this prize package today. Above we see clear evidence Keith Hernandez should always keep the mustache. I'm still pondering a purchase of a powder blue Hernandez jersey, the style of which you can see much more clearly on the George Hendrick cards.

1974 Topps #204 Tommy Harper/Lou Brock
1976 Topps #205 Al Hrabosky/Rich Gossage

These are some nice league leader cards, with a bit of wear around the corners of course. They're 40+ years old after all. If you're like me, you might be wondering how Al Hrabosky and Goose Gossage scored 35 "points" in 1975. Never fear, I'll do your research for you. The Sporting News gave out a "Fireman of the Year" award to each league from 1960 to 2000. The scoring appears to have changed over time, but at least through 1975, relievers got 1 point for a save and 1 for a win in relief, and the top point earner in each league was the winner.

August Card Show Autographs

The monthly card show returns, along with one of the signers that was supposed to be there in July. Here's my haul:

Ivan de Jesus                    David Green                    Bryn Smith
1982 World Champ

Ivan de Jesus was supposed to be at the July show, but apparently missed his flight. He played for the Cardinals for just one year, 1985, so came extremely close to being a World Series champ.


David Green played for the team in 1982, so he gets to write the inscription on his autographs. He was sent by the Cardinals (with more players) to San Francisco for Jack Clark before the 1985 season. His line wasn't terribly long by the time I got there, so he took some time to talk to a kid that was there getting an autograph, and seemed like a really nice guy.

Finally, Bryn Smith was here during some lean years, 1990-1992. He played most of his career in Montreal, and his final season was in Colorado. Interestingly, the person in front of me was getting autographs on a Colorado Rockies inaugural season book, and knew Bryn won the first game in Rockies history. Bryn one-upped him and said "That's right, we started 0-2 that year". I looked it up, and of course he was right.