eBay Wins #256

Today's eBay cards are from 1990 Upper Deck. I've given up on scanning every single card, so I just picked out the Cardinals, and enough other stars to round out the scans.

1990 Upper Deck
#16 Pirates Checklist (Bobby Bonilla)
#230 Mike Gallego
#334 Rickey Henderson
#342 Jack Clark
#393 Lee Smith
#397 Terry Kennedy

Can you pick which one didn't play for the Cardinals? You probably can, it's Rickey Henderson. The Cardinals were not among his 9 teams.

1990 Upper Deck
#402 Rich Gedman
#445 Fernando Valenzuela
#584 Les Lancaster
#659 Dan Quisenberry
#689 Todd Burns
#727 Scott Hemond

Dan Quisenberry is the only uniformed Cardinal in the big stack, even though he actually spent 1990 playing for San Francisco, his final year.

The size of that stack that made me give up scanning every card was 135, all out of the penny box, for a total of $1.35.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5242
Total Spent	$64.79
Per Card	1.236 cents
Change	-0.006 cents

eBay Wins #243

Let's see some more of the thinnest major-brand cards in history (probably), 1989 Donruss, until I run out of space to tag all the Cardinals.

1989 Donruss
#236 Glenn Davis
#237 Frank Viola
#238 Kevin Seitzer
#239 Gerald Perry
#240 Dwight Evans
#241 Jim Deshaies
#242 Bo Diaz
#243 Carney Lansford
#244 Mike LaValliere

Gerald Perry and Mike LaValliere were both Cardinals, and Carney Lansford coached on Tony La Russa's staff for awhile.

1989 Donruss
#246 Roberto Alomar
#247 Jimmy Jones
#253 Steve Lyons (x2)
#258 Mike Krukow
#261 Scott Bradley
#263 Pete Smith
#265 Roger McDowell
#266 Bobby Thigpen
#267 Jim Clancy

To me, part of the fun of older cards like this is seeing players who later became better known in other areas. Steve Lyons was a broadcaster by the time I started watching baseball. It still works if I knew the player as a player first, but I tend to feel a little more critical of them in the booth for some reason.

1989 Donruss
#269 Mike Dunne
#270 Dwight Gooden
#271 Mike Heath
#278 Lance Parrish
#282 Tom Niedenfuer
#284 Jose Guzman (x2)
#286 Charlie Puleo
#287 Joe Orsulak
#288 Jack Howell (x2)

Tom Niedenfuer finished his career with the Cardinals in 1990, and Mike Heath was one of 3 different players to wear #5 for them in 1986.

1989 Donruss
#290 Jose Lind
#292 Cecil Espy
#293 Bill Wegman
#294 Dan Pasqua
#295 Scott Garrelts
#297 Ed Hearn
#298 Lou Whitaker
#302 Mike Brumley
#304 Curt Young (x2)

Would the ESPY awards still be called that if Cecil Espy was still playing?

1989 Donruss
#305 Jody Reed
#306 Bill Doran
#308 Ron Robinson
#310 Julio Franco
#311 Jack Clark
#316 Mike Davis (x2)
#320 John Farrell
#321 Franklin Stubbs
#322 Kurt Stillwell (x2)

It's interesting to me that Jack Clark became primarily a DH the year after leaving the Cardinals for the Yankees, but then returned to the NL for 2 seasons in San Diego. It seems like DH is primarily a last stop these days. John Farrell is another future manager card in this post.

1989 Donruss
#323 Shawn Abner
#324 Mike Flanagan
#326 Pat Tabler
#328 Rick Honeycutt (x2)
#330 Rey Quinones
#331 Johnny Ray
#332 Bob Welch
#334 Jeff Parrett (x2)
#337 Ken Williams

Rick Honeycutt and Jeff Parrett both played for the Cardinals in their final season, though Jeff Parrett was released and finished up in Philadelphia.

1989 Donruss
#364 Tim Flannery
#370 Jeff Robinson
#372 Mike Witt
#376 Joe Price
#400 Checklist (x2)
#403 Jeff Russell (x2)
#404 Pat Perry
#405 Jose Alvarez
#406 Rick Schu

Pat Perry's the only Cardinal in this scan. More interesting to me is Jeff Robinson, which is the second guy named Jeff Robinson in this set. The first was actually in my last eBay post.

1989 Donruss
#407 Sherman Corbett (x2)
#408 Dave Magadan (x2)
#411 Bob Brower
#412 Chris Bosio
#413 Jerry Reuss (x2)
#414 Atlee Hammaker (x2)
#416 Mike Macfarlane
#417 Pat Sheridan
#418 Pedro Guerrero

It's always good to get a Jerry Reuss card. And an in-uniform Cardinal finally shows up with Pedro Guerrero.

1989 Donruss
#419 Allan Anderson
#420 Mark Parent
#422 Mike Gallego (x3)
#423 Bruce Hurst
#424 Dave Meads
#425 Jesse Barfield (x2)
#426 Rob Dibble
#427 Joel Skinner
#428 Ron Kittle (x2)

I now have so many Mike Gallego cards from the big lot of A's I bought. including 3 of his card in this set.

1989 Donruss
#429 Rick Rhoden
#430 Bob Dernier (x3)
#431 Steve Jeltz (x2)
#432 Rick Dempsey
#433 Roberto Kelly
#434 Dave Anderson (x2)
#435 Herm Winningham
#437 Jose DeLeon
#438 Doug Jones (x2)

Jose DeLeon is my second uniformed Cardinal.

1989 Donruss
#440 Jeff Montgomery
#441 Dickie Thon
#443 John Fishel (x2)
#444 Jerry Don Gleaton
#445 Paul Gibson
#446 Walt Weiss (x2)
#447 Glenn Wilson
#448 Mike Moore
#450 Dave Henderson

Finally, there's another pre-manager card, Walt Weiss.

This time I fit in 11 scans for 99 cards. 23 had doubles or more, and 2 had triples, for a grand total of 124 cards. Again, these were out of the half-cent box, costing 62 cents. I should cross below the 1.3 cent mark with the next post.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4549
Total Spent	$59.37
Per Card	1.305 cents
Change	-0.023 cents

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.

December Card Show Autographs

After skipping November, I returned to the monthly card show in December, and came away with quite a handful of autographs.

Red Schoendienst     Tom Herr
 Bob Tewksbury     Jack Clark     Ron Hunt

That wasn't even the full contingent of players signing at the show. Cecil Cooper was there, despite having no St. Louis connections I'm aware of. Also, hockey player Bob Plager was there. He's well-known locally from his time with the Blues and he continues to work for the team, but I just don't have the room to start a puck collection too.

As for players I did get, Red Schoendienst has been on my want list for quite awhile. I've missed a few of his signings for various reasons, so I blocked out my calendar and bought advance tickets to make sure I made it to this one. Ron Hunt only played for the Cardinals at the very end of his career, but he did play here, so I decided I should have a ball with his autograph. Despite having one of the shorter lines there, his line moved the slowest, because he really wanted to talk to every fan that approached him. I thought that was pretty great, he could have signed and gotten out of there in 30 minutes, but he took his time and actually thanked the autograph seekers. Tom Herr and Jack Clark were Cardinals just before I started watching baseball, and both were part of the 1985 team that nearly won the World Series, and both were also All-Stars earlier that year. Finally, there was Bob Tewksbury, who wasn't dominant during his playing career, but he was probably the ace of the Cardinals staff when I was first getting into baseball, so that was another autograph I was excited to get. My favorite memory of him, though, is when he played for Minnesota in 1998 and lobbed some eephus pitches to Mark McGwire to keep the ball in the park.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part III

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

In addition to some Allen and Ginter cards, the prize included some Cardinals, as well as some Red Sox and Yankees. Today I've got some of those to show.

1986 Donruss Highlights #47 Bruce Hurst
1988 Fleer #350 Steve Crawford
1988 Fleer #353 Rich Gedman
1988 Score #384 Tim Controy
1989 Donruss #37 Carlos Quintana
1989 Donruss #311 Jack Clark
1989 Donruss #516 Larry McWilliams
1989 Donruss #630 Dale Mohorcic
1989 Donruss #633 Dennis Lamp

Besides the obvious Cardinals that I collect, some of the Red Sox and Yankees are players I collect too, since they once played for the Cardinals, like Jack Clark and Rich Gedman. That's not to say I don't like the other cards. One of my long-term, low-priority goals is to complete all of the relatively cheap and abundant sets from about 1987-1993

1989 Topps #402 Mike Greenwell
1989 Topps - All Stars #17 Vince Coleman
1990 Kmart #4 Ozzie Smith
1990 Bowman #427 Don Heinkel

This Vince Coleman card is one I needed, so that's nice to knock off my massive wantlist. Just for fun, I found all three posts of my previous copies of the Ozzie Smith card, since I get a lot of random piles of Cardinals, much like this prize. I really like that set, though, so at the very least, perhaps it will help me eventually trade to complete the 1990 Kmart set.

eBay Wins #140

Today I have the set I generally consider the ultimate Topps junk wax set, 1989. This might not beat 88 or 89 Donruss for the overall junk set champion. But, with the 25th anniversary parallels in 2014 flagship bearing the 1989 design, maybe now is the best time to sell. I bet I could get twice my money back! "My money" was just 60 cents for 60 cards, of course.

1989 Topps
#5 Orel Hershiser
#8 Dave Eiland
#30 Doc Gooden
#42 Jim Eppard
#44 Jim Snyder
#45 Kal Daniels
#80 Cory Snyder
#89 Dave LaPoint (x2)

Two Daves don't make a right, right? At least that's what I always told my two friends named Dave in college.

1989 Topps
#105 Ron Darling
#110 Paul Monitor
#129 Terry Clark
#131 Dave Otto
#139 Mike Flanagan
#190 Mike Witt
#196 Denny Walling
#197 Neal Heaton
#200 George Brett

Fun fact, which is only relevant to this particular arrangement of cards: George Brett's first Hall of Fame Ballot was also Mike Witt's. Brett got 98.2% of the vote. Witt got 0.

1989 Topps
#206 Roberto Alomar
#209 Jeff Bittiger
#210 Dale Murphy
#253 Jose Alvarez
#267 Jeff Robinson
#275 Danny Tartabull (x2)
#330 Eric Davis
#339 Scott Bailes

1989 Topps
#340 Kirk Gibson
#367 Johnny Paredes (x2)
#387 Ryne Sandberg (x3)
#390 Darryl Strawberry
#408 Greg Walker (x3)

As a Cardinals fan, I feel like I'm supposed to have this hatred for the Cubs, but I just can't muster it. I think part of the reason is that when I was first starting to watch baseball, the daycare I attended would let us turn on WGN in the afternoons and watch the Cubs day games. I got to know several of their players well, especially Ryne Sandberg. So this Three-of-a-kind of Sandberg isn't cringe inducing to me, as it might be to some St. Louis fans.

1989 Topps
#410 Jack Clark
#427 Eric Show
#449 Carmelo Martinez
#485 Hubie Brooks
#488 Kevin Coffman
#502 Duane Ward
#527 Dave Henderson
#531 Dave Hengel
#536 Joel Skinner

Jack Clark is all over these late 80s/early 90s posts.

1989 Topps
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#584 Randy Velarde
#588 Luis Alicea
#604 Paul O'Neill
#624 Jack McKeon
#651 Tom Niedenfuer
#693 Pat Borders
#704 Carlos Quintana

Here we have a decidedly unfamous Billy Ripken card, relatively speaking, and a Jack McKeon's magnificent mustache. Also a former, current, and future Cardinal as of the printing time of these cards, Tom Niedenfuer, Luis Alicea, and Pat Borders.

1989 Topps
#736 Jeff Hamilton
#744 Roger Craig
#750 Bret Saberhagen
#751 Ken Oberkfell
#579 Astros Leaders
#669 Dodgers Leaders

This last scan is brought to you by laziness and miscounting, but it worked out alright in the end. I thought I only had 59 cards and thus would have a row of vertical and a row of horizontal cards for the last scan. Thanks to the miscount, I discovered my scanner is almost exactly (2 card widths + 1 card length) wide.

Right now I would need about 2000 cards for $1.47 to get my average to 1 cent per card. That's not a particular goal of mine, but that is an interesting round number to help put the change values into perspective.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3194
Total Spent	$50.47
Per Card	1.58 cents
Change	-0.011 cents

eBay Wins #138

Today I have one binder page worth of 1990 Fleer. That is, if I kept my cards in binders. It's a little bit Padres-heavy for some reason, but it includes the Alomar brothers.

1990 Fleer
#52 Jeff Brantley
#149 Roberto Alomar
#150 Sandy Alomar, Jr.
#152 Jack Clark
#169 Eric Show
#279 Eric Hetzel
#335 Jerry Reuss
#430 Jose Rijo
#502 Cory Snyder

3 of these guys were Cardinals, and they all lined up in the left column when sorted numerically. It's like one of those math-oriented playing-card tricks, except one where Jerry Reuss is also a little creased

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3131
Total Spent	$49.84
Per Card	1.592 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

eBay Wins #137

In my eventually-ending quest to run through all my eBay penny cards, I'm up to 1989. True, I already posted some from 1990 the other day, but this pile was big and I felt lazy. Today's lot has 21 cards, and the return of Clarkmania™.

1989 Fleer
#97 Jim Rice
#169 Ron Robinson
#174 Frank Williams
#212 Dave LaPoint
#252 Jack Clark
#253 Richard Dotson
#291 Bret Saberhagen
#299 Roberto Alomar
#321 Ed Whitson

This is the first card of Dave LaPoint I've ever posted, though I did receive his 1990 Score card in a trade a few years ago. Clearly I flipped through those cards too quickly and didn't realize I missed a Cardinal. Not only was he a Cardinal, but he played for the team in 1982, and pitched in 2 games of the World Series they won over the Brewers.

1989 Fleer
# 325 Will Clark
#342 Don Robinson
#355 Glenn Davis
#366 Craig Reynolds
#510 Jerry Reuss
#526 Chad Kreuter
#542 Jay Buhner (x2)
#549 Erik Hanson

What is Jerry Reuss doing with a bat in 1989 (likely 1988 in the photo)? He never came to the plate in 1988-89 with the White Sox and Brewers. You see, kids, back in '89, the Brewers were in the AL, and there was no interleague play, so AL pitchers didn't ever bat unless they made the World Series, unless there was a weird injury/double-switch/crazy-like-a-fox-manager situation.

Also, I might be able to let one Jay Buhner card go without doing this, but I simply can't show 2 Jay Buhner cards without this video:

1989 Fleer
#655 Checklist (Twins/Tigers)
#642 Prospects: Brad Pounders/Jerald Clark
World Series #2 Rookie Start Series (Tim Belcher)

Rounding things out are 3 oddballs of the lot: A checklist, a horizontal card, and an insert. That would make for a terrible Carnac bit. Brad Pounders is one of the grayest looking prospects I've ever seen, but I looked him up, and he was born in 1963, so he was a reasonable, though slightly older than usual, age for a prospect in 1989. The World Series card is nice, but now it makes me want to chase a 25-year-old insert set to pick up the other 11 cards, which include Eckersley and McGwire.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3122
Total Spent	$49.75
Per Card	1.594 cents
Change	-0.004 cents

eBay Wins #134

Today I have a pile of 1988 Donruss, a set you're likely to encounter a lot when you buy "random" cards for a penny each.

1988 Donruss
#8 Devon White
#46 Eddie Williams
#66 Kevin Mitchell
#74 Jim Clancy
#93 Dave Righetti
#96 Bret Saberhagen
#174 Ellis Burks
#183 Jack Clark
#184 Glenn Davis

Sorted by numbers, there was just one Cardinal in the first bunch: Jack Clark, my favorite River City Rascal (that's a local minor league team he managed, not a lame nickname I gave him).

1988 Donruss
#188 Sid Bream
#202 Ken Griffey
#204 Will Clark
#211 Harold Baines
#216 Dwight Evans
#249 Paul Molitor
#254 Joe Carter
#258 Brian Downing

When typing "Ken Griffey", my hands instinctively start to type ", Jr." afterwards. That's why pencils have erasers, or keyboards have backspaces. This bunch also had 1 Cardinal (by my rules), Will Clark. It's Clarkmania™.

1988 Donruss
#305 Bob Boone
#313 Chili Davis
#340 Claudell Washington
#350 Cory Snyder
#369 Eric Davis
#388 Dave Parker
#399 Jim Rice
#407 Don Sutton

If only Chili Davis and/or Glenn Davis from the first scan had also been Cardinals, it would also be Davismania™. But only one surname can rule the day, and only Eric of these three Davises was a Cardinal.

1988 Donruss
#462 Oil Can Boyd
#463 Dan Pasqua
#471 Dan Quisenberry
#560 Ted Simmons
#626 Pat Perry
#640 David Wells
#656 George Bell
#657 Gregg Jefferies

I'm a little skeptical of this fact, but it seems to check out. This is the first card of Pat Perry, and the first card of Dan Quisenberry that I have shown on my blog. I know I have many Perry cards, and at least a few Quisenberry cards (Quisenberries?). I guess it's possible I acquired them all long ago, and none since the inception of this blog. Among these cards, Ted Simmons and Gregg Jefferies also played for St. Louis. Jefferies was one of the few bright spots for the early 90s Cardinals, making the All Star team in 1993 and 1994, along with Lee Smith and Ozzie Smith once each.

I lowered my per-card average a little bit more, and I'm getting close to cracking the 1.6 cents barrier. At that point... I'll probably just shoot for 1.5 and keep going.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3082
Total Spent	$49.35
Per Card	1.601 cents
Change	-0.007 cents

eBay Wins #130

If you paid any attention to my last eBay post, you noticed the card numbers stopped right around the middle of the set. That's because I had a total of 88 cards from 1987 Topps in my penny card piles. Here are the rest.

1987 Topps
#433 Ed Hearn
#452 Dave Henderson
#462 Scott Fletcher
#464 Butch Wynegar
#476 Danny Tartabull
#480 Jim Rice
#495 Gorman Thomas
#499 Bruce Ruffin
#502 Dick Schofield

1987 Topps
#505 Bryn Smith
#520 Jack Clark
#524 Bob Shirley
#531 Astros Leaders (x2)
#555 Dennis Rasmussen
#556 Angels Leaders
#567 Greg Mathews
#573 Hal McRae

Hal McRae, like Don Baylor and Bengie Molina, is a player I collect because he coached for the Cardinals, even though he never actually played for them. In this block of 9, which only had 6 player cards, 5 of them were at one time Cardinal players or coaches.

1987 Topps
#575 Pat Tabler
#582 Bruce Berenyi
#593 Chuck Tanner
#599 Tony Gwynn
#604 Fernando Valenzuela
#610 Jim Rice
#622 Glenn Braggs
#650 Hubie Brooks
#660 Bob Horner

Fernando Valenzuela finished his MLB career as a Cardinal, and so did Bob Horner. neither managed a full season, though, which, I guess, isn't that uncommon at the end of a career.

1987 Topps
#672 Chili Davis
#673 Don Sutton
#675 Ed Romero
#683 Gary Roenicke
#689 Darrell Porter
#691 Dave Parker
#698 Ernie Whitt
#704 Jesse Orosco

Jesse Orosco was Jamie Moyer before Jamie Moyer, playing from 1979 to 2003, including a grand total of 2.1 innings for the Cardinals in 2000. Also, I've always seen Darrell Porter in glasses, but these are nearly Harry Caray level frames.

1987 Topps
#705 Bruce Hurst
#711 Ken Griffey
#717 Ed Vande Berg
#746 Bob Ojeda
#766 Don Aase
#767 Ron Cey
#768 Dennis Lamp
#772 Harold Baines

Ron Cey is clearly sick and tired of this post. So I'll end it after pointing out that I crossed 3000 cards purchased via eBay with this lot.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3042
Total Spent	$48.95
Per Card	1.609 cents
Change	-0.009 cents

Zistle Trade #5

The Baseball season may be over, but my card collecting season doesn't stop. Here I've got another small trade made through Zistle, acquired for some of my 2012 Gypsy Queen duplicates

1986 Topps Mini League Leaders #59 Jack Clark

I was surprised to find I didn't have any cards from this set, yet, but now all of the Cardinals are on my want list.

2008 Allen and Ginter #263 Yadier Molina
2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #87 Scott Rolen
2009 O-Pee-Chee #493 Yadier Molina
2011 Topps Finest #100 Daniel Descalso

Offering a Molina or two is a good way to get your trade accepted by a Cardinal fan. Descalso and Rolen are good 3B pickups too, but I actually had this trade in progress the same time as the last one, and I didn't realize both traders had offered me the Future Stars Rolen. It's a nice enough card, but I don't really need 2, so it's now back on my trade list unless/until a Rolen autograph opportunity comes up and I need a duplicate to get signed.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 17

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.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 ]

1987 Fleer Update #U-71 Joe Magrane
1988 Donruss #170 Tony Pena
1988 Fleer #38 Steve Lake
1988 Leaf #181 Jack Clark
1988 Score #202 Todd Worrell
1989 Donruss #466 Luis Alicea
1989 Topps #1 George Bell
1990 Donruss #531 Carlos Martinez

Glorious Junk Wax! There are probably plenty of copies of most of these cards floating around, except perhaps the Donruss Doppelganger that is 1988 Leaf.

By now you've probably heard about Jack Clark's recent troubles caused by his big mouth, when he said he knew for sure that Albert Pujols has been juicing for years. Those are big allegations that require at least a little bit of evidence before you go mentioning them on the air. To give a local perspective, his co-host is notorious for being a sports shock-jock, and fired from nearly every station in town that ever employed a sports talk guy. I can't stand him, and I'm always glad to hear him go, so I don't stumble across his show when radio-surfing. Jack Clark has now retained one of the biggest names in high-priced attorneys in St. Louis, Chet Pleban. It's not clear to me whether this is to sue his (former) employer, or defend himself against the lawsuit Pujols has publicly threatened.

I knew Jack Clark has a bit of a reputation as a hothead, but I guess since St. Louis media don't usually hammer their hometown guys too hard, I never really knew his whole story. Apparently he's had trouble with Hall of Famers ranging from his Managers Frank Robinson and Lou Piniella, his teammates Ozzie Smith and Tony Gwynn, and now likely Hall of Famer Albert Pujols. As a side note, can we get Lou Piniella in the Hall of Fame as a manager please? Clark's apparently just got an attitude problem, and has for years.

I don't like negative posts, so let's end this one with Tony Pena making John Olerud feel silly.

...and then another guy named Brian Johnson.

Stay on your toes out there; it's the only way to save yourself from trick plays.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part VIII

When I claimed the Cardinals - and Mark McGwire and Todd Stottlemyre - in the pack-per-day giveaway held at TribeCards, I had no idea just how many cards I'd wind up with, and how many different players. So that I can tag all of the sets and Cardinal players, I've broken this up into a series of who knows how many posts. Thanks for all the cards, David.
[ I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII ]

This is the last of the giveaway. But, I saved the most interesting for last, 1986 Donruss All-Stars. These cards are giant, about 1.5x as large as regular cards in each dimension. Much like Nachos Grande, I didn't even know about these cards before this break.

1986 Donruss All-Stars
#46 Donnie Moore
#36 Willie McGee

1986 Donruss All-Stars
#2 Tommy Herr
#8 Ozzie Smith
#23 Jack Clark

The cardinals had a good year in the All-Star balloting, which caused me to get 4 giant cards. Ozzie looks like he might be ready to go swing left-handed without an earflap on his helmet. As a kid, I distinctly remember my Dad telling me Ozzie would have been one of the only guys on the team old enough to be grandfathered into not wearing a flap.

1986 Donruss All-Stars Pop-ups
#2 Tommy Herr
#8 Ozzie Smith

I love the look of these cards, but I could never bring myself to perforate and actually stand them up. I'm such a tortured soul. It would appear from the 18-card checklist that only the starting lineups got pop-ups, so again I'm quite luckily to get 2 Cardinals.

1986 Donruss All-Stars
Puzzle Pieces 61, 62, and 62

Finally, it's not glamorous, but not everyone can be, right? Part of the Hank Aaron puzzle, which I think may have only been in this product. Since I have 3 of 63 pieces, I'd happily send this along to anyone trying to complete the puzzle.

Well that's it for the 182 Packs Giveaway. It took a whole lot of sorting, scanning, and cropping, but I got them all up here. And of course, I want to say thanks to David at TribeCards once more.

Diamond Giveaway Winnings, Part II

[Part I]
I only paid for 25 cards to be delivered, and showed you the "rest" in the last post. Now here are the best, completely subjectively and based on my own opinion.

1954 Topps #118 Carl Scheib
1958 Topps #287 Sam Jones
1967 Topps #279 Frank Linzy
1979 Topps #181 Mike Garman
1980 Topps #554 Art Howe
1984 Topps #690 Jack Clark

So what do these 6 guys have in common to put them in the "best" category? They all played for the Cardinals, even if it was brief for some. The '54 Scheib up there really hosed up my perfect grid for scanning, and doesn't fit in any sleeves I have. Such is what we'll put up with for a nearly 60 year old card. And with Art Howe we've got a well known manager, a featured character of Moneyball, a former Cardinal, and the Tequila Sunrise Astros jersey, all in one card. He also looks a little like John Cleese. Finally, I can always use another Jack Clark card.

2011 Topps - Diamond Die Cuts #DDC-48

Oh yeah, I can't forget card #25. These Diamond Die-Cuts really don't scan nearly as nicely as they look in person. If one was made of one of your favorite players, I highly suggest tracking one down.

That's it for the Diamond Giveaway for me. I've pulled a few Golden Giveaway cards this year, but haven't redeemed them yet. I think I'll wait and see how obsessively I buy 2012 Update and then evaluate if I want to trade them off or try for more fabulous prizes.