College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 18

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.
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1988 Jiffy Pop
#7 Vince Coleman

Here we have another classic case of the 1980s oddball, which is MLBPA licensed, but not MLB licensed. Thus, all logos are airbrushed away. I'm surprised the Cardinals team name appears, though. I would expect just a "St. Louis" for his team. I'm not sure how I'll store this, because it's just wide enough not to fit in a card sleeve. It'll still fit in a regular storage box, so maybe I'll just put in in one of those and hope for the best.

1987 Topps
#8 Terry Pendleton
#110 John Tudor
#367 Jeff Lahti (x2)
#647 Tom Lawless

We've quickly jumped back far enough that I don't remember these guys as players, except Terry Pendleton, but he looks odd in Cardinal red to me to this day. From my earliest baseball memories, he was a Brave. I actually used to have a very similar jacket to the one Jeff Lahti is wearing on his card, but that when when I was about 10, so I quickly outgrew it.

1985 Fleer
#220 Joaquin Andujar
#224 David Green
#230 Kurt Kepshire
#236 Terry Pendleton
#231 Jeff Lahti

I do have a little context about these players, because my dad and uncle loved to tell me about the Cardinals. In fact, they still do. I appreciate the first-hand accounts of players I've only seen on cardboard or in 5-second blips in highlight reels. Joaquin Andujar in particular brings my uncle's stories to mind, because he had a few completely dominant years with the Cardinals, especially the 1982 season and World Series.

1983 Topps #337 Tito Landrum

Finally, and I do mean finally, we have the oldest card of the whole prize, a 1983 Tito Landrum. Tito won the 1982 World Series with the Cardinals, was traded to the Orioles in 1983 for September and the playoffs, where he won another World Series, then was traded back to the Cardinals before the 1984 season. That's about all I know about Tito, but I do love that powder blue uniform. I understand those were seen as a bit odd or even ugly at the time, but now, they're a classic. It's funny how time does that. Time and World Series appearances, I guess. Also, this card is 30 years old, so it's officially vintage now, right?

That's it. That's the whole thing. I posted them all! A big thanks to madding for giving me a ton of Cardinals, and 18 posts worth of material. It's always fun to go back through the years and reminisce about players I remember seeing, and players I never knew we had, and even see some players before my time.

All-Star Winnings, Part 1

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.

1983 Topps Stickers
#135-136 Jim Kaat
#189-190 Dane Iorg
#283 Lonnie Smith

I was unaware of these Topps Stickers, but now I really wish I had known about them. Look at those sweet powder blues. There are plenty of Cardinals in the set, too, because there appears to be a World Series subset.

1982 Fleer #118 Tito Landrum
1985 Topps #113 Tom Herr
1984 Fleer #327 Jeff Lahti
1984 Fleer #660 Whitey Herzog (Checklist)
1986 O-Pee-Chee #94 Tom Herr
1986 O-Pee-Chee #171 Tito Landrum

More powder blues, Tito, Whitey, and O-Pee-Chee. This image pretty much sums up why we collect.

1987 Fleer #297 Ricky Horton

Wrapping up the older cards is current Cardinal broadcaster Ricky Horton, who goes by Rick these days. He's been doing that regularly for 10 years now, but he still feels new to me. Anyone but Jack Buck, Joe Buck, Al Hrabosky, and Mike Shannon probably always will.

A Random PWE, Part I

That's Plain White Envelope for those of you not hip to the collecting lingo. This envelope of cards arrived a week or so ago, but I didn't recognize the name or return address. I thought about it for about a day and remembered that Jaybarkerfan's Junk had requested addresses and favorite teams earlier in the year, and I thought I remembered sending an e-mail over. I still had to do a little digging, but I discovered that was indeed the source of my new cards. Enough about the back story, I'm sure you want to see more Cardinals on this blog. And due to my obsession with tagging the sets and players, you get this post in 2 parts!

1984 Topps #561 Whitey Herzog

Whitey was pretty much the god of baseball in this town until La Russa won two World Series, and some folks still insist he'd have done better. I was sort of surprised to see that this is only the 3rd card of Herzog in my collection, but he did quit managing in 1990, before the explosion of sets, and before I started buying cards.

1985 Topps #447 Jeff Lahti

I always think of 1985 Topps as "Vintage" and maybe even hard to find, but I now have 8 copies of this card. It makes me wonder if all the Cardinals filtered down to my local shops when I was a kid, and I picked them up in "random" lots, or if there is some sort of worldwide glut of '85 Topps. I also kind of wonder what the odds are of someone sending me an octuplet out of just 8 random Cardinals. Maybe I can figure that out one of these days.

1986 Topps Traded #28T Tim Conroy

I must admit I've never heard of Tim Conroy, but it's always nice to get a card from a Traded set. Those seem to be a little harder to find than the flagship counterparts.

1991 Score Rookie/Traded #63T Gerald Perry

Here's another card from a traded set, which is actually my first card from this set. I do remember Gerald Perry pretty well since he played for the Cardinals until 1995. I also heard this week he'll be the Hitting Coach for the USA Baseball team in the World Baseball Classic this year. Good for him. And he'll be working under former Cardinal player and manager, Joe Torre.

Well there's the first half of the cards. Thanks again to Wes at Jaybarkerfan's Junk, and come back tomorrow for Part II.