Pujols Post - 2008 Allen & Ginter

Do you want to see some really bad art?  

Have I got something for you.  

It's the 2008 Allen & Ginter Albert Pujols card.  

Here's the front.  

What is going on with his pants?

The rest of Albert looks like normal, but that spot is certainly interesting.  

What could it be?  

A few theories.  

A. Laundry Stain Stick Comparison 

B. Bleach Stain on white pants. 

C. The sun is reflecting off his pants 

D. Albert briefly wore football thigh pads 

Back of the card.  

It is the standard Allen & Ginter card back.  

Vote for your favorite theory in the comments or make up your own.  

The Best Writers In Baseball

I really like baseball.

I used to follow some other sports, but I have given them up for the most part. I check some NBA and NFL box scores to check up on some former college favorites, but the majority of my time is spent on baseball. I read the boxscores most mornings, listen to podcasts with the little man in the morning on the way to school, and also check out my fair share of articles. 

Two of my favorite writers are Derrick Goold and Sarah Langs.  

Goold is one of the Cardinals writers for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and also hosts a podcast called, "The Best Podcast In Baseball". Langs is an MLB writer and researcher for ESPN and MLB Network who appears on various television networks, podcasts, and websites. She has coined the slogan, "Baseball is the best", which she often stats during her television and podcast segments.  

Both have autographs in Allen & Ginter.

Let's start with Langs.   

Langs signed cards for this year's Allen & Ginter set. Her autograph is simple, but she has also been diagnosed with ALS within the past year, so I thought it was incredible that she still signed cards. If you enjoy baseball and have not read any of her work, or do not follow her on social media, I highly recommend checking out her work. She is really talented.  

On to Goold.  

Goold signed for Allen & Ginter back in 2020. I looked for this autograph for a time, but was not willing to pay the price it was selling for at the time. The Langs autograph renewed my interest in tracking down a copy of this card for a reasonable price.  I really enjoy his coverage of the Cardinals and am glad to own this card.  

The Inconvenience of Red Shoe Laces

I am twenty-plus years into teaching and have ruined a few too many dress shirts and pants over the years to wear much of anything beyond moderately priced pants from The Gap, dry-fit polo shirts and quarter-zips, and a wide array of colored sneakers that typically match the polo shirts. I would guesstimate that 90% of the male teachers I know dress roughly the same.  

My school is doing an anti-bullying theme week at the moment. Monday was sports day. I wore an NC State shirt. The offensive line from the NC State football team stopped and read books and talked about college with my fifth graders.This morning, I woke up and put on a red polo shirt and a blue Cardinals hat to fit today's theme. To top off my outfit, I wore my red Nike Air Max sneakers.  

Unfortunately, as I was tying my shoe lace, one of them was broken. Really not that big of a deal, because I live two minutes from a Walgreens. So, at 6:30, I rolled into the store to find that they sold white and black shoelaces, but not red. 

Where else can you buy red shoelaces at 6:30 in the morning?  

Wally World?  

I went home, grabbed a pair of blue Adidas Superstars as a back-up plan and set off for Wally World. The Apex, North Carolina Wal-Mart has more than twenty cashier stations, but only four self-checkout stations were open this morning. I checked the shoe section and could not find red shoelaces. A token employee who appeared to be running the entire front-end of the store solo suggested I check the random junk they stock in each check-out aisle.  

No red shoelaces, but they did have one box of Allen & Ginter cards left next to their self-checkouts.  

I bought it, went out to my car, and put on my blue Adidas shoes.  

After getting my room set-up and attending a short meeting, I opened my packs of Allen & Ginter. It's been a minute since I pulled something good out of a pack of retail cards, but I think this qualifies as a quality find......

I ordered some new red shoelaces off of Amazon.  

Not Giving Up

As a Minor League baseball fan, inevitably all of your favorite players are going to leave. Minor Leaguers get promoted to the Majors, get traded, and get released all the time.  Sometimes it is easier to maintain a connection with the player after they have moved onto a different team.  Other times it is a little bit more challenging.  

I have spent a lot of time lately trying to process the Blake Snell trade from the Rays to the Padres.  I was expecting him to leave at some point, not exactly the type of player that they can afford to re-sign, but this off-season felt a little soon.  I thought I would get at least half a season more of Snell with the Rays.  

I guess not.  

Snell is one of my all-time favorite former Durham Bulls.  How many autographs of Snell have I posted on here over the past four or five years?  Fifty or sixty something?  

The number is large.  

I don't mind the Padres.  There are far worse places he could have ended up.  Do you know how many former Durham Bulls have been on the Cubs the last few years?  I know there was a strong connection with Joe Maddon managing the team.  A little hard to think good thoughts about players like Mike Montgomery and Ben Zobrist while they are beating the Cardinals.  

For the moment, I am going to press on with my Blake Snell cards.  I picked up a few inexpensive singles over the past two weeks.  There are still a few Snell autographs from 2020 that I am still missing from my collection, but not going to buy them at their current prices.  

Here are the new cards:  

Is there a baseball card product that Topps won't turn into a Chrome product?  You already know the answer.  I really like the coloring on these cards and I am not sure if I own any/many Chrome minis?  Maybe none?  Allen & Ginter always has the white borders and card stock.  The Chrome version has all sorts of colored cards, not sure if I am going to pursue the other Snells.  Probably all depends on their cost.  I am not sure the colored versions of Ginter would looks as good on standard card stock.  

The back of the card is same old Ginter design.  

This is a little different card for me.  I know it looks like a regular Topps Heritage card from 2019, but it is actually  one of those gimmicky variations that I am not really into collecting.  Well, sometimes you stumble across one that is not very expensive.  

The card is in both English and French.  Did these even appear in the 1970 Topps set?  Feels like it's some sort of salute to O-Pee-Chee.  This is actually one of those variations that I would have noticed if I pulled it out of a pack.  Topps should have put his height and weight in Metric.  

Next.  

How many times can Topps remake the 1993 Finest set?  It seems like an annual event at this point.  Maybe it's not that often, it just feels that way.  Not scanning the back of the card.  

Last card.  

How many different products can Topps make with a Chrome finish?  The answer will eventually be all of them.  This is some Chrome parallel of Snell's card from this year's Heritage set.  I prefer the black borders on the regular base set, but still not a bad looking card.  

The card is serial numbered to 571 copies.  

This is going to be the first of many Blake Snell posts I make in 2021.  Even if I get annoyed with the Padres, still more preferable than the Dodgers, I will just go back and collect all the Rays cards I am missing.  

2020 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 4

One year ago, I was at 21 Blake Snell autographs for the year in the middle of October.  I ended the month at 22, and ended the year at 30.  I am not going to come close to touching those numbers this year, and I am fine with having a smaller quantity this year.  

Here is my latest Snell autographed card.  

It feels like Snell has been in Allen & Ginter quite a few times over the years.  This card is the first Ginter card that I have added to my collection this year, might be the last one I buy too.  Not much interest outside of this card. The frame seems a little more ornate than in previous years.  Really busy look.  Maybe a little much with the slanted picture. 

I do like that Snell has maybe cleaned up his autograph a bit.  I know it doesn't look that much different, but it has been cleaned up a bit.  

He also separated out his first and last names.  The E on the end of Blake is a little clearer.  I guess the Snell is still the same.  Small steps, right?  

Back of the card.  

I always like the wording on the back of the Ginter autographs.  Not the standard autograph/signature disclaimer.  Sounds a little bit more old-fashioned. 

Cards I Love Part 4- 2010 Allen & Ginter Colby Rasmus

I got this Colby Rasmus card on July 8th, 2010.  It is one of the few cards in my collection that I can tie to a specific day, but there is a really good reason in the case of this card.

It was a Thursday morning.  My wife and I were going to a doctor's appointment.  She was eight months pregnant with our first child, and this was supposed to be a standard checkup with an ultrasound.  We went to the doctor's appointment, and learned that our son had not gained much weight between his seven month and eight month appointment.  The doctor we saw sent us to another doctor who suggest that they induce labor that afternoon.  

Slightly panicked, I drove home to get some things together for my wife.  Our house was in order for our son's arrival.  Our nursery looked great, but we had not really put together a bag or anything for my wife's stay in the hospital.  I got a few items shoved into a suitcase when my wife called me and told me to come back to the hospital as soon as possible.  Her doctor gave up on inducing labor, and they were just going to perform a C-section. 

I ran out the door to my car.  Somewhere along the way to the car, I grabbed the mail.  At a stoplight between my house and the hospital, about a twenty minute drive, I opened the mail and found the Colby Rasmus card.  I put it in the cup holder of my car.  It was there awhile.  

My son was born, and weighed 3 pounds.  He stayed in the hospital a few weeks.  My wife and I drove to see him every single day.  The Colby autograph sat in my cup holder driving to the hospital, driving home from the hospital, driving to work from both home and the hospital, and driving from work to the hospital.  

It never left the car.  

Eventually the little guy went home, but he was still pretty small.  

At some point when things returned to some sense of normalcy, I cleaned out my card, and put the Colby Rasmus autograph in my collection.  In 2010, I was pretty into collecting Colby Rasmus cards.  That interest has faded substantially, but the card will always be connected to my son's arrival into the world.  It's one card that I would never get rid of, and is one of my favorites even if it's a Colby Rasmus card.  

Stained Glass Snell

Topps has dabbled with all sorts of stained glass cards in this past.  I think my favorites were in the late 1990s Topps Gallery sets, but those are long gone.  There have been others along the way, some better than others. This year Topps made a set of stained glass cards in their Ginter set.  It's one of the mini parallels.  

It took me a bit, but I found a copy of the Blake Snell card.  This is a great looking card.  

It reminds me a lot of the acetate cards from the flagship in terms of the materials and how the light goes through the card.  The "glass" portions of the card are translucent, not transparent, or actual glass.  I am not sure about the actual design in the background behind Snell.  Are those palm trees?  That's what I think they are, but I might be wrong. The light provides good contrast with the black frame around the edge of the card, and the shadow looking figure on the back of the card.....

The card back reminds me a lot of the acetates too, but I wish they had done something more with the player image on the back.  I know that the back is black to block out the light, but the shadow figure isn't the greatest for the design.  Not sure what they should have done here, but it feels empty.  

Love the card though.  

and I am done.

I do not care about Gary Vee. 

I bought a blaster of Ginter a few weeks back and pulled a Corbin Burnes printing plate. 

I am not sure if I have ever pulled a printing plate out of a pack of retail cards.  Pretty cool. 

I got two copies of the Blake Snell autograph.  The regular one. 

Last week I found two Cardinals autographs that I was interested in adding.  The first was a copy of the Tyler O'Neill autograph.  Interested in seeing him play a bit more.  The Cardinals lack offense, O'Neill seems like he can hit for power.  I have not done much with his cards recently. 

He has other autographs and nice cards floating around, but I am going to pass on them all for right now.  Just one.  

This is one I have had on my list since the checklist for Ginter first came out.....

Ankiel autographs always seem to be expensive when they first come out, but they eventually settle down at some point.  After waiting a few weeks, I was finally able to add this card at a price I was comfortable with paying.  Topps did a great job of being neutral on pitcher/outfielder Rick Ankiel. 

and that's it for Ginter, I am done. 

Unless one of the serial numbered Snell autographs ends up selling cheap. 

2019 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 10 & 11

I have had a system for purchasing cards on Ebay for the better part of a decade.  It works well for me, and I feel like it makes me think through how much I am bidding on cards.  I cannot really say anything bad about the system, but I actually messed things up last week.  Hence, we have a post about Blake Snell autographs 10 and 11, and not just 10.  

Here are the cards....

 

One of these cards was an auction.  One of these cards was a Buy It Now.  The Buy It Now was the cheapest available on Ebay at the time I was bidding on the auction.  The auction card was lower than the Buy It Now card, but the prices were getting close.  I usually watch the Buy It Now cards when I am bidding on a card that has multiple cards like this Snell autograph.

Long story short, I won the auction making one of these two cards the 10th Blake Snell autograph in my collection during 2019.  I had been doing a bunch of bidding that day, and had a fair number of cards I had won in my cart.  Apparently, I had also dragged the Buy It Now into the cart, which I normally do not do, but missed removing it when I checked out.  Now, I have 11 Blake Snell autographs from 2019.  

No problems.  Here is the back of the card.  

A must have for the collection.  Allen & Ginter is not a product that I will go out and buy boxes of anymore, but I do love the autographed cards.  The frames are distinct, cards always look really good.  Excited to add these two cards into my growing collection of Blake Snell autographs.  

Friday Five: My Five Favorite Autographed Longoria Cards

I was sort of expecting the Rays might trade away long-time third baseman Evan Longoria this offseason, but it was still rough actually seeing it happen last Wednesday.  I started following his career after he made an appearance with the Durham Bulls towards the end of the 2007 season.  Longoria is easily the best player to have ever donned the Rays uniform and provided some of the best moments in franchise history.  

He helped the Rays make their only World Series appearance in 2008 by hitting 6 home runs during the American League Division and Championship Series against the White Sox and Red Sox.  My personal favorite moment was his walk off home run on the last day of the 2011 season which put the Rays into the playoffs that year

I have had a good time collecting Longoria's baseball cards over years.  There are plenty of nice ones out there, so for this post I am going to stick with a few autographed cards which I have enjoyed having in my collection.  Maybe next week I can do another post with the great non-autographed Longoria cards in my collection.  

Honorable Mention:  2013 Topps Tier One Autograph/Patch

I have a few Tier One autographs from a few different years.  Longoria has appeared in the product in some way every year that Topps has put out the product since 2011.  Most years the autographs are on-card, which is one reason why I usually like to pick up an autograph or two out of that product every year.  I really like the design of the 2013 Tier One autograph below, but I cannot put it in my top 5 based on the fact that the card is a sticker autograph.  I love the patch piece, I love the picture, I love the design, but I am bothered by the sticker.  Small thing, but this was a tough list to get down to five.  If I made a list of my favorite sticker autographs of Longoria, this card would be first.  

5.  2014 Topps Tribute 

Tribute is another product that has been a mix of sticker and on-card autographs over the years, sometimes even within a year.  Most of the relic cards from this set that have autographs are stickers.  I have a few different autographs out of Tribute, but this simple autographed card is my favorite of the group.  I like the finishes and design of the card.  It has a nice glossy front and a little bit thicker card stock.  Tribute is also one of those products that has all sorts of different colored parallels, some of them can look a little goofy at times.  I like that this card is low key in background color.

4.  2016 Topps The Mint 

The Mint was one of those ridiculously priced products that was something along the lines of a four digit number for a box.  There were several autographs that I looked into picking up from The Mint, but I was happy that the cards ended up being reasonable in price after a few weeks of the cards sitting on Ebay.  I love the darker background and the on-card autograph.  I sort of wish that the autograph was signed in a different color ink, gold or silver would have been a good look, but the blue still is nice on this card. 

3.  2017 Topps Five Star Autograph/Patch 

This is a recent addition and there is a recent blog post about this card.  Bascially, I have really slowed down on the whole relic card scene.  I don't go after them, I don't trade for them, I don't spend money on them.  I even feel sort of in different when I land one in a pack of cards.  However, this card is something a little different.  I like the jumbo patch which is from the nameplate of Longoria's jersey.  Very nice card that filled a void in my collection of Longoria cards. 

2.  2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Evan Longoria Autograph 

Not the flashiest card.  There is no foil or fancy card stock.  Allen & Ginter is one of my favorite products every year and I really like the framed autographed cards.  Longoria has other Allen & Ginter autograph that are fancy with jersey pieces.  He also has another framed Ginter autograph, but this is my favorite one in my collection.  

1.  2008 Topps Chrome Red Hot Rookies Autograph

I really love the 2008 Topps set.  The little circles at the top are a neat design element that make these cards unique and easy to recognize.   There are always autographed rookie cards in the Topps Chrome set, but the Red Hot Rookies set was actually a redemption in this product.  Not sure when Topps started these cards, or if/when they stopped.  I really hate redemption cards, so this was an early Longoria rookie that was a more recent addition to my collection.   Well worth the wait though, this is my favorite Evan Longoria card.  

Where Have You Gone Aledmys Diaz?

Not even a year ago I was in my local card shop buying a box of Topps Update.  I had actually thought about skipping the purchase in favor of just buying the base set and using the savings to buy an autograph of Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz.  How often do you walk into a card shop, think about the most ideal pull you could make out of a box, and then pull it off?  Next to never.

Yet, it happened to me last year.  

I love this card and I was so incredibly happy to pull this autograph out of a pack.  However, I have done almost nothing with any Aledmys cards this year.  Topps and Panini are still making Aledmys Diaz cards, it's just that he's disappeared.  First, Aledmys was in St. Louis and didn't really look anything like the guy who was one of the best rookies in all of baseball last year.  

Since Mike Matheny and John Mabry can't actually fix any young players on the Cardinals, Aledmys disappeared completely from the Cardinals.  It's happened before with Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty.  Usually the second they get away from John Mabry the young Cardinals learn how to hit again.  However, Aledmys has disappeared in Memphis too.  He's been out homered by Wilfredo Tovar, although he does have a slightly better OBP with a .306 mark.  Still pretty terrible.  

Aledmys disappearing from the baseball field has actually helped out my collection of Aledmys baseball cards.  Before, last fall, his cards were at least $30 or so.  Now they are $5 on Buy It Now on Ebay.  I'm a little hesitant to even pay that much because I have gotten his cards for less than that just bidding on auctions.  

Not going to weight down a post with too many Aledmys cards, but I have two cards that I have enjoyed more than the others.  Both were steals, compared to last year's prices, not this year's prices....

First up.....

an Allen & Ginter card.  I always love a good Allen & Ginter card.  I especially loved the framed cards out of this set.  I'd always like to have nice autographs, but I will be autographs from the dollar bin if it's on a framed Ginter card.  

Last one.  

Really cool picture on this Stadium Club card which came from the video clip above.  Always a really big fan of these cards too.  On-card autograph, everything about this card is quality.  

Durham Bulls In Frames

I did not open any boxes of Allen & Ginter.  It's always one of my favorite products every year, but I have been busy with kids and work of late.  I am still going to work on putting together a bunch of the cards out of the set starting with a few autographs.  After checking out the checklist there are a few that I am really excited about picking up.  I decided to start with a pair of former Durham Bulls players to start out my dive into this year's Allen & Ginter product.

First up is last year's Minor League Pitcher of the Year Blake Snell.  This is a beautiful card:

I feel like the frame designs are starting to run together a bit with some of the Ginter sets, but this is a great look.  Topps could use the same frame every year and change out the mini card in the middle and I would still buy these cards.

Snell's cards seem to have come down a bit in terms of price and popularity.  This is one of the most inexpensive autographs of his that I have picked up this year and it was easy to find.  Not serial numbered or anything, but a great looking card.

Next up is infielder Richie Shaffer.

This is my second Shaffer autograph I have added the past two weeks.  He's not having the best year with the Bulls, also a little time with the Rays, but I am still a fan.  I am a little surprised at the number of autographs he has had this year considering he has spent most of the year in Triple A.  Love seeing his cards though and they are always easy on the wallet.

Those Other Ginter Cards Part 1

A while back Topps started selling an anniversary version of the Allen & Ginter cards with black backgrounds instead of the usual white.  The black background cards were celebrating the tenth anniversary of the product.  The boxes were not prohibitively expensive, but sometimes I get really tired of the whole rehash thing, such as making the cards a different color, adding chrome to the cards.  Sometimes I will dabble into those products, but I usual limit myself by just picking up some interesting singles, or not opening a box and buying the base set.

The set has kind of grown on me over time.  A few of the card groups I am in on Facebook had collectors post pictures of cards from the set.  Very nice.  While I am not going to assemble a set in this case, I am going to put together a nice group of Cardinals, Rays, and former Durham Bulls.  I started by picking up four of the cards pretty cheap off of COMC.

Obviously a good start to the assembling the Cardinals and Rays portion of the full size set.  Still plenty of cards still left to find, especially considering I still haven't touched the minis.  The Cardinals team set looks like it has 14 cards, leaving me 10 short.  The Rays team set has only 5, so 4 away from finishing.  I am going to have to sort through the big list to track down all of the Durham Bulls, but all five Rays cards would also fit into that category too.  

2015 Snorting Bull Awards Best Parallel Set

This award was a little bit tougher for me this year.  The two previous winners were slam dunks in my opinion.  I really didn't have to think about either choice.  This year, I wouldn't say that the field was weak, but I felt like I didn't have a favorite that really stood out from the rest of the parallel sets.  So, after spending an afternoon flipping back through my 2015 cards I narrowed my three of four possibilities down to one winner.....

2015 Best Parallel Set

Topps Allen & Ginter Red Minis

I really enjoyed these minis out of Ginter this year.  I like the minis in Ginter every year, but the red parallels really stood out for me.  I pulled a bunch of them in my small pack when I opened up one of of my boxes earlier this summer, but went through and added several different Cardinals and Rays cards over the summer.  In years past, Topps has put a black border around some of the minis.  Always liked the look, but the red design around the edges popped for me this year.  Is it because I really really like the color red?  Probably, but they are still cool cards.  

#MyCardMonday

I picked up a really cool Jason Heyward card about two weeks ago and I have been dying to post it on here, but have not had the chance to do so yet.  I picked this card up off of Ebay, after being a little bit reluctant to do so at first, I think it is a really cool item.  Here's a look at the card....

This card was a giveaway from Topps during the National Card Convention this summer in Chicago.  I have seen plenty of Card Show/Card Convention exclusives and usually avoid them, but I love the Ginter set and was really intrigued by this one since it was not being passed off as an Ebay 1/1 or somehow/someway exclusive.  Instead, I was able to pick this card up for just a few dollars.

I was halfway expecting the card to be thicker given the cutout looks on the side of the card, but this is actually the regular card stock that Topps used this summer for Ginter.  The back does not have a stamp, or special markings to show that it came from the National Card Convention.....

Overall a really cool card.  Not sure how many different players were passed out in all, but I have seen a few others floating around in trade rooms on Facebook and auctions on Ebay.  There is at least another Cardinals player in the set, Michael Wacha, so I will have to work on adding that card to my collection.  Cool looking card for less than $5 and definitely worth looking into if you have a favorite current player or team you collect.

Allen & Ginter Part 4: Minis

On to one of my favorite parts of the Allen & Ginter set: The minis.  I feel like my box had some good minis in it starting with my box topper which was an extra pack of minis.  The pack held five red bordered mini cards which were all numbered to 40.  Here's a look at the five cards.....

Some pretty good names in that group of cards.  There were other color bordered in the Ginter set beyond the red.  The black bordered minis, which are always the most common, look really nice this year.  In putting together my base set, I almost always put together a team set of black bordered minis for the Cardinals and Rays.  Here's a look at what these cards look like in this year's Ginter set....

I pulled a Lackey black border out of my box, which will make putting together the Cardinals team set a little bit easier, but these cards are not hard to find and not very expensive.  Most of the time I can find most of the team set for a few dollars on Ebay, or COMC.  I like the design of the black cards this year.  The design around the edges of the card are a little less heavy feeling.  

I also pulled a Ginter flag card from my box.  I pulled a copy of the Hank Aaron version of this card last year and completely missed it because I was not looking for these when I opened my box.  This year I turned over all of the minis as I went through and I opened the box.  Kind of makes me wonder how many of these I have missed over the years?  Hmmm.  Might need to go back through some boxes.  Anyway, this year I pulled Greg Holland and promptly traded it away to a Royals fan who was annoyed by their ownership of a Cardinals card.  

Lots of cool mini inserts too.  I like those Hoist the Black Flag cards on the right side.  Might have to make that one of the non-sport sets that I put together this year.  Wonder if any of these pirates are in the set?