106.

Blake Snell number 106 is just a red herring to make two other announcements.   

 

Announcement #1- I have not written very often in this space during the past year. I am not ready to retire this space, but I am going to take a long break from writing on The Snorting Bull. Probably a year or more. I want to work on some other life and writing projects. If you like the cards that I post on this blog space, I will still be active on Instagram. I also hope to become more active on TCDB, as I am working to better organize my card collection.  

Announcement #2- I have always wanted to do a set blog, so I started one this week on the 1999 Skybox Molten Metal Xplosion set.  It will be active and I will be posting there. You can find the blog here.  

Friday Five: My Favorite Miggy Cards

I do not write about the Tigers often on this blog, but they have long been a team on my radar. My wife is a Michigan native, so my in-laws are all big Tigers fans. My middle schooler likes the Tigers (not you Javy Baez) and will watch their games. I have been fortunate enough to attend a few Tigers games over the years. They have a great stadium if you are ever in Detroit. 

The last Tigers game I attended was two summers ago and I was fortunate enough to see Miguel Cabrera one last time in person. I knew it was likely going to be the last time, so I took a few pictures......

In the end, Miggy walked off the Twins on an odd single that landed between the centerfielder and the shortstop. The Twins had actually been really aggressive with pinch hitting and had Nick Gordon, normally a second baseman or shortstop, playing in centerfield.  

On to the cards. I think I have a sneaky good collection of Miggy cards, so I thought it would be fun to do one of my Friday posts featuring some of my favorites of the future Hall of Famer.  

5. 2013 Topps Miguel Cabrera Triple Crown Relic 

Not sure where winning the Triple Crown ranks on Miggy's list of career accomplishments, but it feels like it should be up there. I also feel like it rarely gets mentioned when people talk about his career. I watched his last few games, not sure it really got brought up. Maybe the accomplishment has lost some of its luster in recent years with the push on using sabermetric stats. Do people really talk about batting average anymore? 

I love this card. It's die-cut, has a nice action picture of Miggy with a swatch of his jersey, and is better than anything else I have seen that recognizes him as a former Triple Crown winner. These have gotten pricey and hard to find over the last decade.  

T4. 2011 Triple Threads Miguel Cabrera Patch Card 

Two relic cards in a post is my limit in the year 2023. I do not really do relic cards, but this one is too good to not post on my list. I went all in on the 2011 Triple Threads set and have some great looking cards from this product. I could easily make a few posts on some of the cards. This is one of my favorites. 

I have never really tried to figure out all the patch pieces on here, but there is a lot of blue and orange. I think it's the Detroit script off of a road Tigers uniform, as the home uniforms do not have any orange..... 

The patch piece on the LL of the card is white, orange, and then a partial piece of blue. Looks similar to the top of Ts in the word "Detroit" on the road uniforms. 

T4. 2011 Triple Threads Miguel Cabrera Autograph 

I will fudge on the five card thing a bit in this post and go ahead and share one of the Triple Threads autographs I have of Miggy from the 2011 set while we are here. Yes, it's a sticker autograph, but it's a clear sticker on a really great looking card. 

3. 2012 Topps Five Star Miguel Cabrera Autograph 

I love Five Star. I don't open any packs of it, because they cost a second mortgage on your house. I just like when people sell their autographs that do not make them a profit on their $250 box of cards. You pulled a Miguel Cabrera autograph and need to sell it? I am listening.  

I have several Miguel Cabrera autographs that are not going to be included in this list. They are all really great cards that I am sure the average sane collector would love to have in their collection. This is my favorite Miggy autograph and it's the last one on this list. This Five Star is an on-card autograph and has really thick card stock. Yes, it's got a jersey and some art work, that's kind of an afterthought here. I wish I could scan the side of the card to show off the stock, it's impressive.  

2. 2001 Bowman Heritage Miguel Cabrera 

Huge fan of the 2001 Bowman Heritage set. Have a ever told you about how much I love the Albert Pujols card in this set? I don't love Miggy that much, but it's close. Is this considered a rookie card? I treat it like it's a rookie card. It's in a magnetic one-touch and everything. This is a great looking card and aesthetically probably my favorite card of Miguel Cabrera on the Marlins. 

1. 2000 Topps Traded Miguel Cabrera 

The 2000 Topps set is trash, but the Traded set is pretty nice. You've got rookie cards of Adam Wainwright, Ben Sheets, and Miguel Cabrera. That's more checklist depth than the 1982 Topps Traded set. If I had to make a list of the most important 2000s rookie cards, this Miguel Cabrera would be really high on the list. Great card. First ballot Hall of Famer wearing a teal Marlins uni, not sure how it gets better than that.  

2023 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 5

Back-to-back Blake Snell autograph posts. I spent a little bit of time on Ebay last week, but really only spent a little bit of money on some Blake Snell cards. Similar to the Tier One autograph in the previous post, this Triple Threads card was available at too good of a price to pass up.  

Front of the card.  

I actually had a chance to pick up the green or purple bordered versions of these cards, but I did not really like the appearance. The white border is a more common card, but the gold background and brown Padres swatch looks a lot better with this color scheme. The large jersey relic with the double pinstripe might be the best Snell/Padres relic I have added the past two years he has been pitching in San Diego.  

Triple Threads is always a good looking product, but I am always bummed out by how many sticker autographs appear in the product. This sticker is fairly well blended, but given the price point of Triple Threads, it would be nice if this was an on-card signature.  

Back of the card.  

"Congratulations" 

Let's do better with card backs.  

2023 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 1

I have a few Blake Snell posts to make over the next few weeks. My favorite former Durham Bulls pitcher has not autographed cards for any 2023 products yet, but Snell had a few that I missed last year. The quantity of Snell autographs has definitely slowed over the past few years, which is helping me catch up.  

The first one for 2023 is from last year's Triple Threads set.  

Not sure about the purple frame and gold background for a San Diego Padres card. Seems like an odd color combination between the purple, gold, and Padres brown. The picture looks like it is from the team photo shoot and the autograph is Snell's typical signature. Unfortunately, the signature is on a sticker, although it is blended decently. Triple Threads is such a nice product, I wish that these were on-card autographs.

I guess the highlight here is the jersey swatch. 

I am not sure I have a Padres swatch on a Snell card. It's not like I collect relic cards either. Anyway, it's a large brown swatch with two pinstripes. This is about as good as it gets without specifically trying to find a patch card.  

Back of the card.  

Nothing special here. Standard card back for an autograph with a relic piece.  

2022 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 6

It seems like it was just last month when the 2022 Blake Snell Autograph Count was only at 2. Hardly any of the newly added Snell signatures are from this current year. I am having good success in finding autographs from his time in Tampa with low prints runs. These cards were either too expensive at the time of their release, or I just never found one due to print run limitations.  

I do not know why I do not have a copy of this 2019 Triple Threads card of Snell that I found last week. I used to love this product, but have really gone away from it over the last few years. I have been down on sticker autographs, down on relic cards, and the little sayings on the card have gotten weird at times.  

This card seemed too nice to pass up.  

This Triple Threads autograph has a really low print-run at just 9 and it was an auction on Ebay. I really did not think I was going to win it, but here we are. I like the different colored patches on the front with the white piece, striped piece, and solid blue piece.   

The "Early Honors" phrase is explained on the back of the card.  

Neat little factoid about Blake Snell.  

I have seen this stat before. Interestingly, Shane Bieber of the Indians/Gaurdians also won a Cy Young Award in 2020 prior to turning 25 in 2020. The feat has also been accomplished several times in the National League over the past 40 years, with Clayton Kershaw, Dwight Gooden, and Fernando Valenzuela all winning before 25 and Corbin Burnes coming close at 26. 

"The Relics Contained On This Card Are Not From Any Specific Game, Event, or Season"  

Just reminded me of why I do not really care for relic cards.  

2020 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 7

I am a little disappointed in the direction that Topps has taken the Triple Threads product over the past few years, but they are still some solid autographs on the checklist, right?  At least there is Blake Snell.  The design on the front of the Triple Threads cards was always enjoyed the cards with the attribute or a phrase describing the player featured on the front of the card.  

For example, this was one of the Snell autographs from the 2018 Triple Threads set.  

I miss this design.  

Low innings pitched?  Like pulled in the 6th inning of a 2 hitter in an elimination game during the World Series? 

It's actually a reference to the fact that Rays limited his innings early in his career.  Not that uncommon.  I saw a few games where they used Dylan Floro, Dodgers World Series winner and non-innings restricted pitcher, piggy back behind Snell on starts in the Minors.  21 wins also seems pretty good.  

Somewhere around here, Topps dropped the number of cards in Triple Threads that had messages on the front of the card.  I am not saying the don't exist, but they used to be the norm rather than the exception.  

Here is my newest Snell autograph.  

Again, I like the card, but it feels a lot like the Museum Collection and Tribute cards.  Topps has sort of merged all these different products together in style and design over the last few years.  The is a huge departure in design from the card up top.  Generic blue jersey swatch, sticker autograph, and a blasé gray background. 

I swear, I like the card, even if the post is coming across as hypercritical.   

Back of the card.  

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

JUMBO RELIC CARD!!!!!!!!!!

I guess there is only so much you can do with a card back.  

Cards I Love Part 10 - 2010 Triple Threads Brian Fuentes All-Star Game Patches

This is actually a post about I how started blogging. 

It all started at some point during the early weeks of 2012 on a Facebook trading group.  I was really big into trading and selling cards at that point, and one of my trading partners at the time suggested that I give writing about cards a shot.  He had a blog with some cards, but it was actually heavy on bobbleheads.  Unfortunately, he stopped writing awhile ago, and his page is not even up anymore. 

Josh from DodgerBobble is still on Instagram.  He still has a great collection of bobbles and autographs up on that page. 

I started off writing for a few minutes each day.  It was a good outlet after work.  It provided me a space to talk about the baseball cards that I was collecting.  It also provided me a chance to connect with other people interested in this hobby.  I really enjoyed spending time writing in this space. 

When I first started writing, I spent a lot of time on cards that I got in the mail from either trades, or buying them off of Ebay or Facebook.  The first card that appeared on my blog was a mail day, and rather random at that. 

This was the card. 

Brian Fuentes had not been a Cardinal yet.  My main reason for buy or trading for this card, I cannot remember how it got here, was that it was from the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis.  I do not have the complete set of these Triple Threads cards, but I have a lot of them.  I like writing, I still enjoy this space, so this card is a pretty important one in my collection simply for the fact that it was the first one here. 

In a strange twist, while I do not collect Brian Fuentes cards, his only other appearance on my blog is one of my most read posts of the past almost eight years.  The post is a rant about really bad airbrushing on Brian Fuentes and Mark Mulder cards. 

No Joey Fuego?

I wrote a little bit a few weeks back about the disappearance of the nickname cards in the Triple Threads product.  Always a highlight for me during the year, the absence of the nicknames has made me a little less likely to collect these cards.  Just a refresher, but they looked like this:

So, after adding my Snell autograph, I went back and did a little work on a second player from Triple Threads trying to add a few cards of Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi, or Joey Fuego to those who follow his career.  I like the nickname.  It's catchy.  I am also not sure it's very apt considering he is a lot of deception mixed in with some breaking pitches. 

I have followed Joey's career since he was at Southeast Missouri and have been collecting his cards since he was first drafted by the Padres.  He's not a player I would have guessed to appear in Triple Threads, but I am not going to complain. 

Here is the card. 

Yep, no Joey Fuego.  We have this gem instead.  Why did Topps pick this phrase for his Triple Threads card?  

There you go. 

Chris Sale, Jordan Zimmerman, Clayton Kershaw, and Joey Lucchesi. 

There are other Joey Lucchesi cards from Triple Threads.  One is above average, so I might have to find that card.  Maybe, maybe not. 

Revisiting An Old Favorite

Long ago, when I first started writing in this space, I am pretty sure that Triple Threads was my favorite product to collect.  I sort of held back all summer on new card releases, and then went crazy buying Triple Threads single cards.  Whatever was leftover was my budget for all the other cards that I was going to collect for the year. 

I flipped through some of my old boxes and checked out some of the old scans the other night while trying to wind down after work.  Fun to do. 

Here are a few things I found......

I don't even remember owning this Howie Kendrick autograph. 

Love how the signature is vertical on the card rather than horizontal.  Seemed like a nice find given his performance in the Postseason this year. 

I don't really collect relic cards anymore, but I have a bunch of Triple Threads that are just patches and jersey pieces.  This Miggy patch card with just a print run of 3 is probably my best one.  The smudges are on the case, not on the card. 

My favorite Triple Threads cards by far were the Triple Threads cards with the player nicknames.  Here are three good ones....

It did not matter whether it was autographed or not.  I am not a huge Ryan Braun fan, as a player, but the Hebrew Hammer card might be my favorite nickname card that is in my collection on a Triple Threads card. 

The more recent Triple Threads sets have always just been about names for me.  I am not really sure that Topps does a lot with the nicknames anymore, so I just go for the player.  So, really I end up with a few Cardinals and whatever former Durham Bulls players I can find. 

Probably my favorite Triple Threads card in recent years us this Jim Edmonds. 

Would love a "Jimmy Ballgame" card, but the 2004 NLCS is cool too.  

So, this year I have already added a Blake Snell autograph from Triple Threads, but there were a few more cards from the set that I decided to pick up in addition.  As much as I used to love this set, and enjoy the quick revisit for a week, these feel a little disappointing.  

First up is a Cardinals card.  

It used to be that the cards above at the top of the post were sort of the standard design for Triple Threads, but it feels like those types of cards are now secondary.  This Hicks card feels like the majority of cards that I run across in this set.  It's the usual generic autograph and relic piece that could be found in half a dozen other Topps products. 

Not the best autograph either from Hicks.  Yes, it's just this card.  Yes, it sold for cheap. 

Next up is a former Durham Bull. 

Again, same style as the Hicks card.  Adames had a good year for the Rays, if you do not know anything about him, or own any of his cards I would highly recommend you check him out.

Last card, another Durham Bull.  

I am not exactly sure how to describe this card.  It's not quite the cards at the top of the post, and it's not the same as the Hicks and Adames.  Sort of it's own thing.  I'd like to think of this as almost a generic version of the standard Triple Threads autograph/relic that Topps uses on players it has no clue about. 

Ryan Yarbrough? 

He's won a bunch of games.  What else does Topps know about him?  I'd guess nothing. 

I am excited about finding an autograph of the Rays starting pitcher.  He was in Durham a few years back, and seems like a decent starting pitcher.  He had another autographed card or two early in the year, but nothing I was overly excited about. 

Maybe another Triple Threads card or two next week, maybe not. 

2019 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 24

I am going to meet my goal of 25 Blake Snell autographs.  They are already all here sitting on my desk.  I got a little behind the past few weeks on Blake Snell cards though, so I am going to post them a little bit out of the order in which they arrived into my collection.  For today, I am going to go with an autograph out of Triple Threads.  This is usually a favorite product.

Here is the card.  

I am feeling like these cards are getting a little stale.  I have never minded that these cards were sticker autographs, but I feel like they are lost a little bit of creativity with the different phrases and sayings that are on the fronts of the cards.  Low IP 21 Wins?  That's not that great.  There is also a "RISP Stopper" card and a "Swings & Misses" card.  Both are better than the card I bought, but five or six years ago Topps would have slapped "Snellzilla" on his cards, which is better than all of them.  

Simple is better, just use his nickname.  

Someone slapped this card up with a low Buy It Now.  The card was cheaper than any other copy of this card that had sold up to that point.  The price of Snell Triple Threads cards has slid back a little more over the past week, so maybe I will find a second copy of this card with a different phrase on the front. 

Back of the card.  

The phrase "Low IP 21 Wins" is explained.  We get the usual disclaimer about the card being signed in front of someone from Topps.  Also the usually disappointing disclaimer about the relics on the cards, which means that they are likely from a jersey that Blake Snell once put on, walked around the clubhouse in, and then took it off.  

One more until I reach my goal.  

One More From 2018

My interest in Tim Beckham cards started a few years back when he played for the Durham Bulls.  He was a former first overall pick, and while he did not seem like a superstar type of player that teams hope to get with the first overall pick, Beckham seemed like a solid everyday player at worst.  There were some good ones out there.....

this card out of Topps Pro Debut was my favorite.  Obvious reasons.  

Somewhere along the line Beckham was suspended for drugs, endured a lot of ridicule for not being Buster Posey, and was eventually traded to the Orioles.  He actually hit well during his first half season in Baltimore, there were more than a few people who were encouraged. 

The sweet Beckham cards started to pop back up last year.  It was sort of a bumper season for his baseball cards.  Bunches of autographs.  These were two of my favorites.....

The year was actually a complete disaster for Beckham and the Orioles on the field.  He did not hit and he struck out a ton.  The Orioles ditched Beckham at the end of the year, set him out to find a new team.  Beckham ended up signing with the Mariners early in January.  

There was one last Beckham card from last year that I really wanted to add, closing out the book on his time with the Orioles.  The card was out of the Triple Threads set, it was a little too expensive for what I would be willing to pay for a Beckham card, when the set first came out.  I hadn't looked at it in awhile, but I checked a few days ago......

and it was in my mailbox yesterday.  

Triple Threads has not changed much over the years, and I feel a little bored with it at this point, but this is a really nice card.  I love the green color on the background, the gold foil is a nice touch too.  Not sure what the future holds for Beckham's cards with the Mariners, but it was a nice 2018.  

Marcell, Marcell

I set out this spring to find some Marcell Ozuna cards.  At the time I started, I made a post with a few of his Marlins cards that I had picked up after his trade to the Cardinals.  The rest of this summer I was quiet with Ozuna cards until last month when I found a copy of his Topps Tek autograph from this year's set.  

The lack of new Marcell cards had more to do with his disappointing performance on the field and less to do with the cost or availability of his cards.  Now that the season is over, I feel like there are many Cardinals fans who are over Marcell in many ways,  especially now that the team has traded for Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.  

Plenty of Marcell Ozuna cards around now.  Reasonable prices too.  I picked up two of them.  

First up is a 1983 style insert card from this year's Topps set.  There are a few of these from Series 2 and Update products that were sticker autographs.  Luckily, Marcell was an on-card autograph.  The 1983 Topps were some of the first baseball cards in my collection, so I have really enjoyed finding these cards this year.  I do not have all of the Cardinals autographs, nor all the former Durham Bulls, but I am getting close.  Probably won't finish.  

Last one.  

This is my second Triple Threads card of the year.  I also picked up a Blake Snell.  Pretty typical design for this product, but I had not noticed the gold foiling on the other card.  It has a little sharper contrast with the red jersey swatch and the coloring around the action shot of Ozuna.  I am not much into relic pieces anymore, but the red piece has to come from a batting practice jersey.  

The disclaimer on the relic pieces nowadays.  It's still a nice looking autographed card, good addition to the collection, and a good 2019 out of Marcell would make these two cards even better.  

A Card To Celebrate

Blake Snell took home quite a few awards as a Minor Leaguer, but Major League success had been elusive for the pitcher prior to this season.  2018 was a great year for the former Durham Bulls, which culminated in Snell taking home the Cy Young Award recently.  He deserved it.

Unfortunately, a great award winning season can be just the thing to make a young players cards spike in price.  As someone who has collected Blake Snell for the past few years, I was worried that the collecting would have to slow down a bit.  

His early cards have become more popular and more expensive, but his current cards generally have not.  There are many that are still under $10, with the overwhelming majority costing no more than $20.  So, to celebrate Blake Snell's Cy Young Award, I went ahead and picked up a nice card of his from a recent card release.  

This new card of Blake Snell is from Triple Threads, which does not even look like it's orignal concept anymore.  All of these different Topps brands have all blended together.  These sort of look like the relic cards from Tribute a few years back with a sticker autograph slapped on the front of the card.  No matter the brand, it is an attractive looking card.  Nice relic swatch and nice autograph.  While Triple Threads is a sticker autograph, never my preference, Topps really does a nice job of blending the stickers into the design on this product.  

Project Durham Bulls #36 - Alex Colome

2012-2015 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

The Rays signed Colome as an amateur free agent in 2007 when he was 18 years old.  He was a starting pitcher throughout his time in the Minors, he made it up to the Bulls in Triple A in 2012.  Colome appeared in a limited number of games that season in Durham, just three starts, but returned to the Bulls in 2013 where he made 13 starts.  He won just 4 games and had an ERA of just 3.07.  Colome was called up to Tampa that season for a few spot starts.  At the beginning of the 2014 season, Colome was suspended for failing a drug test, but came back in the middle of the season to make 15 starts in Triple A.  He won 7 games with the Bulls.  More importantly, it was his last significant time in Triple A.  Colome pitched in a pair of games with the Bulls in 2015, but spent almost the entire season with the Rays.  The team transitioned him to the bullpen during the season where he remained for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 seasons.  Colome made the American League All-Star team in 2016 and led the League in saves in 2017.  He was recently traded to the Mariners.  

Card-

Colome has signed in several sets over the years.  The first few sets he appeared in, several of them have his autographs in them, were actually as "Alexander Colome".  Both the base set cards and autographs appear under the name Alexander.  I am not sure if this says Alexander, or just Alex.

Not a bad autograph, but it's surprisingly not changed much over the years.  

He has done less and less signing since breaking into the Majors, which is a somewhat normal pattern for players.  Since Colome was a long running Bulls player, I actually have several of his autographs in my collection already.  This 2015 Triple Threads card is not only a good looking card, but it is one of the few Colome autographs that are already not in my collection.  Probably in my favorite few Colome autographs behind a Strata autograph I picked up two years ago, and my favorite which is a Durham Bulls autograph out of the 2013 Pro Debut set.    

Finally A Fowler

It's been just over a year since the Cardinals signed free agent outfielder Dexter Fowler away from the Chicago Cubs.  The entire 2017 season has been played and I have written exactly zero posts about last seasons biggest offseason addition for the Cardinals.  Yes, I opened some packs of cards and there were Fowler cards in a Cardinals uniform in some of those packs.  I posted none of them.

In fact, I haven't even posted the good Cubs cards I have of Fowler.  Here's a quick rundown....

and that's everything.  It's a single card, but it's a really nice.  Most of the autographed cards out of Triple Threads are nice and collection worthy in my book.  I really like the 'Take A Walk" on this card.  While many baseball fans might best remember Fowler for his leadoff home run in the first inning of the seventh game in the 2016 World Series

 he is actually best known for working the count and getting on base.  Great card.

So naturally I needed to find something similar, but in a Cardinals uniform.  I had several different options and I honestly did not end up with my first choice.  So, here is my first nice Dexter Fowler card in a Cardinals uniform.....

Like the Cubs card at the top of the post, this Cardinals card is out of the Triple Threads set.  No cool message about Fowler's style of play, but just an oval shaped piece of jersey.  That gold background is a little bit over the top, but there are other versions of this card with green backgrounds.  I felt like I was choosing between a card with a Christmas themed background or opulent mansion of a dictator.  I guess I went with dictator's mansion.  I promise that I will do better with a follow up Fowler post with a little bit better, less gaudy, baseball card.

It's Good To See You Again

Several years ago I would have listed Triple Threads as one of my favorite annual baseball card products.  There was so much to love about these cards.  The product always seemed to have a great checklist with great looking cards.  They didn't even have to be players that I really sought out or collected.....

Not a huge a McCutchen collector, but I love watching him play baseball.  What modern card collector wouldn't want something like this in their collection?  Aside from the great looking autographs, Triple Threads also had some cool jersey pieces and unique designs which featured player nicknames or stats.  

Ryan Braun as the Hebrew Hammer......

 The colored pieces on the card are from the 2006 Futures Game.  This Miguel Cabrera patch card is probably my favorite non-autographed Triple Threads card.  

So what happened to my love of Triple Threads cards over the past five years?  First, most of the Cardinals and Rays (Durham Bulls) players have been repetitive.  Every year we've gotten Evan Longoria, maybe Wil Myers, Matt Carpenter, and Carlos Martinez.  I do like all of these players, but I also like a little bit of diversity, new challenges, and new faces.  

Lastly, I like this Matt Carpenter card.....

we're a chunk of bat away from this card....

There are so many Topps products that have started to drift together in appearance.  

All of this has changed my view on Triple Threads from a favorite, must have, must see card set to something that I could take or leave depending on price and how hard I have to work to win an auction on Ebay or pull off a trade.  

Well, that changed when I saw the checklist for this year's Triple Threads product.  There are new Cardinals in the set.  There are Cardinals that I really enjoy collecting.  There are Cardinals cards in the set that I am actually excited to own and worked hard to find.  Today, the first of a few cards from this year's Triple Threads set.  

Not only my newest Triple Threads, but also my latest Jimmy Ballgame card.  

First, the negative.  It's a sticker autograph, but it's really well done.  Not one of those silver stickers on a white card.  This is as good as it gets for a sticker.  

Second, this is the second Topps product that Edmonds has appeared in this year.  I am almost positive that he is also going to be in the Topps Signature Archives set coming out soon.  Topps doesn't have to make cards of retired players, especially of those who are not in the Hall of Fame (he should be).  

Last thing I love about this card.  It celebrates Edmonds performance in the 2004 National League Championship Series.  Pujols won the MVP for the Series, but Edmonds had a great series.  He had an incredible catch to save the team from getting behind in Game 7, but before that he won Game 6 with a walk off home run.  

One of my favorite memories from the LaRussa era Cardinals.  It's good to see you again Triple Threads.