Brady Hits Me Again

Last week I finished up my posts highlighting a large flat rate priority box full of Cardinals that Brady from St. Louis Cardinals Cardboard sent me around Thanksgiving.  It was the largest amount of cards I have ever received at one time.  While it was a time consuming venture, I had a lot of fun sorting the cards and finding out a lot about 1950s and 1960s cards. 

About the second week in December I received another box from Brady.  This one was about a 300-400 count box, but once again stuffed full of Cardinals.  This one did not take me near as long to go through, but it was just as fun.

This box had a large stack of McGwire base cards.  I think he must of had 2 or 3 cards in every set from 1998-2002.  The 1998 Topps Gold Label Class 1 is my favorite, but the 2001 Leaf Limited is a close second. 

Albert Pujols was also well represented.  I was glad to cross off the 2004 Topps card with Ichiro from my wantlist.  I have a habit of overlooking multi player cards on my checklists. 

There was also a nice handful of inserts of both former Cardinals first basemen.  I love the cartoon look of the 2002 Fleer Tradition Heads Up McGwire.  Look at the size of that bat.

There was a huge stack of minis from 2013-2015.  The Jay and Motte cards have the Allen & Ginter back.  The regular Slaughter is my favorite of this bunch.  I am a sucker for retro uniforms.

This is a good start to a 2014 Ginter mini set.  I received 2 Shelby Millers, the regular and the A&G back.  A lot of pitchers here to go along with the Man.

I am not sure why Topps feels the need to include minis in Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen.  I guess they can produce more cards without changing the photos.  The Ozzie Smith is my favorite of these 2014 cards.  If you look closely you can see the lack of batting gloves.

Matt Carpenter has been called a throwback player for his lack of batting gloves.  I have read he uses super glue to keep his hands together during the long season.  Gloves make more sense to me.  These 3 minis are from 2015. 

The big hits from the box include these 2 autos.  Jordan Swagerty was a reliever who looked to be on the fast track to the Cardinals bullpen before Tommy John surgery in 2014.  The Cardinals released him in early 2015.  I am uncertain if he signed with another team or is out of baseball now.   Marco Gonzales is a former first round pick who had his own TJ surgery last year.  I hope he can come back and at least be a serviceable reliever this year.  He is still young and left handed so he should be able to stick somewhere if the Cardinals let him go.  I see Piscotty making his first All Star team in the near future.  Soon he will overtake Matt Carpenter as the Cardinals best position player.

Thanks again to Brady for some wonderful Card.  I hope I can start to repay him this month.