Bobbles and Bags

My wife, son, and I were able to attend our first Cardinals game on Monday.  My daughter decided she would have a better time going on vacation with her boyfriend's family.  Earlier this year the Cardinals had a sale on Memorial Day tickets in the all you can eat areas.  I bought 3 tickets for about $60 each just above the centerfield batter's eye.

I will apologize for not taking any pictures at the game.  It never crossed my mind.  This is the first time we have sat in seats that included free food.  Hot dogs, brats, bbq chicken, nachos, and cookies to go along with soda and beer.  The buffet lasted 3 hours.  I made sure to eat my fair share.  We were in the shade the entire time, which felt great since the game started about 1:15.  The Cardinals won 6 to 3 thanks to home runs by Nolan Gorman and Paul Goldschmidt.  Fun game to be at and not bad for the price.  Only thing I will complain about was the price of parking.  I paid $25 to walk about a quarter of a mile to get to the stadium.  Lots closer ranged in price from $30 to $50.  

Before going into the stadium, I headed across the street to the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum to pick up my membership bobbleheads.  A family membership includes unlimited free visits to the museum along with 2 exclusive bobbleheads.

      
This is my third different Whitey Herzog bobblehead.  This one is by far the best made.  The tropy he is holding is for being named the 1985 NL Manager of the Year.  

This is my second Lou Brock bobblehead.  This one has a voice chip that plays a clip from the game where he broke the career stolen base record in 1977.  

The Cardinals also gave away a set of 4 cornhole bags to anyone 21 and older.  The red bags are pitchers, the gray bags catchers.  The red set should have included a Bob Forsch instead of 2 Bruce Sutter bags.  I later discovered other people also received 2 bags of the same player instead of 1 of each.  I will not complain with anything free though.  Now I just have to buy a set of boards to use these with.  

I Got Outnumbered

All of my trades involve Cardinals cards coming my way.  Not sure I would work out a deal without them.  I will trade for a few other things, most notably Jose Altuve cards for my son's collection.  Most of my trades start with me finding Cardinals I need, then if I need something to balance things out I will look for Altuve cards.  It is rare for me to complete a trade where my son receives more cards than me, but last week I worked out such a trade with TCDB member AnalogKid.

Before I show the cards, I must mention that this was one of the best packaged trades I have ever received.  Every card was in a sleeve, top loader, and an individual team bag.  

Pujols hit a walk off sac fly last night in the bottom of the 10th inning.  His days of hitting .300 with 30 home runs and 100 rbi's are long gone, but he still has his spots.  I have my doubts if he will hit 17 more home runs to get to 700 for his career.  At least we will see new Cardinal cards of him later this year.  Until then, cards like the 2008 Triple Threads and 2010 Upper Deck All World insert will tide me over.  

As I am typing this post, the Cardinals are winning this afternoon in the top of the 8th by a score of 3 to 1 over the Padres.  Arenado hit a 2 run home run right after Goldschmidt extended his hit streak to 23 games.  Wish I had entered the HR code today.  

Over the weekend my son and I purchased more Ultra Pro pages for his Altuve binders.  These inserts and 2015 Topps Museum card would not have a home without them.

Each one of these mini cards arrived in a soft sleeve just for minis.  I have never seen these before.  They work a lot better than folding over a regular sized sleeve over the top to make sure the card does not slide out.  

      

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #15

When I was planning today's post, I almost forgot that it is actually Tuesday.  Sometimes the long weekends make you lose track of time.  I was going to write about my trip to the Cardinals game yesterday, but that can wait for another day.  Time to knock out another couple TCDB trade recaps.  First up are 3 cards from member millrat99.  

These may not look like much, but I was thrilled to get these 3 cards.  MLB Showdown cards are a thorn in my side.  I am too stubborn to pick them up from Sportlots, and I never find them at shows.  These 2 from the 2000 set leaves me 3 short of the team set.  I was able to complete the 21 card Cardinals team set from 1994 Score by adding the Gerald Perry card.  It is a great feeling to finish a large parallel set.

The second trade came from member Netdawg. 

The younger collector in me loves Sportflics.  These from the 1986 Decade Greats sets feature 3 players on each card.  You can make out Ted Simmons on the bottom left, but the other 3 do not show the Cardinals player.  Top left is Dizzy Dean, top right is Ducky Medwick, and bottom right is Joe Torre.  

This is my first 1998 Topps Tek card of Brian Jordan.  I was lucky to find all 90 patterns of the Ray Lankford card a while back.  I will not be doing the same for Jordan. 

This card makes me a little sad.  I have always like Paul DeJong.  Nice guy with a great signature.  Problem is he flat out forgot how to hit.  The 2019 all star was demoted to Triple A a couple of weeks ago and is still hitting below .200.  At this point I am not sure he will ever turn things around.

Trio of Smalls

I missed my 2 for Tuesday post this week, so I will make up for it today with a trio of small trades.  The largest of these was only 4 cards.  First up is a single card for The Bench member David K.

This was a simple 2 for 1 trade.  Was it worth the postage?  Maybe not, but David is a very generous member who has given away a ton of great autographed cards.  I will gladly help him anytime I can.  Gorman made his debut over the weekend against the Pirates.  He did great against them, but struck out 3 out of 4 times earlier this week against the Blue Jays.  If he can manage to keep the Ks down, he should be a good second baseman.

Next up are 3 cards from TCDB member Velli88.

I do not have a lot of Topps parallels other than the gold numbered ones.  These 2 from 2021 are welcome additions.  The purple Hicks came from a Meijer pack, the blue Edmonds from a Walmart pack.  Musial is from the 2021 A&G Historical Hits insert set.

The last of the 3 trades came from TCDB Canadian member Shaw Racing.  

This was a 4 for 4 swap that costed me $1.30 postage.  Not bad considering how far these 1989 Panini Stickers came.  If packaged right, you can mail quite a few cards to Canada for less than $2.   

No Big Deal

 Reading this blog you know I love to trade.  I would not have much to post about if I did not.  Lately the size of the deal has not really mattered to me.  As long as I can justify the cost of postage, I am good with about any type of trade.  In recent weeks that cost has been $1 or less.  One such trade was with TCDB member bravefan1.  3 Braves went his way in return for 6 Cardinals that came my way.

Half of the package were my first 2022 Donruss cards.  Panini is going the way of Topps Heritage by reusing old designs.  My dad must have bought my brothers and I 4 boxes of the 1988 product.  Not sure why the original blue and red border was replaced with a little of white added to the corners.  

Staying with the Panini brand, here is another of the many base card designs from 2021 Chronicles.  Seems like Carlson has a card in every one of them.

It never gets old getting Molina inserts or parallels.  If he ever retires, I am sure he will still be included in quite a few sets each year.  A fan favorite and future Hall of Famer is hard to leave out.  This is my first 2021 Mosaic Mosaic parallel.   That sounds very confusing just typing it.

The last card was actually a 2020 Topps sticker.  After being released last fall, Martinez has failed to catch on with the Giants or Red Sox this year.  I bet there is still teams that will take a chance on a former All Star who can throw in the mid 90s regardless of his control or injury issues.  Everyone can always use more pitching.

Latest Ron B Package

It was ironic that I received a package from Trading Bases member Ron B over the weekend.  His Pirates were playing my Cardinals.  Not only did I receive a great batch of cards, but the Bucs managed to get swept by the Birds.  I try not to give Ron a hard time because he has been a Pittsburgh fan for a long time and he always sends me great cards.  One of these days the Pirates will be respectable again.  Until then I will look forward to them playing the Cardinals and any Cardinals Ron sends my way.  His latest package had the usual great assortment.

Upper Deck made a habit of including serial numbered rookies in a lot of sets in the early 2000s.  Completing team sets from this time period can be difficult.  

I received some numbered cards of the Donruss/Panini variety also, but these are all inserts.  It is almost strange to receive a Donruss card like the 2002 Originals Musial that has logos.  

Topps inserts included a nice Molina numbered refractor from 2018 Heritage Molina, a 2022 Rainbow Foil, and a 2018 Big League Blue DeJong.

Topps parallels included a couple of 2020 gold foils and a 2012 gold foil insert.

The last of the non base cards were 3 2021 inserts.  Not hard to pick out the camo blue Mosaic Edman as a favorite.

The lone base card in the package was the last 1996 Topps Chrome I needed for my team set.  Love crossing these older sets off my wantlist.

I guess this is not a base card or an insert.  I would not go out of my way to obtain these buybacks from anything after 1980, but will still find a place in my collection for them.  What really irks me is when a nice vintage card is destroyed with a stamp. 

      

Older Set Hits

When I think of old baseball cards, I think of ones produced before 1980.  1982 is the first year I remember following baseball as a kid.  When I opened up my first pack of baseball cards in 1986,  I recall getting a few of the players from back then.  Skipping forward to a few years and my first card show, I came across some colorful 1975 Topps cards and thought they were very old, even older than I was.  

Today my definition of an old card has changed.  Pre 1980 cards are still old, but so are cards produced 20 years ago.  Those type of cards are getting tougher to find at shows.  I am not talking about the high dollar rookies.  I am after the common base cards or inserts of Cardinals I do not have.  TCDB member torcato helped me out with a few of these older cards.

I graduated high school in 1994, the same year this Leaf Limited card was made.  It only took me 28 years to complete this team set.

These 2 UD 40 Man cards are 20 years old.  That really seems strange to say that.  I only need 1 more card to finish this 44 card team set.  Anyone have #572 Luis Garcia laying around?

This 2010 Topps Debut card is not that old, but it is still from a set I never see cards of.  I am not even half way done with the 11 card team set.  

These 2 cards are not old, but they are the last 2 from the package.  The Hicks is a gold parallel from 2020 Topps, while the Motte orange refractor is from 2012 Topps Chrome.  Both of these former closers threw very hard.  The current closer Giovanny Gallegos throw quite as hard.  Yesterday he gave up 2 runs on the only 2 pitches he threw in the 10th inning to take a loss.  I look for Ryan Helsley to take over the job soon.  His fastball is just a tad slower than Hicks.