Graphing in Peoria

Over the weekend my wife and I attended two minor league baseball games.  Saturday night we traveled to Indianapolis to watch the Indians play the Louisville Bats.  It was team autograph night, and I always try to help out good trading partner Ron B add to his Pirates collection.  We managed to get 10 cards and a program signed for him.  I forgot to take pictures of them before I mailed them off Monday morning.

Sunday afternoon we traveled to Peoria to watch the Chief play the South Bend Cubs.  The game was not as intense as a Cardinals Cubs game, but still fun to watch.  The Chiefs gave up a 2 run home run in the ninth inning to lose by 1 run.  The game went by fast in a little over 2 hours.  As in years past, some of the team signs autographs after the game.  I did not have very many cards for the current roster, but did not come away empty handed.

I picked up a 2025 team set at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up in January.  Many players were either promoted or released.  

Tanner Franklin is the Cardinals #11 prospects.  In his 3 starts he has been dominant.  I doubt he will be in Peoria very long.  I watched him sign 16 copies of this card for someone in front of me.  I joked I only had one.  He laughed and said it is all good.  

Rainiel Rodriguez is a 19 year old catcher who is the Cardinals #3 prospect.  He is one of those players who when he makes contact, the ball sounds different off his bat.  He hit a double in the 8th inning that appeared to clear the wall, but neither umpire saw it well, and there are no challenges in Single A.  I was disappointed he was not in the autograph line after the game.  As I was walking out, another collector said Rodriguez would sign outside the player entrance.  After a 15 minute wait, he appeared and signed for me and 2 other collectors.  He appeared very shy and soft spoken, but signed quite a few cards for the other 2 people and posed for pictures.  He is another player I doubt will remain in Peoria very long.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #139

It has been over a month since my last 2 for Tuesday post.   Shows you how slow my trading has been.  Over the weekend I received a trade that finally made two that I have not shown off yet.  That pwe came from member alan nyc.

I has been a while since I picked up some needed Cardinals Topps gold cards.  These from 2012 and 2014 are more of the bronze years in my opinion.

The second trade package from member Chemo has been sitting on my desk since March 8.  

Here is a 5 pack of former Cardinals prospects from 1992 Pro Cards Tomorrow Heroes.  1991 first round pick Brian Barber is the only one who played for the Cardinals.  He pitched in 10 games in 1995 and 1996.

Three of a Kind

 At the end of March I donated blood.  Once again the Red Cross was offering a $15 online gift card with each donation.  Of course I chose an EBAY card.  I knew exactly what to spend most of it on.

These three Scott parallels are from 2024 Topps Archives.  Achrives foil, purple foil, and green foil numbered to 99.  Total was a close to $10.  Not counting the press plates, there are 12 variations of this card.  I now have 6.  The rest are all numbered to 50 or less.  

2026 Card Show #3 Recap

March was about as slow of a card month as I can remember.  I only completed 4 trade on TCDB, bought nothing on EBAY, and did not attend a card show.  Some of this was due to lack of time, while some was also watching my budget.  My daughter is getting married in June.  The groom's parents have agreed to split the bill, but with a guest list close to 300 it will not be a cheap wedding.  We have been paying ahead on some things, so I have a better idea what the final cost will be.  Being somewhat caught up until paying the caterer in May, I decided to attend a local show on Saturday.  This quarterly show always has a good mix of vintage and modern value boxes.  Saturday was no different.

They may not be current Cardinals anymore, but I still need a lot of their cards.  Hard to pass up premium brands and refractors priced 5 for $1.

Another dealer had some 5 for $1 boxes than I pulled a few cards out for trade bait.  He also had some $1 boxes where I found this Scott card.  

I only found 2 dealers with dime boxes.  One table was so busy, I did not have a chance to go through it in the 2 hours I was there.  I did find another dealer who had some nice dime cards.  I pulled about 20 2018 Aaron Judge Topps Highlights cards along with this 2012 GQ mini variation Holliday I needed.  

The show was so big they opened up another room for the dealers.  I found an older gentleman in the new room with some very nice ungraded vintage cards.  Both these league leaders from 1961 and 1967 are almost perfect.  At $15 each, I could not pass them up.

The final table I bought from were 2 older gentlemen with more ungraded vintage.  They had a box of Cardinals sorted by year and number.  I found these 2 1959 high number cards and a 1965 from my wantlist.

I also bought these 2 1962 cards.  Somehow I forgot to cross the McCarver rookie card off my list last year, so now I have 2.  I am sure another Cardinals collector will need it.  All 5 cards are in great condition.  I paid $50 total.

  
  

First New Ray Lankford of 2026

 Here it is April 1 already.  The first quarter of this year has flown by.  Nothing big to show off today, just my first new Ray Lankford card of 2026.

This is a Hero Decks card from either 2012 or 2020.  There was a Cardinals set produced in both years, but no way of telling what year this is from without the box.  That is ok with me.  I have been watching this card for awhile hoping it would fall below $10.  It never did, so I waited until I had an EBAY gift card to buy it.

Opening Day

Yesterday was the first time I attended a Cardinals home opener.  My wife's cousin had 2 extra tickets down the right field line just past the netting.  These were great seats to see the players as they entered the stadium for the pre game parade.

JJ Wetherholt had a great debut, hitting a home run in his second at bat and adding a sacrifice fly later.

Masyn Winn had one hit in five at bats.  At the old age of 24 with a little over two full seasons of experience, he is looked upon as one of the leaders of the team.

Victor Scott had a great game with 3 hits and 2 stolen bases.  I thought he could have stolen third base in the eighth inning, but for some reason he never tried.  One of his hits was a beautiful bunt down the third base line with runners on first and second.  Even with the third baseman in on the grass, he easily beat it out.

The game had a bit of everything with home runs, big scoring innings, and a Cardinals bullpen that looks to be weak.  The Rays had the bases loaded to end the game.  It was a long day, as we arrived for the pregame pep rally at 10:30.  We watched batting practice for both teams at noon, then waited for the pregame parade at 2:30 before the first pitch at 3:15.  After experiencing everything, I believe opening day is a little overhyped.  It was fun, but the premium paid for food and parking was a little crazy.  Lots that were $40 last year were $60 yesterday.  Crazy to pay that to park for a few hours.

  
My best find of the day was this ticket stub laying in the seats after the game.  Like most clubs, the Cardinals do not print many tickets.  It is not in the best shape, but it will be a great memento of opening day and Wetherholt's debut.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #138

Just like last Tuesday's post, today's recap will feature mostly cards from one brand.  This time it is 2025 Stadium Club.  The first lot of cards came from member Geoff2568.

Nice to hit four of the six Cardinals base cards in one trade.  Despite him being in Arizona now and playing for Puerto Rico in the WBC (how strange is that after he was with the USA in 2023), the Arenado card is my favorite.

Cannot forget to add the Altuve base card for my son.

The second trade came from member SMSiegell.

Team set complete in two trades.

I also completed my 2025 A&G team set with this last short print.  This is Schoendienst card #101 in my collection.  Topps goes through a cycle of putting him in a lot of products for a year or two, then leaving him out for the next few years.  I was guessing my total would be higher.  He is one of 57 different Cardinals I have at least 100 different cards of.  I love being able to find collection stats on TCDB.