2011 Topps Tribute Cardinals

We picked up a couple of Topps Tribute Cardinals a few weeks ago. I can’t believe there are really packs and boxes that cost this much! Glad we found these singles.

Pujols 111 of 199. Wainwright 39 of 199.

Gypsy Queen Printing Plates

I pulled a Gypsy Queen Cody Ross 1 of 1 printing plate from the Birthday Blaster Box my family gave me on my birthday. I wished it was a Cardinal plate but was excited to get my second printing plate from a pack. My dad was in Atlanta last week and I saw a few packages in the stack of mail. I really wanted to open them to see what was inside but my I had to wait until he came home. At least Sewing Machine Guy put my name on the trade package so I got to open something.
Well, my dad is home now and he let me open the other two packages. Two Cardinals printing plates!!! Thanks Dad!!!

Random 2011 Packs

I stopped by a card shop while traveling in Delaware a few weeks back and picked up a few packs for Isaac. Here’s the fun stuff…

2011 Pujols / Braun Heritage


2011 Shiny Pujols RBI Leaders


2011 Jon Jay Gold Border


2011 Randy Wells auto. What’s with all the Cubs autographs and relics we’ve pulled out of 2011 Topps? This one is up for trade for 2011 Cardinals autos or relics.

Great Weekend at Busch III!!!

Despite the rain and tornados, it was a great weekend at the ballpark. The Cards took 2 of 3 from the Reds (and blew the lost game late… a common theme this year), Isaac took his Aunt and Uncle (White Sox and Cubbie fans from Chicago) to their first Cardinals game, and we had great Easter weekend with family.
The Cardinals honored two HOF greats on Saturday and Sunday, offering fans a Red Schoendienst replica statue and – amazingly – the first ever Stan Musial bobblehead giveaway. I also took advantage of a coupon from the 2011 Winter Warm Up to buy some game used and stadium used memorabilia… more on that in another post.

Saturday Giveaway


Sunday Giveaway


And if you’re wondering where our seats are this year… here’s the view of the field.


And here’s the view to the right… aisle seats next to the Cardinals Bullpen!!! Here’s Carp warming up before Saturday’s game.

Side By Side: Adam Wainwright

Bringing Side By Side back to keep things going until the season starts. Might as well start with Isaac’s favorite autograph from the 2011 Winter Warm Up. Here’s what we’ve got:
In person, on card:

2006 Topps Chrome Rookie Auto Sticker

2006 Topps Co-Signers Auto Sticker

2006 Upper Deck Special Something Or Other Auto Sticker

So what do you think? Wainwright definitely uses more room on the Relic card and the #50 inscription is nice too. The sticker autos, even though there is more room on them, seem rushed by comparison. They’re also eerily perfectly centered though!

Ikes Cups

Thorzul showed us some Brewer’s cups and asked to see our cup collection. After all the awesome Cardinals he’s pulled in his box breaks for us we could not say no. These are all the big soda cups except for the 2008 treat cups.

2007 Cup Celebrating the 2006 World Series Champs

2008 Cup listing the NL Leading 10 World Series Championships

2008 Treat Cup

2009 Play Like A Cardinal Cup

2010 Fredbird Cup

Mystery Vintage Team Cards

Ever find a stack of cards and wonder where they came from? I found a dozen vintage Cardinal cards ranging from 1952 to 1969 in my laptop bag and can’t recall how, when or where they came from. Well, that’s not entirely true, they were in a snap case with a generic receipt totaling $11.53 and an April 2010 date. According to my expense reports, I was in Atlanta GA, Wilmington DE, Phoenix AZ and of course here in St. Louis that month.
Anyway, the stack had five Cardinals team cards…
1960

1961

1962

1964

1968

1968 Springfield Cardinals

I bought a 2010 Springfield Cardinals team set for Isaac at the Winter Warm Up in case he wanted to get autos of some of the AA prospects. As you can see, the team set is a nice interpretation of the 1968 Topps design. The team circle has been appropriated with a dedication to Stan the Man… you really have to look for the “Springfield Cardinals” in that logo.
While you’ve already seen a few of the AA Cardinal Prospects in our Winter Warm Up posts, I thought I’d post a card of a non-prospect featured in this set… El Presidente!

While we’re at it, here are a few of the ‘68 Cardinals we have. In this case, few = almost all. Have other 68’s for trade if anyone has spare Cardinals of that vintage though.

Stadium Used: Rebel Oakes

Thought I’d share the birthday gift my family gave me for my 40th last October. The Redbird Club is an excellent place to watch the Redbirds at Busch. The Club provides an air conditioned break from the summer heat and a variety of made to order food items that are not available elsewhere in the stadium. Its walls are adorned with large scale images of vintage baseball cards, primarily from the tobacco era.
I saw this Rebel Oakes artwork in the Cardinals Authentics store while walking around the stadium with Isaac. It’s the wall art of the Rebel Oakes T205 card from the Redbird Club in the stadium. I’ve seen posters of this card on the internet, usually side by side with the back of the card, but they can’t compare with “stadium used” art peeled off the wall. Its too bad portions of the image were cut off but they contribute to the "stadium used" aspect. This Mr. Oakes may been replaced with a newer, cleaner copy in the Redbird Club but I’m happy to have him at our house.
Check out the view to get a better idea of the size and scale of the club and the images on the wall.
 

Winter Warm Up 2011–Name Plates!

I bought these on the last day of Winter Warm Up. They are player name plates for lockers, batting helmet shelves, bat racks and other stuff. These were five for one dollar. I liked the Ankiel and got the others to make five.

Dad – The name plates are on my nook Color. Aside from the baseball card packs and Isaac’s Nintendo DSi, the nook color was a godsend as we waited through all of the lines.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Singles

My dad bought me a few cards too. Some were for autographs and some because they were cool. These are the cool cards.
These will look cool with the Jon Jay autograph from a Target pack.


This matches the Colby Rasmus jersey card I bought at the Flea Market over the summer.

And this one matches a Joe Mather autograph my dad bought at a past Winter Warm Up.

Dad - I'm actually looking forward to catching Ankiel and Mather playing for the Braves this summer when working out of the Atlanta office.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 3

This is the first year we went to the Warm Up on Monday. It is only a half day but we still got some cool autographs. I’ve met Pat Perry before at the Cardinals baseball camp last summer. We paid for Allen Craig and the rest were freebies. The Shane Robinson matches last year’s card except this one is on a Target card. I also got my third Rookie of the Year. Eli Marrero was really nice and asked for a picture with me that might end up on the Cardinals website.





Dad – Eli was extremely nice, especially considering we were in the last group of the day and he had been signing for nearly two hours. Still, I’ll remember him most for helping to bring Wainwright to the Cardinals.