Remembering "The Kid"

I was sad to hear that Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter passed away today at 57.

I remember well the battles between the Cardinals and Carter's New York Mets for dominance of the old National League East in the mid to late '80s. My best friend in high school was a big Mets fan, so there was a lot of back-and-forth smack talk between us all the time. The Cards won in '85, the Mets in '86, and then a dramatic late September '87 series at Shea Stadium almost saw the first-place Cards drop their lead to the "Pond Scum" (as they were affectionately called in St. Louis). But Terry Pendleton's improbable homer to deep center field won the crucial game for the Cardinals and a third trip in the decade to the World Series. My friend wasn't as trash-talking the next day at school.

Though he could get under the skin of the opposition, Gary Carter was a class act, always smiling on the field but definitely a hard-nosed competitor. Thankfully, he was able to enjoy his election to the Hall of Fame and bask in its glow for several years before he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. God bless you, "Kid."

2012 Topps (Series 1) Trade Bait

Updated February 24, 2012

These are the cards I have available for trade, preferably for Cardinals cards I still need from this set.

1, 4, 6, 11, 13 (3), 14 (2), 16, 20 (3), 25 (2), 28, 29 (2), 31 (2), 32, 38 (2), 39, 45, 47 (2), 60, 61, 65, 67, 70, 73, 75, 79, 81, 83, 84 (2), 86 (2), 88

101, 107, 111 (2), 123 (2), 126, 128, 130, 131, 132, 136, 138, 141, 155 (2), 161, 177, 178, 181, 184, 187, 188, 195, 197 (2), 198

209, 212, 218, 219, 226, 231, 236, 238, 239, 249, 250, 252, 253, 254, 257, 262, 265, 267, 271, 276, 280, 283, 284, 285, 292, 295, 296

300, 301, 304, 308, 323, 324, 325 (2), 330

Minis

TM-18, TM-50

Special Cards
I have no duplicates for the Classic Walkoffs, Timeless Talents, Golden Futures, Gold Standards, Golden Moments, and Golden Greats cards, but I would be willing to trade one for the same type card for a Cardinals player. Email or comment on this post if you're looking for a specific card or cards.

Refractors
I'm not much for the refractor cards, so I'll offer these up even though I have no doubles for them:

41, 156, 297

Blue-Bordered Parallel Cards
96, 321

If you're interested in trading, just email me or comment on this post. Thank you!

2012 Topps Cardinals (Series 1) Needs

I've bought several packs and jumbos of the 2012 Topps over the past few weeks, but out of the goodness of my heart (and to encourage my 13-year-old son to collect) I've let him keep all the Cardinals and I take the duplicates.

So far, the only ones I have for myself are Matt Holliday #320; David Freese #273; World Series #53, and #124 Active Leaders (Pujols/Guerrero/Helton).

Thanks to Paul over at Wrigley Wax, I now know which ones I'm missing:

Base Cards:
#3 Jaime Garcia, #44 Edwin Jackson, #77 League Leaders (Albert Pujols), #92 Active Leaders (Chris Carpenter), #264 Chris Carpenter, #192 Active Leaders

Minis
TM-19 Lance Berkman, TM-21 Matt Holliday

Golden Moments:
GM-6 Red Schoendienst, GM-27 Lance Berkman, GM-29 Albert Pujols

Golden Moments Relics:
GMR-AP Albert Pujols, GMR-DD Daniel Descalso, GMR-MH Matt Holliday, GMR-SMU Stan Musial

Golden Moments Autograph Relics:
GMAR-RS Red Schoendienst, GMAR-SM Stan Musial

Timeless Talents:
TT-19 Stan Musial/Lance Berkman

Timeless Talents Dual Relics:
TTDR-TTH Bob Gibson/Roy Halladay

Gold Standards Inserts:
GS-2 Stan Musial, GS-5 Bob Gibson

Golden Greats Inserts:
GG-66 Albert Pujols, GG-67 Albert Pujols, GG-69 Albert Pujols, GG-70 Albert Pujols

Golden Greats Autographs:
GGA-AP1 Albert Pujols, GGA-AP2 Albert Pujols, GGA-AP3 Albert Pujols, GGA-AP4 Albert Pujols, GGA-AP5 Albert Pujols

Golden Greats Relics:
GGR-66 Albert Pujols, GGR-67 Albert Pujols, GGR-68 Albert Pujols, GGR-69 Albert Pujols, GGR-70 Albert Pujols

Golden Greats Autograph Relics:
GGAR-AP1 Albert Pujols, GGAR-AP2 Albert Pujols, GGAR-AP3 Albert Pujols, GGAR-AP4 Albert Pujols, GGAR-AP5 Albert Pujols

In The Name Jumbo Relics:
ITNR-LB Lance Berkman, ITNR-MH Matt Holliday, ITNR-YM Yadier Molina

Variations:
#93 Skip Schumacher (Rally Squirrel) (I can dream, can't I?)

Note: Cards in red underlined = Cards promised in TTM

I have a list of 2012 Topps trade bait cards here. Thank you!

Weird Card Wednesday: 1970 Topps Carl Taylor

Every Wednesday, I'll feature a card from my collection that has something unusual or weird about it.

This week's Weird Card Wednesday candidate is the 1970 Topps #76 Carl Taylor.

Two bad things happened to Carl on this card:

First, because he was traded by Pittsburgh after the 1969 season, he was relegated to a hatless head shot the following year while clearly wearing his Pirates jersey.

Second, on the day the Topps photographer came to spring training, Carl had the misfortune of a bad fever blister on his bottom lip.

It makes you wonder whether Topps ever gave a second glance to the photos they selected?

1974 Topps Complete Set: A Work in Progress

Ah, the Seventies! When players wore long hair and afros, sported mutton chop sideburns,and wore polyester uniforms and stretchy-waist pants.

I was three years old when my Dad starting buying wax packs for the 1974 Topps cards. When I started collecting cards, he gave me his collection, which was rubber-banded together and stored in a cardboard box in the hall closet. The oldest cards were the 1974 Topps. When blogs like Mark's Ephemera and Night Owl Cards renewed my interest in the hobby, I sorted those cards into numerical order to see which ones I needed to complete the whole thing. (This will be a side project to my main Cardinal team set collecting.)

I'm still looking through a few boxes of random cards that are jumbled together, but I've come up with a working need list:

(Thank you to Wrigley Wax for sending 69 cards and Dave Chase for sending 43!!)

Red = Potential TTM cards

1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 19, 20, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 53, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 88, 89, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 108, 112, 114, 118, 122, 124, 126, 132, 134, 137, 138, 140, 146, 151, 153, 158, 166, 170, 173, 175, 176, 179, 184, 186, 190, 194, 195, 201, 202, 204, 206, 207, 209, 212, 213, 220, 222, 223, 227, 230, 234, 236, 237, 239, 240, 241, 245, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 258, 260, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266, 268, 270, 271, 272, 276, 279, 280, 283, 285, 286, 288, 290, 294, 296, 297, 300, 301, 303, 304, 305, 307, 308, 312, 313, 315, 321, 322, 324, 336, 338, 339, 341, 343, 344, 347, 350, 351, 353, 355, 358, 360, 361, 366, 368, 371, 372, 373, 374, 376, 378, 390, 391, 393, 396, 397, 398, 400, 404, 409, 410, 412, 417, 419, 421, 438, 439, 441, 442, 444, 445, 456, 464, 467, 470, 472, 478, 481, 496, 500, 517, 520, 530, 542, 547, 548, 549, 550, 555, 561, 571, 572, 573, 575, 576, 580, 582, 584, 596, 599, 614, 619, 630, 647, 652, 654, 655

So I have 67% 77% 84% of the set and need 220 215 214 148 103 cards to complete it.

If anyone has any duplicates in their collection, please comment below and maybe we can work out a trade.

Everyone Needs a Mantle Card for their Collection

My 1959 Topps Mickey Mantle encased in protective plastic

The Lost Collector posted about his latest eBay purchase of a somewhat beat-up 1967 Mickey Mantle--his first Mantle card. I congratulated him and commented that every collector should have at least one Mantle card in their collection. Mine is a 1959 Topps #10.

When I was 17, our next-door neighbor's brother found his collection of baseball cards and offered to sell me whatever I wanted. This was early in my collecting and I didn't have very many 1950s and 60s cards. It was in October or November, and my father let me pick which ones I wanted and they would be my Christmas gift. The neighbor's brother was kind enough to let me keep that box of cards at my home while I looked through them and decided which ones I wanted to buy.

There were some tough choices in that box. The first picks were easy: all the Cardinals cards he had, which became the foundations for many of the sets I completed over the next 25 years. But I wanted at least one card of superstars like Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roger Maris, etc. I picked a '55 Williams, '59 Aaron, and a '58 Banks. I remember having to choose between a 1959 and 1961 Topps Maris and going with the '61 because it showed him with the Yankees.

I think I had two or three Mantles to choose from, but this is the one I picked, mostly because I liked the way it looked. He wasn't a Cardinal (although having grown up near the Missouri border, I don't think he would've minded being one), but he was a classic baseball player, warts and all.

If it's within your budget--even if you find a less-than-mint one--I recommend getting a Mantle...any Mantle.

1952 Bowman: Billy Johnson

The 1952 Bowman is perhaps my favorite baseball card set of all time.

Its design is simple vintage--no logos, no gold stamping, no refractoring. Just the player and his autograph.

Each card is a colorful work of art, a portrait of baseball from a bygone era.

I first started collecting them in 1999. So far, I have eight out of 14 Cardinals cards to complete the set. Here are the ones I still need:

• #30 Red Schoendienst
• #62 Joe Presko
• #107 Del Rice
• #160 Eddie Stanky
• #196 Stan Musial
• #232 Enos Slaughter

Wow--three Hall of Famers, including Stan the Man. Presko, Rice, and Stanky are doable. But Red, Stan, and "Country" will take some saving and looking for the right deal on eBay. Still, it would be a great set to have in my album! Another card-collecting goal for 2012.