Contest Winnings from the Baseball Dad Himself

Friend of the Quarry, Jack (better known as Baseball Dad) held a contest over at his blog All Tribe Baseball.  It was a guess the number of duplicates contest and surprisingly I was the closest.  I almost never win guessing games, but I got lucky this time.  My winnings for this contest was cards unsurprisingly.  Here is what I got for being a lucky guesser.

This card was the star of the package.  It is a dual purple relic of Larry Walker and Todd Helton from 2001 SPx Update.  It is actually the 2nd copy of this card that I have gotten from another blogger.  I got the same card from Dennis of Too Many Grandersons Verlanders over a year ago.  It's still good that this card came because that one had a couple of small creases near the swatches.  This one is aesthetically more beautiful.

Here is nice card of Charlie Hayes from the futuristically named set Sportflix 2000.  The set was put out in 1994, so it was futuristic back then anyway.  Ahh the days of being scared to death of the Y2K bug, don't you miss them?  The Howard Johnson is from 1994 Stadium Club Team Series and actually gives me an idea for a new feature which I will debut soon. 

Next up we have a pair of starters from the mid 90s.  Bret Saberhagen was one of the many chances the Rockies took on a formerly great starting pitcher that didn't really pay off.  In Saberhagen's case, injury was the main culprit rather than the pre-humidor Coors.  Thomson was a 7th round pick in the Rockies 2nd draft ever in 1993.  Tossing out 1999, Thomson was a very effective pitcher for the Rox and later on for several other teams. 

Up next is a pair of Vinny Castillas.  The first is from Donruss' attempt at cashing in on the Finest craze 1997 Donruss Preferred.  It may look like a bronze parallel, but it is actually a base card.  Each card in the base set was either bronze, silver, or gold depending on rarity (I think).  The second card I absolutely love.  It is a magazine pull out card from 1999 Sports Illustrated for Kids.  This is one of those cards that I would have never gotten because I didn't know about it. 

We couldn't have my card winnings without a Todd Helton.  It is a 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Connection base card which (sort of) finishes the team set for me.  I still need several SPs and jerseys which were numbered along with the base cards.  The middle card is a 2002 Donruss Fan Club Mike Hampton from a subset called Fan Club Favorites.  The only fan clubs that Mike Hampton was a favorite of were Rockie opponents.  The final card is from 2003 Donruss Estrellas and is of Lanzador (pitcher) Jason Jennings.  Counting the unopened pack which garnered me two Rockies, Jack has now sent me 75% of this team set.

My favorite item from this package isn't even a card.  It is a foldout schedule of the 2004 Rockies.  Granted that was not a particularly good season for Todd and the Todd-lers, but it is still a great new part of my Rockies collection.  What a beautiful photo.


Thanks a lot Jack.  As always, I will keep my eye out for any Indians that you might like.  Unfortunately, the Indians (along with the Twins and Cubs) just never seem to find their way into packs I open.  Oh well, at least I know I'll have a great place to send them should I ever get any.