A Big Pile of Free Cards and Vultures

In the craziness that was my end-of-year 2011, Josh over at Royals and Randoms was kind enough to randomly choose me to participate in his grab-bag-free-cards-steal-from-others-athon (otherwise known as The Big Pile Contest).

Before I continue, please visit my last post about The Hall of Potch - read at your leisure - and then vote in the poll. I'd be eternally grateful. (I may or may not be overstating my potential gratitude.)

So, anyway, The Big Pile Contest. So my name came up #1 in the randomizer, which meant I received first choice of 20 cards and could protect three from being stolen by others - and steal...others...did! So, it was a yay-boo kind of contest - but 95% yay since, again, these were free cards!

If memory serves, I protected these fine cards from the vultures salivating behind me:

Loving the miscut to this swell action shot.

I believe I just saw the mini version posted yesterday on some obscure blog. I'll link to it here to help the poor fella out with his readership.

Finally, the third baseball picture card I protected is next. I always enjoyed watching Mr. Cey - despite my Cincinnati Reds affinity. I couldn't resist adding this one to my collection. 

I don't go out of my way to collect Carlton Fisk, Reggie Jackson and Ron Cey but I couldn't resist those three cards.

Here are a few other cards I picked up in the giveaway.

He really and truly is The Word.

Speaking of Mark Fidrych, he did not make the cut of nominees for the launch of The Hall of Potch. He did get a nomination but ultimately I decided not to include him on the first ballot. Speaking of this new fun-time feature, if you skipped ahead and didn't read the second paragraph, I'd love for you to read my Tigers Edition post linked here and then vote in the poll! 

Lemme see here, what else did I get from The Big Pile. Oh yes, a personal favorite of mine. Quietly, I collect this great guy. I'll likely need to catalog my Berkman collection soon and officially add him to my PC. Perhaps Ryan Braun will be removed, or even Starlin Castro or some other alleged ne'er-do-well.

Frank Thomas is definitely among my PCs. I believe I grabbed four of him with my initial picks in this contest but the vultures took four from me. Just mean, I tell ya.

Two of my all-time favorites above here. I've seen this set often through the years but don't really know what it is. Regardless, couldn't resist those two guys.

I used to despise this set, what with the out-of-focus shots, but now it just cracks me up. And, another Dodger, hmmm...I realize I've grabbed Dodgers from the '70s and early '80s often in giveaways such as these. Could I be a closeted Dodger fan!?

Ah, a vital Big Red Machine cog. That's much better.