I won a contest from Bob Walk The Plank!

My mid-September family get-together in Louisville was fun. I'm lucky to have a bunch of really good folks for relatives. I saw many of them in June at my wedding reception, but it's always nice to see them again, plus there were a lot of cousins and cousins' kids in Kentucky who weren't able to make it out to Portland. Meeting my cousin's daughter's little girl ("first cousin twice removed"?) for the first time was neat.. she's a cutie. Good times.

So it's meant as no slight against my family when I say that the highlight of my trip came hanging out in my hotel room, catching up on the ol' blogroll, reading the results from Bob Walk The Plank's recent contest. At first I skimmed the post and it looked like I lost. I was bummed for a moment, but then I went back and read the post closer and discovered that I actually was one of the winners! Man, that was awesome!

Hooray!

Matt was putting together custom surprise prize packages based off each of the 3 winners own collecting habits. I already knew he always brings it in trades, so I had no doubt he'd bring it hard in contest winnings, as well.

And sure enough, he delivered some great free cards for me! They arrived yesterday. Let's take a look.

Finally checked off Mike Piazza's best rookie card! (and when I say "best" I don't mean Best; I would say this is the pinnacle of all his rookie cards, but that too would be confusing.) I realize it's silly collecting Piazza and all his billions of cards simply for one season spent as a Friar near the end of his career, but such is my Pads in the Hall maxicollection (any card from anyone in the Hall who ever suited up for the Padres). Sure, Mike's not in the HOF at the moment, but you gotta think he'll get in pretty soon. This is a great looking card, and the graded-ness is a bonus.

And here's the inaugural member of the Pads in the Hall fraternity (wait, no, that's not true.. McCovey and Gaylord preceded him.. though he was the first to go in as a Padre), Mr. Dave Winfield. This sweet card is #'d /15! A big piece of fabric and an autographed sticker. This is my 2nd Winfield auto, and my other one is a logoless Panini Prizm card, so it's nice to "upgrade" to a nicer card.. though, sure, someday I'd love to get a card with an on-card auto and Dave pictured in a Padre uniform, but those are tough to snag.

Ah, now here's a Padre dressed as a Padre, guy-from-my-high-school, Brian Giles. (I'm drafting up a "guys from my high school" week of posts, btw.. Hope to get them finished and posted soon.) Anyways, the card on the left is #'d /99 I believe and the card on the right has a little wood chip hidden in it (I honestly didn't notice it at first! LOL)

Another Pad in the Hall. This is a pretty sweet Maddux.

Khalil Greene sure has a lot of nice cards out there. I suppose that's what happens when you're a hot, upcoming young stud during an era when a lot of cards were being produced. Of course Khalil never quite delivered on all his promise, but I think many Padre fans still have a soft spot for the shy, cool/dorky kid. This is now the biggest relic in my entire collection, I'm pretty sure. It's numbered a scant 6/10. Very cool. Looks great in person, though was difficult to take a decent photo of it for some reason.

Finally, here's a Huston Street chip. I've gone on record saying the base chipz are kinda lame, but the parallels are neat. This is a metal parallel, which is pretty spiffy. It's not magnetic, but a magnet will stick to it. I didn't really have a chance to become a big fan of Street (honestly I just now found out his name isn't Hudson. Could have sworn he was Hudson Street, but no.) But as evidenced above, I have "Once a Padre.." loyalty to most stars who've passed through San Diego, and so I'll be hoping for postseason success for Mr. Street, currently on the Angels.

Speaking of the postseason, my condolences go out to Matt on his team's defeat in the NL wildcard game. I've mentioned before that the Pirates are probably my 2nd favorite team (a distant 2nd, but still), so I too was sad to see them knocked out by the hated Giants. Boo.

You're the best, Matt! Huge thanks yet again for these sweet contest winnings. It really made my day. If anybody out there hasn't traded with Matt yet, you'd better scrape up some nice Pirate cards to send his way.. you'll be glad you did!

P.S. On the topic of contests, I might as well earn a bonus entry for pimping the World Series Picking contest over at Collector's Crack. Go submit your pick if you haven't yet.
Yay, contests!