Hey, wanna see these 21 Padres cards I got yesterday?

Last weekend I made an order from my favorite site for buying common cards, with the main goal of clearing out all the Joey Cora cards they'd accrued since my last purchase from them. They only had 39 Cora cards, well shy of adding up to the $15 minimum for free shipping, so I added some minor league cards and $2 certified autographed cards to bump it up to $19.94. I was a few adult beverages deep when I placed my order, so when the cards showed up yesterday, many of them were a pleasant surprise.

Of those 39 Joey Cora cards, just eight of them are from his time with the Padres. This is his 1988 Fleer issue; these three copies bring me up to 18 of this card, one of my lower totals as far as his Padres cards are concerned. The leader in the clubhouse is his 1988 Topps card, of which I have 62 copies.

These two 1991 Score cards of Joey in action bring me up to 28 of those. I especially like this card because the back mentions his appearance as an emergency catcher, complete with a quote from the incomparably wonderful Mark Grant, who pitched to him both innings.

Those 1987 Donruss Opening Day cards have been fairly elusive for me. The set, differentiated from the regular Donruss base set by its wine-colored borders as opposed to black, featured only the nine players who were in their team's first starting lineup for the season. I assume the production run was considerably lower, as I only have nine of them. The card on the right has been easier to come by. That's my twenty-second copy of Cora's 1990 Donruss card. Incidentally, 1990 Donruss was my first-ever complete set, so this holds a special place in my little black heart.

Okay, now on to the cards that people other than me will care about.

I had to pick up Alexi Amarista's base card to get my collection of him up to date, and I've been anxious to get this Cody Decker minor league card since the day it hit the streets earlier this year. He's terrific, and I'm glad he got to spend a few weeks up on the big club with Alexi; I hope the one MLB RBI he has under his belt is the first of many.

Yeah, Matt Wisler headed to The ATL before the season began, but I wanted to have a document of his time in the Padres' system. That, and one cannot have too many El Paso Chihuahuas cards. The Dane Phillips card is based on the same principle, applied to the Lake Elsinore Storm.

Here are a couple of Topps Heritage Minors cards; Michael Gettys' is from this year, echoing the 1966 Topps design, while the Kevin Quackenbush card is from 2012. He had a lot less beardage back then, but he gave an indication where things were headed.

Zech Lemond is a 2014 third-round pick of the Padres; I only meant to get one representation of him, but I'm not sad about accidentally getting two.

Drew Cumberland was the Padres' top draft choice in 2007, but had to retire before reaching the majors due to in inner-ear problem that took the game away from him. Poor Josh Geer's name got misspelled as Josh Greer; that must have been demoralizing for him while he was signing those. Geer was also the victim of a physical malady; he has survived cancer since his time with the Padres in 2009. He stayed with the organization through 2014 -- ten full seasons! -- spending his first season of pro ball outside of their wing in 2015 with the independent Sugar Land Skeeters.

(From the windows! To the walls!)

I rounded out my order with these three autographed cards. First off, what is going on with Ruben Rivera's autograph? I've seen many a player skim over letters, but never one add some. Interesting guy, that one. Steve Garrison never made the field as a regular-season Padre, but he does share a name with Marcy D'Arcy's first husband, so that's something. As for Kevin Cameron, he has a more significant place in Padres history, as no one in club history has pitched as many games or innings without allowing a home run.

Not a bad haul if I do say so myself.