Tewks

Do you ever look through a bunch of baseball cards and find something that you not only don't have in your collection, but you're just really surprised that the card even exists?  The 1990s were a dark time to be a Cardinals fan, particularly the first half of the decade when the team was thin on talent thanks to the stinginess of August Busch III, who refused to spend money on veteran players.  The later 1990s weren't great either, but at least they scored a ton of runs and came close to making the World Series in 1996.  

Many of the team's free agents and trade acquisitions were low priced dumpster dives.  Most didn't work out, but one of the few that stood out was signing former Yankees and Cubs pitcher Bob Tewksbury.  He was a great control pitcher and had some outstanding seasons in St. Louis.  The Cardinals were just too busy being mediocre for most to notice.  I don't want to go too far into the weeds on Tewksbury's great control, but if I could sum up his ability to throw strikes in one sentence it would be this: 

During the 1992, 1993, and 1994 seasons Tewksbury made almost 90 starts for the Cardinals covering 600 innings, and limited batters to just 60 walks.  The majority of starting pitchers in the Major have that many in a single season. 

Two sentences.  

As a baseball card collector, there were slim pickings on really interesting Cardinals cards during the early 1990s.  Occasionally there would be one of Lee Smith, Ray Lankford, or Bernard Gilkey, but that was it.  Last week, I stumbled on a really nice insert card of Bob Tewksbury.  I was really surprised by the find.  

How did I miss this card?

I probably was not even looking for it.  

This is from the 1993 Score Select set.  Every card company around this time was coming up with some sort of high-end brand.  While the 1993 me would probably give you some serious side-eye at the combination of the words "Score" and "High-End", these are actually nice cards.  The Aces insert has a foil front.  The card is from 1993, but it looks like something that could have come up in the last few years.  

Back of the card.  

Nice little write up on the back of the card, but the photo is horrible.  Does he not have a chin?  His hat is just sitting on the top of his head?  

Friday Five: My Favorite Players Who Have Played For Both The Cardinals and Cubs

We've got the Cubs and Cardinals playing this weekend, so for this week's Friday Five I am doing a quick countdown of my favorite players who played in both St. Louis and Chicago.  Not arguing the importance of this rivalry, but it's pretty darn important around the Midwest.  Like any good rivalry there have been players who have been on both sides of the fence.  These are my favorite five starting with an honorable mention:


Honorable Mention- Lee Smith RP

More people probably remember Lee Smith for his time with the Cubs over his brief stint with the Cardinals.  However, some of Smith's better seasons took place during his time in St. Louis.  In 1991 Smith recorded a total of 47 saves which set the National League record at the time.  I first got to watch Smith pitch with the Cubs during the mid 1980s when the Cubs games were on WGN every afternoon.  Whether they were playing the Cardinals or not, the daytime Cubs games were always a good way to pass sometime during the summers.  I would be more inclined to rank Lee Smith on this list if it weren't for his partial 1993 with the Cardinals.  It was brutal and there were a lot of blown saves/leads.


5.  Bob Tewksbury SP 

Tewksbury may not be a name that some know, or remember, but he did play for both teams during his career.  His Cubs career was all of 8 games after the right-handed starting pitcher joined the baby bears in a trade with the Yankees for pitcher Steve Trout.  Most of Tewksbury's Cubs career actually took place in Triple A.  The Cardinals signed Bob Tewksbury during December of 1988.  He spent some time in Triple A with the Cardinals too before he landed a gig in the team's starting rotation during the 1990 season.  Playing for the early/mid 1990s Cardinals meant a whole lot of losing, but Tewksbury was a good pitcher.  Not just compared to the rest of the rotation, but actual good pitchers like Greg Maddux.  His best season with the Cardinals, and his career, took place in 1992 when he went 16-5, had an ERA+ of 158, and a WAR of 6.5.  Tewks finished 3rd in the National League Cy Young voting that season.  He bounced around to a few teams after he left the Cardinals, always a fan even if he wasn't always the best pitcher.

4. So Taguchi OF

Taguchi played in St. Louis for a total of 6 years and in Chicago for a single season.  He was not a regular starter for either team, but he was a really easy player to cheer on.  Taguchi's main contribution during his eight year career in the U.S. was as a defense first fourth outfielder.  The highlight of his Cardinals career came in 2006 when he helped the Cardinals advance to the World Series with a key home run off of Billy Wagner during Game 2 of the NLCS.  So Taguchi ended up on the Cubs in 2009 after winning a second World Series with the Phillies in 2008.  He actually spent the majority of the year with the Triple A Iowa Cubs, but was called up for a few games at the end of the season.  

3.  Shawon Dunston SS 

Another 1980s Cubs player who I first saw on WGN watching baseball during summer break.  Everyone who watched a Cubs game in the 1980s knew about the Shawon-O-Meter, a sign which showed the shortstop's batting average.  It always made an appearance at some point during every telecast.  Dunston was a very good shortstop for the Cubs for a dozen years, but spent the latter part of his career bouncing around the league as a bench player.  He appeared for the Cardinals for two seasons in 1999 and 2000.  Dunston was most noted for having a rifle arm, but too me, was just an overall exciting player who had a little bit of everything in his game.  

2. Jon Jay OF 

Jay was a long time start for the Cardinals.  Never a star player, Jay just went out and played everyday the best he could.  Much of his time with the Cardinals was overshadowed by players like Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, but he still spent the better part of 6 seasons patrolling center field in Busch Stadium and getting on base at the top of the line-up.  He's the only active player on this last, and is in his first season with the Cubs, but Jay is one of the former Cardinals player I always check out in the box scores every morning.  His role has been a little bit more limited with the Cubs, but he's still been a positive contributor for the Baby Bears.  

1. Jim Edmonds OF 

There were so many great moments that Edmonds had with the Cardinals during his eight years with the team.  It's hard to remember him as a Cub, but he spent one season on the north side of Chicago.  After the Cardinals traded their center fielder to the Padres for David Freese, he fizzled and was released.  He signed with the Cubs and actually had a good year for the team in 2008 posting an OPS of .937 and 19 home runs in just 85 games.  The Cardinals were not very good that year and the Cubs ended up in the playoffs, so this one hurt a little bit more than the others.  Still really like Jim Edmonds even if he spent some time with the Cubs.  

2013 Topps Update Bob Tewksbury Autograph

The World Series has put a series dent into my blogging this week, but I have spent a little bit of time on the eve of tonight's important game 6 showdown between the Red Sox and Cardinals to catch up with my writing.  A bunch of packages, cards, and topics to sort through for my upcoming posts, I sticking with simple for the first of two for the day.  I wrote a post last week about the insanity that Topps has created in their third installment of the Topps Update set with the over use of variations.  Needless to say, I have been a little bit slow in picking up cards from the set.  However, the Topps Update set is one of those annual sets that always seems to end up in my collection.  I am just being really lazy about picking up my pieces for the set.  You should check out the Brent and Becca store on Ebay.  Great case breakers with good deals on complete sets.  Topps Update done in a few clicks of the mouse button.  What about the inserts and whatnot?

Unfortunately Topps did not put any cool die cut cards into the insert set, the manu-cards are some goofy league leader/career leader cards, which leaves few options for the inserts.  I am sure that I will add some in the coming weeks and will post when I finally get around to it, but I am not busting down any doors to add many things beyond the base set.  Which leads me to a card I was actually happy to add to my collection from the Topps Update set....

2013 Topps Update Bob Tewksbury Autograph 

This is Tewksbury's second Topps autograph of the card calendar year, with the other autograph issue coming out from the Topps Archives set.  This Chasing History insert celebrates the rarely recognized walk per nine innings ratio that Tewksbury held in the 1992 season pitching for the Cardinals.

Tewksbury, or Tewks, pitched for the Cardinals during the Joe Torre era during the early 1990s.  He was easily the best pitcher on the team for several years.  While many Cardinals fans are quick to point out that this part of the team's history was a low point for the franchise, some of the pitching performances out of Tewksbury would have been stellar and more recognizable on better teams.  At first glance, his statistics look rather pedestrian.  His first two seasons with the Birds on the Bat were basically .500 with fewer than 100 strikeouts while starting almost 60 games.  That means that Tewksbury missed few bats and did little to help the team win many of his starts.

However, the 1992 season was one of the greatest exhibits in control pitching during the last 20 years.  Tewksbury raked up 16-5 record during that season with a 2.16 ERA, but more impressive was the fact that he only walked 20 batters in more than 230 innings pitched that season.  Tewksbury's BB/9 ratio that inning came in at 0.773 which puts him amongst the lowest ratios of all times.  He also almost match his 1992 ratio during the 1993 season when his final number came in at 0.842.  Both numbers rank amongst the 100 lowest BB/9 in the history of the game and since World War II only three players have posted a lower number (Cliff Lee in 2010, Carlos Silva 2005, and Brett Saberhagen 1994).

Overall, I really enjoy enjoy seeing cards of cool players like Tewksbury who might have flown under the radar, but had a good following during their career.  Topps did a great job to give him a few cards this year and really cool that they recognized his incredible walk ratio despite the fact that the record has been broken a few times since he set it in 1992.

Master Archivist of Cardinals Autographs Not Necessarily In Cardinals Uniforms

Beyond the Delino DeShields autograph, there were four other autographs in the 2013 Topps Archives set of Cardinals players from the past.  While they do not all appear in Cardinals uniforms in the set, they all appeared on the Cardinals for at least half a season.  Two of the autographs were first time certified autographs that I was excited to add to the collection.  The other two were good additions too.  Let's start with the first time signers:

2013 Topps Archives Bob Tewksbury Autograph 

Tewksbury played for the Cardinals for several seasons in the early 90s.  He was the best pitcher on those teams, which were not really that good.  Tewksbury won double digit games every season he pitched for the Cardinals and was also successful pitching with the Twins, Padres, and Yankees.  His pitching style can best be described as extremely slow.  Only once during his 13 year career did he strike out more than 100 batters.  In fact, one of Tewksbury's most memorable career moments was when he threw Cardinals first baseman a 44 MPH pitch with the Twins.  McGwire did not get a hit that game.  

2013 Topps Archives Chuck Finley Autograph

 

Finley only appeared for the Cardinals during the second half of the 2002 season.  The Cardinals traded Coco Crisp, he might have been Covelli at that point, from the Indians to replace deceased pitcher Darryl Kile.  Finley won half of his starts for the Cardinals during the regular season and struck out almost a hitter per inning.  He also picked up a win against the Giants in the National League Championship Series.  This is Finley's first certified autograph which should be pretty popular with Angels and Indians collectors too.

The last two cards are players whose autographs already appear in my collection:

2013 Topps Archives Lee Smith Autograph

Lee Smith actually has a pretty healthy supply of autographed cards out on the market.  A fair number of them appearing in a Cardinals uniform.  While Smith had some good years as a Cardinals player, he also had some really rough years wearing the birds on the bat.  While I am certainly not a Cubs guy, this is how I best remember Lee Smith.  Just not against the Cardinals.  

2013 Topps Archives Gary Gaetti Autograph

Last, but not least, is a new autograph of "The Rat".  Gaetti played part of two seasons for the Cardinals at the end of his career and was not all that great.  He did hit a grand slam against the Braves in the 1996 National League Championship Series, but I think that was his lone Cardinals highlight.  Gaetti also won two World Series with the Twins and later went on to be a first base coach for the Durham Bulls.  Currently, he is managing the Sugarland Skeeters.


I'd also like to take a moment to wish my alma mater, North Carolina State, the best in their appearance at the College World Series.  GO PACK!  Go To Hell Carolina!