The Pujols Parade - 2004 Bowman Heritage

If Albert Pujols had been on the Dodgers or Angels this year, there is likely no chance that I would write a series of posts about his baseball cards. Since he is on the Cardinals, I am going to write these throughout the season. Same general principle as the Ray Lankford posts. Nothing fancy, rare, or overly shiny. Just base cards.  

Starting out with a copy of Albert's card in the 2004 Topps Heritage set, which borrowed the design from the 1955 Bowman set. However, the card dimensions are normal, no oversized cards here like the original Bowmans.  

Front photo.  

Notice the "Color TV" on the bottom of the frame. There is a parallel set of photos for all the cards in this set that were "Black and White TV". They were not overly rare, I believe they were one per pack of cards. Maybe every other pack at worst.  

This is a supposed to be a Spring Training photo?

I don't think so.  

Leave it to somebody at Topps to airbrush a card that likely didn't need to be airbrushed.  

In 2004, the Cardinals always wore blue fielding hats on the road outside of Spring Training. Not the case these days, but in the early 2000s the Cardinals always wore blue road hats. Pujols is the only Cardinals veteran to have an action photo on his card in this set. Edgar Renteria, Larry Walker, Jim Edmonds, and Matt Morris all have posed photographs taken at the team's Spring Training facility.

Was Topps trying to keep the cards so they all looked like they were Spring Training photos? Did Albert stiff them on photo day?  

I swear Topps.  

Stop airbrushing cards.  

Here is the reason why I think this is an airbrushed card, beyond the fact that the person designing the card made Albert's hat, belt, and t-shirt all mismatched colors of red. 

The background of the outfield wall beyond Pujols on this card looks a lot like the corner of the left field bleachers and visitors bullpen in Busch Stadium II. The low wall with plexiglass windows and the green wall in the back of the bullpen all fit, along with the placement of the fans in the bleachers. If you look closely behind Albert's belt on the card, there is a slight dark spot, which is likely an advertisement for Ameren.  

Here is a photograph of Busch II.  

Back of the card.  

Albert is listed as an outfielder, which is where he played most of 2003. Many people do not remember those days, but the Cardinals moved him to left field after they traded for Scott Rolen.  Everyone remembers Albert was a third baseman, right?  The 2004 season was his first full year at first base after the Cardinals traded away Tino Martinez. 

Good riddance.  

The stats are great and Albert did some stuff that only a guy in the Hall of Fame did.  

Dysfunctional and Talented

I spent a little bit of time last month working on my collection of 2006 Durham Bulls baseball cards.  That was the first full year that I lived in North Carolina.  It was easily one of the most talented Bulls team that I have seen.  High draft picks, Top 100 prospects, future Major League All-Stars, a World Series MVP, and plenty of other solid Major League players. 

The team was also easily one of the worst Bulls teams that I watched in terms of on-field play and their finish in the standings.  In the 15 years, I have been watching the Durham Bulls, it's the only one to finish in the bottom 5 teams in the International League.  

In spite of their lack of wins, the 2006 Durham Bulls is still a fun group of players to collect.  

You've probably seen a few of these guys.  

First up is a pair of B.J. Upton autographs.  Nothing too hard to find, not sure why I am only getting around to these two at this point.  

Above is a 2003 Topps autograph out of the base set.  The card below is from the 2005 Upper Deck Origins set.  Both on-card signatures.  These would have been pretty pricy back in the day.  Both cost me less than $5 combined.  

Next up is long-time Major League pitcher Jason Hammel.  He was a member of the 2016 World Series Championship team for the Cubs.  Hammel never appeared in a playoff game that season, but did win 15 during the regular season.  The 2016 Cubs actually had 3 former Durham Bulls players; Hammel, Mike Montgomery, and Ben Zobrist.  

Love this autograph.  

Next up is a pair of autographs from James Shields.  

Never a huge fan of Shields during his playing career, but I have grown to appreciate his time in Durham a little more since he retired.  He was a good player in Durham, just never understood the hype around him in the Majors.  Shields has a career Postseason ERA of almost 5.50.  Why is he nicknamed "Big Game"? 

 

Back to his time in Durham. Shields pitched the first home opener I ever attended for the Bulls in 2006.  He pitched 6 innings and did not give up an earned run.  The Rochester Red Wings did manage to score 3 unearned runs against Shields.  Upton hit a walk-off grand slam to win the game in the bottom of the 9th.  

I did not have a single Shields autograph in the collection.  At some point I owned one, but it appears I traded/gave it away at some point.  

Next up, Delmon Young.  

Only non-autograph in the post.  I don't really dig relic cards, but I liked the picture on this Bowman with Delmon standing in Comerica Park.  He never turned into the franchise player many thought he would be, but he had some great moments in his career, especially the Postseason, with the Tigers.  

Those green Devil Rays hats were terrible.    

Last Delmon autograph is a Topps Finest card.  I think I avoided all of the silver sticker autographs that I could back in the day.  Delmon has a ton of sticker autographs, so I usually stuck with the Upper Deck cards since the stickers were clear.  These are dirt cheap now.  

Last card.  

The 2006 International League MVP.  

Kevin Witt was a good prospect for the Blue Jays in the late 1990s.  They released him at some point and he bounced around between several teams before making his way to the Bulls in 2006.  He ended up hitting 36 home runs and driving in 99 runs in just 128 games.  Pretty good player, even if did not even amount to much in the Majors.  

I have several Witt autographs, but I never got around to adding this card.  He's not someone with a great signature, but this one is really weak.  The card only cost me $2 after shipping.  Not sure I can really complain at that price. 

Shades of Pat Burrell

Long ago, the Phillies selected Pat Burrell from the University of Miami with the first pick of the Major League Baseball draft.  All the baseball card companies rushed to throw his cards into packs.  I actually managed to pull a few Pat Burrell cards when they were popular and I also felt like I had somehow been ripped off.  It was not really the quality of the baseball cards that were disappointing, but Pat Burrell's signature made them hard to love.  

I still cringe to this date.  

It's hard to believe that Pat Burrell was popular at any point based on the quality of his autograph alone.  

Fast forward twenty years into the future.  

The San Francisco Giants selected NC State catcher Patrick Bailey in the first round of the Major League Draft. I was excited to see the former Wolfpack player play for the Giants and appear on a few baseball cards.  The baseball cards were actually slightly anticlimactic.  Bailey had been playing for USA Baseball for several years and had appear in all kinds of different Panini products.  

Not the best signature, but he was also in high school when this card was made.  Still, I was on the look-out for his cards right up to the moment when I saw his signature.  

It changed. 

Bailey has now been in professional baseball for over a year. Topps and Panini have cranked out a decent number of Patrick Bailey cards.  I am just getting around to adding a few of his autographed cards.   They weren't expensive or hard to find.  They just have an uncanny resemblance to the old Pat Burrell cards.  

This is a Bowman Chrome autograph of Bailey.  

I actually think Bailey has a worse signature than Burrell.  This card is actually the better of the two Patrick Bailey signatures in this post.  It's really hard to quantify, but this is a really bad signature.  This autograph feels like it's in the neighborhood of Geronimo Gil, who was an Orioles catcher in the early 2000s.  

Last Bailey card is from Bowman's Best.  

This one is even worse.  I feel so unsatisfied.  

I cannot wait to see Patrick Bailey in the Majors and I hope he has a long career.  I also hope he takes a little more time to sign his name in the future.  Bailey's autograph can only get better.  

I think.  

Set Appreciation Post #14 - 2002 Bowman

When you think of Bowman sets from the early 2000s, what comes to mind?  Black borders were a must.  Tons of hype for a bunch of prospects that may or may not (ding, ding, ding) have made a significant impact in the Major Leagues.  This post is about the 2002 Bowman set, but it could really be about all the Bowman sets between 2002 and 2006.  

There is a theme for this post.  Let's try this meme.  

Base Set 

The set has a black border because it is a Bowman set from the early 2000s.  You were expecting something different.  Tisk, tisk.  I usually use the first card in the set, but it appears that I am missing my Adam Dunn card.  I have this set marked complete, so I did a little investigating to see where the card went.  

The story of where the card was is more interesting than the second card in the set.  I scanned this one when I started writing the post, just in case Adam Dunn was gone.  

The veteran cards in the set all have a red border to distinguish them from the prospect cards which have a blue border.  The pictures on the card are mundane.  The Roger Clemens card has him batting, otherwise, they are not interesting.  

The backs of the Bowman cards have changed little over the years.  These write-ups aren't exactly 1988 Score and the descriptions of the players are generous.  I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I read that "fluid shortstop" part.  

Remember that time Jeter dove into the stands at Yankee Stadium and smashed some old women and his face into one of the seats?  

There is nothing fluid about this catch. 

Derek Jeter getting an overly generous biography from a baseball card writer.  

A Lengthy Side Story About The Adam Dunn Card 

Over the pandemic, my 10-year-old spent a lot of time reading about baseball.  As a two-teacher household, it was hard to work with him while we were teaching our classes online.  My wife and I frequently told him to find a book to read for a short time when he got stuck.  He also dabbled in baseball videos on YouTube.  

He is one of those people who can read a book and can recite every fact back to you that he read.  While he generally sticks to topics like stadiums, Hall of Famers, Cardinals, and Durham Bulls players, we went through a phase last summer when he got really into reading and watching videos about players with odd careers.  

If you have never read anything about Adam Dunn, he's a weird player.  There is a Dorktown video about the weirdness of his career.  This is the preview screen for the video on YouTube.  

I could see where the video has appeal to the average 10-year-old.  

Anyway, he also killed time during the pandemic by looking through my old scorecards, ticket stubs, and baseball cards.  He'd ask me frequently about taking cards from my collection, most of which I was indifferent about.  

Apparently, the 2002 Bowman Adam Dunn card was one of them.  

"You can scan my card" is the line I got when I asked him about the card.  I tried trading back for the card, but he is currently demanding a Ji-Man Choi autograph.  That's a little steep for an Adam Dunn base card.  

Luckily, I am on vacation, so writing an extra side story in this post doesn't really matter. 

The World's Most Smudged Autographs 

In the early days of this blog, I actually worked on finishing off a set of 2002 Bowman autographs.  I had pulled several out of packs back in the day, decided it would be an easy project.  There are very few cards on the checklist, no real big names.  

It would have been really easy, but 90% of the 2002 Bowman autographed cards are smudged.  

One-time Durham Bull and drug test failer, Wilson Betemit with smudges.  

Art Howe's favorite first baseman who would not take a walk, Carlos Pena.  

My favorite card in the set belongs to former Cardinal outfielder Ryan Ludick.  

I spent some time, that I am never getting back, trying to find these autographs in good condition.  There are several of these cards that I have multiple copies of due to trying to upgrade.  No matter how hard you look, they are all smudged.  

Big mistake.  

Topps having quality control issues......

  

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bull Card 

I like looking through old Bowman sets to see the prospects that did not make it almost as much as those who became something in the Majors.  This Ronald Acuna card makes me feel old.  He was a career Minor Leaguer with the Mets who got a baseball card in the 2002 Bowman set.  Little bit different player than his son, Ronald Acuna Jr.  

Ronald Sr. had a career-high of 8 home runs playing for the Mets two A-Ball teams in the Florida State League and South Atlantic League. While he lacked power, Ronald stole 20 bases almost every season he played in the Minors and had several years where he crossed 30.  Ronald Sr. also has a card in the 2002 Bowman's Best set.  

I cannot find anything about what happened to Ronald Sr. after he stopped playing baseball outside of a ton of photos of him at Braves games (New Balance sweatshirt).   

Best Cardinal Card

This was such an easy pick for me.  The second I picked out this box from the stack, I knew the Cardinals card that I was going to pick for this post.  

So Taguchi was the first Japanese player signed by the Cardinals.  He was initially somewhat of a disappointment and ended up spending parts of his first seasons in the U.S. playing with the Cardinals Triple-A team.  In the end, he was a fourth outfielder for the Cardinals, but he was one of those lovable bench players. 

The back of his card was actually fairly accurate.  He was a spray hitter and superb defensive player.  The Cardinals ended up pairing him up with outfielders like Chris Duncan and Reggie Sanders, who could hit but had limitations on defense.  Frequently Duncan or Sanders would start the game, Taguchi would come in late as a defensive sub.  

While he was really known for his defense, I think his best moment in the Majors was his go-ahead home run off of Billy Wagner in Game 2 of the 2006 National League Championship Series.  The Cardinals lost the first game of the NLCS and were tied with the Mets late in Game 2.  I am sure that if the Mets win the game, go up 2-0, the series turns out differently.  

This is the home run.  

Taguchi ended up on the Phillies after his contract ran out with the Cardinals and he managed to pick up a second World Series ring with the team in 2008.  

Best Durham Bulls Card 

I chose a former Durham Bulls player pictured as a Blue Jays prospect.  Rich Thompson was a decade away from playing with the Bulls when this card was produced.  However, if you followed Triple-A baseball a while back, it was pretty hard not to know the name Rich Thompson.  He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000 out of James Madison University and was in Triple-A by the next season.  Such a quick riser would surely make it to the Majors, right?

Here is his well-earned 2002 Bowman card that was likely made due to his rapid climb through the Minors. Topps also put him in their base set as a prospect and in T-206.  

He disappeared from major baseball card products after 2002, but he continued to play in Triple-A.  

Right up on the back of the card seems fair.   

So, here is what happened to Rich Thompson:  

+He played a total of 13 years in the Minors, he appeared for a Triple-A team in 12 of those seasons.  

+He played for the Triple-A teams of the Blue Jays, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Phillies, and Rays. 

+He twice made the Majors.  Once in 2004 with the Royals where he played in 6 games, but only got 1 at-bat.  He did not have a hit.  The Rays called him up in 2012 where he had 2 hits in 22 at-bats.  His career batting average is under .100 and he has more stolen bases (7) than hits (2).  Rich Thompson still made it, that counts for something.  

+His final two seasons in professional baseball were spent with the Durham Bulls.  He was excellent on the 2012 team, hence the call-up to the Rays.  Thompson had a rough year in 2013 and retired after breaking his foot while fielding a ball.  

Some years Rich Thompson was on your team, some years Rich Thompson was not on your team.  He was a scrappy player who was easy to support.  Further, while the Minor League records can be a little sketchy at times, I would have to think that his 300 career steals at the Triple-A level would have to be pretty far up the list.  Overall, he has almost 500 steals in the Minors.  Again, that has to be far up the all-time leader's list.  

Thompson is still loved around the Minors almost a decade after he retired.  The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, Phillies Triple-A team, has given away multiple bobbleheads of Thompson and I have also heard there are pictures of him hanging in the front office of the team.  

How Does It Compare?  

This set is not really all that interesting, so it has to rank in the bottom half of the list.  This is post #14, so I will start at 2017 Topps Minor League Heritage and work down the list.

-Both 2017 Topps Heritage Minors and 2002 Bowman are prospect-driven sets.  While I am not a huge fan of the 1968 Topps design, a boring border with interesting cards is better than a boring border and uninteresting cards.  

-1995 Emotion XL is at least interesting and has good photography, even if some of the labels slapped on the players are really stupid.  Better than over glossed Derek Jeter bios.  

-1988 Donruss, while I don't love the borders, it's still more interesting than the 2002 Bowman set.  Plus, that set has a Tom Glavine rookie, which is better than any prospect card in the 2002 Bowman set.  Let's go down another spot.  

-2000 UD Ionix.  Now, we are talking about the right neighborhood.  Predictable short checklist with the same 2 or 3 players on each team getting cards.  Ionix has better autographs and some nicer high-end touches, but there is something nice about having the larger checklist of 2002 Bowman where you get cards of the players I put into this post.  

I am going with 10th place on my list.   

14. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

13. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

12. 2000 Topps 

11. 2000 UD Ionix  

10. 2002 Bowman 

9. 1988 Donruss 

8. 1995 Emotion XL 

7. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

6. 1998 Topps TEK 

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Wander-Ful Cards

It's been a while.  

I really wanted to make a post last weekend when Wander Franco got called up to the Rays, but I was sitting here typing up my report cards for the end of the school.  The last day of school was Monday.  Throw in a couple of workdays and a few more days to rest and recover, and I have a full month of vacation. 

Better late than never.  

I actually had a chance to see Wander a few weeks back while he was still with the Bulls. 

Not the most competitive game.  

Always fun to see a really good prospect though, regardless of the score.  

In the last few weeks, I have picked up two new Wander Franco cards.  

This is a Bowman Scouts Top 100 insert showing Franco's top prospect rating.  Sort of wish he was in a Bulls uniform, but I understand they don't put those types of cards in Bowman sets.  A really nice-looking card that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.  

The reflective surface did not do great in the scanner, but this is a knock-off of the 1991 Bowman set.  

Beyond the Wander cards, I have also been working a little more on finding cards of Luis Patino.  He was on the prospects that the Rays got back from the Padres in exchange for Blake Snell.  He pitched at the Bulls game that I attend a few weeks back.  Really nice pitcher, I think I will continue collecting his cards.  

Both of these are from 2020 products.  

Not sure about the Sod Poodles name, but I like the looks of the card.  Love the dark border on the 1971 Topps design.  Great looking set.  

I also found a Bowman Chrome autograph of Patino.  I am surprised that any of these are affordable these days with all of the "prospecting" that goes on, especially since Patino is a top 100 prospect.  Nice first year autograph, love that he signed his Spring Training uniform number.  

One last Durham Bulls card for the week.....

I also picked up a card of Ripken The Bat Dog.  Ripken was supposed to start working for the Bulls last year, but did not with the season canceled.  I still have not seen Ripken this year.  

The Bulls Collection of Players Named Lowe.

A few years back the Durham Bulls, really the Rays, had two players with the last name Lowe.  

There was Nate Lowe.  

Who is now on the Rangers.  

There was also Brandon Lowe.  

Who is now the Rays starting second baseman.  

The Bulls did not field a team last year due to the pandemic, so they did not have a chance to put a player with the last name Lowe on the field.  Naturally, when the 2021 season started the name Lowe reappeared on the roster.  This time it's outfielder Jose Lowe.  

He is leading the International League in slugging.  I am not calling it Triple-A East, or whatever Rob Manfred renamed the league.  

He's been a good player and is way more affordable than Wander Franco or Vidal Brujan.  

So, here is the card.  

This is one of those cards that Topps rushed to produce.  Yes, it is clearly airbrushed, but the metal bleachers in the background are a clear giveaway that this is a picture from a high school baseball game of some sort.  I think it would actually be cooler if the parents/spectators in the background were in lawn chairs.  

Whoever is behind his left shoulder is not even watching the game.  

There are not many Josh Lowe cards out there.  Like many other prospects on the Rays, they get the first Bowman card and then they are ignored until they are suddenly playing well in the Majors.  It's the same thing that happened to the two other Lowes, although Nate was not a serious prospect.  

A Series Of Infrequent Posts

This has been a busy last few weeks.  I have been transitioning from being a virtual school teacher to being a hybrid school teacher.  That means that I am teaching half a class online while also teaching half a class in-person.  There were a lot of rules to follow to set up my classroom and a lot of logistical work to make it so that I can teach both simultaneously, but I think I have it set up well.  

Let's hope.  

After a two week break from this space, I have dedicated a small portion of my Sunday to writing a post about a few of the cards that have shown up during that time.  There are others.  Hopefully, I will get there during the next week.  

My first two cards are from fellow collectors that I have met online.  First up is a Ray Lankford from the 1999 Pacific Private Stick set.  The card is a mini, but the scan is not. 

This card was from Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts.  You can also follow him on Twitter at @pennysleeves.  Great blog, one of my favorite reads.  He found this on the Trading Card Database and thought of me.  Very generous and another reminder that I don't do anything on Trading Card Database, but I should.  

This is a parallel to the base version of the mini.  

The base version had blue backs, the parallels had red backs.  Really nice card that I did not have in my collection.  I will have to send Jon a few cards in return.  Man, I really miss Pacific.  I am 100% positive I write that every time I post one of their cards.  

Next, a few cards that I picked up from a long-time Facebook trading/buying/selling partner.  He always holds onto his Cardinals cards for me.  These cards included an autograph of Cardinals catching prospect Ivan Herrera.  

Sometime last month, I posted an Ivan Herrera autograph out of last year's Bowman's Best.  I always like when non-licensed card manufacturers make cards of catchers with their equipment on.  You can't tell that they have to airbrush all the logos off the card.  

I also picked up two Tink Hence autographs.  He was a two-way player in high school who was committed to play baseball at the University of Arkansas.  The Cardinals drafted him in the second round and offered him enough money to get him to turn pro.  I am not sure its been decided whether the Cardinals are going to develop him as a pitcher or position player.  

A draft card from Panini's Extra Elite.  Nice looking card.  

I also ended up with a copy of his purple Bowman Chrome autograph.  The border looks a little ridiculous with the red Cardinals stuff on the card.  I am excited to see what the Cardinals end up doing with this guy. 

Last card.  A Cardinals player on a non-Cardinals card.  Still a really nice item though.  

Edmonds signs baseball cards as infrequently as I post on this page.  I cannot pass up his cards when I see them at a good price.