Friday Five: Top 5 Curt Flood Cards

I do not fully understand how Curt Flood is not in the Hall of Fame. He had a very good playing career, which by itself is probably not Hall worthy, but his contributions to the game should make him a slam dunk. In fact, every modern player who is enjoying a league minimum salary of almost $800K with the possibility of making millions of dollars through arbitration and free agency should be name-dropping Curt Flood for the Hall on a daily basis. 

That's not going to happen, but I can dream.  

I have long enjoyed Curt Flood baseball cards and decided it would be a fun exercise to put together a list of my five favorite cards of the long-time Cardinals outfielder.  

5. 1960 Topps 

I love the contrasts on this card with the black and white photo paired with the color photo, along with the bright yellow letters with the black background. That red background behind the black and white photo really pops. I also love the old-style Cardinals bats-on-the-bat logo, really sweet. Overall, this is one of my favorite early 1960s Cardinals cards based simply on aesthetics. Great looking card.  

4. 1967 Topps 

I am not sure Clubbers is the right word to describe the combination of Lou Brock and Curt Flood in the Cardinals lineup, but I love this dual card.  The two were fixtures in the Cardinals outfield for the latter half of the 1960s helping the team win a World Series in 1967 and a National League pennant in 1968. I love the look of the old, wool 1960s Cardinals uniforms on this card. The off-white jerseys with the shortened sleeves and bright red accents and hats looked great together. The Cardinals also have some of the better socks in the league.  

3. 1971 Topps 

I love that Topps gave Curt Flood a card in 1971. After the Phillies traded him to the Senators, Flood only played in a handful of games and retired before the first month of the 1971 season ended. It would have been easy to skip over Flood. This was his final baseball card.  

2. 1964 Topps 

A bit of a sentimental choice for me to rank the 1964 Topps card second on my list. This was one of the first good vintage cards in my collection and my first Curt Flood. Wasn't there a collector who hoarded this card by the thousands? Yes.   Anyway, I love the green text on the white background, the photo of Flood standing with his glove, and who could miss that his name is spelled out on the fingers.  Classic.  

1. 1958 Topps 

My scan is pretty terrible, but this is a great card.  I love all the bright colors here with the bright green background, yellow logo box...err...triangle, and the red name box on the bottom of the card. Love the blue Cardinals cap and that Curt Flood is smiling on his rookie card.  

I am old enough to remember........

 when Pacific made Spanish language baseball cards.  

I really miss that company, I was fortunate enough to find a really cool Pacific Ray Lankford card this past weekend that was missing from my collection. There aren't many that aren't 1/1s or serial numbered to something less than 25.  

This is a First Day Issue card from the 1999 Pacific Invincible set.  

The card is serial numbered out of /69 copies. That number is lower than the typical Pacific Opening Day parallel set print run, which ran in each of their products and typically to 99 serial numbered copies. Invincible was a little higher-end for Pacific. The circle on the card is translucent, the scan does not really do the card justice.  

Here is the back of the card......

Spanish language text at the top of the card with the translation on the bottom right-side. Again, the scan does not do much for the translucent circle. 

Famous Last Words

I stopped by my local card shop a few days back. The shop had moved across the parking lot to a larger storefront a few weeks back and I was excited to see the new digs. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. I probably should have taken some photos inside the shop, but my mind was on cards.  

Here are the latest pickups at Triangle Area Trading Cards.  

First up......

You see a great card from your childhood and it's cheap, it's really hard to pass up. The card is off center and there is some chipping on the edges, but this is a great card. Could not pass it up.  I need to post my first Rickey Henderson rookie on here one of these days, because it's a really good story from my childhood.  

Luken Baker has hit a ton of home runs the last two years with the Cardinals Triple A team. They've left him in the Minors most of the time, given the Cardinals track record, it's only a matter of time until Baker is a really good player on some other team.  Decent autograph, cheap card. Go team.  

I spent some time in Michigan this summer, which included watching a decent number of Tigers games. I had been meaning to pick up a Reese Olson card all summer long, but never got around to it.  He's a really impressive young pitcher, think this will be a good pickup in the long-term.  

An old Archives autograph for cheap. Yes, please.  

A newer Archives autograph for cheap. Yes, please.  

Esteban played for the Durham Bulls a few years back.  He's spent most of his career playing in Mexico, but spent time in the Minors with the Red Sox, Rays, and Phillies with a cup of coffee in the Majors with the Cubs. Lovable player, spark plug type. I am glad that someone gave him a baseball card and had him sign a few autographs.  

Zack Gelof is having a terrible year, but I still like him. I saw him play in college while he was at the University of Virginia. He was also on my fantasy baseball team last year. Let's hope for a better 2025.  

Next up, Luis Arraez. I loved the Silver Slugger cards when Topps made them back in the early 2010s, this one is not as thick, but still a really nice card. Serial numbered to just 10 copies, but it's on the back.  Sorry, no back scans today.  

A little bit quicker......

Masyn Winn, Junior Caminero Finest RC, and a cool Taj Bradley Chrome parallel.  

Cal Raleigh RC, Willy Adames RC, and another Masyn Winn.  

Shiny Big Mac, Xavier Issac should be the Durham Bulls first baseman next year, and a Jordan Walker.  

Shiny cards of Yordan Alvarez, Willson Contreras, and a Satchell Paige with the Browns.  

Last, let me tell you about the blaster box I bought. I saw the 2024 Donruss packs and boxes at the counter, decided why not. Let's try a few packs. Ninety-nine percent of the box was terrible and I am not going to waste my time scanning the cards, nor waste your time reading about the terrible cards. 

It was the last thing I said as I was checking out. "Let me get a box of 2024 Donurss"

Famous last words and it turns out that 1% of the box was pretty spectacular.  

Here One Minute......

I have been following Taylor Motter's career since he first appeared with the Durham Bulls nearly a decade ago. This was my first card of Motter on the Durham Bulls.......

Last year, Motter played for my Cardinals and even though the quantity of Cardinals cards was limited, I still collected them.  In this case, limited means one Topps Heritage card with one parallel.  

I still keep my eye out for new Motter cards. I recently found a printing plate from his 2016 Topps Update card, which is his rookie card. The plate was only a few dollars on Ebay.....

and the back of the card.......

Seems like a great addition to the Taylor Motter collection, if only the printing plate had been here for longer than a minute....... 

An update post coming soon.......

Holy $&%$, It's The Candy Convention Card!!!!!!

Two years ago, I posted a Ray Lankford card out of the 1991 Score All-Star FanFest Set. Included in the post was a story about a local card shop owner who tried to sell me a similar card that came from a Candy Convention in St. Louis. At the time, I passed on the Candy Convention card, which I later deeply regretted. It turns out the Candy Convention Ray Lankford card is pretty rare.  

Here is the FanFest card.  

Note the banner underneath the write-up, which identifies the card as a part of the "1991 Major League All-Star FanFest" set. This is a really common card, easy to find.  

Well, after posting the card, I received a comment from a reader who was also trying to track down a copy of a Candy Convention card of former Blue Jays player Ed Sprague. More comments followed indicating that they had found a copy of the Ray Lankford and a promise to forward the card on once the commenter received it from COMC.  

Well, a few weeks back I got a white envelope with a print out of the blogger comment section and note.....

and inside the note was a top loader with a baseball card........

Holy $&%$, It's The Candy Convention Card!!!!!! 

I cannot thank Derek enough for sending this card along to me! It's my current favorite baseball card and it will always have a prominent home in my collection of Ray Lankford cards.  

Around The Card Room, Take 17

I got my first job was pushing in carts and bagging groceries at the Dierbergs in Manchester, Missouri during my junior year of high school. Bagging groceries was not very difficult, but I always seemed to end up on shopping cart duty for long stretches of my work shifts. St. Louis summers are hot and pushing in dozens of carts at a time in 95 degree heat with high humidity got old quick. I could have gone back to the grocery store for a second summer, but opted for a more interesting summer job my senior year of high school.  

My mother always played the organ at church when I was growing up. She had a long stint at a church in west St. Louis County where she also served as the choir director. My senior year of high school, one of her choir members had a son who lost his wife to cancer. The family had three children, two boys in elementary school and a daughter who was a two. Needless to say, the family needed some help, especially during the summer when the kids would be out of school. 

Long story short, I was pretty good with kids back in the day before I worked as a teacher. I did some volunteer work around the church with little kids and also did a high school senior project where I went back and worked with my former fifth grade teacher to help out struggling readers. I had one five minute interview where I met the father and the three kids after church and was hired to be a "manny". 

So long grocery carts.

I spent my summer playing games in yard, watching movies, bowling, and swimming. The kids taught me about Nintendo and I tried to teach them about baseball and baseball cards. It was a fun job that I ended up keeping from my senior year of high school through my senior year of college. I do not want to linger too much on the kids, because this is a post about an item from my card room. Let's just hit fast forward and say that all three of them are successful, amazing adults.

One of the best parts of this job was an invitation to the Boeing Leadership Day at Busch Stadium, which is where the father worked. The Cardinals hosted the event annually and would station eight to ten players around the concourse of the stadium a few hours before the game and Boeing employees could walk the concourse, meet the players, and get autographs signed.  

I deferred to the kids on the players we visited and I could have used several different baseballs here for this post, but I went with my favorite. 

Darryl Kile.  

As we walked the stadium and visited the different players, you could always tell the ones who enjoyed interacting with fans and which ones did not. Some of the players would chat up fans, take pictures, and sign everything and anything. Others kept their heads down, signed, and had limited interactions with the fans.  

Darryl Kile was great at the event and definitely fit into the category of being a player who was happy to interact with fans. He signed my baseball on the sweet spot without even asking. I do not really like talking up players at autograph events, but I made sure that I thanked him after he was more than generous with the autograph. 

I got a "You're welcome" and was off to see Fernando Vina.  

Incredible.  

Here is the back, err, the front of the baseball.  

 Look at that Mark McGwire bat in the background.  

Bet that has a good story too.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Victor Scott II

There are thousands of autographs in my collection, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.  

Today: 2023 Donruss Victor Scott Autograph 

Why Do I Own This Card? 

Panini included Ray Lankford in many of their 2023 baseball products. While I was not delusional enough to think that I could pull a Lankford autograph out of a box of Donruss, I knew that pulling a Lankford base card out of a blaster box was more than realistic.  

I have not pulled a current year Ray Lankford issued card out of a pack of cards since 2002. The local Target stores did not carry packs of Donruss last year, so I had to venture to the Wally World in Morrisville (it's in between Raleigh and Durham) to find a blaster box. I ended up with my Lankford, but also an autograph of Cardinals prospect Victor Scott. The product checklist for 2023 Donruss was really weird to say the least. 

When Did I Get This Card? 

It would have been roughly a year ago.  

Back of The Card 

Victor Scott Highlight 

Victor Scott nearly stole 100 bases in the Minors last year, which is his claim to fame at the moment. However, I have really enjoyed watching him play defense during the first week of the season.  Here is a Victor Scott catch from this past weekend.  

It was hard to fully appreciate the degree of difficulty on this catch by #STLCards CF Victor Scott II in real time, but watching it back gives a real appreciation.

Avisail Garcia exit velocity: 104.1 mph
Distance: 390 feet
Hit probability: 81%
Scott's distance covered: 78 feet pic.twitter.com/ItYrwGbacR

— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) April 6, 2024

Random Ray - 2023 Panini Flawless

It turns out that Ray Lankford had two autographs in Panini Flawless. I added one a few weeks back and won the other in an auction on Ebay last week. I was really excited to say the least. 

Here is the front of the card, which is from Panini's high end baseball product.  

Panini Flawless is roughly $1,500 for a box. Can you imagine pulling a $20-$30 autograph of Ray Lankford in a box that costs that much? Thank goodness other people are willing to spend the money to open these boxes and resell their cards on Ebay for a huge loss.  

I'm excited.  

Back of the card.  

There is no write up on the back, only a Certificate of Authenticity. Well, there is a giant "STL" in the middle of the card, which is something different. I actually don't miss the write up that much, but they should have made the Certificate of Authenticity a little larger.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Felipe Lopez

I own a couple of thousand autographs, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.  

Today: 2001 Bowman Autographs Felpe Lopez 

Why Do I Own This Card?  

Seemingly few Cardinals players find their way to Durham and vice versa. The number is more than I can count on one hand, but two hands might be a stretch. One of the lesser known Cardinals who found their way to Durham was Felipe Lopez. 

Felipe was a toolsy infielder who played roughly a decade in the Majors and was on eight different teams during that time. You may best remember him as a Red or National, but in 2008 and 2010 he ended up on the Cardinals as a utility player. In 2008, Felipe Lopez had a great 43 game cup of coffee with the Cardinals hitting .385 with 14 extra base hits. His second appearance on the Cardinals in 2010 was less eventful as he only hit .231 for the season and the Cardinals ended up releasing him in the middle of September. 

In 2011, he was signed by the Rays on a Minor League contract. Felipe spent the first part of the season in Durham where he was really good. He hit over .300 with power and earned a call-up to the Rays, where he did not hit and was sold to the Brewers.  

To answer the question, I own this card because Felipe Lopez was on the Cardinals and the Durham Bulls. Believe it or not, I have multiple Felipe Lopez autographs. I like this one the best.  

When Did I Get This Card? 

I believe I picked it up off of COMC when he started playing for the Bulls.  

Back of the Card 

The "Congratulations" message and the information blurb run together, which stinks. Topps, Bowman, or whoever created this set should have just done without the extra information on the back of the card. Bowman typically has really good card backs that are full of information. I am sure they did a good job of describing Felipe's skill set on his base card, no need for it to also be on the autograph.  

Felipe Lopez's Teams in a Haiku 

Jays, Reds, Nats, and Cards

DBacks, Brew Crew, Cards again

Red Sox, Rays, Brewers (again)

Random Ray - 2023 Panini Flawless Autograph

Ray Lankford became one of my favorite Cardinals players after watching him hit for the cycle against the Mets during his rookie season in 1991. Over the years, a few different baseball cards have referenced Ray's cycle game, but today's card might be my favorite of the group.  

This is from the high-end Panini Flawless release and from the autographed insert set "Flawless Achievements". Note the small banner under the autograph and serial numbering labeled, "Homers To Complete Rare Rookie Cycle".  I knew the second I saw this card that I needed a copy for my collection.  

Yes, it's a "high-end" Panini card without logos and the most expensive Ray Lankford card I have added to my collection in the past year.  It was still less expensive than plenty of other modern autographed cards, so some perspective on it being an expensive Lankford card.  I kind of dig the design on the card too.  

I like the color scheme on the back with the gold writing on a white background with red trim.  Panini also did a really good job with the write up on the back of the card describing his cycle and the rarity of the feat by players in their rookie season.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Mark Mulder

I own a couple of thousand autographs, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.

Today: 2000 Bowman Draft and Prospects Autographs Mark Mulder 

Why Do I Own This Card?

We all remember the Cardinals years of Mark Mulder? Hopefully you remember him pitching for the early 2000s Moneyball A's teams. He was traded to the Cardinals in December of 2004 for pitching prospect Dan Haren, catcher Daric Barton, and relief pitcher Kiko Calero. Mulder pitched decently in 2005, but then ran into shoulder problems which limited him to just 23 games in 2006, 2007, and 2008. It was a sad ending to an otherwise really good career. If you don't remember him on the Cardinals, do not go refresh your memory. It's not pretty, nor happy.  

The biggest highlight from his time with the Cardinals was hitting a home run on the first Opening Day at Busch Stadium III while also collecting a win against the Brewers.  

When Did I Get This card?  

I own several Mark Mulder autographs, all of them were bought post 2005 when the prices of his card tanked. 

Haiku About Mark Mulder 

Moneyball, pitcher 

Shoulder injuries, Big Trade 

Oh! What Could Have Been

Back of The Card 

Bowman cards from this era always have nice write-ups on the card backs, and this one is no different. They give mention to his college career, time with USA Baseball playing in the Pan Am Games, and his quick ascension through the Minors and into the A's starting rotation.  In all, Mulder only pitched 24 games, all in Triple A, before the A's made him a starter in the middle of the 2000 season.   

All My Wildest Dreams Come True

In the almost 20 years I have lived in North Carolina, I have thought it would be really awesome to see a favorite player with the Durham Bulls end up on the Cardinals and have a successful run with my favorite Major League team. For years, I have been hoping that someone like Evan Longoria, David Price, or Blake Snell would end up in St. Louis, but it has never happened.  

Well, this past year the Cardinals finally ended up with a favorite former Durham Bulls player when they signed Taylor Motter (mutliple times) to be a utility player and the person at the end of their bench. Not really the type of star power I was hoping for, but I was still a big fan of Motter on the Cardinals.  

Taylor Motter is good defensively at multiple positions, but can struggle with the bat. Taylor's performance on the Cardinals did not really surprise me, as he has bounced around to multiple teams over the past few seasons. 

If you are a regular reader or read my Twitter page, you know that I really wanted a Taylor Motter card on the Cardinals during the past year regardless of on-field production and my wish came true when Topps included him in their Heritage High Numbers release.  

I believe I declared this my favorite card of 2023.......

Over the past few months, I have checked on parallels for this card on Ebay and COMC, but have seen none. I figured the base card was good enough for my collection. However, last weekend I revisited my saved search "2023 Heritage Motter" one last time and I struck gold.  

I found the black parallel, which would be the rarest Motter parallel outside of the printing plates.   

This card is limited to a stated print run of just 50 copies. 

Although, it's not actually serial numbered.  

I Needed Some Boxes, Maybe A Few Cards Too

I have been doing a lot of sorting the past few weeks, which probably deserves a post, but not today. Instead, I wanted to post a few cards I picked up while I was purchasing a few boxes from my local card shop this past weekend. It's a newer card shop that I wrote up a few weeks back, but I am impressed every time I stop there. Lately, it's been for boxes. 

Figured I needed to check out some cards. 

Here is a quick rundown.  

First up, is an Adley Rutshman rookie card from Bowman Chrome. I am not an Orioles fan, but I do like a lot of their young players. I saw Adley a few year back in Durham, figured I would add a few of his cards when I get a chance. This was a good starting point......

Also fairly inexpensive.  

Next, an unexpected Cardinals find. This is a 2001 Bowman Chrome Stan Musial rookie reprint. Not sure the scan does this card justice, but I really like the sepia background with the greyscale photo, all with the trappings of a Chrome card. Nice to see a good blend of some vintage and modern design elements on the same card.  

Here is the back, which includes the serial number out of 299. Not the rarest Musial card by any means, but I was not expecting to find a serial numbered of The Man when I walked in the door of the card shop.  

I also found a few Snell commons.......

My effort to collect some non-autographed Blake Snell cards also should probably be there own post, but I will wait until I have time to write about some more exciting cards. There are in the fifty-cent bin at the shop.

Next up......

A few vintage cards. The Curt Flood is probably my favorite card out of the group.  All the players have a connection to the Cardinals or Durham Bulls with the exception of Norm Cash who once tried to take an at-bat against Nolan Ryan with a table leg.  

I demad a game-used table leg card, but nobody has come through for me.