Farewell Beltran

Carlos Beltran was a great player for many teams.  While he was not on the Cardinals, most of his career, he was a player who made me nervous as a fan.  While he was on the Cardinals, I knew that he was clutch and would come up with some sort of big play.  

Beltran at his scariest?  Non-Cardinal version has to be the 2004 playoffs.  

The Astros lost to the Cardinals in 7 games, but Beltran hit .417 with 4 home runs, 5 RBIs, and scored 12 runs.  After the 2006 National League Championship Series, Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa described the pressure the Cardinals faced in trying to record the final out of that playoff series with Beltran up to bat with the bases loaded:

"Carlos Beltran has hit twenty home runs against us in his last ten at bats" 

It's an exaggeration, but as a Cardinals fan it always felt like he murdered our pitching staff on a regular basis.  I always felt fortunate that the Cardinals got past Beltran in both 2004 and 2006.  

Beltran at his scariest as a Cardinal has to be the 2013 playoffs.  In the first game of the National League Championship Series he threw a runner out at home in the tenth inning to keep the game tied....

  

and then walked off the Dodgers with a single in the thirteenth.  

On to baseball cards.  

I always felt like I missed out on a chunk of Beltran's baseball cards because he came up with the Royals.  He was in the 1995 Topps Traded set at a time when everyone loved them.  I am not sure how much his rookie card, or is that Juan LeBron.....  

actually cost at its height of 1990s popularity.  I didn't really care about this card until he ended up on the Cardinals in 2012.  It didn't cost me very much at that point.  Well, I got the Juan LeBron card, actually with Carlos Beltran, too....

The best card of Beltran that I actually pulled out of a pack was an autograph out of the 2005 Topps set.  There used to be a baseball card shop in Durham near my work when I first moved to North Carolina.  It was not a great card store in terms of sports cards.  Much more of a Magic and Pokemon place.  You ever seen Duke students playing card games?  Not pretty.  The shop folded and I bought the box on clearance.  

I sort of hate 2005 Topps, really busy design, but I love this card.   

I am probably lucky that I did not do online trading at that point in my life because I probably would have cashed this in for something really nice.  I am actually a little surprised that this didn't end up on Ebay.  Perhaps it was hiding somewhere, or I forgot about it.  The important thing is that it is still here in my house.  

Once Beltran ended up on the Cardinals, I tried my best to find some really nice Beltran cards.  The downside to Beltran's time with in St. Louis was that he never had an autographed card in a Cardinals uniform.  Nice cards meant settling for relics.  Not my favorite, but when your options are limited......

First up.  

I got this Topps Tribute card.  The jersey swatch is tall and slightly bigger than the average relic card.  I actually like the picture on the card, the high gloss finish, all limited to just 99 copies.  I actually would have been find if Topps had not placed a non-specific piece of jersey on this piece of cardboard.  

I also got this card.  

It's a jumbo piece of bat.  Jumbo.  The card is limited to 25 copies.  I am not sure the Beltran love is coming through on this card.  It's nice.  Just a little sad about not having a Beltran Cardinals autograph.  

I have moved on.   

After leaving the Cardinals I kept up with Beltran cards.  I have Yankees cards.  I have Rangers cards.  I have Astros cards.  A lot of my effort recently has been spent working on looping back to Beltran's Royals years to find some of his early gems.  There are some really good ones out there floating around.  This is my favorite post-Cardinals Beltran card that I have ended up with.....

Beltran seems like the player who might stick around and stay relevant in the baseball card world, especially if he gains traction towards being in the Hall of Fame.  He belongs.  I will miss seeing Beltran play baseball, but I still am going to find some more of his cards along the way.  Maybe there will be a Cardinals autograph at some point.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets from 1995

After a personal down year in 1994 the baseball card world took a turn for the unexciting in 1995.  There were not a lot of cards to be excited about during the summer of 1995 and the sport was also coming back after a painful labor dispute.  I still found some sets to put together that year and will spend a few minutes sharing some of my favorites from 20 years ago.  This post is also making me feel a little bit old.

5. (tie) 1995 Topps Traded- One of the real problems with the 1995 card products was the lack of star rookies.  Important rookie cards drive excitement with collectors.  At the time of the card releases there was a pretty big rookie card floating around that year, we'll get that later, but there are also cards that have become important with time.  The Carlos Beltran/Juan LeBron card is a great example.  Beltran was a really well thought of prospect around the time of the 1995 Topps Traded release, which continued for more than a decade later, but it's not like this card...or is it this one.......

The Beltran rookie card is certainly popular, but I am not sure it's value really reflects I guy who is a borderline Hall of Famer.  The guy has been a great player for the past fifteen years or so and has done a lot of damage in the Postseason.  This set also has a Hideo Nomo rookie card, and while he was the more important rookie at the time of the set's release, his cards have lost a lot of their mojo and there are better rookie cards of him floating around.

5. (tie) 1995 Topps- There were some bad efforts by Topps around this time, but this set stands out for me.  The photography was on par with the Upper Deck sets, and while I liked the clean borderless look of the Upper Deck set better, this was still a really nicely designed product.  While it lacks important rookie cards I still really love looking at this set.  One interesting wrinkle to this set is the CyberStats parallel which projected the stats the players would have ended the 1994 season with if the strike had not cancelled games after August.

I do not have a full set of the CyberStats cards, but this would be a really really fun project to complete one day when I have a little bit more time.  

4.  1995 Emotion- I really liked this set.  Strictly a design thing.  I am not sure they are really too expensive, exotic, or difficult to find.  This Fleer product offered collectors full card photos with an adjective describing the player stamped onto the card.  The complete set can be found for $10-$15 on Ebay, but the boxes are only $25-$30.  Why not have a little fun and put the set together yourself?  The set is 200 cards and the most important card in the set is the Hideo Nomo rookie card.  I love this card and it's always been my favorite Nomo rookie card.  

I am not sure about the adjective on the card, but I love the photo showing Nomo's unique delivery.  If you are not into picking up the whole set this card is a great mid 90s single card to own.

3.  1995 Upper Deck- These cards were really simple, but I loved the looks of these cards.  The photography was really nice and there were some cool inserts to go along with the base set.  In particular, I am a really big fan of the autographed cards.  

By the mid 90s I felt like Upper Deck had reached the company's base sets are worthy of a look from any collector.  There was also a Minor League version of this set put out by Upper Deck that has the same design and a few nice cards in the set.  

2.  Bowman- The 1995 Bowman set was weak on design, but it did have a few really nice cards in the set.  No they were not Hideo Nomo.  The big three rookies in the set belonged to Andrew Jones, Scott Rolen, and Vladimir Guerrero.  Nice names and in the late 90s/early 2000s this set was really hot.  Unfortunately Jones and Rolen faded due to injuries or strike outs or temper tantrums.  Vladdy was a great player, but the last few years of his career seemed to have softened his hobby power.  Still, this is one of the more important Bowman sets from this era.  

1. Select Certified- This is a small, 135 cards, set that was only given to Hobby stores.  This set had a low production run for the time, something like only 60,000 boxes were made, and had some cool features which made it competitive with the Topps Finest set.  The Mirror Gold cards were the equivalent to the refractors and played very well with collectors.  This product also had a Hideo Nomo rookie which was deemed an important card at the time.  Naturally it's lost a lot of it's value.  This thick set is another fun set to flip through 20 years after it's release and can be found for a few bucks on Ebay.  Although the boxes do tend to sell for a decent amount ($45-$50).  

Friday Five: My Top Five Kansas City Royals

I meant to post this last night.  I laid down in bed and was watching a Magic School Bus with my son.  I fell asleep.  Here's my second Friday Five, but on Saturday.


I do not spend very much time on the Royals on my little blog space.  Only 17 posts where the Royals were tagged in my two plus years blogging about cards is a pretty tiny amount considering I almost make one post per day.  In fact, it was pointed out to me about a year ago that I do not make enough Royals posts and I was "ignoring" the other team from Missouri.  Today, and perhaps the next week, the Royals will get their moment in the sun on my blog.  For my second Friday Five post today I present:

MY TOP FIVE ROYALS

I could have made the logo bigger.  This list is not "The Best Royals, it is the Royals players I remember as Royals who were good and enjoyable to watch.  For example, Rick Ankiel was on the Royals and I am a big fan.  I also think of Rick Ankiel as a Cardinal and understand he was not really all that good on the Royals.  Not on the list.  Neither is Todd Benzinger, whom I saw hit a grand slam at the K once.  Although I think it was Royals Stadium at the time.  No matter.    Royals fans may not like my list, don't hate me because I am from St. Louis, but I think it's pretty fair.  

Honorable Mention: Bo, Mark Guicza, Greinke, Willie Wilson, Danny Tartabull, and Brett Saberhagen 

5.  Dan Quisenberry  

He was a Cardinal, but more memorable as a Royal.  Quiz was your typical awesome 1980s relief pitcher.  Funky pitching style, sweet mustache, and he pitched more than 1 inning.  He led the American League in saves five times during his career and he ended up saving more than 200 games for the Royals.  Also had 6 saves as a Cardinal.  I did not know before this last week that he actually ended his career with the Giants.  Really cool pitcher, sad he left us a little too soon.  

4. Kevin Appier 

I tossed back and forth a few different pitchers for this last.  My most vivid memories of Royals pitchers, outside of the current group, is Appier, Gubicza, and Greinke.  While I considered Gubicza for his cool heavy metal t-shirts and Greinke for his Cy Young Award, Appier was really a much better Royal than either of those players.  Some of that has to do with time, Greinke was on the Royals for a shorter time, but is having a better overall career than Appier.  Just not with the Royals.  Appier played in KC for 13 years, won 115 games, and struck out almost 1500 hitters.  He is the team's all-time leader in strikeouts, third in wins, and also leads all Royals pitchers in WAR.  Appier also had that weird delivery where he looked like he was tilted back at an odd angle.  

3. Carlos Beltran 

I always really liked Beltran as a Royal.  I felt really bad for the team when he was traded away to the Astros.  I am sure if the front office had planned a little better with the Mike Sweeney contract, they would have had a better chance to hang onto the very talented center fielder.  I think Beltran is at the point where he is bordering on Hall of Fame numbers, but he was largely ignored for the first seven years of his career in KC.  The switch hitting center fielder posted almost 30 home runs, 100 RBIs, and an average around .300 almost every year he was in Kansas City.  Won a Rookie of the Year too, but should have made a few more All-Star game appearances.  

2. Alex Gordon 

My favorite current Royal.  Alex Gordon is an elite defender and a pretty good offensive player too.  I would actually say that if my list were based on talent, Gordon would be lower down the line here, but we all need a little "grit" with our baseball at times.  Watch the first game of the World Series, ignore the batting average, on-base percentage, and home runs and just enjoy watching him play the game.  On top of all of the "grit"  Alex Gordon has one of the best rookie baseball cards of the past decade.  That boasts him up at least two or three spots on this list, right? 

1.  George Brett 

3000 hits, Mr. Royal, etc, etc, etc.  Pine Tar Incident.  

Jumbo Beltran

I have a big stack of Museum cards I need to post and will be working on for the next few days.  Museum is a pretty pricey product, but there are some great cards in this product.  It's also one of those products that is a tad bit risky to open, so I went ahead and let someone else assume all the risk in pursuit of some big hit cards.  Thank you case busting people.  I could not do it somedays without you.  My first cool Museum card of the year was this beautiful Carlos Beltran:

I picked up a couple of these jumbo pieces from Museum last year, but I kind of like the look of this year's pieces better.  This Beltran card has a really nice big chunk of bat.  Cool looking grain on the bat piece and limited to just 25 copies.  My copy gets double brownie points for being numbered to Beltran's number 3 uniform number with the Cardinals.  Luckily the person selling this card did not market it as an "Ebay 1 of 1" and ask $300 for it.  This copy cost me a little less than $20.

While Beltran is no longer on the Cardinals Topps has had Beltran as a Cardinal in all of their early 2014 releases.  I have Carlos on my fantasy baseball team this year, so I am counting on a good year out of the newest Yankee.  No hard feelings.

A Pair of 2013 Tribute Jersey Cards

It's been a busy week this and I am a little bit behind on my posting.  Two weeks ago I started to work on putting together a few cards from the 2013 Topps Tribute set.  I've not opened any wax from this product and probably will not, but I am trying to track down a few nice hit cards to add to the collection.  I've already added a nice Carlos Gonzalez autograph and have a few more pieces in mind to pick up.  Two pieces I've been eyeing are the two jersey cards below.

2013 Topps Tribute Carlos Beltran Jumbo Jersey

 2013 Topps Tribute Adrian Beltre Jersey 

Both cards are "jumbo" pieces of jersey.  There are regular square jersey pieces in the set too.  The relic pieces on these cards are slightly jumbo, but products like Five Star offer a much better version of "jumbo" than this product.  My main interest in these cards are the two players on the front.  Beltran is a given since he is shown in Cardinals jersey, but I have actually been trying to pick up a few of his non-Cardinals cards here and there.  He's had a great career, and while he's not a Hall of Famer, he's been a great player for a really long time.  Beltre has also had a great career, but at 34, he still has a few years left in the tank and has already over 2000 hits, almost 350 home runs, and has won multiple Gold Gloves.

30 Year Top 50: 1995 Bowman

#20- This set was a huge part of the Bowman prospect craze of the mid to late 90s.  While it did not have the ridiculous $125 value guarantee of some of the later 90s Bowman sets, it was one of the more valuable sets of Bowman cards since it's rebirth in 1989.  Like most Bowman sets, the value and popularity of the center centered around a few key rookie cards in the set.  While the set has lost much of it's value and luster, as some of the key rookie players have aged and not lived up to their hype, the set will still run north of $40.  The key rookies below are also in the chromier/shiny looking Bowman's Best.

1995 Bowman Vladimir Guerrero

The most important card in the set is the Vladimir Guerrero rookie card.  The card has always been a pretty popular rookie and has ranged above $50 at times.  I am not sure that Vladimir's final years really helped him in the baseball card world since you can now find nicely graded copies around $20 and raw singles for less than $5.  I will honestly admit that I liked watching Vladimir play, always kept track of him, and have dabbled in his cards.  I think he's a Hall of Fame player, not on the first ballot, and his cards are easy to find and inexpensive.  I am not saying that they will have a ton of value, but there are plenty of really cool ones.  

1995 Bowman Foil Scott Rolen 

The next best card in the set, in my opinion, is the Scott Rolen rookie.  The card is apart of the Foil subset, which was short printed (I believe), and can be a little bit more condition sensitive then the other rookie cards.  I spent a few years watching Rolen as the Cardinals third baseman and spent time collecting his cards and know that this is a pretty popular card.  Despite it's popularity, it can be easily found for less than $5.  I am not sure that Rolen is a Hall of Famer, but he's probably pretty close given how many Gold Gloves he has won and his offensive numbers as a third baseman.

1995 Bowman Chris Carpenter 

I know that some who are reading this post are probably a little surprised that I put Carpenter down as the third key rookie card in this set, but keep reading and I will get to the other rookie card.  Carpenter seems to miss a lot of time, but when he's healthy he's a great clutch pitcher.  I credit him for being one of the major reasons the Cardinals won the World Series in both 2006 and 2011.  This is not a very valuable card, probably never will be, but it's a great card to throw into your collection just for the sake of owning a nice rookie card of a really good pitcher.  

1995 Bowman Andruw Jones 

This is one of my least favorite baseball cards ever.  It's always been completely overrated, but then again, Andruw Jones has always kind of been that way.  I understand that it was really cool the Braves called him up when he was 19, made the World Series, and hit two home runs in a game.  He had five or six good years and has been a bench player since he left the Braves.  Despite all of that, I still run into people that have crazy opinions of this card.  I have heard everything from people hoarding them, because he's a first ballot Hall of Famer to Andruw is working out this winter and will be back out in centerfield next year...he's one Gold Glove away from being the next Willie Mays.  Last summer, a fellow trader tried to trade me a copy of this card, straight up, for a Buster Posey rookie.  Apparently they were using a Beckett from 1997.  Ironically, last week I traded for a Rick Ankiel autograph and got this card as a throw-in.  

Like the 1995 Bowman set?  Not in my Top 50 is the legendary 1995 Topps Traded set.  This great 1995 set also featured a few key rookies, but the had some issues.  I am still not sure which card people value more, the Carlos Beltran card of Juan LeBron or the Juan LeBron card of Carlos Beltran.  I picked up both just in case.  

1995 Topps Traded Carlos Beltran/Juan LeBron

1995 Topps Traded Juan LeBron/Carlos Beltran

I have always really enjoyed these two cards and consider it one of the better error cards of the past twenty years or so.  I know that Topps makes all kinds of goofy intentional errors now, but I am sure that aside from a few people in the Royals organization and Baseball America employees, few probably knew the difference between the two players in 1995.  Beltran has obviously had a far more successful career than LeBron who never reached the majors.  

1995 Topps Traded Hideo Nomo 

There is also a rookie card of Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo that was pretty popular back in the day.  I actually got a chance to see Nomo pitch during the summer of 1995 in St. Louis and am pretty sure that this picture was taken during that game.  The crowd isn't wearing much red for a Cardinals game, but the low green wall seems very Busch Stadium like.  Plus, I wouldn't wear red if Tripp Cromer and Chris Sabo was the right side of my infield.  I love how Nomo is looking sideways and the ball is out of his hand.  Crazy.   

Facebook Trade

It's been a busy July and my trade volume has been down this month due to vacations, trips, and the beginning of the school year.  I still had time to complete a trade two weeks ago with Jeremy, a collector from Arkansas, who runs his own Facebook Trade Group.  His group is one of the better and trusted groups around on the internet.  If you are looking for a good place to trade you cannot go wrong there.

I posted a few Nolan Ryan cards last month and had a few other nice Ryan pieces I have been sitting on for a trade.  Jeremy is a big Nolan Ryan collector and had plenty of cards to offer up for trade.  I ended up getting five nice cards in return for my lot of Ryan memorabilia cards.

First up, is a 2004 Flair Albert Pujols patch card.  This is a two color patch featuring a large piece of yellow and a small strip of blue.  The yellow is clearly part of the bat from the front of the Cardinals uniform.  While Pujols is not a Cardinal anymore, it is still a great addition to my Cardinals collection and I was really happy to get the card.

2004 Flair Hot Numbers Albert Pujols Patch

I also received a sweet 2009 Topps Sterling Ernie Banks 5 piece relic in the trade.  I have traded for several other Topps Sterling cards over the past few months.  The cards always look great and they are a fantastic way to get an affordable premium relic card of a Hall of Fame player.  This card is serial numbered to 25 and has two pieces of pin striped jersey, one white piece of jersey, and two pieces of bat.  

2009 Topps Sterling Ernie Banks 5 Piece Relic 

The other three cards were also very nice.  I received a Topps Tribute Ozzie Smith bat card, a Triple Threads Evan Longoria Triple Bat Card, and a Topps Heritage Carlos Beltran bat card.  

2002 Topps Tribute Ozzie Smith Bat Card

2010 Topps Triple Threads Evan Longoria Triple Bat Card

2011 Topps Heritage Carlos Beltran Bat Card

New Card and My Marquee Collection

Ladies and Gentleman,

I wish you a good evening and thank you for your visit to my little corner of the blogging world.  For your enjoyment this evening I present to you a fabulous new card which I received this afternoon in my mailbox from a trade last week.  The card is a 2011 Topps Marquee Matt Kemp Gametime Mementos Quad Jersey Quad.  However, you will note from the scan posted below the top-right hand box of the card features a piece of blue patch.  Nice.  Remember that you have until Sunday to enter my first month trivia contest (please read the rules) and the question has been reposted below along with several other scans of Topps Marquee cards which you may, or may not, enjoy looking at during your spare time.


Thank you,
The Snorting Bull

2011 Topps Marquee Matt Kemp Quad Jersey 

Trivia Question
Contest #1 Question- During the summer of 2007 Evan Longoria played briefly for the Durham Bulls.  Who was the primary third baseman that season for the Durham Bulls prior to Longoria's arrival?


Some other random cards: