Monday Morning Autograph - Kenny Lofton

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

Today: 2003 Donruss Signature Series Autograph Kenny Lofton.  

Why do I own this card? 

I actually wrote about this Kenny Lofton a few years back, but it was on a Cardboard Connections article about his best baseball cards. At the time of its publication, Kenny Lofton had very few certified autographs. Since that time, he's appeared in a few more modern products, but I still love this card.  

I know what you are thinking, Kenny Lofton played for the Pirates?

Kenny Lofton played more than 1,200 games for the Indians. He also played for the Pirates, Giants, Phillies, Braves, Rangers, Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees, Astros, and White Sox. He never played more than 130 games for any team outside of Cleveland and played less than 100 games for 7 of those teams.  Lots of trades and times as a free agent.  

Not really an Indians fan, but I always loved Kenny Lofton. He was as close to a 1980s Cardinals player as anyone touched the field during the 1990s or 2000s.  He led the league in stolen bases five times and ended his career with more than 600.  

When did I get this card?  

I pulled this out of a pack of 2003 Donruss Signature from my local card shop in south St. Louis County shortly after it was released. I was so excited about it at the time.  

A Cinquain About Kenny Lofton 

Kenny 

Speedy, Skilled 

Hitting, Running, Stealing 

Should be in Cooperstown 

Lofton 

Back of the card.  

Love that Rickey Henderson gets a mention on the back of Kenny Lofton's card. Nice write up, great stats, and an awesome baseball card.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 27 - Alan Benes

The better of the two Benes brothers who pitched in the Majors.  Well, it was shaping up that way until his shoulder fell off.  His first full season in 1996 was fairly ho hum with 13 wins and an ERA of nearly 5.  Then there was 1997.  His record was only 9-9 through the beginning of July, with ERA of 2.89, and 3.5 WAR.  At the time he went on the disabled list, he never returned that season, his numbers were right in line with pitchers like Kevin Brown, Curt Schilling, and Tom Glavine.

Not the top tier with Maddux and Pedro during that 1997 season, but a very very good pitcher.  Mind you he was only 25 and his numbers had been trending up to this point in his career prior to the injury.  Could the first half of the 1997 season have been a complete fluke?  Sure, but I tend to think that he was headed that direction.  Not a stretch to say that the numbers put up by Alan Benes in 1997 were better than anything posted by Andy in his 14 years in the Majors.

The Cardinals drafted Alan Benes out of Creighton in the first round of the 1993 Draft.  He was a pretty highly regarded draft pick and immediately made his way through the Minor Leagues.

He had baseball cards almost right away too.  Like all mid 1990s prospects, he had a bunch of cards in Bowman products, but I actually liked his Upper Deck cards from that era better.  Benes was in both the 1994 and 1995 Upper Deck base sets.

He was in the 1994 set as a Top Prospect.

A lot of these cards were draft picks from 1993, it might have been all, did not do that much homework on the checklist.  When I think of these Upper Deck prospect cards, I always remember the Billy Wagner rookie.  He was taken a few picks in front of Benes in that draft.  The Benes card kind of sticks out because of the uniform.  I was never quite sure where the good people at Upper Deck took this photo, but that Cardinals uniform is straight out of the 1980s.

It could be that this card was made at some sort of photo shoot, or if they took it while he playing for a Minor League team that wore the old polyester Cardinals uniforms.  I found a Dmitri Young card from 1994 where he is playing for the St. Petersburg Cardinals.....

and wearing an old polyester style Cardinals uniform.  Young played for the Cardinals A Ball team in 1993, Benes played there in the early parts of 1994.  The Benes card is a high number, second series later release, so it would have given Upper Deck time to have taken the picture after the season started.  I would lean that direction for the picture.  

Benes was also in the 1995 Upper Deck set as a top prospect.  

They use pictures of him in the polyester uniform again, even though he was in Double A and Triple A during the first parts of the 1995 season.  He actually pitched a few games for the Cardinals towards the end of that season.  I hate recycled pictures, and the effort on this card seems really low when you take into account that his 1995 Upper Deck Minor League card had an updated photo of Benes playing for the Arkansas Travelers.  They would have been the Cardinals Double A team at that point.

I still like the blue background on the 1995 Upper Deck card.  I always prefer to see what is actually happening in the picture when it's an action shot, but this backdrop seems like a good Upper Deck card design element from the mid 1990s.  

Is this a game shot, or is he throwing in the bullpen?  You will never know.  

Before we get to the Major League cards of Benes, I would like to put up one more Minor League card of sorts.  Upper Deck had some Arizona Fall League cards in their Collectors Choice product in 1996.....

which had an Alan Benes card.  There are some other Arizona Fall League cards which have been floating around in more recent sets, but the Minor League players in that league now just wear their team's Major League uniform with a Fall League hat.  I like these mid 1990s cards when the Fall League teams had there own uniforms.  

Not sure when the unis switched over, but I am sure it was some cost saving move.

Benes did not have a ton of cards once he reached the Majors, mainly because he had a major shoulder injury towards the end of the 1997 season and was never quite the same pitcher after that year.  I have it narrowed it down to three or four cards.  

First up is my favorite card of Benes, which is 1997 Topps base card.

Speaking of recycled pictures, if you look up the other Alan Benes cards that Topps made in 1997 they are either this picture, or a photo that was taken from this moment in whatever game he is pitching in here.  Why do I like this picture?

I like the background of the picture.  It's a nice action shot too, but the Cardinals had spent the first half of the 1990s with an astroturf field and blue walls in Busch Stadium.

It's how Busch Stadium looked during my childhood through my years in high school.  After the Rams played a few games there during the fall of 1995, the playing surface was changed over to grass and the outfield walls were painted green.  

I have good memories of the blue walled, astroturfed field of the 1980s and early 1990s, but the green grass and green walls were a nicer place to watch baseball.  The 1997 baseball cards were the first year where you could find a plentiful number of Cardinals with the green fixings of Busch Stadium in the background.  I like that on this Benes card.

A few more classics from the mid 1990s....

The Emotion XL cards were always pretty cool cards.  Sometimes I could clearly see why the cards had a certain emotion printed on the side, other times not.  Alan Benes is excited?  He looked this way.....

almost every time that he threw......

a pitch.  

Good effort though and I still like these cards.  You cannot get them all right, but I am just excited that a smaller set from the mid 1990s had a Cardinals player in it outside of Ray Lankford, Ron Gant, or Dennis Eckersley.  Did not get many Alan Benes cards in these types of sets.  

Next.  

Another classic 1990s set.  Still trying to figure out what the Crusades have to do with baseball cards, but the design is really nice.  Sad story behind this card.  A few years ago this guy with basically everyone of these Crusade cards, all of the color variations, was dumping them all on Ebay.  I tried buying the Lankford red variation, a print run of just 25 cards, but the card ended at almost $200.  I lost, but I won this Alan Benes card.  

Last one.  

Alan Benes does have an autographed card in the 1997 Donruss Signature set.  It's not very hard to find and is also very affordable.  For whatever reason, Benes signed all of his cards across his picture rather than the space for the autograph that was provided at the bottom of the card.  There were not many players who missed the memo on where to sign these cards, but curiously three of them were on the Cardinals at some point during their career.  Benes from above.  

Edagr Renteria also signed his picture, as did Larry Walker.  

Benes did pitch after sitting out the 1998 season recovering from his shoulder injury.  Between 1999 and 2003 he only managed to pitch in roughly 60 games.  He was on the Cardinals until the 2001 season when he became a free agent and signed with the Cubs.  Benes would also pitch briefly with the Rangers and tried a comeback with the Cardinals in both 2004 and 2005.  Neither was successful.  

You can find an occasional Benes card from the later years of his career, but they are rather sparse,

although its nice that Topps made a few cards of a player who could have been great, minus the injuries, even though he did not ever live up to his potential.  

Project Durham Bulls #11: Al Martin

Al Martin 1989 Durham Bulls 

Background-

The Atlanta Braves drafted Al Martin out of high school in 1985, he then spent 5 years playing in Rookie and A Ball.  In 1991 he played for the Braves Double A and Triple A teams.  After 1991 he spent one more season in the Minors with the Pirates.  I looked up his biography on Baseball Reference and half way expected to see him in sort of trade between the Pirates and Braves, but he was actually a six year Minor League free agent.  It's not rare to see players who are Minor League free agents reach the Majors, but I am guessing that Martin had one of the better careers of a player who reached that mark.  He made his Major League debut in 1992 with the Pirates and went on to play a total of 8 years in Pittsburgh.  Al Martin had some nice years playing with the Pirates, but was on some really bad teams.  His best season was probably 1993 when he hit .281/.338/.481 with 18 homers, 64 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases.  The Pirates traded him to the Padres for John Vander Wal where he spent a year playing, the Padres traded him to the Mariners for John Mabry where he played two years, and he ended his career with the Devil Rays in 2003.  

 Card- 

Martin is also in the 1996 Leaf Signature set, but I kind of liked this Donruss Signature card a little bit better.  The main thing I was looking for in picking up a Martin card was that he was a Pirate on the card, which was not really a problem since his only two certified autos were in a Pittsburgh uniform.  Further, in working on this project of finding Durham Bulls autographs it is a little bit trickier to find cards of players from the years the team was a Braves affiliate.  Currently the Bulls are a Triple A team, so percentage of players reaching the Majors is pretty high.  During their time as Braves affiliate the team was a high A team.  The percentage of players which much smaller, much tougher to find autographs of the players.  While it's not a great signature, it's nice to finally add a Braves era player to my Project Durham Bulls posts.  

Friday Five: Five Cool Bobby Bo Cards

Bobby Bonilla last played for the New York in 1999, but he is going to be paid 1.19 million dollars every year until 2035.  The payday occurs every year on July 1st which has made today into sort of a Bobby Bonilla Day on social media.  Players and teams deferring money is actually pretty common, so I am not entirely sure why the Bobby Bonilla thing gets made into a huge deal.  I mean he turned 5 million dollars into 20 million dollars all for not being on the Mets.  Pretty shrewd business move by Bobby Bo.

Jesse Spector of the Sporting News has a really good list of old players who are still being paid by Major League teams.

It's my first day off of school for the summer, so I took a little time today to flip through my cards and find a few really cool Bobby Bonilla cards.  Mind you, I am not a Bonilla super collector, or even person out to find his cards, but his career fits within the time I have been collecting.  I guess I am somewhat detached....

Here are my five cards.....

1988 Topps- First stop is a 1988 Topps card.  I actually upgraded my 1988 Topps set that my parents bought me for Christmas when I was in fifth grade and found for a Topps Tiffany version for next to nothing.  Literally close to nothing.  I guess that Bobby Bonilla as a Pirate is probably the most memorable version of Bobby Bo actually playing good baseball. Although he was actually really good on the Mets, Marlins, and Orioles too.  Dodgers, no.   I flipped through all of my Pirates cards looking for his cards and could not find many with any sort of connection, so I went with the 1988 Topps card since I have a really loose connection to this card.  The connection is that I work with a Pirates fan who walks around with a Topps Folder from the late 1980s with this card on the front.  I couldn't find a picture of the folder lurking around the internet, but there are several others floating around on Ebay.  They look like this in the packs.....

That Charlie Hough folder looks awesome.  I wonder how many fourth graders that would scare at work?  There is not a Cardinal in this set, but McGwire is in it on the A's.  Maybe for next school year.

2001 Topps- Bonilla was briefly a Cardinal player at the end of his career for one year in 2001.  His slash line was .213/.308/.339 with 5 home runs and 7 doubles in almost 200 at bats.  That's not a great, nor memorable line, but Cardinals fan still love Bobby Bo.  I am not going to rehash the entire story, just a little segment.  Bonilla was brought in by the team to by a utility player and bat off of the bench.  He was hurt at the end of Spring Training which forced the Cardinals to look at some players to fill Bonilla's role.  The player he was replaced with at the beginning of the season?  Albert Pujols.  If the Cardinals placed an 8x10 photo of Bobby Bonilla inside the front gate of Busch Stadium I would be okay with that.

1986 Anything- Bonilla briefly played on the White Sox and then was traded to the Pirates for Jose DeLeon.  Not many people really remember much about Bobby Bo as a Sox player, but his cards wearing the softball unis are awesome.  I put up this picture of his 1986 Fleer, but there are a bunch of them would be worthy of your time and a few dollars on Ebay.

1997 Donruss Signature- Bobby Bo has one major certified autograph and it's this one.  Not a great signature, but if you're a 1990s baseball card guy it's a pretty sweet autograph to buy.  I have the fancier Century Marks card, but there are other version that are pretty cheap.

1994 Upper Deck- I think if Upper Deck had found away to get Bobby Bo to have some safety pins in his ears on this card it would be his ultimate card.  His Topps card in 1994 is also quality, but this is a list of five cards.  Bobby Bonilla on the Mets is somehow always said in a negative way.  He was actually pretty good the first time around with the Mets.  I know, it was not as good as the Pirates years, but OPS+ of 121, 133, and 128 is pretty good.  Second time around on the Mets was a disaster.

The Old Autograph Upgrade

I love all of the cards that I have picked up over the years, but I have been working on a little project for the last two or three years with a few of my autographed cards.  As a person who collected cards in the early 2000s, I pulled many autographs that were on sticker autographs.  It's not just the fact that they are sticker autographs, it's the ugly grey/silver autograph stickers.

There are a few thousand autographs in my collection and I am pretty sure that there are a few hundred autographs with the grey stickers like this Andruw Jones autograph.

Truth be told, the Andruw Jones card actually isn't that bad since the card has a bunch of foil on the face.  The really bad sticker autographs are the ones with the grey sticker on a white card.  So many to choose from as an example, but this is a good one....

I love Mike Montgomery and I really enjoyed watching him throw a no-hitter once, but this is not a cool autograph.  The stickers have gotten better in recent years with the advent of the clear sticker, but there are still a few silvers floating around.  Especially players like Johnny Podres and Gary Carter who signed a ton of stickers before dying and Topps is still using them in sets.

So, here is my project.  I am not trying to replace the autographs of all the players in my collection whose signature appears on a grey autograph sticker.  That would take a long time, would be expensive, and in some cases would not really be possible.  However, there are plenty of really good players who are worth my time, effort, and maybe a slight net loss in the old pocketbook.

My latest autographed card to be upgraded belongs to Astros Hall of Famers Craig Biggio.  I originally pulled a Biggio autograph out of a pack of 2001 Donruss Signature way back in the day.  I loved getting this card.  At the time, Biggio was not a huge signer and he was a fun player to watch.  I am saying that as a Cardinals fan whose team lost many games to Craig Biggio...

This isn't a terrible sticker autograph.  Donruss actually did a good job with the grey/green box around the sticker.  Makes it blend into the background of the card a little bit better.  However, my newest Biggio card is really nice and will make parting with this one a little easier in a week or two....

It's bascially the same autograph, Biggio's hasn't changed much over time, but it's actually on the card.  It's from this year's Finest set, which I believe, has all on-card autographs. Plus, can I throw in the fact that it's cool to see Biggio wearing an older Astros uniform?  It's not the 1980s rainbows, but I am not sure that Biggio was on the team at any point when they wore those outside of some throwback jersey day.

Does anyone else ever trade up for more desirable copies of cards?  I know that I do sticker autographs, but I have seen a lot of collectors do similar things with other types of cards over the years from finding better relic pieces on a memorabilia card, to tracking down a card with a cool serial number (Yes, the dreaded Ebay 1/1).

#MyCardMonday

I love following along with the offseason dealings in Major League Baseball.  It's always fun to see where everyone ends up signing, who's traded, and what your team looks like heading into the next season.  As a Cardinals fan, there have not been many disappointing off seasons over the past decade.  I mean there was that one year that they signed Kip Wells and Adam Kennedy, but they generally seem to do well with trades and signings.

One of the first things I do when the Cardinals add a new player is to run out and find their cards.  Sometimes I am happy with just adding a token autograph, but there are other times I feel obligated to go beyond just find a few cards.

Mark McGwire.  I was all in from day one.

Jim Edmonds.  Token autograph to start, all in by the middle of his first year.

Scott Rolen.  All in right away.

Matt Holliday.  All in right away.

Those four players seemed to work out well for the Cardinals on the field and were fun for me as a baseball card collector.  Still, there were a few other players who did not work out as well beyond the aforementioned Kip Wells, his friends call him "Kipper", and Adam Kennedy.  There was also this guy....

I loved the idea of the Cardinals trading for Mark Mulder.  The tall left hander was a great pitcher for the A's and seemed to be just the thing to put the team over the top after losing in the World Series to the Red Sox.  Within months of the trade I had all sorts of Mulder cards.  He has a ton of autographs, but my collection started with this 2003 Donruss Signature which I actually pulled out of a pack of cards when the product was released a few years prior.

Mulder has been a pretty generous signer over the years and I had a lot of fun picking up his autographs along with other cool looking base cards and inserts.  Really fun player to collect, but unfortunately a shoulder injury wrecked his career.  Every collector has some player, or set, in their collection that they totally missed on.  Mine was Mark Mulder, but I do not regret it for a minute.  Find new players to collect is one of the best parts of the hobby.  Even when they do not pan out.

Who was your favorite collection flame out?  

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets From 2003

You know the routine: My favorite five sets from 2003.  I spent a lot of time flipping through my boxes of 2003 cards.  There was Topps, Playoff, Upper Deck, and Fleer.  I am not sure the total number of products released in 2003, but I have more than 20 different sets in my collection from that year.  Scary number to sort through and some of them are really not very good.  Here's a look at this week's list:

5.  EX- You guys know that I love these sets and sadly this was the end of the line for this product.  It was a great run while it lasted, but for whatever reason Fleer pulled the plug on this product after 2003.  I like that they went back to a card design that was a little reminiscent of the 1998/1999 products.  There are autographs and relics in this product, but I am not a huge fan of those.  Just the base cards.  I assembled this set in 2003 and took on assembling another copy of the set after I found a couple cheap boxes of this product floating around Ebay a few years ago.  Fun set to put together and there are still wax boxes out there.  

4. Donruss Signature-This was the typical huge autograph product.  One autograph per pack with plenty of cool names.  There were some base cards in each box too, but the autographs were the main focus here.  I opened one box, pulled an Andre Dawson autograph, and then went straight on to picking off single cards on Ebay.  The SRP on these was $50, and while I love Andre Dawson, he's not a $50 autograph.  Not many players are.  Like many of the other mega-autograph sets there are a lot of good players to pick up from this set on the cheap.  There are also a few negatives in there too: sticker autographs, fading sticker autographs, and chippy edges (see Eck).

3. Topps Gallery HOF- There were two Gallery products released in 2003: Topps Gallery and Gallery HOF.  Topps Gallery has modern players in it, HOF has Hall of Famers.  The latter has some great looking art work in the set and features, not only a lot of Hall of Famers you say regularly in Topps products, but also some less common names too.  Most Hall of Famers deserve a little cardboard love from time to time.  As a Cardinals fan I can find names like Musial and Gibson on cards in the set, but can also find guys like Dizzy Dean and Frankie Frisch.  Some cool autographs add to the set and the first coin cards also appear in this product.  If you like the Gyspy Queen/Allen & Ginter type of products, and did not collect in 2003, this should be a set you go back and check out.  

2. All-Time Fan Favorites- This was essentially the Archives products from the early 2000s, but a little more chaotic.  The early Archives products featured players first and last year's cards, but this set just featured a bunch of random designs.  Two things I love about this set: Lots of different card designs and autographs.  Great autographs.  Just like the modern version of Archives, Fan Favorites featured actual team favorites.  Sure Topps could have thrown a Stan Musial autograph into the set and Cardinals fans would have gone crazy and bought all of them up, but Willie McGee was there instead.  He's not a Hall of Famer (hate to crush you if you believe that-yes there are people that do), but there is no denying he is really popular around St. Louis.  Right?  

 1. Topps Heritage- I swear I won't make Topps Heritage first every week, but this remake of the 1954 Topps set is awesome and incredible.  Both.  There are a lot of different variations here with colors and logos on the card, but the base set is just a really well done remake of the original.  The boxes are still around, but quite pricey.  Base sets, with no short prints, are not bad prices and often can be found for less than $50.  Lots of short prints lots are floating around too.  You cannot go wrong with the early Topps Heritage sets.  

Friday Five: Best Five Sets From 1998

I have a lot of different sets from 1998 in my collection.  There are a bunch of duds, some that are perfectly mediocre, but a few have some real standout qualities.  I almost thought about doing a honorable mention section on this post, but I did not have enough time to work on this week.  Next week I am thinking that I will have a best of the rest from 1998.  In the meantime,  I have narrowed down to my favorite five sets.

5. Metal Universe- This was a fun set in 1998.  The first issues of Metal Universe featured players being grabbed by tentacles, players in outer space, and all kinds of other interesting backgrounds.  The 1998 set also featured interesting backgrounds, but they were a little bit more focused on the card's subject.  Ryne Sandberg in front of a rhinoceros, Cardinals players in front of the Gateway Arch, and Yankees players with the Statue of Liberty.  This was the best Metal Universe set in my opinion and a fun set to assemble.  The boxes are still available on Ebay, not too expensive, and are a fun open.  I remember buying a box of these from 1,000,000 Baseball Cards outside of St Louis and buying a second box a few weeks later to finish off the set.

4. Upper Deck Retro- Really cool packaging, old players, cool autographs.  Upper Deck made a lot of sets using that formula over the years and this one was a really good set.  Let me be more specific, the base set is rather meh, but the autographs are really what you want here.  I have the base set in my collection, but I also have a bunch of the autographs.   I always thought about this set as a precursor to the Upper Deck Legends set which will be on my list in a Friday or two....

The autographs in this product are on-card with tons of Hall of Famers.  I am a huge fan of the Upper Deck Legends sets as a great source for on-card Hall of Fame autographs, but this set is not bad either.  In fact, I think some of these are a tougher find than the Upper Deck Legends cards.  The best card in the set, in my opinion, is Kirby Puckett.  

3. 1998 Donruss Signature- This was one of my favorite per pack autographed products from the late 1990s.  Unfortunately this was the end of the line for the original Donruss Signature line.  Playoff bought the Donruss name and relaunched the product, with sticker autographs, in in the early 2000s.  This release of this product was highly anticipated in the fall of 1998, but due to financial problems with Pinnacle, the company that originally produced the Donruss products, the release was a bit of a debacle.  The product was delayed and there were problems with players getting paid for signing in the product.  In the end, this product was the swan song for Pinnacle.  Still the set featured more than 100 autographs including the diverse base set and inserts like Significant Signatures.

The cards in the set all feature on card autographs.  Over the years I have picked up dozens of these cards.  There are some great names that fly under the radar.  My personal favorites include any of the Significant Signatures cards and the Mariano Rivera.  Plenty of other good veteran autographs in there too.  

2. Topps Tek- This is one of the more unique sets that was ever put out.  90 cards with 90 variations of each cards means that this set is a grand total of 8100 cards.  A lot of collectors love these cards and have tried to collect either a player, or a pattern, or something in between.  I picked up the cards I needed to complete this set a year or two ago.  The cards are acetate with the patterns printed over color pictures of the players.  Topps simplified this product in subsequent years after this version of the set, but the ceased making the Tek product after 2000 until a relaunch last year.  The original product had no inserts and no autographs.  Just 90 cards with 90 variations.  Not sure something that sounds that simple could be so complex.  Still, a great product.  

1.  Skybox EX-2001- One of my favorite all-time 90s sets.  This product actually started in 1997, but I never touched it that year.  I have gone back and put together the set, but this was the first EX set that I put together.  Half acetate and half textured pictured with some sort of reflective surface thing going on over on the side of the card.  These were awesome.  I started out with a pack or two, picked up a box somewhere along the way, then some lots.  I have a ton of these and have not missed on issue of these cards since.  

A Stylish Jimmy Ballgame

Besides being a really really good baseball player many fans of opposing teams often took note of some of the fashion statements that Jim Edmonds would display around the ballpark.  Baseball players often have cool shoes or some sort of lucky gold chain, but Edmonds went the unusual route with his displays of fashion.  Cubs fans often talked about this Jimmy Ballgame look from back in the early 2000s.

Kind of reminds me of something that Brian Bosworth would would wear to a job interview.  I cannot tell you how many jokes I heard opposing fans crack over the years about Edmonds and his half shirts.  Tigers fans might remember this great look from the 2006 World Series.....

Some people wear long sleeves or one of those Underarmor shirts, but Jim wore a windbreaker under his jersey for much of the 2006 World Series.  All kinds of great comments on this fashion piece all over the internet.  I believe UniWatch on ESPN went into a full rant about fining baseball players money for their uniform, NFL style, because of this Edmonds masterpiece.  I could go on with more, but if I expanded my post to cover all of the Edmonds fashion statements made over the years I would not get to the baseball cards.  Plus, I am having difficulty wrapping my head around the difference between hair frosting and SunIn.

I recently ran into a really inexpensive baseball card of Jimmy Ballgame from the 2003 Donruss Signature set.  The card was simply advertised as being a serial numbered card out of 100.  No other details.

I was a pretty big fan of this set in spite of the fact that all of the autographs were stickers.  The design was pretty typical of something that Donruss would roll out, but I really liked the look.  Very nice contrast with the dark patch in the middle in front of the player picture.  What could make this card even better?  Flip it over.......

Not super big into the Ebay 1/1 thing, but having a card numbered to a players jersey or having the first card in a print run is always something pretty cool.  I had no idea that I was getting a card numbered to Edmonds jersey number, but I cannot complain at all.  Pretty sweet looking card.

My Top 50 On Cardboard-#31 Randy Johnson

My Baseball Card Top 50
#31
Randy Johnson 

1989 Fleer Randy Johnson RC Blackout Variation 

One of my favorite baseball card rookies from the 80s.  The Randy Johnson Fleer rookie might fall short of his Upper Deck card in some regards, but it's a really cool card in so many ways.  First, I love the powder blue Expos uniforms.  One of the best 80s uniforms by far.  Throw in the fact that Fleer did a terrible job of editing their set and you've got yourself a winner.  This card originally looked something like this:

1989 Fleer Randy Johnson Marlboro Variation 

The original version of Johnson's card featured a Marlboro cigarettes ad over his right shoulder which prompted Fleer to put out a second version of this card with the sign black out.  Similar to the Billy Ripken card from the same set, but having DickFace written on your bat knob has gotten that card more attention than the rookie card of a Hall of Famer.  Go figure.


Hobby Impact-
Johnson has not had the hobby impact you would think given his level of performance on the field.  Then again, I think sometimes fans and collectors do not always given the Big Unit his proper due there either.  Johnson's career started in the late eighties with the Montreal Expos and the wax was of the junk variety.  There are only a few Johnson rookie cards on the market, but there are plenty of copies of all of them to go around.  The 1989 Fleer card is probably my favorite, but you cannot go wrong by picking up a copy of his 1989 Upper Deck or Topps Traded cards either.  The Upper Deck card features him as an Expo, but the Topps Traded card was one of his first as a Mariner after being traded for Mark Langston.

His card prices reflect the fact that he was an elite player and a Hall of Fame talent some of the time.  His autographs are definitely on the price side, but other Johnson chase cards, inserts, and parallels are not necessarily always really expensive.  Don't get me wrong, find a copy of a parallel from a really popular set and you are going to pay, but there are plenty that I feel go for much less than they should.

Johnson has a really nice autograph and has always been a really good signer.  Autographs of the tall left-hander are fairly easy to come across, but you should expect to pay a good price from a copy of one of his John Hancock's.  Usually collectors should expect to spend at least $50 to find a nice copy of this Hall of Famer's signature.

1998 Donruss Signature Randy Johnson Autograph 

Johnson's later cards as a Diamondback, the second time around, Yankee, and Giants are often outright bargains.  You can find some really nice cards of him for next to nothing.  Worth checking out once in awhile on Ebay.

On The Field Impact-
I saw Johnson a few times in person.  I also saw Maddux and Clemens.  I would rate Johnson ahead of both pitchers and probably rank him as the best pitcher that I've seen in person.  During his late 90s run with the Astros and Diamondbacks he was dominate.  Dominate and intimidating.  I remember going to a Cardinals game late in 1998 while he was pitching for the Astros.  Honestly, I went to the game hoping for some Big Mac magic, but saw some incredible pitching from Randy Johnson instead.  He threw hard the entire game and the Cardinals, who had a good offensive team that season with Ron Gant hitting seventh, never had a chance.

Beyond personal observations, Randy Johnson has the overall career numbers to back up the fact that he was among the greatest starting pitchers to ever play the game.  JAWS, rates him as the ninth best starting pitcher just ahead of Maddux, but behind Clemens and Seaver in terms of modern pitchers.  His career WAR is slightly lower than Maddux, but his ERA+ is slightly higher.  Overall, Maddux has more wins, but Johnson did not play for a dominate Braves team like Maddux.  Johnson easily has more strikeouts than Maddux and also has more than Roger Clemens.

Honestly, if Roger Clemens had not gone through the hoop-la of throwing his trainer and wife under the bus after his career I would probably rate him ahead of Randy Johnson, but Clemens is an idiot.

Johnson also did a lot winning award wise during his career picking up a World Series co-MVP in 2001, five Cy Young Awards, and will likely be hanging out in Cooperstown for his induction ceremony shortly.  Here's a quick look at his 19 strikeout effort against the A's in 1997.



Favorite Card-
Randy Johnson is one of my favorite follows on Twitter.  Kind of cool to follow Johnson's second career as a photographer.  He does some cool work and has lots of good pics.  I think this card fits him very well.

1996 Upper Deck Randy Johnson VJ Lovero Collection