A 1980s Card Part 38 - 1982 Donruss Diamond Kings George Hendrick

I am making a weekly post about the 1980s Cardinals cards in my collection, and I have made it almost a year without once writing about a Diamond Kings card?  My bad.  I definitely need to improve the ratio a bit while I have some time at home.  A Diamond King heavy post is coming this weekend, but until then I have this George Hendrick card to offer you. 

Let's get a little housekeeping out of the way in regards to my copy.  It's horribly off-center.  Let's move on to some other aspects of the card. 

The best thing about this card is the fact that Dick Perez, the artist of the Diamond King series, made the picture of Hendrick wearing a jacket underneath his uniform.  George was a big fan of the red satin Cardinals jackets.  Take out your George Hendrick cards, flip through them, and there are more cards with Hendrick wearing a red jacket than those without one. 

His base card in the 1982 Donruss set?  Red jacket. 

Newer cards? Red jacket.  

Older Cards?  Red jacket. 

Game cards?  Red jacket. 

All-Star cards?  Red jacket.  

Most people who watched baseball in the 1980s probably remember George best for wearing his pants all the way down to the tops of his shoes.  That was sort of his trademark fashion statement at the time.  Here he is in the 1982 World Series, barely any sock showing in this picture.  

A rarity in those days.  The pants and socks on Hendrick are my one criticism of Perez's artwork for this Hendrick card.  Clearly too much sock in the picture.  Blown up a little bit below.  

The back of the card is typical of the Diamond Kings, which usually featured a blurb about the player rather than any sort of stats.  The back is off-center to match the front. 

Nice little run down on George Hendrick.  I thought those home run and RBI numbers looked a little low at first, but I remembered that the 1981 season was shortened due to a strike.  So, 18 home runs and 61 RBIs in just 100 games is actually a pretty good clip.  In fact, Hendrick was in the top 10 in both categories in the National League.  

Good song from 1982?  

Duran Duran.  

Missing Silent George

The 1982 Cardinals team was the first time I had some interest in watching baseball as a kid.  I was five, my family lived in Richmond, Virginia at the time, and I believe that we watched the final game of the World Series at Chuck E. Cheese.  I guess Ski Ball kept me entertained in between innings.  The Series ended well for the Cardinals.

My first baseball cards of the 1982 Cardinals came two years later when my father bought me a team set of the team at a flea market in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  I lived there for a year, but the flea market was a regular stop for baseball cards.  I also dabbled in football cards at that time, but the Cardinals (football version) were painful.  

The cards are sort of in rough shape.  The six year old me handled my cards a lot....

Over the last twenty years, or thereabouts, I have also managed to assemble the a sort of "FrankenSet" of autographs of the different Cardinals World Series and National League Championship teams.  Ozzie Smith, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Jack Clark, Bruce Sutter, Scott Rolen, Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, John Tudor....I could make a huge long list.  There is only really one significant player missing from my collection of certified autographs.  

and there was also this guy.......

who was a pretty important player on the 1982 squad.  He was one of the better offensive players on that team during the regular season and hit over .300 in both the NLCS against the Braves and in the World Series against the Brewers.

"Silent" George Hendrick was traded to the Cardinals in 1978 from the Padres.  He was always a pretty good player up to that point in his career, but George bounced around from the A's to the Indians to the Padres, but found a home for awhile in St. Louis.  He played with the Cardinals through the 1984 season and was then traded to the Pirates for John Tudor.

Cardwise there are plenty of George Hendrick cards out there, but there is only one certified autograph of him.  I have known about his 2001 Topps Archives autograph since it first appeared in 2001.  For many reasons it is just appearing in collection now.

First, it is possible to find copies of this card, but no I am not willing to spend $20 to $30 on a George Hendrick autograph.  As far as I can tell this card is not a short print, but there always seems to be just a single copy, sometimes two, floating around on Ebay and COMC.  I know that I could have actually had this card long ago, but I was patient and stuck it out....probably should have just caved long ago.

In terms of the card, of course I wish he was a Cardinals player on the autograph, but I understand the concept behind the 2001 Archives set was that it featured every player's first and last card.  George Hendrick was not on the A's for very long, but he did win a World Series with the 1972 team.  Conversely, he ended his career as a part time player on the late 1980s Angels teams.  A's it is.....

A Venerable Old Card Part 52

I am completely fascinated by the 1970s Kelloggs and Hostess cards.  I don't post many of the ones that come into my collection, but I always look for them in the cheapy bins at card shows, or if I am buying a card on Ebay and see one I can get with combined shipping I will go for it.  I recently made a non-Kelloggs card trade and ended up with a cool 1975 card as a freebie.  

Silent George.  

George is pretty cool in my book.  Played on the Cardinals in the early 1980s and was a big part of the 1982 Cardinals World Series team.  He was also traded for John Tudor who became one of my favorite mid-late 1980s Cardinals players.  I also went to college with one of George's kids who had the second most fumble recoveries in a season while playing at Southeast Missouri.  

I don't have many 1970s Hendrick cards, maybe something on the A's or Padres, but nothing on the Indians.  Not really one of my favorite teams, so they get skipped over often.  Anyway, I really like the 1975 Kelloggs cards, not sure if they are my favorite all-time design from that company, but they are high up there.  Which brings me to a throw-in to the throw-in.  

It started out as a quick thank you message for the cards I had originally traded for along with the Hendrick.  I made note to say something nice about the Kelloggs Hendrick card since I really enjoy those cards.  That prompted my trading partner to mention the fact that they had a cool Kelloggs oddball, also a 1975, which I would really enjoy.  

A few days later in the mail I received a white envelope with this card inside......

What is it?  It's another 1975 Kellogg's card.  This one is from the American Presidents sets.  I did not know such a thing even existed.  Kind of good timing considering that my son has been really into Presidents for the last few months.  We have books, pictures, look at coins to see what President is on them, etc, etc....

Anything with Presidents is cool, so I will have to stash away Franklin Pierce and see if he wants to put this card in with all of his other stuff.  Although, if you know anything about Franklin Pierce he was arguably one of the worst Presidents........

ever.  He had a sad start to his Presidency and then lived the rest of his life in sort of an alcohol induced stupor.  

Complete Set Project: 2001 Topps Archives Set

A few days ago I made a post about reorganizing my cards.  After several days of hard work my 2001 sets are sorted out and I am starting to go through the sets to find cards that I am missing and sets that are already completed.  I have decided to undertake a little bit of challenge to start off my project by selecting the 2001 Topps Archives set as my first set to complete.

2001 Topps Archives Ernie Banks 

The 450 card set was released in two different series with the main attraction of the set being the autographs.  The base cards are still really nice and offer a nice look into some of the better Topps cards issued between 1951 and 2001.  Basically, the reprints consist of the first year card of players and the last year issue of a player.  Every player has two cards in the set and a few also appear as highlights, league leaders, record breakers, or autographs.  I own many of the original cards in the set, but still like the looks of some of the reprints and enjoy looking at the reprints of the cards that I do not own.  The only drawback to the set in my opinion are the reprints of some of the prospect cards.

2001 Topps Archives Nolan Ryan 

For example, the Nolan Ryan rookie card in the set only appears as half of the original card and the orientation is changed.  Little bit weird to look at this card like this.  So, I have compiled a checklist for the cards that I need from the set below.  I am currently 80 cards short (17%) of completing the set.  I am also going to set the goal to add a George Hendrick autograph too.  It's the only certified autograph of the former Major League All-Star and it's the only Cardinals related autograph that I am missing out of the set.   I am not going to put a timetable on completing this set, but I will keep everyone up to date within my posts.  

Series One

52 Luis Tiant 6575 Dennis Eckersley 7686 Joe Adcock 52103 Dom DiMaggio 53117 Jim Wynn 77119 Gus Bell 64122 Bobby Richardson 66132 Eddie Mathews 68133 Joe Pepitone 73137 Bob Gibson 75139 Frank Robinson 75147 Dick Allen 76155 Willie Horton 80156 Mickey Lolich 80162 Reggie Smith 83171 Vida Blue 87173 Reggie Jackson 87174 Hal McRae 87175 Carl Yastrzemski 83187 Jim Kaat 83189 Gary Carter 93192 Dave Winfield 95197 Don Mattingly 96198 Joe Carter 98201 Walter Alston MGR 56203 Sparky Anderson MGR 71209 AL Batting Leaders LL 65220 "Pride of the NL" 63221 Whitey Ford WS 63 Series Two236 Johnny Sain 52247 Tug McGraw 65248 Don Newcombe 56249 Herb Score 56250 Clete Boyer 57254 Larry Bowa 70262 Dean Chance 62264 Whitey Ford 53267 Rico Carty 64268 Tommy John 64269 Phil Niekro 64275 Fergie Jenkins 66286 Bert Blyleven 71287 George Foster 71288 Al Hrabosky 71289 Cecil Cooper 72290 Carlton Fisk 72301 Jack Clark 77302 Mark Fidrych 77306 Kirk Gibson 81318 Satchel Paige 53320 Carl Furillo 56326 Ralph Branca 52330 Pee Wee Reese 58335 Richie Ashburn 63338 Early Wynn 62344 Jim Bouton 68346 Don Drysdale 69362 Al Kaline 74363 Lindy McDaniel 75365 Jim Perry 75370 Ralph Kiner 53372 Larry Bowa 85381 Willie Stargell 82382 Johnny Bench 83387 Whitey Ford 67388 Tony Perez 86395 Maury Wills 72399 Phil Niekro 81400 Red Schoendienst 62404 Gil Hodges 63405 Bucky Dent 84407 Dan Quisenberry 90409 Rick Reuschel 91413 Jack Clark 93428 Chuck Tanner MGR 72429 Earl Weaver MGR 71431 AL HR Leaders LL 66432 NL HR Leaders LL 60441 Baltimore Orioles TC 70446 Whitey Ford WS 62

George Hendrick Autograph