I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 54 - John Mabry

Mabry worked as a hitting coach for the Cardinals in recent years under the unsuccessful and unpopular Mike Matheny.  He took a lot of flack, maybe rightfully so, about the lack of offense during his time with the club as a coach.  More specifically, the team seemed to lack much power.  Mabry was not exactly know for his power as a player, which likely added to fans criticism of him as a coach.

Manager Mike Marheny, John Mabry.And Billy Mueller all fired from #Stlcards staff

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 15, 2018

Cardinals fans rejoiced.  I am not sure if he has found another job as a coach.  

The Cardinals selected Mabry in the 6th Round of 1991 Major League Draft.  He made it through the Minors with little fanfare.  Mabry never put together a great season in the Cardinals system, he was just sort of a solid player who happened to reach the Major League level at a time when the roster was a little thin on talent.  It did not help that All-Star first baseman Gregg Jefferies left the Cardinals for the Phillies.  

Mabry showed up in a few different baseball card products while he was in the Minors, but there were better Cardinals prospects to go after beyond Mabry.  He appeared in an Upper Deck Minors set, also the 1994 Bowman set.  My favorite early Mabry card was his 1994 Score Rookie/Traded card.  Loved the red border on these cards.....

He was more or less a full time player on the 1995 Cardinals.  He frequently started at first base for the team, but also made some appearances in the outfield.  One of Mabry's best attributes as a player was his throwing arm.  The Cardinals had a crowded outfield though with Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan, and Bernard Gilkey taking up the majority of playing time.  

I think there are several 1995 cards that do a good job of summarizing Mabry's offense skills.  

A Collector's Choice card with a picture of Mabry throwing the bat.  He did hit over .300 in 1995, which is something positive.  Mabry also came in fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting.  

Look at that check swing.  Mabry also only hit 5 home runs, which seems borderline criminal for a corner infielder.  His slugging percentage was .405, which sadly ranked just behind the aforementioned starting outfielders.  He often occupied important places in the line-up, but probably would have been a seventh or eighth place hitter in many other lineups.  

One of his highlights from 1995 was a fake bunt walk off hit against the Cubs.  

If you want to understand how bland and boring Mabry was a player, I think it is best exemplified by his Emotion card from 1995.  These cards had adjectives stamped on the side of the player's picture which was a description of their style of play.  Mabry's word.....

Adroit, meaning skillful, is a way of saying he shows up and he puts his jersey on the correct way.  I am not exactly sure in what way Mabry showed that he was adroit.  Really, it probably made people go grab a dictionary or thesaurus.  

Seriously, he looked nice on a card or two.  Like his Flair.....

That's a good look for Mabry.  He just hit a single.  

John Mabry's best season was probably 1996.  He just missed hitting .300, had 13 home runs, 30 doubles, and drove in 74 runs.  In the Postseason, he hit .300 against the Padres in the Divisional Series and .261 against the Braves in the National League Championship Series.  Mabry also had his best baseball card made, which appeared in the 1996 Leaf Signature product.  

Mabry has some oddball autographs from early in his career, but this is his best autographed card available.  Probably his best card overall too.  I am not a huge fan, if you could not tell, and if I did not need the other cards in the post to complete sets in my collection, this would likely be one of my only Mabry cards.  

There were a few cards of Mabry during the 1997 and 1998 seasons, but his role on the club was rightfully diminished after the team signed Ron Gant and traded for Mark McGwire.  The two moves made it hard for him to find playing time as an outfielder or on the infield.  The Cardinals played around with making him a third baseman, but that did not work out well.  

My favorite 1997 card of Mabry was his Stadium Club.  He's fielding in this picture, but I like the action shot in Wrigley against the Cubs.  That park always makes for a great baseball card backdrop.  Having the Cubs player being Ryne Sandberg also probably helps too.  Great photo, exactly what you would expect out of a Stadium Club card.  

Mabry was non-tendered by the Cardinals after the 1997 season and ended up playing for the Mariners in 1998.  He still had a few cards with the Cardinals in 1998 though.  My favorite is his Topps card, which shows him fielding a ground ball at first base.  

The rest of Mabry's career was spent on the bench bouncing around the league.  There is always space for an extra left handed bat.  Mabry would reappear for the 2001, 2004, and 2005 Cardinals teams.  In between he played for the Mariners, Padres, Marlins, Phillies, A's, Cubs, and Rockies.  There were not a ton of baseball cards to commemorate his second and third stints with the Cardinals.  Those that were made were rather.......

boring.  Sort of fitting.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 25 - Allen Watson

The Cardinals were in rebuilding mode in the early 1990s, and they had some early draft picks several years in a row.  Clearly the team missed out big a few times along the way.  In 1990, the team selected Donovan Osborne and Aaron Holbert in the first round ahead of players like Mike Mussina, Garrett Anderson, Ray Durham, Mike Hampton, and Troy Percival.

Love my Aaron Holbert cards, but I will save most of them for another day.  

The 1990 Cardinals were horrible.  The team went 70-92 and finished 6th in the National League East.  In the 28 years since the 1990 season, the Cardinals have finished in last place zero times.  Never happened.  The team has not even had a 90 loss season in the part 28 years.  Prior to the last place finish in 1990, the 1918 team was the last team to finish in last for the Cardinals.  That's 72 years in between last place finishes.  The Cardinals did manage two 90 loss season in the mid to late 1970s.  

Beyond the last place finish, the team also lost a ton of free agents, so they received several compensation picks.  In all, the Cardinals had seven of the first 100 picks in the draft.  

Their first pick, fourth overall, was spent on Dmitri Young.  He was considered the best high school bat in the draft.  While Dmitri never developed into the franchise player he was hyped to be after he was drafted, there is no shame in picking a player who spent more than a decade in the Majors as a productive player.  

Dmitri was easily the best player the Cardinals took in the 1991 draft by a wide margin.  The Cardinals owned four other draft picks in the first round of the draft and took Allen Watson, Brian Barber, Tom McKinnon, and Dan Cholowsky.  Outside of Young, the next most recognizable name from this draft came in the 6th Round when the team selected John Mabry out of West Chester University.  

The Cardinals also drafted John Frascatore in 1991, who was a useful reliever for a few years during the late 1990s for the Cardinals, as well as catcher Mike Difelice, Rigo Beltran, and Mike Busby.  

So back to Allen Watson.  He was drafted 21st overall behind Manny Ramirez and Cliff Floyd, and Shawn Green.  Watson pitched in the Minors during the summer of 1991 with the Cardinals High A and Low A teams.  He pitched a total of 11 games, ending the season with a 2.89 ERA, and more than a strikeout per inning.  

Watson had baseball cards the following year.  His most notable cards were in the Bowman, Topps, and Upper Deck Minor League sets.  Personally I kind of like his 1992 Score card.  I know the background is just filled in green, but it's a fairly clean card.  His Topps card has him wearing a New York Tech shirt, that looks like it probably has holes in the arm pits, and a Mets hat.  

Baseball American rated him as the 64th best prospect in baseball prior to the 1992 season, and the 9th best before the 1992 season.  Watson was in Triple A by the end of the 1992 season and was dominating the batters.  He was about a strikeout per inning pitcher, had an excellent ERA, and started winning games too.  Watson ended the 1992 season with 14 Ws in 30 starts.  

According to my ticket stubs and scorecards I actually attended Allen Watson's Major League debut against the Braves in July of 1993.  He went 6 innings, shut down the eventual National League Champion Braves, and got some help on offense with a Bernard Gilkey home run.  

Watson had sort of a weird 1993 season.....

He won his first 6 decisions and stood with a perfect 6-0 record in the middle of August.  It took some luck.  He won his third start against the Rockies in Coors Field even though he gave up 6 runs in 5 innings.  He was actually losing when the Cardinals lifted him for a pinch hitter in the 6th inning, but they hung an 8 spot on the Rockies during that frame.  Watson ended up losing his last seven decisions of the season, ending the year with a 6-7 record.  

The long losing streak culminated with a late August game against the Padres.  Watson gave up 8 runs in just two-thirds of an inning.  The Cardinals replaced him with Todd "Third Degree" Burns who gave up another 5 before the end of the inning, putting the Cardinals in a 13-0 hole.

Watson was still reviewed as an important part of the Cardinals future despite the losing streak at the end of the 1993 season.  My two favorite cards of Watson, beyond his Score Draft Pick card, were his 1994 and 1995 Topps cards.  Both featured the Cardinals pitcher in the old Busch Stadium.  The astroturf, the circular National League team logos on the outfield wall, and the arches at the top of the stadium.  Great card, doesn't really matter what player is on the card.

Next.

The 1995 Topps card shows less of old Busch Stadium, but I like the white Cardinals uniform against the blue wall in the background.  After the Cardinals switched Busch Stadium over to grass in 1996, the walls in the outfield were all painted green, beforehand the walls were whatever blue is behind Watson.  

Blue walls are shown below.

Watson's Cardinals career came to an end in December of 1995 when he was traded to the Giants for shortstop Royce Clayton.  Both were former first round draft picks who had been disappointments during their brief careers.  Clayton helped the 1996 Cardinals reach the National League Championship Series.  Watson pitched one season for the Giants before they traded him to the Angels for first baseman J.T. Snow.

Watson pitched a few more years for the Angels, Mariners, Mets, and Yankees before he played his last Major League game in 2000.  He did pitch for the Yankees in 1999, which was a World Series winning team, so Watson ended up with a ring at the end of his career.  Card-wise, there is one nice Allen Watson card that was made post-Cardinals.

He appeared in the 1996 Leaf Signature set as a member of the Giants.  There were not many Allen Watson cards after his time with the Giants.  A few Angels cards, a pair of Yankees cards, and that's it.