Baseball Card People Are The Best.......

I received a package of cards from Mark over at San Jose Fuji a few weeks back, it took a day off school to get them scanned with a write up. Mark has been writing on that blog for more than a decade and it is easily one of the best blogs out there. Definitely worth your time to go check out.  

Here are the cards in the package.  

First up is an oversized card of former Cardinals second baseman Tommy Herr.  

The card comes from the 1986 Donruss All-Star Pop-Ups set.  You can see the outline around Herr, which can pull out or push in, the card stand-ups with the Metrodome in the background. The 1985 MLB ALL-Star Game was hosted by the Twins and Herr was the National League starting second baseman over Ryne Sandberg.  

The back of the card features the All-Star Game logo and directions for the fold-out.  No mention of Herr getting 110 RBIs with only 8 home runs in 1985, which I find to be one of the cooler stat lines from the decade. Still, I love these cards.   

Next up, a 1981 Kellogg's card of Gary Templeton.  

The 1970s and 1980s Kellogg's sets are always so much fun. This was the only full-sized, non-mini Kellogg's set from the 1980s and prominently featured all the concrete, cookie cutter stadium from this era of baseball in all their glory, including Busch Stadium.  

The arches.

The red seats.  

The concrete overhang.  

There are non-Cardinals players with pictures inside of Busch Stadium from this era as well.  Great card of a guy who was one of the better shortstops in the National League during the late 1970s and early 1980s.  

Next up, more 1981 Cardinals cards.  

This trio of cards is from the 1981 Topps Scratch-Offs set. Great little oddball set. Love that the Cardinals players are all wearing the powder blue road unis on these cards. Great hair on display here as well. 

Next up. 

This might be my favorite card in this package.   

I do not think I have ever seen this card and I have never heard of Holsum Bread. Still, I love the looks of this round card with the red border. Definitely trending towards some type of product that appealed more to kids during Vince Coleman's time with the Cardinals, I did some digging into the background here.  

The card comes from the 1990 Holsum set, which was a small 20 card set distributed in packages of white bread. Holsum was a common bakery brand during the 1980s and 1990s. However, there is not a Holsum Bread Bakery in St. Louis, rather the Holsum products sold in that market are contracted out to a regional bakery there that sells Holsum Bread under various brand names. So, the Holsum Bread Brand in the St. Louis area........

We did not eat Bunny Bread in my house.

I missed out, but I like this card even more after playing connect the corporate bakery dots online.  

Next up.....

One cannot have Vince Coleman and not Willie McGee.  This is from the 1988 Topps UK Mini set. Good looking design and I love the photo on the front of the card. Not many 1980s Cardinals cards with photographs inside of Busch, but these sorts of ground level shots are really rare. I believe this might be from a 1987 World Series game. McGee has a patch on his front sleeve, it is blurry, but those playoff games were the only time the team wore a patch that season.

Mark also included a nice relic card of pitcher turned outfielder Rick Ankiel. Before Othani, there was Ankiel. Not quite the same player, not the same circumstances either.  

Onward........

The next three cards are from the 1995 Signature Rookies Autographs, which borrow their design from the Old Judge tobacco cards. The majority of players in this set are from the high Minors with a surprising number being former Major League Players.  

Petkovsek was a long reliever for the mid 1990s Cardinals teams. He actually won 11 games for the 1996 National League Central team that came within a game of getting to the World Series. Since Petkovsek was in the Majors at the time this card was produced, I am curious as to where they got the uniform for this picture. Prior to being on the Cardinals, Petkovsek had been pitching for the Louisville Redbirds and Tuscon Toros.  Looks like neither.  

Frascatore was another 1990s relief pitcher for the Cardinals. He had played with the Cardinals in 1995, but spent a lot of time going in between St. Louis and Louisville.  This looks like a Memphis Redbirds uniform with a random "O" airbrushed onto the hat.  

Last up, T.J. Matthews. He was a high-leverage reliever who was Eckersley's set-up man when LaRussa first started managing the Cardinals. Matthews ended up getting traded to the A's in the Mark McGwire deal. Matthews is actually wearing an Arkansas Travelers uniform on this card. The hat may be altered slightly, but that was the Cardinals Double A team at the time.  

Nice looking cards. All three have great signatures too.  Can you imagine signing 6,000 copies of a card?  

Last card from the package.  

I recently learned an interesting Sean Lowe factoid at the end of the 2022 baseball season.  

For background......Sean Lowe was selected by the Cardinals in the first round of the 1988 MLB Draft. His first baseball card was in the 1989 Bowman set. He was oft-injured and ended up spending the majority of his short career as a middle reliever for the Chicago White Sox.  

Cool factoid.  

On Jun 16, 2001 the Cardinals were playing the White Sox and leading 6-3 in the seventh inning. Shortstop Placido Polanco started the inning with a walk, which was followed by a J.D. Drew single. The White Sox brought in Sean Lowe to pitch to Pujols.  

What happened next, only happened once in the career of Albert Pujols.....

It's hard to read, but Pujols sac bunted Polanco and J.D. Drew over a base.  

Overall, this was a great package of baseball cards. I am always impressed by the generosity of the people in this hobby. Thank you, Mark, I will drop something in the mail for you one of these weekends.  

Set Appreciation Post #1 - 1986 Topps Mini Leaders

I have taken all the extra time at home to do a lot of sorting.

Part of the sorting has involved finishing off several sets.  I thought it would be fun to write about some of those sets, along with other sets that I have never had a chance to write about.  I have to start somewhere.  Why not here?

I posted a mid 1980s Topps Mini Leader card a few weeks back on my weekly Monday Cardinals post.  The product line started in 1986, running through 1990.  I really liked these sets, so I went on a bit of a hunt through my boxes to see what I had, and what holes I needed to fill in order to complete the sets.

My 1986 Mini Leaders set is finished.  Here's a look. 

Basic Design 

The 1986 Topps Mini Leaders set has an independent design from the Topps base set.  Some years the two sets were similar, but the first year the two were completely separate.  Really simple design, but I like the cloudy edges and simple print along the bottom of the card.  

The card backs for the Mini Leaders sets are all generally the same.  They have a short list of stat categories with the players rankings on the back.  Generally, the players featured in the set have finished in the top 5 of some important category. 

Well, most of the stats are important.  There is one stat in the 1986 Mini Leaders set that is somewhat ridiculous, but that is for later in the post.  

A quick note before I move on in the post.  I used a new scanning app for these cards.  They all fade on one edge of the back of the card.  Not sure why, but I am guessing I did something wrong with the lighting.  

Favorite former Durham Bulls player: Brett Butler 

I only had one choice in this set, so I have to go with Brett Butler.  He was with the Bulls during the 1980 season.  He had a spectacular season in Durham batting .366/.513/.513 with 36 stolen bases in just 66 games.  

The back of the card....

I wish that Topps had listed the categories printed on the bottom of the card in a similar fashion as the two at top.  I think it would have made for a cleaner look.  Perhaps if they had made the white box that reads "Major League Leaders" on the left side a tad smaller, they could have fit the other stat categories onto the card back easier.

Favorite Cardinals Card 

This would be a Vince Coleman rookie card.  Obviously not the one that I really wanted back in 1986, but this card had grown on my over the years.  I like seeing an action shot of Coleman.  Looks like a practice swing before stepping in the batter's box.  Is he yawning?   Still not as nice as the portrait photo on his card in the base set, but again a very nice card.  

Runs, steals, and triples.  This card back is Whitey Herzog approved.  I also love seeing the actual total number of steals that Coleman had in 1985.  That is the sort of number that we may never see again in our lives.  Coleman is in all four versions of this set, and I think each of the cards lists him as a League Leader in steals, runs, and triples.

Favorite Non-Cardinals Card 

This is a cool action picture.  Wonder what happened to his batting helmet?  

Who Would Lead The League In That Now? 

Let's look at the card of a pitcher from the set.  I randomly picked out Bert Blyleven.

When I first started flipping back through these cards the other week, there was on pitching stat that really stood out.  If Topps brought this set back, they would most definitely have a problem finding many players to include.  

Take a look.  Which of these stats never happen anymore?  

Look at that Complete Games and Shutouts stat line.  Who even led the Majors in that stat last year?  How many complete games and shutouts?  Bonus if you know the answer before you read any further down the post.  The answer is below.  

Those 24 complete games and 5 shutouts would never happen anymore.  Just scrolling around and looking at a few modern players, Justin Verlander has pitched in a total of 26 complete games in his career after pitching 2 last year.  In other words, it took him 14 years to pass Bert Blyleven's total from just 1985.     

Last season, Lucas Giolito and Shane Bieber led the Majors in complete games with 3.  Giolio, Bieber, and Sandy Alcantara were the leaders in shutouts with 2.  Not very impressive totals.  

The Dumbest Baseball Card Stat Ever 

Sorry to single you out here Lance Parrish.  You were a good catcher.  

Here is the dumbest stat that ever appeared on a baseball card.  The game-winning RBI stat.  

I am not anti-RBI.  I know there are people who put the stat in the same category as wins, but I am not willing to go that far.  There are is skill in getting runners across the plate.  I leave it at that. 

Why do I think it's a dumb stat?  I went and found an example that involves Lance Parrish.  He only finished third in the stat, so it took me a whole five box scores from the 1985 Tigers to find a good example.  

The game took place on April 14th against the Royals.  The Tigers scored two early runs, tacked on three more in the seventh, before the Royals scratch across a run in the 9th.  

In the third inning, the Tigers first three batters got hits, including an Alan Trammell single that put Detroit ahead 1-0.

After a Kirk Gibson flyout, Parrish grounds out to Royals shortstop Onix Concepcion, and Lou Whitaker, who was on third base, scored the second Tigers run of the inning.  That became a game-winning RBI for Parrish after the Royals scored a run off of reigning American League Cy Young Award Winner Willie Hernandez in the ninth.  

A ground out in the third inning of this game was one of Lance Parrish's 16 game inning RBIs.  The Tigers were already winning.  They never trailed the entire game.  There are plenty of other examples out there too.  

Yes, game-winning RBIs appear in other Mini Leaders set.  No, I won't complain in any other set appreciation posts about this stat being showcased in this product again.  

A 1980s Card Part 7 - 1980 Kellogg's Keith Hernandez

I love the old Kellogg's cards.  I have put a few of these Kellogg's sets together, but for most of them I at least own the majority of the Cardinals cards.  There are a few Cardinals Kellogg's cards I am missing from the 1970s, but not many.  The 1980s are complete. Two of my favorite Kellogg's sets are the blue bordered ones that were put out in 1980 and 1982.   

Some things I like about this card.  

First, this has to be the latest card that shows Hernandez without facial hair.  He always had that goofy mustache, minus a few cards towards the beginning of his career with the Cardinals.  Maybe I am wrong, but I cannot think of a single 1981, 1982, or 1983 Hernandez card without a mustache.  Also cannot think of a single Mets card without a mustache.  

Second, the backgrounds on these cards are blurry, and it's hard to tell exactly where the pictures are taken, but I would bet money that this picture was in Three Rivers.  The seats in the upper deck were colored yellow and orange.  

While I am sure it was not intended to add to the cards overall appearance, I think the blur of orange and yellow behind Hernandez definitely give the card an extra something.  Fits in well with the yellow bands that have his last name and position running across the card.  

Lastly, this is the busiest set design that I actually enjoy looking at.  The front of the card has polka dots, a white border, two yellow diagonal boxes, a player picture, a facsimile autograph, and a Kellogg's logo.  

Oh, and it's not a full sized baseball card.

The back of the card.  

In reality this print is tiny.  Love the Raisin Bran logo in the top left corner, and that they put every single MLB related logo they could think of in the opposite corner of the card.  

A 1980s Card Part 4 - 1982 Topps Keith Hernandez

For the majority of my childhood Keith Hernandez was a bad man.  The first full summer that I lived in St. Louis was 1985.  Keith Hernandez was the starting first baseman for the Cardinals principle rival the New York Mets.  I was not alone in my dislike of Hernandez.  He was really unpopular with the Cardinals fans.  It was bad enough that he was playing for the Mets, but he had drug problems away from the field that prompted the trade away from the team.  Plus, the Cardinals also got next to nothing in return for him in the trade to the Mets. 

Hernandez won the 1979 National League MVP, batting champion, heir to Lou Brock as the best player on the team, and played an important role on the 1982 World Series winner.

It didn't matter.  Cardinals fans hated him for a long time.  

The first year I collected baseball cards was 1983.  Keith Hernandez was still in favor with Cardinals fans.  At the time I had two sources of baseball cards.  I picked up packs from a connivence store in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and I also got some single cards from a flea market in town.  Not sure of all the details of the flea market, just simply that we would walk around it every few weeks on Sunday afternoons.  

At some point my parents bought my the 1982 Topps Cardinals team set.  Pretty sure it was the pride of my collection for a few years.  I enjoyed owning many of the cards in this set, even after the players were traded away, or left as free agents.  George Hendrick, Joaquin Andujar, Darrell Porter, and Tom Herr were just a few of the good names.  

It took me about twenty-five years to do much with Keith Hernandez.  

I didn't have many of his Cardinals cards outside of what I pulled from packs in 1983, so this 1982 Topps card was the best Hernandez card in my collection for a long time.  Nice action shot of Hernandez playing in a game against the Mets.  I have always liked the design of these cards too, although I think the color scheme on the Cardinals cards is not the best. 

Back of the card. 

The centering is brutal.  The facts are randomly about a Royals catcher and Blue Jays pitcher.  So few stats on the back of this card, but you can read them. 

I have tried to have a little better appreciation for Hernandez's place in Cardinals history. I think many Cardinals fans have moved in this direction over the years.  Yes, it stinks that his career with the Cardinals ended because of drug problems, but it's not like it destroyed the team.  The Cardinals made two more World Series in the 1980s without Hernandez, and made due with Jack Clark and Pedro Guerrero getting most of the at bats at first base after the trade. 

Both Clark and Guerrero were All-Star caliber players for the Cardinals, and hit for a lot more power than Hernandez.  

I have even moved on a bit on Hernandez with baseball cards.  No, the 1982 Topps card is not the best Keith Hernandez card in my collection anymore.....

but it is still my favorite.  

A song I like from 1982.  

My Favorite Mail-In Cards Part 1

Another update for my on-going project with the 1980s Topps Glossy Mail sets.  I have set a goal of completing this project at some point during February, so still another month and a half left to track down a few more cards.  I explained the project and gave the original quantities needed for each set here, the update on the 1983 set is posted here, and the 1989 set is here. 

Today, I am going to post the 1986 set, which I finished off over the holidays.  I was out of town and had my mail held.  Had a blast opening up a few different packages from different collectors who helped me put together the final 18 cards that I needed for this set.  You are appreciated.  

There are 60 cards in this set, this is the first third. Have not quite decided if I am going to put the other two-thirds into a post, or do thirds straight across the board.  All of the cards in this set will be up at some point.   This was the first year that Topps used a larger checklist, so some of these cards are prospects from that year.  Let's get into the set, I will explain why I love these cards more than the other glossy mail-in sets.  

Scans are groups of three and remarkably straight.  

Not sure what happened to the Fernando end of the scan.  Did I open the scanner too soon?  It's possible.  There is little difference design wise between this set and the previous sets, or the ones that followed.  First, I love the photography with these cards.  So many little things in here.  Fernando doing that thing he did with his eyes before he threw the ball.  

This was not quite the end of Reggie's career, but this felt like a good possible farewell card, until Topps also put him in the 1987 Glossy Mail-In set.  It's the 1986 Jeter hat tip gif....

but about 25 years earlier. Reggie was around for a few years when I first started collecting, but I am not sure I gave him much thought.  Just an old guy on the Angels.  

Oddibe McDowell was a prospect in this set.  His 1985 Topps Olympic Team card is the first thing that comes to mind when I see him, but this is a nice card too.  Never panned out into anything spectacular, but he played in the Majors for seven years.  That's something.  

Balboni.  Meh.  

Rickey Henderson on the Yankees.  Meh.  Don't get me wrong, I really like Rickey Henderson, just never really got into his Yankees years.   

Jack Clark is something, especially to the 1986 version of me.  I started collecting cards in 1983 and my favorite team was the Cardinals, not the best year for the Cardinals.  Things weren't much better in 1984, but the 1985 Cardinals were the first time that I got to collect current Cardinals players who were on a good team.  

In the end, the first base umpire came up a little short, but still a great season for the Cardinals.  So many great memories of the different players.    

Jack Clark was a favorite and this was the best Jack Clark card in my collection at the time.  He was not a Cardinal for long, but this was one of the best home runs in the history of the team.  

Two minute video, but a minute and half of it is Jack Clark running around the bases really really slowly.  

McGee was another favorite Cardinals player.  Not sure McGee really had a specific great moment in 1985, but he won the National League batting title and won the N.L. MVP.  Solid outfielder for a long time.  

Parrish was a nice player, but I did not really get to see him much until later in his career.  He had that cool catcher's mitt with the orange padding.  

Hernandez was not well liked in St. Louis at this point.  Things have kind of cooled off in recent years with Hernandez becoming eligible of the Cardinals Hall of Fame, and he speaks nicely about the team and his time there.  

Probably not enough time, or space to rehash the reasons the Cardinals dumped him, but you can go look up the Pittsburgh Drug Trials.  You get the idea.  

Nice group of cards here with two Hall of Famers and Dave Parker.  Miss those Expos cards.  Ripken is Ripken, nice player, but I really do not have an opinion on him one way or another. 

I really like the Parker card.  Wrigley Field always makes a nice background, feel like I type that once a month, but this is also how I best remember Parker, with the Reds.  He's not a Hall of Famer, but he's close.  I was pretty young during his Pirate years, still had some great seasons in Cincinnati.  

Three Hall of Famers in this group.  Last year for Carew, not quite the end for Schmidt, but still one of his last few years.  Brett was in his prime at this point.  

Last group of cards, which includes my favorite card in the set.  

First off, Pasqua was a pretty promising prospect for the Yankees.  He played 60 games in 1985 and hit 9 home runs, also a local player from New Jersey. 

Hesketh was probably more than a prospect in this set.  He pitched most of 1985 in Montreal ending the year with a 10-5 record, 2.49 ERA, and a 3.3 WAR.  His season, and in many ways career ended when he was involved in a collision at home plate against the Dodgers.  

From the August 24th, 1985 Washington Post:  

In the second inning with Montreal leading, 1-0, U.L. Washington singled and Hesketh walked. Tim Raines hit a double to shallow center off the glove of Candy Maldonado. Washington scored and Hesketh tried to score all the way from first. But catcher Mike Scioscia blocked the plate and Hesketh tripped over Scioscia's foot, landing hard on his left leg. He was carried off the field on a stretcher and taken to a hospital where it was determined that he fractured his left shin bone. Hesketh, a rookie left-hander, is 10-5.

Hesketh ended up playing almost a decade in the Majors with the Expos, Braves, and Red Sox, but never came close to repeating the success he had in 1985.  All of which brings me to the last card for this post, which belongs to Vince Coleman.  

I have written several different times in my blog space about my 9 year old self loving the 1986 Vince Coleman cards.  His 1986 Topps cards is my all-time personal favorite Vince Coleman card.  A major highlight of my collecting during the 1980s.  

The 1986 Topps Glossy Send-In cards represented my second best Vince Coleman card.  At least according to the nine year old version of me.  The Glossy Coleman card was part of the 42 cards that I started out with when I starting working on this project, but after looking over my copy of the card, I decided that it had received a little too much love.  So, I actually found 19 cards to close out this portion of my project with an upgraded Coleman card without rounded corners and finger prints on the glossy finish.  

In case you thought Vince Coleman was just some failed Mets free agent....

he was a pretty spectacular weapon for the Whitey Herzog era Cardinals who did a lot of running.  He put a lot of pressure on defenses.  If you have five minutes and enjoy great base running, there is a video of him creating his own run with nobody else on the National League putting the ball into play during the 1988 All-Star game.  

A Trip to Big D's Card Shop

My computer is throwing a temper tantrum over the new OS Mavericks update so for tonight, or until I get all the kinks ironed out, I have pictures more than scans.  I stopped in at my favorite local card, Big D's, in Raleigh for a little down time on Sunday afternoon.  I had completed a trade with Jimmy, the shop's owner, earlier in the week and wanted to take him in his half of the trade as well as collect my half of the trade too.  You know you cannot just go into the shop and just finish a trade.  I bought a few other things while I was there too.  So, here's the run down.

I actually picked up a few vintage cards.  Vintage like 70s.  A nice Templeton, Hernandez, two early Bob Forsch cards and also a few old Hostess cards from the early 1980s.  

Garry Templeton is looking snarky in that card.  It's clearly a Spring Training card, but he looks mad enough to double bird a Mother's Day crowd at Busch Stadium.  The best vintage card I landed yesterday though was a sweet 1972 Topps Tony LaRussa card with the Hall of Fame manager pictured as a utility infielder for the Braves.  

Pretty sweet.  I also picked up my usual assortment of more recent cards, such as....

A B.J. Upton jersey card from the 2009 Upper Deck set.  Always really liked the card design on this set.  Really cool.  I miss you Upper Deck.  

A Wil Myers green parallel from the 2014 Bowman set.  Former Durham Bull, current Ray, always the 2013 American League Rookie of the Year.  

A Marcus Stroman mini.  No serial numbered, but still a cool looking card of the former Duke star, turned Blue Jays prospect.  

Randal Grichuk autograph from the 2011 ITG set.  Really cool set with some good autographs.  Good inexpensive set to track down if you are looking for some good prospect autographs.  

This beautiful Stanton jumbo jersey numbered out of 25.  Jimmy has had this in the shop for awhile and it has been calling my name..(buy me) it whispered.  For something different.......

An autographed mini helmet of 2002 ACC Rookie of the Year TA McLendon.  He's a bit of a legend around here and had a great year for the 2002 NC State team which was one of their better football teams.  So, what constitutes a good football team at NC State?  They had Phillip Rivers.  They beat the doors off of Notre Dame in a bowl game.  

Finally the card I traded for.....

Longoria rookie, autographed, numbered out of 50.  Not too shabby.  Overall, another great trip into my favorite local card store.