Farewell, Jon Jay

I have not written a post about Jon Jay in years.

Do I collect Jon Jay cards?  

The first few years that I wrote in this blog space, Jon Jay's baseball cards frequently appeared. He was a solid member of the Cardinals. He played a good center field and got on-base at the top of the lineup in front of Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and others. Who wouldn't want a card of a key cog from their favorite team?

Jon Jay always had great looking cards.  

Better yet, Jon Jay is one of the more likable players from the past decade.  

Today, the filler Cardinals content in baseball card products beyond Goldschmidt, Arenado, Molina, and Wainwright features far too many cards of players I do not enjoy very much. Paul DeJong comes to mind. Ten years ago, the Cardinals secondary tier of players included Jay, David Freese, Lance Lynn, Furcal, and Joe Kelly. This groups had personality and their on-field faults did not include hitting .200 with 150 strikeouts.  

Recently, Jon Jay announced his retirement from baseball, and I am going to miss him.  

Card companies gave up on making Jon Jay cards two or three years ago even though he was on both the White Sox and Angels in a limited role. I actually think he has a White Sox card or two, I just do not own them. Anyway, I thought I would take a few minutes on this Sunday morning to share some of my favorite Jon Jay cards.  

There is also a bat.  

The oldest Jon Jay card in my collection came from the 2005 Upper Deck USA Baseball set when he played for the College National Team. Jay played on several College World Series teams during his time at the University of Miami. Unfortunately, I was still living in Missouri in 2005, so I missed out on seeing him play at the USA Baseball facility up the road from my house. 

I actually wish I had more cards of Jon Jay as an amateur player, but there is only one card that I know of showing him as a college baseball player.  However, the card was made after the Cardinals drafted him. It shows him wearing his batting practice jersey from Miami, but it identifies him as a member of the Cardinals. 

Jon Jay was a good Major League player, but he's one of those professional athletes who was a really important amateur player. Talk to people who have extensively followed college baseball and they can properly summarize his impact on the sport in the early 2000s. Jon Jay deserved a few more cards featuring him as an amateur. Especially given the large number of college baseball products that were released while he was in the Minor Leagues for the Cardinals and those that have looped back to show current Major Leaguers playing as amateurs.  

The University of Miami has 4 National Championships in baseball and appeared 25 times in the College World Series. Jon Jay is considered one of their best all-time players.  

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥-𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞

Congratulations on an incredible career, @jonjayU! pic.twitter.com/qiT6yRFxwS

— Canes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) April 27, 2022

I am going to stray from baseball cards for one second to share one of my favorite Jon Jay pieces in my collection, which is connected to his amateur playing career. This is a used bat that I picked up a few years back at USA Baseball.  

They frequently sell game-used equipment at their team store. I managed to stumble across a Jon Jay bat. It has a huge crack in the barrel, but it is still a really great item that I am proud to own. 

The top of the bat is cupped out and shows Jay's USA Baseball uniform number from the 2005 College National Team. It hangs proudly in my baseball card room.  

Now, back to cards.  

My favorite base card of Jon Jay is his 2013 Topps card where he is crashing into the wall of Busch Stadium next to a giant picture of Tony LaRussa.  

This is from a playoff game in 2012. The Cardinals were playing the Nationals in the first round. This feels like a picture that would be on a Stadium Club card. Topps rarely goes all out for their base set, but this is a great looking card.  

The colored parallels of this card are nice too......

even if you cannot clearly see the picture of Tony LaRussa on the wall. He's a crazy old man these days anyway. 

Jay's 2014 Topps card is also quality, but I am going to show that off as my favorite Jon Jay insert. It's technically a parallel, but it's not like anybody is going to make an insert featuring Jon Jay. This parallel card of his 2014 Topps card is one of my favorite modern Cardinals. It's an acetate parallel, which has a very low print run of 10 copies. Serial number in the bottom corner.  

Phenomenal picture again with Jay jumping to high five Matt Holliday.  

I really love the backs of the acetate parallels with the contrasting greyscale picture of the players with the colored background that is a mirror of the front.  

'Tis a thing of beauty.  

Let's pick up the pace.  

Topps included him in their 2011 Anniversary Giveaway set. These were available online via a contest website. Considering Jon Jay was not supposed to even be the starting centerfielder for the Cardinals that year, this was a pretty heads up call to include him on the checklist.  

Colby Rasmus was actually supposed to be the Cardinals long-term centerfielder, but he was a pain in the ass and ended up getting traded to the Blue Jays for a whole bunch of pitchers in the middle of the season. 

Next up, some Jon Jay relics.   

Giant bat piece.  

Smaller relics from Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen. I love the frames around these relic cards.  

Horrible scan of an autograph.  

What happened here?  

More Autographs.  

Autographs in top loaders.  

Autographs out of top loaders.  

Even more autographs.  

And another one....

Last one.  

If there is one Jon Jay card I wished I owned, it would be a card of him pitching for the Cubs in 2017. 

Nobody made a card of him as a pitcher and it's frankly disappointing.  

I will miss Jon Jay.  

Jon Jay Game Used Bat

I have a few nice bats hanging on the wall of my baseball card room.  I should probably make a few posts out of them.  A few of them are pretty cool.  I did one last year after I picked up a cool game used Tim Beckham autographed bat.  This week I picked up a nice bat of Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay.    Really nice game used item that I am excited to own.

You're Going To Need A License For That Card

I was recently trading with a fellow collector trying to wrap up a trade when I was told about the chance to trade for a sweet Bob Gibson autograph.  The card was not only autographed, but also had a sweet patch.  I was eager to see the scan and quizzed the trader about the card.  What year is this card?  Set?  The answers were rather vague, but I was still hopeful.  I opened the scan and saw it: Omaha Tech.  What is Omaha Tech?

It's a high school in Omaha, Nebraska that lists one Bob Gibson as one of its famous alumni.  The card I was staring at was a 2010 Panini Century Collection.  Yes, the card did have a Bob Gibson autograph (on a sticker) and it did have a patch (which looked rather new).  I quickly shot down the card.  Nope, I cannot take that card.  My counterpart prodded me about the card.  What's not to like about a Gibson autograph with a patch piece.  My eyes darted to the words Omaha Tech on the front of Gibson's basketball uniform.  I couldn't put it into words at the time.  I worked around the Gibson card and finished up the trade.

It bothered me for a few days afterwards.  I took a stroll through the cards posted on my blog and took a look through my boxes of autographs.  I have almost 3000 autographed baseball cards in my collection and I can count the number of cards that are on a card from an unlicensed card product on one hand.  I guess it's really not been a conscience decision, but here I barely a Panini, Donruss, or post-2010 Upper Deck autograph to show for things.

2009 Donruss Elite Collegiate Patches Ryan Jackson Autograph

One fellow collector was chatting me up on the subject a week or two ago and brought up my love of the Donruss Elite College Patches.  While it is true the cards are a Donruss product, they aren't really a Major League product.  Sure, I picked up this Ryan Jackson card because he is on the Cardinals, but it's  really a University of Miami card.  Donruss has a license to make college cards and use the logos.  The card has the Miami logo and the picture features Jackson wearing his college uniform.  While I would rather have a Bob Gibson autograph over a Ryan Jackson autograph, this card is clearly much different than the Omaha Tech card.  If Donruss made a Bob Gibson Creighton card I would trade for one, or buy one a second.  

1991 Jimmy Dean Will Clark

Really, it boils down to this.  When I was a kid I hated the cards that came for free with frozen pizzas, sausage links, or ice cream cones.  Cereal sometimes.  Like this Will Clark card is really ugly.  Why?  It's an unlicensed card and Will Clark should have a big orange SF in the middle of his helmet.  I can get past the fact the this card was packaged with a bunch of sausage, it probably has the same value as many of the 1991 Topps cards, but the lack of logos and uniform markings really burns me.   

Does that make me a card snob?  If it does than I am willing to be content on missing out on a certain segment of cards available out on the secondary market.  I can still pick and choose and every once in awhile I can find some that really have some appeal.  For example, I have always really enjoyed the Tri Star Signa Cut Cards.  They have no logos and few have pictures, but the simplicity of having an autograph surrounded by a piece of colored cardboard frame can actually be appealing.  

2008 Tri Star Signa Cuts Dwight "Doc" Gooden Autograph

Most of Dwight Goden's autographs are stickers anyway and he was definitely one of the great pitchers from my childhood.  Even if he was only dominating for a few years, he was really dominating.  This card passes the litmus test into my box of autographs.  The cards that I really dislike look like the card below:

2011 Leaf Draft Carlos Martinez Autograph

What can I say about this card?  I was really digging some of the things I heard about Carlos Martinez, saw he had an autograph and picked one up.  They were hard to find via trade, so I went the Ebay route and paid somewhere just south of $20.  Of course, they were all going in that price range at the time.  However, Martinez now has out a few Bowman autographs and this card is selling for below $5. So, I have a card with Carlos Martinez wearing a black cap, which has been photoshopped to make it look like he bought it at a gas station, and a $10 loss.

So, make basic argument is this:  Why would a collector choose to buy an unattractive card that has been air brushed, or creatively photographed, not to show the logos on the jersey and cap of a player?  Is it worth the extra money or cards in trade to acquire a card made by a licensed card maker?  I would, of course vote yes. 

Case in point is my latest edition to my card collection.  I actually decided to make this one a double.  A short time ago Leaf released it's Draft set and included two Cardinals draft picks.  Michael Wacha was a first round pick, but I already had several USA Baseball cards, and James Ramsey.  Ramsey was a first round pick, a bit of a stretch in my opinion, out of Florida State.  I was tempted to go out and pick up a few of his autographs right away.  Some of his Leaf autographs sold for as low as $0.99 on Ebay. I held out and waited for Bowman Draft.  Luckily, he was included.  

2012 Bowman Draft James Ramsey Autograph

I ended up trading for the card and my trading partner was kind enough to send me this scan for my post.  I estimate that I probably put in about $20 worth of cards in snagging this Blue version which is limited to 150 copies.  They are selling on Ebay and COMC for between $20 and $30, so the value of this card is clearly between those two amounts at the moment.  I also went shopping for a Ramsey card from the Leaf set.  I wanted something similar with a limited print run and autograph to measure the cards value.  I found this:

2012 Leaf Valiant James Ramsey Autograph

This card is autographed and is serial numbered out of 99.  It's also selling for under $10 on Ebay.  I also factor in that Ramsey went crazy with the inscriptions and you still aren't paying a premium for rare or unique versions.  See Pat Neshek.  For my money, and yours, the clear choice is to focus your time, energy, and money on finding cards from licensed card makers.  They have a clear advantage with design and style, but also have value advantages both in the short term and long term.