The Best Cardinal Without A Card

It has been painful to watch the Cardinals the past few years.  There is the obvious fact that they have been passed by the Cubs as the rulers of the National League Central, but in my opinion there has been far more wrong with the team beyond the improvement of the Cubs on-field performance.

The team has been incredibly sloppy and deeply flawed in many different ways...

Bad defense.  

Bad baserunning.  

Bad pitching.  

Not sure there is a video clip, or picture, that could sum up the poor quality of Matheny's poor in game strategy.  It's horrible.  After spending my life watching Whitey Herzog, Joe Torre, and Tony LaRussa there is no doubt that I have been spoiled by quality managers......

but even by mediocre manager standards Matheny is still bad.  

There have been plenty of Matheny cards that have been made since he took over the Cardinals managing gig in 2012, but I have posted none of them.  He is one St. Louis player/manager I can live without in my collection.  I have posted Tate Matheny cards.......

but I am not touching Mike.  He's got some cards in my collection, but only what I need to finish the sets that I have in closet.  There are not really any "cool" Matheny cards floating around in my baseball card room.  

How did we get here?  The three managers before Matheny, there were short-term managers between Herzog and Torre and Torre and LaRussa, the Cardinals did things the right way.  The teams always did a great job of fielding....

Played good defense in the outfield....

on the infield.....

they ran the bases well....

and they had timely hitting.  Oh, and they ran the bases well after the timely hitting.  

Not to excuse Matheny, he's still a garbage manager, but the three previous managers had someone on their staff in common.  In fact, he started out with the Cardinals in the early 1940s before World War II as a player in their Minor League system, did some managing in the Minors with the Cardinals after his playing career flamed out before the Majors, and eventually settled into a role with the team as a roving instructor.  

The Cardinals organization referred to him as "The Professor"

In the late 1960s he worked with former Phillies infielder George "Sparky" Anderson as he transitioned over to managing Minor League teams for the Cardinals.  He apparently went on to be a pretty good manager.  He also ended up working with former A's utility infielder Tony LaRussa as a player during his final year with the New Orleans Pelicans, a Cardinals Minor League team at that time.  

George Kissell might be one of the most important members of the Cardinals organization that nobody knows much about outside of St. Louis.  He did work on the coaching staff of Red Schoendienst for a time in the 1970s and made it onto the bottom of a baseball card as a coach.....

Kissell did not ever get his own card though since he was only a coach.  You would think that with all of the gimmicky cards that Topps comes up with every year that we could get a card of coach that was with a team through seven World Series Championships.  How can he not get some sort of card?  That's more World Series winners than all the other Major League teams outside of the Yankees, A's, Giants, and Red Sox.  

We've had a card with George W. Bush photoshopped into the crowd and Mickey Mantle into the dugout....

we've even had a squirrel get a baseball card with Skip Schumaker's shoe.....

It's hard to believe that George Kissell is cardless.  

I was fortunate enough to spot something last week and I honestly thought that some other Cardinals collector would jump on it and push it to a place I was unwilling to go in terms of cost.  I was surprised in the end that nobody else touched it.  

An actual George Kissel card.  Not with Red Schoendienst, but all by himself.  

It's actually the photo proof card that Topps used to make the 1974 Red Schoendienst card at the top of the post.  It's not necessarily a baseball card in the traditional sense, but it's still something.  Considering their is not an actual stand alone George Kissell card this is as close as it gets for the moment.  

Maybe one day someone at one of the card companies will wake up and decide to give George Kissel a card.  Sadly, he passed away after a car accident in Tampa in 2008....

While it would be a little bit late for Kissell to enjoy his own card, I am certain that it would likely be a hit with Cardinals collectors.  I am sure that if Topps can make a card with Abe Lincoln and Ryan Dempster they can find a spot in a set for a coach like George Kissell.  

30 Year Top 50: 2002 Topps Total

#40-The 2002 Topps Total set was the largest release Topps had ever put out when it was released it the middle of the summer in 2002.  It was the set builders dream with a large checklist and a very cheap sticker price.  The boxes of Topps Total came with 36 packs and each pack contained 10 cards.  I clearly remember to this day the two boxes of Total I busted that summer.

Back in those days I worked at a traditional calendar school and had all summer to open, sort, trade, buy, and sell cards.  I picked up my two boxes from a card store in South Saint Louis county, made a run to Imo's for a pie, and popped in a movie.  Usually I am not very meticulous about sorting out cards into a set while I am opening them, but I was determined with the Topps Total set.  The cards had a pretty ho hum design, but the 900 card set was a huge challenge that I was determined to meet.

2002 Topps Total Mike Matheny

Besides the challenge of putting together a large set, at the time of release, many collectors were also excited about the prospects that were included in the set.  Of course every team had it's veteran players, but there were also many younger players too.  The best of the rookie cards in the set is the Joe Mauer.  There is also a David Wright rookie, not his best, and a Chone Figgins.

2002 Topps Total Joe Mauer  

After two slow box openings and lots of collation I decided that I was probably going to have to open at least four boxes of cards in order to complete the set.  I made a checklist and slowly added to the set throughout the summer.  A few years later, I found this box of cards and my list and cheaply completed the set.  I still own the set today and enjoy looking at the players.  I also consider the completion of this set an accomplishment because of it's enormous size.  

The largest set every distinction did not last very long for this set, but the fact that it allowed collectors a small slice of the days when the Topps sets were large, poorly collated within packs, and close to 800 (792) cards, made this set a great part of the hobby.  

Like the 2002 Topps Total Set?  Not on my countdown of Top sets of the past 30 years are the 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man Set.  The concept of the set was identical to the Topps Total set.  Large set, featuring many players, and a great chase for set builders.  In fact, Upper Deck went a little bit pass Topps.  Upper Deck literally included ever player on every teams 40 man roster minus the players who were signed off of replacement player rosters during the 1995 spring training.  No Damien Miller.

2002 Upper Deck 40 Man Francisco Rodriguez

Upper Deck 40 Man had two major flaws.  First, the price of the packs was around $3 with only 24 packs in a box and 10 cards per pack.  Collation of cards was okay, but the cost of buying the boxes and assembling the set was far greater than value of the set.  Further, unlike the Topps Total set, this set has no important rookie cards.  None.  There aren't many completed 40 Man sets floating around, so it would be fun to put together....or not.