I am old enough to remember........

 when Pacific made Spanish language baseball cards.  

I really miss that company, I was fortunate enough to find a really cool Pacific Ray Lankford card this past weekend that was missing from my collection. There aren't many that aren't 1/1s or serial numbered to something less than 25.  

This is a First Day Issue card from the 1999 Pacific Invincible set.  

The card is serial numbered out of /69 copies. That number is lower than the typical Pacific Opening Day parallel set print run, which ran in each of their products and typically to 99 serial numbered copies. Invincible was a little higher-end for Pacific. The circle on the card is translucent, the scan does not really do the card justice.  

Here is the back of the card......

Spanish language text at the top of the card with the translation on the bottom right-side. Again, the scan does not do much for the translucent circle. 

Random Ray - 2000 Pacific Aurora

I really liked Pacific Baseball cards during the 1990s and early 2000s.  They started out as the Spanish card manufacturer, but got away from that at some point in the late 1990s.  The company had some really neat and innovated products.  There are always lots of well-designed insert sets, parallels, and die-cuts that went along with Pacific baseball cards.  I have plenty of Ray Lankford cards that fit into those categories, but I use my Random Ray posts for base cards.  

A simple Ray Lankford card.  

Aurora was a lower-end product that was often sold at retail stores.  I believe that it started out guaranteeing an insert per pack.  They were not great inserts.  The 2000 set was the most popular edition of this set because it featured Ken Griffey's first card on the Reds.  

Here is the Ray Lankford card.  

Simple enough design.  

Reminds me a bit of the 1963 Topps set with the large color photograph and the small black and white photo in the corner.  I also like the horizontal orientation of the card.  The background is a little odd.  The solid red background color is fine, but the pattern is rather odd.  On the left-side of the card the pattern looks like its carpeting or sand.  The right-side looks like something out of the background themes from PowerPoint or Google Slides.  

The back of the card is not the best, but this was never the strong suit of Pacific.  Always simple with really basic stats and a photo of the player.  I am not going to post scans of all the Pacific card backs from the late 1990s and early 2000s, but they made a little more effort than normal here.  

Just a screen shot off of Ebay.  Most Pacific cards had a stock photo from the team.  

I really like the sepia photo that they used on the back of this Aurora card.  It adds a little more personality to the card.  Especially given the reddish-brown and gold color of the font that was used for the writing above the stats and the player name.  

Not the flashiest card, but solid for a something out of a retail-oriented product.  

Weekend Countdown: Top 10 Fernando Tatis Cardinals Cards

This past week was the twentieth anniversary of Fernando Tatis hitting two grand slams in one inning.  It does not feel like it has been that long, but here we are.....

Tatis has also gotten a few mentions recently too with the play of his son Fernando Tatis Jr..  Kid is off to a really good start.  

Here are this week's rules:

• This post is only of cards of Fernando Tatis on the Cardinals both in picture and in label.  No "now with Expos" or "now with Cardinals" cards.

• My actual favorite Fernando Tatis card is his 1998 Skybox EX Essential Credentials card. 

• The ten cards are ranked in order of how much I love them.  

10.  1999 Fleer Tradition - I like the St. Louis Stars uniform on the card. 

9. 1998 Fleer Update - I like the St. Louis Stars uniform on the card.  This is also the first card that Fernando Tatis had in a Cardinals uniform.  In fact, this is the only 1998 Cardinals card of Fernando Tatis.  There were not many update sets that year, no Topps or Upper Deck.  This was it.  Picture looks familiar.  

8. 2001 Topps - One of his last Cardinals cards.  Always liked this picture with the dark background and the white home Cardinals uniform.  Also like that the card is landscape.  

7. 1999 SP Signature Autograph - This was a good set for Cardinals autographs.  Love Fernando's signature.  You can clearly read the "F. Tatis", but it has a really unique.  

6. 2001 Fleer Autographics - One of Fernando's last autographs as a Cardinal.  I had a ton of these cards, always sort of liked these.  

5. 2016 Bowman - Remember when Fernando Tatis Jr. was a White Sox prospect.  Hard to believe that the Padres got him for James Shields.  

4. 2016 Topps Archives - The first year I collected was 1983.  Big fan of the design.  I am not sure how exactly it is connected to Fernando, but this is a great card.  

3. 2000 Fleer Tradition - Great looking card.  Complete rip off of the 1954 Topps set.  

2.  2000 Pacific Revolution - My favorite Cardinals autograph of Fernando.  I like the green background on this card.  Nice look.  

1. 2001 Topps Heritage - Glad that Topps found a way to squeeze Fernando into this set.  This had been released after he was traded to the Expos, obviously could have easily not been a Cardinal here.  Also has to be about his final Cardinals card.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 74 - Edgar Renteria

Ozzie Smith was the Cardinals shortstop for much of the 1990s, and was eventually replaced by Royce Clayton after he retired.  In 1998, the Cardinals traded Clayton away to the Texas Rangers, in the middle of the season, for third baseman Fernando Tatis.  The Cardinals played all sorts of different players at shortstop during the second half of the 1998, none of them were good.  

Prior to the 1999 season, the Cardinals traded Braden Looper, Armando Almanza, and Pablo Ozuna to the Marlins in exchange for Edgar Renteria. 

He's wearing teal on his rookie card.  You should buy this card.  

Renteria was only 19 when he reached the Majors, and 22 when he was traded to the Cardinals.  He was a work in progress at this point in his career, but he had also made a name for himself as one of the few Major Leaguers to have a walk off hit in the deciding game of the World Series.  

Only one year of 1990s baseball cards for Edgar Renteria in a Cardinals uni.  It was not actually really all that great for two reasons.  Kind of makes this a short post.  

Reason One- Topps used the same picture in all of their products.  All of their products.

Here's his 1999 Topps card.  

  

and his 1999 Topps Finest card.  

I think the smile is slightly different.  

I could scan his Bowman card and put it on here, but you will never believe the picture that Topps used for the card.  He's actually not holding the bat, but everything else is the same.  The photographer from Topps spent a whole two minutes taking pictures of Edgar Renteria in Spring Training.  

and I am spent.  

Reason 2- He has a bunch of cards that have a Cardinals logo, but the picture shows him as a Marlin.  

Like this one....

or this one.....

Of course, there are a few different Edgar Renteria cards from 1999 that get it right.  

and they are pretty nice.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 63- Kent Bottenfield

Kent Bottenfield most memorable season as a professional baseball player came in 1999 while he was pitching for the Cardinals.  Prior to landing a job with the Cardinals, Bottenfield had made appearances with the Expos, Rockies, Giants, and Cubs.  Most teams mainly used him as a reliever.  The Expos and Rockies had both used Bottenfield as a starter, but that did not go very well.

Bottenfield joined the Cardinals as a free agent in January of 1998.  He was a long reliever in 1998 and was thrown into the starting rotation at the beginning of the 1999 season.  Bottenfield's 18 wins, 3.97 ERA, and All-Game appearance are often cited as some of Dave Duncan's finest work as a pitching coach. 

Someone posted a clip of his All-Star game appearance on YouTube.  He gave up a few runs, but also struck out Ivan Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.  Definitely a highlight.....

Bottenfield really has a limited amount of baseball cards with the Cardinals.  So, a quick tour.  He did not consistently appear in sets, even after the 18 win season.  Most card companies put him in a few of their products, but he never was amongst the core of Cardinals players who made all of a brand's sets.  

Pacific was one of my favorite brands from this era.  They actually had a 1998 card of Bottenfield in their Omega set, but I like the card in the 1999 set better.  

Pacific also used him in some of their 2000 sets as a Cardinal after he was traded away.  Nice cards, but he had nicer 2000 cards I will get to in a minute.  

Upper Deck might have been the stingiest company with Bottenfield cards, but their sets were stuffed with McGwire, Ankiel, and J.D. Drew cards at this point.  Give a spot to Ray Lankford, Fernando Tatis, maybe a Matt Morris or Andy Benes.  Not much room for other players from the Cardinals.  His most notable Cardinals card in an Upper Deck product was his appearance in the team's McDonald's set from 1999......

These cards were sold at McDonald's restaurants in the St. Louis area, I believe as a set, not a giveaway at the stadium.  The usual suspects were in the set, but Upper Deck put several players in this set who were not in other sets in 1999.  Bottenfield and Shawon Dunston are the two of them.  

Bottenfield did not get a Topps card with the Cardinals in 1998 or 1999, but they did manage to squeeze him into the 2000 set.  

There were no traded or update sets in 1998 and 1999, so I kind of get it.  Still, it's hard to believe that a relief pitcher who popped up in more than 60 games in 1998 could not get a card in the 1999 set.  This was also the small set phase for Topps.  I believe they were down to 400 some cards in the base set.  

The best two Bottenfield cards with the Cardinals are his autographs, which both came out in 2000 after he was traded.  He has a Fleer and a Skybox autograph.  The Fleer is a FreshInk card, the Skybox is an Autographics.  Both were cross product autograph sets, not sure what products contained Bottenfield autographs.  I own the Skybox card....

It's like a piece of artwork.  Bottenfield is consistent with his autograph too.  I love it when players care about their signature.  This is a great looking card, 90% of it is the autograph.  

So, the end of Bottenfield in a Cardinals uniform took place at the end of Spring Training in 2000 when the Cardinals traded him to the Angels, along with Adam Kennedy, for free agent to be Jim Edmonds. 

The Cardinals seemed to frequently trade for players in walk years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, let them play in St. Louis for the year, and then sign them.  Edmonds had a great 2000 with the Cardinals and signed a contract in the middle of the season to stay in St. Louis.  He ended up playing on the Cardinals for 8 seasons in all.  He helped the Cardinals win the 2006 World Series, win two National League pennants, and reach the National League Championship three other times.  While he is off the Hall of Fame ballot for the moment, Edmonds should make it at some point through the Veterans Committee.  Whatever it is now called.  

Edmonds popped up on a baseball card as a Cardinal long before Bottenfield showed up as an Angel.  Although, Bottenfield only lasted half a season in Anaheim before he was traded to the Phillies for Ron Gant.  He was never able to match his 1999 season with the Cardinals, but Bottenfield stuck around for a few more seasons before retiring.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 62- David Bell

There have been many Bells in baseball.  There was Gus Bell, who primarily played on the Reds and Pirates in the 1950s and 1960s.  That was David Bell's grandfather.  There was also Buddy Bell, who spent most of his career with the Indians and Rangers.....

but also played a few years with the Reds at the end of his career.  All Bells end up in Cincinnati at some point.  Buddy had two sons who played in the Majors.  David, who is the subject of the post, and Mike, who bounced around as a Minor Leaguer most of his career.  Mike did briefly appear in the Majors, as a (say it with me)....

Red.  You knew that was coming hopefully. 

That brings us back to David Bell who started his career with the Cleveland Indians after being drafted out of high school in 1990.  Bell made it all the way to Triple A before the Indians traded him to the Cardinals in exchange for Ken Hill.  The Indians were a contender for the World Series and Hill had gone from leading the National League in wins with the Expos, to mediocre with the Cardinals.  A change of scenery helped Hill down the stretch, he even pitched well in the first two rounds of the Playoffs. 

Ken Hill ran into Ryan Klesko in the World Series. 

The Indians lost.  Meanwhile, David Bell got a chance to win the third base job at the end of the 1995 season.  The Cardinals had traded for Scott Cooper before the 1995 season, but he did not play well.  Bell did not play that well, but at just 22 the Cardinals got a stop gap third baseman with Gary Gaetti to start during the 1996 season.  

Bell still got playing time in 1996.  It did not go well.  Bell got playing time in 1997.  It did not go well.  In 1998, Bell did not play well.  The Cardinals released Bell and Gary Gaetti, and traded away Royce Clayton and Todd Stottlemyre for several players including third base prospect Fernando Tatis.  

Fernando Tatis did manage to hit.  David Bell ended up in Cleveland where he got some at bats playing second base.  More on Bell's time away from the Cardinals in a bit.  Let's look at some cards.  Bell was not a good player for the team, but always managed to end up with some decent cards.  

Let's start out in 1995.  

We got Bell sliding into second base.  Nice look at the astroturf and blue walls look of the 1980s and early 1990s Busch Stadium.  Cardinals went to a grass field in 1996 with green walls.  Nice action shot.  

On to 1996.  The first card is from the Topps set.  

Not a great year for the Topps base set, and a really weird looking card.  Bell looks like he is playing in game, but he is wearing a batting practice jersey.  The Cardinals either wore white or grey jerseys, no third alternate jerseys.  It could be the picture was taken during infield practice, but something about this card has always look off to me.  At one point, I was pretty sure they just clipped a picture of Bell in front of a Busch Stadium background.  Not sure that's the case though.  

Next.  

This is from the 1996 Fleer set.  This is the Tiffany copy, which came two per pack, or something like that.  Glossy finish.  I like cards that have photos from Wrigley Field.  That brick wall always makes a nice background.  

Regular version.  

Which brings us to the last 1996 David Bell card.  It's autographed, it's from 1996.  You know what it is going to be......

Not the best looking signature, but I believe this is his only autographed card.  

1997 was light on David Bell cards, and we've already seen a Topps base card, so I am going to make this Pacific Invincible card the final Cardinals card for this post.  Nice action shot of Bell hitting.  While Bell played for a contending team for much of 1998, no card company included him in any of their sets as a member of the Indians.  I like this card.  

After leaving the Cardinals, Bell played a few different places over the remainder of his career, which lasted until 2006.  He played on the Indians, Mariners, Giants, Phillies, and Brewers.  His best career moment was probably his 2002 Postseason with the Giants.  He hit over .400 in the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals, and over .300 with several key hits in the World Series against the Angels.  

After retiring Bell worked in the Minor Leagues as a coach and manager.  The last year or two, he returned to St. Louis and work with the Cardinals as a coach.    

However, like all the Bells, David eventually ended up in Cincinnati with the Reds.  He is the only Bell family member to not appear in a game with the Reds as a player, but the first member to manage the team.....

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 60 - Delino DeShields

Delino Deshields is probably best remember as being apart of one of those Lou Brock-Ernie Broglio type trades.  At the end of the 1993 season, the Dodgers traded for DeShields who was a very good second baseman with the Expos at the time, and all it cost them was Pedro Martinez.  Not good.  

He is also the father of Diamond DeShields.  

and Delino DeShields, who has apparently dropped the Jr.. 

The Cardinals signed Delino DeShields as a free agent at the end of the 1996 season.  Coming off an appearance in the 1996 National League Championship Series, DeShields was seen as a possible upgrade at second over Luis Alicea.  He was not great with the Dodgers, but the Cardinals believed they could fix him.   In all, Delino DeShields played two seasons with the Cardinals and was a good player for the team despite the results on the field during the 1997 and 1998 seasons.  

He got on base in front of Mark McGwire, Ray Lankford, and Ron Gant.  DeShields also became the last Cardinals player to steal more than 50 bases when he swiped 55 in 1997.  

On to some cards.  While he was not a long term player on the Cardinals, I like the cards that DeShields has as a member of the Cardinals.  There are a lot of action shots in here, along with some other curious facts and figures.  

First card goes in the curiosity pile. 

This is from the 1997 Circa set.  Always a really distinct looking group of cards.  I like the action shot of the second baseman, but that quote is pretty terrible.  Hitting .220, stealing 48 bases, that's not actually sound very good.  Sorry Tony LaRussa.  Usually the quotes on the fronts of these cards are pretty flattering, even the bad players in 1997 had nice quotes on the front.  I am not sure that pasting a quote about someone coming off of a .220 season is flattering.  

Perhaps someone at Fleer did not like players who wore double ear flaps.....

which can be found on many DeShields Cardinals cards.  Up until 2016, when Brayan Pena played 9 games as the team's reserve catcher, DeShields was the last Cardinals player to wear the double ear flaps.  They were sort of a fixture on the team growing up, I believe there were at least three Cardinals starters in the 1980s who wore them, but they disappeared in the early 2000s.  

This card is from the Topps Stars set in 1998.  All of the cards were serial numbered, many of them to ridiculous amounts like 9,000 or 4,000 copies.  Lots and lots and lots of cards.  

On to a trio of action shots.

First one is from the 1997 Fleer Ultra set.  Obviously a Spring Training game with a Tigers player in the background and DeShields wearing a batting practice jersey.  Great picture, I am not sure that DeShields is actually touching the Tigers player.  I think the photographer caught him mid fall, but he looks really graceful doing it.  

Also love the high socks on this card.  DeShields almost always wore his socks up, which was not a really trendy thing in the late 1990s when baseball uniform pants got long and baggy.  

Another nice action shot with fellow infielder Edgardo Alfonzo sliding into second base in Shea Stadium.  And the last DeShields action shot....

Do players even do this anymore?  I am almost sure that this practice is in decline, players come into the dugout regardless at the end of innings.  Maybe I am wrong.  I still like the picture.  

Last Cardinals card.  

Pacific made a ton of these cards in 1998 with the Cardinals players wearing the St. Louis Stars uniforms.  The team has done numerous throwback nights, but has not touched some of the team's Negro League history in a long time.  These are sharp looking uniforms, go check out the Fernando Tatis cards from last week too, there is a road version in that post.  

DeShields played another five years after leaving the Cardinals, splitting his time with the Orioles and Cubs.  He played 13 years in all and stole more than 400 bases.  There have been Delino DeShields cards made since he retired.....

which includes an autograph in the 2013 Topps Archives set.  DeShields has worked as a manager in the Reds Minor League system the past few years.  Next year, he will be working as the Reds first base coach.  He does not do the double ear flapped helmet while coaching.