A Nice Day For Some Artwork

I spent some time cleaning up around my card room last weekend and found some Project 70 art cards that I bought over last year that were worthy of a post. I picked up a few of these back at the start of the 2021,  but the Project 70 cards have not held my interest as much as the Project 2020 cards from two years ago. Some of the artists are the same between the two projects, with plenty of new artists mixed in, but it felt like there were a lot of similar card subjects.

If you are a Yankees collector or Fernando Tatis Jr., there are a lot of cards. Cardinals and Durham Bulls collector? Not so much?  

I did not check-in with the new designs on a daily basis, so maybe there are a few good cards that I am missing out on, but these were the four cards I ended up adding to my collection during the past year.  

First up is an Ozzie Smith card by Shoe Surgeon.  As you can guess, the Shoe Surgeon is a guy who customizes shoes. His rates are a little step, otherwise I would send him my canvas Nikes I wear to school and get some cool 4th Grader customization. Back to the card. I like the play on the movie "The Wizard of Oz" on this card. It's a no-brainer with Ozzie Smith, but I am honestly not that many card companies have made that connection over the years.  

The gold path and the Emerald City/St. Louis skyline mash-up are the best elements of this picture. Not sure about an emerald Arch, but I am willing to let it go for this card. The action shot of Ozzie in front is a nice touch as well. Are those flying monkeys around the Arch? The cloud picture on the right-side looks like the play where he cleared Lenny Harris. 

This happened in the early 1990s. Lenny Harris went into second base half-standing trying to take out Ozzie. Pretty impressive given the fact that Ozzie Smith was not a very big guy.  

I checked out the other cards that the Shoe Surgeon has made for Project 70. Seems talented, but I am sticking with just this Ozzie Smith. He would be one of the artists who went for a lot of really common and repeated subjects.  

Next.  

It appears that there were not many current Cardinals players included in the Project 70 set. I am not really surprised. Arenado has two cards, but one is a dual card with Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers. I really like this card with him pictured as both a Cardinals and Rockies player with the Arch in the background. A Cardinals only card would have been better, but I don't really have much of a problem with the Rockies. All of their good players end up in the Cardinals, right?  There is a lot of purple here, but I like the overall concept of the card.  

Mimsbandz is another new artist for Project 70. He actually has some really good artwork and I might have to pick up a few of his other cards. There are a lot of really great 1980s players featured in his artwork. Yes, a few Hall of Famers, but also a lot of personalities from the decade along with great of the era types. There will definitely be some more Mimsbandz cards on my blog at some point in the future.  

The next two cards were both made by a favorite artist from the Project 2020 cards, Efdot.  

Beyond enjoying the artwork made by Efdot, he also picked some different players out for his Project 2020 cards. Yes, I think he made an Ohtani, Trout, and a few Yankees players, but also some players who probably do not get enough attention. Tim Anderson seems to be one of those players. Flashy and exciting, but he's also made the All-Star team and won a batting title. There is a lot going on at the top of this card with the black background and white doodles over the top.  Efdot always has a lot of "Easter Eggs" in his art work. It's fun to stare at these cards sometimes and see what you can find. A few old White Sox logos, an L train, a 2005, the fireworks pinwheels from the Comiskey Park scoreboard, etc.  

Efdot is also one of the few Topps artists who made cards of Negro League players for the set. Even as Major League Baseball has worked to claim the players and their stats as part of the past history of the game, it still feels like the great Negro League players are completely underrepresented with baseball cards. Love the art work here with the high leg kick.

The 1942 on the bottom of Satchel's shoe is for the year that the Kansas City Monarch defeated the Homestead Grays in the Negro League World Series. The Grays were led by Josh Gibson, the best power hitter, while the Monarchs were led by Paige, the best pitcher. The Grays apparently had Satchel's number and always got the best of him when the teams played.  

The highlight of the series took place in Game 2 when Paige entered the game in relief with two out in the seventh inning and the Monarchs leading 2-0. The first Grays batter tripled. After a mound visit from his manager, Paige walked the bases loaded to face Josh Gibson. There are different stories about how the at-bat progress, but they all end with Gibson striking out to end the inning. The Grays lost the game and were swept by the Monarchs. 

Set Appreciation Post #15 - 2012 Bowman Platinum

It's been awhile since I have made a post about a set.  

I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out around the time I started blogging.  Bowman Platinum has now been out for 10 years and has gone stale in recent editions.  I think the same can be said for other Bowman spin-off products that Topps created in the early 2010s.  Inception would be in that same boat. Started off great, but its fizzled in recent years.  

Let's go. 

 

Base Set 

The design on this set is decent.  I always worried that Topps would start blending the different Bowman product designs together and make them indistinguishable.  This design has some similarities to the first two Bowman Platinum sets, but I think it has a unique look compared to other Bowman products from 2012.  I like the frames around the picture and the player names.  The Bowman Platinum logo in the middle is not my favorite, but I guess it does make the set more identifiable.  

The majority of cards in this set have more of a blurred out background than the Pineda card.  Not sure why Topps left more of the picture visible on this card.  

The back of the card.  

There is a lot of other "stuff" on the back, which makes the area for stats and the write-up fairly small.  Topps still did a decent job here, especially with the write-up.  It's small, but I like the information that is provided on the cards.  I never love "busy" card backs that are cluttered with junk, but I do appreciate the large card number and player name at the top.  

Maybe I am just saying that because I was sorting out some 2021 Topps cards yesterday.  

Michael Pineda was a really big prospect in 2012.  He's had some decent seasons when he has stayed healthy, but his career highlight has to be the time he was using pine tar during a game and just slathered a bunch of it on this neck.  

This was a few years ago before the crack down on "sticky stuff"  

Pineda was ejected from the game.  

I'm Really Here For The Autographs 

The set design for the 2012 Bowman Platinum is decent, but I didn't buy these cards so I could get a Michael Pineda base card.  I bought these cards for the autographs.  Do people buy Bowman Platinum cards for another reason?  

Yes, the majority of autographs are on stickers, which kind of stinks for this product, but at least they are well blended in most cases.  There were plenty of former Durham Bulls players, some current at the time, who appeared on the autograph checklist.  That made me pretty excited to buy some of Bowman Platinum cards back in the day.    

I parsed it down to two favorite Durham Bulls autographs.  There are more.  

First up is outfielder Mikie Mahtook.  He is still in Triple-A with Charlotte at the moment, which is the White Sox affiliate.  While he has had some good years in the Minors, Mahtook has never been able to do much in the Majors.  Hence, a decade in Triple A.   He had a decent year with the Tigers in 2017, but nothing beyond that.  I think he is best known for losing a home run to a spectacular Alex Gordon catch, but not before high-fiving the first base coach.  

That Royals player in the background is awesome.  

Matt Moore was a great prospect coming up for the Rays and pitched really well in Durham.  In 2013, he won 17 games and finished in the Top 10 in Cy Young voting.  Two Tommy John surgeries later, Matt Moore is 2-4 this season with an ERA over 6 for the Phillies.  Still love his baseball cards.  One of those "what could have been" players. 

One last autograph that I picked up back in the day was a young Rockies third base prospect.

This has always been a nice card, but I was really happy to have it during the past year.  Saved me a little time, probably a little money too.  

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bulls Card 

During the pandemic, I learned that people are also crazy for second year Mike Trout cards.  They are actually expensive in some cases.  Pretty wild.  When did this happen?  I feel like I need to put all of my early Mike Trout cards into sleeves and top loaders.  I don't really collect Mike Trout cards, but I have a ton of them from 2011 and 2012.  I could probably sell them all and pay off my car loan.  

This is a nice card, but it's my second best Bowman Platinum card of Mike Trout.  

This one is nice too.  

Best Durham Bulls Card

This was a really hard decision.  If I had to rank sets based on Durham Bulls content, this set would likely be a strong contender for the Top 10.  It's not just the cards, but also the names.  I loved the Bulls teams between the 2009 Triple A National Championship team and the 2013 International League Championship team.  Some of my favorite players.  

It's really hard to decide, so I am going to choose two cards.  

Hellickson is one of the most decorated Minor League pitchers in recent history.  He won the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2010, International League Pitcher of the Year in 2010, Triple-A National Championship Game MVP in 2009, and was the starting pitcher in the 2010 Futures All-Star Game.  

In 2011, he pitched for the Rays.  Hellickson had a sub-3 ERA and won the American League Rookie of the Year.  Similar to Moore, Hellickson had a lot of arm problems and ended up being an end of rotation pitcher for a bunch of different teams.  

Next.  

Archer was on the Durham Bulls in 2012.  He's also from Raleigh, which makes him pretty popular in these parts.  This is actually from the short-printed prospects section of the set and would have been a favorite card of mine back in 2012.  Archer is still playing, but his career has really been set back by arm injuries.  Seems to be a theme here.  

In recent years, Archer has given the baseball world the fight between the Pirates and Reds where Yasiel Puig tried to fight the entire Pirates team.  Archer actually threw a pitch at Derek Dietrich, but somehow Puig was the angriest guy on the field.  I love Tucker Barnhardt holding on to Puig's shoe while he is trying to punch five different Pirates players at the same time.  

There are a bunch of people on the internet who love this picture and have turned it into art work.  

Wil Myers could have been a possible third, but he is on the Royals in this set.  Meh.  

Best Cardinals Card 

The Cardinals had a heavy presence in this set.  They were coming off a World Series win and had a lot of name prospects at this point.  Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, and Matt Adams all had autographs in the set.  There were also cards of Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Allen Craig, and David Freese.  

I am going to choose none of those players and go with a role player from the 2011 World Series team instead.  Bench player the first half of the year, starter after the Cardinals ditched Colby Rasmus in the middle of the season.  

Underrated Cardinal, Jon Jay.  

Topps always made really good cards of Jon Jay early in his career.  The balanced it out by ignoring him the second half of his career.  

How Does It Compare? 

At the beginning of the post when I said, "I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out when I first started blogging", what I meant to say is that I am a softie for the autographed cards.  I have done 14 of these posts over the last year, there is no way that a generic-looking Bowman spin off can be in the top half of the sets.

Right?  

What's it better than?  It's clearly not the worst set I have reviewed.  It's more exciting than the 2000 Topps set, but those cards are only interesting when compared to watching an episode of the Pat Boone show.  The 2000 UD Ionix set seems like a good neighborhood.  

The Ionix set had better inserts.  While the quantity of autographs offered by Upper Deck was smaller, the players were actual Major Leaguers.  I love Jon Jay and all the other Cardinals players mentioned as signers in the 2012 Bowman Platinum set, but was an autograph of Scott Rolen in Ionix.  There were also no sticker autographs.  

I am going to place this set 12 after Ionix, but before the boring 2000 Topps set.  

15. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

14. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

13. 2000 Topps 

12. Bowman Platinum 

11. 2000 UD Ionix  

10. 2002 Bowman 

9. 1988 Donruss 

8. 1995 Emotion XL 

7. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

6. 1998 Topps TEK 

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Set Appreciation Post #4 - 2001 Fleer EX

Basic Design 

The EX sets were some of my favorite products in the late 1990s.  Good designs.  Innovative product.  There wasn't much not to love about the first two designs that Skybox used for this product. 

The 1998 set is my favorite of the two.  I will have to do a write up on this set one week down the road.   

The 1999 EX set is also very good, but a notch down from the original in my opinion.  

Same basic formula and format for both the 1998 and 1999 sets.  Transparent plastic cards with a raised photo of the player.  Unfortunately, someone at Skybox went and did something really dumb the year after.  They changed the product in 2000.  

It was terrible.  

The card stock was thin and the front of the cards were actually stickers that placed on the cardboard.  Over time the adhesive lost its stick, and you had these catastrophes.  Note the peeling at the bottom of the card.  

I had some really low expectations for the 2001 E-X set when it came out.  In fact, when it was first released I did not touch it until I saw someone else open a pack.  The cards were re-branded to Fleer and the were much better quality.  Thick card stock (The 100 card base set fits nicely into a 300 count box) and the printing was directly on the card were good repairs from the 2000 set.    

The base has some of the same design elements as the 1998 and 1999 sets, minus the transparent plastic section on the side.  While the design shifted back towards the first two sets, the player picture is not raised on the card like the originals.  

Here is the back of the card.  

The stats are a little weird.  The players performance against their division is included on the back, along with the playoff teams from their League and Interleague play. The bottom features some really generic stat line of their best game of the 2000 season.  

I think that they could have made the backs a little more streamlined and simple.  It would have worked just fine in this set. 

Best Former Durham Player 

The answer is Chipper Jones.  

I feel like that is going to be the answer whenever I write about a 1990s or 2000s set on my Set Appreciation posts.  I have done four of these Set Appreciation Posts, and the answer has been Chipper Jones twice.  

Shall we look at the back?  

The Cardinals did a pretty good job of keeping Chipper in check during the 2000 season.  Although, the 1 home run he hit against the Cardinals was a game winner off of Mike Timlin.  

I might have to select my best Durham Bulls card on the picture after this post, which means that 50% of these posts will still have a Chipper Jones card.  

Favorite Cardinals Card(s) 

One of the best parts of writing these set posts is that it gives me a chance to dig through my card closet and find some cool cards that I have not shared yet.  It forces me to look in boxes where I normally do not venture.  

Two months ago, I spent an hour digging through my 2001 sets pulling out Albert Pujols rookies for this post.  I thought I had them all, but I missed this one.  Find this missing one also led me to look in another box, where I found another.  That's two new Albert Pujols rookie cards from writing this post.  

This was really a no-brainer once I saw it in the box.  However, there is also another Cardinals rookie card in this set that is a little bit of an early 2000s cult classic.  I am going to split the best Cardinals card between Albert Pujols, and the guy below.  

Meet long-time Triple A catcher Keith McDonald. 

The Cardinals called him up in early July 2000 to backup catcher Mike Matheny while Eli Marrero was on the disabled list for a short stint.  His first at bat came towards the end of a July 4th blowout against the Reds.  He hit a home run.  

Plenty of players hit home runs in their first at-bat.  Not anything too extraordinary, right?  McDonald also managed to hit a home run the next night in his first at-bat to become the second Major League player to hit a home run in his first two at-bats.  The other was outfielder Bob Nieman, who actually played a few seasons with the Cardinals in the early 1960s.  

To make the story even more bizarre, McDonald ends up getting a few pinch hitting opportunities over the next week, but he doesn't get any hits.  Last weekend he was in the Majors in 2000, he gets to pinch hit late in a game and hits a home run.  Three hits while he was up, all home runs.  The Cardinals send McDonald back down to the Minors, but call him up in 2001 for a few games.  Bounces around in the Minors a few more years, never gets called up.  Never gets another hit in the Majors.   

Keith McDonald is the only Major League player to have one than one home run, but no other types of hits.  He has an autographed card in this set too, but I do not own it.  Yet.  

Favorite Non-Cardinals Cards 

These were fairly easy choices this week.  

First up is Vladimir Guerrero.  

If you ever watched Vladimir Guerrero in person, you know that pitchers really had to work hard to walk him.  He was not going up there to take a bunch of pitches.  The crazy thing was that he hit balls most players would take, and hit them hard.  

The ball actually looks like it's at his knee in this picture, but his swing looks really odd here.  Bet this ended up being a hit. A few years back, someone made a mash-up video of 50 Cent's first pitch for the Mets and Vladimir Guerrero hitting a double.  The 50 Cent first pitch missed home plate by 10 feet, it's always on those terrible first pitch blooper videos.  

I also have another favorite rookie card in this set, but I own the autographed copy of this one.....

Juan Pierre was always a fun player to watch.  One of the last players, might be the last, to wear his fielding hat underneath his batting helmet.  Always one of my favorites.  In some ways, Juan Pierre was a 2000s player who probably would have fit in well with the 1980s Cardinals.  

How Does It Rank?  

The 2001 Fleer EX is much better than Ionix, but not nearly as good as the Super Teams set.  I spent a few minutes thinking about this in comparison to the 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders.  I like the Mini League Leader set, but this has some nicer bells and whistles.  Also Keith McDonald.  I am going to place this set second on my list.  

4. 2000 U.D. Ionix 

3. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

2. 2001 Fleer EX 

1. 2002 Topps Super Teams 

That's a lot of early 2000s sets.  I am going to do something from the 70s next week.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 66- Bryn Smith

Bryn Smith is pretty emblematic of the Cardinals ventures into the world of free agency during the 1990s.  The long time Montreal Expos pitcher signed with the Cardinals in late November of 1989, towards the beginning of the free agent signing period.  Salaries were different then, but 3 years and 6 million dollars seems like it was a pretty fair contract at that time for a mid-rotation starter. 

O-Pee-Chee was like clockwork with the "Now With....." 

I know that 1989 was long before the world of sabermetrics and analytics and the number crunchers that are around the game today, but there was a lot to like about signing Bryn Smith.  While he only won 12 and 10 games in 1989 and 1988, Smith was actually coming off his two best seasons as a starting pitcher.  There was not WAR and ERA+ back then, but Smith was at 5.1 WAR in 1989 and 125 for ERA+.  Those two numbers were just about equal to Greg Maddux's numbers that season.   

The point is, the Cardinals signed a good pitcher.  Further, playing in a pitchers park like Busch Stadium should have helped his cause, along with having a left side of the infield with Ozzie Smith and Terry Pendleton.

Smith likely was out in Montreal after ripping the city in a Sports Illustrated article that ran in 1989.....

"There are two things that really get to the players. They don't serve ketchup with french fries. They serve gravy. Then when you order a Coke, they don't put ice in it. They don't know how to make iced tea. Ice is hard to come by, and if you ask for it, they tell you in French that you're stupid because you get more Coke without the ice."

so the Cardinals made a good landing spot. 

While on paper it seemed like a great idea, just like so many other 1990s Cardinals free agent signings, Smith did not work out very well for the Cardinals. 

On to a few baseball more baseball cards.  The O-Pee-Chee card was obviously one of the first Bryn Smith cards as a Cardinal, sans uniform.  He also had a Topps Traded card.  Smith did have a few regular issue cards that did not include a giant "Now With Cardinals" stamp across the picture. 

The two best in my opinion were....

his Bowman, which came out of the "Rainbow" set.  I bought a bunch of packs of these back in 1990, did not really care for them very much at that time.  They have really grown on me over the years.  There are a lot of good update type cards in this set with these posed photos from Spring Training.  Kind of a good way to give a veteran player their first card with a new team without having collectors wait all the way until the end of the year. 

He was also in the regular edition of Leaf.  Although, this picture looks like someone snuck up to him to take the photo.  Still, the Leaf set is one of the better products that came out in 1990, so it's nice that they snuck Smith into the Cardinals cards.  

The 1990 Cardinals were terrible,.  Smith had a 9-8 win/loss record, he had an ERA north of 4, and missed a chunk of time at from the end of July to the beginning of September.  He only ended up pitching 141 innings on a team that could have used some quality innings.  No matter the metric, Smith was a below average player during his first season with the Cardinals.  

He had a few traded cards released towards the end of the season.  I like the Score Traded card.  It's bright orange and has a decent action shot of Bryn Smith.  

His 1991 was a little bit better on the field, but still not great.  Between 1991 and 1992, Smith had a decent slate of cards.  Most interestingly was Topps using nearly identical photos, one on the road and one at home, on his 1991 and 1992 cards.  

His 1991.....

which was taken on the road.  Leaning towards Shea Stadium.  

His 1992........

Astroturf.  Blue walls.  Early 1990s Busch Stadium.  

Two more cards.  

A little front and back of a Cardinals team issued card.  I have put up a ton of these on recent posts, was thinking about just doing major releases for this week's 1990s Cardinals post, but I like the stove cartoon on the back of his 1992 Cardinals team issue.  

Last Cardinals card.  Well, sort of Cardinals card.  

Smith left the Cardinals after the 1992 season and signed with the expansion Rockies.  His last card, as far as I can tell, with a picture of him in a Cardinals uniform is his 1993 Fleer.  During his final season with the Cardinals, Smith only appeared in 13 games, with just one start.  He missed almost the entire season.  Yet, the Rockies signed him and gave him a starting slot.  In fact, he started their first home opener.....

Smith ended up winning this game.  He pitched seven shutout innings.  However, by June his ERA was over 8 and the Rockies ended up releasing him at the beginning of the month.  He did get a few Rockies cards though....

He has done some coaching both in the Minors and college levels since his retirement.  

Clearly Nice Cards

I love the acetate parallels in the Topps base set.  For the past two years Topps has put out the Clearly Authentic product, which are similar in appearance to the acetate parallels, it's just that they are in a one touch case.  Last year I picked up two cards from the set.  Both were Cardinals.  One was pitcher Luke Weaver, the other was former shortstop Aledmys Diaz.  In retrospect, it feels like a struck out with those two cards. 

Clearly Authentic is a one card per pack/box for roughly $50, so I naturally did not touch a single pack.  I also decided to go away from the Cardinals this year......

First up is another Anthony Banda autograph.  He's become my go to Durham Bulls player to collect this year.  Banda is also the only player on the team who really seems to have a steady stream of cards that have been produced this year. 

I am not sure if this is pink or red, but I like the card.  The case is a little scratched up looking on the scan, but I feel like my scanner picked up a lot that is not all that visible from just holding the card.  Maybe I need to clean my scanner.  

The serial number is in the lower right hand corner, a little hard to see.  

Flip the card over.....

I always like the reverse black and white image on the back of the acetate cards.  Also kind of nice to be able to see the autograph through the back of the card. 

Last one for tonight....

I have not posted many Charlie Blackmon cards over the years, but I have always had some interest in his career.  I saw Blackmon a few times while he was at Georgia Tech, someone I glance at when I read through the box scores.  

I don't like this card as much as the Banda.  There is not much contrast here between the picture of Banda and the background, which is one of the things that makes the acetate cards stand out.  There is a lot of gray and black on Blackmon's uniform and the background is generally the same color scheme outside of the bunting above his bat.  Even the purple numbers and letters on the Rockies jersey feel muted.  

The lack of contrast really shows on the back.  It's a black and white photo, but there is little difference from the front of the card outside of the purple numbers on his jersey being a dark gray.  I actually think the best part of the back of this Blackmon card is the autograph showing through clearly.  

New Cards From North Of The Border

Canada has contributed greatly to the world of sports cards over the years.  Where would we be without hockey cards.....

or football cards from a league with a 55 yard line and field goal posts in the front of the end zone?  (Go Redhawks! Beat Kansas)

or baseball cards with the players position written on the front in both French and English?  

I shutter to think of a world without all of these great contributions that our fine neighbors to the north have made to my favorite hobby.  The Canadians have also had a pretty good run of producing some fairly nice baseball players.  The Cardinals have even had a few over the years, most of them not as good as Fergie Jenkins or Joey Votto, but still good.  

Who remembers Stubby Clapp?  

He's actually turned into a really nice Minor League Manager for the Cardinals currently working for their Triple A team in Memphis.  

John "Axman" Axford?  Probably a better memory for Brewers fans, but I actually have a card of him playing for the Canadian National Baseball team......

He's been making some pretty funny tweets recently about being an unemployed baseball player.   Then there is Larry Walker who is easily the best Canadian born player to have ever worn the Birds on the Bat.  

Walker played for the Cardinals the last year and a half of his career.  Not sure people always remember him ending his career in St. Louis, definitely a very memorable career with the Expos and Rockies, still a nice player during that time for the Cardinals.  

His power dropped off and he was much more of a role player behind stars like Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, and Chris Carpenter.  

It's been awhile since the Cardinals have had a Canadian on the roster, but there is a pretty talented outfielder in Triple A right now who has a pretty good shot at getting to St. Louis in the near future.  

Meet Tyler O'Neill.  

The Cardinals actually traded for him this summer.  He was originally drafted by the Mariners out of high school back in 2013, but was traded over to St. Louis in exchange for Marco Gonzales.  Over the last three years in the Mariners system his home runs totals have been 32 in 2015, 24 in 2016, and 29 this summer.  Almost every major baseball publication who ranks prospects puts him within the Top 50 in all of the Minor Leagues.  

Seemed like the type of player you'd buy a baseball card of, file it away in a box for a few years, and then revisit it at some point in the future.  So, I set out to find one.  Maybe two. 

Here's the first one I found.  

For a Top 50 prospect, who hits a lot of home runs, his cards aren't too expensive.  I mean, they aren't giving them away on Ebay, but it's realistic to set a $5-$10 budget and walk away with something fairly nice.  I ended up with this Bowman's Best autograph which made me very happy.  There is a nice finish on this card and the signature is on-card, always a plus.  

The only thing I don't like about this particular set of Bowman's Best, 2016, is the honeycomb design in the background of the card.  Sort of reminds me of the alternate Georgia Tech football helmets.  

Now the really nice autograph.  I have always loved this set, every year it has been released, and was happy to have another player with a Cardinals connection in this set.  

This is also a 2016 card, but the year doesn't really matter with the Inception brand.  Topps always does a really nice job with the cards.  It's one of the few sets with a dark background that still looks good with a signature on the front.  The autograph of O'Neill is consistent between the two cards, but this is easily my favorite of the two.  If he were to not remain on the Cardinals, they do have a ton of outfielders between their Major League and Triple A rosters, I would still keep this card.  The scan doesn't even really do the nice card stock used justice.  

Hopefully I can look back at this card in a few years and O'Neill will already be amongst the best Canadians to ever play for the Cardinals.  Not sure that's a very high bar considering that would mean being better than Stubby Clapp and John Axford.