"There is a shortage of Roger Maris cards in a Cardinals uniform, it would be a shame to pass up this card"

I have written about the 2002 Topps Super Teams set a few times in this space. It's one of my favorite modern baseball card sets that focuses on players and teams from yesteryear. In this case, 10 different teams from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The 1967 Cardinals who won the World Series against the Boston Red Sox make an appearance in the set. 

I own most of the Cardinals cards in the set. At least the base cards, shiny parallel cards, and the autographs. My favorite is my Bob Gibson autograph with a piece of a seat from old Busch Stadium. 

Very nice.  

While I have all the autographs and base cards and shiny parallel cards, I was still missing one of the relic cards. If you are a long-time reader, you know I have an aversion to the majority of relic cards out there. They rarely appear here and I have made my peace with the fact that the authenticity of the relics is often dubious.  

Well, I am going to set that aside, because I found that final missing relic card, which belonged to the right-fielder on the 1967 Cardinals, Roger Maris. You might remember Roger from the New York Yankees.  

Roger spent the final two years of his career with the Cardinals. He was more of a complimentary piece at that point in his career, as the Cardinals had Orland Cepeda, Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and Tim McCarver.  Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton too. Maris was a good defensive outfielder and a nice left-handed bat to stick behind Cepeda.  

There are not many modern cards of Maris shown as a Cardinal. I understand that his best year's were with the Yankees, but that fan base was also pretty terrible in their treatment of him both before and after his career. Thrilled to add a nice Maris card to the collection in a Cardinals uniform. 

Seat relics are cool, right?  

Here is the back of the card.  

It's the less grand version of the "CONGRATULATIONS" message that frequents so many of today's autographs and relics. I forgot about the old Topps authentication stickers, which is to the right of Roger's head. I wonder if that website is still live?  

Anyway, great card, happy to add it to the collection.  

Super Teams, Super Set

I am working on my 2002 sets this weekend and have found some great cards in the process.  One of my favorite sets from that year was the Topps Super Teams set.  The concept behind the set was simple: Ten World Series winners with their starting line-up, manager, and a team card.  Throw in a few autographs and stadium relics and you have got one cool set.  I was never sure why Topps did not put this set out beyond the initial offering.  Perhaps having a set limited to just ten teams limited the sales?  Just throwing that out, not really sure, but I probably would have bought this product with or without the 1967 Cardinals.

It's a cool set to assemble for set builders, whether you are a whole set person or team set.  Both cool.  Here's a quick look at the ten teams featured in the Super Teams set:

1954 New York Giants

1955 Brooklyn Dodgers

1957 Milwaukee Braves

1960 Pittsburgh Pirates

1961 Yankees

1967 St. Louis Cardinals

1969 New York Mets

1970 Baltimore Orioles

1974 Oakland Athletics 

1986 New York Mets

The set also had a great set of autographs and relics.  The relic cards in the set were all stadium seats from different places including Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and County Stadium in Milwaukee.  For me, I really like the autographs in the set.  The autographs are all on-card signatures, but come as either just a plain signature card or an autographed relic card.  Here's a look at the Gibson autographed relic card:

I am sure that Topps has there reasons for making sets and not making sets, but again, this was always one of my favorite sets from the early 2000s and I am not sure why they did not continue this set past 2002.  It would have been cool to go through and pick out a few World Series winners each year and put them on cardboard.  For what it's worth, the single cards in this set are pretty popular with collectors as well as the autographs and relics.