I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 59 - Shawon Dunston

Many baseball fans who followed the game during the 1980s and 1990s probably best remember Shawon Dunston as a slick fielding shortstop for the Chicago Cubs.  He was the first overall pick in the 1982 MLB Draft and arrived in Chicago about halfway through the 1985 season.  For the next decade, Dunston manned the middle of the infield for the Cubs. 

The vast majority of his cards in my collection feature Dunston in a Cubs uniform.  Honestly, his best cards are action shots of him playing defense.  I am not sure that any card companies ever got the Shawon-O-Meter on to a piece of cardboard.  

This sign was a fixture in the Wrigley Field bleachers during his time in Chicago.  Kind of shame it was never card worthy.  

After his time with the Cubs, Dunston wandered the league.  He went from the Cubs to the Giants, back to the Cubs, then off to the Pirates, signed as a free agent with the Indians, traded back to the Giants, and finally to the Cardinals as a free agent during Spring Training in 1999.  

Along the way, Leaf made the best Shawon Dunston card in my collection, which showed up in 1996.  It features Dunston as a Giant, that was his first stint there.  

I know he has some other autographs out there.  I am not sure exactly what they are, probably not going to go looking for them either.  Unless I pull one out of a pack of cards.  Otherwise no.  

Let's get to his time with the Cardinals.  Dunston only played 62 games in a Cardinals uniform during the 1999 season before he was traded to the Mets at the trade deadline for Craig Paquette.  The highlight, perhaps lowlight, of his Cardinals career came later that season while he was actually playing for the Mets.  

From the New York Times.....

"Shawon Dunston was oblivious to history. After Mark McGwire's 50th homer soared over the center-field fence yesterday at Shea Stadium, it bounced off a fan's glove and back onto the warning track. The ball was historic because no other player had ever smashed 50 home runs in four consecutive seasons. Dunston, who thought McGwire's scoreboard-bulb-breaking homer six innings earlier had been the 50th, scooped up a sliver of history and flipped it into the bleachers."

Dunston felt bad about the incident.....

''I thought that was 51,'' said Dunston, who was acquired from St. Louis last month. ''It was history. I felt so bad. I told Mark I was sorry.'' 

So, what sort of baseball cards does a 37 year old utility player get for half a season?  Not much, just two team issued cards.  The first was actually a part of a team set that were available at local McDonald's restaurants.  

I know, it's really an Upper Deck MVP card without the brand logo up at the top of card.  I have accidently sorted these cards into stacks of MVP cards in the past.  The brand logo is easy to miss, the only real difference is actually a small McDonald's logo on the back.  

Dunston also had a card in the baseball card set that was given away at Busch Stadium.  

and that is it for Dunston as a Cardinal in 1999.  However, the team brought him back in 2000 in the same utility role.  The Cardinals gave him another team issued card that year, no major brand cards though. 

At the beginning of 2001 several different card companies put him in their early products.  However, Dunston left the team to play for the Giants.  I am not sure how many different stints Dunston had on the Giants, but one of his early 2001 cards, in Upper Deck Victory,  had a picture of him in a Cardinals uniform....

with Giants logos and markings on the card.  His Topps and Pacific cards were actually Cardinals cards all the way around.  Picture, logos, the whole enchilada.  The Pacific card....

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with a picture in Wrigley Field.  Well done Pacific.  I wish you were still a card company. 

and his Topps.  Is this card in Pac Bell?  Feels right that even his non-Cub and non-Giant cards still appear in their stadiums.  It's also not every 1990s Cardinals post that I venture into the 2000s, but there are so very few Dunston cards with the Cardinals, especially considering he's a fairly well known player and he had two different stints with the team. 

Friday Five: My Favorite Players Who Have Played For Both The Cardinals and Cubs

We've got the Cubs and Cardinals playing this weekend, so for this week's Friday Five I am doing a quick countdown of my favorite players who played in both St. Louis and Chicago.  Not arguing the importance of this rivalry, but it's pretty darn important around the Midwest.  Like any good rivalry there have been players who have been on both sides of the fence.  These are my favorite five starting with an honorable mention:


Honorable Mention- Lee Smith RP

More people probably remember Lee Smith for his time with the Cubs over his brief stint with the Cardinals.  However, some of Smith's better seasons took place during his time in St. Louis.  In 1991 Smith recorded a total of 47 saves which set the National League record at the time.  I first got to watch Smith pitch with the Cubs during the mid 1980s when the Cubs games were on WGN every afternoon.  Whether they were playing the Cardinals or not, the daytime Cubs games were always a good way to pass sometime during the summers.  I would be more inclined to rank Lee Smith on this list if it weren't for his partial 1993 with the Cardinals.  It was brutal and there were a lot of blown saves/leads.


5.  Bob Tewksbury SP 

Tewksbury may not be a name that some know, or remember, but he did play for both teams during his career.  His Cubs career was all of 8 games after the right-handed starting pitcher joined the baby bears in a trade with the Yankees for pitcher Steve Trout.  Most of Tewksbury's Cubs career actually took place in Triple A.  The Cardinals signed Bob Tewksbury during December of 1988.  He spent some time in Triple A with the Cardinals too before he landed a gig in the team's starting rotation during the 1990 season.  Playing for the early/mid 1990s Cardinals meant a whole lot of losing, but Tewksbury was a good pitcher.  Not just compared to the rest of the rotation, but actual good pitchers like Greg Maddux.  His best season with the Cardinals, and his career, took place in 1992 when he went 16-5, had an ERA+ of 158, and a WAR of 6.5.  Tewks finished 3rd in the National League Cy Young voting that season.  He bounced around to a few teams after he left the Cardinals, always a fan even if he wasn't always the best pitcher.

4. So Taguchi OF

Taguchi played in St. Louis for a total of 6 years and in Chicago for a single season.  He was not a regular starter for either team, but he was a really easy player to cheer on.  Taguchi's main contribution during his eight year career in the U.S. was as a defense first fourth outfielder.  The highlight of his Cardinals career came in 2006 when he helped the Cardinals advance to the World Series with a key home run off of Billy Wagner during Game 2 of the NLCS.  So Taguchi ended up on the Cubs in 2009 after winning a second World Series with the Phillies in 2008.  He actually spent the majority of the year with the Triple A Iowa Cubs, but was called up for a few games at the end of the season.  

3.  Shawon Dunston SS 

Another 1980s Cubs player who I first saw on WGN watching baseball during summer break.  Everyone who watched a Cubs game in the 1980s knew about the Shawon-O-Meter, a sign which showed the shortstop's batting average.  It always made an appearance at some point during every telecast.  Dunston was a very good shortstop for the Cubs for a dozen years, but spent the latter part of his career bouncing around the league as a bench player.  He appeared for the Cardinals for two seasons in 1999 and 2000.  Dunston was most noted for having a rifle arm, but too me, was just an overall exciting player who had a little bit of everything in his game.  

2. Jon Jay OF 

Jay was a long time start for the Cardinals.  Never a star player, Jay just went out and played everyday the best he could.  Much of his time with the Cardinals was overshadowed by players like Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, but he still spent the better part of 6 seasons patrolling center field in Busch Stadium and getting on base at the top of the line-up.  He's the only active player on this last, and is in his first season with the Cubs, but Jay is one of the former Cardinals player I always check out in the box scores every morning.  His role has been a little bit more limited with the Cubs, but he's still been a positive contributor for the Baby Bears.  

1. Jim Edmonds OF 

There were so many great moments that Edmonds had with the Cardinals during his eight years with the team.  It's hard to remember him as a Cub, but he spent one season on the north side of Chicago.  After the Cardinals traded their center fielder to the Padres for David Freese, he fizzled and was released.  He signed with the Cubs and actually had a good year for the team in 2008 posting an OPS of .937 and 19 home runs in just 85 games.  The Cardinals were not very good that year and the Cubs ended up in the playoffs, so this one hurt a little bit more than the others.  Still really like Jim Edmonds even if he spent some time with the Cubs.  

Throwback Month: 1996 Leaf Signature

I know a lot of people who hate this set.  This was the first autograph per pack set and it flooded the secondary card market with thousands and thousands of autographs.  I am still not sure the flood has ended.  Somedays I type in the search word "auto" into Ebay and filter the searches to show me the cards that are ending soonest.  It's actually a really good way to snag a few good autographs at the last second for some great prices.  About once a week my screen is loaded with someone's long list of 1996 Leaf Signature cards.  You know, these things....

Does anyone actually buy these things?  Are there actually any good cards in this set?  The answer to both of those questions is yes, and in fact you should go ahead and probably pick up a bunch of the cards in this set.  Here are three types of cards that I look for from this set:

1. Hard To Find Signers 

Up until Pedro started signing for Topps the past two years, he had very few certified autographs out on the secondary market.  The Leaf Signature set is very comprehensive and they managed to snag quite a few players who were not the best signers over their careers.  Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson, and Rafael Palmiero are a few others who have tough autographs in this set and can be tough to find away from this set.  Mariano Rivera also has an autograph in this set, which looks spectacular, but be prepared to take out a second mortgage on your house.  

2.  Mark Gubicza, Mike Hampton, Shawon Dunston, Why Not?  

You guys remember Shawon Dunston?  Played for 18 years, first overall draft pick by the Cubs in 1982, two time All-Star, played on four division winners in Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, and San Francsico.  Solid player.  

Doug Drabek played 13 years, won a Cy Young Aaward, and was the ace of the early 1990s Pittsburgh Pirates teams.  Later played for the Astros, White Sox, and Red Sox winning 155 games in his career.  

Mike Hampton played 16 years, was injured for at least another 4 or 5, and still won almost 150 games during his career.  Had a great year pitching for the Astros in 1999, a pretty good year with the Mets in 2000, and then learned your change-up doesn't change plain, nor speed in Denver.  He could hit too....

Mark Gubicza was won of the better pitchers in the late 80s.  Won double digit games in his first six years in the bigs, including a 22 win season, two All-Star appearances, and a ton of Van Halen t-shirts.  

All these players were pretty good.  All of them played when this set was released.  Do you know another card set with a Mark Gubicza autograph?  There are a ton of solid players in this set, who are not Hall of Famers, but had good years and should be worthy of a place in your card collection.  Most of these cards a just a few bucks at most.  Really good deal for an autograph of a pretty good player.  

3.  This Guy Played For My Team!

Who remembers Allen Battle?  He played 61 games for the Cardinals in 1995 and was then traded for Todd Stottlemyre.  I buy Cardinals autographs.  For 50 cents would you buy an autograph of a guy who played part of a season for your favorite team?  I vote yes.