He dabbles in baseball cards and helps me open packs from time to time. There is a 1986 Sportsflics cards that shares space on his dresser with Ben the Beta Fish. There is a Tony LaRussa bobblehead up there somewhere too.
Then there is the one year old.
This picture isn't current, mainly because I do not want to encourage the destruction of cards, which is already a huge issue with this one. She's mobile, curious, and not afraid to break things. I try really hard to keep my cards put away, or at least out of reach. However, about a month ago she figured out how to pry open one of the shoebox storage boxes where I keep my autographs. The carnage was limited to a Topps Archives Jose Cruz.
It was Jose Cruz, so it could have been much worse. I also wasn't too worried about replacing card. I think I had originally picked up the card because it was $2 at a card show. Well, that was until there was a really good deal posted on a Facebook card group with a Jose Cruz Archives auto.
In fact, there were two....
and a whole bunch of other cool Archives autographs too.
Some of them are kind of blahzay. Randy Jones was cool for about two years in the mid 1970s, but I am not sure about the rest of his career. He's got a nice signature. That's a positive. Outside of this Randy Jones card, I was really happy about the rest of the cards in this lot and I paid roughly $2 a card after shipping.
Frank Howard on a blue bordered parallel. It's numbered out of 199, which is high in today's world of baseball cards, but I always like getting autographs of the 1950s and 1960s players. I believe that "The Capital Punisher" ended his career in the early 1970s, but I always think of him as a Dodger and Senator. The bad version of Frank Howard, 1970s, was on the Rangers and Tigers.
On to cards with connections with teams I follow....
Jeff Conine, not a Cardinal and not a Durham Bull, but his son plays for Duke and should be a high draft pick next summer. Apparently Jeff hangs out and takes in a few Duke games. I don't bother people during baseball games, especially parents, so this seems like a safe route to pick up a copy of his autograph.
Most of the cards in this post are from the regular Archives sets, but this one is from the 65th Anniversary set last year. Kind of a hot mess of a set. Cool looking card fronts with mismatched card backs.
Eduardo Perez. LaRussa era bench player and current, I think, ESPN employee. Although, they've fired all of their employees, so I am not sure Eduardo is actually still there, or if he's off announcing a 1-AA college football game somewhere.....
Long time Astro, one time member of the Cardinals. His Cardinals career last two months: September and October of 2006. This happened. Jose is on the right side of the picture wearing jersey number 13.
Two more Cardinals from the 1960s.
Curt Simmons spent most of his career with the Phillies, but he had a great year with the Cardinals in 1964 helping the team win the World Series. This is from the 65th Archives Anniversary set. Simmons signature looks a little shaky, but it's still a great looking card.
I posted another copy of this card, it was a blue framed parallel, a few weeks ago. Not a Cardinals card, but Francona was on the team for a year or two in the mid to late 1960s.