I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 64- Tony LaRussa

Tony LaRussa is amongst the most successful manager in the history of baseball.  As the manager of the Cardinals, he won more than 1,400 games over fifteen years.  The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 and 2011, the team also won the National League in 2004.  Unfortunately, when LaRussa took over the Cardinals manager's job in 1996 there were not any card companies making manager's cards.

There are a ton of LaRussa cards out there.  

He has cards from his days as a player.

 

He has cards from his time as the manager of the White Sox......

and the A's.  

There are also cards of Tony LaRussa from his time with the Cardinals during the 2000s.....

Just not much to talk about as far as the 1990s Cardinals are concerned.  I like seeing the managers on baseball cards.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, all the card companies seemed to skip over the skippers between 1996 and the early 2000s.  

The only place to find LaRussa cards from his first years as a Cardinals manager are in the team sets that were giveaways at Busch Stadium and police sets.  The team sets from the late 1990s were a little bit interesting to say the least.  Let's run through these cards.  A few cool LaRussa moments along the way too.....

This is from the 1996 Cardinals team set, and a really busy set design.  We've got this squiggly black line down here at the bottom, which looks like it could be from the Missouri license plates from the 1990s.  They too had a squiggly line.  Quite unpopular.  

The card also has the word "CARDINALS" written entirely too big and a slugger bird logo in the corner.  I am not sure the card really needs the giant yellow wording on the side.  Straighten out that crooked line too and this card would be 100% better.  

Back of the card.....

I have a hard time believing that Tony LaRussa would write a letter to a group of fans about a baseball card program.  If it were about pet adoption, or him rescuing cats in Oakland, or his pet adoption agency I would believe it.  Otherwise, no.  

On to 1997.  A better card design here for the most part, until....

you look at the top of the card.  Is that supposed to be brick, or like some sort of leather?  

and more letters to fans that Tony LaRussa did not actually write.  Remember that time that Tony LaRussa took a phone call in the middle of his postgame presser.  Classic.  

I am surprised and disappointed that this would even be a card design.  

I am just speechless.  Is that Walt Jocketty wearing mom jeans?  Looks like the design from a 90210 DVD box. 

This card deserves an angry Tony moment.  This is the most concise LaRussa ejection that I can find.  

There was a fight between the Angels and A's back in the mid 1990s where the Angels threw at McGwire.  The A's threw at Tim Salmon.  LaRussa during the brawl.  

No one ever threw at Mark McGwire again.  Not true, but LaRussa looks off his rocker.  

Last card.  

So busy.  It's a shame that these are the only four Cardinals cards that LaRussa had during the 1990s.  I wish there were a Topps, or some sort of Upper Deck card to show off here.  Also kind of neat to spend a post showing off some of the team sets from the 1990s.  Clearly the Cardinals sets from the earlier half of the 1990s and 1980s were a lot better than any of these designs.  

Last LaRussa moment.  A Busch Beer commercial where he calls Jim Frey and offers to buy him a beer.  It's 9:30 at night and Jim Frey is in bed.  Also seems wrong the Cubs manager is in a beer commercial for an Anheuser-Busch product.  Stick to Old Style.  

The Best Cardinal Without A Card

It has been painful to watch the Cardinals the past few years.  There is the obvious fact that they have been passed by the Cubs as the rulers of the National League Central, but in my opinion there has been far more wrong with the team beyond the improvement of the Cubs on-field performance.

The team has been incredibly sloppy and deeply flawed in many different ways...

Bad defense.  

Bad baserunning.  

Bad pitching.  

Not sure there is a video clip, or picture, that could sum up the poor quality of Matheny's poor in game strategy.  It's horrible.  After spending my life watching Whitey Herzog, Joe Torre, and Tony LaRussa there is no doubt that I have been spoiled by quality managers......

but even by mediocre manager standards Matheny is still bad.  

There have been plenty of Matheny cards that have been made since he took over the Cardinals managing gig in 2012, but I have posted none of them.  He is one St. Louis player/manager I can live without in my collection.  I have posted Tate Matheny cards.......

but I am not touching Mike.  He's got some cards in my collection, but only what I need to finish the sets that I have in closet.  There are not really any "cool" Matheny cards floating around in my baseball card room.  

How did we get here?  The three managers before Matheny, there were short-term managers between Herzog and Torre and Torre and LaRussa, the Cardinals did things the right way.  The teams always did a great job of fielding....

Played good defense in the outfield....

on the infield.....

they ran the bases well....

and they had timely hitting.  Oh, and they ran the bases well after the timely hitting.  

Not to excuse Matheny, he's still a garbage manager, but the three previous managers had someone on their staff in common.  In fact, he started out with the Cardinals in the early 1940s before World War II as a player in their Minor League system, did some managing in the Minors with the Cardinals after his playing career flamed out before the Majors, and eventually settled into a role with the team as a roving instructor.  

The Cardinals organization referred to him as "The Professor"

In the late 1960s he worked with former Phillies infielder George "Sparky" Anderson as he transitioned over to managing Minor League teams for the Cardinals.  He apparently went on to be a pretty good manager.  He also ended up working with former A's utility infielder Tony LaRussa as a player during his final year with the New Orleans Pelicans, a Cardinals Minor League team at that time.  

George Kissell might be one of the most important members of the Cardinals organization that nobody knows much about outside of St. Louis.  He did work on the coaching staff of Red Schoendienst for a time in the 1970s and made it onto the bottom of a baseball card as a coach.....

Kissell did not ever get his own card though since he was only a coach.  You would think that with all of the gimmicky cards that Topps comes up with every year that we could get a card of coach that was with a team through seven World Series Championships.  How can he not get some sort of card?  That's more World Series winners than all the other Major League teams outside of the Yankees, A's, Giants, and Red Sox.  

We've had a card with George W. Bush photoshopped into the crowd and Mickey Mantle into the dugout....

we've even had a squirrel get a baseball card with Skip Schumaker's shoe.....

It's hard to believe that George Kissell is cardless.  

I was fortunate enough to spot something last week and I honestly thought that some other Cardinals collector would jump on it and push it to a place I was unwilling to go in terms of cost.  I was surprised in the end that nobody else touched it.  

An actual George Kissel card.  Not with Red Schoendienst, but all by himself.  

It's actually the photo proof card that Topps used to make the 1974 Red Schoendienst card at the top of the post.  It's not necessarily a baseball card in the traditional sense, but it's still something.  Considering their is not an actual stand alone George Kissell card this is as close as it gets for the moment.  

Maybe one day someone at one of the card companies will wake up and decide to give George Kissel a card.  Sadly, he passed away after a car accident in Tampa in 2008....

While it would be a little bit late for Kissell to enjoy his own card, I am certain that it would likely be a hit with Cardinals collectors.  I am sure that if Topps can make a card with Abe Lincoln and Ryan Dempster they can find a spot in a set for a coach like George Kissell.  

#MyCardMonday

The Best of LaRussa

Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa entered the Hall of Fame earlier this afternoon.  The majority of my life as a Cardinals fan has been covered by Whitey Herzog and Tony LaRussa.  I am a little bit spoiled.  Sorry Matheny.  Anyway, LaRussa had a great run as a manager with three teams.  Out of respect to the A's, Cardinals, and White Sox LaRussa is actually entering the Hall with a blank hat.  He's a Cardinal in book.  Here are my top five LaRussa seasons at the helm of the Cardinals

#5- 2002

While the 2002 season did not yield the Cardinals a pennant it was arguable the best managing job that LaRussa did during his time in St. Louis.  Most notably LaRussa did a remarkable job of leading the Cardinals to the National League Central pennant, and a spot in the National League Championship Series against the Giants, after the passing of star pitcher Darryl Kile.

Kile's finally start actually landed the Cardinals in first place where LaRussa kept them for the rest of the season.  The team ended the year with 97 wins while getting second half starts from Mike Timlin, Mike Crudale, Travis Smith, Bud Smith, Garrett Stephenson, Jamey Wright, and Josh Pearce.  The Cardinals eventually traded minor league outfielder Covelli (aka Coco) Crisp to the Indians for Chuck Finley and LaRussa helped get them close to the World Series.  

#4. 2000

I put the 2000 season ahead of the 2002 season which might be the only point worth arguing on this list.  For me the 2000 season was a turning point with LaRussa, the Cardinals, and St. Louis.  LaRussa's first season in St. Louis at the helm of the Cardinals brought the team to within a game of the 1996 World Series.  The 1997, 1998, and 1999 versions of the team resembled a beer league softball team.  The line-ups featured Mark McGwire, Ron Gant, Gary Gaetti, Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan and absolutely zero pitching.  LaRussa was questioned, fans were ticked, and Tony took note.  

The make-up of the team started to change in 2000.  The team brought in Darryl Kile from the Rockies, Jim Edmonds from the Angels, and featured young talent like Rick Ankiel and J.D. Drew.  Ankiel, Matt Morris, and Kile formed the front end of a good rotation.  Edmonds hit home runs, caught everything, and looked like Duke Snider playing centerfield for the Cardinals.  The only thing that went wrong during the regular season was an injury to Mark McGwire.  The team traded for Will Clark and he morphed into the late 80s version of himself and lead the team into the playoffs.  

and then the wheels fell off in the playoffs.  There was this......

and Mike Matheny could not work a knife.  After the 2000 season I am not sure many people in St. Louis made mention of getting rid of LaRussa or chasing him out of town.  

#3. 2004

The 2004 team was another remake of the team.  The Cardinals never really had enough pitching in 2002 or 2003 after the loss of Kile.  The 2004 Cardinals had Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Jeff Suppan, Jason Marquis, and a cast off from the Blue Jays Chris Carpenter.  The team was also remade around the MV3 of Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds.  Tony Womack was brought in to play second and lead off.  J.D. was traded away and replaced by Reggie Sanders, and later in the summer by Larry Walker.  

The team steam rolled into the playoffs and made it quickly to the NLCS where they ran into their arch rivals the Houston Astros who featured Lance Berkman, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, and Roger Clemens.  The Astros lead 3-2 with the series heading back to St. Louis for Game 6 where Jim Edmonds took care of the Astros.....

The next night Scott Rolen took care of Roger Clemens.....

and then they ran out of steam and the Red Sox fans have been annoying since.....

#2.  2006

This was looking like the end of the MV3 during the regular season.  Pujols was still Pujols, but Edmonds was hurt frequently and Scott Rolen's shoulder might have been held together by paper mache.  The team took on outcasts like Scott Speizio, David Eckstein, Preston Wilson, and Jeff Weaver and turned it into a World Series title.  The Cardinals only won 83 regular season games, but snapped into place during the Postseason.  Everyone who doubts their team can win the World Series needs to watch the 2006 Cardinals World Series movie.  It just goes to show that any team can win, it just depends what week it is....

Adam Wainwright as the closer too.

#1. 2011

I will let the videos do the talking on this one......

It started the last day of the regular season....

then the National League Playoffs.  

Game 6 of the World Series.  9th Inning.

Game 6 of the World Series.  11th Inning.  

Game 7.  

A Trip to Big D's Card Shop

My computer is throwing a temper tantrum over the new OS Mavericks update so for tonight, or until I get all the kinks ironed out, I have pictures more than scans.  I stopped in at my favorite local card, Big D's, in Raleigh for a little down time on Sunday afternoon.  I had completed a trade with Jimmy, the shop's owner, earlier in the week and wanted to take him in his half of the trade as well as collect my half of the trade too.  You know you cannot just go into the shop and just finish a trade.  I bought a few other things while I was there too.  So, here's the run down.

I actually picked up a few vintage cards.  Vintage like 70s.  A nice Templeton, Hernandez, two early Bob Forsch cards and also a few old Hostess cards from the early 1980s.  

Garry Templeton is looking snarky in that card.  It's clearly a Spring Training card, but he looks mad enough to double bird a Mother's Day crowd at Busch Stadium.  The best vintage card I landed yesterday though was a sweet 1972 Topps Tony LaRussa card with the Hall of Fame manager pictured as a utility infielder for the Braves.  

Pretty sweet.  I also picked up my usual assortment of more recent cards, such as....

A B.J. Upton jersey card from the 2009 Upper Deck set.  Always really liked the card design on this set.  Really cool.  I miss you Upper Deck.  

A Wil Myers green parallel from the 2014 Bowman set.  Former Durham Bull, current Ray, always the 2013 American League Rookie of the Year.  

A Marcus Stroman mini.  No serial numbered, but still a cool looking card of the former Duke star, turned Blue Jays prospect.  

Randal Grichuk autograph from the 2011 ITG set.  Really cool set with some good autographs.  Good inexpensive set to track down if you are looking for some good prospect autographs.  

This beautiful Stanton jumbo jersey numbered out of 25.  Jimmy has had this in the shop for awhile and it has been calling my name..(buy me) it whispered.  For something different.......

An autographed mini helmet of 2002 ACC Rookie of the Year TA McLendon.  He's a bit of a legend around here and had a great year for the 2002 NC State team which was one of their better football teams.  So, what constitutes a good football team at NC State?  They had Phillip Rivers.  They beat the doors off of Notre Dame in a bowl game.  

Finally the card I traded for.....

Longoria rookie, autographed, numbered out of 50.  Not too shabby.  Overall, another great trip into my favorite local card store.