Not $400.

I am old enough to remember when boxes of Topps Finest Baseball cards were not $400.

Looks like I am also now old enough to remember when they were $400.

Greedflation at its finest.  

Luckily, for us collectors on a budget, there are people who buy $400 boxes and sell the single cards on Ebay. Finest comes with two autographs per $400 box, so I started out trying to find a nice pair of autographs for less than $400.  I ended up find 3 autographs rather than two. The total cost of the three cards was less than $20 after shipping. All three cards fit perfectly into my little collection of baseball cards.  

First, an autograph of Giants catcher Patrick Bailey. 

I have several other cards of Bailey in my collection from his time playing at NC State and USA Baseball, but this is my first autograph of him since he turned pro a few years back. Patrick has shortened his signature down considerable over the years.......

but I still love this Finest autograph. Beyond attending NC State, Patrick Bailey also was the Giants catcher for Blake Snell's no-hitter. I really need to post some more Patrick Bailey autographs. Maybe next Monday......

The Bailey autograph was the majority of the not-quite-$20 I spent on these three cards.  

Next up is a pair of Durham Bulls players, one current and one former.  

Curtis Mead is a consensus Top 100 prospect with Baseball Prospectus ranking him highest at 42. Mead actually spent several weeks up with the Rays, but struggled with his bat before being demoted back to Durham. I am a big fan of the Australian third baseman and think he has a bright future somewhere. 

Last card. 

Tristan Gray was on the Durham Bulls the past three seasons. He hit a ton of home runs for them, but never got much of a chance with the Rays. Gray is an older prospect at this point, late twenties, and was traded to the Marlins in the off-season.  I am kind of surprised that he is not on the Marlins on all of his 2024 cards, although I think it's a bit of a surprise that Topps included him in any of their products. 

Anywho, his cards are very inexpensive and I enjoyed watching him play for the Bulls. 

Friday Five: Favorite Delmon Young Cards

I have been writing about the Durham Bulls a lot this past week, so I figured I would break out some Delmon Young cards, scan them, and write them into a post. Delmon was a top 5 prospect for several years in the early 2000s and was the star of the Durham Bulls when I moved to North Carolina.  

His most famous moment as a top prospect for the Durham Bulls was launching his bat at an umpire after striking out in a game against Jon Lester......

Delmon would later go on to disappoint Rays and Twins fans, before developing a reputation as a clutch Postseason player for the Tigers and Orioles. He was out of MLB in his early thirties, but continued to play baseball overseas in the Australian League.  

Sorry, no Australian baseball cards in this post, but these are my Top 5 Delmon Young cards......

5. 2007 Topps 52 Chrome Delmon Young 

Yes, it's a reprint or rehashed design from 1952 Topps, but it's a really good looking card.  This is also when we started getting the "official" rookie cards. This is an official rookie card, unlike the other cards on this list, which are all unofficial.  

4. 2007 Topps Finest Autographs Delmon Young 

Baseball cards do not usually reference too much on-field drama, but here we are with Delmon's 2007 Finest autograph. Notice the "Revenge is Sweet" footnote at the bottom of the card. The back has a short write-up about the "revenge", but they go a little soft. So, here is the story this card is supposed to tell:

The Rays called up Delmon Young at the end of August 2006. His first game is against the White Sox in Chicago. Ozzie Guillen thinks Delmon is an ass and has Freddy Garcia drill him in the back on the first pitch in his first career at-bat. A few innings later, Delmon hit a home run off of Freddy Garcia.  

Here is a snippet of the box score:

Here is a white card with a silver sticker. I cannot roll my eyes hard enough.  

3. 2006 TIAA-CREF Durham Bulls Delmon Young 

Yes, I do work in education and would love to hear about your TIAA-CREF retirement plans, provided I get a baseball card for listening to your sales pitch.......

TIAA-CREF guy: "Save some money or you'll be on food stamps when you retire"  

I enjoyed the sales pitch, but after actually getting the Delmon Young card in my hands and hearing about my future on food stamps, I remembered that there is a financial advisor guy who stops by my school. I am going to teach for 30 years, get a full pension and benefits from the State of North Carolina, and now I also have a TIAA-CREF Delmon Young card. 

You do not see this card very often. 

2. 2004 Bowman Sterling Delmon Young Bat/Autograph 

Delmon could always hit.  

Delmon could never catch the ball.  

This card used to be worth a bazillion dollars and it shows Delmon likely playing a routine fly ball into a double or triple, depending on the speed of the batter. When people who are getting into prospecting ask my strategy as a Minor League for getting good cards of big prospects, I think of this card and tell them to wait a decade. I am certain this card had a three digit value when he was on the Bulls in 2005 and 2006, but it was $10 when I bought it.  

1. 2003 Bowman Chrome Delmon Young Autograph 

One of the great "what could have been" cards from the early 2000s. If only Delmon had stayed on the field a little longer and treated the regular season with the same urgency he treated the Postseason. Maybe not thrown a bat at an umpire, or yelled a bunch of antisemitic stuff at some guy in New York.  

Friday Five: Favorite Adam Wainwright Autographs

It has been really hard to watch the Cardinals this summer. The worst part has been watching Adam Wainwright trying to reach 200 career wins, currently he's at 198. Waino has not been himself this season and I fear he is likely going to fall short of 200 by two wins. 

Rather than dwelling on the negative, I took some time last night to flip through my Adam Wainwright cards. Wainwright has not signed many certified autographs beyond the first few years of his career, which came before I started writing about my cards. I have not really shared any of these on my blog prior to this evening, but thought they would be a fun post.  

Honorable Mention: 2006 Topps Co-Signers Autograph 

Wainwright actually has two autographs in this set. There is a Co-Signers dual autograph card, which also is signed by Anthony Reyes. It would be a pretty sweet add to the collection, just never got around to finding a copy. Especially given that both played an important role in the 2006 Postseason for the Cardinals. I put this card as an Honorable Mention largely due to condition issues. My scanner did a good job of hiding the blemishes, but this is a black card with not-great quality card stock. The edges are a little chippy. However, I do like the Spring Training photograph with Wainwright wearing number 70. 

5. 2007 Topps Finest Autograph 

This is the only card in this countdown that has previously appeared on this blog. I traded for this card back in 2014 and gave it a post. It's a nice card, but I wish Topps had blended the sticker a little better. Nothing worse than a white baseball card with a silver sticker slapped on top. Actually pretty common practice at this time. I did not scan the back of the card, but the "No Pressure" label on the bottom is in reference to Wainwright's Game 7 performance against the Mets in the 2006 National League Championship Series. 

Not a Cardinals fan? Bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth inning, and Carlos Beltran up with a trip to the World Series on the line.  

My favorite Wainwright moment.  

4. 2006 Upper Deck Future Stars Autograph 

This is the only Wainwright autograph I ever pulled out of a pack of cards. The 2006 Upper Deck Future Stars was the greatest/worst box I ever opened. I got this Wainwright autograph along with Ruddy Lugo and James Shields. Lugo and Shields were both on the Durham Bulls at the time. I think both cards are now under $2 on COMC these days. My other autographs were Kelly Shoppach and Colter Bean, but did I mention Adam Wainwright? The sticker is showing here, because my scanner is having a really good Friday. Seriously, Upper Deck did a really good job of blending it on the front of this card. The card is also acetate and has some nice front and back features. Maybe another day when I feel like making more scans.....

3. 2004 Bowman Sterling Autograph/Jersey 

This was the first Wainwright autograph in my collection. I picked this up from a local card shop in St. Louis back when I lived there. Relatively cheap as I recall too, less than $20. I might rank this a little higher, but the autograph is partially off the sticker. I have contemplated replacing this card at some point, but many of the sticker autographs on other copies of this Bowman Sterling card are also missing part of Wainwright's signature. It's really hard to do much better than what Wainwright did on this card. The red jersey swatch is a nice bonus. Bowman Sterling is a good looking product, I just wish the autographs were on-card.  

2. 2006 Upper Deck F/X Special Endorsements Autograph 

I like the looks of this card and I also like how Upper Deck blended the sticker autograph. You can barely tell that Wainwright did not sign the actual card. Sticker autographs are a sub plot on this post and this is the best of set of stickers that Adam Wainwright signed during a two-year window early in his career. I believe this was a random EBay purchase at some point in 2006 or 2007. If this were an on-card signature, I might have picked this card as the top Wainwright autograph in my collection. Still really nice at 2.  

1. 2004 Topps Traded Signature Moves 

Good design with an on-card signature, and a complete Wainwright signature. I know a winner when I see one and this is not a sticker autograph.   

Pujols Post - 2007 Topps Finest

Topps Finest is always a quality product.

You cannot go wrong with an Albert Pujols Finest card. Not sure I have done one of these on a Pujols post, so I figured it was time.  

Front of the card.  

Topps products always seem to go through phases with colors. The 2007 Finest set was the start of a run of white bordered cards from this product. Topps used white borders for 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2012. The Finest sets prior to this were pretty colorful and this initially felt like a bit of a let down. In general, I have actually grown to like the white-bordered Finest cards. However, I feel like the odd lines around the border make this the worst Finest design from this era. The other white bordered Finest sets have a cleaner design.  

Back of the card.  

Here is my favorite part of this card. It is one of the few Pujols cards that mentions his home run off of Brad Lidge in the 2005 National League Championship Series. The Cardinals did not win that Series, but it was one of the most memorable moments in Albert's career. Definitely one of his better home runs.  

We need more Albert Pujols/Brad Lidge baseball cards.  

“And you, Larry Hockett, should recognize me"

"and you Larry Hockett should remember me, 'cause about five moths ago in the Triple A National Championship Game you were pitching for Reno and I was batting clean-up for Durham. You hung 0 and 1 curve ball in a 6-4 game in the bottom of the 9th and I roped it down the line to tie the game and win the Triple A National Championship Game MVP Award" 

It was actually J.B. Wendelken, but that does not fit the theme of the blog as well as Larry Hockett.  

Continuing my work on cards from last year's Durham Bulls Triple A Championship team, I added two new cards this weekend. Both pretty significant contributors to the team and both really nice looking baseball cards.  

First up, Vidal Brujan.  

Brujan was Robin to Wander Franco's Batman a few years back and he has been hanging out in Durham ever since. He actually spent a fair amount of time in Tampa last year and is still listed on several of those top prospect rankings. 

I have a few Brujan autographs floating around the collection already. I just decided to get another one, because the prices of his cards are now more in line with the average anonymous Rays utility player and not Wander Franco. I like this hazy blue Topps Finest card. The surface is shiny and the background color matches the Rays uniform.  

Hazy Shade of Devil Ray?

Susanna Hoffs owes me royalties if she ever uses this on stage.  

Next.  

Triple A Championship Game MVP, Bligh Madris.  

This card is a bit of a head scratcher. Madris was on the Pirates for part of the 2022 season, but was put on waivers and claimed by the Rays. The Rays sent him down to Durham where he had a great few weeks playing with the Bulls.  Bligh Madris played in 10 regular season games for the Bulls and hit 4 home runs, 3 doubles, and drove in 15 runs.

It was a Ruthian performance.

Best of all, the Triple A Championship Game was in Las Vegas last year.  

Bligh Madris is from.......

Las Vegas.  

Sorry, I cannot fit another Bangles meme into this post.  

Random Ray - 1993 Finest

Going big this week with a 1993 Topps Finest Ray Lankford.

Not the refractor, but maybe I will post that card one of these days.  

The 1993 Finest set was a huge deal at the time of its release. Definitely one of the best card sets of the 1990s. At the time, this was super high-end, but within reason and sanity. These cards were $3.99 a pack, which was steep for a pack in the mid 1990s. Compare that to the multiple hundreds of dollars box/pack/guaranteed handful of autographs stuff that Topps sell these days. As I said, within reason and sanity. 

Here is the front of the card.  

Fairly simple design that I have always enjoyed. The banner at the top bothered me back in the 1990s when these cards first came out. Seems like a lot of space for the brand name, but at least it does not limit the size of the player picture. I am going to overlook this one. 

I also love the red nameplate at the bottom with the silver/gray player name. Great color combination with the bright background and light colored writing. The reds are a little different, but they essentially reversed the color scheme for the Topps logo box next to the player name plate. 

The center is its own thing, but I love the circle behind the player. Draws your eye to the picture, which is a nice feature on a card without any sort of playing/stadium background behind the player photograph.  

The back is also really well done.  Same color scheme on the back nameplate. The stats are a little small, but simple. Nice player photograph and clear card number. The team name being in a large font feels a little off, but nothing too bad. I also never quite understood the background with the old-time looking sketches of baseball players. I would have gone solid color, but maybe they were trying to do some sort of old meets new thing with the pictures.  

Random Ray - 1999 Topps Finest Refractor

Do you know how many late 1990s and early 2000s Topps products have the same photo of Ray Lankford? Several others are similar enough that you have to wonder if they came from the same game, maybe even the same at-bat.  

It's worthy of its own Random Ray post one of these days.  

This is the picture, which is on a Topps Finest Refractor for today's post.  

Did Topps only have one or two photos of Ray Lankford available for their 1999 baseball cards?  

The answer appears to be yes.  

Give me a photo of Ray Lankford wearing a gray Cardinals road uniform in the follow-through of his swing and I will guess 1999 or 2000 Topps (insert the name of product). Given where his head and eyes are looking, I am guessing he hit the ball somewhere.  The astroturf around the home plate area leads me to believe this photo was likely taken in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or Cincinnati. The number of stadiums with artificial turf in 1998 was limited to a few remaining cookie-cutter parks.  

The design is fine. I am happy it is minimal and the main focus of the card is the photograph of the player. We have got the protective coating thing on this card. I left this one on the card.  

Back of the card.  

I like the small photograph of Ray clapping in the top corner.  It's something different from the front of the card, always a positive.  

The Finest Moment and Finest Career Achievement both have nice write-ups. As a person who saw Ray Lankford hit for the cycle in-person, I love all the baseball cards that mention that game.  As a person who enjoyed watching Ray Lankford as a player, I am going to have to disagree for the Finest Moment from 1998. 

I would have actually picked out Lankford's eighth inning home run against the Cubs on the night of Mark McGwire's 62nd home run. Lankford was the lone left-handed batter stuck in the middle of McGwire, Ron Gant, and Brian Jordan. McGwire walked frequently, Lankford did a great job of making teams pay for putting Big Mac on base. 

The night of McGwire's 62nd home run, the Cubs walked McGwire to pitch to Ray Lankford with the score tied at 2 in the 8th inning. The result.....

The McGwire years were also Lankford's best years.  He set career highs in a lot of offensive categories outside of stolen bases. Ray stopped running after the Cardinals dropped him into the middle of the lineup. This moment felt a lot more emblematic of Ray Lankford's 1998 season than some random game against the Expos where he went 4-4.  

The home run was even on a low fastball over the middle of the plate. Ray Lankford did not miss low fastballs.  

Overall, a solid effort here by Topps. I just wish we could have more than one photo of Ray Lankford on their 1999 baseball cards.  

Random Ray - 1995 Topps Finest

This card was the beginning of a really bad, although short-lived trend. During the second half of the 1990s, Topps decided to place a protective sticker over the front of all their Finest cards. My bad, it's a "coating", which is fancy-speak for sticker.  They were annoying in that they covered up the photograph on the front of the card. The stickers also presented an odd dilemma. Do I peel the sticker off and enjoy the card the way it should or do I leave the sticker in place?  

Does removing the sticker diminish the value? Is it still in mint condition if I remove it? 

I left the sticker alone.  

I really like this photograph. There are plenty of cards with Ray Lankford wearing sunglasses, but I cannot think of another card where he is wearing regular glasses or goggles. In fact, I took a quick stroll through a few of the Cardinals social media pictures from their recent team Hall of Fame events (Lankford is in) and I cannot find a picture of him wearing glasses there either.  

Maybe there is another reason to wear glasses? 

Cut down on glare? 

Windy and dust?  

I do not know. I do not wear glasses. What I do know is that the Cardinals need to go back to wearing their blue hats on the road full-time. I know that I say that in every other Random Ray post, but I honestly cannot say it enough. I want blue hats all the time on the road.  

Back of the card.  

The stats are simple, but solid. 

The Finest Moment is actually a really nice moment.

The color photo of Ray Lankford on the side looks nice with the green and gray in the background.  

Good effort here by Topps on this Finest card.  

Random Ray - 1995 Topps Finest

The baseball card purist in me cringes when I see the Topps Finest cards from the second half of the 1990s. At the time, Finest was a popular, high-end brand and had done some innovative things with cards that are still around today. Namely, the brand created the refractor cards. The 1995 Finest was the start of a short-lived, terrible "innovation".

So, what was cringeworthy about the 1995 Topps?

Let's look at this week's Ray Lankford card.  

I love this photograph of Ray Lankford batting and wearing sunglasses. The blue, road Cardinals hat is an added bonus. What the heck is stamped across his face? It's actually a protective coating that was supposed to protect the surface of card from surface flaws. It is hideous. Definitely cringeworthy.  

Why was this a thing?  

I have long been tempted to go through my boxes of late 1990s Finest cards and rip all of the "Finest Protector" sheets off, but at the same time this is how the card came out of the pack. This has all the trappings of a good mid-1990s baseball card, but the fact that I even have to think about whether to peel a plastic protector off the card is a huge negative in my book.  

Back of the card.  

There is no protective cover on the back of the card, but it is mentioned in the small print at the bottom of the card. That's unfortunate. Topps should have gone ahead and just slapped one back here too.  

Skin Protector Pat. Pending. 

I hope they got turned down, but given that the skin protector lasted until 1999, I am guess they did not.  

A Finest Moment

Ozzie Smith is in the Hall of Fame because of his great defense. Rightfully, there are a ton of cards that highlight his Gold Gloves and acrobatics in the field. However, there does seem to be one offensive highlight that appears on Ozzie's cards almost on an annual basis. One of the greatest Postseason home runs in the history of the Cardinals franchise.  

Great call by the late, great Jack Buck too.  

In sorting out some cards the other week, I noticed that I had not really done much with the Cardinals Hall of Famers this year. Last year, I found a Bob Gibson rookie card. I didn't need anything that big, but it does not quite seem like a full year of collecting baseball cards without a good card of Stan Musial, Gibson, Lou Brock, or Ozzie Smith. I went ahead and found my good Cardinals card last week.  

I love the picture on the front of this card.  It's what caught my attention. Every Cardinals fan knows this picture of Ozzie batting left-handed in a 1980s Cardinals polyester uniform. It is indeed a "Finest Moment".  

I was also impressed with the back of the card.  

Topps usually skimps on the back of the card. They actually did a little bit of research and a decent write up here. They left out the fact that it was Ozzie's first home run as a left-handed batter during his career.  Ozzie was a switch-hitter. However, the first sentence bringing up his whopping career home run total of 29 did a good job of giving the reader of how rarely Ozzie hit a home run. 

I'll Go Ahead And Cave

One of the biggest reasons I was excited about the 2021 baseball card releases was getting my hands on some Jake Cronenworth cards. He was on the Durham Bulls a few years back. The Rays ended up trading him to the Padres before the 2020 season. I would have loved to see him stay in Tampa, but understand that if you follow a Minor League team, trades are inevitable.  I am just happy Jake Cronenworth made the Majors after a long journey through the Minors.  

My only Jake Cronenworth card entering 2021 was a Durham Bulls team issue card from 2019.  

Cronenworth has appeared in several 20201 Topps and Panini products, even signed a bunch of autographs.  I was not really happy about the prices of his cards on eBay.  Earlier this year I tried to lay out a case for people spending less money on Jake Cronenworth cards.  He's a 27-year-old rookie and he went to the University of Michigan.  Those are two really good reasons.  

I have waited patiently, but being a Rookie of the Year candidate and making the National League All-Star team doesn't really do anything to make your cards more affordable.  So, I decided to go the opposite direction two weeks back.  

Here are some reasons to buy some Jake Cronenworth cards.  

-Cronenworth is one of my favorite Durham Bulls players 

-I don't really mind the Padres and there are a ton of other former Durham Bulls on that team. 

-He's a Rookie of the Year candidate who just made the National League All-Star team. 

-Cronenworth cards are still less expensive than Wander Franco's cards.  

I picked up three Cronenworth cards, two autographs, and one insert.  

The first one is from Topps Finest.  The background on these cards is a little odd this year.  The left side looks very 1980s/1990s this year with the pink and green background with the different shapes mixed in.  The right side is very plain with the Chrome reflective material kind of standing alone.  There is a little color in there, but not much.  

This is my favorite card in this post.  Love the action shot of Cronenworth sliding into home, even if he is wearing a ridiculous camouflage baseball uniform.  Some of the recent Stadium Club designs with the large player name at the bottom haven't really done anything for me, but I like this year's design with the bar at the bottom.  Feels like a throwback to the original set released back in 1991.  

Last one. 

I really like this card with Jake Cronenworth on the 1986 Topps design.  There is an autographed 1986 Topps-style card of Cronenworth too, but it's a sticker autograph that looks terrible.  

That's it for today.  I am really happy with these cards, glad to have a few Cronenworth's to look at, and I will live with the fact that I caved on price this time.  

Not Giving Up

As a Minor League baseball fan, inevitably all of your favorite players are going to leave. Minor Leaguers get promoted to the Majors, get traded, and get released all the time.  Sometimes it is easier to maintain a connection with the player after they have moved onto a different team.  Other times it is a little bit more challenging.  

I have spent a lot of time lately trying to process the Blake Snell trade from the Rays to the Padres.  I was expecting him to leave at some point, not exactly the type of player that they can afford to re-sign, but this off-season felt a little soon.  I thought I would get at least half a season more of Snell with the Rays.  

I guess not.  

Snell is one of my all-time favorite former Durham Bulls.  How many autographs of Snell have I posted on here over the past four or five years?  Fifty or sixty something?  

The number is large.  

I don't mind the Padres.  There are far worse places he could have ended up.  Do you know how many former Durham Bulls have been on the Cubs the last few years?  I know there was a strong connection with Joe Maddon managing the team.  A little hard to think good thoughts about players like Mike Montgomery and Ben Zobrist while they are beating the Cardinals.  

For the moment, I am going to press on with my Blake Snell cards.  I picked up a few inexpensive singles over the past two weeks.  There are still a few Snell autographs from 2020 that I am still missing from my collection, but not going to buy them at their current prices.  

Here are the new cards:  

Is there a baseball card product that Topps won't turn into a Chrome product?  You already know the answer.  I really like the coloring on these cards and I am not sure if I own any/many Chrome minis?  Maybe none?  Allen & Ginter always has the white borders and card stock.  The Chrome version has all sorts of colored cards, not sure if I am going to pursue the other Snells.  Probably all depends on their cost.  I am not sure the colored versions of Ginter would looks as good on standard card stock.  

The back of the card is same old Ginter design.  

This is a little different card for me.  I know it looks like a regular Topps Heritage card from 2019, but it is actually  one of those gimmicky variations that I am not really into collecting.  Well, sometimes you stumble across one that is not very expensive.  

The card is in both English and French.  Did these even appear in the 1970 Topps set?  Feels like it's some sort of salute to O-Pee-Chee.  This is actually one of those variations that I would have noticed if I pulled it out of a pack.  Topps should have put his height and weight in Metric.  

Next.  

How many times can Topps remake the 1993 Finest set?  It seems like an annual event at this point.  Maybe it's not that often, it just feels that way.  Not scanning the back of the card.  

Last card.  

How many different products can Topps make with a Chrome finish?  The answer will eventually be all of them.  This is some Chrome parallel of Snell's card from this year's Heritage set.  I prefer the black borders on the regular base set, but still not a bad looking card.  

The card is serial numbered to 571 copies.  

This is going to be the first of many Blake Snell posts I make in 2021.  Even if I get annoyed with the Padres, still more preferable than the Dodgers, I will just go back and collect all the Rays cards I am missing.