Friday Five: My Favorite Miggy Cards

I do not write about the Tigers often on this blog, but they have long been a team on my radar. My wife is a Michigan native, so my in-laws are all big Tigers fans. My middle schooler likes the Tigers (not you Javy Baez) and will watch their games. I have been fortunate enough to attend a few Tigers games over the years. They have a great stadium if you are ever in Detroit. 

The last Tigers game I attended was two summers ago and I was fortunate enough to see Miguel Cabrera one last time in person. I knew it was likely going to be the last time, so I took a few pictures......

In the end, Miggy walked off the Twins on an odd single that landed between the centerfielder and the shortstop. The Twins had actually been really aggressive with pinch hitting and had Nick Gordon, normally a second baseman or shortstop, playing in centerfield.  

On to the cards. I think I have a sneaky good collection of Miggy cards, so I thought it would be fun to do one of my Friday posts featuring some of my favorites of the future Hall of Famer.  

5. 2013 Topps Miguel Cabrera Triple Crown Relic 

Not sure where winning the Triple Crown ranks on Miggy's list of career accomplishments, but it feels like it should be up there. I also feel like it rarely gets mentioned when people talk about his career. I watched his last few games, not sure it really got brought up. Maybe the accomplishment has lost some of its luster in recent years with the push on using sabermetric stats. Do people really talk about batting average anymore? 

I love this card. It's die-cut, has a nice action picture of Miggy with a swatch of his jersey, and is better than anything else I have seen that recognizes him as a former Triple Crown winner. These have gotten pricey and hard to find over the last decade.  

T4. 2011 Triple Threads Miguel Cabrera Patch Card 

Two relic cards in a post is my limit in the year 2023. I do not really do relic cards, but this one is too good to not post on my list. I went all in on the 2011 Triple Threads set and have some great looking cards from this product. I could easily make a few posts on some of the cards. This is one of my favorites. 

I have never really tried to figure out all the patch pieces on here, but there is a lot of blue and orange. I think it's the Detroit script off of a road Tigers uniform, as the home uniforms do not have any orange..... 

The patch piece on the LL of the card is white, orange, and then a partial piece of blue. Looks similar to the top of Ts in the word "Detroit" on the road uniforms. 

T4. 2011 Triple Threads Miguel Cabrera Autograph 

I will fudge on the five card thing a bit in this post and go ahead and share one of the Triple Threads autographs I have of Miggy from the 2011 set while we are here. Yes, it's a sticker autograph, but it's a clear sticker on a really great looking card. 

3. 2012 Topps Five Star Miguel Cabrera Autograph 

I love Five Star. I don't open any packs of it, because they cost a second mortgage on your house. I just like when people sell their autographs that do not make them a profit on their $250 box of cards. You pulled a Miguel Cabrera autograph and need to sell it? I am listening.  

I have several Miguel Cabrera autographs that are not going to be included in this list. They are all really great cards that I am sure the average sane collector would love to have in their collection. This is my favorite Miggy autograph and it's the last one on this list. This Five Star is an on-card autograph and has really thick card stock. Yes, it's got a jersey and some art work, that's kind of an afterthought here. I wish I could scan the side of the card to show off the stock, it's impressive.  

2. 2001 Bowman Heritage Miguel Cabrera 

Huge fan of the 2001 Bowman Heritage set. Have a ever told you about how much I love the Albert Pujols card in this set? I don't love Miggy that much, but it's close. Is this considered a rookie card? I treat it like it's a rookie card. It's in a magnetic one-touch and everything. This is a great looking card and aesthetically probably my favorite card of Miguel Cabrera on the Marlins. 

1. 2000 Topps Traded Miguel Cabrera 

The 2000 Topps set is trash, but the Traded set is pretty nice. You've got rookie cards of Adam Wainwright, Ben Sheets, and Miguel Cabrera. That's more checklist depth than the 1982 Topps Traded set. If I had to make a list of the most important 2000s rookie cards, this Miguel Cabrera would be really high on the list. Great card. First ballot Hall of Famer wearing a teal Marlins uni, not sure how it gets better than that.  

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.   

A 1980s Card Part 47 - 1986 Topps Traded Tim Conroy

Tim Conroy is the second best part of this card.  He's a supporting actor.

This quick rundown on the former Major League pitcher.  The A's drafted in 1978, and for some reason thought it would be cool to bring an 18 year old up to the Majors straight out of high school.  They did the same thing with Mike Morgan.  Both of them had an ERA above 7 pitching to Major League hitters as fresh out of high school pitchers.  Conroy gets sent to the Minors where he lingers for a few years.  They bring him back up in 1982, he does decently and they use him as a spot starter and long reliever for a few years. 

The earliest card I have of Conroy in my collection is a 1984 Topps card. 

He also appeared on the A's team card.  Name a better duo on the 1983 A's. 

I can think of about 5, but they put the batting average leader and ERA leader for the 1983 season on the team card for the 1984 Topps set.  Take that Carney Lansford. 

Enter the 1985 offseason. 

The Cardinals trade Joaquin Andujar to the A's for Tim Conroy and Mike Heath.  Andujar was coming off a 21 win season, so the trade looked a little lopsided at the time.  After reading a write up of the trade, I am guessing that Joaquin Andujar going ballistic on Don Denkinger in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series might have been the final straw for him in St. Louis.  Not sure that Whitey Herzog was a big fan of baggage.  See Keith Hernandez.  

Conroy pitched part of two seasons in St. Louis.  Injuries wrecked his career in 1987, but his most significant contribution to the Cardinals was his 1986 Topps Traded baseball card.  Here is the front of the card.  

As a kid, I have to admit that there were very few Cardinals cards with pictures inside of Busch Stadium.  Just looking at the 1986 Topps cards, every single picture was either taken at Spring Training or in Shea Stadium.  All of them. 

There were years that someone squeezed in a shot or two from Busch Stadium, but not many.  I like this Conroy card because the photo was not only taken at Busch, but you kind of get the whole feel for the stadium in the mid 1980s.  He's not standing against a wall, or sitting in the dugout where you just get a little piece of the stadium. 

There is astroturf.  The high blue walls in the outfield. The National League logos on the walls.  The concourse ramps.  The right field video board.  The discolored seats in the outfield that might have been red at some point.  I have tried to figure out what is on the videoboard. 

My guess?

Before the games they used to have the Cardinals team stats, the individual team leaders, and the National League leaders.  Those were displayed as a list.  At some point, usually while the players were stretching, the organist would play a couple of different songs including "Meet Me In St. Louis" with the words displayed on the scoreboard.  The clock says 7:14.  I am guessing this is from a 7:35 start, and that's what is on the scoreboard. 

There are videos of the former longtime Cardinals organist on YouTube, but no "Meet Me In St. Louis", so here is "Here Comes The King" instead. 

If the photographer had taken another step back you probably would have gotten the arches at the top of the stadium, which might have made it a perfect.  I am being picky.  This is a great card. 

Back to Conroy for a second. 

Here is the back of the 1986 Topps Traded card.  The stats are not great, but I did not know Pepper Martin was born on a leap year day.  Tim Conroy and I also share a birthday, but nearly two decades apart in age. 

A 1980s Card Part 25- 1981 Topps Traded Gene Tenace

I have written a little bit about Gene Tenace before on my blog.  He was a Cardinals player that I discovered later on in life, and did not fully appreciate while I was collecting as a kid.  Tenace was the backup catcher for team when I first started watching baseball and collecting cards, so he was not high on my list.  At some point around college, or maybe right after, I learned all about Gene Tenace on the A's.

I believe that I found this rather rough copy of his 1973 Topps card in a dime box at a card shop in the south part of St. Louis County.  His career numbers did not look great at this point, but the little write up about his World Series MVP caught my eye.

I did a little more digging after this card.  Pretty impressive player.  He's never going to be in the Hall of Fame, but he is definitely in the Hall of Very Good Players.  The first Gene Tenace card I ever bought after I realized he was a good player?  

His 1981 Topps Traded card.  

Like almost all the other Cardinals cards in the 1981 Topps Traded set, the Tenace card shows him wearing the powder blue road uniform in a picture that was likely taken during Spring Training.  Love that his draw strings are hanging out the top of his pants.  Quite the fashion statement.

Here is the back of the card.

Look at those walks.  He was the forerunner of the Moneyball A's teams.  Tenace played with the Cardinals for two seasons before he ended his career with the Pirates in 1983.  These numbers are really close to his final career totals, which Jay Jaffe has as the 13th best catcher all-time.

I know pretty hard to believe.  If you do not have any Gene Tenace cards in your collection, he's somebody you should check out.

Some good tunes from 1981.....

A 1980s Card Part 15 - 1989 Topps Traded Ken Hill

Ken Hill was originally in the Tigers Minor League system, but the Cardinals picked him up in trade for catcher Mike Heath.  When you watched Ken Hill pitch, he looked the part of a very good pitcher.  He threw hard, could rack up the Ks, and for a few years he was the best young pitcher the Cardinals had in their rotation.  The front office's patience wained a bit, and he was traded to the Expos for Andres Galarraga. 

Ken Hill was great for the Expos.  He won 16 games his first year in Montreal, and then led the National League in wins during the strike shortened 1994 season. 

I found this video from an Expos broadcast that seems to give a little bit into Ken Hill's career....

Know that the Expos traded him back to the Cardinals where he continued his trend of looking like a really good pitcher, but getting none of the results.  Ken Hill would go on to pitch for 14 years in the Majors, finishing with a 117-109 record, and an ERA just above 4.00.  If only he could have pitched 15 years for the Expos....

On to the card.  

The Cardinals roster started turning over from the WhiteyBall era players in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Half of the team left via free agency, and there were a lot of young players on the way up to the team.  Todd Zeile was sort of the most highly regarded prospect of the bunch, but the Cardinals also had Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey, Geronimo Pena, and Hill. 

I wouldn't say that Hill was a bust, he just turned out to be an end of the rotation starter with a front of the rotation arm.  He was really the Cardinals only decent young arm from the early 1990s though.  The rest all seemed to turn into relievers.  See Rheal Cormier. 

Back of the card. 

Hill was called up to the Cardinals from Double A.  While his Minor League numbers look pedestrian, when the Cardinals sent him back down to work at Triple A, he was pretty much untouchable.  Hill went 6-1 with a 1.79 ERA and 104 strikeouts in just 85 innings.  He pitched with the Cardinals in 1990 and 1991, he the trade with the Expos happened before the 1992 season. 

A 1980s Card Part 8: 1986 Topps Traded Jose Oquendo

One of my favorite 1980s and 1990s Cardinals players.  Jose Oquendo did not make any All-Star games, or win any awards.  He was just a fun player to watch.  The Cardinals picked him up from the Mets in a trade at the beginning of the 1985 season.  I have seen different people put him in the Keith Hernandez trade, but that did not happen.

Hernandez and Oquendo were both starting infielders on the 1984 Mets.

Oquendo was the shortstop, Hernandez was the first baseman.  

The trade that brought Jose over from the Mets was really just a swap of light hitting utility infielders.  The Cardinals got Oquendo, the Mets got Angel Salazar.  

Jose was a bench player in 1986, but got a bigger role during the 1987 season.  He was dubbed "The Secret Weapon".  He played every single position outside of catcher for the National League Champions.  In fact, he started a game at each one of those positions outside of pitcher.  A unique player, who also contributed to the team that season on offense.  

Easily my favorite Oquendo moment as a Cardinal.  

The 1986 Topps Traded card was Oquendo's first appearance in a Cardinals uniform.  The building in the background was a part of the Cardinals Spring Training facility and shows up in a ton of 1980s Topps cards.  

Back of the card.  

Pretty standard card back with the brighter colors on the traded card.  Had to find where Grays Harbor was, and when they had a team.  They were a Mets team in the Northwest League that allowed Bill Murray to play a game for the team in 1979. 

A 1980s Card Part 2 - 1981 Topps Traded Joaquin Andujar

I complain a lot about bad airbrushing on modern baseball cards.  Really, it has not improved very much since 1981.  The Cardinals hat looks too small, or the STL logo is somehow not proportionate, not really sure which is the case.  The red, white, and blue striping around the neckline is decent though. 

This is a really underrated card, and underrated player with the 1980s Cardinals.  Andujar was an important player with the Cardinals for five or six years.  He started a bunch of important playoff games during his time in St. Louis.

Some went well, like the seventh game of the 1982 World Series....

Some did not go so well, like the seventh game of the 1985 World Series....

In the regular season, Andujar won 68 games in 5 season, including two 20 win seasons.  Good player on some really good Cardinals teams.  Still, I do not see this card pop up too often considering the role he played on some of the better Cardinals teams.  For years, I think the earliest Andujar card I had of him on the Cardinals was his 1982 Topps.  Another nice card with a side profile of Andujar, I will give it a post at some point.  

This 1981 Topps Traded card is not one that I owned as a kid, but as I an adult I found it at some point and have liked it ever since.  Even with the bad airbrushing, at least it's not pixelated.  

A song or movie I like from 1981....

The Specials.  Any song with an organ solo is solid.  

Project Durham Bulls #45 - Pat Dobson

1960-1961 Durham Bulls 

Background-

Dobson was signed as an amateur free agent by the Tigers in 1959.  His first stop on his way to the Majors was with the Durham Bulls.  In 1960, Dobson went 7-9 for the Bulls with an ERA just over 4.  The following year, he went 4-9 with an ERA of almost 6.  Yet, somehow Dobson kept moving through the Tigers Minor League system.  It would take him until 1968 to finally crack the Majors.  The Tigers used him as a long reliever that season, which culminated in the team winning the World Series.  Dobson pitched in three different games during the 1968 Series.  

The Tigers did not have a rotation spot available for Dobson, so they traded him to the Padres at the end of the 1969 season.  He only spent one season with the Padres before moving on to the Orioles.  In 1971, Dobson won 20 games for Baltimore and helped get them into the World Series where they would lose to the Pirates.  The second half of his career was spent with the Braves, Yankees, and Indians.  He was always a solid starter and managed to put together a 19 win and 16 win seasons at the end of his career.  Dobson retired from baseball after being released by the Indians in April of 1978.  

He worked as a coach and scout after his retirement.  Dobson's two most significant accomplishments in this role were helping to get the 1982 Brewers into the World Series while working as the pitching coach and convincing Padres manager Bruce Bochy to take the Giants managerial job in 2006.  

Card-

Dobson is not an expensive autograph, but he did not sign many certified autographs while he was alive.  He died from leukemia in November of 2006.  In fact, as far as I can tell the 2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics set is the only set that has Dobson on the autograph checklist.  He has the solo autograph pictured above, but also has a dual signature card with Dock Ellis.  Overall, its a very nice card and am happy to add it to my collection of Durham Bulls autographs.  

While we are here talking about baseball cards and Pat Dobson, I would not being doing this post justice if I did not take a moment and mention his connection to one of the most iconic baseball cards of the 1970s.  

The 1976 Oscar Topps Traded Oscar Gamble card.  If you have ever dabbled in collecting cards from the 70s, you know the card well, if you have not this is a must own.  If you are younger and do not know much about the 1970s, I cannot help you there and keep this post to a decent length.  Beyond the photoshopped picture of Gamble, there is also a phony headline at the bottom about Gamble being traded to the Yankees.  

I know this is a part of the card many do not look at, but flip it over and....

you can see that the player who was traded for Gamble, which made this card happen, was Pat Dobson.  Which of course means that there must be a Pat Dobson card in this same set and....

we have a very 1970s looking Pat Dobson.  That headline is a mess.  If only they were referencing the Bob Dylan song.  

Project Durahm Bulls #26- Carl Crawford

2002 Durham Bulls 

Background- 
The Durham Bulls have been successful throughout their tenure as the Triple A team for the Tampa Bay Rays/Devil Rays.  The 2002 squad was the second Bulls team to win a division championship in Triple A, but the first team to take home the league crown.  The team's star players included Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, Aubrey Huff, current manager Jared Sandberg, and Toby Hall.  Carl Crawford only appeared in 87 games that season for the Bulls before he was promoted to Tampa where he closed out the season.  He had 7 home runs, 9 triples, and 17 doubles during that half season stint with a .297/.335/.456 line.  Crawford would go on to play 15 seasons in the Majors with the Rays, Red Sox, and Dodgers.

While playing for the Rays, Crawford led the American League in triples and stolen bases four times, made the American League All-Star team four times, won the All-Star Game MVP in 2009 after making a game saving catch....

on what would have been a home run by Rockies first baseman Todd Helton.  

I always felt like Crawford took a lot of unnecessary criticism during the second half of his career.  He left the Rays for the Red Sox after the 2010 season for a 7 years and 142 million dollars.  He played what amounts to a season and a half in Boston.  One season was definitely subpar, the second was filled with injuries.  The Red Sox eventually dumped him on the Dodgers where he played a few more partial seasons before he was released.  Can't really blame Crawford for taking a large contract offer, or slowing down because of injuries.  

Card- 

The Traded/Update set disappeared for awhile in the mid to late 1990s.  Topps skipped the set in 1996, 1997, and 1998.  After a three year hiatus we got the 1999 Topps Traded set which was sold as a complete set with one autographed card per box.  There were some nice names in the product including Carl Crawford, C.C. Cabathia, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, and Mark Mulder.  The autographs on these cards weren't Crawford's best signature, but he was just removed from high school when he signed these cards.  He actually ended up with a pretty decent signature by the time his career wound down.  

At the time of the sets release, and throughout the early 2000s, the autographs of the successful players in this set had good value.  Most of the autographs of the players listed above, including Crawford, are very affordable at this point.  If you are not a huge autograph collector, but like these cards there was also a Chrome version of this set.  There were no autographs in that version of the 1999 Topps Traded set.  

Farewell Beltran

Carlos Beltran was a great player for many teams.  While he was not on the Cardinals, most of his career, he was a player who made me nervous as a fan.  While he was on the Cardinals, I knew that he was clutch and would come up with some sort of big play.  

Beltran at his scariest?  Non-Cardinal version has to be the 2004 playoffs.  

The Astros lost to the Cardinals in 7 games, but Beltran hit .417 with 4 home runs, 5 RBIs, and scored 12 runs.  After the 2006 National League Championship Series, Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa described the pressure the Cardinals faced in trying to record the final out of that playoff series with Beltran up to bat with the bases loaded:

"Carlos Beltran has hit twenty home runs against us in his last ten at bats" 

It's an exaggeration, but as a Cardinals fan it always felt like he murdered our pitching staff on a regular basis.  I always felt fortunate that the Cardinals got past Beltran in both 2004 and 2006.  

Beltran at his scariest as a Cardinal has to be the 2013 playoffs.  In the first game of the National League Championship Series he threw a runner out at home in the tenth inning to keep the game tied....

  

and then walked off the Dodgers with a single in the thirteenth.  

On to baseball cards.  

I always felt like I missed out on a chunk of Beltran's baseball cards because he came up with the Royals.  He was in the 1995 Topps Traded set at a time when everyone loved them.  I am not sure how much his rookie card, or is that Juan LeBron.....  

actually cost at its height of 1990s popularity.  I didn't really care about this card until he ended up on the Cardinals in 2012.  It didn't cost me very much at that point.  Well, I got the Juan LeBron card, actually with Carlos Beltran, too....

The best card of Beltran that I actually pulled out of a pack was an autograph out of the 2005 Topps set.  There used to be a baseball card shop in Durham near my work when I first moved to North Carolina.  It was not a great card store in terms of sports cards.  Much more of a Magic and Pokemon place.  You ever seen Duke students playing card games?  Not pretty.  The shop folded and I bought the box on clearance.  

I sort of hate 2005 Topps, really busy design, but I love this card.   

I am probably lucky that I did not do online trading at that point in my life because I probably would have cashed this in for something really nice.  I am actually a little surprised that this didn't end up on Ebay.  Perhaps it was hiding somewhere, or I forgot about it.  The important thing is that it is still here in my house.  

Once Beltran ended up on the Cardinals, I tried my best to find some really nice Beltran cards.  The downside to Beltran's time with in St. Louis was that he never had an autographed card in a Cardinals uniform.  Nice cards meant settling for relics.  Not my favorite, but when your options are limited......

First up.  

I got this Topps Tribute card.  The jersey swatch is tall and slightly bigger than the average relic card.  I actually like the picture on the card, the high gloss finish, all limited to just 99 copies.  I actually would have been find if Topps had not placed a non-specific piece of jersey on this piece of cardboard.  

I also got this card.  

It's a jumbo piece of bat.  Jumbo.  The card is limited to 25 copies.  I am not sure the Beltran love is coming through on this card.  It's nice.  Just a little sad about not having a Beltran Cardinals autograph.  

I have moved on.   

After leaving the Cardinals I kept up with Beltran cards.  I have Yankees cards.  I have Rangers cards.  I have Astros cards.  A lot of my effort recently has been spent working on looping back to Beltran's Royals years to find some of his early gems.  There are some really good ones out there floating around.  This is my favorite post-Cardinals Beltran card that I have ended up with.....

Beltran seems like the player who might stick around and stay relevant in the baseball card world, especially if he gains traction towards being in the Hall of Fame.  He belongs.  I will miss seeing Beltran play baseball, but I still am going to find some more of his cards along the way.  Maybe there will be a Cardinals autograph at some point.