Sunday, September 27, 2020

Tewks

Do you ever look through a bunch of baseball cards and find something that you not only don't have in your collection, but you're just really surprised that the card even exists?  The 1990s were a dark time to be a Cardinals fan, particularly the first half of the decade when the team was thin on talent thanks to the stinginess of August Busch III, who refused to spend money on veteran players.  The later 1990s weren't great either, but at least they scored a ton of runs and came close to making the World Series in 1996.  

Many of the team's free agents and trade acquisitions were low priced dumpster dives.  Most didn't work out, but one of the few that stood out was signing former Yankees and Cubs pitcher Bob Tewksbury.  He was a great control pitcher and had some outstanding seasons in St. Louis.  The Cardinals were just too busy being mediocre for most to notice.  I don't want to go too far into the weeds on Tewksbury's great control, but if I could sum up his ability to throw strikes in one sentence it would be this: 

During the 1992, 1993, and 1994 seasons Tewksbury made almost 90 starts for the Cardinals covering 600 innings, and limited batters to just 60 walks.  The majority of starting pitchers in the Major have that many in a single season. 

Two sentences.  

As a baseball card collector, there were slim pickings on really interesting Cardinals cards during the early 1990s.  Occasionally there would be one of Lee Smith, Ray Lankford, or Bernard Gilkey, but that was it.  Last week, I stumbled on a really nice insert card of Bob Tewksbury.  I was really surprised by the find.  

How did I miss this card?



I probably was not even looking for it.  

This is from the 1993 Score Select set.  Every card company around this time was coming up with some sort of high-end brand.  While the 1993 me would probably give you some serious side-eye at the combination of the words "Score" and "High-End", these are actually nice cards.  The Aces insert has a foil front.  The card is from 1993, but it looks like something that could have come up in the last few years.  

Back of the card.  



Nice little write up on the back of the card, but the photo is horrible.  Does he not have a chin?  His hat is just sitting on the top of his head?  


8 comments:

  1. I remember these inserts, I even tried peeling one as a kid. The Cardinals uniform matches the silver foil and red background nicely here.

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    1. Agree on the Cardinals uniform matching well with the design of the card. I wish had known about these when they came out. Feel like I have been missing out.

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  2. One of my favorite things about reading blogs is discovering cards I didn't know existed. By the way... not sure if you own one, but Tewksbury has a Fan Favorite autograph out of Archives from a few years ago.

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    1. Yes, I did get a Tewksbury autograph out of Archives. I don't usually open packs of Archives, but I almost always end up with a handful of autographs that I pick out as single cards. Great way to get autographs of 1980s and 1990s players.

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  3. When I first saw this card, I thought it was a Pinnacle Museum card. Beautiful card, I will have to track down one for my collection.

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    1. Same company. Now that you mention it, there are a lot of similar elements there.

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  4. I don't remember him, but I do remember that set... it was a good one!

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    1. Tewksbury spent his entire career playing for bad teams. He was only on one team that made the playoffs, which was the 1996 Padres, who were swept out of the first round by the Cardinals. Just not someone who garnered a lot of attention.

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