2000 UD Hologrfx A Piece of the World Series Brian Jordan Base/Autograph

I am a fan of the 90s Cardinals and of 90s baseball cards.  One of my true joys in life is finding an awesome Cardinals card from the 90s.  It's much harder than it sounds.  While the Cardinals are typically a good team with star players they were actually mediocre, at best, for much of the decade.  The start of the decade started with a transition over from the Whitey Herzog era of speed, defense, and pitching to the Joe Torre era of young players, washed up pitchers, and a cheap owner.  The team switched ownership in the middle of the decade and brought in Tony LaRussa.  In 1996, the team came within one game of the World Series before the Braves ran Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux out for the last three games of the NLCS and won.  The rest of the decade centered around Mark McGwire.  While those teams also featured Gary Gaetti, Fernando Tatis, Edgar Renteria, Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan, and Ron Gant their pitching staff was anchored by Kent Merker.  

One of my favorite Cardinals players from that era was outfielder Brian Jordan.  Jordan came up with the Cardinals in the early 90s after spending a few years juggling minor league baseball and playing safety for the Atlanta Falcons.  The Cardinals eventually convinced Jordan to quit football and he became a mainstay in the Cardinals outfield along with Ray Lankford and Bernard Gilkey.  Later the Cardinals would trade Gilkey to the Mets and sign Ron Gant.  Jordan would be one of the most productive Cardinals of the mid 90s regularly hitting for power and average while providing above average base running and great defense.  In 1995 and 1998 he finished in the Top 10 in the National League in Wins Above Replacement.  My favorite moment of Jordan came during the 1996 National League Division Series when he hit a game clinching home run off of Trevor Hoffman.  

Jordan would eventually leave the Cardinals to sign with the Braves in 1999 and helped the team to a World Series appearance against the Yankees, but they lost to the defending World Champs.  That leads me to my card for the day.  During the summer of 2000 Upper Deck released the new product Hologrfx.  The cards were probably a step above retail products like MVP and Victory, but not very far.  The boxes tended to be in the $50-$60 range and the autograph odds were steep.  Most peculiar about the autograph list was the inclusion of a set commemorating the 1999 World Series.  The card set featured players on the Braves and Yankees with a series used base card for each player and an autographed version.  I added a base card of Brian Jordan to my collection a few months ago.  

2000 UD Hologrfx A Piece of the World Series Brian Jordan Base Card

A Piece of the World Series cards are not easy to come across and some of the cards are nearly impossible to find.  Especially the Yankees.  The autographed versions of the base cards are even harder to find.  One or two tend to come up each year, but they tend to stay away once the auction closes or the card is traded.  Currently, there are few base cards up on Ebay and COMC, but none of the autographed versions are listed or have been completed recently.  So, as a Brian Jordan fan and collector I was extremely happy to be able to add this card to my collection this week:  

2000 UD Hologrfx A Piece of the World Series Brian Jordan Base/Autograph 

I am aware that there are printing plates and limited print run parallels and plenty of other cards that are rarer than this card, but I would argue that this is probably the best Brian Jordan card that is out on the market.  I have spent the past three or four years looking for this card and this copy is the only one I have ever seen.  If you have a favorite player who played on the 1999 Braves or Yankees this card set is one of the most challenging finds out there.