Yet, during the summer of 1999 some of the most popular baseball cards around St. Louis were anything with the Cardinals second baseman. He might have even been on a few of those ridiculous Beckett Hot List things. So hot right now, or back then....
One of my favorites was McEwing's 1999 Upper Deck Ultimate Victory card. While many Cardinals fans were trying to chase down the baseball card of Rick Ankiel from the same set, McEwing came close to catching up to the hard throwing pitching prospect in terms of popularity during the first half of the summer. That's saying a lot considering Ankiel was long regarded as a high ceiling prospect while McEwing was more of an organizational depth kind of player. Here is a look at the Super Joe Ultimate Victory card.....
That shiny surface on the scanner though.
Anyway, what made McEwing popular? How did he end up as a utility player on the Mets? So, first half of the 1999 season McEwing hit .305/.350/.418 with 4 home runs, 3 triples, and 19 doubles. Second half of the year McEwing his .223/.303/.363 with 5 home runs, 1 triple, and 9 doubles. Kind of a steep drop off. At the end of the season, McEwing ended up getting traded to the Mets for Jesse Orosco. Orosco's Cardinals career lasted all of 6 games in 2000.
McEwing ended up on the Mets for a few years and a stop over with the Royals. While McEwing was a bench player for almost his entire career, his half a season made a lasting impression in St. Louis that has never quite gone away.
While this card is no longer on any sort of published hot list, it's still kind of a cool old card to take out and look at every once in awhile. More McEwing later this week.
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