My two favorite draft/amateur Matt Morris cards actually came out roughly a decade apart from each other. His first Bowman card, which was not quite as ridiculous as it has become in recent years with rookie cards, appeared in the 1996 set. Not sure what number he is wearing in this card, but the 60 something tells me that this is likely from Spring Training in 1996, since he was still in college during the 1995 Grapefruit League.
Matt Morris also pitched for the USA Baseball program while he was in college at Seton Hall. I not only collect the current players on the team and the former players whom I enjoyed watching play, I also have gone back and picked up some other players from before my time living in central North Carolina. Mostly former Cardinals.
Morris is in the 2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball 25th set. I know that these are really easy to find, basically the junk wax version of modern autographs, but if you like the players in here why not. Sure, the silver stickers are not the most attractive, but I like looking at the old head shots of players. Some real classics in here. Morris is in a few other USA Baseball products as a relic, but I believe this is his only autograph as a member of the College National team.
At the end of the 1997 season, Morris finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting behind Scott Rolen. In 1998, Morris had a great start to the season before he needed to have Tommy John surgery and missed the second half of the season, along with all of 1999. Morris still appeared in several late 1990s sets.
My two favorites. First up.....
The Crusade cards are a pretty popular parallel set from the late 1990s. These cards run across several different Pinnacle brands. I remember them best from the Donruss and Leaf sets. Like parallels of today, the different colors had different print runs. This card is the green parallel, which is the most common of the Crusade parallels with a print run of 250 copies.
My other favorite Matt Morris card from the late 1990s.....
is his Stadium Club Co-Signers card with Roger Clemens. Some of the combinations on these cards make complete sense and are absolutely great cards. I have a copy of the Andres Galarraga and Larry Walker card, both Rockies at the time, which is easily one of my favorite from this set. Others are real head scratchers. Tim Salmon and Todd Hundley? Scott Spezio and Tony Womack? Not sure about those.
I guess the Clemens and Morris pairing was supposed to be one of those cards that somehow showed the torch being passed from one generation of player to another. Except Roger Clemens was a really good Hall of Fame player, don't tell me about steroids, while Morris had some good moments. Not a Hall of Famer. Just a good looking card, bit of a conversation piece as a Cardinals fan considering Clemens ended up in their division with the rival Houston Astros.
Always wondered what Clemens was doing during this inning during Game 7 of the NLCS in 2004 against the Cardinals. Pitched to Pujols with first base open, then served up a meatball to Rolen. Thanks for the National League pennant.
Morris stayed with the Cardinals until 2005. He had a great year in 2001 when he led the National League in wins with 22. The rest of his time in St. Louis was spent as a middle of the rotation starter. Probably his most memorable 2000s moment with the Cardinals was giving up Ken Griffey Jr.'s 500th home run on Father's Day in 2004.
He ended his career by playing a few years with the Giants and Pirates. Morris retired in 2008 after the Pirates released him at the end of April. He had an ERA of 9.67 at the time the team released him. Not a Cardinals card, but Topps managed to squeeze him into their 2008 Series 2 set, making this his final baseball card.
Yes, it's airbrushed. No one has made a Matt Morris card for the past decade. Not sure if that will change, but if Topps can make a Joe McEwing card in a set last year, than I am not going to count out getting another Matt Morris card at some point.
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