at any point during his career, but the Cardinals did sign Jose's less successful, less expensive twin brother. It was a true 1990s Cardinals move. Jose Canseco would have cost a lot of money. He was brash and over the top. So, enter Ozzie Canseco. What was Ozzie Canseco like? I honestly have no idea, outside of the fact that he was on the Cardinals. He also had baseball cards.
The whole Ozzie and Jose situation reminds me a lot of The Simpsons episode where Springfield hosts a film festival, Mr. Burns decides to enter a film to spruce moose up his image, but goes cheap and hires Senor Spielbergo instead of Steven Spielberg.
Jose was known for his combination of power and speed. He hit long, loud home runs. The one I best remember was his home run against the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays.
That highlight clip of Jose's features one more home run than Ozzie hit during his entire Major League career. That's right, Ozzie had zero Major League home runs. He also only had 65 at bats in the Majors over three season.
If you collect baseball cards, you probably better remember Ozzie Canseco cards with the A's in the early 1990s. They were pretty popular, pretty much just based on the fact that he was Jose's brother. I am pretty sure that there were some pretty horrific trades back in the early 1990s based on collectors getting their hands on Ozzie Canseco cards.
Maybe not that popular, but yes.....
So, how did Ozzie Canseco get on to the Cardinals? Awhile ago, unfortunately I cannot find it, a fellow collector argued with me that Ozzie was a part of the Willie McGee trade in 1990. Not really, that was Felix Jose. Ozzie Canseco, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Felix Jose, it's all confusing. Right time frame though. The A's released Ozzie, not Jose, was released at the end of the 1990 season. Ozzie Canseco, not Smith, spent 1991 in Japan, before he signed with the Cardinals in 1992. That was a team with Ozzie Smith.
Ozzie Canseco played a few games with the Cardinals in 1992, but spent most of the season in Triple A Louisville. He played a total of 98 games that year in the Minors, he hit 22 home runs and drove in 57 runs. He did not do much with the Cardinals that season. 1993 was similar for Ozzie, he spent most of his time in the Minors, did little with the Cardinals, and was traded to the Brewers at the end of the season.
So, what 27 year old Triple A prospect gets a bunch of baseball cards? Ozzie Canseco.
He had a couple, I am going to look at three really quick.
First up is his Donruss card. What is going on with this card? Not much, Ozzie is hitting, or maybe striking out? You decide.
Now, it's time for my favorite two Ozzie Canseco cards. First, there is a 1993 Stadium Club card. The Cardinals wore their batting practice jerseys in Spring Training games, so this is from some time during a practice game. There is a slight resemblance to Todd Zeile in this picture.
Todd Zeile probably played with his batting gloves while he was running the bases. Todd Zeile was also not that buff. Last one.
I used to love getting the Cardinals giveaway set. There were some really great cards in these sets. The 1993 set, which this card comes out of, is probably my least favorite. However, it's still a really nice looking set. I like the view of the mullet on this card.
No comments:
Post a Comment