I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 43 - Willie McGee

Willie McGee made two appearances with the Cardinals during the 1990s.  The decade began with Willie McGee playing centerfield for the Cardinals.  He was an everyday player on a very bad team in 1990, one of the few 1980s WhiteyBall players who pulled his weight while the team was being torn apart that season.

The Cardinals ended up trading McGee at the end of August 1990 to the Oakland A's in exchange for prospects Felix Jose and Stan Royer.  At the time, McGee was near the top of the National League batting leaders, hitting .335 for the season.  Lenny Dykstra was leading the National League with a .340 average, but he hit .269 in September and finished hitting .325.  Since Willie McGee's National League stats were frozen, and he had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, he ended up winning the National League crown.  

Has to be one of the more unique batting titles.  McGee's second batting title of his career.  

It's a non-Cardinals card, but this is one of my favorite all-time Willie McGee cards.  It was a 1991 Donruss with an Oakland A's picture and the caption at the bottom celebrating the National League Batting Title.  

McGee ended up staying in the Bay Area after a playoff run with the A's, signing with the Giants.  He is a Bay Area native, so it was not all that shocking that he ended up in San Francisco.  After four seasons with the Giants, McGee sat out the first half of 1995, but eventually signed on with the Red Sox as a reserve outfielder.  Before the 1996 season, the Cardinals resigned Willie McGee to be a bat off the bench and extra outfielder.  

There were not many baseball cards during his first season back in St. Louis, but some of the ones that were put out were nice.  My favorite from 1996 was probably his Circa card.  

Definitely a very modern looking card.  I always liked that these cards had a quote on the front about the player.  Some were better than others.  This LaRussa quote about McGee is sort of lukewarm, but I still like the concept. 

Besides helping to get the Cardinals to the National League Championship in 1996 during his first season back in St. Louis, Willie McGee also appeared in a television spot with Ozzie Smith portraying two old men talking about the 1982 Cardinals at a bar.  

Over the next few years, Willie ended up having a decent amount of baseball cards for a guy who was pulling down 200 to 300 at bats a season.  In spite of his reserve role, Cardinals fans still really liked Willie McGee, and card makers seemed to acknowledge the fact by putting him in more sets than the average fourth outfielder.  

1997 for whatever reasons seemed to be the one exception.  There were only a handful of McGee cards that year.  Not even a base card in the Topps set.  In fact, there was never a Topps base card of Willie after he returned to the Cardinals.  He did appear in a Stadium Club set, but the vast majority of the cards were either in Pacific or Upper Deck sets.  

The best year, card wise, during McGee's second stint with the Cardinals had to be 1998.  There were some nice looking McGee cards that season, several of which had a nice landscape view.  The best of the bunch has to be his Fleer Ultra.....

Wrigley also makes for a good backdrop on cards.  If we are not counting the 1982 World Series, McGee's most memorable game took place in Wrigley in 1984 when he hit for the cycle.  

Cubs fans refer to this game as "The Ryne Sandberg Game".  I am not going to talk about it, go look it up.  

Two other landscape style cards really quick.  

Pacific Invincible was a short lived product, but these were nice looking cards.  At least half of the Cardinals cards in the set have photos taken with the players wearing these St. Louis Stars uniforms.  They are the go-to uniform when the Cardinals do any sort of throwback with the Negro League teams that played in St. Louis.  Nice action shot of McGee hitting is icing on the cake.  

Last for 1998 is an Upper Deck F/X card.  The Upper Deck card is the same, but the picture on the F/X card has a little bit more pop and clarity.  

Last two for this post.  1999 was the last year of McGee's playing career and he managed to squeeze a few cards out of it.  My favorite from that year was his 1999 Fleer Ultra.  I have posted the Gold Version.  

Nice action shot of McGee catching a ball on the warning track.  I like the old school flip up shades that he is wearing.  You do not see any players wearing them anymore.  

Last one for this post.   

I have put other cards from this 1999 McDonad's set before.  It had the big names on the roster, but it also had some roster guys who did not get cards other places.  There was not an Upper Deck cards of Willie McGee in 1999, but he did pop up here.  I always sort of considered this card to be his last from his playing career.  

Willie had a good send off during his last game in 1999.....

Since his retirement, McGee has dabbled in coaching, appearing from time to time as a guest coach during Spring Training with the Cardinals.  This year he is working full time with the Cardinals on outfield defense and base running.  

Willie discussing why Marcell Ozuna should wear shoes during Spring Training.