I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 51- 1992 Pacific Cardinals 100th Anniversary Set Part 2

I posted cards from the first half of this set last week.  The set is generally sequential, so the majority of players in last week's post were from the Cardinals 1920s through the 1950s.  For this week's post, I am moving forward to the modern portion of the set starting with the 1960s players.  Similar to the first half of the set, there are plenty of Hall of Fame players in here along with a few others who were solid long term contributors.

Also a few odd choices.  One I sort of get, the other is puzzling.   Let's go weird first.

The Cardinals won nothing during the 1970s.  One of their biggest problems was trading away young talented players.  Steve Carlton for Rick Wise.  Pretty terrible trade, but the Cardinals turned around and traded Rick Wise to the Red Sox for their young All-Star power hitting outfielder Reggie Smith. He played two and a half years in St. Louis, made the National League All-Star team twice, but he got off to a slow start in 1976 and was traded to the Dodgers for a few Dodger Dogs.

Short term player, no playoffs, and no World Series rings.  I would have gone Jack Clark here.  He helped the Cardinals win the National League twice and had one of the franchise's all-time great Postseason home runs against the Dodgers in the 1985 NLCS.  I guess we weren't far enough removed from the Jack Clark exit when this set was made.....

Dick Allen would have been another good short term player for the modern part of the set.  He was involved in the Curt Flood trade, that ultimately lead to players getting free agency rights, as the big piece coming in return for the Cardinals outfielder and McCarver.

The other short term Cardinal in the second half of the set was Lee Smith.  He makes a little more sense than Reggie Smith.

Lee Smith was traded to the Cardinals in early May of 1990.  By the time this set rolled around he had only been on the team for a year and half.  Not very long for an all-time greats type of product.   Smith had set the National League single season save record the previous season.  While I harp on the end of Lee Smith's time with the Cardinals, he was still one of the game's most dominating relief pitchers when he first joined the team.

Smith was also nearing the all-time saves record at this point in his career.  Given how he had pitched during the first year plus of his time in St. Louis, there was little reason to think he was not going to reach the mark in a Cardinals uniform.  A little more understandable than Reggie Smith, but claiming him as an all-time great Cardinal is a stretch.

A few Hall of Famers, a few players who should be in the Hall of Fame.

Gibby.  Hall of Famer.  I love the picture on this card.  You could just look at the pose and tell its Bob Gibson.  That fall of towards first base, I would recognize it anywhere.  

There are a lot of staged photographs in the set, but very few portrait style cards.  In the modern section of the set this Brock card, along with Bake McBride, are the only two cards done in this style.  Very nice looking card.  A young Lou Brock picture too.  The majority of the cards have pictures that seem like they were taken during the prime of the players career.  

Quality action shot on the Ozzie Smith card.  He looks like he is barely jumping on this card.

I do love that the Expos player is a pitcher wearing a jacket to run the bases, you don't see many pitchers do this anymore.  Felt like it was commonplace while I was growing up watching baseball.  Ozzie is also an important card in this due to the fact that he was still playing at this point.  An actual Cardinal though, not just a good player who happened to be on the team like Lee Smith.  He lost a little bit of his shine defensively, his last Gold Glove was in 1992, but he actually was a pretty good hitter later in his career.

Two almost Hall of Famers.

Most of the Cardinals players who have their numbers retired by the team are in the baseball Hall of Fame.  Boyer is the one exception.  Although, he is probably a lot closer to that honor than most people realize.  The best years of Boyer look really similar to that of players like Scott Rolen and Adrian Beltre.  He often hit somewhere between 25 and 30 home runs, drove in 90 to 100 runs, and hit in the .290s/low .300s.  Boyer was the 1964 National League MVP and hit a grand slam in the sixth game of the World Series to help the Cardinals defeat the Yankees.  

The problem with Boyer's career is the end.  He had a rather meteoric decline and bounced around between the Mets, White Sox, and Dodgers.  

Great looking card too.  Love the posed shot of him fielding a ground ball.  

Last card.  

While I can say that Boyer has an argument to be in the Hall, I also understand there is an argument against him.  Simmons has an even better argument and there is not much to refute the fact that he should be in the Hall of Fame.  Arguments like, "He was not on a good team until the end of his career" are weak sauce.  Think of the best offensive catchers, look at Simmons counting numbers, and he's right there with the group of Piaza, Bench, Fisk, and Berra.  By the way, Piazza has less World Series at bats as Simmons with the same number of rings.  

I like this card with the powder blue road uniform and Simmons hitting.  Definitely an offensive player, he had some great numbers at the dish for some 1970s Cardinals teams that were very forgettable.