I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 57 - Stan Royer

The Cardinals picked up Stan Royer in the Willie McGee trade with the A's in 1990.  The Charleston, Illinois native had put up some pretty good numbers playing for Huntsville in Double A that season, and the Cardinals were going to need a third baseman since Terry Pendleton was on his way out the door.  Royer was supposed to end up with the job.

The A's former first round draft pick started off his Cardinals career with a few games in Triple A Louisville at the end of 1990.  He already a few cards out when he was traded.  Mainly some A's Minor League issues, but also a rookie card in the 1989 Bowman set.

Royer's experience with the Cardinals seemed to repeat on a yearly basis.  He would have some decent numbers with the Louisville Redbirds, get called up at some point during the summer, and play a few games.  Some years he hit in the Majors, others he did not.  The up and down of Royer's career did not stop him from getting some baseball cards.  

Obviously there are some Minor League cards of the former Cardinals third base prospect.  

There are both team issued Minor League cards of Royer, as well as appearances in Pro Line sets, which were put out by Fleer.  Beyond his Minor League cards, Royer seemed to hold onto his prospect status for several years even though he was just lingering in Triple A.  

The Cardinals put him in their team sets......

Ozzie Canseco was also in the 1993 Cardinals Stadium Giveaway set, so maybe it's not surprising that Royer is also in here, but there are not many teams that run their Triple A prospects out in these sorts of products.  This is probably my favorite Stan Royer card.

Royer's mainstream cards were almost all prospect, or future star, types of cards.  There are several around from between 1991 and 1994.  The two most notable are his 1993 Topps card.....

where he appeared in the "Coming Attractions" subset along with future Cardinals All-Star, Gold Glove winner, and should be Hall of Famer Jim Edmonds.  I believe Topps used this design, or at least the background in one of this year's Archives insert sets.  

Last Royer card.  

His last season with the Cardinals was in 1994.  Royer still had a bunch of rookie and prospect types of cards in different sets.  During his time with the Cardinals that season he only hit .175 in 39 games.  The Cardinals placed Royer on waivers where the Red Sox ended up claiming him.  He played four games in July for Boston, that was the end of his career.  

In all, Royer ended up playing in different parts of four seasons and ended his career with a .250/.266/.384 slash line.  He only hit four home runs, with his final home run coming off of Mitch Williams in the ninth inning of a game the Cardinals were losing by a dozen runs.  Seems rather 1990s Cardinals like.