I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 64- Tony LaRussa

Tony LaRussa is amongst the most successful manager in the history of baseball.  As the manager of the Cardinals, he won more than 1,400 games over fifteen years.  The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 and 2011, the team also won the National League in 2004.  Unfortunately, when LaRussa took over the Cardinals manager's job in 1996 there were not any card companies making manager's cards.

There are a ton of LaRussa cards out there.  

He has cards from his days as a player.

 

He has cards from his time as the manager of the White Sox......

and the A's.  

There are also cards of Tony LaRussa from his time with the Cardinals during the 2000s.....

Just not much to talk about as far as the 1990s Cardinals are concerned.  I like seeing the managers on baseball cards.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, all the card companies seemed to skip over the skippers between 1996 and the early 2000s.  

The only place to find LaRussa cards from his first years as a Cardinals manager are in the team sets that were giveaways at Busch Stadium and police sets.  The team sets from the late 1990s were a little bit interesting to say the least.  Let's run through these cards.  A few cool LaRussa moments along the way too.....

This is from the 1996 Cardinals team set, and a really busy set design.  We've got this squiggly black line down here at the bottom, which looks like it could be from the Missouri license plates from the 1990s.  They too had a squiggly line.  Quite unpopular.  

The card also has the word "CARDINALS" written entirely too big and a slugger bird logo in the corner.  I am not sure the card really needs the giant yellow wording on the side.  Straighten out that crooked line too and this card would be 100% better.  

Back of the card.....

I have a hard time believing that Tony LaRussa would write a letter to a group of fans about a baseball card program.  If it were about pet adoption, or him rescuing cats in Oakland, or his pet adoption agency I would believe it.  Otherwise, no.  

On to 1997.  A better card design here for the most part, until....

you look at the top of the card.  Is that supposed to be brick, or like some sort of leather?  

and more letters to fans that Tony LaRussa did not actually write.  Remember that time that Tony LaRussa took a phone call in the middle of his postgame presser.  Classic.  

I am surprised and disappointed that this would even be a card design.  

I am just speechless.  Is that Walt Jocketty wearing mom jeans?  Looks like the design from a 90210 DVD box. 

This card deserves an angry Tony moment.  This is the most concise LaRussa ejection that I can find.  

There was a fight between the Angels and A's back in the mid 1990s where the Angels threw at McGwire.  The A's threw at Tim Salmon.  LaRussa during the brawl.  

No one ever threw at Mark McGwire again.  Not true, but LaRussa looks off his rocker.  

Last card.  

So busy.  It's a shame that these are the only four Cardinals cards that LaRussa had during the 1990s.  I wish there were a Topps, or some sort of Upper Deck card to show off here.  Also kind of neat to spend a post showing off some of the team sets from the 1990s.  Clearly the Cardinals sets from the earlier half of the 1990s and 1980s were a lot better than any of these designs.  

Last LaRussa moment.  A Busch Beer commercial where he calls Jim Frey and offers to buy him a beer.  It's 9:30 at night and Jim Frey is in bed.  Also seems wrong the Cubs manager is in a beer commercial for an Anheuser-Busch product.  Stick to Old Style.