I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 67 - Cliff Politte

Politte's Cardinals career only lasted eight games, but he is someone who still comes up from time to time amongst the team's fans.  Cliff Politte was a local player who attended Vianney High School in suburban St. Louis, and later at Jefferson College, which is just south of St. Louis County.  Eventually he ended up being selected by the Cardinals in the 54th round of the 1995 MLB Draft.

He pitched in the Cardinals minor league in 1996 and 1997 appearing for two different A Ball teams, and the Double A Arkansas Travelers.  The Cardinals ended up starting Politte out in St. Louis to begin the 1998 season.  He won his first start at the Major League level on the second game of the season against the Dodgers.  After a few starts though, Major League hitters caught up to Politte and he was sent back down to the Minors.

A few cards from Politte's time in the Minors.

I usually hold out the best card(s) for the end of the post.  However, with Politte his best card was one of his firsts.  He signed in the 1997 Bowman set, also appeared in the base set.  Obviously this is the better card.  This is not the most common autographed card in the world, not always the cheapest either for a player who had a short career.  I know that there are Bowman autographs that are tougher than others, I would have to imagine that this card is one of those that is short printed.  

Second best card from his time in the Minors.......

has to be his 1998 Bowman, or Bowman Chrome.  The International variation is a must since the card shows Politte as a Cardinal, but also shows his hometown on the map in the background of the card.  Always a little nice when the hometown and the player's team line up.  Bowman also made these cards in 1997, but they had a national flag in the background instead of the map.  Still a nice looking card, I give it a mention, but not a scan.

On to the Major League cards.

Politte has one of those prospect cards in the 1998 Topps set.  He appears with Braden Looper, who was also a short lived Cardinals prospect.  The Cardinals traded him to the Marlins for Edgar Renteria.  Looper returned back to the Cardinals later in his career.  

So, after returning to the Minors for the second half of the 1998 season, Politte struggled a bit.  At the end of the season, he traded to the Phillies.  The first paragraph from this UPI wire story is a gem....

Obviously Politte ended up being the prospect the Cardinals sent to the Phillies.  Garrett Stephenson, who had squabbled with Curt Schilling in Philadelphia was the "marginal major-league prospect" that was sent to the Cardinals.  

Politte still popped up in a few baseball card sets in 1999.  Not many, but he did get one final appearance as a Cardinal in the Upper Deck Black Diamond set.  

Politte is also in the Metal Universe set wearing a Cardinals uniform, but the markings and logos on the card are of the Phillies.  

As far as the rest of Politte's career, he played a few seasons with the Phillies before heading over to the Blue Jays.  They converted him over to a relief pitcher, which gave his baseball career a little bit of life.  Eventually he ended up on the White Sox for a few seasons, including 2005.  

Politte appeared in 4 games during the White Sox run to the World Series title, including three against the Astros in the World Series.  His 2006 was rough and led to Politte being released mid way through the season.  In 2007, he tried to come back with the Indians.  In 2008, he tried a comeback with the Cardinals.  Politte ended up pitching a handful of games in Memphis, but never made it back to St. Louis.