Weekend Countdown: Cardinals Diamond Kings Cards

Here are my rules and a little housekeeping for my Weekend Countdown on the Cardinals Diamond Kings:

• I am using the Donruss Diamond Kings insert cards from 1982 through 1998, and also the 2001 through 2005 cards.  I am not using any Diamond King cards since Panini brought the brand back a few years back.  Nothing from the past decade.  

• During the late 1990s, Donruss did not make a Diamond Kings card for every team.  There was not a Cardinals Diamond Kings card in 1998, 1999, or 2003.  

• Donruss made multiple Cardinals Diamond Kings cards in 2003, 2004, and 2005.  They are all ranked.  

• Two cards are from spin-off Diamond King insert sets that were in packs of Donruss card, but no cards from the card 2000s stand alone product of Donruss Diamond Kings.  

• Ranking of the card is based on two factors.  The art on the card is the first and greatest factor, but also worthiness to be on a card.  

• Lastly, I did not own a copy of the 1995 Diamond Kings card of Gregg Jefferies, but I am borrowing a picture from the internet and using it for the countdown.  

Don't hate me for the ending of this countdown.  

23. 2002 Donruss Diamond Kings Albert Pujols 

Pluses- It's Albert Pujols.  

Deltas- I do not like the art.  That does not look like Albert Pujols.  Is the artist named Tang? Looks like the artist transported Ryan Klesko's fu manchu onto Albert.  

22. 1995 Donruss Diamond Kings Gregg Jefferies 

Pluses- Gregg Jefferies hit .325 in 1994. 

Deltas- Does Gregg Jefferies have facial hair on this card?  What's with the shadows on his face? Why is he yellow and orange?  Is he jaundiced?   If my children asked me what stuff looked like in the 1990s, I would show them this card.  

21. 2001 Donruss Diamond Kings Mark McGwire 

Pluses- That expression McGwire is making on the card is well done.  He did that all the time.  

Deltas- His hair is the wrong color.  Not sure it was ever that long in St. Louis either.  Jim Edmonds hit 42 home runs in 2000, won a Gold Glove, and finished 4th in the MVP voting.  Rick Ankiel almost struck out 200 batters, and he was 20 years old.  McGwire played half a season.  Not very deserving at all.  

20. 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Albert Pujols 

Pluses- It's Albert Pujols 

Deltas- He does not really look like Albert Pujols.  I see a little bit of Randy Winn in there.  

19. 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Scott Rolen 

Pluses- It's Scott Rolen 

Deltas- It kind of looks like Scott Rolen with a lot of neck rolls.   

18. 1993 Donruss Diamond Kings Bob Tewksbury 

Pluses- Bob Tewksbury walked 20 batter in 233 innings in 1992.  That's pretty incredible.  

Deltas- This art work looks like a cross between Bob Tewksbury and Vincent Di'Nofrio.  

17. 2004 Donruss Diamond Kings Scott Rolen 

Pluses- It's Scott Rolen, and he was good at baseball.  

Deltas- Fred Durst or Scott Rolen?  

16. 1991 Donruss Diamond Kings Pedro Guerrero 

Pluses - He deserved a Diamond Kings card before this one. 

Deltas- This does not look like Pedro Guerrero.  I guess maybe the hair is close.  I really hate the border design of 1991 Donruss.  Some designer was sitting on their Mac II Paint program thinking about how many different designs they could throw onto a card.  A yellow stripe, light blue stripe, another yellow stripe, on of the tire tread looking things......

 

15. 1984 Donruss Diamond Kings Bruce Sutter 

Pluses - This is some pretty decent artwork here.  Lots of good detail on the uniform and the Bruce Sutter himself.  

Deltas- This is the most undeserving Diamond King card of a Cardinals player ever made.  Sutter is a Hall of Famer, and was a great closer during his time as a Cardinal, except not in 1983.  He was terrible.  Negative WAR terrible.  The 1983 Cardinals weren't great, but there are were at least four offensive players who had good years, and Ozzie apparently caught everything that was hit on the left side of the infield.  

14. 2004 Donruss Diamond Kings Albert Pujols 

Pluses- It's Albert Pujols 

Deltas- Can someone please draw or paint a decent picture of Albert Pujols?  He's one of the best players of his generation, he had several Diamond King cards, and this is the best an artist could do?  This is better than the rest, but it pains me to put the last Albert card this low on the countdown, because he's better than every player on here, save for one.  

13. 1985 Donruss Diamond Kings Joaquin Andujar 

Plus- Joaquin was a good pitcher for the Cardinals, and a character of the game during the 1980s.  I like the smaller action photo on this card that shows his windup.  Feel like the artist did a good job of capturing his leg kick.  

Deltas- I don't love the portrait photo of Joaquin.  His face is way too round.  

12. 1990 Donruss Diamond Kings Joe Magrane 

Pluses- I have written several times about Joe Magrane on this blog.  If there was ever a Cardinals player who could have had a better career, but was absolutely let down by his teammates, it's Joe Magrane.  In 1988, he won the National League ERA crown, and had only 5 wins for the season.  How do you have an ERA of basically 2 flat, and only win 5 games?   The next season, he had 18 wins in August.  He ended the season with 18 wins.  The last two starts Magrane made in 1989, he gave up 1 run combined, and walked away with an 0-1 record in those games. He deserved a Diamond Kings card in the worst way.  

Deltas- I cannot stand the background on this card, and I don't love Magrane's larger picture either.  I don't remember him wearing his hat like that.  It looks like a rarity based on an image search on Google.  

11. 1988 Donruss Diamond Kings Jack Clark 

Pluses- The artwork looks like Jack Clark, and his 1987 season was certainly deserving of having a Diamond Kings card.  

Deltas- Are those rainbows in the background?  Not sure if that's a good look for a Jack Clark card. 

10. 1989 Donruss Diamond Kings Vince Coleman 

Pluses- I like the large portrait of Coleman, but the little art drawing/painting looks off somehow.  I cannot quite put my finger on it.  The double ear flap batting helmet on Coleman is a good start, but the body does not quite look right.  

Deltas- The background is so busy.  Paint the background a solid color, and I am putting this card higher on the list.  

9. 1996 Donruss Diamond Kings Brian Jordan 

Pluses- Brian Jordan was a good player on an otherwise terrible 1995 Cardinals team.  They were the second worst team in the Majors that year.  I like the change up from the earlier Diamond Kings cards with the dark background behind the player, and the pattern around the outside of the card.  

Deltas- Ray Lankford was a better player on an otherwise terrible 1995 Cardinals team.  I am not going to turn this into a rant about how too few people appreciated Ray Lankford because he played on really bad teams.  Brian Jordan's hat looks a little too big.  

8. 1994 Donruss Diamond Kings Gregg Jefferies 

Pluses- Gregg Jefferies hit .340 something in 1993, and slammed a lot of batting helmets into the astroturf at Busch.  I suspect he had more than one that season.  I like the blend of colors, and I like the picture of Jefferies wearing the blue Cardinals helmet.  The Cardinals have worn the blue hats/helmets since 1992, but they only appear on three Diamond Kings cards.  

Deltas- There are three different fonts on card.  

7. 2002 Donruss All-Time Diamond Kings Stan Musial 

Pluses- This is one of two Diamond King insert spin offs in the countdown. I originally had this card lower, there is an element here that really bothers me, but that's for the deltas.  I got over it, and starting focusing on the painting of Musial.  I really like the art work on this card.  Clearly a young Stan, and while the art work is done in sepia tones, you can see a lot of good detail work on the picture.  The hat looks right, the hands on the bat and the way Musial is holding it look spot on, and the uniform all has all the little details that go with the 1940s Cardinals.  

Deltas- That All-Time Diamond Kings logo at the bottom of the card feels clunky, and it's covering up the artwork.  That's what bothered me about this card.  Simple brown border, and this would be in my Top 5 easily.  

A quick break.  The last six cards are all excellent in my opinion, and I spent a lot of time ordering and rearranging the cards.  I think there could be an argument for any of these cards to be the best on this countdown.  There is so very little wrong with each of them, and a lot that the artist got right.  

6. 1997 Donruss Rookie Diamond Kings Dmitri Young 

Pluses- I love this picture.  If I were ranking the cards solely on the accuracy of art work, this would probably be in my top 2 or 3 cards.  Great painting of a young Dmitri Young.  It's also one of the few Diamond Kings cards with a Cardinals player wearing a blue hat. 

Now, for those wondering if I should have dropped Dmitri down lower for not being deserving, this is a prospect based Diamond King insert in the 1997 Donruss set.  He was a high draft pick, and a highly regarded prospect.  Baseball America had him in the Top 50 the entire time he was in the Minors.  Dmitri turned into a solid player, even if it didn't happen for the Cardinals.  Definitely deserved a spot in this type of set.  

Deltas- They put the Donruss stamp in the middle of his hat.  

5. 1983 Donruss Diamond Kings Keith Hernandez 

Pluses- Hernandez was an important player on the 1982 World Series team and deserved a spot on a Diamond Kings card.  I think the art work on this card is generally very good.  The large portrait of Hernandez looks good, and the smaller picture of him batting looks excellent as well.  It's hard to notice, but I like that the artist put his uniform number on his sleeve.  The Cardinals wore uniforms like that during the late 1970s and early 1980s, not necessarily accurate for the 1982 Cardinals, but a small detail that I like anyway.  

Deltas- The STL on his batting helmet is off.  Should have a blue trim line around the letters.  That's all I've got.  

4. 1987 Donruss Diamond Kings Ozzie Smith 

Pluses- I love the art work here, especially the little picture.  If you ever go watch old videos of Ozzie fielding ground balls, this is a really accurate piece of artwork.  I also like the design of the 1987 Donruss cards.  I know that there is nothing that the artist can do about the border of the cards, but the black borders and grey and yellow baseball design in one of Donruss' better efforts during the second half of the decade.  

Deltas- The background is still a little busy, better than the Coleman and Magrane card.  Not as simple as some of the early 1980s cards though.  I do at least like the color scheme on the background with the different hues of blue, orange, and the edging from the Utah Jazz uniforms running across the middle.  

3. 1986 Donruss Diamond Kings Willie McGee 

Pluses- It's Willie McGee and it looks a lot like Willie McGee.  I like the large picture with the powder blue Cardinals uniform.  In the mid 1980s, Willie McGee actually used to write all on the underside of his hat brim, would have been cool to see that included in the art work.  There are lots of other small details though that the artist nailed in the small picture.  I like that his pants are a little high, McGee wore them that way.  I also love that he is only wearing one batting glove, which was a long running McGee quirk.  I believe it was only on his bottom hand.  The 1986 Donruss borders are also one of their better efforts.  

Deltas- I don't love the purple in the background, but it does not ruin the card by any stretch.  

2. 1982 Donruss Diamond Kings George Hendrick 

I already wrote about this card last week.  Great card.  

1. 1992 Donruss Diamond Kings Felix Jose 

Pluses- I wish that Donruss had gone with this design for the cards a longer period of time.  Clearly the formula for these cards changed in the early 1990s, but this was where they should have stopped.  Simple background, no crazy color combinations or weird designs, there are not three different fonts on the card, and a good painting of a player.  This is a really accurate painting of Jose too, with good details around the uniform and hat.  Even the facial hair with the mustache and beard stubble fits with pictures of him on the Cardinals.  

Was Felix Jose deserving of a Diamond Kings card?  I think the 1990s were generally a dark era for the Cardinals, but some of the players don't look as bad in retrospect.  Felix had some quirks, like he sat by himself away from other players in the dugout, but he was better than most people remember.  I think Cardinals fans sometimes got hung up on the fact that he looked like someone who should be hitting 40 home runs, but hit 40 doubles instead. 

He was offensively the best player on the 1991 Cardinals.  Better than Ray Lankford, Ozzie Smith, Todd Zeile, and Pedro Guerrero.

Deltas- I guess they could have made one of Milt Thompson.  He's was really good as a part time player.