Farewell, Jon Jay

I have not written a post about Jon Jay in years.

Do I collect Jon Jay cards?  

The first few years that I wrote in this blog space, Jon Jay's baseball cards frequently appeared. He was a solid member of the Cardinals. He played a good center field and got on-base at the top of the lineup in front of Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and others. Who wouldn't want a card of a key cog from their favorite team?

Jon Jay always had great looking cards.  

Better yet, Jon Jay is one of the more likable players from the past decade.  

Today, the filler Cardinals content in baseball card products beyond Goldschmidt, Arenado, Molina, and Wainwright features far too many cards of players I do not enjoy very much. Paul DeJong comes to mind. Ten years ago, the Cardinals secondary tier of players included Jay, David Freese, Lance Lynn, Furcal, and Joe Kelly. This groups had personality and their on-field faults did not include hitting .200 with 150 strikeouts.  

Recently, Jon Jay announced his retirement from baseball, and I am going to miss him.  

Card companies gave up on making Jon Jay cards two or three years ago even though he was on both the White Sox and Angels in a limited role. I actually think he has a White Sox card or two, I just do not own them. Anyway, I thought I would take a few minutes on this Sunday morning to share some of my favorite Jon Jay cards.  

There is also a bat.  

The oldest Jon Jay card in my collection came from the 2005 Upper Deck USA Baseball set when he played for the College National Team. Jay played on several College World Series teams during his time at the University of Miami. Unfortunately, I was still living in Missouri in 2005, so I missed out on seeing him play at the USA Baseball facility up the road from my house. 

I actually wish I had more cards of Jon Jay as an amateur player, but there is only one card that I know of showing him as a college baseball player.  However, the card was made after the Cardinals drafted him. It shows him wearing his batting practice jersey from Miami, but it identifies him as a member of the Cardinals. 

Jon Jay was a good Major League player, but he's one of those professional athletes who was a really important amateur player. Talk to people who have extensively followed college baseball and they can properly summarize his impact on the sport in the early 2000s. Jon Jay deserved a few more cards featuring him as an amateur. Especially given the large number of college baseball products that were released while he was in the Minor Leagues for the Cardinals and those that have looped back to show current Major Leaguers playing as amateurs.  

The University of Miami has 4 National Championships in baseball and appeared 25 times in the College World Series. Jon Jay is considered one of their best all-time players.  

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥-𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞

Congratulations on an incredible career, @jonjayU! pic.twitter.com/qiT6yRFxwS

— Canes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) April 27, 2022

I am going to stray from baseball cards for one second to share one of my favorite Jon Jay pieces in my collection, which is connected to his amateur playing career. This is a used bat that I picked up a few years back at USA Baseball.  

They frequently sell game-used equipment at their team store. I managed to stumble across a Jon Jay bat. It has a huge crack in the barrel, but it is still a really great item that I am proud to own. 

The top of the bat is cupped out and shows Jay's USA Baseball uniform number from the 2005 College National Team. It hangs proudly in my baseball card room.  

Now, back to cards.  

My favorite base card of Jon Jay is his 2013 Topps card where he is crashing into the wall of Busch Stadium next to a giant picture of Tony LaRussa.  

This is from a playoff game in 2012. The Cardinals were playing the Nationals in the first round. This feels like a picture that would be on a Stadium Club card. Topps rarely goes all out for their base set, but this is a great looking card.  

The colored parallels of this card are nice too......

even if you cannot clearly see the picture of Tony LaRussa on the wall. He's a crazy old man these days anyway. 

Jay's 2014 Topps card is also quality, but I am going to show that off as my favorite Jon Jay insert. It's technically a parallel, but it's not like anybody is going to make an insert featuring Jon Jay. This parallel card of his 2014 Topps card is one of my favorite modern Cardinals. It's an acetate parallel, which has a very low print run of 10 copies. Serial number in the bottom corner.  

Phenomenal picture again with Jay jumping to high five Matt Holliday.  

I really love the backs of the acetate parallels with the contrasting greyscale picture of the players with the colored background that is a mirror of the front.  

'Tis a thing of beauty.  

Let's pick up the pace.  

Topps included him in their 2011 Anniversary Giveaway set. These were available online via a contest website. Considering Jon Jay was not supposed to even be the starting centerfielder for the Cardinals that year, this was a pretty heads up call to include him on the checklist.  

Colby Rasmus was actually supposed to be the Cardinals long-term centerfielder, but he was a pain in the ass and ended up getting traded to the Blue Jays for a whole bunch of pitchers in the middle of the season. 

Next up, some Jon Jay relics.   

Giant bat piece.  

Smaller relics from Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen. I love the frames around these relic cards.  

Horrible scan of an autograph.  

What happened here?  

More Autographs.  

Autographs in top loaders.  

Autographs out of top loaders.  

Even more autographs.  

And another one....

Last one.  

If there is one Jon Jay card I wished I owned, it would be a card of him pitching for the Cubs in 2017. 

Nobody made a card of him as a pitcher and it's frankly disappointing.  

I will miss Jon Jay.