2023 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 12

This is my fourteenth post of the month. The last time I made that many posts in a month was August, 2020. I wrote about Blake Snell autographs, 1989-1990 Skybox basketball card set (I should post those again), Topps Project 2020, and people money laundering on Ebay by selling junk wax cards for thousands of dollars. 

I am looking at you, 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe.  

All those other topics have faded, but the Blake Snell autographs are still here.

Last week, I was able to pick up another "old" autograph from the 2017 Topps Chrome set. This is specifically from the "Sophomore Stat Lines" insert set, which came in both autograph and non-autograph form. I now own both.  

Here is the front of the card......

It's a little busy for my tastes, but it still works. We got an action shot of Snell pitching in front of the stat that is used on the back of the card (K/9) with all sorts of writing, labels, the autograph, and a serial number all appearing on the bottom of the card. 

Love that the autograph is on-card. 

I could live without the box on the bottom, just give me a big K/9 and Blake Snell pitching with the autograph over the top of it all. The insert name can go on the back, nobody will miss it and everyone knows this is Blake Snell. He's won a Cy Young, or two, so his name can just go on the back too.  

Without all of those things, maybe someone would notice this card is serial numbered out of 99 copies.  

Back of the card.....

There is a sticker on the back of the case. I could not get it all the way off.  

Everything in the box at the bottom of the front of the card is also in the box at the top of the back.  

The write up about the K/9 stat is solid.  

Now, where did I put those basketball cards.  

Around The Card Room, Take 10

I got a new bobblehead this past weekend that I was really excited to own. 

It did not come with a bat, but the Ebay seller made it right and my bobblehead bat arrived in the mail this afternoon. 

The bat is an important part of this bobblehead.  

Here is the new bobble.  

The four baseballs on the bat are four home runs. 

All four home runs happened in a single game. 

If you are not familiar with Mark Whiten, let me show you three minutes of video from Mark Whiten's best game ever, which included four home runs against the Cincinnati Reds in September of 1993. He also drove in twelve runs tying Jim Bottomley with the National League record.  

Amazing, especially for Whiten. He was a great defensive player with an incredible throwing arm, but not really known for his offense outside of this single game.  

Here is the side view.  

Here is the back with the date of the four home run game stamped on the back of the bobble.  

Last 90 degree turn. 

Great bobble that is going to find a permanant home on a shelf in my baseball card room. These pictures are actually on top of a bookcase. We've got a Mackenzie Gore autograph in the background, Sophie Cunningham, and Felix Hernandez. Mark needs more Cardinals around.  

This seems like a good spot.

This seems like a good spot.  Let me put his bat back and Mark will be home.  

The Best Writers In Baseball

I really like baseball.

I used to follow some other sports, but I have given them up for the most part. I check some NBA and NFL box scores to check up on some former college favorites, but the majority of my time is spent on baseball. I read the boxscores most mornings, listen to podcasts with the little man in the morning on the way to school, and also check out my fair share of articles. 

Two of my favorite writers are Derrick Goold and Sarah Langs.  

Goold is one of the Cardinals writers for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and also hosts a podcast called, "The Best Podcast In Baseball". Langs is an MLB writer and researcher for ESPN and MLB Network who appears on various television networks, podcasts, and websites. She has coined the slogan, "Baseball is the best", which she often stats during her television and podcast segments.  

Both have autographs in Allen & Ginter.

Let's start with Langs.   

Langs signed cards for this year's Allen & Ginter set. Her autograph is simple, but she has also been diagnosed with ALS within the past year, so I thought it was incredible that she still signed cards. If you enjoy baseball and have not read any of her work, or do not follow her on social media, I highly recommend checking out her work. She is really talented.  

On to Goold.  

Goold signed for Allen & Ginter back in 2020. I looked for this autograph for a time, but was not willing to pay the price it was selling for at the time. The Langs autograph renewed my interest in tracking down a copy of this card for a reasonable price.  I really enjoy his coverage of the Cardinals and am glad to own this card.  

Set Appreciation Post #21 - 2000 Pacific Aurora

Pacific Aurora has a mundane base set with a few incredible inserts, which makes it a pretty awesome product. You've got to take the boring with the exciting with this product.  

2000 Pacific Aurora was also the first card to feature a Hall of Famer in his new uniform and they did it in a creative way. Overall, this is one of the worst products that Pacific Trading cards made in the late 1990s and early 2000s and it is still probably middle of the pack in terms of overall quality. They were a high floor, high ceiling type of card company that is sadly lacking in the current baseball card market. 

I miss Pacific. 

Shall we look at the 2000 Autora set?  

Here is the base design......

Pacific started the Aurora product in 1998 and it basically had the same design concept all three years it was produced. Two photos on the front, one action and one posed, along with a solid colored background. The design in decent. I know the teal colored background is a little weird on this Darin Erstad card, but this is one of the few teams where that statement is true.

Pacific was consistent with their brands and the products tended to run true to that branding from year to year. While this is not the most exciting design concept, you knew exactly what you were getting when you bought these cards. The original Aurora was also a per-pack-insert product released in 1998 that was sold at retail stores. The 2000 set was a Hobby issued product with no per-pack insert guarantee.     

Back of the card. 

I like the sepia photo with the gold and maroon colored writing and trim. Really good look. The stats are basic, but the large photo and readable card numbers in the bottom right-hand corner more than make-up for anything left off the card by Pacific. Solid effort here. 

Let's get one highlight out of the way.  

Best Base Card 

The off-season proceeding the 2000 baseball season featured the high drama of Ken Griffey Jr. demanding a trade off the Mariners. He had a no-trade clause and was essentially only willing to accept a trade that put him on his hometown Cincinnati Reds. The trade ended up happening in early February after teams had made their way to Spring Training and the early 2000 baseball card products had already hit the shelves. 

Griffey getting traded to the Reds was huge news. The trade put the three best home runs hitters of the day, Griffey, McGwire, and Sosa, all in the same division for the foreseeable future, or Mark McGwire got gimpy knees in the middle of the 2000 season. Pacific capitalized on the excitement by producing the first Ken Griffey Jr. card with him in a Cincinnati uniform, making half his cards Mariners and the other half Reds. 

Great card, one of my favorite Griffey cards. 

On to the other things I cover in my set posts........

Favorite Cardinals Card 

It's really hard to pick out the "best" cards from this set. They are slightly devoid of personality, but I decided to go with Fernando Tatis. He had a short window of success with the Cardinals and 1999 was his best season. Fernando Sr. went 30 plus home runs, 30 plus doubles, 20 stolen bases, and nearly hit .300 come in with a .298 average. He also walked more than 80 times. It was a really unique stat line, especially for a third baseman and I love seeing those numbers on the back of the card.  

Favorite Former Durham Bulls Player 

McGriff played on the Durham Bulls at the end of his career in 2004. He's one of the few players who is smiling on his posed photograph for this set. I like the happy vibe on this card. I also like that you get McGriff's batting stance in the top right corner. He's got one of the more unique and identifiable stances from the 1990s.  

One more card and we will talk about inserts......

While the 2000 Pacific Aurora set did not have inserts in every pack, they did offer a parallel card per pack. The majority of parallel cards were pinstriped. I know there are people who enjoy these parallel cards, but I am not a huge fan. 

Perhaps if my favorite team wore pinstripes, I would feel differently. Looks kind of weird on a Cardinals card, but it makes sense and looks good on a Yankees card.......

Inserts 

Now we get to the good stuff with Pacific Aurora. The inserts.  

The most basic insert was the "Pennant Fever". When the Aurora product first started in 1998, these were the inserts that generally came as the per-pack. Pacific continued this insert again in 1999 and 2000. Based on the number in my collection, I would guess that a box typically came with 3 or 4 of these cards. The foil along the bottom of the card is nice, but this isn't even the close to the best thing in this set.  

Let's get serious.  

Pacific made some great cards involving nets in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Yes, nets. You'd think that might not work for baseball, but sounds like a great concept for a basketball insert. What has nets on a baseball diamond? Dugouts and foul poles. The good people at Pacific employed some creative people who made great cards like this Shawn Green, which is a Dugout Net card.....

It's not a game-used card or anything, just a die-cut card with the cut-out section being filled in with netting. I am not sure the scan does the card justice, but these are some of the best inserts from this era. The one draw back for these cards is that they were thicker and would chip along the bottom. Check out the white around the bottom of the net.  

Most of the cards in this insert set are available online for less than $5, which reminds me that I have not done a set project in a long time. More of these might be making an appearance in this space in the near future.  

Last one for this set.  

I love that Dugout set with the die-cut space for the netting, but the Styroteach insert with these batting helmets might be even better. These remind me of the Donruss Hard Hats inserts that came out in the mid 1990s. Just a really nice insert card, again I am not sure the scan does this justice. 

Unlike the Dugout set though, these are really pricy on Ebay and COMC. The cheapest cards are around $10 with many being closer to $30 or $40. Not sure I can put together this complete set those prices given the quantity of cards. For now, I am happy with this Barry Bonds card.  

So, how does the 2000 Pacific Aurora set rate?  

I think it's biggest positives are that it has great insert cards and a solid base set. Having the first Reds Griffey cards pumps up the nostalgia factor for me and I am sure others who collected during this time.  When you add in the fact that these were $60 a box for 24 packs, there is a lot of upside here. Obviously, the base card design could be much better, but it's also not horrible. Aurora also has a small checklist with only 150 cards. That means you're only getting 4 to 5 cards of your favorite team.  

I ended up giving the set three Wool E. Bulls for the checklist and set design, everything else was above average with the final rating coming in at 3 1/2 Wool E Bulls.  

You can still find boxes of these cards for less than $100 on Ebay, if you're interested. Given the recent interest in opening old packs of cards and boxes, that's not much of a mark up from the original price. 

A Busy Week of Football

We are in the middle of the baseball playoffs, but that has not stopped me from spending a little quality time with football this week. It all started last Saturday when I attended the Duke-NC State game. This game was in Durham at Duke. Their stadium is small, but I really like attending games there. The majority of the seats have actual seats and not metal bleachers. The crowd is also typically calm compared to other college football venues. 

Dare I say far more sober than NC State, or at least the State Fairgrounds during an NC State game. 

This is a look at Wallace Wade Stadium from behind the student section.  

Wallace Wade is the only stadium to host a Rose Bowl game besides the Rose Bowl, which happened during World War II. 

As for the game, my Wolfpack played horrible on offense and lost 24-3 to the Blue Devils.  

I was disappointed for a day, but I actually had a group of NC State Football players show up at my school and read and talk about college life with my students on Monday morning, which more than made up for the loss. The students were excited to meet the players........

We got to spend the day with our friends at Brier Creek Elementary for Sports Day! #1Pack1Goal | #GoPack pic.twitter.com/TLiNJ2wAO0

— NC State Football (@PackFootball) October 17, 2023

While we are here, let's talk about baseball and baseball cards for two seconds. 

I had a pair of concerned well-wishers on social media ask about the Yankees pennant in the video. The players visited three different classrooms. I do not have a Yankees pennant, but my bulletin and board borders are all baseball cards.  I am also into science and math charts and diagrams and they are all over this video.  

Anyway, back to football. This post is not really about baseball cards.  

My week of football was topped off this afternoon by an exciting football card arriving at my house. That's not a typo and it has been several years since I have posted a football card. Got to be something special for me to buy it and post it. 

Front of the card........

This is a 1992 Pro Line Football Brian Jordan autograph. 

Where is the autograph asks the baseball collectors?  

Hold on a minute.  

One of my favorite Brian Jordan card is his 1998 Topps card, which shows him wearing his Cardinals uniform hitting a football. Here is the card:

This Pro Line card proceeds the Topps card by six years and I think it was likely the influence for baseball card with Jordan wearing his Atlanta Falcons uniform holding a baseball bat. I am a little curious about when the photo was taken. Jordan is clearly standing in the left-field corner of Shea Stadium, but during his 3 year NFL career never played a game against the Jets and Giants.  

Jordan only played 55 games for the Cardinals in 1992, but did play 3 in Shea against the Mets. Perhaps the photos were taken during baseball season. Also interesting that Jordan has cards in a 1992 football card product, considering the Cardinals ended up paying Jordan a few million dollars in the middle of the baseball season to give up football. 

Brian Jordan did not play a single down of football for Falcons that year, or ever again. 

Back of the card.  

The Pro Line cards had players sign the back of the cards. I own several Brian Jordan autographs and this is a little scrunched up for space. It's also hard to see on the scan, but there is some yellowing around the autograph, 

No bueno, but I also got this card for less than $10.  

I do really like the embossed Pro Line emblem on the bottom right corner of the card. I guess the basic design of the Pro Line Autographs is the same as the Pro Line base set, minus that embossed stamp. Nice touch in my opinion, especially for the early 1990s. I also really like the write-up with Jordan being mentioned in the same space as Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson.  

That rarely happens, but it should.  

The Inconvenience of Red Shoe Laces

I am twenty-plus years into teaching and have ruined a few too many dress shirts and pants over the years to wear much of anything beyond moderately priced pants from The Gap, dry-fit polo shirts and quarter-zips, and a wide array of colored sneakers that typically match the polo shirts. I would guesstimate that 90% of the male teachers I know dress roughly the same.  

My school is doing an anti-bullying theme week at the moment. Monday was sports day. I wore an NC State shirt. The offensive line from the NC State football team stopped and read books and talked about college with my fifth graders.This morning, I woke up and put on a red polo shirt and a blue Cardinals hat to fit today's theme. To top off my outfit, I wore my red Nike Air Max sneakers.  

Unfortunately, as I was tying my shoe lace, one of them was broken. Really not that big of a deal, because I live two minutes from a Walgreens. So, at 6:30, I rolled into the store to find that they sold white and black shoelaces, but not red. 

Where else can you buy red shoelaces at 6:30 in the morning?  

Wally World?  

I went home, grabbed a pair of blue Adidas Superstars as a back-up plan and set off for Wally World. The Apex, North Carolina Wal-Mart has more than twenty cashier stations, but only four self-checkout stations were open this morning. I checked the shoe section and could not find red shoelaces. A token employee who appeared to be running the entire front-end of the store solo suggested I check the random junk they stock in each check-out aisle.  

No red shoelaces, but they did have one box of Allen & Ginter cards left next to their self-checkouts.  

I bought it, went out to my car, and put on my blue Adidas shoes.  

After getting my room set-up and attending a short meeting, I opened my packs of Allen & Ginter. It's been a minute since I pulled something good out of a pack of retail cards, but I think this qualifies as a quality find......

I ordered some new red shoelaces off of Amazon.  

Random Ray - 2023 Immaculate Collection Autograph

I am not going to say a bad word about Panini for at least the next month on this space and my other social media sites based solely on the fact that they have now produced two different Ray Lankford autographed cards this year. It's true that they can no longer manufacture cards of current players, so I understand they are limited to retired player like Ray Lankford. However, they could have done something really mediocre like made a bunch of Todd Zeile autographs.

Nobody needs that.  

They really did a good job of making the best of the situation and choosing players who have some degree of popularity within their fan base. My Cardinals have Ray Lankford, Vince Coleman, and Jim Edmonds as the featured players and I can't say I know a Cardinals collector who would be disappointed to add another card of those three players. 

On to Ray.  

My latest Ray Lankford autograph is from their high-end Immaculate Collection. It's even better than the previous 2023 Lankford autograph I posted here a few weeks back from the same product. 

Here is the front of the card.  

I love the picture on the front of the card. The Cardinals switched to button up uniforms and blue road caps in 1992, so this is from early in Lankford's career. I believe the 1990 uniforms had an AAB patch on the sleeve to honor former owner Gussie Busch, which makes this a 1991 photograph. 

Ray had a pretty good 1991, topped off by hitting for the cycle against the Mets at the end of the year. 

As for the design of the card, it's fine. I like the red and gold color scheme, but honestly I am just excited that someone made a Ray Lankford autograph. This card could have purple dinosaurs dancing on rainbows and I would buy it in a second.  This one has a print run of just 10 copies.  

There were two of these listed on Ebay last week, including a Buy It Now for $62. I tried talking the Buy It Now seller down into the $20 range, but he would not budge. That's okay, because I won the second card in an auction for roughly $20. The $62 copy is still listed, it's going to be there for a while.  

Back of the card.  

Panini does a great job with their card backs. Great write-up. Ray Lankford, Stan Musial, Ken Boyer, and Albert Pujols. I like all four of those players I don't think I knew this fact before reading this card. Young Stan was fast and Ray Lankford had some big stolen base seasons early in his career, but I don't think of stolen bases and Albert Pujols or Ken Boyer. 

Great card.  

2023 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 11

I was so excited when I saw this card pop up on Ebay as an auction with a middle of the day ending time that happened to coordinate with my late lunch time. I dropped my class off at the cafeteria, made sure they all got through the lunch line, and then went up to my classroom to snipe this Blake Snell autograph off of Ebay. 

No one else bid, so it was a pretty drama-free few minutes.  

Here is the card. The little fuzzies and scratches are on the holder, not the card.   

This autograph is from the 2021 National Baseball Card Day set. Collectors could get a pack of these with a purchase from their local card shop on National Baseball Card Day. The autograph checklist is short and the odds on them was fairly long. Snell has actually signed cards for this set early in his career, which I already have in my collection. 

I had several of copies of this card on my Ebay Watchlist over the past two years, but the copies that popped up tended to be the "RARE!!!!" or "LIMITED!!!" type of listings that were Buy It Now with an exorbitant purchase price. One or two would listen to offers, but not seriously.  

Glad I was patient with this card. While I am happy to own it, it's a sticker autograph with a print-run of 100 copies. Not exactly rare and if this were a base Topps autograph with the same print run and autograph, it would be an easy find for around $10. Always willing to go a little high to fill a whole in my Blake Snell collection, but not $50 over.  

Standard Topps autograph card back with the serial number in the top-right corner.  

"There is a shortage of Roger Maris cards in a Cardinals uniform, it would be a shame to pass up this card"

I have written about the 2002 Topps Super Teams set a few times in this space. It's one of my favorite modern baseball card sets that focuses on players and teams from yesteryear. In this case, 10 different teams from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The 1967 Cardinals who won the World Series against the Boston Red Sox make an appearance in the set. 

I own most of the Cardinals cards in the set. At least the base cards, shiny parallel cards, and the autographs. My favorite is my Bob Gibson autograph with a piece of a seat from old Busch Stadium. 

Very nice.  

While I have all the autographs and base cards and shiny parallel cards, I was still missing one of the relic cards. If you are a long-time reader, you know I have an aversion to the majority of relic cards out there. They rarely appear here and I have made my peace with the fact that the authenticity of the relics is often dubious.  

Well, I am going to set that aside, because I found that final missing relic card, which belonged to the right-fielder on the 1967 Cardinals, Roger Maris. You might remember Roger from the New York Yankees.  

Roger spent the final two years of his career with the Cardinals. He was more of a complimentary piece at that point in his career, as the Cardinals had Orland Cepeda, Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and Tim McCarver.  Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton too. Maris was a good defensive outfielder and a nice left-handed bat to stick behind Cepeda.  

There are not many modern cards of Maris shown as a Cardinal. I understand that his best year's were with the Yankees, but that fan base was also pretty terrible in their treatment of him both before and after his career. Thrilled to add a nice Maris card to the collection in a Cardinals uniform. 

Seat relics are cool, right?  

Here is the back of the card.  

It's the less grand version of the "CONGRATULATIONS" message that frequents so many of today's autographs and relics. I forgot about the old Topps authentication stickers, which is to the right of Roger's head. I wonder if that website is still live?  

Anyway, great card, happy to add it to the collection.  

Pujols Post - 2023 Topps Chrome Ultra Violet

I usually post inexpensive base cards of Albert Pujols in this space, but I also usually don't pull expensive inserts of the future Hall of Famer out of retail packs of cards that I purchase from Target.  

It all started two weeks ago. 

I dropped off the kids at school. It was my last day of vacation, so I decided I was going to drive to Durham and hike around the Duke University hiking trail. The path circles the university's five star hotel, The Washington Duke, and their golf course, so I always make a point of making a restroom stop and fill up my water bottle somewhere nearby in Durham before starting the 3 mile hike. 

There is a Target right around the corner from Duke, so I stopped there.

Remember that time I wrote about the Durham Wal-Mart being the 7th Circle of Hell? Well, the west Durham Target is opposite. It's the most high-end Target I have stepped foot in. It's 10 minutes from the McMansions in Chapel Hill and it's not like Duke students and faculty are going to shop in an ordinary Target.  

On this trip into the store, I noted that the snack bar has been upgraded.    

"Taste of Target" 

I see the ICEE machine, but for me it's not really Target unless the front of the store smells like stale popcorn. Note the popcorn machine is empty and looks unused. I cannot take a picture of smells, but the front of the West Durham Target smells pleasant, like someone has one of those potpourri pots going or something.   

Perhaps not having a student body and faculty that eats stale popcorn is the key to a university having it's own pair of five star hotels, a golf course, and a hiking trail. The colleges I graduated from just have a bunch of rare William Faulkner books, an automated library robot, and a tunnel you can legally graffiti.  

I bought a box of Topps Chrome cards and the hiking trail was spectacular.  

Upon returning home, I discovered that the Topps Chrome cards were hot garbage except for one very nice and surprisingly expensive Albert Pujols insert card.

Here is the front of the Topps Chrome Ultra Violet Albert Pujols card.  

  

It's an art set inside of Topps Chrome, which is different. I like it.  

I believe the cards all have the same artist, they at least have a similar piece of art work. Swirly or circles around a head shot of the player along with some sort of action shot and their name drawn inside of a circle using a similar font.  

We've got a younger Albert Pujols on this card. Face is a little slimmer, no gray hair. His batting stance in the action shot is a little lower and Albert is a little smaller through the middle. Let's be honest, this card is better than 90% of the cards that Topps put out in their art sets the past few years.  

To the back of the card......

More swirly lines. 

A nice write-up about Albert Pujols playing in the All-Star game. 

I am going to go check out the artist website.  

Great card.  

More Australians, Less Profanity

In my time watching the Durham Bulls, the team has had two Australian players. The first appeared in 2008 when the Rays sent newly acquired relief pitcher Grant Balfour down for a little fine tuning. If you are not familiar with Grant Balfour, he is an excellent pitcher, but might be the angriest player who ever stepped foot on a baseball field. 

The confines of a Major League stadiums could not hold his f bombs and Minor League parks were no different. I'd like to think Balfour's most notable angry moment came in the 2013 American League playoffs when he started yelling at Tigers catcher Victor Martinez for who knows what reason......

While Balfour turned many live broadcasts into NSFW territory, nobody could really complain about the results. During his stay in 2008, Balfour had an ERA of 0.38 for the Durham Bulls with an impressive 14.8 strikeouts per 9 innings and 8 saves, all while sharing the closer role.  

The Bulls second Australian joined the team towards the end of the 2021 season with the addition of third baseman Curtis Mead. He's a top 100 prospect, one of the Rays top prospects, and the third baseman of the future in Tampa. The Rays called him up and he made his Major League debut this season. Mead's numbers weren't great, but he also got less than 100 plate appearances. 

Mead also managed to hit his first Major League home run.  

I have posted other Curtis Mead cards on here previously under the heading of "Troppo prices", which means they are crazy in Australian. Luckily, it seems like the prospecting crowd gave up the Bulls third baseman this year, outside of his first Bowman Chrome. Thank you prospectors for quitting a player I enjoy watching. I can now afford some of his cards without taking out a second mortgage on my house.  

For my first round of new Curtis Mead cards, I tried to focus on his Durham Bulls cards. He's had several produced over the past two years. I got all four of the cards featured in this post for around $25. Between a box of cards at Target or a few Curtis Mead cards, I will take a few Curtis Mead cards.  

The first card, out of 2022 Topps Heritage Minor League, is the most expensive and cost me roughly half the $25 I spent on this lot of cards. This card has a nice on-card signature and shows Mead wearing a Durham Bulls jersey. A real Durham Bulls jersey, not one that is photoshopped onto the card, which leads me to the really odd thing about this card. 

The photograph on the front shows Mead in a Bulls home uniform, but the photo is not taken in the Durham Bulls Stadium. Notice the players sitting in the dugout are wearing home white uniforms too. That is typically the visitors dugout in Durham. However, the top of the dugout is not right, nor is the color of the wall at the top of the stands.  

I will figure it out one day, but for the moment I am happy to own my second Curtis Mead autograph.  

These two cards are parallels of his 2022 Topps Pro Debut base card. The top card is the Chrome parallel, which is not serial numbered. Good looking card and I wish Topps had made a Chrome parallel for this set about a decade ago. 

The second card is the pink parallel, which is serial numbered to 199 copies. Another nice looking parallel. Imagine a pink Chrome card. I know, it's too much to ask.  

Last card.....

This is an insert card from the 2022 Heritage Minors set, which borrows its design from the 1973 Topps Pin-Up cards. Not the hardest insert to pull, but nice enough to add to the Curtis Mead collection.  

A few shiny Curtis Mead cards will be posted in the near future.  

Random Ray - 1998 Stadium Club

I have posted almost every Stadium Club card of Ray Lankford, missing just a few. 

Here is the front of this week's random Ray Lankford card......

Nice action shot of Ray fielding a ball in the outfield. Not sure if this is a line drive or a tall hop off of the artificial turf shown in the picture. Either way, it's a nice, tightly cropped photo of the former Cardinals outfielder. There were not many teams playing on artificial turf that season, only the Pirates and Reds. However, I could not figure out when or where this game took place as the Cardinals played multiple day games against both teams.  

Back of the card. 

I love the effort here. The borderless, full color photo in the background with the stats over the top of the photo is a really good look. While the photo is the best thing here, I really like what Topps tried to do with the stat box. Before I get there, I want to go over my one negative, which is the fact that there are two little factoid boxes. There is the "Bottom Line" at the bottom of the card and then another little write-up above the stat box. I think that space could have been better used.  

I know, it's hard to read, and I am saying this as a person with really good eyesight.  Essentially, they use the quintessential back-of-the-card stats, home runs, RBIs, runs, hits, etc, and then add in the players ranking for that star within the Top 40 of all MLB players. 

For an underrated player like Ray Lankford, it really shows how good his numbers were playing for bad Cardinals teams. That's a lot of Top 40 stat finishes and if you squint your way to read all the numbers, there are a bunch of numbers within the Top 10. On the last line, which is 1997, Lankford finished in the Top 10 in home runs, walks, and on-base percentage.  In 1996, he was top 10 in walks, stolen bases, and triples. 

Really good idea, they just needed to crank up the font size a few notches.  

As a side note, the fact box mentions that Ray Lankford was closing in on the all-time home run record at Busch Stadium II. Lankford ended up with the record with 123 home runs, At the time he was traded to the Padres in 2001, Ray had 119 Busch Stadium home runs, but Mark McGwire would tie him late that season. Ray Lankford broke the tie and set the Busch Stadium home run record as a member of the San Diego Padres in 2002.  

The tie-breaking home run was hit off of Woody Williams who was traded to the Cardinals for Ray Lankford. 

Friday Five: My Favorite Miggy Cards

I do not write about the Tigers often on this blog, but they have long been a team on my radar. My wife is a Michigan native, so my in-laws are all big Tigers fans. My middle schooler likes the Tigers (not you Javy Baez) and will watch their games. I have been fortunate enough to attend a few Tigers games over the years. They have a great stadium if you are ever in Detroit. 

The last Tigers game I attended was two summers ago and I was fortunate enough to see Miguel Cabrera one last time in person. I knew it was likely going to be the last time, so I took a few pictures......

In the end, Miggy walked off the Twins on an odd single that landed between the centerfielder and the shortstop. The Twins had actually been really aggressive with pinch hitting and had Nick Gordon, normally a second baseman or shortstop, playing in centerfield.  

On to the cards. I think I have a sneaky good collection of Miggy cards, so I thought it would be fun to do one of my Friday posts featuring some of my favorites of the future Hall of Famer.  

5. 2013 Topps Miguel Cabrera Triple Crown Relic 

Not sure where winning the Triple Crown ranks on Miggy's list of career accomplishments, but it feels like it should be up there. I also feel like it rarely gets mentioned when people talk about his career. I watched his last few games, not sure it really got brought up. Maybe the accomplishment has lost some of its luster in recent years with the push on using sabermetric stats. Do people really talk about batting average anymore? 

I love this card. It's die-cut, has a nice action picture of Miggy with a swatch of his jersey, and is better than anything else I have seen that recognizes him as a former Triple Crown winner. These have gotten pricey and hard to find over the last decade.  

T4. 2011 Triple Threads Miguel Cabrera Patch Card 

Two relic cards in a post is my limit in the year 2023. I do not really do relic cards, but this one is too good to not post on my list. I went all in on the 2011 Triple Threads set and have some great looking cards from this product. I could easily make a few posts on some of the cards. This is one of my favorites. 

I have never really tried to figure out all the patch pieces on here, but there is a lot of blue and orange. I think it's the Detroit script off of a road Tigers uniform, as the home uniforms do not have any orange..... 

The patch piece on the LL of the card is white, orange, and then a partial piece of blue. Looks similar to the top of Ts in the word "Detroit" on the road uniforms. 

T4. 2011 Triple Threads Miguel Cabrera Autograph 

I will fudge on the five card thing a bit in this post and go ahead and share one of the Triple Threads autographs I have of Miggy from the 2011 set while we are here. Yes, it's a sticker autograph, but it's a clear sticker on a really great looking card. 

3. 2012 Topps Five Star Miguel Cabrera Autograph 

I love Five Star. I don't open any packs of it, because they cost a second mortgage on your house. I just like when people sell their autographs that do not make them a profit on their $250 box of cards. You pulled a Miguel Cabrera autograph and need to sell it? I am listening.  

I have several Miguel Cabrera autographs that are not going to be included in this list. They are all really great cards that I am sure the average sane collector would love to have in their collection. This is my favorite Miggy autograph and it's the last one on this list. This Five Star is an on-card autograph and has really thick card stock. Yes, it's got a jersey and some art work, that's kind of an afterthought here. I wish I could scan the side of the card to show off the stock, it's impressive.  

2. 2001 Bowman Heritage Miguel Cabrera 

Huge fan of the 2001 Bowman Heritage set. Have a ever told you about how much I love the Albert Pujols card in this set? I don't love Miggy that much, but it's close. Is this considered a rookie card? I treat it like it's a rookie card. It's in a magnetic one-touch and everything. This is a great looking card and aesthetically probably my favorite card of Miguel Cabrera on the Marlins. 

1. 2000 Topps Traded Miguel Cabrera 

The 2000 Topps set is trash, but the Traded set is pretty nice. You've got rookie cards of Adam Wainwright, Ben Sheets, and Miguel Cabrera. That's more checklist depth than the 1982 Topps Traded set. If I had to make a list of the most important 2000s rookie cards, this Miguel Cabrera would be really high on the list. Great card. First ballot Hall of Famer wearing a teal Marlins uni, not sure how it gets better than that.