Pujols Post - 2023 Topps Archives 1989 Doubleheader

Pack fresh from the local Target.  

The 1989 Topps set might be completely worthless and one of the junkiest junk wax products of all-time, but I do love it's design. It has long been one of my favorite Topps sets from my childhood. I was excited the other day when I checked out a few packs of Archives and landed a Pujols insert on a 1989 Topps designed card.  

Here is the front.....

I love this photograph Topps used of Pujols standing in Busch Stadium II. All the important elements of the Cardinals former home stadium are present in the photograph. The arches at the top of the stadium, which set it apart from other concrete bowls from the 1960s and 1970s, an advertisement for an Anheuser-Busch product, and the giant outfield scoreboard that was installed in the late 1990s. Obviously, I don't count the giant scoreboard on all Busch II baseball cards, but it's a must on anything from the final years of the stadium. 

You can see the leg of the Arch in the arch just below Pujols' right ear. While the Arch is easy to see from the current rendition of Busch Stadium, it was hard to see at Busch II with the upper deck extending all the way around the stadium.  

Well done, Topps.

Back of the card.......

It's Paul Goldschmidt.  

He's at Spring Training and there is some website on the side of the card where you can view some legal disclaimers about the 2023 Topps Archives product.  

I want to see all 20 years of Albert Pujols statistics, nothing against Paul Goldschmidt.  

Around The Card Room, Take 13

The end of the school year can be hard on elementary school students. There are plenty of happy children on the final day of school who are ready for summer vacation and the challenges of a new grade level. However, there are also plenty who are sad and disregulated at the thought of having to learn a whole new set of rules and routines the next year. 

Others are sad for different reasons........

At the end of the 2004 school year, I had a student experience what he perceived to be the worst day of his school career. The reason? He found the perfect end of year gift for me and he forgot it at home. After an hour of crying, we tried calling mom and dad, but his parents both worked and could not leave to bring a gift to school. He spent the day in tears and kept telling me, "I got your gift from my grandma's neighbor. It's the best gift ever"

He was tight-lipped with the details about grandma's neighbor.  

Dad emailed me that afternoon and assured me they had found me the most incredible end of year gift, repeated the part about finding it at his grandmother's house, and that they would drop it off at school the next day while the teachers were having their end of year work days.  

I was not overly worried about the gift.  

End of year workdays are so boring. Lots of papers to file, cleaning, and everyone just wants to finish as quickly as possible to start summer break. I can do paperwork so long, but I eventually need a break. In the middle of the morning I walked through the office and saw a brown paper bag stuffed into my mailbox. 

It was crisp and had my name written on it in black marker.  

I pulled it out of my mailbox and I knew it was the gift from the student. Knowing it came from his grandma's neighbor, I figured it was a trinket of some sort or vegetables from their garden. Obviously neither, because I don't blog about vegetable gardens. When I picked up the bag and looked inside, I could it was a baseball, but I couldn't see the writing. 

I picked it up and turned it over..........

Nobody has ever given me a better end of year gift from their grandmother's neighbor.  

Random Ray - 2023 Chronicles Zenith Ray Lankford Autograph

Another Ray Lankford autograph.

2023 has been incredible for the Ray Lankford collection.  

The latest Ray Lankford autograph comes from Chronicles, which is seven different baseball card sets in one pack of cards. You think I am joking, but I am not. Luckily, someone else pulled this card out of a pack and sold it on the internet.  

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

It's a sticker autograph, which is not my favorite, but it's Ray Lankford.  

There is also a picture of Ray Lankford batting on the front of the card, which is a positive.  

What is going on with the baseballs on the side of the card?  

I don't even care, because it's a Ray Lankford card.  

Here is the back of the card........

Nice write-up on Lankford's career, which is actually accurate on this card.  

The picture is fine, as are the lines on the side of the card.  

Whatever, just give me more Ray Lankford cards. You know I will buy it and post it online.  

2023 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 14

I picked up another Blake Snell autograph with a low serial number from a previous year. This time a card from 2020 out of the Panini Optic set. I believe this is one of their more high-end products, or it at least has some higher end finishes than the average Panini card.  

Here is the front of the card complete with the logos airbrushed off the card.

The card has a glossy finish and also an on-card autograph. The on-card autograph was a big selling point for this card. Snell has a handful of Panini autographs and almost all of them are sticker autographs. It's one of the biggest reasons there is not a Panini Blake Snell autograph on here every week. 

The border design has some a good nostalgia factor with a similar appearance as the 1986 Donruss set.  

Back of the card........

I like the gold and black color scheme on the back of the card.  The write-up is okay, mainly just highlights from his first two starts from the 2019 season. We've got the Panini autograph guarantee in small print and also the serial number, which is out of 15.  

Random Ray - 2023 Panini America's Pastime Autograph

There have now been three Ray Lankford autographs this calendar year.  

A fourth different Ray Lankford autograph is currently in the mail and should be here later this week.

Here is the latest from Panini's America's Pastime product. I do not know anything about these cards outside of the fact that there is a Ray Lankford autograph. It's actually a really nice card. Thick card stock, nice finishing touches on the front of the card including the autograph, which is on-card. Also love that Lankford signed his number 16.

 

The design is alright. We've got a giant US map covered in an American flag. Feels like something that came from stock photos. Could we get something more specific to the Cardinals or St. Louis? A toasted ravioli, a can of Budweiser, or a picture of the Arch? Feels like there is something more that could be done with this theme.  

The photo feels like it is from the late 1990s or early 2000s.  

The important thing is that there is a Ray Lankford autograph.

Here is the back......  

which talks about his 1991 season. Unfortunately there are a few errors here.

First, the cycle game facts are off. Lankford was not the first Cardinals rookie to hit for the cycle, just the first in a long time. Prior to Lankford, the last Cardinals cycle was Willie McGee against the Cubs in 1984. Cliff Heathcote hit for the cycle as a rookie for the Cardinals in 1918. We all remember that one.  

Ray Lankford also led the National League with 15 triples in 1991, not 13. His 15th triple of the year was his third hit during the cycle game.  

Lankford also only hit 9 home runs his rookie year, so that "power-speed" thing might have been a bit of an exaggeration.  His home run during the cycle game, the date is correct- it was at the end of the season, was only his 7th of the season. 

Hey, Panini got the centerfield thing right.  

Around The Card Room, Take 12

More than a decade ago, I was working as an administrative intern at an elementary school in the northern part of Durham County, North Carolina. I also taught fifth grade in a room that was 50% non-English speaking students, and went to grad school classes four nights a week.

I did not have much free time, as school and school took up all of my time.  

I met plenty of great people during my busy year, but nobody taught me more about schools that year than the school secretary and attendance manager. They knew all the students, their parents, which phone calls and conversations would be easy or difficult, the staff members who called in sick ten minutes before work or did not leave sub plans when they were out, and all sorts of other minutia that made my job happier or easier. 

I stuck with them through thick and thin.  

Beyond the school secretary and attendance manager, the front office staff also included a bookkeeper and the two full-time administrators, the principal and assistant principal. The others were not as tightly knit as the two women and it showed.  

One of the proudest possessions of the attendance manager was a photo of herself with Grant Hill in which he appears to be wearing a Carolina hat. The photo was displayed on her desk along with her family members. The assistant principal was a Duke fan and would often express displeasure with the picture. Arguments frequently occurred as a result over the item's authenticity.. During one such argument towards the end of the school year, the assistant principal noted that she was a bartender during college, knew all the local athletes, and had tons of memorabilia from them in her office.  

The secretary bet the assistant principal she didn't have anything more than a single baseball bat that was in the corner of her office. The bet being for the baseball bat. Several photos of Michael Jordan appeared, a napkin supposedly autographed by Sean May, and a basketball that JJ Reddick supposedly gave her after a game.  

The Sean May napkin did not look close to Sean May's autograph, none of the photos were signed or personalized, and there is no way that JJ Reddick gave her a basketball from Cameron Indoor for a few Bud Lights. I argued with the secretary who relocated the bat to her desk after the ten minute argument ended.  

The bat belonged to former Durham Bulls player Steve Cox.  

Cox had been an A's prospect, but the Devil Rays selected him in the Expansion Draft and stuck him in Durham as the Bulls first baseman. He played two seasons in Durham, winning the Triple A MVP during the 1999 season with a .341 average, .588 slugging percentage, 25 home runs, 49 doubles, and 127 RBIs.  He was on the Devil Rays for parts of four seasons, but never hit the way he did in Triple A. Cox ended his career with a brief stay in Japan, followed by a return to the Rays and a few more games with the Bulls in 2005.  

The bat remained behind her desk the rest of the school year. At the start of the following school year, I resigned my teaching job at the school to take another job closer to home.  My going away present was the Steve Cox bat.

Here is the whole bat........

Along with a few close-ups.......

The Steve Cox bat is not hanging on a wall, rather it leans against the side of a bookcase in the card room. Inside the book case is a container of baseballs that are autographed by my former students.  

For example, this is my 2007-2008 class.......

I never saw Steve Cox play, nor do I have any connection, just a good work story.  

Baby T

College basketball season is upon us. 

It is the happiest time of the year in North Carolina. 

Since all the team's are dependent upon transfers, I am not sure who is going to be good or not. There are current NC State players who appeared in Bowman U. last year with other teams. I had thought about adding a few of those cards, but I find it hard to collect players I have not watched in-person. Maybe later this year I will get to a few games and feel inclined to buy a few cards. 

In the meantime, Panini is catching up with the players who were in college last year, as they have included cards of former NC State player Terquavion Smith in their Prism product. Terquavion, or Baby T, is part of a decade long tradition at NC State of having one player score a bazillion points per game while the remaining players are all role players. Not quite true of last year's roster, but also not far from the truth.  

Baby T is now a shooting guard on the Sixers, but in Panini Prism he is still a member of the Wolfpack.  

Terquavion has a decent autograph. I had seen it several places prior to picking up this card, so I knew he was going to shorten his name when he finally got a basketball card. The design of the card itself seems rather textbook for Panini. Their designs all seem to run together and look very similar.  

Here is a second Baby T autograph I picked up. Both cards cost me less than $5.  

I like the picture on this second card a little better, but the design comments ring true for this card too. 

We shall see what Terquavion does in the NBA. He's an exciting player.  

2023 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 13

The majority of Blake Snell autographs that are missing from my collection are either really low print runs or they are from unlicensed products from Panini and Upper Deck. I am generally not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on cards with giant patch pieces that are more or less one of ones and will also not pay Topps prices on cards with the logos airbrushed off the card.  

I don't even bother to search out cheap Blake Snell autographs most days, but I did last week and I found a few cards that I decided deserved a spot in my collection. I might also have a soft spot in my heart for Upper Deck.  

Here my latest Blake Snell autographed card, which is out of 2015 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions.  

Snell was in Double A and Triple A in 2015, so just a prospect at this point.  

The overall design of the Goodwin Champions set is fine. I dig the gold and light blue border and the design feels like it belongs with the original Champions cards from the late 1800s. The autograph is well placed on the front and the design allows a nice dead space for the signer.  

The photo is a disaster.

This photo is from Snell's time in A Ball with the Bowling Green Hot Rods. In fact, the same non-airbrushed photo is on his 2014 Topps Heritage card. Upper Deck just did a little editing, changed some colors, and voila!!!!  

The Bowling Green Hot Rods have terrible uniforms, maybe it's better that Upper Deck airbrushed Snell out of that yellow jersey. It's one of those attempted oddball Minor League team names gone wrong.  

Back of the card........

I like that Upper Deck still put stats on the back of the autographed cards in Goodwin Champions.  

I also like that they kept Richard McWilliam around after he passed away. He was instrumental in Upper Deck's glory days as a card manufacturer regardless of how his story ended.  

I was hoping maybe this card was going to look a little better in-person. In the end, it checks off an autograph that I do not own and was less than $10 shipped. That's a bargain for a Blake Snell autograph these days.  

NIL Cards

I still want to know if the college and high school kids got paid for their USA Baseball autographs back in the day. However, I have picked up a few high school and college cards in recent weeks where I know the player featured on the card has gotten paid to appear and sign the card.  

Let's start with the best player.  

Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden is one of the better offensive players in the SEC this year. He's way up there in receptions and receiving yardage. Watch five minutes of one of their games and you will certainly see him show up. 

Burden has autographs through Leaf, not my favorite card company, but I am sure that Luther is getting paid a handsome amount for these cards. He is actually pictured in his East St. Louis High School football uniform. Burden is a master class in NIL. He's lived up to the hype of being a top recruit on the field while also pitching a grocery store chain, my favorite St. Louis pizza restaurant, and also his own flavor of potato chips.  

His football cards are cheaper than a few bags of potato chips or a pizza from Imos and he's likely going to play on Sunday. This card felt like a bargain and I hope my money helps Luther out with college.  

Next up is Southeast Missouri State running back, Geno Hess.  

My alma mater (also known as SEMO) has been terrible at football throughout the school's history until the past five or six years. Their stadium was literally condemned a few years ago. However, they have made the NCAA Football Championship Tournament on a few different occasions and also won their conference title a few times. Their star player has been running back Geno Hess. 

Yes, they are remodeling their stadium.  

The Ohio Valley Conference is one of the oldest in the NCAA and Hess owns all of the rushing and scoring records. He has both an autograph and base card in the SAGE set. The picture is a little odd, not sure if this is supposed to be an art set. Anyway, the photo looks like it was taken in a game against Mizzou with the brick wall in the background.  

Kids in I-AA getting paid.

Amazing.  

Last.  

NC State backup, errr starting quarterback, Brennan Armstrong.  

The whole backup/starter thing has been interesting this year. Brennan transferred from Virginia where he was really good. Not quite the same player this year at NC State, got benched, but the player who took over as a starter more or less quit after beating Clemson and Miami on back-to-back weeks.  

This is obviously the highest quality of all the NIL cards shown in this post. Wish Luther Burden got a Bowman U. card.  

Friday Five: Top Five Archives Autographs

Topps Archives base set is horrible. 

What is the point of releasing a Topps Heritage set every year, which borrows the design of a previous Topps set, when Archives does the same thing? 

Maybe the question should be why is Topps releasing Archives every year? 

Both products have some positives. I like the Heritage base set better than the Archives, but I like the autograph checklist of Archives much better. With the release of a new Topps Archives set this week, I thought I would take a look back at my five favorite Topps Archives autographs. The autographs after all are the only reason to purchase this annual Topps release.  

This was actually a challenging list to create. I could easily go Top 20 here and still make a good list. Narrowing the list down to my five favorites took some work.  

T5. 2020 Topps Archives Felix Jose 

Felix Jose is a symbolic choice here. I could have picked Joe McEwing or Edgar Renteria or George Hendrick, but I thought Felix was perfect for this post. I try to collect as many certified autographs of Cardinals players as possible and I never thought Felix Jose would be on that list. If you are not familiar with Felix, he came up in the late 1980s with the Oakland Athletics, but was traded to the Cardinals for Willie McGee. That's a tough act to follow in St. Louis and all Felix did was hit .305 with 40 doubles during his first season with the Cardinals. He was eventually traded to the Royals for Gregg Jefferies, but getting this card made me take a few minutes to look back at his career numbers on Baseball Reference and appreciate the time he spent with the Cardinals. Every once in awhile Topps gets something right, Felix Jose signing cards 25 years after he retired is incredible.  

T5. 2020 Topps Archives Tom Pagnozzi 

This is another symbolic choice. I could have gone with a low-key very good player from your favorite team too. Here is a trivia question. Between 1991 and 2020 how many of the National League Gold Gloves at catcher were won by Cardinals players? The answer is 15 or half of the Gold Gloves at one position. Molina won 9, Mike Matheny won 3, and this guy Tom Pagnozzi won the other 3.  Who remembers stuff like that? Topps Archives. Tom Pagnozzi also was the Game 7 starting catcher in the 1987 World Series and also caused Uber prospect Todd Zeile (sounds funny now) to move to third base.  He's not a Hall of Famer or anything, but still a really good player and I am happy to own his autograph.  

 

4. 2001 Topps Archives Mickey Lolich Autograph 

I started collecting the current Durham Bulls players the year that I moved to North Carolina. They have had plenty of top prospects on their roster over the past two decades and there has always been an abundance of modern autographs that has made them easy to collect. I did not start collecting the old former Bulls players until I started blogging about my cards, roughly a decade ago. The autographs are a little harder to find, but I was really happy to land this 2001 Topps Archives Lolich card. I loved the 2001 Archives set, which has a little different format than the current rendition of the set and a much better autograph checklist. However, those autographs are also largely off the secondary market at this point save for a few really common cards that were signed in huge numbers. Lolich is not one of those, making this my tough to find autograph on this list. Lolich also has a better Hall of Fame argument than most realize.  

3. 2012 Topps Archives Jose Oquendo 

Nicknamed "The Secret Weapon" you never knew where Jose Oquendo was going to play for the Cardinals when you watched one of their games in the late 1980s. He eventually settled into being the second baseman next to Ozzie Smith, but for several years he played all over the infield and outfield. Topps did something incredible with Oquendo's 2012 autograph by creating 9 different variations of the card, one for each position on the field. These cards were a project a few years back, but I lost track of it and stopped trying to track them down. Topps can be creative when they try. It's all about the effort.  

2. 2016 Topps Archives Robert Wuhl Autograph 

Topps has done several pop culture insert sets over the past decade within their Archives product. The 2016 Bull Durham movie cards were obviously my favorite. I never shelled out the money for a Tim Robbins or Kevin Costner autograph, but Robert Wuhl was in my price range. The long-time actor plays the Bulls pitching coach Larry Hockett in the movie and has some of my favorite lines in the movie, including his pep talk to the team while they are on the mound airing out all the drama that is occurring in their lives.  

Candlesticks always make a nice gift, let's get two.  

In fact, I have two copies of the card.  

1. 2013 Topps Archives Ray Lankford Autograph 

Ray Lankford last played for the Cardinals in 2004. During that entire season, the only card made of him was in MLB Showdown. No Topps, Fleer, Upper Deck, or Donruss cards at all.  Nobody made a card of him in 2005 either. It took almost another decade to get a brand new Ray Lankford card, which appeared in the 2013 Topps Archives autograph set. No base card. I was still really excited to see this card and pick up a copy for the collection.  

Pujols Post - 2008 Allen & Ginter

Do you want to see some really bad art?  

Have I got something for you.  

It's the 2008 Allen & Ginter Albert Pujols card.  

Here's the front.  

What is going on with his pants?

The rest of Albert looks like normal, but that spot is certainly interesting.  

What could it be?  

A few theories.  

A. Laundry Stain Stick Comparison 

B. Bleach Stain on white pants. 

C. The sun is reflecting off his pants 

D. Albert briefly wore football thigh pads 

Back of the card.  

It is the standard Allen & Ginter card back.  

Vote for your favorite theory in the comments or make up your own.  

Around The Card Room, Take 11

I recently had someone ask on a social media account about the non-baseball items in my baseball card room. The question arose after my previous post, which featured a Mark Whiten bobblehead with a Sophie Cunningham bobblehead in the background.  

This was the photo.  

So, the answer is obviously. Yes, I have non-baseball items in the baseball card room, but they are limited in quantity.  

I will cover an item today, but I am going to limit the story. I met this person through work, which if you read regularly, you know what I do for a living. Somedays working with kids is tough. Do your own research.  

This is a puck autographed by Hockey Hall of Fame center Pierre Turgeon.  

Turgeon scored 500 goals and had more than 1,300 career points.  For my baseball audience, that's like saying he had 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. He was a very good player for my Blues, along with the Sabres, Islanders, Canadians, Stars, and Avalanche. 

Many hockey die-hards remember him for not joining in a fight against a bunch of Russians while he was a teenager, or being hit and dislocating his shoulder after scoring the deciding goal in a playoff series. However, I choose to remember Pierre Turgeon as a skilled hockey player and nice person.  

I also have a few Pierre Turgeon autographed hockey cards, but I only collect them if he is pictured as a member of the Blues. However, the majority of his autographs seem to be with the Sabres and Canadians.  

Here is one nice Upper Deck autograph from roughly five years ago.  

I also have one from the late 1990s or early 2000s.  

If I knew more about hockey cards, I would tell you something about this card. 

That's my post for today.  

Up North At Herbie's

I spent this past weekend hanging out in northern Michigan at my brother-in-law's wedding in the small town of Alpena. It was a fun wedding and a great weekend. I love getting to spend time "Up North" in a small town on Lake Huron. The views cannot be beat........

and the Meijer store typically has all the baseball cards that I cannot find around Raleigh.  

However, I skipped the retail aisles of northern Michigan during this trip in favor of the town's newly founded sports collectables store. Before I tell you that a small town of roughly 10,000 people has a better sports cards scene than one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States, let's clarify the status of Raleigh's local sports card shops. I think it's debatable whether or not Raleigh has a sports card shop, I guess it depends on how many digits are in your sports card budget and whether you like sleeping in your own bed. 

My budget is less than four digits per shopping trip and I have a really nice mattress and comfy pillows.  

Yes, I prefer the sports card scene of Alpena, Michigan over Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Durham and Chapel Hill too. 

Here is my scoop on Herbie's Sports Collectibles.  

Nothing is very hard to find in Alpena and Herbie's is no different. 

The owner runs a local restaurant that is located in a bright yellow building. Herbie's is located next door to the restaurant in a small building that has some resemblance to the card and comic shop on The Simpsons. Maybe it's just the striped awning.  

I did not take pictures in the store, but I will be back in a few weeks and will give this store a follow-up post or two. The space is small, but there is a lot to look at with three display cases, several shelves of memorabilia and autographs, a slabbed card section, and shelves with packs and boxes behind the display cases. I spent roughly 35 minutes in the store looking at cards and talking to the owner, but could have spent longer if I did not have to attend a rehearsal dinner that evening.  

The owner Greg was friendly and we talked about collecting, baseball card stores, and sports. No pressure to buy anything. Just pleasant conversation while you are looking at cards. I know a few people in town who have had similar positive buying experiences at the store.   

I gave myself a budget of roughly $50 and I was going for single cards. Here is what I took home:

Two Hostess cards......

Both of these cards are from the 1977 set and have pretty clean cut lines. On the Fidrych card, I love his hair flowing out of his hat. That's natural curl from "The Bird", no perm needed in his case. On the Lou Brock card, I love the Cardinals pillbox hat with the stripes. Several National League teams wore these during the 1976 season, the Cardinals do not get the same attention as the Pirates for the pillbox style hats, but the red hat with the white stripes pops in my book.  

Both of these Hostess cards cost me a few bucks. 

Next up is a pair of 1975 Topps.  

The Gibby is his full-sized Highlights card celebrating his 3,000 career strikeout. Love those sideburns.  

I also found a mini of former Durham Bulls pitcher Mickey Lolich. More sideburns, plus the satin jacket is sweet. Lolich did not reach 3,000 strikeouts, but he's close.  

Again, both these cards were fairly inexpensive. 

A few more.......

A 1967 Topps Lou Brock.  

and a 1981 Topps Ozzie Smith.  

He had some bins with inexpensive singles, but due to a lack of time I was only able to flip through a few cards. This is another area I will explore more on my next trip to Michigan. I found a late 1990s Mark McGwire Pacific Prism and a Panini USA Baseball card of Ozzie Smith.  

Both nice cards, both were throw-ins when I checked out.  

I had a large portion of my budget available after picking out the previous cards, which meant that I could go for a large card to end my first trip to Herbie's with a strong finish. 

I ended up going for a Durham Bulls player, not sure I have ever posted his autograph on my blog.......

I have one other Joe Morgan autograph, but he is a Durham Bulls player who is underrepresented in my card collection. Felt like this 2017 Topps autograph was calling my name and I am happy to own it.  

Overall, Herbie's was a great experience and there will be additional trips to this store posted on my blog.