Around The Card Room, Take 17

I got my first job was pushing in carts and bagging groceries at the Dierbergs in Manchester, Missouri during my junior year of high school. Bagging groceries was not very difficult, but I always seemed to end up on shopping cart duty for long stretches of my work shifts. St. Louis summers are hot and pushing in dozens of carts at a time in 95 degree heat with high humidity got old quick. I could have gone back to the grocery store for a second summer, but opted for a more interesting summer job my senior year of high school.  

My mother always played the organ at church when I was growing up. She had a long stint at a church in west St. Louis County where she also served as the choir director. My senior year of high school, one of her choir members had a son who lost his wife to cancer. The family had three children, two boys in elementary school and a daughter who was a two. Needless to say, the family needed some help, especially during the summer when the kids would be out of school. 

Long story short, I was pretty good with kids back in the day before I worked as a teacher. I did some volunteer work around the church with little kids and also did a high school senior project where I went back and worked with my former fifth grade teacher to help out struggling readers. I had one five minute interview where I met the father and the three kids after church and was hired to be a "manny". 

So long grocery carts.

I spent my summer playing games in yard, watching movies, bowling, and swimming. The kids taught me about Nintendo and I tried to teach them about baseball and baseball cards. It was a fun job that I ended up keeping from my senior year of high school through my senior year of college. I do not want to linger too much on the kids, because this is a post about an item from my card room. Let's just hit fast forward and say that all three of them are successful, amazing adults.

One of the best parts of this job was an invitation to the Boeing Leadership Day at Busch Stadium, which is where the father worked. The Cardinals hosted the event annually and would station eight to ten players around the concourse of the stadium a few hours before the game and Boeing employees could walk the concourse, meet the players, and get autographs signed.  

I deferred to the kids on the players we visited and I could have used several different baseballs here for this post, but I went with my favorite. 

Darryl Kile.  

As we walked the stadium and visited the different players, you could always tell the ones who enjoyed interacting with fans and which ones did not. Some of the players would chat up fans, take pictures, and sign everything and anything. Others kept their heads down, signed, and had limited interactions with the fans.  

Darryl Kile was great at the event and definitely fit into the category of being a player who was happy to interact with fans. He signed my baseball on the sweet spot without even asking. I do not really like talking up players at autograph events, but I made sure that I thanked him after he was more than generous with the autograph. 

I got a "You're welcome" and was off to see Fernando Vina.  

Incredible.  

Here is the back, err, the front of the baseball.  

 Look at that Mark McGwire bat in the background.  

Bet that has a good story too.  

98

This is the 98th Blake Snell autograph in my collection and comes from the 2020 Topps Tribute set. I have several other Snell autographs out of this product from this same year, but not this one.  After putting together a large collection of Snell autographs, I am piecing together odds and ends in an effort to reach 100 autographs. 

Here is the front of the card.  

This is another shadowbox style card that did not come through very well in the scan. The picture in the center of the card is set back against the second picture on the right side of the card and the autograph.  I really enjoy the shadowbox style cards and I am happy to add another from a high-end Topps product. 

The serial number is in the lower left-hand corner. Surprisingly there are 99 copies of this card and I have missed out on it for the past four years.   

Here is the back of the card.   

You've got the standard "Congratulations" message, but also a nice little write-up on the bottom about Snell's first Cy Young Award winning season.  I like that the write-up digs a little into the Rays history.   

Overall, nice card that brings me closer to 100 Blake Snell Autographs.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Victor Scott II

There are thousands of autographs in my collection, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.  

Today: 2023 Donruss Victor Scott Autograph 

Why Do I Own This Card? 

Panini included Ray Lankford in many of their 2023 baseball products. While I was not delusional enough to think that I could pull a Lankford autograph out of a box of Donruss, I knew that pulling a Lankford base card out of a blaster box was more than realistic.  

I have not pulled a current year Ray Lankford issued card out of a pack of cards since 2002. The local Target stores did not carry packs of Donruss last year, so I had to venture to the Wally World in Morrisville (it's in between Raleigh and Durham) to find a blaster box. I ended up with my Lankford, but also an autograph of Cardinals prospect Victor Scott. The product checklist for 2023 Donruss was really weird to say the least. 

When Did I Get This Card? 

It would have been roughly a year ago.  

Back of The Card 

Victor Scott Highlight 

Victor Scott nearly stole 100 bases in the Minors last year, which is his claim to fame at the moment. However, I have really enjoyed watching him play defense during the first week of the season.  Here is a Victor Scott catch from this past weekend.  

It was hard to fully appreciate the degree of difficulty on this catch by #STLCards CF Victor Scott II in real time, but watching it back gives a real appreciation.

Avisail Garcia exit velocity: 104.1 mph
Distance: 390 feet
Hit probability: 81%
Scott's distance covered: 78 feet pic.twitter.com/ItYrwGbacR

— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) April 6, 2024

44 To Go

It's been a few days.  

I would like to tell you that I haven't posted in the past week because I have been on a fun vacation or a regular at the Durham Bulls games. 

I have been to one game.  

The Bulls lost on a long Tristan Gray home run.  

My Spring Break actually ended last week and I returned to work.  My free time evaporated.  

While I did not find time to type up a blog post, I did find time to find another 1952 Red Man tobacco card. Even found another Hall of Famer, my second in a row.  

Here is the card......

Ralph Kiner is easily the nicest card I have added since I started this project at the beginning of the year both in terms of the card condition and significance of the player. The tab is included and the surface and corners are all above average. I have a few other Hall of Famers on the National League side of the checklist. Kiner is my third behind Musial and Schoendienst, fourth overall when I included Larry Doby from the American League checklist.  

It's Saturday, the sun is shining, and my youngest wants to ride bikes. Sorry, no time to scan the card back. 

2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 7

This is the ninety-seventh Blake Snell autograph in my collection and definitely the first with the word "Pentamerous" on the front of the card. Pentamerous meaning something that is arranged in groups of five.  

After looking at the card for a long time, I cannot find anything with five groups of anything. There is a five-sided star at the top and two small five-sided stars next to the nameplate, but that's it. That's also three stars, not five.  There are not five pictures of Blake Snell, or five autographs of Blake Snell, which might have made this a really awesome card.  

Here is the front.  

I am going to stop picking on the name of this card and focus on the fact that it is really nice. My latest Blake Snell autograph comes out of the high-end 2023 Topps Five Star product. The card has thick card stock and a nice, glossy finish. The wooden looking parts on the front of the card have some nice gold foil and are also embossed.  The gold around the edges is obviously more embossed foil.  

A little lost on my scan is the fact that the center of the card is actually translucent. It's hard to tell on the front scan, but you'll see it in a second when you look at the scan of the back of the card.  

Here is the back.  

The translucent front can be seen here with the reversed image of Snell on the left side of the card, the faded portrait image on the right, and the autograph bleeding through on the bottom. The small print is still on the bottom of the card underneath the picture frame. 

Random Ray - 2023 Panini Flawless

It turns out that Ray Lankford had two autographs in Panini Flawless. I added one a few weeks back and won the other in an auction on Ebay last week. I was really excited to say the least. 

Here is the front of the card, which is from Panini's high end baseball product.  

Panini Flawless is roughly $1,500 for a box. Can you imagine pulling a $20-$30 autograph of Ray Lankford in a box that costs that much? Thank goodness other people are willing to spend the money to open these boxes and resell their cards on Ebay for a huge loss.  

I'm excited.  

Back of the card.  

There is no write up on the back, only a Certificate of Authenticity. Well, there is a giant "STL" in the middle of the card, which is something different. I actually don't miss the write up that much, but they should have made the Certificate of Authenticity a little larger.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Eric Davis

I own a couple of thousand autographs, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.  

Today: 2015 Stadium Club Autographs Eric Davis 

Why Do I Own This Card?  

Eric Davis is one of the most talented players from the 1980s and 1990s. He was also on the St. Louis Cardinals for a few seasons at the end of his career.  Why wouldn't I want to own one of his autographs? 

I have actually posted other Davis autographs on my blog, just never this autograph.  

When Did I Get This Card?

I pulled this out of a box of Stadium Club towards the end of 2015. It was a nice pull. I took a break from blogging for a few months at the beginning of 2016 and never posted this card.  

Back of the Card 

I love that Stadium Club uses actual card back on their autographs. We get statistics and a nice write-up describing Davis' style of play and one of his career accomplishments.  This is what we deserve on the back of baseball cards.  

The Career of Eric Davis In a Haiku 

Series Champ, Home Runs

Reds, Stolen Bases, Gold Gloves

O's, Cards, Tigers Too  

A Little March Madness

My Wolfpack are on quite a run at the moment. The team needed to win their conference tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament. Last week, they won 5 games in 5 days at the ACC Tournament, including wins over Louisville, Syracuse, Virginia, Duke, and North Carolina. It is the school's first ACC title since 1987.  

2024 ACC CHAMPIONS🏆 pic.twitter.com/f7Li2ZhPjA

— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) March 17, 2024

Last night, NC State played their first game in the first round and defeated Texas Tech to advance to the second round.  They were led by lovable big man, D.J. Burns.  

 

The crowd loves DJ Burns Jr. 😤 @PackMensBball pic.twitter.com/ItFP3gg1la

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 22, 2024

I would love to find some basketball cards of D.J. Burns, but Bowman has not included him in any of their Bowman U./NIL sets. However, the team's shooting guard, D.J. Horne, was included almost all of last year's Bowman U. products while he was playing at Arizona State. I know, two D.J.s on one basketball team. 

Horne is from Cary, North Carolina (outside of Raleigh) and transferred to NC State to be closer to home during his final season in college. 

For the city😤 pic.twitter.com/PfumhqJ67G

— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) March 17, 2024

I bought these cards a few weeks ago, but thought the basketball season was going nowhere and was not even going to bother posting the card. However, the Wolfpack's run has me excited to share a few basketball cards this morning.  

I don't know know too much about the Bowman U. products, so I am mainly just posting pictures here.  

First up is a pink parallel.

I like the guy in the background wearing a rainbow on his head.  

I also like D.J. facial expression. He's one of those basketball players who looks like he has fun while he's playing and Bowman did a good job of capturing that vibe on his basketball card.  

Next. 

A little sad that the guy with the rainbow hat is faded out in the background here.  

The sticker is crooked, but at least I have a D.J. Horne autograph.  

This one is better.  

The sticker is straight.  

Hopefully this run through the ACC Tournament and into the NCAA Tournament can get NC State a few more basketball cards this year. Has the new Bowman U products released? Yes?  I would love to see a DJ Horne card with the Wolfpack, or one of the other contributing members of the team on a basketball card.  

45 To Go

I am excited about my latest pick up for the Red Man Tobacco set I am attempting to assemble. As you can imagine, there are quite a few Hall of Famers on the checklist and are also the more expensive. Last week, I was able to acquire a copy of the Larry Doby card, who is my first Hall of Famer on the American League side of the checklist.  

Here is the front of the card.  

No tab, which is fine.  I am not being picky about the tabs. The surface of the card is clean, but three of the corners are soft with wear.  It's also a baseball card that is more than 70 years old.  Not sure how picky I should be about things like corner wear.  I am going to live with this one for the time being. Really happy with a clean surface.  

The card back is decent shape outside of some red spots. Not sure if that's marker or something else. 

Overall, very happy with my first American League Hall of Famer.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Felipe Lopez

I own a couple of thousand autographs, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.  

Today: 2001 Bowman Autographs Felpe Lopez 

Why Do I Own This Card?  

Seemingly few Cardinals players find their way to Durham and vice versa. The number is more than I can count on one hand, but two hands might be a stretch. One of the lesser known Cardinals who found their way to Durham was Felipe Lopez. 

Felipe was a toolsy infielder who played roughly a decade in the Majors and was on eight different teams during that time. You may best remember him as a Red or National, but in 2008 and 2010 he ended up on the Cardinals as a utility player. In 2008, Felipe Lopez had a great 43 game cup of coffee with the Cardinals hitting .385 with 14 extra base hits. His second appearance on the Cardinals in 2010 was less eventful as he only hit .231 for the season and the Cardinals ended up releasing him in the middle of September. 

In 2011, he was signed by the Rays on a Minor League contract. Felipe spent the first part of the season in Durham where he was really good. He hit over .300 with power and earned a call-up to the Rays, where he did not hit and was sold to the Brewers.  

To answer the question, I own this card because Felipe Lopez was on the Cardinals and the Durham Bulls. Believe it or not, I have multiple Felipe Lopez autographs. I like this one the best.  

When Did I Get This Card? 

I believe I picked it up off of COMC when he started playing for the Bulls.  

Back of the Card 

The "Congratulations" message and the information blurb run together, which stinks. Topps, Bowman, or whoever created this set should have just done without the extra information on the back of the card. Bowman typically has really good card backs that are full of information. I am sure they did a good job of describing Felipe's skill set on his base card, no need for it to also be on the autograph.  

Felipe Lopez's Teams in a Haiku 

Jays, Reds, Nats, and Cards

DBacks, Brew Crew, Cards again

Red Sox, Rays, Brewers (again)

It Was A Card Shop Kind of Day

I have tried to explain my teaching schedule before in previous posts, so I am not going to completely rehash the whole thing. I am currently in one of those windows where I do not teach for a few weeks. Most teachers have summer vacation. I have "track out" a few times a year. Earlier in the week, I did a bunch of stuff around the house, so I decided to treat my productivity with a trip to the card shop on Friday afternoon.  

Besides, I needed some supplies to help me put away some cards. I really need to make a sorting post one of these days. Maybe next week.  

Beyond the supplies, I also went home with a few new baseball cards. I hope you're in the mood to look at pictures of cards, because I am not in the mood to do a ton of typing today.  

Did I mention there are basketball cards too.  

I will start out with the basketball cards. I found these McDonald's All-American cards in a quarter bin. I found two cards of Zoe Brooks, who goes to NC State, and a Hannah Hidalgo, who goes to Notre Dame.  I saw Zoe Brooks record a triple-double earlier in the season. 

Big showing for the 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠 - Zoe Brooks, @PackWomensBball ‼️

🏀 Recorded 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the win over Liberty, earning the first triple-double by an ACC player this season

📰 https://t.co/81akC4qRWi pic.twitter.com/YcLOmQFYMs

— ACC Women's Basketball (@accwbb) December 11, 2023

It's March. Go Pack!!! 

Both Hidalgo and Brooks are freshman, so they are going to be around for awhile.  

Onto baseball. There were no new Blake Snell cards at the shop, but I did find two new cards of former Durham Bulls star, Jake Cronenworth. It's been a minute since I added a new Cronenworth card, but these two looked pretty sweet. They were also just fifty cents. Pretty good deal.  

I also found a pair of Pujols and Goldschmidt cards.  

 

An Adley Rutschman rookie card.  Big fan, you should be too.  

A cheap copy of the 1987 Topps Barry Bonds rookie card.  I can't believe these are a few dollars.  

Which brings us to the vintage portion of the post.  All of these are former Cardinals, former Durham Bulls, or in the case of Vada Pinson and Robin Roberts, older players I like.  

One final card for the post.  

I also picked up a Bowman Platinum autograph of Orioles pitcher Grayson Rodriguez.  

I have been really impressed with him in the Minors and his work in the Majors at the end of last season. I think he is going to have a really good season and his autographs are really inexpensive given his talent. I do not often advocate for people to spend money on autographs of prospects, but this is one of those moments.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Jose Cruz Jr.

If you collected baseball cards in the late 1990s, Jose Cruz Jr. was a name you knew. He was one of those "Can't Miss" prospects who was going to be the next great player behind Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez on the Mariners. He hit 12 home runs in roughly 50 games for Mariners before they traded him to the Blue Jays where he continued to hit home runs. Jose Cruz Jr. played right around 100 games his first year and ended the season with 26 dingers.  

The future was bright.  

Unfortunately, the next two seasons were down years. When Jose finally got healthy in 2000, he did manage to hit more than 30 home runs, but also only hit .242. Jose Cruz Jr. actually had a pretty solid career.  He played for 12 seasons, hit 200 home runs and 250 doubles, and collected more than 1,000 hits. Those numbers are not very flashy, so his baseball cards are currently not worth much money, which is fine.  

I still liked Jose Cruz Jr. and have a few of his cards hanging around the collection

Today: 2000 Fleer Showcase FreshINK Jose Cruz Jr. Autograph 

Why Do I Own This Card? 

I pulled it out of a pack of cards in 2000.  

Jose Cruz Jr.'s Team In a Haiku 

Mariners, Blue Jays 

Giants, Rays, D'acks. Bo Sox

Dodgers, Pads, and "Stros 

Back of the Card 

I love the "Authentic Autograph" ribbons on the backs of these old Fleer cards. They remind me of clip art that would be used in a lower elementary school classroom on an award. Thanks for coming to class everyday last quarter, you win first prize........

or an autographed baseball card from Fleer.

2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 6

This is the 96th Blake Snell autograph in my collection and the card comes from the 2023 Topps Update set. This was a little too pricy for my tastes a few months ago, but they have come back down to reality. Snell was the Cy Young favorite by the time Topps Update was released and there seemed to be an uptick in his card prices for a time this fall.  Snell's prolonged free agency seems to have returned his card prices to more comfortable and familiar territory.  

Here is the front of the card.  

Pretty standard looking card for a Topps jersey/autograph. It's a decent design that does an above average job of blending the sticker autograph on the front of the card. I like the action shot of Snell pitching.  Looks like a change-up grip. The jersey piece is all white, you can find copies of this card with patch pieces, but this was roughly a $10 card.  Plain, white jersey swatch is just fine.  

Back of the card.  

The back is the standard "Congratulations" message with all the typical small print about representatives and witnesses. The serial number placed at the top, center of the card. Bit of a different location for a serial number for a Topps card. 

Four away from 100.     

Random Ray - 2023 Panini Flawless Autograph

Ray Lankford became one of my favorite Cardinals players after watching him hit for the cycle against the Mets during his rookie season in 1991. Over the years, a few different baseball cards have referenced Ray's cycle game, but today's card might be my favorite of the group.  

This is from the high-end Panini Flawless release and from the autographed insert set "Flawless Achievements". Note the small banner under the autograph and serial numbering labeled, "Homers To Complete Rare Rookie Cycle".  I knew the second I saw this card that I needed a copy for my collection.  

Yes, it's a "high-end" Panini card without logos and the most expensive Ray Lankford card I have added to my collection in the past year.  It was still less expensive than plenty of other modern autographed cards, so some perspective on it being an expensive Lankford card.  I kind of dig the design on the card too.  

I like the color scheme on the back with the gold writing on a white background with red trim.  Panini also did a really good job with the write up on the back of the card describing his cycle and the rarity of the feat by players in their rookie season.  

Around The Card Room, Take 16

I typically do not collect items from fast food restaurants, but I made an exception in 2002 when the St. Louis area McDonald's started selling Cardinals bobbleheads. Sadly, I do not remember many of the details surrounding these, nor could I find them online. I do not know how much the cost or when during the season they were released, but I have always liked them and these are an item that has a connection to my kids.  

Here is what I do remember.  The set was comprised of J.D. Drew, Albert Pujols, Fernando Vina, and Jim Edmonds.  A new bobblehead was sold each week at McDonald's and the base and autographed baseball were sold during the last week. I think. 

"I will take a J.D. Drew and an orange soda"

Here is the back of the bobbleheads, which are made from hard plastic and are not ceramic.  

Beyond housing all of my baseball cards and memorabilia, the card room is also a second floor family room for my kids. They have spent countless hours playing in the room and also use the television to watch movies. Playing usually means making sure they do not knock over piles of baseball cards, nor touch any of the things hanging on the wall. 

However, my daughter in particular has always been a huge fan of action figures and took an early interest in the bobbleheads that are in the card room. Since most are ceramic they are less than ideal action figures for the average toddler. However, the plastic Cardinals bobbleheads were a part of her play schemes for years, making them one of the few pieces of baseball memorabilia that I allowed to double as a play toy for my kids.  

Here are J.D. Drew and Jim Edmonds at the vintage Little Tikes Doll House.  

J.D. Drew enjoying snack time. 

She has moved onto American Girl Dolls and other toys, so I have reclaimed my McDonald's Cardinals bobblehead set and placed them back on a shelf in the card room.  They held up really well through years of toddler use.  

Hardly a scratch.  

Back home in their spot on a shelf of bobbleheads.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Mark Mulder

I own a couple of thousand autographs, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.

Today: 2000 Bowman Draft and Prospects Autographs Mark Mulder 

Why Do I Own This Card?

We all remember the Cardinals years of Mark Mulder? Hopefully you remember him pitching for the early 2000s Moneyball A's teams. He was traded to the Cardinals in December of 2004 for pitching prospect Dan Haren, catcher Daric Barton, and relief pitcher Kiko Calero. Mulder pitched decently in 2005, but then ran into shoulder problems which limited him to just 23 games in 2006, 2007, and 2008. It was a sad ending to an otherwise really good career. If you don't remember him on the Cardinals, do not go refresh your memory. It's not pretty, nor happy.  

The biggest highlight from his time with the Cardinals was hitting a home run on the first Opening Day at Busch Stadium III while also collecting a win against the Brewers.  

When Did I Get This card?  

I own several Mark Mulder autographs, all of them were bought post 2005 when the prices of his card tanked. 

Haiku About Mark Mulder 

Moneyball, pitcher 

Shoulder injuries, Big Trade 

Oh! What Could Have Been

Back of The Card 

Bowman cards from this era always have nice write-ups on the card backs, and this one is no different. They give mention to his college career, time with USA Baseball playing in the Pan Am Games, and his quick ascension through the Minors and into the A's starting rotation.  In all, Mulder only pitched 24 games, all in Triple A, before the A's made him a starter in the middle of the 2000 season.