2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 3

This is the 93rd Blake Snell autograph in my collection. I am closing in on 100 and am really excited about crossing that barrier later in the year. At this point, I am left trying to track down autographs with really low print-runs. Some very unique looking autographs, although they are also more expensive and the bidding can be more competitive on Ebay.  

The newest Blake Snell autograph was not on my radar until I saw it on Ebay.  

Front of the card.......

This is from the 2020 Topps set and is apart of the Commemorative Sleeve Patch insert set. It's not an actual sleeve patch, just a manufactured one with a sticker autograph. It's a nice looking patch, but it's also not really from Snell's jersey. This card also has a sticker autograph that is not very well blended with the rest of the card. I guess the important thing here is that the card is serial numbered to 10, which is why I did not own a copy until now. 

Back of the card.  

We've got the standard "CONGRATULATIONS!" back from Topps. I love the small print. We've got one small print font for the "THE SIGNING OF ALL TOPPS AUTOGRAPH CARDS IS WITNESSED" and a different font for "THE PATCH ON THE FRONT IS NOT REAL".  Topps should have written "CONGRATULATIONS" in an even larger font size.  

Random Ray - 1993 Upper Deck Home Run Heroes

I am a huge fan of the 1993 Upper Deck set. Simple design, great photography, it might be my favorite Upper Deck product of all-time. If you have not checked out the 1993 Upper Deck set blog written by Night Owl, you are missing out.  

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

Wrigley always makes a great background for baseball cards. The ivy wall is the obvious answer, but the short brick wall behind home plate is also a classic landmark for those of us who are old enough to have watched day Cubs games on WGN in the summers. 

Beyond the background, I love the action shot of Ray Lankford hitting. He had a great left-handed swing and always hit well against the Cubbies. In fact, in 158 career games against the Cubs, Lankford had 23 home runs, 7 triples, 30 doubles, and 26 stolen bases. 

I loved the blue Cardinal hats in the 1993 card sets. The team stopped wearing them in the late 1960s and brought them back as their road hat in 1992 as part of their 100th Anniversary. The patch on Lankford's sleeve is also part of the 100th Anniversary. 

A closer look at the patch......

Back of the card.  

This is a really good write-up about Lankford, his skill as a player, and his potential to be a star when he was a younger player. The Cardinals were not very competitive during the early 1990s, so it's nice that someone at Upper Deck was aware of a good player on a team that was a perennial mediocre team at best.  

Local Cubbies

I had a co-worker who bought me a blaster box of Topps Heritage High Numbers earlier this week. I do not want to get bogged down in the back story, but I had helped him out during an absence from work.  

My expectations for pulling anything out of retail packs of cards is generally low. Any sort of serial numbered card is great, relic cards are super, and autographs are awesome, although extremely rare.

When I pulled a Heritage Chrome card of Orioles pitcher Yennier Cano I was very happy.  

Later, I ended up with a Heritage Red Autograph of Chicago Cubs first baseman, Matt Mervis.  

Front of the card with the red Mervis signature, and below the back with the serial number out of 74.  

Mervis actually played his college baseball locally at Duke. 

He was a really good player for the Blue Devils.  

An awesome card from a retail box.    

Set Appreciation Post #22 - 2001 Donruss Classics

Upper Deck had Century Legends and Fleer had Greats of the Game. Donruss Classics was not quite as good as either, but it's still had solid product. The largest fault being the inclusion of rookie cards on the checklist, but we will get into those details later in the post.  

Here is the base card design....

Lots of gray. I do not always love card designs that are overrun by neutral colors, but I really like the looks of these cards with the color photo offering contrast. I also like the Donruss Classics logo on the top of the card with the player name, jersey number, and player position on the front. It seems like a lot, but all the different design elements are well-placed and spaced out on the front. My only qualm is the team name being split across the top on both sides of the Classics logo.  

Very well done. Here is the back of the card.  

Nice write-up with easy-to-read stats and biographical information. I find it interesting that write-ups on these cards reference events from within the 2001 season even though they are a 2001 release. Not a usual practice in the baseball card biz, but really cool to see considering that the majority of baseball cards are released later in the season.  

Donruss Classics is a product supposedly focused on veteran and Hall of Fame players, but the base set also includes 50 rookie cards, which do not really seem to fit with this product. The rookie cards are serial numbered to 585 copies. Two biggest rookie cards are Pujols and Ichiro.  

This might seem silly to complain about a Pujols rookie, but Playoff/Donruss made a ton of different baseball card products during the 2001 calendar year. There were plenty of opportunities to make cards of Pujols and Ichiro, including them here seems off-brand. The inclusion of the rookie cards diminish the overall checklist of Donruss Classics. I understand that rookie cards can be all the craze, but the equivalent Upper Deck, Fleer, and Topps products to Donruss Classics all were able to do just fine without having a bunch of Triple A players in the set.  

Wait. 

There are even more cards on the checklist, but they actually fit the product.   

There are another 48 cards after the rookie cards that are "Legend" cards. The Legends cards came one per box, or one per two mini boxes. Yes, this had boxes inside of boxes. The Legends cards have a cult following. There are plenty people who love these cards and collect them. Actually fairly affordable if you can track down all 48 of them. They are serial numbered to 1,755 copies, but a few of them can be hard to find. I like the gold/sepia color on these cards. The player photos are a mix between black and white, sepia, and color depending on the age of the player. 

Good looking cards.  

So, let's do a few favorites.  

My favorite Cardinals cards are the Pujols shown above, along with the Rick Ankiel.  

I love the red and white home uniforms against the gray background of the card.  

Favorite former Durham Bulls player is Ryan Klesko with his lamb chop sideburns.  

 

My favorite odd card is Hideo Nomo on the Red Sox.......

Hideo Nomo played on the Red Sox???  

Apparently, Hideo Nomo was on four different teams in four years, but that included a no-hitter with the Red Sox. I remember him with the Mets and Brewers, not so much with the Tigers and Red Sox. I need to start using him when I play Immaculate Grid.  

There are also autographs.  

The Hall of Famers are one of the big highlights of Donruss Classics.  

The checklist for the autograph set is deep with good names and they are on-card autographs.    

There are also rookie autographs, but.......

They have ugly silver stickers and are players like Brandon Larson. 

Just stick with the old guys.  

One last thing. Let me tell you about the benches from the dugout in Three Rivers Stadium.

Playoff/Donruss bought one of them at some point in the late 1990s and used it to create a insert set.   

Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell have cards in the set, which is cool, but Vlad Guerrero in Three Rivers Pack? I don't care if he hit two home runs in a game against the Pirates, this is a reach.  

So, how does Donruss Classics rate? 

Out of 5 Wool E. Bull's?  

Solid set, but not as good as its competitors.  

It's Been A Minute, Evan Longoria

I think my audience has turned over during the past decade of writing in this space, but when I originally started writing I had a really healthy collection of Evan Longoria cards. He was the most noteworthy Durham Bulls alumni in the Majors. My Longoria collection was not quite to the level of my current Blake Snell collection, but it was close.  

There are autographs......

Autographed patches. 

Manufactured patches. 

and whole letters off the back of his jersey. 

After getting traded off the Rays, my Evan Longoria collection came to a halt. I have not really touched his cards over the past six or seven years, but decided to go back and fill in a few holes. Nothing I am willing to put in my collecting goals for the year, but here we are with an important early card I missed adding to my collection years ago.  

This is his 2006 Bowman Sterling autograph.......

This used to be a fairly expensive card. There were nicer options at the time that were on-card autographs, so I skipped over this one. Several of the "missing" Longoria cards from my collection are early sticker autographs I did not choose to buy specifically because they were sticker autographs.  I actually like the design of this card and the sticker is farily well-blended for having a white background.  

More Longoria card later.  

Pujols Post - 2021 Stadium Club Chrome

I ran into my local card shop for a few boxes on Sunday afternoon and ended up sorting through a few stacks of cards. Found a couple new Pujols cards along with a few others that will get their own post.  I am going to make some non-Cardinal Pujols Posts this year. This is the first of them.  

I love the photo on the front of the card.  

The scan does not do this card justice, so I am also going to include a photo of the card.  

That's slightly better even if you have the shadow and reflection of my phone on the bottom of the card. 

Love this action shot of Albert swinging from the front. There are tons of pictures of him batting on baseball cards, but they are almost all from the side. This is a really unique vantage point. Great looking photography is why people buy Stadium Club cards and they certainly got this card right.  

I tried tracking the photograph to a specific game.  

Albert Pujols played three games against the Braves in Atlanta while he was on the Dodgers in 2021. The games took place June 4, 5, and 6.  

In the June 4 game, Albert pinch hit for Max Muncy and then stayed in the game. He walked and struck out in two plate appearances and it waas also a night game. Not it. 

In the June 5 game, Albert entered the game as a pinch hitter and had two plate appearances. He struck out in his first at-bat and flew out to center in his second at-bat. I would consider the second at-bat a possibility, but the game started at 7:00 and the fly out was at the end of the game.  I think the photograph is too light.  

June 6. The Braves started Max Fried (left-handed pitcher), so Albert started at 1B for the Dodgers. He had four at-bats and there are two possibilities, but I lean towards the second. First, he flew out to the left fielder in the sixth inning.  He also hit a solo home run in the ninth.

I think this photograph is from the home run.  

What do you think?  

Back of the card.  

Decent back design and write-up. I like looking at his career stat line. What a player. 

Let's Talk Tobacco

Two years ago, I worked on putting together a set of 1964 Topps Giants cards. It took me roughly a year to complete, but was fairly inexpensive compared to other 1960s baseball card sets. Giants was a fun project for three reasons:

1.The set was small

2. The cards are inexpensive outside of a few short prints

3. It's a good looking set. 

I have decided to work on another card project based largely based on the fact that it largely fits the same criteria as the Topps Giants set. So, for the next year or so, I will be tracking down cards from the 1952 Red Man Tobacco set trying to put together a complete run of 52 cards. 

The good news is that I already have three cards from the set, which leaves me with 49.  

Here are the three, all of which are missing their bottom tab.  

Obviously Stan is one of the better cards in the set and I have a really clean copy. I would love to upgrade to a clean copy with the tab attached to the bottom of the card, but that is low on the priority list. In fact, I am fine collecting cards without the tabs. Feels like that may make this an easier project, less expensive too.  

There is also Eddie Stanky.  

This is another very clean card.  Love the pinkish background.  

Last.....

Alright, Red is a little rough around the edges with a few other creases. He's going to get replaced at some point during this project.  

So, here is where we stand on this project.  

I need 49 cards. I have:

National League: 

16. Stan Musial 

19. Al Schoendienst 

23. Eddie Stanky 

Random Ray: 1997 Bowman Chrome

The 1997 Bowman Chrome set is really underrated. It was the first Bowman Chrome set. I love the design and it's got a great checklist. There are rookie cards of players like Adrian Beltre, Lance Berkman, and Miguel Tejada. I am probably forgetting a few other players. There are also early cards of Roy Halladay, Nomar, and Jeter. What else do you want out of a Bowman product?  

There are also a handful of veteran cards, including Ray Lankford.  

Here is the front of the card.  

The Bowman base set and Chrome design varied in 1997. The Bowman base set had solid black borders while the Bowman Chrome product had stripes. Both are appealing and I like the contrast between the dark stripes or black border and the red inner border on the Cardinals cards. 

The Ray Lankford card has a nice action shot of him running the bases. Looks like he is trying to avoid being hit by the ball in between bases. The Cardinals have good looking uniforms. Not surprisingly, the red Budweiser sign in the background has been air brushed out.  

Back of the card.  

I love the Bowman card backs where it shows the player stats versus individual teams. The cards from the early 1990s had more stats, like hits and runs for the position players, but I still like this simplified version with the player picture on the right side of the card.  

That stat line against the Cubs is glorious. 

That stat line against the Braves is not so glorious.  

    

The player picture on the left is interesting in that Lankford is wearing a batting helmet without any ear flaps, which was against the rules at that point. The Cardinals still had Gary Gaetti and Ozzie Smith wearing the flapless batting helmets at this point, but they were grandfathered in because of age. Although the helmet is labeled "16" and clearly belongs to Ray. Must have been something he wore around during batting practice.  

Another Manager?

The Durham Bulls are on their third manager in the past three years.  

Durham is a nice place to live and the Bulls are a highly successful team. You'd think that they could hire a manager and get them to stay in place longer than a year. The changes in managers has actually been due to the fact that the Rays keep promoting their Minor League managers up to the Major League coaching staff.  

So, 2024 will see another manager in Durham. Unlike the previous two managers, the new manager Morgan Ensberg played in the Majors and has a slew of baseball cards. However, as a member of the early 2000s Houston Astros teams, I largely avoided collecting any of his cards until recently.  

Last week, I found a copy of his rookie card from 2001 SPX.  

Ichiro and Morgan Ensberg. Does Albert Pujols have a card in this set?   

I believe so.  

I also found a sweet 2005 Zenith autograph.  

It's a sticker autograph, but this is really well blended into the design. The card stock is also very thick. 

All tolled, my two Morgan Ensberg cards cost me roughly $5 on Ebay before shipping. The shipping cost me another $5.  They are sweet cards and will be dabbling more into Morgan Ensberg if he does a good job with the team.  

Around the Card Room, Take 15

Today is National Bobblehead Day, so I thought I would choose one from my shelf for today's post.  

I know some of these items have really good back stories, but this one is simple.  

Here is a Matt Holliday bobblehead that I bought in 2011.  

I decided to add a few different items to my collection after the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series and this bobblehead was one of them. If you don't remember how the Cardinals season ended in 2011, let me refresh your memory.  

It was also the season that Albert Pujols left the Cardinals to sign with the Angels, so Matt Holliday was the big offensive star still left on that team. He would have a few more good seasons in him and I was a pretty big fan.  If you read the early posts of the blog, which started in 2012, there are a lot of Matt Holliday cards.  

Here are the other views of the Matt Holliday bobblehead:

Love that this bobblehead captures Matt Holliday's batting stance and his large front leg kick. He was a really good hitter. Holliday's physique may be a little underrepresented on this bobble.  

Kind of wild to think that a little more than a decade after buying this bobblehead, Matt Holliday's son is now a Triple A baseball player who was largely responsible for eliminating my Durham Bulls from the playoffs last season.  

I Have Never Written A Post About Brendan Donovan

Brendan Donovan is one of my favorite current Cardinal players, but I have not written a post about him during the past two years he has been on the roster. Donovan is s a utility player. However, he shows up in the lineup regularly while he is playing everywhere in the field. What is it that Brendan Donovan does so well?  

Donovan's batting average is fine, slugging is decent, but his on-base percentage is excellent. 

He's also signed a lot of cards over the past two years, so it is about time that I picked up one of his cards for my collection. There were several choices that were appealing, but I went with his Stadium Club Chrome rookie card.  

These are sharp cards.  

Stadium Club always has great photography and this card is no different. I really like the green seats contrasted with the red on Donovan's uniform and the fans in the background who are also wearing red.  The seats around home plate in Busch Stadium have been green for almost decades, since the last years of Busch Stadium II, but I do not ever recall seeing them used as part of the background on a baseball card.  

Brendan Donovan should start somewhere, or maybe everywhere, this coming year and I am happy to finally post one of this baseball cards in this space.   

2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 2

We are four days into 2024 and I am already on my second Blake Snell autograph of the new year. I set a goal of reaching 100 Blake Snell autographs this year, and at this rate, I might hit that goal pretty soon.  

Here is a look at my newest Snell signature, which comes from the 2023 Topps Museum Collection product.    

The front of the card is a little busy, but I like the two jersey swatches and signature on the front. Nice action photo as well. It just seems like the design elements and framing around the autograph and jersey pieces is a bit much. 

I also like that the jersey swatches are from two different Padres jerseys. The white and brown pinstriped swatch on the left is obviously from a home jersey. Not sure about the light brown jersey. I feel like the Padres brown jerseys were a darker shade of brown. 

Back of the card.  

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 

Also a bunch of small print.  

Baseball Card of the Year

Name a member of the 2023 Cardinals who played the most positions on the field?  

You may have guessed Tommy Edman, but the answer is Taylor Motter.  

Name the only Cardinals shortstop to not strikeout more than 50 times in 2023?

Tommy Edman again? Paul DeJong before he got traded?  Nope, Taylor Motter.  

We could talk more about Taylor Motter's dominance on the field in 2023, but you are all reading this blog post waiting to see the best baseball card of the year. You already know who is going to be on the card at this point.......

A great looking card of a great utility player for my favorite team.  

Did I mention that Taylor Motter was a long-running member of the Durham Bulls a few years back?

He was. 

Here is the back of the card.  

"Super Utility" isn't a title that Topps throws out on just anyone's baseball card.  The second fact is actually pretty interesting, although slightly misleading. Motter has not caught in a Major League game and only appeared as a pitcher on three different occasions. He gave up a home run to Mike Moustakas.  

I was curious about the cartoon on the side of the card. I did not know much about his performance with the Memphis Redbirds in 2023, but he stole 8 bases and hit 8 home runs in just 56 games. The 8 steals were Motter's highest total since he had 12 with the Mariners in 2017.  

I had expressed my concerns about Taylor Motter not having a Cardinals card this summer.......

I am glad that Topps followed through on a tweet with only 109 views and thousands of ignores.  

2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 1

My first Blake Snell autograph of the new year is one of the older Blake Snell autographs that was missing from my collection. I am closing in on my 100th Blake Snell autograph, so most of my early efforts for 2024 are going to be filling in the holes from previous years. Today's card comes from the 2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary set.  

Here is the front of the card: 

The 65th Anniversary set is different from the Topps Archives set. These cards were sold at Wal Mart. My main interest in them was the Bull Durham inserts, but they also featured a ton of autographs. Most of the players signing for the 65th Anniversary set were veteran or retired players, but Topps also included a handful of rookie autographs. Snell was one of those rookie autographs.  

The front of the card has the 1989 Topps design, a nice photograph of Snell pitching, and his signature going across lower half of the card.  

It's a fine looking card. The back is where this card gets messy.  

The back of the card uses the 1975 Topps back, along with all of the other autographs in the 2016 65th Anniversary Set. It just seems weird to make a set with random card designs for an autograph set using a random, non-matching card back. 

Why not use a 1989 Topps card back with the card front or a 1975 card design for both the front and back?

Still happy to own the card, which is a rookie autograph, and it brings me closer to 100 Blake Snell autographs.