2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 5

This is the 95th Blake Snell autograph in my collection and comes from the 2019 Topps On-Demand product "Momentum Rising", which featured cards of younger star players. The checklist included Fernando Tatis Jr., Vlad Guerrero Jr., Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and many others including Blake Snell. Each set of 20 cards, which were painted by water color artist Richard Sullivan, came with one autograph. 

Naturally, the two-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher is likely the worst autographed card in the set. That's fine for me, because this card was dirt cheap.  

Here is the front of the card.   

I like the white card stock and border design.  

Is that a sticker autograph?  

Why, yes it is a sticker autograph signed by Blake Snell.  

How do I feel about the art work?  

I am not a huge fan of adults using water colors. 

How do I feel about water colors in general?  

My daughter really likes combining crayons and water colors. I think it's a good look. She's also in first grade, so it seems like an appropriate art medium.  

Are you being an art snob? 

Probably, but buy some oil based pants and put on a smock.  

Back of the card.  

Not much about Snell, but I did check to see if Richard Sullivan appeared on a team I watched while he was in the Minors. He never made it above Double A, so I am going to guess that I never saw him. Wish there was something more about Blake Snell here.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Kenny Lofton

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

Today: 2003 Donruss Signature Series Autograph Kenny Lofton.  

Why do I own this card? 

I actually wrote about this Kenny Lofton a few years back, but it was on a Cardboard Connections article about his best baseball cards. At the time of its publication, Kenny Lofton had very few certified autographs. Since that time, he's appeared in a few more modern products, but I still love this card.  

I know what you are thinking, Kenny Lofton played for the Pirates?

Kenny Lofton played more than 1,200 games for the Indians. He also played for the Pirates, Giants, Phillies, Braves, Rangers, Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees, Astros, and White Sox. He never played more than 130 games for any team outside of Cleveland and played less than 100 games for 7 of those teams.  Lots of trades and times as a free agent.  

Not really an Indians fan, but I always loved Kenny Lofton. He was as close to a 1980s Cardinals player as anyone touched the field during the 1990s or 2000s.  He led the league in stolen bases five times and ended his career with more than 600.  

When did I get this card?  

I pulled this out of a pack of 2003 Donruss Signature from my local card shop in south St. Louis County shortly after it was released. I was so excited about it at the time.  

A Cinquain About Kenny Lofton 

Kenny 

Speedy, Skilled 

Hitting, Running, Stealing 

Should be in Cooperstown 

Lofton 

Back of the card.  

Love that Rickey Henderson gets a mention on the back of Kenny Lofton's card. Nice write up, great stats, and an awesome baseball card.  

Hello, 2024.

A recent trip to Target yielded my first packs of 2024 Topps. 

I kind of dig this year's design, so I was somewhat excited that they were in stock and not completely picked over. In my opinion, the cards look like a cross between the 1986 Topps cards and the neon "DOUGHNUTS" sign at Krispy Kreme Doughnut shops.  

I really like the 1986 Topps set and I also like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, as long as they are being sold at their restaurant and not a grocery store. Krispy Kremes have to be hot or they're no good.  

Here are my firsts from my packs.

First card was Ronald Acuna.  

I also included a scan of the back of the card, because Acuna is card number 1. Convinient for set building purposes. Unfortunately, my second card was not card number 2, but I do like these card backs. 

I love how stolen bases happened last year. I miss the high totals of my childhood, which is probably another reason why I like the back of this Acuna card.  

First Cardinals card was Nolan Arenado.  

First former Durham Bulls player was Merill Kelly.  

He's turned into a really good pitcher. See the Diamondbacks in the World Series last year.  

A few other cards that were in my packs.....

Topps is doing holiday themed backgrounds this year. They were also in the Update set last year. I got three out of a blaster box. Springer is the best player in this group, but DeLuca was traded to the Rays and is a candidate to start the season in Durham. Seems like he might be a fun player to follow this year.  

We also have the 35th Anniversary reprints. Not sure why we have a Topps Heritage set at this point. I like the 1989 design, but the font is off on the player name. There is a Jim Edmonds autograph in this set, so I am sure I will go find that card at some point in the coming weeks.  

Best card I pulled was an Evan Carter blue framed parallel. He is the favorite to win the American League Rookie of the Year this season.  The card is serial numbered out of 800, but several copies have sold for north of $100 already. 

Here is the card......

I am going to file Evan Carter away for safe keeping.  Might have to revisit this card later this summer depending on how the Rookie of the Year chasr is going.  

I also got two yellow parallels. These used to be in the packs at Walgreens, but I am guessing that they are now in all retail packs seeing how I bought these cards at Target. Nice looking cards, love the Corbin Carroll.  

Last card for today. I also landed a Matt Olson Home Run Challenge card.  

Does anyone actually play these cards? I feel like I have a stack of them from the past few years that went unused.  I am sure you win something for playing, but I am not sure if it is worth my time and effort.  

Anyway, I like the 2024 Topps set, so I will be writing more about it throughout the summer.  

I Needed Some Boxes, Maybe A Few Cards Too

I have been doing a lot of sorting the past few weeks, which probably deserves a post, but not today. Instead, I wanted to post a few cards I picked up while I was purchasing a few boxes from my local card shop this past weekend. It's a newer card shop that I wrote up a few weeks back, but I am impressed every time I stop there. Lately, it's been for boxes. 

Figured I needed to check out some cards. 

Here is a quick rundown.  

First up, is an Adley Rutshman rookie card from Bowman Chrome. I am not an Orioles fan, but I do like a lot of their young players. I saw Adley a few year back in Durham, figured I would add a few of his cards when I get a chance. This was a good starting point......

Also fairly inexpensive.  

Next, an unexpected Cardinals find. This is a 2001 Bowman Chrome Stan Musial rookie reprint. Not sure the scan does this card justice, but I really like the sepia background with the greyscale photo, all with the trappings of a Chrome card. Nice to see a good blend of some vintage and modern design elements on the same card.  

Here is the back, which includes the serial number out of 299. Not the rarest Musial card by any means, but I was not expecting to find a serial numbered of The Man when I walked in the door of the card shop.  

I also found a few Snell commons.......

My effort to collect some non-autographed Blake Snell cards also should probably be there own post, but I will wait until I have time to write about some more exciting cards. There are in the fifty-cent bin at the shop.

Next up......

A few vintage cards. The Curt Flood is probably my favorite card out of the group.  All the players have a connection to the Cardinals or Durham Bulls with the exception of Norm Cash who once tried to take an at-bat against Nolan Ryan with a table leg.  

I demad a game-used table leg card, but nobody has come through for me.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Doug Glanville

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

Today: 1999 SP Signature Edition Doug Glanville 

Why do I own this card?  

I got this card out of a $10 pack of cards back in the day and I am sure I was angry that I landed Doug Glanville. Somehow, someway this card was never stuck on Ebay and just lingered in a box of cards for the past twenty plus years. However, it has gained some significance over the past two years.  

My daughter loves music. For years, I drove her to daycare and the soundtrack to my mornings was music from Disney Princess movies and other kid-friendly albums such as the Trolls World Tour. She would frequently sing along and talk about the movies. The songs were not my cup of tea, but it made my daughter's drive into daycare more enjoyable. 

Two years ago, she graduated preschool and began Kindergarten at the school where my wife teaches. We no longer commuted together, so I began driving my oldest to middle school every morning. In fact, I transferred my own teaching job to a school that was just a few minutes away from his middle school. My oldest does not mind music, but as a kid on the autism spectrum he enjoys things that are a little more low key on his morning commute.

Often, he reads books and talks me through what he is reading about and we listen to podcasts about baseball. One of our favorites is the Tuesday ESPN Baseball podcast, which features Doug Glanville and Jayson Stark. It's typically an hour plus show, so it lasts us a few commutes. We both really enjoy Glanville on the podcast whether he is interviewing someone, sharing his stories about his time in the game, voicing opinions, or trying to answer trivia questions. Always a good listen.

Over the past two years of listening to Glanville, my appreciation for his work has grown, and with it a better appreciation for his baseball cards. If you have never heard Doug speak, here is an excellent piece he did on Dusty Baker after he finally won a World Series with the Astros......

A Haiku About Doug Glanville 

Sunday night baseball 

Starkville podcast, Penn alumni 

Phils, Cubs, Rangers too 

Card back. 

Back of the Card Bonus Trivia?  

What player is the other DG card in the autograph checklist of the 1999 SP Signature Edition Set?

Clue- Think late 1990s hyped-up prospect who may have hit over .400 during a brief stint in the Majors thanks to some mile-high air.  

Pujols Post - 2023 Stadium Club

I picked up a few packs of 2023 Stadium Club last week. It's always one of my favorite products every year with the great photography. I was also lucky enough to land a copy of the Albert Pujols card. It was one of the reasons I took a chance on opening a few packs. My expectations for this card were pretty high prior to pulling it from the pack.    

Here is the front.  

I like that we have a picture of Albert Pujols tipping his cap on his final Stadium Club card, but Topps already used a similar photo for his final card in the 2023 flagship set.  Here is the front of that card.....

While they are different photographs, it's the same concept for both cards. Honestly, it feels like a huge letdown. Pujols is such an iconic player over the past two decades, so I am sure that there are some great photos out there that have not been overused that would have looked great on this Stadium Club baseball card.  

Heck, I would even take overusing a classic Pujols photo like him staring down his 2005 NLCS home run against Brad Lidge.  I do not know a single Cardinals fan who gets tired of this one......

Copyright, someone. There are so many copies of this photograph floating around on the internet that I am not sure who to credit. It's one of my favorites.  

Back of the card.  

Solid write-up on the part of Topps to summarize Albert's final season in the Majors. I wish the same level of effort that was used on the back of the card was also used in finding a photo for the front of this card.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Brian Stokes

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

Today:2007 UD Spectrum Brian Stokes 

Why do I own this card? 

Brian Stokes was a starting pitcher on the 2006 Durham Bulls. He went 7-7 with a 4.11 ERA in 23 starts with the Bulls. The Rays called up Stokes in September 2006, he made 4 starts with the team, and went 1-0 with an ERA of 4.88.  There were better players on the 2006 Bulls, but Stokes seemed like a solid pitcher and his cards were cheap.  

You might be thinking, he had an ERA over 4 in Triple A, that does not seem solid. 

It was the Devil Rays, not the Rays.  

When did I get this card? 

I guarantee you this was an EBay dumpster dive. The Rays were still a few years away from making the World Series and being considered good. When I first started collecting Durham Bulls players in 2006 and 2007, outside of Delmon Young and BJ Upton, the majority of prospect cards were just a few dollars.

Brian Stokes Career Teams In a Haiku 

Amateur Free Agent

P-Rays, Blaze, River Dogs, O-Rays

Bulls, Rays, Angels, Mets

I really hate when the only thing on the back of the card is a "Congratulations" form letter, unless it's from Richard McWilliam, then it's alright. As the kids would say, McWilliam is the "OG" of the Congratulations form letter. Plus, when you were opening packs of Upper Deck cards, anytime you saw that signature, you knew you were about to have your day made.  

46 To Go

I had no idea who Earl Torgeson was before I bought this card a few days ago, but was intrigued when I Google Searched him and the bio from his SABR page started out with this sentence: 

"In a 15-year major-league career filled with great stories and accomplishments of various stripes, Earl Torgeson was well known for getting in brawls."

The card was sold before I could read the second sentence of his bio.  

Here is the card.

This is my first Red Man card with a tab.  

A few facts I learned about Earl after reading his full SABR Bio:

-His nickname was "The Earl of Snohomish" after his hometown in Washington. The nickname was shared with Indians Hall of Famer Earl Averill who was from the same town. In fact, Torgeson grew up playing at Averill Field in Snohomish.   

-Prior to his rookie season he faced assualt charges in Washington for beating two men who had used vulgar language in front of his wife. Torgeson was found not guilty after the judge agreed with his actions.  

-Torgeson was in dozens of fights during his Major League career. After breaking his glasses in his first MLB brawl, he infamously would slowly remove them before charging pitchers or players to fight. 

-He chain smoked cigars

-The majority of his baseball career was spent with the Braves and White Sox, but he also appeared for the Phillies, Tigers, and Yankees. 

-After baseball, he was a County Commisioner representing the Snohomish area.    

I need 46 more cards.  

2024 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 4

This is the 94th Blake Snell autograph in my collection and my first from a Topps Dynasty Collection product. If you are not familiar with Dynasty, it is basically a one pack per box autograph product that costs upwards of $200 dollars. The cards are generally an on-card autograph with a large patch piece. Blake Snell has signed for the product several times over the years, but I have never forked over the money to purchase one of these cards.  

Even the really good Blake Snell autographs with cool patch pieces and really low serial numbers sell for way less than $200. More common patch pieces are typically under $50. When I set out to find a Dynasty autograph, that was the top end of my budget for this card and I did not even spend it all. I have no idea why someone would buy a pack/box of Dynasty, but their loss is my win.  

Here is the front of the 2019 Topps Dynasty Blake Snell autograph card, which is encased by Topps.  

The blue is patch material and the white is jersey material, making this a Rays home jersey. Too generic of a jersey piece to figure out where on the Rays logo this was cut. The serial number is also on the front with this card having a print run of just 10 copies. The autograph is Snell's standard form and effort.  

This is the most high-end Snell autograph in my collection by product, but I am not sure it would even rank in my Top 20 in terms of style, design, and collecting appeal. It's just a card with a high SRP, that's it.

Honestly, a little disappointing now that it is in my hand. I guess it's cool to own one Topps Dynasty card, but I think this is likely my last. Although, I imagine the person who pulled this $40 card out of a $200 box of cards was even more disappointed than I might be feeling.  

I am surprised that the back does not have a huge "CONGRATULATIONS" stamped across the top. I actually like that they mention his first Cy Young, as well as Snell leading the American League in a bunch of different statistical categories. I would say the back is better than expected.  

Monday Morning Autograph - Rex Hudler

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

Today: 1996 Leaf Signature Rex Hudler 

Why do I own this card? 

Rex was briefly a Cardinal in the early 1990s. The team would not spend money on pitching, but there was money in the budget for a colorful utility player.  

When did I get this card? 

At some point in college. It's actually one of the first certified autographs that I owned. Not a pack pull, but a really cheap card store pickup. I would guess this came from 1,000,000 Baseball Cards in west St. Louis County.  

Good Rex Hudler story?

Tom Pagnozzi, Lee Smith, Frank DiPino, and a bunch of other Cardinals players gave Rex Hudler a stack of 100 dollar bills to eat a bug off of his hat.  

Card back. 

Look at this gem. Card companies did not need a filler with some giant "CONGRATULATIONS" note. It's Leaf Signature, you already know you are getting an autograph. Nice little paragraph of Rex Hudler playing all over the field and his career batting stats. I would have guessed lower than .257 for his career average. Maybe Rex was better than I remember.  

47 To Go

I picked up two more cards for my 1952 Red Man Tobacco set project over the past weeks. No big names, but this is a small set, so every card helps. Plus, it's fun to learn more about the 1950s players as I go through and find their cards.  

First up, three time World Series winner Murry Dickson.  

The Missouri native (Kansas City area) actually started his career with the Cardinals and won two World Series playing along side Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst as an spot starter and long reliever early in his career, but would end up being a mainstay of the rotation by the mid 1940s. Dickson started two World Series games for the Cardinals in 1946 when they defeated the Red Sox. 

He spent the middle part of his career on the Pirates where he led the National League in losses three years in a row, but also made the All-Star team and had an ERA in the 3s. I looked around the 1952 Pirates Baseball Reference page and found the team hit .231 and had a .331 slugging percentage. If Ralph Kiner did not hit a home run, they did not score.  

Hard to win that way.

His career ended in the late 1950s with the Yankees where he won a third World Series ring.  

This card is in good condition outside of the corners, which are worn. It's hard being a 70 year-old piece of cardboard. 

 

My first American League card out of the Red Man Tobacco set is Tigers outfielder and first baseman Vic Wertz. As the card describes, Wertz was a very good hitter, lots of home runs, doubles, and RBIs. He played in a bunch of All-Star Games over his career, but is more a Hall of Very Good Player than Hall of Fame.  Wertz ended up getting traded at the end of the 1952 season to the Browns where he was on their final team in St. Louis and their first team as the Baltimore Orioles. He also played for the Indians and Red Sox before ending up back on the Tigers at the end of his career.  

I need 47 more cards.....

National League 

5. Murry Dickson 

16. Stan Musial 

19. Al Schoendienst 

23. Eddie Stanky 

American League 

22. Vic Wertz