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.
There are not any for sale in retail stores these days. I am certain they have all been bought in bulk and are all currently being resold on Facebook and Twitter for twice the price. I am not going to provide an examples, or call out anyone's social media posts. They are plentiful if you want to find them.
All this craziness over a White Sox prospect/rookie who has been in baseball card products the last two years. As a baseball card collector who does not do "prospecting", but watches a lot of Minor League baseball, you should buy cards of prospects who the Cardinals are too cheap to sign. Like Luis Robert.
Sure bet they are at least a solid Major League player.
Here's another Luis Robert gem from my collection.
My teaching assignment for the coming school year has changed a few times over the past few weeks, a little stressful, and slightly time consuming. I have picked up a few new cards over the past two weeks, but have not had the opportunity to sit down and write anything about them. While people can buy out all the packs of 2020 Topps cards at Target, there are still plenty of baseball cards out there in other places. There are enough baseball cards for everyone.
My first pair of cards are from the 2020 Topps Heritage set, both autographs that I found on the cheap.
First up is A's pitcher A.J. Puk. I saw him play for US College National team while he was in college at Florida. I saw him pitch a combined no-hitter, so I am collecting his card regardless of how well he pitches in the Majors. For what it is worth, he off to a good start during the first few weeks of the 2020 season. The A's are using him as a reliever, but he's done well in that role. I am probably biased to some degree, but he is going to be a really good pitcher. Hopefully he gets back into the rotation.
Next.
Everyone's favorite Cardinals shortstop who strikes out way too often. I am not a huge Dejong collector, but if the cards are there, cheap, and I can use combined shipping then sure, I will buy them. I do not own many DeJong autographs. Maybe only two or three, which is a low number for a modern Cardinals player with a high number of certified autographs. I think this might be the nicest one in my collection. Love the 1971 Topps design.
I saved the best cards for last in this post. I was really excited to add these cards to my collection. I have been working on the 1970 Kellogg's passive-aggressively for the past three or four years. They are more expensive than the other Kellogg's sets, but they are a personal favorite. So, I picked up three cards. Two of these are new, and another is an upgrade over another copy I own.
This Gibson card is my upgrade.
This is a pretty clean copy. The bottom border is a little discolored, the scan did not pick it up, but that is much better than having a giant crack in the middle of the card.
The last two Kellogg's cards are former Durham Bulls.
Again, this is a passive aggressive attempt to collect the 1970 Kellogg's set. If I end up with the whole set at some point, these cards will fit into the set. If I never quite get there, then they are nice additions to my collection of former Durham Bulls cards. Morgan played for the Bulls in 1963. This card has a really clean surface, but again the border has some discoloration. You can see it a little better on the right side of the card. It's hard for a white border to stay white for 50 years.
Last card. Lolich was on the Bulls in 1959 and 1960. Really unrated pitcher from the 1960s and 1970s. Much more deserving Hall of Fame candidate then Jack Morris, right down to the Game 7 pitching heroics in a World Series. Of the three Kellogg's cards that I have posted here, this is by far the cleanest of the group.
I picked up a few baseball card "covers" last week. Both were direct sale cards from Topps, with one card coming from the Throwback Thursday set, and the other from the Project 2020 set. Both are good looking cards. I think I actually like the Throwback Thursday card a little more, so I am going to start there.
The Throwback Thursday card is an on-going set that borrows the card designs from previous Topps products. The designs for Throwback Thursday come from old baseball cards, football cards, hockey cards, and other pop culture sets that Topps has made over the years. The design on this Gibson card comes the 1959 Topps Football set. No, I do not have a 1959 Topps Football card.
I love the bright background and alternating colored letters on his name. It's a really simple design, but comes together well. I think this might be my favorite Throwback Thursday card that I have picked up during the last few months. I wish the logo in the corner matched the era of the card and player, but I can live with the STL logo being there. Great looking card.
Back of the card.
I kind of wish that Topps did something more with the backs of these cards outside of just putting a "Topps TBT" stamp on the back. Since I do not own a 1959 Topps Football card, I went on COMC to find one. It's a nice looking card back.
I love the front of the card, and I do not regret buying this for a second, but maybe they should try duplicating the back design too. I am sure a creative person at Topps could do something catchy with transitioning this over to a baseball card, and still squeeze in the 'TBT Thursday" stamp on there too.
Next.
I liked this design, which is why I decided to purchase this Project 2020 card. It's a 1987 Topps Mark McGwire rookie card made out of a bunch of triangles. How much did I pay for this card? A crisp $20 bill, but you know that someone spent a ridiculous amount of money on this card at some point during the last month. I think finding the high auction sale on Ebay might be a feature of all my future Project 2020 cards.
I guarantee this person returned this item.
I like the parts of the picture that are made out of triangles. There are a lot of really obvious triangles in the picture, but there are also some really subtle ones too. The writing, numbers, and A's logo made out of triangles kind of bothered me at first, but they are better than I expected after seeing the card in person.
The artist of this card is Naturel. Biography is at the bottom of the card. You can find his artwork online, and this card is very true to his style. Overall, I am happy to own this McGwire Project 2020 card. This is my third one overall, but my first non-Bob Gibson.
Phil Roof was a catcher for the Twins and A's during the 1960s and 1970s. Almost his entire career was spent as a backup catcher, and had the sweet nickname of the "Duke of Paducah". Phil also had a younger brother who played baseball. There were almost 17 years difference between the two brothers. Gene was born in 1958, and Phil made his Major League debut in 1960.
I did not think I had a Phil Roof card, but after some digging I found him on a 1967 Topps card with the Kansas City A's. Great card. The catchers glove and Kansas City A's uniform are the main highlights in my book. Likely the reason the card is in my collection.
By the time Gene made his debut with the Cardinals in 1981, Phil was 40 and out of baseball. Donruss managed to turn Gene's rookie card in their 1982 set, into a Phil Roof card.
Remarkable considering that Donruss was not around while Phil Roof was playing. There have been plenty of brother combos in the majors, along with fathers and sons, but I am not sure if I can think of any other cards where their names or pictures are switch around.
Unless Juan LeBron and Carlos Beltran were brothers.
I have written a little bit about Gene Tenace before on my blog. He was a Cardinals player that I discovered later on in life, and did not fully appreciate while I was collecting as a kid. Tenace was the backup catcher for team when I first started watching baseball and collecting cards, so he was not high on my list. At some point around college, or maybe right after, I learned all about Gene Tenace on the A's.
I believe that I found this rather rough copy of his 1973 Topps card in a dime box at a card shop in the south part of St. Louis County. His career numbers did not look great at this point, but the little write up about his World Series MVP caught my eye.
I did a little more digging after this card. Pretty impressive player. He's never going to be in the Hall of Fame, but he is definitely in the Hall of Very Good Players. The first Gene Tenace card I ever bought after I realized he was a good player?
His 1981 Topps Traded card.
Like almost all the other Cardinals cards in the 1981 Topps Traded set, the Tenace card shows him wearing the powder blue road uniform in a picture that was likely taken during Spring Training. Love that his draw strings are hanging out the top of his pants. Quite the fashion statement.
Here is the back of the card.
Look at those walks. He was the forerunner of the Moneyball A's teams. Tenace played with the Cardinals for two seasons before he ended his career with the Pirates in 1983. These numbers are really close to his final career totals, which Jay Jaffe has as the 13th best catcher all-time.
I know pretty hard to believe. If you do not have any Gene Tenace cards in your collection, he's somebody you should check out.
The player born on July 2nd with the most home runs? Most RBIs? Most WAR? Most hits? All of the answers to this question are the same. They are all former Oakland A's outfielder Jose Canseco. Obviously not a Cardinal.....
at any point during his career, but the Cardinals did sign Jose's less successful, less expensive twin brother. It was a true 1990s Cardinals move. Jose Canseco would have cost a lot of money. He was brash and over the top. So, enter Ozzie Canseco. What was Ozzie Canseco like? I honestly have no idea, outside of the fact that he was on the Cardinals. He also had baseball cards.
The whole Ozzie and Jose situation reminds me a lot of The Simpsons episode where Springfield hosts a film festival, Mr. Burns decides to enter a film to spruce moose up his image, but goes cheap and hires Senor Spielbergo instead of Steven Spielberg.
Jose was known for his combination of power and speed. He hit long, loud home runs. The one I best remember was his home run against the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays.
That highlight clip of Jose's features one more home run than Ozzie hit during his entire Major League career. That's right, Ozzie had zero Major League home runs. He also only had 65 at bats in the Majors over three season.
If you collect baseball cards, you probably better remember Ozzie Canseco cards with the A's in the early 1990s. They were pretty popular, pretty much just based on the fact that he was Jose's brother. I am pretty sure that there were some pretty horrific trades back in the early 1990s based on collectors getting their hands on Ozzie Canseco cards.
Maybe not that popular, but yes.....
So, how did Ozzie Canseco get on to the Cardinals? Awhile ago, unfortunately I cannot find it, a fellow collector argued with me that Ozzie was a part of the Willie McGee trade in 1990. Not really, that was Felix Jose. Ozzie Canseco, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Felix Jose, it's all confusing. Right time frame though. The A's released Ozzie, not Jose, was released at the end of the 1990 season. Ozzie Canseco, not Smith, spent 1991 in Japan, before he signed with the Cardinals in 1992. That was a team with Ozzie Smith.
Ozzie Canseco played a few games with the Cardinals in 1992, but spent most of the season in Triple A Louisville. He played a total of 98 games that year in the Minors, he hit 22 home runs and drove in 57 runs. He did not do much with the Cardinals that season. 1993 was similar for Ozzie, he spent most of his time in the Minors, did little with the Cardinals, and was traded to the Brewers at the end of the season.
So, what 27 year old Triple A prospect gets a bunch of baseball cards? Ozzie Canseco.
He had a couple, I am going to look at three really quick.
First up is his Donruss card. What is going on with this card? Not much, Ozzie is hitting, or maybe striking out? You decide.
Now, it's time for my favorite two Ozzie Canseco cards. First, there is a 1993 Stadium Club card. The Cardinals wore their batting practice jerseys in Spring Training games, so this is from some time during a practice game. There is a slight resemblance to Todd Zeile in this picture.
Todd Zeile probably played with his batting gloves while he was running the bases. Todd Zeile was also not that buff. Last one.
I used to love getting the Cardinals giveaway set. There were some really great cards in these sets. The 1993 set, which this card comes out of, is probably my least favorite. However, it's still a really nice looking set. I like the view of the mullet on this card.
Last week I did a post on the Top 5 MLB players from NC State. This week I am taking a 30 minute drive west on I-40 to do a post with the top former Blue Devils who have hit the field for a Major League baseball team. Before I get to the top five, I have to give a tip of the cap to two former Major League players who were connected to the Duke Baseball program as coaches.
Probably more important to the program than almost every player on my Top 5 list....
Ace Parker
Ace was a multi-sport star at Duke during the mid 1930s. He was on the Philadelphia A's for 38 games in 1937 and 56 games in 1938. That was the end of his baseball career. One could argue that 90 some games is not really much to go on in terms of evaluating the quality of play. However, when Ace walked away from baseball it was to play football in the NFL. He won the 1940 NFL MVP and managed to put together a good enough career on the gridiron that he was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1972. Probably a good decision on his part.
Parker returned to Durham after his football career and initially worked as the manager of the Durham Bulls. He also had a side job during the fall as an assistant coach on Duke's football team. Eventually, Parker took over the coaching duties of the Duke baseball team in 1953. He retired from coaching baseball in 1966. Interestingly, he remained on the football coaching staff the entire time that he was also the head baseball coach. During his time at Duke, Parker coached the Blue Devils to three ACC Championships, a Southern Conference Championship (Pre-ACC), and two appearances in the College World Series.
I am not sure how many people outside of central North Carolina know the name Ace Parker, I didn't before I moved here, but he is a tremendously important sports figure from the 1930, 40s, and 50s who had a huge impact on the school. The numbers on his baseball card are not as good as the rest of the people on this list, but he's one of the most important figures in the history of Duke's athletic program.
Jack Coombs
Coombs actually went to college at a small school in Maine before he spent 14 years playing in the Majors with A's, Dodgers, and Tigers. His best years were during the first half of his career with the A's. The team was loaded with Hall of Famers including Chief Bender, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Eddie Plank, and Eddie Collins. The team won back to back World Series in 1910 and 1911. Coombs led the American League in wins during both seasons. He won 3 of the 4 games needed to win the 1910 World Series against the Cubs, and added another victory during the following season's Series against the Giants.
After Coombs retired from baseball, he ended up at Duke as the baseball coach. In all, he coached the Blue Devils for 24 years and retired with a .636 winning percentage. Coombs helped the Blue Devils win the Southern Conference, the ACC had not been formed at that point, six times and advance to the College World Series twice.
Again, not a Duke baseball player, but a very important person to the program. The modern Blue Devils split their games between the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and their on-campus baseball stadium, which bears the name of Jack Coombs. There is a statue of the long time coach outside the stadium.
5. Chris Capuano
Capuano is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts native who pitched at Duke in the late 1990s. He earned an Economics degree while he was in Durham. Originally drafted by the Diamondbacks, he was traded to the Brewers for Richie Sexson. In all, Capuano spent 12 years in the Major Leagues between 2003 and 2016, half of that time was spent in Milwaukee. His two best seasons were in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, he won 18 games, pitched more than 200 innings, and set a career high with 176 strikeouts. In 2006, Capuano was named to the National League All-Star team, and duplicated his innings pitched and strikeout numbers.
Capuano did not appear in a Major League game in 2008 or 2009 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Brewers released him and then resigned him to a Minor League contract allowing him to work his way back up to the Majors through their system. He returned in the middle of the 2010 season. At the end of the season, Capuano signed with the Mets as a free agent. He also spent time during the second half of his career with the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Yankees before returning to the Brewers for 16 games in 2016.
4. Marcus Stroman
I think the first two or three times I saw Marcus Stroman play for Duke he was a second baseman. He starred for Duke for three years between 2010 and 2012, obviously he ended up becoming a star pitcher for the Blue Devils. I first saw his pitching skills on display at USA Baseball's College National Team. The Blue Jays made him the 22nd overall pick during the 2012 MLB Draft. Obviously, he is not very far into his career, but I would guess he should be 2nd on the list if I revisited it in a few years.
Stroman has only played three full seasons with the Jays and has already won 37 games, had a pair of 200 inning seasons, and two seasons with more than 150 strikeouts. He pitched a few games during the 2015 season, had a knee injury that shut him down for the year, but he just went back to Duke and finished the final year of his degree program.
Last season Stroman was a real bright spot for the Blue Jays. He ended the seasons at 13-9 with a 3.09 ERA, and 164 strikeouts in 201 innings. Stroman also won the Gold Glove Award for American League pitchers flashing some of those glove skills that I got to watch back when he was at Duke...
Again, early in his career, but Stroman has the potential to be one of the top two players on this list in the long run. Someone might argue that Dick Groat has a bunch of World Series rings, that was anticlimactic to give away the top player on the list, but Marcus Stroman led the Majors last year in most appearances in rap videos.
3. Ron Northey
Ron Northey played for several different teams during the 1940s and 50s. He played baseball at Duke in the late 1930s and was actually hard of hearing in one ear because of a bean ball incident from his time in Durham. Northey started his journey through the Minor Leagues in the early 1940s, reaching the Majors with the Phillies during the 1942 season. The Navy found him unfit for duty twice due to his hearing loss. Eventually the Army drafted him in 1945 and he was stationed out of Fort Lewis, Washington.
Before his time with the Army Northey had improved drastically each of his three seasons with the Phillies. In 1942, he hit only 5 home runs with a .250/.300/.331 slash line. His 1943 season was a little better, but 1944 showed that he had the talent to be an All-Star caliber player. That season he hit 22 home runs, 104 RBIs, 9 triples, 35 doubles, and posted a .288/.367/.496 slash line. He finished in the top 10 in dozens of offensive categories that season.
The post-war version of Northey was not able to match his production from his 1944 season. In 1946 he only managed 16 home runs with a .249 average playing full time with the Phillies. The Phillies eventually traded him to the Cardinals where he found a niche as a part-time player with pop off of the bench.
In 1947, the Cardinals gave him 361 plate appearances and he put up 15 home runs and 19 doubles with a .321 average. He followed with similar lines for the Cardinals the following season before falling off with the home run totals and average during the 1949 season. Northey spent the later years of his career bouncing around between the Reds, Cubs, White Sox, and made his way back to the Phillies before retiring as a player in 1957.
After his playing career Northey worked as a scout and coach, including a stint with the Pirates in the early 1960s.
2. Bill Werber
Werber was a two sport star during his time at Duke and was actually the first All-American basketball player at Duke. He led the Blue Devils basketball team to the Southern Conference Basektball Championship game twice. They lost both games, but it was a pretty remarkable feat to even get that far considering the team had exactly five players.
The losses came against Alabama and NC State who, according to local legend, decided that having five starting players and a few substitute players was a better way to win stuff with your basketball team.
Werber played three season on Duke's baseball team under the aforementioned Jack Coombs. He hit .400 each of his three seasons on the baseball team. After graduation he joined the Yankees, whom he had toured with as an amateur player in 1927 before attending college. Werber played a total of 7 games with the team between two stints with the team in 1930 and 1933. During his first at-bat he drew a walk, but quickly scored his first Major League run when Babe Ruth hit a home run as the next batter.
Werber lived to be 100 and was the last living teammate of Ruth's at the time of his death in 2009.
As for the rest of his Major League career, Werber went on to spent time with the Red Sox, Reds, A's, and Giants. He led the American League in stolen bases three different times during the 1930s, twice with Boston and another time with Philadelphia. Probably the best accomplishment of Werber's Major League career was his appearance in back to back World Series with the Reds. The 1939 squad lost to the Yankees in four straight games. The 1940 squad did better, beating the Tigers in a seven game series. Werber hit .370 and scored 5 runs for the Reds.
1. Dick Groat
Werber was the first All-American at Duke, but Dick Groat was the first Duke basketball player to have his jersey in the rafters of Cameron Indoor. He was an All-American basketball player twice and played one year of basketball in the NBA with the Pistons. All of this time Groat also was playing baseball. His first season with the Pirates was in 1952. Groat played 95 games that summer before missing the 1953 and 1954 seasons due to military service during the Korean War.
He returned to the Pirates for the 1955 season and his career took off over the next few seasons. In 1957, Groat finished in the top 5 in batting in the National League behind some other decent players: Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Frank Robinson. He made his first All-Star team in 1959 and in 1960 won the National League MVP while helping the Pirates win the World Series.
Groat made three more All-Star teams in the early 1960s and finished second in MVP voting in 1963 while playing for the Cardinals. The following season, in 1964, he helped the Cardinals win the World Series against the Yankees. He ended his Major League career by playing a few years with the Phillies, and a final season with the Giants in 1967.
He's also had a fairly successful career post-baseball too. in 1979, Groat was hired as a radio broadcaster for the Pitt Panthers basketball games. In recent years, he has stopped working most of their road games, but still can be heard when Pitt plays home games.
