I have a big pile of Extra Bases cards hanging out in my card closet. Every time I see the stack, I wonder why we don't have cards like these any more. Is there anybody who was collecting in the 1990s who doesn't like them? If so, I have never met them.
Please, someone. Remake these cards. I'd even buy them if it was a Panini brand.
Yes, they are large cards, which sometimes throws people off.
"How do I store these if I use boxes?"
"I put all my cards in plastic sheets. What sheets should I use?"
I frankly don't care. Put them somewhere. They are awesome cards. Here is the front of the 1994 Extra Bases Ray Lankford card.
The picture is huge and I like the shape of the card. Nice action shot of Ray batting. The background has that cookie cutter stadium vibe with the non-descript, darkly painted dugout. I am leaning with The Vet in Philadelphia on this card. A large number of the Cardinal in this set have pictures in Busch Stadium, but Todd Zeile also has a road picture that is clearly in a game against the Phillies.
At the bottom of the card, I like that his name is red, goes with the design of the Cardinals cards throughout the Extra Bases set. The yellow is fine, more on that when I get to the back of the card. The Extra Bases logo is not the best. Logo design was not a strong point of the 1990s. Not only baseball, baseball cards, and sports, but just in general. This one reminds me of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team logo. The old 1990s one, not the more recent uniforms.
Maybe the Extra Bases logo is not this bad, but it is much better. There was an airline that had purple, green, and yellow planes in the 1990s, but I at a loss for a name. I am sure that Carl Ichan bought them, loaded them with debt, and then declared bankruptcy.
Here is the back of the card.
Again, I like the shape of the card and the full-sized color photo on the back of the card. I like when companies put some statistics on the back of the card, while these are simple, I will take it given I get the large picture of Ray. The yellow writing feels too bright, but all the cards in Extra Bases used that same color on the back.
I am going to point out one other feature that I love on the back of the card that I usually ignore on these posts. Look at the card number. It's big and has contrast. Love when cards are easy to sort.
Gregg Jefferies was supposed to be a superstar caliber player for the New York Mets in the late 1980s. The next great thing. He was selected in the first round of the 1985 MLB, hit in the .330s at almost every stop in the Minors with power and speed. As baseball card collectors, we all know the 1989 Gregg Jefferies cards.....
they are borderline legendary.
Well, except that Gregg Jefferies never really became the next big thing and he was never really a superstar either. Barely even an All-Star. He was a little bit immature, threw batting helmets, and pulled all sorts of interesting antics that did not really win him many fans.
Like the time he made the last out of a game against the Phillies, touched first, and then ran after the pitcher.
Jefferies was not really hitting like he was supposed to, so the Mets traded him the Royals for Bret Saberhagen. He did not hit in Kansas City and the Royals traded him to the Cardinals for Felix Jose. That's when Gregg Jefferies actually played like he was supposed to play in the late 1980s, only now it was 1993. He was still only 25.
Jefferies also still had a bit of a temper in St. Louis and still was one of the best helmet tossers in all of baseball.
Let's review Gregg Jefferies time as a Cardinal.
Gregg Jefferies made two All-Star games during his career.
Gregg Jefferies made two All-Star games for the Cardinals in 1993 and 1994
Gregg Jefferies hit higher than .325 twice in his Major League career
Gregg Jefferies hit over .325 in both seasons he played with the Cardinals
Gregg Jefferies received MVP votes in only two seasons during his career
Gregg Jefferies finished in the top 20 in MVP voting while playing for the Cardinals in 1993 and 1994
Gregg Jefferies had a career WAR of 19.4 in 14 seasons in Major League Baseball
Gregg Jefferies had a WAR of 7 in 2 seasons with the Cardinals
I could go on.
As a Cardinal, Gregg Jefferies hit for a high average, sprayed the ball all over the park, showed some pop, and even almost stole 50 bases (actually 46) in a season. He was on a really young Cardinals team that finished towards the bottom of the standings, but Jefferies was a really good player.
After the 1994 season, Jefferies cashed in on his two good years in St. Louis by signing a big contract with the Phillies. He was not very good. Perhaps his best highlight as a Phillie was getting drilled by Pedro Martinez to start this epic brawl.
For two years Gregg Jefferies was a great baseball player. It was all captured in baseball card form with Jefferies in a Cardinals uniform. I definitely have some favorites here, so I am going to run through a few.
I am putting a limit on it here, I could go further.
First up is an oversized Upper Deck All-Star card from 1994. Jefferies is wearing running shoes and the photo was taken during batting practice. That's all nice stuff, but I like this card for the background probably more than I like it for being a Gregg Jefferies card. This is the Busch Stadium that I grew up with. The bright red seats, blue walls in the outfield, arches around the top of the stadium, and the astroturf. You can even spot a little bit of the Arch, the 600 foot steel one next to the river, to the right of Jefferies in the arch at the top of stadium. Just a sliver.
A Studio card. How 1990s is this card? This card was apart of the Heritage Collection which featured a modern player wearing a throw back uniform. This Jefferies card is nice, but I was always a little bit miffed by the choice of dates on the part of Studio. The Cardinals have won a few World Series over the years, so if you were going to do this set, would you not pick a year the team won something? 1928? The Cardinals lost in the World Series. In 1926, they won the World Series.
Studio should have split the difference and put Jefferies in a 1927 Cardinals uniform.
Teams weren't shy about saying the won something back then. Seems like Jefferies would be good in this uniform with World Champions stamped on the chest. Still wouldn't beat the McGwire card in this set where he is wearing an old A's uniform with a pill box hat.
Different Studio card.
I really like the 1993 set. The jerseys in the background are nice, unless your team has really bad uniforms. Blue and orange Padres and teal Marlins come to mid. I also like that Studio put a picture on the card of Jefferies with a blue batting helmet. Just a really nice looking card.
Last card.
Another oversized card. This is a Fleer Extra Bases card. I like the pictures on the front, which are more or less a border to border design. The font and the colors on the front are a little bit on the mediocre side, and the brand logo is horrible, but the overall card is excellent. I like that the picture in in Busch and you get an action shot of Jefferies running.
Maybe if Jefferies had been a Cardinals player a little bit longer, maybe some of these cards would be a little more meaningful to baseball card collectors outside of a few people who followed some pretty terrible teams from the mid 1990s.
a 1993 song on my IPod. You get Liz Phair. Lo Fi Liz Phair, not polished pop song Liz Phair.
