I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 18 - Geronimo Pena

Maybe you've heard of Geronimo Pena, maybe you haven't.  He was a Cardinals second base prospect in the early 1990s after the team gutted away most of the WhiteyBall era players like Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, and Terry Pendleton.  Pena was supposed to be a part of a group of young talented players that were going to be teamed up with Ozzie Smith to make the Cardinals a competitive team again.

I think that Geronimo Pena's place in the world of 1990s prospects can best be demonstrated by his appearance on the Cardinals 1993 Upper Deck team card.

Bernard Gilkey and Ray Lankford had established themselves as everyday players by the time that this card was put out in 1993.  Both outfielders showed talent that made Cardinals fans believe that they could eventually be All-Star level players.  Pena had that sort of potential too, but he just didn't stay on the field long enough to show it for more than a half season.

Pena's injuries included:

• 1989 Spring Training - Broken wrist on a hit by pitch 
• 1992 Spring Training - Broken collarbone by stepping on his own glove 
• 1992 Regular Season - Nerve injury in shoulder 
• 1993 Regular Season - Broken foot on a foul ball 
• 1994 Regular Season - Broken elbow hit by pitch 
• 1995 Regular Season - Hamstring pull on ground rule double 

Cardinals manager Joe Torre best summarized Geronimo Pena in 1995 when he said:

"That's been the question about him, can he stay healthy?  We don't know that.  He never has.  But you keep looking at his ability and you say you hope he does.  We're still doing that."

So, how talented was Geronimo Pena as a player?  

In his first season, in 1991, the Cardinals had Pena split time at second base with Jose Oquendo.  When you look at his overall numbers, he was a replacement level player, but Pena really had two separate seasons in that year.  During the first half of the year Pena hit just .222/.297/.333 with only 7 extra base hits in 102 plate appearances.  During the second half of 1991 Pena hit .263/.345/.463. 

 Just for reference, Ryne Sandberg won the Silver Slugger Award in the National League that season amongst National League second baseman.  His Slugging Percentage for the season was .483.  Sandberg was in the prime of his career at that point, Pena was a rookie, so for him to be within 20 points was a positive.   

Which brings us to 1992.  Geronimo Pena only played 62 games that season, but it might have been the only season, outside of 1991, where he played a long stretch of games without missing multiple months during the middle of the season.  The two month stretch of healthy Geronimo Pena hit .305/.386/.478 with 7 home runs, 12 doubles, 31 RBIs, and 13 stolen bases.  Pretty nice numbers, that if he could have maintained over the course of a season, could have earned him some more recognition.  Maybe an All-Star Game appearance at the least.  

Unfortunately, during the next three seasons the Cardinals could not keep Pena on the field.  He was released by the Cardinals after the 1995 season.  He ended up signing with the Indians, but only was able to play in 5 games during the 1996 season.  

You get the point, on to baseball cards.  

Pena was a pretty good prospect which means he got some pretty nice cards.  My favorite Geronimo Pena card will always be the 1993 Upper Deck Cardinals team card at the top of the post.  I know he's the least successful player on the card, but given his level of play while healthy, I cannot help but think that the person who made that card thought they were making the first of many cards that would have Geronimo Pena and Ozzie Smith together.  The Cardinals really wanted that to be their middle infield in the early and mid 1990s.  

Second favorite.  

His 1993 Upper Deck base card.  I like the action shot of him hitting.  The photo on the back of the card is nice too.....

Pena was a switch hitter and I like that they have him batting righty on the front of the card and lefty on the back.  I actually prefer the picture on the back of the card a bit.  Wrigley always makes a nice backdrop on baseball cards.  The top looks like Riverfront in Cincinnati.  Hello, cookie cutter.  

Last card is another action shot.  

Nice base running photo.  

Pena could steal bases, although the Cardinals did a lot less running once Joe Torre started managing the team.  In 1987, while he was in A Ball, Pena had an 80 steal season.  He definitely had some good speed.  

The back of the card is nice too.  

Again, another base running photo.  I like the backs of these Leaf cards from the early and mid 1990s.  The stadium picture is probably a little dated for 1994, but it's still nice to see the Busch Stadium where I grew up watching games.  The arches around the top were very distinct, and while the Arch view is better in the new version of Busch, it was still there if you were sitting in the infield. 

Not sure exactly what Geronimo is up to these days, but his son is a sophomore on the baseball team at the University of Maine.  

Wallet Card Year 2

My Wallet Card made it through one year.  Last year Breakdown Cards made a great post that attracted a lot of attention from other collectors and bloggers.  I really liked the idea and decided to be a part of the Wallet Card crowd.  The only rule for the Wallet Card was that your choice had to make you happy when you saw it.  This is my 1991 Topps Geronimo Pena card after one year.

Definitely worn, but it was fun to have Geronimo by my side during the last year.  I am going to put him in a top loader and file him away as a good collecting memory.  Which brings me to the new Wallet Card that I picked out for this year.

Last year, I went off the beaten path a little bit to pick out the Geronimo Pena card.  Just wanted something different and even though he did not have a really good career, I enjoyed watching him play.  Well, when he was actually healthy enough to get out on the field.  This year I am going to go with something a little bit more straight forward.

The new Wallet Card.....

My favorite player growing up and I went with the 1997 Topps card because it was one of Ray Lankford's better seasons.  It is going into the wallet tomorrow morning and will be there until next year.  I am going to have to do a better job of recording some of the Wallet Cards journeys this year.  I think I only recorded one trip for Geronimo.

#MyCardMonday

A really cool old school card for this week's #MyCardMonday.  The 1990s were a difficult times for Cardinals fans and it was hard to always remain interested in baseball cards when your favorite team had few star players showing up on cardboard.  In 1993 I did not even work on an Upper Deck set.  I just skipped right over it.  The only time in between 1989 and 2010 that I did not touch the Upper Deck set the year it was released.

Fast forward to college and I had to rely on the card scene around Cape Girardeau, Missouri during the school year.  Let's keep it real: There was no card scene.  The town did have a card shop for awhile, but the owner was not one of those friendly and honest card shop owners.  There was a Venture in the mall for a year or two and then there was a Target.

What the hell happened to the Target card aisle?  Now it is populated by boxes from recent releases, but fifteen years ago you could also find cool old boxes in the store.  I found boxes of 1995 Flair, old boxes of 1987 Topps, and one night I found a few boxes of 1993 Upper Deck cards.

I picked up a box of series one and series two and went back to my place to open up the box.  There were so many cool things about the set and so many cards that I loved in the set.  Besides asking what the hell happened to the Target card aisle, I should probably also be asking what happened to cards like the first few Upper Deck sets.

Onto the card.  I thought about doing a Now & Then card, but I like these team cards too.....

The Cardinals team card in 1993 featured Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, but also young upcoming stars Geronimo Pena, Ray Lankford, and Bernard Gilkey.  There were a lot of young players with the Cardinals back in the early 90s.  I am not sure why they did not put Brian Jordan or Todd Zeile on this card, but these three are pretty cool choices.  Lankford turned out to be a pretty good player.  Gilkey was traded to the Mets after the team signed Ron Gant.  After one good year with the Mets Gilkey had some issues with injuries and alcohol.  Geronimo was injured all the time too.  

The back of these cards were pretty cool featuring fun little facts about the players on the card.  We have cool plays on words like "Wizard of Ahs" and great player facts like Bernard Gilkey being a St. Louis native.  The whole card is just incredible.  Upper Deck put a card for each of the teams in the set.  If you don't own anything from the 1993 Upper Deck set you should go and check out these cards.  

#WalletCard Field Trip: NC State Edition

My wallet, a 1991 Topps Geronimo Pena, celebrated one week in my wallet yesterday.  We decided to take a little bit of a lunch break yesterday while I was working on a few things at NC State.  Geronimo needed to see the sites, so we went on a quick 10 minute campus tour.  Think of him like an interested high school kid.  Sure, I got a couple of weird looks taking pictures of a baseball card, in the rain, at different spots around campus.  Here's a look at Geronimo's campus tour:


Stop Number 1- The Bell Tower 

This is the iconic building on campus.  The Bellower was built to honor the NC State students who died during World War 1.  I attended class just a short distance from the Bell Tower and walked by here all the time for the years I attended NC State.  Here is a plaque showing the different stages of construction:

Rainy days are not great days to hang out at the tower, but Geronimo and I are willing to make a return later tonight if our Wolfpack beat those dreaded Tar Heels.  After an important win the school lights the Bell Tower up red at night.

Geronimo enjoyed the tower, but there is much more to being on a college campus than hanging out at iconic buildings.  Since we are at NC State we should probably visit a classroom buildings.  No mistaking us for Tar Heels.


Stop Number 2- Poe Hall 

We do not have enough teachers in North Carolina.  Our state does not really treat them too well, but that's for a different post on a different blog.  Would Geronimo enjoy a career in education?  This is Poe Hall which houses the NC State College of Education.  I own a Masters of School Administration from the school.  So many cool classes to take in this building.  The Psychology Department is in here too.  Back in the day they used to have a really nice leather sofa on the fourth or fifth floor.  It's been too long, but we don't have time to sit down.  Snap a selfie and on we go.....

Stop Number 3- Run with the Wolves 

Geronimo and I found this cool sculpture down the street from Reynolds Coliseum and Talley Student Union.  There are actually three wolves in this little courtyard, but I was not going to take pictures of people smoking with the wolves.  There were no basketball games and we do not go into the student union at lunch.  My tolerance for hungry undergraduates has declined over the years.  Geronimo understood.  This seemed like a good place for another picture.

While we were checking out this cool wolf sculpture we saw this cool sign for Tedx, or Ted Talks.  I am a pretty big fan, but there appear to be no Ted Talks about baseball cards.  If I applied to speak about baseball cards would I be accepted?  Would I be allowed to bring Geronimo?  I better think of some cool math or science connection between baseball cards and something that someone at NC State is working on right now.  Hmmmm......

4. Stop Number 4- Free Expression Tunnel

If you like graffiti and live in central North Carolina then this might be the coolest place around.  The Free Expression Tunnel runs underneath a set of train tracks and also happens to be a place where graffiti is legal.  Here's that the tunnel looks like from the outside:

Geronimo and I tried taking a picture inside the tunnel, but the lighting was hurting the final product. We ended up taking a close up with the cool graffiti wall just outside of the tunnel.

It looks like Geronimo is getting a little bit of wear around the edges and has a little crease going too. Back into the wallet for right now, but we will take a few more field trips throughout the next year.  I am thinking our next field trip might be into work.  How will Geronimo handle a day in fourth grade?

Wallet Card

I saw a really cool idea a few days ago over at the Baseball Card Breakdown that I thought would be a cool experiment for the new year.  The rules for the wallet card were simple:

1.  The card must make you smile when you see it


Not too difficult.  So, after much thinking I decided to pick a card from earlier in my collection and went with the 1991 Topps Geronimo Pena.  Love that set and really enjoy looking at all of the cool Cardinals rookie cards in that set.  Ray Lankford, a young Felix Jose, Bernard Gilkey, second year Todd Zeile, and this guy.   I know you're probably asking who is Geronimo Pena?  Why him?  Why not one of those other people who are actually somewhat recognizable.

I love Ray Lankford, but I wanted to do someone different.  I always pick Ray Lankford.  Todd Zeile reminds me of people taking the first pitch of every at-bat of their career.....  Geronimo Pena was a prime prospect for the Cardinals back in the early nineties and was supposed to push Jose Oquendo for the starting second base job.  He broke in with the Cardinals at the end of 1990 after posting two consecutive seasons with an OBP of almost .400 in the Triple A and Double A.  Geronimo could also run, had some pop in his bad, and was a capable fielder.  He was also hurt all of the time.  One season he missed time because he separated his shoulder after he stepped on his own glove.

His best season took place in 1992 when he hit .305/.386/.478 with 7 home runs, 12 doubles, and 13 steals in just 62 games.  I'd like to have seen him play a whole healthy season.  It could have been great.  He flamed out with the Cardinals in 1995 and the team actually pursued Craig Biggio to replace him at 2B.  He spent one season in the bigs with the Indians before calling it a career.

I love cards of guys like this:  Brien Taylor, Kevin Maas, Todd Van Poppel.  They may not have panned out, but there are still lots of great memories and feelings attached to those cards for many collectors.  For me, Geronimo is in that group.  This is my wallet card.  I will let you know how he is doing on my Twitter account.