Jumbo World Series Hero

It seems like every Postseason there is some sort of player who unexpectedly comes out of nowhere and has a huge impact on the outcome of the World Series.  Last season Cubs fans watched Kyle Schwarber come back from what was supposed to be a season ending knee injury to bat .412 in the World Series.  His presence in the line-up seemed to give the Cubs a little extra.

Pretty good hitting there for a guy who was supposed to not even appear in the Series.  

As a Cardinals fan I have seen players make similar contributions to the team's postseason runs in recent years.  Matt Adams hitting a three run home run off of Clayton Kershaw, Matt Carpenter battling through long at at-bats, Michael Wacha pitching shut outs, the entire line-up in the 2012 NLDS against the Nationals including light hitting Pete Kozma getting the series clinching hit....

and every Cardinals fans favorite hometown hero from the 2011 World Championship winning team, third baseman, David Freese.  He actually had an incredible playoff run throughout that postseason including the series against the Phillies and the Brewers.  Everyone just remembers the 9th inning on in Game 6....

and what of the Cardinals playoff run in 2006?  Many remember the Tigers throwing the ball all over the field littering the box scores with tons of errors and cold bats after clinching the AL Pennant and sitting around for a week.  Many also remember the final out of the series being recorded by long-time Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright when the normal closer Jason Isringhausen went down with an injury.....

I often feel like the player from that 2006 squad who often flies under the radar is pitcher Jeff Weaver, who was picked up by the Cardinals in a trade with the Angels after he lost his job to his brother Jared.  Weaver's regular season with the Cardinals was not much to write home about, but he excelled on the postseason stage that fall for the Redbirds.  He saved his best performance for the World Series clincher in Game 5 when he pitched 8 innings with one run, 4 hits, and 9 strikeouts.  

One of the better single season turn arounds in the history of the franchise.  There aren't many baseball cards to remember Weaver's brief stint with the Cardinals by, but a few of them are really sweet cards.  My favorite up to this point has been his 2007 Topps World Series Relic card.  

This Weaver card was put out at a time when Topps did not make a Postseason relic card for every single team that made the playoffs.  They have done that the last few years and they have made them pretty common cards.  The older versions, starting with the White Sox in 2005, are really tough finds.  

Which brings me to my latest Jeff Weaver card.  I still like the World Series better, but this is a nice card too.....

This card is from the 2009 Topps Unique set, which had a terrible base set, but a great set of relic cards.  I picked up a Anthony Reyes jumbo relic card from this set early this year, but I did not have a Weaver card.  A very nice patch piece too which is the top of the L......

the top of the s and the tail feathers of the Cardinal sitting on the bat.  I am sure there are probably better patch pieces out there, but I am also sure that most of those have made there way into collections and they are not coming back out.  

The Expanded Topps Postseason Set

I have always really liked the Postseason cards that Topps has included in their products starting with the 2006 Topps set.  The cards always focused on the World Series winning team and often featured a mixture of autographs and relics.  My Cardinals won two World Series titles during that time and I was happy to add a few cards from both sets to my collection.  Topps has always done a great job of getting a good sampling of players from the winning teams too.  The 2007 Topps version of the Cardinals team had a Pujols card, but also featured some lesser names who made big contributions to the team winning the series.  One of my favorites...

 

Weaver had a rather lackluster career after being a pretty highly touted prospect, but pitched a bunch of big games in the playoffs for the Cardinals that year and was a key contributor in the team's World Series win.  While the older Postseason sets do feature role players from the World Series team, they have provided collectors great value.  It really does not matter who you pull from the set, the cards sell, and price out very well.  For example, I was interested in adding a copy of the 2007 Topps Ronnie Belliard card.  The Cardinals traded for him at the deadline that season and he filled a need and made some great plays for the team.

I kind of thought it might sell for $50, but did not see this card getting much past that.  I was in on this item, but lost it.  These are the types of cards that made the Postseason set great though.  Limited numbers of cards with content that generates a great deal of interest.  What Cardinals collector wouldn't want one of these cards?  Who cares if it's Ronnie Belliard, he won a ring too.  There are plenty of other players just like Ronnie Belliard on the checklist though.  Anyone remember Preston Wilson playing on the Cardinals?

The other World Series cards have been cool too.  I have a couple of non-Cardinals cards in my collection and I hold on to them for several reasons.  First, they are really cool cards.  Second, I am pretty sure that I can trade them pretty high up on their value.  The White Sox and two Giants sets might be my favorite two outside of the Cardinals, though the Red Sox from 2008 has a good look about it.  This is from the original 2006 World Series Champions set:

So, this year Topps has decided to add in cards of all the Postseason teams.  Meaning that besides the usual band of Red Sox cards, for winning the World Series, we also are blessed with cards of the A's, Tigers, Rays, Tigers, Braves, Cardinals, and Dodgers.  While the cards have a nice look to them they have really dropped in price.  I landed a Anibal Sanchez card in a Jumbo Box, but have held onto the card after watching the prices slide over the past two or three weeks.  Cooler card than the price they are selling for on-line.  

I know that Anibal is not the biggest name on the Tigers, but it's not like their setting the world on fire the value of their postseason cards either.  Let's just go ahead and look at Miguel Cabrera cards in the set.  The only active auction on Ebay is offering a card for $50, but more than a handful have landed south of forty dollars in auctions, including one that failed to reach $20.  

and while I am sure that many Tigers fans and card collectors would love to add a cool Miguel Cabrera relic, I am sure the postseason last year was not at the top of their good memories list.  In fact, knowing fans of all the eliminated teams, I think that their fans had all expected better.  In the long term I think that these cards will continue to underperform the Postseason cards from past years save for a few Red Sox and the Pirates.  In fact, if Topps wanted to add Postseason cards, some sort of Pirates postseason set would have been really cool.  Wildly popular too.  

2000 Pacific Crown Royale Jeff Weaver Autograph

There is not much of a Jeff Weaver market these days, but I am always willing to pick up his cards when I see them on the cheap.  He spent half a summer with the Cardinals, but was a major contributor to the team's World Series Championship during the 2006 season.  Weaver started the season with the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim), lost his job to his brother Jered, and was traded to the Cardinals for a minor leaguer.  A few months later Weaver won the fifth game of the World Series defeating his former team the Detroit Tigers.  World Series winning pitchers are always worth a few dollars.  Even Anthony Reyes.

2000 Pacific Crown Royale Jeff Weaver Autograph

Besides offering me a chance to own a new Jeff Weaver card, I was also happy to pick up a cool autographed card from an old Pacific set.  Pacific put out quite a few autographs during the 2000 card calendar and they are all on-card signatures with several of the different lines featuring different die-cuts.  The Pacific autographs can be a little bit tricky to find at times, and since they were die-cuts, they tend to be condition sensitive.  There are some good names in the autograph lines too.  This Weaver card hails from the Crown Royale set which also features autographs of Lance Berkman, Trot Nixon, Alfonso Soriano, Brian Giles, and Eric Gagne.  I think I might actually be a Peter Bergeron away from this set.

2013 Topps World Series Champions Buster Posey Patch/Autograph

Topps began issuing a set of relic and autographed cards from the previous seasons World Series Champion starting with their 2006 set which featured the White Sox.  The cards are usually pretty popular and usually get swallowed up pretty quickly.  I first took interest in the cards when I pulled a Frank Thomas jersey card out of a pack of 2006 Topps.

2006 Topps World Series Champions Frank Thomas Jersey

I thought the cards were a pretty cool idea, so I have made finding one card from the World Series champions card set a priority for my collection.  Some years I will settle for any card from the set if I am indifferent about the team, but other years I try to pick up a certain player.  For example, I was really excited to put together a few cards from the 2007 set with the Cardinals.  I could have easily gone after a Pujols card, or one of the other name Cardinals players, but instead went after a card of Jeff Weaver.  

2007 Topps Word Series Champions Jeff Weaver Jersey

Weaver pitched a great clincher game for the Cardinals in the 2006 World Series and had several other great pitching performances in the earlier rounds of the playoffs.  I figured if I was ever going to hunt down a Jeff Weaver card, this was the one to find.  While I wouldn't say no to a Pujols card from this set, they generally trade or sell for over $100.  Yawn.  Which brings me to this years World Series Champions addition:

2012 Topps World Series Champions Buster Posey Autograph/Patch

I am not a huge fan of the design of these cards, especially the blue plaid stuff up at the top of the card.   However, I love the patch piece with the gold, orange, and black piece.  Great piece of patch and Topps has sprinkled many great ones throughout the set with many of the Giants players including Posey.  Now, I've been on a bit of a Posey kick lately and figured that this would be a sufficient addition to cover having a card from this set for this year.  

New Cardinals World Series Card

I have been chasing a few cards from the 2012 Topps releases celebrating the Cardinals World Series win last fall.  This week during my search I stumbled upon a gem from the 2006 season while trading earlier in the week.

2007 Topps Jeff Weaver World Series Relics Jersey

At first glance this card seems rather unimpressive and I can somewhat understand why the previous owner of the card was willing to part ways with a Jeff Weaver card.  After all, Weaver was run out of town during his career by more teams than you can count on one hand.  His time with the Yankees was painful and more embarrassingly he traded to the Cardinals in the middle of the 2006 season to clear roster space for his younger brother Jared.  

During the 2006 regular season Weaver posted a 5-4 record with an ERA over 5 and managed to give up 16 home runs in 15 starts.  However, sometimes even the most unlikable and mediocre players can have their great runs.  For Weaver, his career highlights generally start and stop with the 2006 post-season.  He managed to win a game in both the Divisional and League Championship rounds and was the winning pitcher in the game 5 clincher against the Tigers.  Weaver out-dueled Justin Verlander in that game going eight, sticking out 9, and holding the Tigers to just 4 hits.

Weaver's postseason performance that season has made this card a bright spot in my collection and a card that I will treasure for years to come despite the fact that the card is a Jeff Weaver.