I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 52 - Lee Smith

This is a 100% nice post about Lee Smith.  I can be hard on the former Cardinals closer, but most of it revolves around people arguing about whether or not he should be in the Hall of Fame.  There were definitely some rough moments in St. Louis with Lee closing games, but the first few years he played for the Cardinals were some of the best in his career.

Two of his biggest highlights as a Cardinal included saving his 300th game, a large number at the time, and setting the National League single season save mark.

In roughly four seasons with the Cardinals he made three National League All-Star teams and saved 160 games.  When his time with the team ended in 1993, Smith was the Cardinals all-time saves leader.  Smith still ranks second in Cardinals history behind Jason Isringhausen.

Smith is the all-time saves leader for the Chicago Cubs.  Not really all that surprising.  He spent the first eight years of his career closing out games for the Cubs before he was traded to the Red Sox, who would eventually trade him to the Cardinals.  After his time with the Cardinals, he bounced around between the Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds, and Expos.

On to the cards.  From the beginning.

The Cardinals traded for Lee Smith in May of 1990.  Most of the major card releases that year were a single series, which meant that he appeared in the base set as a Red Sox, but Smith did manage to appear in several of the update and traded sets.  His Topps Traded card is a really simple card, probably just snapped a picture of him standing on the field before a game.  The simplicity works for me.  The card shows off Smith's imposing size and, if you ever went to a game in the former Busch Stadium, you would probably recognize that Smith is likely standing in the bullpen for this picture.

Plenty of cards of Smith pitching in a game, cards of one of the all-time saves leaders hanging out in the bullpen?

Next card.

An action shot of Lee Smith from the 1991 Topps set.  As a kid, Topps cards were always portrait style cards, no landscape.  The 1991 Topps set was the first year that I collected where the Topps set had landscape cards.  There were many different Cardinals cards in the 1991 set, but the Lee Smith card was the only landscape.  

Smith also had a landscape style card in the 1992 Topps set.  I went with the Topps Gold version for something a little different.  You can again see the imposing size of Lee Smith in this card.  I like the clouds in the background behind him.  The photography in this set was really good, this is a great example of it on a Cardinals card.  

I love the 1992 Studio set.  The Lee Smith card always felt a little out of place though.  Lee Smith is just sort of taking up the entire bottom of the card, it is the only card that looks like this in the entire set.  His eyes also follow you no matter how you look at the card.  

Two more.  

From the 1993 Topps set.  Smith and Eckersley were the gold standard in relief pitching at the time this card was made.  Completely opposite styles though.  Eckersley was a control pitcher, Smith was a power pitcher.  Eckersley would end up on the Cardinals a few years later.    

Last card.  

Over the last twenty years Lee Smith has been a generous signer in different baseball card products.  While many of his autographs are rightfully in a Cubs uniform, there are a few where he appears as a Cardinal.  My favorite is his appearance in the 2002 Topps Archives Reserve set.  The card is just a Chrome version of his 1991 Topps card, but the autographed version is easily his best certified Cardinals signature in my opinion.  It's a little pricier than some of the more recent cards he has signed, but many of those are in Panini products.

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 51- 1992 Pacific Cardinals 100th Anniversary Set Part 2

I posted cards from the first half of this set last week.  The set is generally sequential, so the majority of players in last week's post were from the Cardinals 1920s through the 1950s.  For this week's post, I am moving forward to the modern portion of the set starting with the 1960s players.  Similar to the first half of the set, there are plenty of Hall of Fame players in here along with a few others who were solid long term contributors.

Also a few odd choices.  One I sort of get, the other is puzzling.   Let's go weird first.

The Cardinals won nothing during the 1970s.  One of their biggest problems was trading away young talented players.  Steve Carlton for Rick Wise.  Pretty terrible trade, but the Cardinals turned around and traded Rick Wise to the Red Sox for their young All-Star power hitting outfielder Reggie Smith. He played two and a half years in St. Louis, made the National League All-Star team twice, but he got off to a slow start in 1976 and was traded to the Dodgers for a few Dodger Dogs.

Short term player, no playoffs, and no World Series rings.  I would have gone Jack Clark here.  He helped the Cardinals win the National League twice and had one of the franchise's all-time great Postseason home runs against the Dodgers in the 1985 NLCS.  I guess we weren't far enough removed from the Jack Clark exit when this set was made.....

Dick Allen would have been another good short term player for the modern part of the set.  He was involved in the Curt Flood trade, that ultimately lead to players getting free agency rights, as the big piece coming in return for the Cardinals outfielder and McCarver.

The other short term Cardinal in the second half of the set was Lee Smith.  He makes a little more sense than Reggie Smith.

Lee Smith was traded to the Cardinals in early May of 1990.  By the time this set rolled around he had only been on the team for a year and half.  Not very long for an all-time greats type of product.   Smith had set the National League single season save record the previous season.  While I harp on the end of Lee Smith's time with the Cardinals, he was still one of the game's most dominating relief pitchers when he first joined the team.

Smith was also nearing the all-time saves record at this point in his career.  Given how he had pitched during the first year plus of his time in St. Louis, there was little reason to think he was not going to reach the mark in a Cardinals uniform.  A little more understandable than Reggie Smith, but claiming him as an all-time great Cardinal is a stretch.

A few Hall of Famers, a few players who should be in the Hall of Fame.

Gibby.  Hall of Famer.  I love the picture on this card.  You could just look at the pose and tell its Bob Gibson.  That fall of towards first base, I would recognize it anywhere.  

There are a lot of staged photographs in the set, but very few portrait style cards.  In the modern section of the set this Brock card, along with Bake McBride, are the only two cards done in this style.  Very nice looking card.  A young Lou Brock picture too.  The majority of the cards have pictures that seem like they were taken during the prime of the players career.  

Quality action shot on the Ozzie Smith card.  He looks like he is barely jumping on this card.

I do love that the Expos player is a pitcher wearing a jacket to run the bases, you don't see many pitchers do this anymore.  Felt like it was commonplace while I was growing up watching baseball.  Ozzie is also an important card in this due to the fact that he was still playing at this point.  An actual Cardinal though, not just a good player who happened to be on the team like Lee Smith.  He lost a little bit of his shine defensively, his last Gold Glove was in 1992, but he actually was a pretty good hitter later in his career.

Two almost Hall of Famers.

Most of the Cardinals players who have their numbers retired by the team are in the baseball Hall of Fame.  Boyer is the one exception.  Although, he is probably a lot closer to that honor than most people realize.  The best years of Boyer look really similar to that of players like Scott Rolen and Adrian Beltre.  He often hit somewhere between 25 and 30 home runs, drove in 90 to 100 runs, and hit in the .290s/low .300s.  Boyer was the 1964 National League MVP and hit a grand slam in the sixth game of the World Series to help the Cardinals defeat the Yankees.  

The problem with Boyer's career is the end.  He had a rather meteoric decline and bounced around between the Mets, White Sox, and Dodgers.  

Great looking card too.  Love the posed shot of him fielding a ground ball.  

Last card.  

While I can say that Boyer has an argument to be in the Hall, I also understand there is an argument against him.  Simmons has an even better argument and there is not much to refute the fact that he should be in the Hall of Fame.  Arguments like, "He was not on a good team until the end of his career" are weak sauce.  Think of the best offensive catchers, look at Simmons counting numbers, and he's right there with the group of Piaza, Bench, Fisk, and Berra.  By the way, Piazza has less World Series at bats as Simmons with the same number of rings.  

I like this card with the powder blue road uniform and Simmons hitting.  Definitely an offensive player, he had some great numbers at the dish for some 1970s Cardinals teams that were very forgettable.  

Friday Five: My Favorite Players Who Have Played For Both The Cardinals and Cubs

We've got the Cubs and Cardinals playing this weekend, so for this week's Friday Five I am doing a quick countdown of my favorite players who played in both St. Louis and Chicago.  Not arguing the importance of this rivalry, but it's pretty darn important around the Midwest.  Like any good rivalry there have been players who have been on both sides of the fence.  These are my favorite five starting with an honorable mention:


Honorable Mention- Lee Smith RP

More people probably remember Lee Smith for his time with the Cubs over his brief stint with the Cardinals.  However, some of Smith's better seasons took place during his time in St. Louis.  In 1991 Smith recorded a total of 47 saves which set the National League record at the time.  I first got to watch Smith pitch with the Cubs during the mid 1980s when the Cubs games were on WGN every afternoon.  Whether they were playing the Cardinals or not, the daytime Cubs games were always a good way to pass sometime during the summers.  I would be more inclined to rank Lee Smith on this list if it weren't for his partial 1993 with the Cardinals.  It was brutal and there were a lot of blown saves/leads.


5.  Bob Tewksbury SP 

Tewksbury may not be a name that some know, or remember, but he did play for both teams during his career.  His Cubs career was all of 8 games after the right-handed starting pitcher joined the baby bears in a trade with the Yankees for pitcher Steve Trout.  Most of Tewksbury's Cubs career actually took place in Triple A.  The Cardinals signed Bob Tewksbury during December of 1988.  He spent some time in Triple A with the Cardinals too before he landed a gig in the team's starting rotation during the 1990 season.  Playing for the early/mid 1990s Cardinals meant a whole lot of losing, but Tewksbury was a good pitcher.  Not just compared to the rest of the rotation, but actual good pitchers like Greg Maddux.  His best season with the Cardinals, and his career, took place in 1992 when he went 16-5, had an ERA+ of 158, and a WAR of 6.5.  Tewks finished 3rd in the National League Cy Young voting that season.  He bounced around to a few teams after he left the Cardinals, always a fan even if he wasn't always the best pitcher.

4. So Taguchi OF

Taguchi played in St. Louis for a total of 6 years and in Chicago for a single season.  He was not a regular starter for either team, but he was a really easy player to cheer on.  Taguchi's main contribution during his eight year career in the U.S. was as a defense first fourth outfielder.  The highlight of his Cardinals career came in 2006 when he helped the Cardinals advance to the World Series with a key home run off of Billy Wagner during Game 2 of the NLCS.  So Taguchi ended up on the Cubs in 2009 after winning a second World Series with the Phillies in 2008.  He actually spent the majority of the year with the Triple A Iowa Cubs, but was called up for a few games at the end of the season.  

3.  Shawon Dunston SS 

Another 1980s Cubs player who I first saw on WGN watching baseball during summer break.  Everyone who watched a Cubs game in the 1980s knew about the Shawon-O-Meter, a sign which showed the shortstop's batting average.  It always made an appearance at some point during every telecast.  Dunston was a very good shortstop for the Cubs for a dozen years, but spent the latter part of his career bouncing around the league as a bench player.  He appeared for the Cardinals for two seasons in 1999 and 2000.  Dunston was most noted for having a rifle arm, but too me, was just an overall exciting player who had a little bit of everything in his game.  

2. Jon Jay OF 

Jay was a long time start for the Cardinals.  Never a star player, Jay just went out and played everyday the best he could.  Much of his time with the Cardinals was overshadowed by players like Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, but he still spent the better part of 6 seasons patrolling center field in Busch Stadium and getting on base at the top of the line-up.  He's the only active player on this last, and is in his first season with the Cubs, but Jay is one of the former Cardinals player I always check out in the box scores every morning.  His role has been a little bit more limited with the Cubs, but he's still been a positive contributor for the Baby Bears.  

1. Jim Edmonds OF 

There were so many great moments that Edmonds had with the Cardinals during his eight years with the team.  It's hard to remember him as a Cub, but he spent one season on the north side of Chicago.  After the Cardinals traded their center fielder to the Padres for David Freese, he fizzled and was released.  He signed with the Cubs and actually had a good year for the team in 2008 posting an OPS of .937 and 19 home runs in just 85 games.  The Cardinals were not very good that year and the Cubs ended up in the playoffs, so this one hurt a little bit more than the others.  Still really like Jim Edmonds even if he spent some time with the Cubs.  

Friday Five (Really Eight): Cardinals on the Hall of Fame Ballot

The results of the Hall of Fame balloting are a ways away, but it's one of the funniest things to debate as a baseball fan.  Sure, there are always a few slam dunks and a few obvious duds.  It's the middle ground where the fun debates take place.  I will do a post later on about the players on the ballot I would vote for if I were allowed to vote, but for this blog post I am going to focus on the eight players who appeared in a Cardinals uniform.  I will go over a few key stats and give you my take on whether or not they deserve any consideration.

Players are listed in alphabetical order, not by their actual chances of making it into the Hall.

David Eckstein (2005-2007)

Pros: Eckstein won two World Series rings, one with the Angels in 2002 and another with the Cardinals in 2006.  This diminutive shortstop played with a lot of effort and made up for some of the physical gifts that he lacked.  His biggest accomplishment was winning the 2006 World Series MVP.

Cons: Eckstein only played 10 years and had a career slash line of .280/.345/.355 with an OPS+ of 87.  His career WAR is 25.8, not close to Hall of Fame standards.  Surprisingly, his dWAR was in the positive in spite of the fact that he had to shot put the ball to first base.  JAWS rates him as the 112th best shortstop of all-time sandwiched in between Ozzie Guillen and Jeff Blauser

Chances of Hall of Fame:  (0.01%) Thank you for the 2006 World Series and that cool stretching routine you did in front of the dugout before games.  Enjoy your retirement.

Jim Edmonds (2000-2007)

Pros: Edmonds helped the Cardinals win the 2006 World Series and the 2004 National League Championship.  He was the premier defensive centerfielder in the National League for almost a decade.  Overall, Jimmy Ballgame won 8 Gold Gloves manning center for the Cardinals.  His career slash line of .284/.376/.527 is fairly impressive when added to his 393 home runs and 437 doubles.  His career 132 OPS+ and 60.3 WAR show that Edmonds had a very good career.  JAWS rates him as the 14th best center fielder of all-time.  He is really hurt by the fact that he was very good during his peak years.

Cons: The biggest knock against Edmonds is his longevity in the game.  If he had just a few more years at, or close to, his peak production numbers I think he is a slam dunk Hall of Famer.  He rates on the outer edge of the Hall of Fame center fielders in the JAWS rankings and is also below the mark in all of the Hall of Fame Statisical measures such as Grey Ink, Hall of Fame Monitor, and Hall of Fame Standards.

Chances of Hall of Fame: (50%) It should be much higher than that number, but I do not think that certain factions of Hall of Fame voters will ever get past the fact that Edmonds does not have a single Hall of Fame 'benchmark" and some of his counting numbers, like he's under 2000 career hits, and I am not sure he will ever pass.  If I had a vote I would put him in, but I think Edmonds sits on the ballot for awhile.

Troy Glaus (2008-2009)

Pros: Glaus had some really nice years while he was with the Angels.  His best moment was easily the 2002 World Series where he was named the Series MVP and helped finish off a huge rally for the Halos in Game 6.  His lone full season in St. Louis was actually pretty decent with 27 home runs, 99 RBIS, 33 doubles, and a slash line of .270/.372/.483.  

Cons: There is not much bad to say about Glaus, but he was just simply a nice player during his 13 year career.  He was a decent third baseman and had some pop.  Nothing wrong with a third baseman that can hit 30 home runs and give you a slugging percentage around .500.  Thirteen years of above average is still not good enough for the Hall.  Sorry Troy.  

Chances of the Hall: (5%) There are innovators in the Hall of Fame.  I am pretty sure that Troy Glaus was the first player to ever get equestrian fees for his spouse covered in their baseball contract.  If that's not Hall worthy than Troy is likely going to be off the ballot after this vote.  

Mark Grudzielanek (2005)

 

Pros: One of my Friday Five posts needs to rank the players from the Cardinals revolving door era at second base.  Mark Grudzielanek had a name that Harry Carey could not pronounce, he once led the National League in doubles with 54 in 1997, and he played for the Cardinals for one summer.  He had a long name....I got nothing.

Cons: His career OPS+ is 90 and his career WAR is 26.3.  JAWS ranks him as the 76th best second baseman of all-time slightly ahead of my favorite Pirates second baseman Johnny Ray.  He's just behind Steve Sax and Bret Boone.  

Chances of the Hall: (0%) Next.  

Mark McGwire (1997-2001) 

Pros: Home Runs and Home Run Records.

Cons: Steroids with a side of strikeouts.

Chances of the Hall: (Sigh)

Lee Smith (1990-1993) 

Pros: Lee Smith record 478 career saves.  Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times was originally one of the biggest proponents of Smith being in Hall called him the best one inning pitcher in the history of the game.  He had several great seasons as a closer.  Most notably his 193 season with the Cubs when he posted an ERA+ of 229 and a WAR of 4.8, and his 1990 season when he split time between the Cardinals and Red Sox.  There were other good years in there where he recorded a lot of saves, but that was his real dominate statistic.  He did strikeout almost a batter per inning during his career.

Cons: So much to put here, but I am going to be nice.  One of my biggest problems with Lee Smith was the latter years of his career.  I hate to rely on anecdotal observations on a post dealing with Hall of Fame credentials, but I am going to good ahead and do it.  I was a sixteen year old high school kid in 1993.  It was lean times to be a Cardinals fan.  I used to go to games with my dad every Sunday.  It didn't matter if the Cardinals got the lead in the game, you know Lee Smith was going to find a way to blow it.  The most painful I recall was a game against the Dodgers where Rene Arocha, imagine his name dropped in a post about the Hall of Fame, pitched a great game.  Smith came in walked a few people, threw a few wild pitches, and the Cardinals lost.  It was actually pretty common at the end of his career.  JAWS rates him as the 14th best relief pitcher of all-time.  He's behind Greg Swindell and Kerry Wood.

Chances of Hall of Fame: (No) Let me fix that since this is a nice post.  (Please, not Lee Smith)

Larry Walker (2004-2005)

Pros: There are many things to like about Larry Walker's candidacy for the Hall of Fame.  His career slash line of .313/.400/.565, an OPS+ of 141, and a career WAR of 72.6 merit consideration.  JAWS has him rated as the 10th best right fielder of all-time and two of the Hall of Fame Statisitics, the Monitor and Standards both score him above their likely to average Hall of Famer.  Black and Grey Ink have him just short.  Comparing him to some of his right field peers, he has a WAR and an OPS+ in the neighborhood of Al Kaline and Reggie Jackson.  He's slightly ahead of those two in OPS+, but behind them slightly in WAR.  He ranks higher than Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, and Ichiro in both statistics.   Walker also won a National League MVP in 1997 along with seven Gold Gloves, and three Silver Sluggers.

Cons: Some of the arguments against Larry Walker are similar to Jim Edmonds.  He played 17 years, but had several seasons where he missed half of the year.  When you compare his counting numbers against his right field peers he doesn't have a benchmark number to grab a certain group of Hall voters.  There are not 500 home runs or 3000 hits.  He played in almost a 1000 games less than both Jackson and Kaline who both reached one of the old-school "automatic" numbers.  Then there is Coors Field.  His home away slash line at home for his career is .348/.431/.637 versus a road slash line of .278/.370/.495.  That's a pretty big gap.

Chances of Hall of Fame: (50%) I would put Larry Walker into the Hall of Fame, but I am doubtful that certain voters will go for a player without a benchmark number who played a large number of games in Coors Field.  He definitely ranks favorably amongst Hall of Fame right fielders.

Randy Winn (2010) 

Pros: He was once traded for Lou Pinella and he was also on the Durham Bulls for awhile.

Cons: Why was Randy Winn on the Cardinals again?

Chances of the Hall: (0.00001%) He did hit for the cycle once.

Friday Five: Top 5 Cardinals Relief Pitchers

5. Al Hrabosky 

Cardinals relief pitcher during the seventies, current television broadcaster, and bar owner.  The Mad Hungarian saved 59 games for the Cardinals over 8 years.  His best year in St Louis took place in 1975 when he went 13-3 pitching in 65 games, but also led the National League in saves with 22.   He had a WAR of 4.0 that year and an ERA+ of 228 finishing third in Cy Young voting.  Overall he posted a 40-20 record with the Cardinals in 329 games with a WAR of 7.2 and an ERA+ of 127.  Hraboksy finished up his career with stints in Kansas City and Atlanta.  

4.  Lee Smith 

Lee Smith pitched four seasons in St. Louis and is someone I watched frequently in middle school and into high school.  When the Cardinals first traded for the imposing relief pitcher he was one of the best in the game.  I think of Smith as being one of the first strictly one inning, strictly ninth inning relief pitchers.  He was big, threw really hard, and walked in from the bullpen really really really slowly.  Smith's first season with the Cardinals was in 1990 after the team traded Tom Brunansky to the Red Sox on May 4th.  That season Lee pitched in 45 games, saved 27 of them, and posted an ERA+ of 182.  The next two seasons, 1991 and 1992, Smith led the National League in saves with 47 and 43 and made two National League All-Star teams.  The 47 saves in 1991 were the National League single season saves record until Randy Myers broke the mark with the Cubs in 1993.  He is still the record holder (along with Jason Isringhausen) for saves in a season by a Cardinal.  The end of Lee Smith's time in St. Louis was pretty ugly.  In 1993 Smith made the National League All-Star team somehow, but his ERA doubled and he was barely an average player as measured by ERA+ (103) and below average with WAR (-0.1).  Somehow he bounced back and saved another hundred games or so with the Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds, and Expos.  

3.  Todd Worrell 

Worrell came up with the Cardinals in 1985 and was immediately put into the closer's role by Whitey Herzog.  He finished out 5 games late in the season for the Cardinals and appeared in 7 NLCS and World Series games that year.  His first full year, 1986, resulted in 9 wins, 36 saves, and ERA+ of 176, with a WAR of 2.6, and a National League Rookie of the Year.  Worrell would go on to save more than 30 games in each the next two seasons, but ran into arm problems towards the end of 1988 and into 1989.  He would eventually miss the last months of the 1989 season and all of the 1990 and 1991 seasons.  Worrell bounced back nicely in 1992 winning five games with an ERA of 2.11 and an ERA+ of 162.  However, he lost his closers job to Lee Smith and moved on to the Dodgers at the end of the year.  The Dodgers eventually moved him into the stoppers role in their bullpen where Worrell made two All-Star games and led the National League in saves during the 1996 season.  He and Smith were close on my list, but I give Worrell a slight nod since he won a major award and was on a National League Championship team.  

2.  Bruce Sutter

Sutter pitched four years as a Cardinal and was one of the most important players on the early WhiteyBall teams in St. Louis.  The Cardinals briefly ended up with both Sutter and Rollie Fingers during the 1980 offseason.  Herzog, the General Manager of the team, decided to keep Sutter and trade Fingers.  The former Cub would go on to led the National League in saves three of his four years in St. Louis, won 26 games, made two All-Star teams, and sealed the 1982 World Series.  

Sutter is the only player on the list this week who is in the Hall of Fame, he's even a Cardinal, because of his work with the split fingered fast baseball.  Still a great player and one of the last "closers" who would pitch more than one inning.  

1. Jason Isringhausen 

Counting numbers have to count for something and nobody in Cardinals history can touch the relief numbers posted by Isringhausen.  The team signed Izzy, a native to the St. Louis area, after the 2001 season.  He spent a total of 7 seasons with the Cardinals and racked up for than 200 saves while posting a 143 ERA+.  A modern closer, Isringhausen mainly pitched the ninth inning for the 2000s Tony LaRussa led Cardinals teams.  He was good for 30 saves most seasons and recorded as many as 47 in 2004.  In my opinion his best year was actually 2005 when he recorded 39 saves, posted an ERA+ of 199, a WAR of 2.0, and led the Cardinals to the National League Championship Series against the Astros.  Besides being the franchise leader in saves, Izzy also helped the Cardinals to playoff appearances in 2002, 2004, and 2005.  The most successful run of any closer on this list.  He was also on the 2006 World Series winner, but did not pitch in the Postseason that year.  I am also going to mention that he was briefly a Durham Bull, but that does not carry any actual weight, just a cool fact.  

Master Archivist of Cardinals Autographs Not Necessarily In Cardinals Uniforms

Beyond the Delino DeShields autograph, there were four other autographs in the 2013 Topps Archives set of Cardinals players from the past.  While they do not all appear in Cardinals uniforms in the set, they all appeared on the Cardinals for at least half a season.  Two of the autographs were first time certified autographs that I was excited to add to the collection.  The other two were good additions too.  Let's start with the first time signers:

2013 Topps Archives Bob Tewksbury Autograph 

Tewksbury played for the Cardinals for several seasons in the early 90s.  He was the best pitcher on those teams, which were not really that good.  Tewksbury won double digit games every season he pitched for the Cardinals and was also successful pitching with the Twins, Padres, and Yankees.  His pitching style can best be described as extremely slow.  Only once during his 13 year career did he strike out more than 100 batters.  In fact, one of Tewksbury's most memorable career moments was when he threw Cardinals first baseman a 44 MPH pitch with the Twins.  McGwire did not get a hit that game.  

2013 Topps Archives Chuck Finley Autograph

 

Finley only appeared for the Cardinals during the second half of the 2002 season.  The Cardinals traded Coco Crisp, he might have been Covelli at that point, from the Indians to replace deceased pitcher Darryl Kile.  Finley won half of his starts for the Cardinals during the regular season and struck out almost a hitter per inning.  He also picked up a win against the Giants in the National League Championship Series.  This is Finley's first certified autograph which should be pretty popular with Angels and Indians collectors too.

The last two cards are players whose autographs already appear in my collection:

2013 Topps Archives Lee Smith Autograph

Lee Smith actually has a pretty healthy supply of autographed cards out on the market.  A fair number of them appearing in a Cardinals uniform.  While Smith had some good years as a Cardinals player, he also had some really rough years wearing the birds on the bat.  While I am certainly not a Cubs guy, this is how I best remember Lee Smith.  Just not against the Cardinals.  

2013 Topps Archives Gary Gaetti Autograph

Last, but not least, is a new autograph of "The Rat".  Gaetti played part of two seasons for the Cardinals at the end of his career and was not all that great.  He did hit a grand slam against the Braves in the 1996 National League Championship Series, but I think that was his lone Cardinals highlight.  Gaetti also won two World Series with the Twins and later went on to be a first base coach for the Durham Bulls.  Currently, he is managing the Sugarland Skeeters.


I'd also like to take a moment to wish my alma mater, North Carolina State, the best in their appearance at the College World Series.  GO PACK!  Go To Hell Carolina!