Cards, And A Bull, For Some Cubs

A quick trade post.  I am a little behind with a few stacks of cards on my desk, this is one group of cards that got lost in the shuffle for a week or two.  I picked these up from Shane, who can be followed on Twitter, or at his blog Off The Wall.  Good baseball card follow.

We worked out the trade around a group of oddball Cubs cards which had been sitting in card closet for a few years.  They were given to me by a college friend who was dumping off different parts of his collection.  I was sent a Facebook Message one day about a box of baseball cards, a few days later there was a box on my front porch loaded down with all sorts of 1980s Cubs oddballs.

As a Cardinals fan, it was really hard to fit them in with any part of my collection.  There were not any Durham Bulls players in those sets either.  Eventually, the Cubs cards just ended up in a random box, but luckily they have found a good home.

Which brings me to what came back in return for the Cubs cards.  Obviously, some cards that better match my collection.

Let's start off with a pair of Ozzie oddballs.

I was actually surprised to find that I did not have either of these cards.  I don't have any Wonder Stars cards in my collection, but I do have a bunch of the Jimmy Deans.  These were the prototypical oddball cards from the 1990s.  Love them both.

One other modern Cardinals card from the package.....

This is from the 2013 Topps Archives set from the 4-in-1 insert.  I like all the 1980s and 1990s stolen base guys on one card.  I was big into the steals, very nice.  

A few older cards.  

Next up is Reggie Smith from the 1975 SSPC set.  I always think of Reggie Smith as a Red Sox or Dodger, but he was with the Cardinals for a few years in the middle of his career.  Might be one of the better Cardinals players who really lacks a presence in my collection.  Not sure why, but just have never gone there.  I am a big fan of the SSPC cards too.  Simple designs are sometimes the best designs.  

Which brings me to my three favorite Cardinals cards in the package.  Love those cereal cards.  

First up is a 1962 Post Cereal Curt Simmons card.  He the majority of his career as a Phillie, but had some good years with the Cardinals in the early parts of the 1960s, including the 1964 season, which ended with the a World Series over the Yankees.  These Post cards are fun.  

Next up.  

I have done a bunch with these Kellogg's cards over the past six months, but mostly with the 1980s sets.  Nothing really from the 1970s.  This McGlothen is from the 1975 set.  Beautiful card.  I have barely touched these 1970s Kellogg's, I would really like to add more of these at some point.  This is a great start.  

I like the back of the McGlothen card.  The sketch in the top left hand corner, the old Cardinals logo in the top right corner, all the copyrights across the bottom of the card.  Definitely an interesting card back.  It even has his hobbies up at the top, feels like the 1990s Studio cards might have copied off of these.    

The last Cardinals card, which is tremendous.  Another Kellogg's card.  

This is from the 1970 set.  One of the best oddball card sets of all-time, such a great looking product.  The other Kellogg's sets have all sorts of colored borders and designs, but the 1970 set has this simple white border.  I think it makes the pictures really pop.  

The back is really pretty standard with the stats and player vitals at the top of the card.  These last two cards really make me want to go out and find some more of the 1970s Kellogg's cards.  They are a project for another day, but still going to get added to my baseball card to do list.  Even if it does not happen for a year or two.  

Last card in the package, and the only Durham Bulls related item.  

Jim Morris was a popular player in the early 2000s.  The movie "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid was based on his journey from high school science teacher and baseball coach, to player for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  He was actually a Minor Leaguer for the Brewers and White Sox back in the 1980s, played a few seasons, but blew out his arm.  He made a bet with the players on his high school team that if they won their district championship he would try out for a Major League team.  There is more story in there, but he made his way through the Rays system, which included a stop in Durham, before he reached the Majors.  

It's a decent movie.  Not Bull Durham though.  

Overall, a really great trade package from Shane.  Some great cards in here that will have a good place in my collection.  

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.