I Love The 1990 Cardinals Part 65- Allen Watson

The Cardinals had 5 of the first 44 picks in 1991 MLB Draft.  The team chose California high schooler Dmitri Young with the 4th overall pick.  The other four picks?  Allen Watson is obviously one of them, the post is about him, but they also got Brian Barber and Dan Cholowsky.  Young and Watson made it the Majors and played for awhile, Barber played a short time, and Cholowsky never made it past Triple A. 

Young, Watson, and Barber all have a significant number of cards, Young obviously has the most of the group.  Cholowsky actually has baseball cards in Bowman, Stadium Club, and the Upper Deck Minors sets. While he never made the Majors, some card companies still thought highly of him.

Watson seemed like he was going to be someone for awhile.  He cruised through the Cardinals Minor League system and reached Busch Stadium by July of 1993.  He has a Stadium Club card to commemorate the occasion.

I am actually fairly certain that I saw his Major League debut, which was a 7-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves.  I need to double check my ticket stub box.  It would have been cool if Topps had put an actual picture from the players debut game on the front of these cards.  Watson debuted in St. Louis, card has a gray uniform, I am slightly disappointed.

Watson was in Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects prior to the 1993 season, so it was a pretty big deal when he reach the Majors.  The majority of his baseball cards treated him accordingly.

First off, when he first got drafted he started appearing in Bowman and Minor League sets right away.  My favorite Allen Watson card from his time in the Minors has to be his 1992 Upper Deck Minors card, which is quite unique.....

I am not sure why Allen Watson is wearing half a road uniform and half a home uniform.  Not something you see everyday on a baseball card.  I also like that he is hitting.  Sure, there is the occasional pitcher hitting card, but this looks like he is hitting balls for infield practice.  

Watson appeared in some of the more prominent 1990s sets.  Good rookie cards in the 1993 SP set?  Sure there is a Derek Jeter rookie card in that set, but there was also an Allen Watson.  Good card back in the 1990s. 

Watson also appeared in many of the rookie/prospect insert sets.  My personal favorite is the Flair Wave of the Future. 

These were printed on really nice stock and had nice printing and finish.  That wave in the background is sort of cheesy in this set though.  If this were a card in the 1998 Metal Universe set, it would be slam dunk best prospect card ever.  

Watson had a decent 1993, but his star faded fast with the Cardinals.  He got 22 starts with the team in 1994 and another 19 in 1995.  His ERA was near 5 during both seasons.  Allen Watson faded from trendy insert sets and shiny foiled prospect cards, and settled into the baseball card world as a player who got a token base card in the Topps and Upper Deck sets.  

I actually really like his base Topps cards from 1994 and 1995.  

Not a huge fan of the 1994 set, but I like the Watson card.  Love that background with the astroturfed Busch Stadium, blue walls, and faded red seats.  The Cardinals freshened up the stadium in between 1995 and 1996, so this was near the end of this stadium configuration and appearance.  

1995 did not have a great background, although the picture was clearly taken in Busch.  I like this card more for the action shot.  

The ball in the picture has always looked a little funny to me.  I know it's an action shot, so the ball was likely to turn out blurry, but this looks like Topps has tried to somehow crop the ball.  

At the end of the 1995 season, the Cardinals hired Tony LaRussa to manage the team and turned the roster over.  One of the first moves the team made in remaking their roster was to trade Watson to the Giants for Royce Clayton.  

Clayton was also a former first round draft pick who had not lived up to expectations.  When he arrived in St. Louis, Tony LaRussa made him the starting shortstop, putting Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith on the bench.  Ozzie would retire at the end of the season. 

Watson would go on to play for the Giants, Angels, Mets, Mariners, and Yankees.  He was on the Yankees roster in 1999 when they won the World Series against the Braves.....

earning him a World Series ring.  Watson was also on the 2000 Yankees, but only pitched until August before he was placed on the disabled list.  He never played again in the Majors.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 17- Royce Clayton

It's pretty hard to be a professional baseball player.  It's really hard when you have to replace a legendary player.  It's even tougher when you have to replace a legendary player because they are retiring after they had a fight with the team's manager.  The Cardinals traded for Royce Clayton from the Giants before the 1996 season.  Ozzie Smith was at the end of his career and newly hired Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa was unwilling to keep Ozzie as a starter.  By the end of his career Ozzie could barely throw the ball across the infield and did not hit much at all. 

Ozzie announced his intention to retire early in the 1996 season.  It turned the 1996 into a big farewell tour of sorts for The Wizard.  

Meanwhile, Clayton got the majority of playing time for the Cardinals at shortstop.  The team won its first division title since 1987 and the shortstop contributed solid defense and batted lead off for the Cardinals.  Clayton also played well for the team in the Postseason against the Padres and Braves.  He batted over .300 in both the National League Division and Championship Series with 9 hits and scored 5 runs.  

Clayton had a decent 1997 season with the Cardinals, played part of the 1998 season for the team, but he was traded halfway through the season to the Rangers, along with Todd Stottlemyre, for Darren Oliver and Fernando Tatis.  Clayton was a free agent to be and the Cardinals seemed ready to move on.  They would end up trading for Edgar Renteria that offseason. 

Clayton would play a total of 17 years making appearances for the Giants, Cardinals, Rangers, White Sox, Brewers, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Reds, Blue Jays, and Red Sox.  

His most important baseball role was actually played after his retirement in the movie Moneyball.  Clayton played the role of A's shortstop Miguel Tejada.  

As far as baseball cards go there are some limitations to the number of Clayton cards in a Cardinals uniform.  First, he was only on the team for two and a half years.  Limited time, limited cards.  Second, Clayton was not a star player, and while he replaced a legendary player, card companies did not rush to throw him into a bunch of extra sets. 

My favorite Clayton card is his 1997 Topps card.  It's got a nice action shot of him jumping over Giants outfielder Mark Carreon in Candlestick Park.  Over the years, I am only posting my favorite Cardinals Topps card of Clayton, he's actually had some really nice base cards.  Does Topps even put action shots like this in their sets anymore?  Doubtful. 

The 1997 Topps set is not their best effort, but as a Cardinals fan the set gets some high marks for player selection.  The Cardinals turned over a lot of their roster in 1996, but since Topps did not have a Traded/Update set that year, most of the new players did not make their base set debut until the 1997 set.  That included Clayton, Ron Gant, Dennis Eckersley, and Andy Benes.  While it's not quite Clayton's first Cardinals card, it's his first in a major base set. 

Clayton did make a few really good sets too. 

One of my favorites is his 1997 Flair Showcase card.  Definitely a nice product from that era with nice card stock and good finishes on the card.  I like the contrast of the black and white background picture with the color action shot in the front.  I like the white Cardinals uniforms, but I also really enjoyed the blue batting practice jerseys from the late 1990s.  The Cardinals no longer wear them.  In some ways I sort of wish the color and black and white pictures were switched around.


A song from 1997 off my IPod.

Best of the Rest for May

I started doing these posts last month when I picked out the best five cards that I picked up in trades or purchased that did not appear in a blog post.  The cards pictured here might have been throw-ins with other cards or they might have been something that was picked up quickly and cheaply.  So, let's do a quick run down:

1999 Upper Deck PowerDeck Tony Gwynn

The PowerDeck cards were pretty unique.  You do not see a lot of CD Rom cards floating around, but the concept was short lived.  I think I had a bunch of these back in the day, but I either traded them off or sold them.  This card was a whole $0.99.  I am not going to stick it in my computer for fear that the software of yesteryear would somehow mess up my computer.  

2013 Bowman Hometown Flags Trevor Rosenthal

Little more straightforward on this card.  This is the second year in a row that Bowman has added a flag variation to their base set.  I believe that 1997 was the first year that Bowman put the flags on cards.  Over the years they have used maps and goofy palm tree pictures to show where players reside.  I like this Rosenthal card since he is a Cardinal and a native of Missouri.  Might need to find a North Carolina card.  Seth Maness?  

2001 Topps Traded Royce Clayton

From a current Cardinal to a former Cardinal.  Royce Clayton was the Cardinals shortstop for two and a half seasons before he was traded to the Rangers.  He was originally acquired by the Cardinals from the Giants and would be giving the starting shortstop job in 1996 over one Osborne Earl Smith.  Clayton would eventually become sort of a journeyman shortstop and later star in the movie Moneyball as Miguel Tejada.  Really.  

2013 Topps Museum Jarrod Parker Dual Jersey Autograph

I have put up several Museum Collection cards over the past few weeks, but did not post this card.  Jarrod Parker is not the best baseball player, but this card is exactly why I cannot stand sticker autographs.  I have 90% of a Jarrod Parker autograph, but someone else apparently has the other 10% of the signature.  Bum deal.  

2008 Donruss Elite Collegiate Patches Mark Melancon Autograph

Decent player having a great season for the Pirates.  I have picked up a bunch of these Donruss patches over the years and always think it's cool to see a few of the Major League players in their college uniforms.