I own a couple of thousand autograph cards, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I never posted before:
Today: 1999 SP Signature Edition Doug Glanville
Why do I own this card?
I got this card out of a $10 pack of cards back in the day and I am sure I was angry that I landed Doug Glanville. Somehow, someway this card was never stuck on Ebay and just lingered in a box of cards for the past twenty plus years. However, it has gained some significance over the past two years.
My daughter loves music. For years, I drove her to daycare and the soundtrack to my mornings was music from Disney Princess movies and other kid-friendly albums such as the Trolls World Tour. She would frequently sing along and talk about the movies. The songs were not my cup of tea, but it made my daughter's drive into daycare more enjoyable.
Two years ago, she graduated preschool and began Kindergarten at the school where my wife teaches. We no longer commuted together, so I began driving my oldest to middle school every morning. In fact, I transferred my own teaching job to a school that was just a few minutes away from his middle school. My oldest does not mind music, but as a kid on the autism spectrum he enjoys things that are a little more low key on his morning commute.
Often, he reads books and talks me through what he is reading about and we listen to podcasts about baseball. One of our favorites is the Tuesday ESPN Baseball podcast, which features Doug Glanville and Jayson Stark. It's typically an hour plus show, so it lasts us a few commutes. We both really enjoy Glanville on the podcast whether he is interviewing someone, sharing his stories about his time in the game, voicing opinions, or trying to answer trivia questions. Always a good listen.
Over the past two years of listening to Glanville, my appreciation for his work has grown, and with it a better appreciation for his baseball cards. If you have never heard Doug speak, here is an excellent piece he did on Dusty Baker after he finally won a World Series with the Astros......
A Haiku About Doug Glanville
Sunday night baseball
Starkville podcast, Penn alumni
Phils, Cubs, Rangers too
Card back.
Back of the Card Bonus Trivia?
What player is the other DG card in the autograph checklist of the 1999 SP Signature Edition Set?
Clue- Think late 1990s hyped-up prospect who may have hit over .400 during a brief stint in the Majors thanks to some mile-high air.
Over the years the Cardinals have had several two sport athletes. A quick rundown of a few.....
Bob Gibson played basketball at Creighton and briefly for the Harlem Globe Trotters.....
Brian Jordan played football for the Atlanta Falcons......
more recently, but a little more obscure, outfielder Adron Chambers played football at Mississippi State.
Back in the late 1990s the Cardinals tried bringing in a two sports athlete from Stanford. Chad Hutchinson was a stand out for the Cardinal in both baseball, as a pitcher.....
and played quarterback for their football team......
In the late 1990s the Cardinals had rolled the dice on several high-end, high dollar, draft picks. Some, like J.D. Drew turned out fairly well. Others like Rick Ankiel were sort of a mixed bag. As for Hutchinson....
The Cardinals drafted him the second round of the 1998 Draft and paid him $3.5 million dollars not to touch a football. His first summer in the Minors was successful. Hutchinson pitched in 8 games, 44 innings, with 51 strikeouts. At the end of the 1998 season he started appearing in prospect rankings. Baseball America had him as high as 42nd.
Card companies started cranking cards of the high end prospect. My favorite was his 1999 SP Signature Series card. Obviously a lot of great Cardinals cards in this set, but Hutchinson was one of the good prospect cards at the time....
All of his rookie cards are Upper Deck products. This card is obviously the best of the group. He had three other cards that year: Upper Deck base, Upper Deck Victory, and SP Top Prospects. The Prospects card pictures him in a Prince William (A Ball) uniform, but the rest use the same exact picture.....
There were a few more baseball cards of Chad Hutchinson after this card, but not many. He stayed in the Minors the next two years and seemed to regress along the way. He finally reached the Majors in 2001, pitched 3 games, and ended his baseball career with an ERA of 24.75. His record was 0-0.
Then Hutchinson disappeared from baseball and reappeared as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. He started 9 games in 2002, threw more interceptions than touchdowns, and the team only won 5 games.
Pretty sure that would be deemed unacceptable for that franchise. In 2003 he was a back-up in Dallas behind former Cubs prospect Quincy Carter. Hutchinson was a back-up for the Bears the next season, he did manage to start 5 games along the way too, but did not have a good performance. That was the end of Hutchinson pro sports career.
I had a great week off last week hanging out with the wife and kids. I got a lot done around my house and got to do some cool things with the fam. I am back to baseball cards this week, but I am going to stick with the whole Hall of Fame thing again today. I know my last post was about the players on this year's Hall of Fame ballot that I would vote for, assuming I actually got to vote for the Hall. I don't.
Today is going to be more of a rant though, but it will feature a cool old baseball card from the 1980s. While I was hanging out, not writing, I ran into this ESPN article about who the next Hall of Famer on each team will be, and when they will get into the Hall. Some of the picks were slam dunks and easy to choose. For example, picking Jeff Bagwell as the next Hall of Famer for the Astros is an easy assumption to make, or Mariano Rivera being the next Yankees player is also an easy choice. Other players on the list kind of annoy me.
More or less, I never understood why articles, and baseball fans who speculate on future Hall of Fame players, always throw in players who have two or three years worth of experience and are south of 25 years old. I love Giancarlo Stanton, fun player to watch, but at 26 and 200 home runs speculating on the Hall of Fame is a bit of stretch. Same with Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, Robbie Ray, Mauricio Dubon, and Yordano Ventura.
and it's a two way street too. I also saw a Cardinals blog declaring that Stephen Piscotty will not reach the Hall of Fame.
I am not going to say that we won't look back in twenty years at articles like these two and see that everything that was written has come true. All of the players on that list are very talented and could very well put up the type of numbers over time that land players in Cooperstown. However, there have been a lot of players who have been speculative Hall of Famers at a young age and never made it. Putting up Hall Worthy numbers for one season is tough, let alone producing at a high level for a decade or more.
Let's flashback to when I was in late elementary school. One of the coolest collection of sets were put out in 1987. Tons of great players had rookie cards in those sets: Greg Maddux, Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin, Raffy Palmeiro, Will Clark. Great names.
One of my favorite players from the 1987 sets was Wally Joyner. I traded for a ton of his cards back in the late 1980s. I was mainly a Topps guy at that point, dabbled with Donruss and Fleer, but I found what I did not pull out of packs with other kids at school and around the neighborhood.
What wasn't to like?
The Angels first baseman lost out on the 1986 Rookie of the Year to A's outfielder Jose Canseco, but actually had better numbers. Canseco hit .240/.318/.457 and Joyner hit .290/.348/.457, sure Canseco had more home runs and RBIs, but Wally had a higher OPS and WAR. In fact, during his first two seasons Joyner put up seasons with 22 and 34 home runs, 100 and 117 RBIS, his OPS was .805 and .894, and OPS+ was 119 and 137.
Being all in on Wally cards, this 1987 Topps League Leaders card was my favorite....
I blew up the card in the scanner, but it is actually a mini card. Kind of wish Topps had used this design the other year when the stuck the 1987 designed cards in their base set as minis. I know the production run on 1987 baseball card was astronomical, but this card felt special because not many people seemed to have the little Topps cards. I would later come to find out that it was more likely that my little corner of St Louis County did not have many, or at least the kids in my little corner of the world did not.
I am not even going to post the exact numbers, but after 1987 Wally was not quite the same. Not to say he was a bad player, in fact he did a great job of getting on-base with several seasons over .370, but his power slipped and was in stark contrast to his other first base peers in the live ball/steroid era. I still enjoyed seeing Wally Joyner cards pop up during his time with the Royals, Padres, Braves, and oft forgotten return to the Angels.
Beyond the cool mini card above, I have a few other favorite Joyner cards. My two favorite being his Upper Deck Demo card, which I think I have already shared in a previous post, so I will share one more favorite from late in Wally's career:
I believe I found this card at a show sometime in the last year or two for a few dollars. I know that Wally also has a few reprint type cards in some of the Archives products, but I honestly like having the Padres card. While enjoying Wally Joyner, I did it mostly from afar. Angels games were on late, and rarely in St. Louis, the Royals were terrible and never on television. I checked box scores, watched SportsCenter, etc to keep up with him from time to time. However, the Padres years of Joyner's career were my chance to see him in person.
1999 was a really great year for baseball cards. I remember buying a box of Topps cards right after Thanksgiving that year and being happy and entertained with cards the entire year. I feel like I could right a book about the card sets from 1999, but instead I have narrowed the list down to just five sets. My five favorites:
5. Skybox Molten Metal- This reminds of this project I started awhile back...I got sidetracked. That is going to be one of my summer projects. Back to the set. I split my first box of these cards with a kid I mentored during the summer while I was waiting to start teaching. I loved the look and feel of the cards and the inserts were incredible. There were the Pointillism insert set.....
and of course my favorite cards in the set were the metal parallel cards......
I know the late 90s and early 2000s were filled with tons of 100-200 card, premium such and such, base sets with some cool gimmicky insert sets that were cool for a month or two and are now forgettable. Molten Metal was a little bit different/cooler than the others. Other card companies had made insert cards with the pointilism pictures and metal cards, but something about this product clicked with me as a collector. Cool set and boxes can still be found pretty cheap.
4. Crown Royale- Pacific was a really important card company for me around this time. They thought outside the box and had some truly unique looking card products. I think I did more of their products in 2000, but for me the Crown Royale set was a huge starting point for me in collecting their cards. Before Crown Royal I tended to think of Pacific as "that other" card company, not Topps or Upper Deck, Pinnacle, or Fleer. The die cut cards featured the Pacific brand logo crown with a player photo over the top. The set also featured all of the usual Pacific set trappings with colored parallels and cool looking inserts. I don't see many boxes of this product anymore, nor do I see many sets. There are a bunch of the singles up on Ebay and COMC. There were also a few other cool Pacific products sets from 1999 that are probably a fun project too. I ended up also putting together an Aurora and Paramount set that summer.
3. SP Signature- This was Upper Deck's answer to the Donruss and Leaf Signature mega-autograph sets. Packs of this product cost $20 and contained a few base cards and an autograph. I don't remember pulling anyone too cool out of this product, but I have picked up a whole bunch of these cards over the years, especially the Cardinals. SP Signature cards are all on card autographs, the set features tons of Hall of Famers, and they are pretty readily available. Some of the cards can be pretty pricey obviously if you are trying to track down a copy of the Maddux or other short printed star. Still there are plenty of good players with inexpensive, on-card signatures in this product.
2. Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game- Another per pack autograph product that roughly had the same cost as the SP Signature product. This also had on-card autographs (no stickers in 1999) and featured older players including a bunch of Hall of Famers. The boxes run hot and cold, but I have already told that story on here before. Like the SP Signature set there are loads of singles floating around of some pretty good players that can be had for less than an arm and a leg. This set is definitely worth a little bit of your time and money. Most year's this set could have easily been the best set of the year, but in 1999 there was this gem......
1999 Century Legends- I like the base set, but this set is here strictly for the autographs. Unlike SP Signature and Greats of the Game, this was not a per pack autograph set, but this is one of the best autograph sets of all-time. Black and white backgrounds, color player picture on the side, and clean crisp on card signatures of some of the greatest baseball players of all-time on cardboard. I own a slew of these and would not trade them. In fact, I have upgraded several of the cards I owned searching for better copies or nicer signatures. If you love baseball cards owning at least one autograph from this set should be a must for your collection. If you are looking for someone inexpensive for the sake of owning one there is Bobby Thomson or Bucky Dent. from there the price of the cards goes up. Anyone own a Barry Bonds?
Not a big Ortiz fan personally, but there is little doubt that he is the best player on the most successful team of the last decade. With that success the popularity of David Ortiz has risen dramatically over the past decade as well. Ortiz actually started off his career with the Minnesota Twins and was David Arias on his rookie cards. I happen to own his 1997 Fleer Ultra rookie, but he is also David Arias in the 1997 Fleer base too. After those two cards, he was David Ortiz. I don't know the story behind the last name change on his cards, but I am sure it is riveting. Both of his Fleer produced rookie cards, the Ultra and base set, are popular cards and really good sellers. His Fleer rookie card normally sells for around $15 and his Ultra is usually closer to $20 which in my opinion makes them two of the better rookie cards from the late 90s. Hobby Impact- Red Sox fans are really good card collectors and Big Papi is one of their favorite players to collect. I have a pretty good run of early Papi cards in my collection, but rarely show them off to anyone, so let's change that a little bit today. First, David Ortiz has always been a terrific signer. There are a ton of his autograph cards out on the market from all sort of different points in his career. My favorites are the early on-card autographs with the Twins, but there are plenty of Red Sox 'graphs out there for fans of Ortiz in a Boston jersey.
1999 SP Signature David Ortiz Autograph
Ortiz has always had a really nice and consistent autograph. I am not sure how that says David Ortiz, but it looks nice and he's signed it the same way for years. Of course, there are other great Ortiz cards to collect besides his rookie cards and autograph cards. Ortiz also has a ton of relic cards. Plenty of premium pieces floating around out there for collectors.
2005 Fleer Classic Clippings David Ortiz Patch
Most of the relic and patch pieces are reasonably priced if you are patient. In fact, one of the best things about collecting Ortiz cards is the fact that he's the best player on a really popular team, with a heavily involved fan base, and his cards are still reasonable and reachable for the average fan. The fact that you can find his base autographs for $20 and nice relics for less says a lot about the value collectors can receive by putting a few Papi cards in their collections. Plus, if you ever feel the need to move Red Sox cards there is always someone willing to take them off of your hands at a decent price. On the Field- The fact that Papi has helped the Red Sox win three World Series titles during the past decade should speak volumes about his impact. Ortiz was an important kog on all three World Series winners, but his importance to the Red Sox was clearest this fall during their third World Series title. Ortiz won the World Series MVP and batted an incredible .688 during the Series. It was almost a one man show out on the field at times and one could make a strong argument that without the offense from Oritz the Red Sox probably would have come up short this fall. I'd actually take it a step further and say that the Red Sox would have been eliminated by the Tigers in the ALCS without Papi.
Papi's career is probably winding down and people have started debating his Hall of Fame merits. While I acknowledge the three World Series titles as being impressive, I do not think that team bling alone will get him into the Hall of Fame. In fact, at this point I would say he is still short of being in that class of player. Before I delve into the numbers, this has nothing to do with whatever steroid accusations have been leveled against Ortiz in the past. I would put Mark McGwire in the Hall, so if Ortiz was that good I would have no problem doing the same for him too.
JAWS puts Papi as the 36th best first baseman in MLB history. There is no doubt that is a crowded position for Hall of Fame players and big offensive numbers, but 36th puts him in the neighborhood of Mark Grace and Carlos Delgado. Not Hall of Famers. Looking at his WAR he is behind players like John Olerud and Jason Giambi amongst his modern peers. Again, not Hall of Famers. Ranking him by his OPS+ doesn't really help his argument much either. He still ranks in the thirties, which is again in the neighborhood of Carlos Delgado, and still behind Jason Giambi.
Mind you I am also not taking into account the fact that Oritz rarely plays in the field either. His career dWAR is -17.7 which is horrendous.
Favorite Card-
This was a tough one for Ortiz, but I went with the 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces. Great set and great Papi card. Love the art work with his swing and follow through and the green walls of Fenway in the background. Cool card.
#35-This release represented Upper Deck's first venture into the world of a huge autograph focused set. By the time 1999 rolled around, the hobby had already seen the release of the 1996 Leaf Signature Series and the 1997 and 1998 releases of the Donruss Signature Series. Since Donruss was bankrupt by the end of 1998 I am guessing that Upper Deck was trying to fill the void.
The packs for the 1999 SP Signature Edition were $20 and only available at Hobby Shops. Each contained three cards. Two base cards and one autographed card. Now, there were some really nice cards in this set that are really cool and worth owning. However, in a mega-autograph set there are also plenty of cards that are painful to see inside a pack of $20 cards.
One of my big pluses in owning cards from this set is the design. The autographs are all on card and the card themselves feature a white background which showed the blue ink autographs very well. As far as the autographs go I break them into three categories. Lets take a look at a few cards from the set using a few Orioles. Just picked a team.
1999 SP Signature Edition Ivan Coffie
1. Common Cards- Every mega-autograph set has tons of filler cards like this Ivan Coffie. It stinks to buy a per pack autograph, spend good money, and pull a card that sells on Ebay for $2 on a really good day. I often look at the common cards in mega-autograph sets from this perspective: Collect your favorite team and fill in your autograph collection. For example, one of my favorite Cardinals teams was the 1996 National League Central Champions. It was LaRussa's first year, Ray Lankford and several other personal favorites were on the team, and they came within a game of the World Series. It was also the same year the Leaf Signature set was released and I was able to get a lot of the team in the set with a certified autograph. They won't all fit in the picture, but here's a sampling.
1996 Leaf Signature Cardinals Autographs: John Mabry, Tom Pagnozzi, Mike Gallego, and Gary Gaetti
Love the Gary Gaetti card the most out of this lot.
1999 SP Signature Edition Albert Belle Autograph
2. Current Stars- In 1999 Albert Belle was fading at the end of his career. His cards were still pretty desirable and held their value pretty well at the time. Even to this day his cards have a bit of following and are never super cheap. If you scour the internet and local card shops you will find that Albert Belle has a few autographs floating around out there. Especially recent autographs. At the time of this product release however there were very few floating around. If you wanted an Albert Belle autograph, this was your best bet. Most mega-autograph sets have a few cards like this. Ron Gant is another big one from this set with a similar story.
1999 SP Signature Edition Frank Robinson Autograph
3. Hall of Famers-My third category is what most people want to find in their one per autograph packs, but the odds are always difficult on these cards. Looking at my Frank Robinson, it is probably one of the cheaper Hall of Fame autographs in this set. In fact, some people would argue that a card like Frank barely covers the cost of the pack on a good day on Ebay. I disagree. While it is probably just in the $20 range, covering the pack cost, the cards in the 1999 SP Signature Edition are on card. For my collection I would much rather own a slightly less expensive on card autograph then a limited print number, high end, sticker autograph.
Like the 1999 SP Signature Edition? Not in my 30 Year Top 50 is the By The Letter insert in SP Authentic sets. If you have been following my countdown you'll notice that the Not in the Top 50 and the in the Top 50 set are often tied together somehow. Today, I am straying a little bit. Upper Deck has released some other uber-autograph sets, but this thread is supposed to be about the highlights.
I could have easily focused this section on one of the Ultimate Signature sets, but the By The Letter Autographs deserve a little bit of love. I miss them so very much and while Topps has duplicated them into their own creation:
2010 Topps Finest Buster Posey Letter Patch Autograph
They aren't quite the same as the original Upper Deck product. The By The Letter Autograph concept started in the 2006 SP Authentic set. The cards were an instant smash hit. The concept of course was to collect all the letter patches of a player to spell out their name. Here's how they started out:
2006 SP Authentic Matt Holliday By The Letter Autograph
Over the next several years the cards changed very little in concept and design, but still offered collectors a cool product to chase every year. Whether you were collecting players from your favorite team:
2009 SP Authentic By The Letter David Freese Autograph
Or you just ran into a cool inexpensive card of an average player.
2008 SP Authentic By The Letter Edwin Encarnacion Autograph
The By The Letter Autographs are a set that I strongly considered bundling together and putting on my countdown.
