I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 63- Kent Bottenfield

Kent Bottenfield most memorable season as a professional baseball player came in 1999 while he was pitching for the Cardinals.  Prior to landing a job with the Cardinals, Bottenfield had made appearances with the Expos, Rockies, Giants, and Cubs.  Most teams mainly used him as a reliever.  The Expos and Rockies had both used Bottenfield as a starter, but that did not go very well.

Bottenfield joined the Cardinals as a free agent in January of 1998.  He was a long reliever in 1998 and was thrown into the starting rotation at the beginning of the 1999 season.  Bottenfield's 18 wins, 3.97 ERA, and All-Game appearance are often cited as some of Dave Duncan's finest work as a pitching coach. 

Someone posted a clip of his All-Star game appearance on YouTube.  He gave up a few runs, but also struck out Ivan Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.  Definitely a highlight.....

Bottenfield really has a limited amount of baseball cards with the Cardinals.  So, a quick tour.  He did not consistently appear in sets, even after the 18 win season.  Most card companies put him in a few of their products, but he never was amongst the core of Cardinals players who made all of a brand's sets.  

Pacific was one of my favorite brands from this era.  They actually had a 1998 card of Bottenfield in their Omega set, but I like the card in the 1999 set better.  

Pacific also used him in some of their 2000 sets as a Cardinal after he was traded away.  Nice cards, but he had nicer 2000 cards I will get to in a minute.  

Upper Deck might have been the stingiest company with Bottenfield cards, but their sets were stuffed with McGwire, Ankiel, and J.D. Drew cards at this point.  Give a spot to Ray Lankford, Fernando Tatis, maybe a Matt Morris or Andy Benes.  Not much room for other players from the Cardinals.  His most notable Cardinals card in an Upper Deck product was his appearance in the team's McDonald's set from 1999......

These cards were sold at McDonald's restaurants in the St. Louis area, I believe as a set, not a giveaway at the stadium.  The usual suspects were in the set, but Upper Deck put several players in this set who were not in other sets in 1999.  Bottenfield and Shawon Dunston are the two of them.  

Bottenfield did not get a Topps card with the Cardinals in 1998 or 1999, but they did manage to squeeze him into the 2000 set.  

There were no traded or update sets in 1998 and 1999, so I kind of get it.  Still, it's hard to believe that a relief pitcher who popped up in more than 60 games in 1998 could not get a card in the 1999 set.  This was also the small set phase for Topps.  I believe they were down to 400 some cards in the base set.  

The best two Bottenfield cards with the Cardinals are his autographs, which both came out in 2000 after he was traded.  He has a Fleer and a Skybox autograph.  The Fleer is a FreshInk card, the Skybox is an Autographics.  Both were cross product autograph sets, not sure what products contained Bottenfield autographs.  I own the Skybox card....

It's like a piece of artwork.  Bottenfield is consistent with his autograph too.  I love it when players care about their signature.  This is a great looking card, 90% of it is the autograph.  

So, the end of Bottenfield in a Cardinals uniform took place at the end of Spring Training in 2000 when the Cardinals traded him to the Angels, along with Adam Kennedy, for free agent to be Jim Edmonds. 

The Cardinals seemed to frequently trade for players in walk years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, let them play in St. Louis for the year, and then sign them.  Edmonds had a great 2000 with the Cardinals and signed a contract in the middle of the season to stay in St. Louis.  He ended up playing on the Cardinals for 8 seasons in all.  He helped the Cardinals win the 2006 World Series, win two National League pennants, and reach the National League Championship three other times.  While he is off the Hall of Fame ballot for the moment, Edmonds should make it at some point through the Veterans Committee.  Whatever it is now called.  

Edmonds popped up on a baseball card as a Cardinal long before Bottenfield showed up as an Angel.  Although, Bottenfield only lasted half a season in Anaheim before he was traded to the Phillies for Ron Gant.  He was never able to match his 1999 season with the Cardinals, but Bottenfield stuck around for a few more seasons before retiring.  

Project Durham Bulls #21 - Adam Kennedy

2009 Durham Bulls 

Background-

Kennedy passed through Durham during the middle of career.  He started out with the Cardinals as a first round draft pick out of Cal State Northridge in 1997.  The Cardinals traded him to the Angels during Spring Training in 2000 for Jim Edmonds.  His career highlight came in 2002, while helping the Angels win the World Series, he hit three home runs in a game against the Twins in an American League Championship Game.  

He won the ALCS MVP that year.  Kennedy played with the Angels until 2006 when he returned to the Cardinals.  It didn't go well.  He played the 2007 and 2008 seasons in St. Louis and spent the entire time in Tony LaRussa's dog house.  The Cardinals cut him loose after the 2008 season and Kennedy ended up with the Rays who assigned him to Durham.  He last 23 games in Durham and posted a .280/.366/.439 slash line.  The A's rescued him from the Minors when they traded for him early in May of 2009.  He spent the rest of the season with the A's and actually had a decent season.  He played 3 more seasons after 2009 spending a single season with the Nationals, Mariners, and Dodgers before retiring in 2012.

Card-
I actually have a fair number of Kennedy autographs since he was a member of the Cardinals.  I am not even sure he signed much of anything after 2001 outside of a card in the 2004 UD Etchings set.  I know I have never made a post about that set, but if I did it would not be kind.  So, I was really left with trying to find a late 1990s or early 2000s card of the long time Major League second baseman.  I had thought long and hard about picking up a 2001 Topps Finest card for this post, after all those were really his best years, but the conditions of the cards were less than ideal.  If you've never checked out the autographs from that set, they fade very easily.  So, that left me to track down a Cardinals autograph that I did not own.  So, here we are with a 2000 Skybox Autographics.  It's a giant cross product 90s autograph set, but the design is nice and there were no such things as sticker autographs at this point, so.....