The old Studio cards are some of my favorites from the early 1990s. Where can you get a baseball card that tells you about Mark McGwire's love for Whitney Houston's music? Seriously, that is on the back of of a 1991 Studio card. I would have guessed that Mark McGwire was a hard rock guy, but what do I know?
Ray Lankford's 1991 Studio was pretty informative, unlike his later cards for this product which were really repetitive. They were all stuck on the fact that he played football at a junior college and rushed for 1,000 yards. If you know that fact, you have nothing new to learn from most of the other 1990s Ray Lankford Studio cards.
Here is the front of the card.
Pretty standard 1991 Studio card with the black and white photo. I like this photo of Lankford in his warm-up jersey holding a bat. There were a bunch of different Studio sets over the years, but this one had the best photography. They did a great job of capturing the players and showing a little personality. Later issues felt like the scoreboard stock photos you see when you go to a game.
Back of the card.
I feel like there is nothing too surprising here. Maybe the fact that he enjoys tennis, but the rest seems kind of standard for a guy who grew up in the 1980s in southern California. Although, I would love to believe that he liked Reggie Jackson for his role in The Naked Gun as the Queen's assassin, rather than a left-handed hitting power hitter on the Angels during Ray's teenage years.
The baseball career section is also quality work considering Ray Lankford only played about 30 to 40 games in 1990. Most of his at-bats came after the Cardinals traded away Willie McGee to the A's.
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.
The 1989 Cardinals were not that bad of a team. They won 86 games and finished third in the standings behind the Cubs and Expos. Several players had good years. Pedro Guerrero had more than 40 doubles and drove in 117 runs, Vince Coleman led the National League in stolen bases, Ozzie Smith won a Gold Glove, Jose DeLeon led the National League in strikeouts, and Joe Magrane won 18 games with an ERA under 3.00.
Most of the players returned from the 1989 season for the 1990 season, minus All-Star catcher Tony Pena. The Cardinals traded for Pena prior to the 1987 season, while he helped them reach the World Series in 1987, his offensive numbers were disappointing during his time in St. Louis. Plus the Cardinals had the best catching prospect in all of baseball at Triple A.
Baseball America had Todd Zeile rated as the seventh best prospect in all of baseball entering the 1990 season. The Cardinals brought him up at the end of the 1989 season for a cup of coffee and ended up handing him the starting catchers job for 1990. Pena ended up signing with the Red Sox as a free agent.
Zeile was hailed as a franchise player while he was coming up through the Minor League system. He was an All-Star at every level he played in, hit for power, and drove in runs. Zeile seemed like the real deal.
Zeile has a whole bunch of Minor League cards celebrating his status as an uber prospect, many are from All-Star sets. I can only imagine if he had been a Minor Leaguer a decade later during the Bowman craze, his cards would have temporarily been worth a small fortune. I think I got this Arkansas Travelers card as a throw-in from an Ebay seller.
Zeile's first season as a Cardinal was disappointing, but the team was a complete disaster. He did hit 15 home runs, a decent amount for a Cardinals player at that time, but he also played some really bad stretches of baseball. His season averaged ended at .244, throw out a hot month in August and Zeile hit under .230 for the better part of the season.
Meanwhile, I had a pretty good Todd Zeile collection for 1990.
The best of the bunch, in my opinion, was his 1990 Topps card. I know some people point to his 1989 Upper Deck, or 1990 Donruss Rated Rookie, but this was my favorite. You knew he was going to be good with a Future Star graphic going across the bottom of the card.
At the end of the season the team worked on transitioning him to third base to give defensive wiz Tom Pagnozzi a shot to catch full time. Pags flies under the radar, but he was a very good defensive player. Won a bunch of Gold Gloves.
Zeile's 1991 season went well. He hit less home runs, down to 11, but managed to bump up all the rest of his numbers. He hit doubles, drove in runs, got on base, and even managed to steal 17 bases. The team finished second to the Pirates and won 84 games. With a young core of Zeile, Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey, and Geronimo Pena it appeared the Cardinals were headed in the right direction.
He still ended up with cool baseball cards at this point, but he started slipping after his 1992 season. This Stadium Club from 1992 is one of my early 1990s favorites of Zeile.
I always thought of 1992 as the end of Todd Zeile in St. Louis. He made it another two and half years, but Cardinals fans generally lost their patience with him that summer. Zeile hit only 7 home runs and had a slugging percentage of .364. That was lower than second baseman Luis Alicea. He just squeezed by Ozzie Smith though.
Another good Zeile card from the early 1990s....
The Cardinals celebrated their 100th Anniversary in 1992. The team wore patches to commemorate the occasion, but baseball cards rarely do anything to showcase any sort of special event logos. Especially during the early 1990s. The t-shirt that Zeile is wearing in this picture has the 100th Anniversary logo on it. Nice touch.
Although, the Cardinals did put the logo on their team set that season.....
bonus nicety that the photograph for the card was taken in Wrigley. Not my favorite team, but the Cubs stadium does make for nice baseball cards.
The anniversary logo also appeared on a set of Pacific trading cards, which celebrated the great players in team history, that were sold at area McDonald's restaurants.
While Zeile was in the team set, which was a stadium giveaway, he rightfully missed the cut on the all-time Cardinals set.
Let me share the most incredible Todd Zeile card in my collection before we get to the bad part of Todd Zeile's time in St. Louis.
Who knew that MilkBone had baseball cards inside their boxes? I am not sure what type of dog Zeile owns, but her name is Tiffany. The picture showing Todd swinging is at some point in the at bat past the first pitch. He never swung at that pitch, plus his batting gloves look extra tight.
There were a lot of negative perceptions about Zeile his last few years with the Cardinals. See the last sentence of the last paragraph. He always took the first pitch of every at bat, every time, all the time. Zeile was constantly down in counts 0-1. He played with his batting gloves after the first pitch. He looked indifferent and unemotional about everything. I am amazed that Zeile lasted with the Cardinals until the middle of 1995.
The final straws came in 1995 when he had a contract dispute with the team in Spring Training. The Cardinals played poorly during the first half of the year on top of that, so when the team decided to fire Joe Torre in season, they also traded Zeile to the Cubs. The trade turned into a war of words between Zeile and August Busch, which ultimately ended in him getting booed most of the rest of his career in St. Louis. His wife was even heckled once to the point where she had to leave the stadium.....
and she has not been back since. I don't remember what sort of sales job Augie Busch did in presenting Zeile as a traitor, might have to go back and check that out. Overall, not cool. Especially the heckling the wife part.
Zeile had a few more baseball cards that I liked towards the end of his time with the Cardinals. The 1994 team set, which was a stadium giveaway, had a nice appearance.....
Always thought it was odd that the Cardinals pretty much stopped using the slugger bird logo after 1992, but he always popped up on odds and ends with the team. For whatever reason that logo is used on this set of cards.
I also really liked his 1994 Studio card with the lockers in the background. Actual locker room in Busch Stadium. I know it does not look very nice compared to modern lockers, but it sure beats some of the other lockers in the set. I believe the Angels cards all have cinder blocks with a metal bar going across. Classy.
For my last Cardinals card of Zeile I will go with his 1995 Topps 3D card.
Sort of like the old Kellogg's card from the 1970s and 1980s. Kind of a neat looking card.
After leaving the Cardinals, Zeile ended up bouncing around the league. In all he played for 11 teams in 16 years. Zeile had good years, bad years, and even ended up getting traded for Mike Piazza. His career ended in 2004 while playing in his second stint with the Mets.
For all of the different teams, and garbage he took from Cardinals fans, Zeile actually had a decent career. It ended well, he hit a three run home run for the Mets in his final at-bat.
I had some final thoughts on Zeile that has kept this post in my drafts for a while. I might have to come back to it at some point, but
There is a really good chance that you remember Joe Torre's second managerial position during the 1990s better than his first gig. Between 1996 and 1999, Torre managed the Yankees to three different World Series titles, which occured in 1996, 1998, and 1999. Between the middle of the 1990 season, and the middle of the 1995 season, Joe Torre once got the Cardinals to finish second. That happened in 1991 when they finished a mere 14 games behind the Pirates.
Torre did not take half a season off, from the middle of 1995 until the start of the 1996, and magically learn how to manage a baseball team. He was not actually half bad with the Cardinals, especially considering that the team's ownership, August Busch III, was cheap. Just only so much you can do with Bryn Smith taking up a spot in your starting rotation.
For example, in 1993 the Cardinals were actually 16 games above .500 at the All-Star break, within five games of the eventual division winning Phillies team. Most teams would take that sort of success as a sign to improve their roster and push for the postseason. The 1990s Cardinals? Not so much. Lee Smith was broken and there were several other suspect arms in front of him in the bullpen, which was one of the major shortcomings of the 1993 team. Rather than trading for a quality relief pitcher, the Cardinals picked up Todd Burns from the A's.
Burns appeared in 24 games for the Cardinals and gave up 21 runs. The most brutal stat I could find was that he struck out only 10 batters in those 24 games, but managed to give up 8 home runs. Don't know if I have ever seen a 1:1 ratio on home runs, but Burns almost pulled it off. Burns did not even make it to the end of the season, the team released him in September, and even went as far as trading off Lee Smith.
Not Torre's fault.
I am not a Yankees fan by any stretch of the imagination, but it was nice to see Torre go somewhere and do well after getting shafted by the Cardinals ownership. I hear all the arguments about the Yankees having high payrolls and good talent, that it would not actually be hard to get those sorts of teams deep into the playoffs. However, after watching the Cardinals the last five years, with Mike Matheny managing, or mangling, some really good teams, it's to hard to brush off the manager as completely irrelevant.
Here are my three favorite Joe Torre cards with the Cardinals, while he was the manager. If there were player cards in this post, there would be a Kellogg's card. Since he won an MVP Award with the Cardinals though, I will still post the cereal card as a bonus.....
Those are sideburns. Why won't any cereal companies put cards into boxes anymore? Now back to the manager cards.
I really like these Studio cards, also liked that they put some of the managers in the set. The Topps base set was always a slam dunk for having the team managers, but the other card brands that started to pop up at this time in the early 1990s were hit and miss on these cards. The black and white photographs on the Studio cards were always nice with the color reddish colored frames on the 1991 set. Torre actually appeared in the Preview cards of the set. Tony LaRussa is in the regular set, if you are into Cardinals managers and the whatnot.
Another 1991 card, this one is from the Topps set. Something has always seemed off on this card. I have never quite decided whether Topps airbrushed in Torre, or the background with the other players and coaches are on some sort of Olan Mills photo studio backdrop. Just something off about the card. There are only two Topps solo base cards of Torre as the Cardinals manager, the other is in the 1992 set, but this is my favorite of the two.
Last card.
Generally, I hate these dual managers cards. They make the managers seem like an afterthought. This one is actually really cool though. Torre and Piniella are two of the more recognizable managers from the 1990s, so it's nice that they are on the same card together. While Lou is not a Hall of Famer, both have won at least one World Series, feel like everyone always forgets that Piniella was with the Reds who won in 1990, both won Manager of the Year multiple times. For what it's worth, Lou actually won the award three times to Torre's two times.
I was a little surprised by the fact that Todd Worrell only pitched one season with the Cardinals during the 1990s. He was definitely injury prone during his last few years with in St. Louis, but I didn't remember him missing two whole seasons. I guess that's why we got Lee Smith for awhile.
Personally, I think of Worrell as more of a 1980s Cardinals player. The team had Bruce Sutter as their closer at the beginning of the Whitey Herzog era. He left for the Braves at the end of the 1984 season and was initially replaced in 1985 by a combination of Jeff Lahti and Ken Dayley. Worrell was called up in August of that season just ahead of the Postseason roster deadline.
The Cardinals were in a tight pennant race that fall against the Mets. Worrell appeared in 16 regular season games during September of 1985 picking up 5 saves. He also appeared in 7 Postseason games that fall against the Dodgers and Royals.
Worrell was the pitcher who had his foot on first base ahead of Jorge Orta in Game 6. Somehow Don Denkinger didn't see a 6'5 guy with red shoes standing on a white base during this play. Pretty sure that Royals gave him a World Series ring and retired his umpire uniform number. Some idiot at Topps gave him a baseball card and called him a good umpire.
Since Worrell did not get called up until the very end of the 1985 season he did not appear in any 1985 products. He did not make the Topps base set in 1986 either, but did make the Fleer and Donruss sets. My favorite is the Donruss......
mainly because of the Rated Rookie stamp. Worrell went on to appear in the Topps Traded set put out in the fall of 1986. Considering Worrell led the National League in saves, and won the Rookie of The Year, that season his first Topps card was a pretty popular one.
at least it was in St. Louis County. So, just to fast forward through the rest of the 1980s for Todd Worrell, he saved a ton of games for the Cardinals before one his elbow ligaments tore at the end of the 1989 season. Since Worrell was out for awhile, even though the 1990 Cardinals were a complete dumpster fire, they ended up trading for Lee Smith. Worrell did pitch for the Louisville Redbirds in 1991. He pitched 3 games and tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Those were the only 3 games he pitched in during the first two years of the 1990s.
In 1992, Worrell returned to the Cardinals, but since Lee Smith was on the team he was used as a set-up man. Kind of a shame since that season was the beginning of Lee Smith's painful slide from throwing 95 and striking out batters, to throwing 95 and watching the outfielders chase down extra base hits. Meanwhile, Worrell pitched in 67 games, had an ERA just above 2.00, and struck out a batter per inning.
We also got baseball cards of Worrell. Not just a boring Topps base card either, although that's out there if you want it.
I have always kind of liked his 1992 Studio card from that season. It looks a little odd at first, I will admit, but I like the jacket and hat on the card. The 1992 season was actually the 100th Anniversary of the Cardinals and the team decided to leave the 1980s behind two years into the 1990s. In 1991 the team wore.....
polyester pull overs. In 1992 the team switched back to the button up jerseys and brought back the blue hats, which they had not worn since the late 1960s, as a part of their road uniforms. They were pretty sharp looking jerseys.
The Cardinals also wore blue batting practice jerseys and dugout jackets on the road. The blue hats were really popular when they first came back out. I am pretty sure that I got my parents to buy me one of those hats at West County Mall. Probably either Champs or JC Penny.
Back to Worrell. You know the other great thing about Studio cards from the early 1990s was reading the backs of the cards. Mark McGwire likes Whitney Houston? Who'd of thought? So, Todd Worrell....
1. What in the world is Biola University? It actually stands for the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and it was founded by an oil baron. Duke was founded by a tobacco baron, so there's that. Reading a page with student writing on it, B.I.O.L.A. seems like a pretty literal place, since I believe in dinosaurs I am going to stop there.
2. Josh Worrell was drafted by the Royals, never made it out of the lower Minors, but did play for the Burlington Royals for a brief time. Local is good.
3. Howard Johnson was 5 for 9 against Todd Worrell, but most of those hits were made using HoJo's "special" bats. Think those popped up a lot against the Cardinals.
I am smarter for having read the back of that card.
Last one.
Amongst the last of his Cardinals cards from the 1993 Topps set. I believe that the only two Worrell cards from 1993, with him pictured as a member of the Cardinals, were his Topps and Fleer cards. Everything else was a Dodgers card. I always liked these Topps Gold cards, since it's the end of the post I am going fancy. The base card is nice too, don't get me wrong. You get to see the blue Cardinals road hat and the team also wore a patch in 1992 to celebrate the team's 100th Anniversary. The close up of the patch....
Worrell went on to pitch 5 years for the Dodgers. He led the National League in saves during the 1996 season and helped the team get into the playoffs twice in 1995 and 1996. He never appeared in a playoff game in 1995 against the Reds, but he recorded the final out in the clincher.....
The Dodgers did not win a playoff game either season. 1997 was a rough year for Worrell and he ended up retiring at the end of the season, but not before he crossed over 250 career saves.
Gregg Jefferies was supposed to be a superstar caliber player for the New York Mets in the late 1980s. The next great thing. He was selected in the first round of the 1985 MLB, hit in the .330s at almost every stop in the Minors with power and speed. As baseball card collectors, we all know the 1989 Gregg Jefferies cards.....
they are borderline legendary.
Well, except that Gregg Jefferies never really became the next big thing and he was never really a superstar either. Barely even an All-Star. He was a little bit immature, threw batting helmets, and pulled all sorts of interesting antics that did not really win him many fans.
Like the time he made the last out of a game against the Phillies, touched first, and then ran after the pitcher.
Jefferies was not really hitting like he was supposed to, so the Mets traded him the Royals for Bret Saberhagen. He did not hit in Kansas City and the Royals traded him to the Cardinals for Felix Jose. That's when Gregg Jefferies actually played like he was supposed to play in the late 1980s, only now it was 1993. He was still only 25.
Jefferies also still had a bit of a temper in St. Louis and still was one of the best helmet tossers in all of baseball.
Let's review Gregg Jefferies time as a Cardinal.
Gregg Jefferies made two All-Star games during his career.
Gregg Jefferies made two All-Star games for the Cardinals in 1993 and 1994
Gregg Jefferies hit higher than .325 twice in his Major League career
Gregg Jefferies hit over .325 in both seasons he played with the Cardinals
Gregg Jefferies received MVP votes in only two seasons during his career
Gregg Jefferies finished in the top 20 in MVP voting while playing for the Cardinals in 1993 and 1994
Gregg Jefferies had a career WAR of 19.4 in 14 seasons in Major League Baseball
Gregg Jefferies had a WAR of 7 in 2 seasons with the Cardinals
I could go on.
As a Cardinal, Gregg Jefferies hit for a high average, sprayed the ball all over the park, showed some pop, and even almost stole 50 bases (actually 46) in a season. He was on a really young Cardinals team that finished towards the bottom of the standings, but Jefferies was a really good player.
After the 1994 season, Jefferies cashed in on his two good years in St. Louis by signing a big contract with the Phillies. He was not very good. Perhaps his best highlight as a Phillie was getting drilled by Pedro Martinez to start this epic brawl.
For two years Gregg Jefferies was a great baseball player. It was all captured in baseball card form with Jefferies in a Cardinals uniform. I definitely have some favorites here, so I am going to run through a few.
I am putting a limit on it here, I could go further.
First up is an oversized Upper Deck All-Star card from 1994. Jefferies is wearing running shoes and the photo was taken during batting practice. That's all nice stuff, but I like this card for the background probably more than I like it for being a Gregg Jefferies card. This is the Busch Stadium that I grew up with. The bright red seats, blue walls in the outfield, arches around the top of the stadium, and the astroturf. You can even spot a little bit of the Arch, the 600 foot steel one next to the river, to the right of Jefferies in the arch at the top of stadium. Just a sliver.
A Studio card. How 1990s is this card? This card was apart of the Heritage Collection which featured a modern player wearing a throw back uniform. This Jefferies card is nice, but I was always a little bit miffed by the choice of dates on the part of Studio. The Cardinals have won a few World Series over the years, so if you were going to do this set, would you not pick a year the team won something? 1928? The Cardinals lost in the World Series. In 1926, they won the World Series.
Studio should have split the difference and put Jefferies in a 1927 Cardinals uniform.
Teams weren't shy about saying the won something back then. Seems like Jefferies would be good in this uniform with World Champions stamped on the chest. Still wouldn't beat the McGwire card in this set where he is wearing an old A's uniform with a pill box hat.
Different Studio card.
I really like the 1993 set. The jerseys in the background are nice, unless your team has really bad uniforms. Blue and orange Padres and teal Marlins come to mid. I also like that Studio put a picture on the card of Jefferies with a blue batting helmet. Just a really nice looking card.
Last card.
Another oversized card. This is a Fleer Extra Bases card. I like the pictures on the front, which are more or less a border to border design. The font and the colors on the front are a little bit on the mediocre side, and the brand logo is horrible, but the overall card is excellent. I like that the picture in in Busch and you get an action shot of Jefferies running.
Maybe if Jefferies had been a Cardinals player a little bit longer, maybe some of these cards would be a little more meaningful to baseball card collectors outside of a few people who followed some pretty terrible teams from the mid 1990s.
a 1993 song on my IPod. You get Liz Phair. Lo Fi Liz Phair, not polished pop song Liz Phair.
