Two Years. 56 Starts Later. I'm Happy To Only Have A Card

There are times when you hear the news of your team signing or trading for a player and you just know that it is going to turn out really bad.  As a Cardinals fan I have seen it a few times over the years.  Players like.....

Tino Martinez not being able to hit outside of Yankee Stadium.  Lots of double plays and he always got subbed out at the end of games so that Pujols could play first base. Kerry Robinson, or So Taguchi, would come in and play left field.  I always took it as having Kerry Robinson or Taguchi in the field was worth more than Tino batting.  Let's not forget that he cried a bunch about St. Louis not being New York.  Pretty sure Tony LaRussa was not amused.  Tino was traded to the Devil Rays, Cardinals fans rejoiced.

Wiggy.  First, he went to the light blue Carolina school.  Sure, he ended up transferring.  In many cases I can live with people once they leave Chapel Hill, like Diamond DeShields, but I have a hard time viewing Wiggy as a UNC-Asheville grad.  He signed a two year contract, but only last half a year.  Wiggy managed to play in every tiny, or thin aired stadium, in the years leading up to playing in St. Louis.  Orioles, Rockies, and Phillies. Bandbox, altitude, and bandbox.  Wiggy was eventually released.  Cardinals fans rejoiced.

Actually in the case of Wiggy I was surprised he never showed up in the International League in the role of crafty old guy on a Triple A team.

Which leads to Mike Leake.  During the 2015 Playoffs the Cardinals lost to the Cubs in the first round.  You knew there was going to be some sort of turnover.  David Price?  Nope.  Johnny Cueto?  Never in St. Louis.  I remember the day clearly.  My wife and I had just worked our last day at school before Winter Break.  We loaded up the car with the little man and started driving towards my in-laws house in Northern Michigan.

Little guy was craving some lunch.....

so we stopped at the Wendy's in Princeton, West Virginia.  The backseat was less crowded in those days.  I looked at my phone at the restaurant and I saw the Mike Leake signing all over Twitter and Facebook.  There were a lot of "he's an innings eater, we need Mike Leake" sorts of conversations taking place.  I was hoping that this was going to be one of those deals where it never quite gets finalized and the player just leverages the Cardinals to get paid somewhere else.  Happens all the time, don't laugh non-Cardinals readers.  

The Cardinals actually signed him.  So disappointed to see this.....

With all bad vibes signings/trades I always have to ask myself how far I want to go on finding cards of that player.  There have been other times in where I have had a bad vibe about players and they have turned out to be fine.  Troy Glaus comes to mind.  I was pretty sure he was going to break at some point, but he did have one good season before it happened.

He's got some pretty sweet baseball cards, but I waited to actually watch him play before taking that dive.  This was my favorite.  It's like a signed trash bag or something.....

which is what I imagined the fences at Anaheim Stadium would have been made out of prior to it being renovated.  The remodel happened after Fleer made this card.

So how deep did I go on Mike Leake?  This deep.....

that's it.  The only reason I got this card was because it was really cheap on COMC and I figured I had to get one autograph since he was on the Cardinals.  Luckily after 56 starts all of us Cardinals fans are free of Mike Leake and his incredibly hittable pitches.  I don't even care if they only got back an A Ball player who is hitting .220.  As a Cardinals fan it was hard to be at work and see the Mike Leake trade flash across my phone during my break.  I contemplated having a five minute celebration in the middle of my class, but my students this year are all college basketball people.  Surprise.  I rejoiced internally at the thought of Mike Leake not starting anymore games for the Cardinals.

Friday Five: Five Cardinals Players I'd Rather Not Have In My Collection

We are winding down on the 2016 baseball season and I have been waiting for a certain Cardinals player to turn around their season.  Do something positive for the team.  I reached a tipping point of sorts today, so I came up with my first Friday Five post in awhile.  These are always fun to write, and tonight, this one is going to help me blow off a little steam about my Cardinals.

Every baseball fan has a player, or players that they wish their team had never ever touched.  The Cardinals are no exception.  While they have been good of late, there have been a few less than stellar signings over the years.  One of them took place this year.  Luckily Jason Heyward and his .630 OPS is not on the team, or there would have been two of them from this year's squad on my list of five.

Without further delay: Five Cardinals Players I'd Rather Not Have In My Collection

5. Bob Horner - 1988

Horner was a fixture for the Braves infield for much of the late 70s and early 1980s.  After finishing the 1986 season in Atlanta he opted to play a season in Japan with Yakult where he hit .327/.423/.683 with 31 home runs and 73 RBIs in just 93 games.  The Cardinals had lost Jack Clark at the end of the 1987 season to the Yankees, so Horner seemed like a good option to fill his spot at first and give Whitey Herzog his token big bat in the middle of the line up.  Horner lasted just 60 games with the Cardinals and hit a whopping 3 home runs in almost 250 plate appearances.  The 1988 Cardinals ended up trading for a few power hitters in season to compensate picking up Tom Brunansky from the Twins and Pedro Guerrero from the Dodgers.

4. Adam Kennedy Part II

Kennedy was originally a Cardinals prospect and number one draft pick.  The team called him up at the end of the 1999 season and then packaged him up with Kent Bottenfield in a trade with the Angels for Jim Edmonds.  Kennedy was sort of an average player for the Angels for the seven years he was on the team, but he also famously went Reggie Jackson in Game 5 of the 2002 ALCS...



For some reason nobody has yet to figure out, the Cardinals brought him back to the team in 2007 where he clashed with Tony LaRussa, played horribly, and ended up getting run out of town.  In fact, he ended up on the Durham Bulls.  Just an all around bad signing by the team who had the opportunity to retain Ronnie Belliard from the 2006 team.  While Belliard was not exactly an All-Star caliber player, he spent the next three seasons post numbers at, or above, the league average from second baseman and got paid less money than Kennedy.  Painful.

3.  Wiggy (Ty Wigginton) 2013

Wiggy got paid $5 million dollars over two years to be a bat off the bench for the Cardinals.  The problem is that Wiggy only made it 57 at bats into the two year deal.  In those 57 at bats he posted a slash line of .158/.238/.193 for an OPS of .431 and OPS+ of 21.  That's better than Bartolo Colon batting, but just slightly better.  On July 9th, 2013 the Cardinals kicked Wiggy to the curb and Cardinals fans rejoiced.

2. Mike Leake 2016

I had really thought about making Mike Leake first on my list this week since he is the inspiration for this post.  When the Cardinals announced his signing I was at a Wendy's in Princeton, West Virginia stopping to eat lunch on road trip to Michigan.  I remember tweeting out, hoping that something would hit a snag, and Mike Leake would not get a five year 80 million dollar contract from the Cardinals.  Welp, didn't happen.  Mike has an ERA of 4.54 and an ERA+ of 90.  I guess Mike has four more years to do something, but I wouldn't mind if he got lost in the bullpen or left in an airport on a road trip.  A lot of luggage gets lost in Denver, the Cardinals were just there, but apparently Mike made the plane to Chicago.  Sigh.

1. Tino Martinez 2002-2003

The Cardinals had Mark McGwire in 2001 for his last season and it was dreadful, so the team signed Tino Martinez to replace him.  Tino was a winner and there was some sort of personal connection to Tony LaRussa, seemed like a good fit until Tino couldn't hit home runs anymore.  In 2001 Tino hit 34 with the Yankees, 2002 he hit 21, and in 2003 he hit 15.  In the two years Tino played for the Cardinals Albert Pujols played left field, but frequently ended up at first base when LaRussa would keep Albert's bat in the lineup moving him to first, and playing a defensive outfielder as a sub for Tino.

I guess being double switch for Kerry Robinson and So Taguchi was not cool in Tino's book who told a New York sports reporter that St. Louis wasn't as good of a baseball town as St. Louis.  Not going to argue the point, but it's never a good idea to put down the city in which you are employed as a professional athlete.

I will give Tino some plus points, and the possibility of moving to second on this list if Mike Leake stinks all five years of his contract, for his fight with Miguel Batista in 2003.  Batista hit Martinez with a pitch during an at-bat early in the game.  Tino had a few words, went to first, and then was forced out at second later in the inning.  Rather than running back to the dugout, Tino decided it was time to charge the mound.  No video, but there is a picture of the fight.....

The Worst Cardinal In My Collection

I have a couple of posts that I owe a couple of different people I am going to try to take care of over the next few days.  First up is a question I was asked a month or two ago and it took me awhile to narrow down the list to one finalist.  I had actually thought about making my list favorite Cardinals into a list of four or five, but one player clearly stood out for both his poor play and horrendous behavior.  So, my least favorite Cardinal in my collection....

2002 Upper Deck Game-Worn Gems Tino Martinez Jersey

Tino Martinez and it's not even close.  When I was asked the question he was the first name that popped into my mind, but I took my time to make sure I wasn't jumping to a quick judgement.  I will say this up front: I really do not like Tino Martinez.  Here's a little background information on the Tino Martinez Cardinals years.  Mark McGwire's final season with the Cardinals was in 2001.  At the time Albert Pujols was a third baseman.  Pujols did play the outfield starting in 2002 to make room for Placido Polanco at third.  All of this meant that first base was open.  The Cardinals signed Tino Martinez to a three year 21 million dollar contract on December 18th, 2001. 

It did not take Martinez long to be the well deserved goat on the 2002 Cardinals.  Tino seemed to excel at hitting into double plays and killing rallies.  Tino failed to hit a single home run during his first month on the Cardinals and posted the incredible line of .221/.370/.284 with one home run in high leverage situations.  Just for comparison utility player Eli Marrero posted a .364/.416/.662 with 6 home runs. 

And it goes downhill from there.  Tino managed to publicly miss New York and wonder out loud during an interview if Yankees fans were better than Cardinals fans.  There was also his awesome performance in the playoffs when he posted a 2 for 25 line in the 2002 postseason for the Cardinals with exactly no extra base hits.  Most Cardinals fans doubted Martinez love for St. Louis.  His baseball cards did not help. 

2002 Upper Deck Jersey Tino Martinez

The Yankee relic pieces on Martinez cards were noted by most Cardinals fans and made these cards just as unpopular in the hobby shops as Martinez play on the field.  2003 roled in and Martinez was slowly phased out by the Cardinals.  The Cardinals frequently subbed Martinez out of games in favor of moving Pujols to first base and putting So Taguchi and Kerry Robinson in left field for defense.  The sole highlight of Tino's time with the Cardinals came when he got into a fight with Miguel Batista.  No video available, only this picture from MLB.com. 

Since his retirement from baseball Tino has taken up coaching, but resigned from his last gig as the Marlins hitting coach for abusing players. 

My Baseball Card Top 50- #30 New Guys From New York* Part 1

My Baseball Card Top 50
#30
New Guys From New York* 

*Excludes all players named Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, or Mariano Rivera (different post)

This might take a little while, but the players in this post definitely deserve a little bit of credit for their impact on the baseball card hobby during my thirty years collecting cards.  I have heard all the garbage arguments about how the Yankees and Red Sox buy their teams and assemble a lot of high end talent with little consideration for home grown talent, but there is so much more to putting together a championship team than just opening up the wallet. 

Just look at the Dodgers the past two years, or the Phillies from a few years ago.  Angels could go into that category too.  Spending money on random players does not equal wins.  The late 90s Yankees were a rather pricey bunch of ball players, but they were also a great team.  Players set aside some of their own personal glory and stats to form, what I would argue to be, the greatest team of the past thirty years. 

Between 1996 and 2001 the Yankees made a total of 5 World Series appearances bringing home a grand total of 4 World Series rings to the Bronx.  The success on the field by the Yankees translated into success and popularity for the Yankees players in the baseball card industry.  None of the players in the post are slam dunk Hall of Famers.  In fact, most should not be at all.   However, the players in this post were all very good and played a key role in helping the Yankees to at least one, or several, of their four late 90s/early 2000s World Championships. 

The Yankees will take a few posts, so here's part one, which features four regular faces from the 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 World Series winners. 

1990 Score Bernie Williams RC

Bernie Williams was a homegrown talent, they did exist, who appeared on all four of the World Series winners for the Yankees.  In my opinion, Bernie is not a Hall of Famer, but he was a good player and a great member of the Yankees teams.  He was a solid .300 hitter in his prime with pretty good pop, but Bernie's dWAR was negative for much of his career and he only hit .200 in the World Series including an .063 line against the Padres in 1998 and a .167 mark against the Braves in 1996.  The Bernie Williams rookie cards are all in 1990 products and can be found in abundance for little money.  Autographs and relics are pricy and he's not been a huge signer.  He does have a very nice autograph though if you can find a copy of one. 

1994 Bowman Jorge Posada

Posada fits into many of the same categories as Bernie Williams.  Very good player, appeared on all four World Series teams (only briefly in 1996 and also for the 2009 WS winner), but he is not a Hall of Fame player.  Posada might have been a more important player in some regards than Bernie Williams since he gave the team a plus offensive player while offering above average defense during his prime.  Posada also did a good job of helping to run the pitching staff, which always seemed to pull through when it needed to.  Posada did a decent job of hitting during the postseason too posted 11 career home runs during the playoffs.  Cardboard wise, Posada's rookie card is from the 1994 Bowman set which is one of the cheaper mid 90s products from that line.  The cards are pretty condition sensetive, so high grades can fetch big bucks.  Autographs aren't really plentiful, so again, they fetch a premium. 

1986 Donruss Paul O'Neill RC

Paul O'Neill was not a homegrown Yankees talent, but the prime of career was definitely while he was on the Yankees.  I would even argue that he was actually better his first few years on the Yankees (1994-1995) then the years he helped the team win four World Series titles.  O'Neill tailed off significantly during the 1999, 2000, and 2001 seasons and retired after the team lost the 2001 World Series to the Diamondbacks.  Again, not a Hall of Famer, but a very good player.  I like his 1986 Donruss rookie which is a pretty good set.  Cool card with the polyester Reds jersey.  O'Neill has signed a lot after his retirement, especially the last few years.  Much easier and cheaper to find than Williams and Posada. 

1988 Topps Traded Tino Martinez

This is difficult player for me to write about.  My most profound memories of Tino Martinez the player were formed around his brief time in St. Louis where he performed poorly and complained constantly until the team banished him to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  He seemed like a pretty uncool person which was only confirmed this past season when the Marlins fired him as their hitting coach after it was revealed he was abusive towards the players.  Now, for his time with the Yankees.

Tino is a perfect example of why the Yankees won often during the late 90s.  The Yankees actually did not sign Martinez as an expensive free agent, but rather traded for him and then kept him around New York.  Honestly, he was a great player for the Yankees.  Not Hall of Fame good, but he was the perfect hitter for the short porch out in right field.  During his career he played about 550 games in Yankee Stadium and hit almost 100 home runs and 100 doubles while slugging nearly .500 in that ballpark.  Other parks?  He hit .239 in Fenway with 6 home runs in 86 career games. 

His best year was actually 1997 when he finished second in the American League in MVP voting and also a career high 44 home runs.  Tino's rookie cards are 1988 and 1989 releases and are valued much like the Bernie Williams rookie cards.  Autographs can be a little bit tricky, but he has signed for a few larger print run sets, like the 2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball autographs.  Tino in a Devil Rays or Cardinals uniform has little value, but Yankees cards are pretty competitive. 

1998 Topps Tek Update: Yankees Cards

I had originally set my goal for finishing my Topps Tek set at two months.  However, I am on second Topps Tek update of the week and am quickly closing in on finishing up this set.  The best part is that I can also say that I finished up a trade for several of the other cards on my checklist this afternoon.  Maybe by the end of this month should be my more realistic goal.  I am hopeful.  There is one card that seems to be in short supply on checklist.

Earlier in the week I found a Yankees collector who was willing to part with their extras to help me out with my Topps Tek set.  While I already had the Orlando Hernandez added earlier in the week, I still took the card and am hoping to use it as trade bait for something still left on my checklist.  The other four cards I picked up were Bernie Williams, Chuck Konoblauch, Tino Martinez, and Paul O'Neill.  With the four new cards crossed off my updated list I am down to 26 cards.  

Updated list:

2 Kerry Wood, 3 Barry Bonds, 6 Frank Thomas, 16 Brady Anderson, 17 Vladimir Guerrero, 18 Dave Justice, 19 Chipper Jones, 21 Roger Clemens, 22 Mark Kotsay, 23 Tony Gwynn, 26 Andruw Jones, 29 Gary Sheffield, 32 Curt Schilling, 33 Robin Ventura, 34 Larry Walker, 42 Derek Bell, 45 Kenny Lofton, 51 Cal Ripken, 52 Jason Kendall, 60 Juan Gonzalez, 62 Jose Cruz, 64 Edgar Martinez, 76 Derrek Lee, 79 Jeff King, 80 Mike Mussina,  86 Mike Piazza

30 Year Top 50: 1991 Topps Stadium Club

#27-The next entry in my countdown was one of the great innovative products during my time in collecting and the Topps answer, two years later, to the release of the Upper Deck sets.  The Stadium Club set was released and hailed as Topps high end set.  The packs MSRP topped Upper Decks at $1.25 per pack for Series 1, but the cards often sold for more than that.  Series 2 climber even higher to $2 a pack.  At the time though the cards were worth their price.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Jim Abbott

The cards arrived in foil packs, just like Upper Deck, and had edge to edge pictures that featured either great action shots of the players or very nice portrait style photography.  Even though it took Topps two calendar years to answer the bell on creating a "premium" baseball card to match Upper Deck, it was well worth the wait for many collectors.  Two of my favorite cards are pictured here.  Above, I have always loved this Jim Abbott card.  The one handed pitcher for the Angels had a unique way of making his physical limitations work and still perform as an above average Major League pitcher.  This card captures his pitching motion perfectly.  Below, is a picture of Ozzie Guillen wearing a White Sox throwback.  Stadium Club always had tons of cards like this and I love the old fashioned White Sox uni.  

1991 Topps Stadium Club Ozzie Guillen

The Stadium Club set still had it's limitations.  First, it lacked important rookies.  The 1989 Upper Deck set hung it's hat on innovation, but also featured the rookie cards of several important players.  The biggest rookie cards in the 1991 Stadium Club release were Jeff Bagwell, Luis Gonzalez, and Kenny Lofton.  That's actually a pretty good clump of rookie cards with what should be one Hall of Famer and two good above average players.  However, Stadium Club ended up having another common problem of sets in the 90s.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Jeff Bagwell

The set was completely overproduced.  Just like Upper Deck, the word "premium" in the 1990s meant that Topps still produced these cards in ridiculous quantities.  The cards are beautiful and if you felt the need to pick up this set, a quick trip down to your local card shop would find plenty still in stock and at a very reasonable price.  I still love this set and every once in awhile spend my extra dollar to rip open a pack or two of old Stadium Club.  

Like the 1991 Stadium Club set?  Not in the Top 50 is the 1998 Stadium Club set.  Actually, there are many good Stadium Club sets and they all generally follow the clean design and great photography mold established by the 1991 set.  The 1998 Stadium Club set is my favorite though, but there are many others out there to collect.  Let's take a look at the 1998 version.

1998 Topps Stadium Club Jermaine Allensworth

There are a few more game action shots in this set then some of the other Stadium Club issues and that is one reason I like looking at these cards.  There is a John Smoltz robbing someone of a batting practice home run and also a Scott Hatteberg card I am pretty sure the Moneyball people knocked off during the movie.  This Jermaine Allensworth card is a perfect example of a great in game shot.  I like that the ball is in the picture after he's bunted it.  Jermaine Allensworth also always had cool baseball cards despite not being very good.  

There were also some good inserts, but the highlight for me was the Co-Signers autograph set.  The Co-Signers cards were also in the 1997 set, but they were signed front and back.  The 1998 version featured the players signatures side by side.  

1998 Topps Stadium Club Co-Signers Roberto Alomar/Tino Martinez Autograph

The Co-Signers set obviously had some pretty big names which were teamed up with other big names. In my quest to find a Tino Martinez autograph, he was a Cardinal, I found a rather cheap and damaged USA baseball autograph.  However, a few weeks later I ran across this card and added to my collection too.  I like the Tino Martinez autograph, but I like the Alomar autograph more.  Of course, there were also big names that were combined with some duds.  For example, I owned a Matt Morris and Roger Clemens Co-Signers card for a couple of years, ended up trading it, but always felt like the Morris ruined my Clemens autograph.  Same with this card which I still own:

1998 Topps Stadium Club Co-Signers Randy Johnson/Jaret Wright Autograph

I understand that Eric Gregg's double wide strike zone during the 1997 playoffs made Jaret Wright and Livan Hernandez look like Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax, but I've always been sad that's he's on this card.  My all-time favorite Stadium Club Co-Signers autograph from this set belongs to Andres Galarraga and Larry Walker.  Both were on the Cardinals.  Both were on the same team at the time of the card.  Both have really nice signatures.  Both were really good players.  

1998 Topps Stadium Club Co-Signers Larry Walker/Andres Galarraga Autograph

30 Year Top 50: 1988 Topps Traded

#41-There cannot be any ties on my Top 50 countdown of the past 30 years, but this was by far the set I tossed over in my mind the longest.  Mainly because I am trying not to duplicate sets on the countdown.  So, if you read this write up for this set and like the set below, the 1988 Score Rookie/Traded, better I understand.  A similar thing happened back on #46 with the 2004 and 2005 Bowman Heritage set.  With those two sets I gave the nod to the 2004 set because of style.  Today, I am going with content.  No style involved in this post.

In my opinion the most important rookie card in the 1988 Topps Traded set is the Roberto Alomar.  Despite spitting in the face of an umpire, Alomar is one of the best second baseman of the modern era and was a part of two World Championships in Toronto and a good run of playoff teams in Cleveland. Alomar probably stuck around a few too many years at the end of his career, but still had a great overall career.

1988 Topps Traded Roberto Alomar

Besides the Alomar, there were a few other solid rookies cards in this set that are worth the time and expense to add to your collection.  Especially given that, like other late 80's wax, this set was overproduced and is easy to find on the cheap.  If you pay more than $10 you've probably spent too much.  It also means that if you are a single card collector, these cards are all easy to find and inexpensive.

Now, Alomar is the only Hall of Fame rookie in this set, but the other important rookies in this set were solid Major League players.  Perhaps one of them played a long time for one of your favorite teams.  First up is Tino Martinez.  As a Cardinals fan my memories of Tino are not good, but I also understand that he was apart of a good run of Yankees teams that won multiple championships.  Not a Hall of Famer, but a good player and certainly a favorite target of many collectors.

1988 Topps Traded Tino Martinez

My sleeper card in this set belongs to the current White Sox manager Robin Ventura.  At the time this card was printed Ventura was a pretty hot commodity coming off a great college career at Oklahoma State which included the 1988 Golden Spikes Award for the top college player.  

1988 Topps Traded Robin Ventura

Ventura is another player who is short of Hall of Fame credentials as a player, but certainly had some great moments in his career.  Most famously, his walk off Grand Slam while playing for Mets which was later ruled a single after the Mets players mobbed him and did not allow him to circle the bases.  He also charged the mound against Nolan Ryan.  Turned out poorly.  I put Ventura in my sleeper category because of his potential as a manager.  This year was Ventura's first year in the dugout and most would have to agree that he far exceeded expectations.  Worth watching.

There are a few other solid rookies in the set beyond the three pictured above including: Andy Benes, Charles Nagy, Jim Abbott, and Brady Anderson.  

Like the 1988 Topps Traded set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown in the 1988 Score Rookie Traded set.  This set is similar to the Topps Traded set in many ways, but each set has some unique features.  First, the Topps Traded set has more rookie cards.  Ventura, Martinez, and most of my other key rookies from the list above on the 1988 Topps Traded set are not included in this set.  However, there is still a Roberto Alomar rookie card.

1988 Score Rookie Traded Roberto Alomar

I have seen some collectors put a premium on the Score Alomar rookie, but both the Topps and this card generally sell for the same price currently.  The other attraction to the Score Rookie set is the addition of Craig Biggio to the set who is not included in the 1988 Topps Traded set.

1988 Score Rookie Traded Craig Biggio 

Biggio should get into the Hall of Fame at some point considering he played several seasons as a catcher, a second baseman, and an outfielder.  I believe he was one of a handful of players to make an All-Star team at different positions.  Biggio was also able to reach 3000 hits during his final season in the Majors.  All spent as an Astro.  

Both the Alomar and Biggio are inexpensive rookie cards and, like the 1988 Topps Traded set, the 1988 Score Rookie Traded set is an easy find and shouldn't cost anymore than $10.  The style of the Score cards leaves a lot to be desired, but I was never a big fan of the 1988 Topps set either.  Still, both sets are great additions to any collection.  

2005 Topps Fan Favorites Ron Gant

I really enjoy collecting the Cardinals and am especially fond of the 1990's Cardinals.  The team didn't win much during that decade, but I really enjoyed watching the teams play and attended a ton of games.  It was also a point in my life where I really took off with my baseball card collection.  Since that time I have slowly tried to amass as many Cardinals autographs as possible.

Sometimes the process of acquire Cardinals autographs is painful.  For example, Tino Martinez played for the Cardinals.  Tino Martinez also really wanted to play for the Yankees while he was playing for the Cardinals, couldn't hit home runs without the right field fence in Yankee Stadium, and excelled at rolling into double plays.  Now, a goal is a goal.  He wore the birds on the bat, so I need an autograph.  Luckily, I found one that was damaged and cost me under $5.  Job well done.

2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball Tino Martinez Autograph 

Which brings us to a card that I picked up this week on the cheap.  It's a Ron Gant.  In 1995, Ron had a really good season with the Reds and lead them to a playoff appearance.  It was a nice story coming off a motorcycle accident.  Gant signed with the Cardinals that off season and hit 30 home runs in his first season while missing about thirty games due to injury.  He helped the 1996 Cardinals get to within one game of the World Series.  Nice start.  In 2007, Gant hit .229 with 17 homers and 162 strikeouts.  In 2008, he hit .240 and managed 26 bombs.

Fortunately, in between the 1998 and 1999 seasons the Cardinals traded Gant to the Phillies for Rickey Bottalico and Garrett Stephenson.  I still needed a Ron Gant autograph.  Check.

2005 Topps Fan Favorites Ron Gant Autograph