I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 67 - Cliff Politte

Politte's Cardinals career only lasted eight games, but he is someone who still comes up from time to time amongst the team's fans.  Cliff Politte was a local player who attended Vianney High School in suburban St. Louis, and later at Jefferson College, which is just south of St. Louis County.  Eventually he ended up being selected by the Cardinals in the 54th round of the 1995 MLB Draft.

He pitched in the Cardinals minor league in 1996 and 1997 appearing for two different A Ball teams, and the Double A Arkansas Travelers.  The Cardinals ended up starting Politte out in St. Louis to begin the 1998 season.  He won his first start at the Major League level on the second game of the season against the Dodgers.  After a few starts though, Major League hitters caught up to Politte and he was sent back down to the Minors.

A few cards from Politte's time in the Minors.

I usually hold out the best card(s) for the end of the post.  However, with Politte his best card was one of his firsts.  He signed in the 1997 Bowman set, also appeared in the base set.  Obviously this is the better card.  This is not the most common autographed card in the world, not always the cheapest either for a player who had a short career.  I know that there are Bowman autographs that are tougher than others, I would have to imagine that this card is one of those that is short printed.  

Second best card from his time in the Minors.......

has to be his 1998 Bowman, or Bowman Chrome.  The International variation is a must since the card shows Politte as a Cardinal, but also shows his hometown on the map in the background of the card.  Always a little nice when the hometown and the player's team line up.  Bowman also made these cards in 1997, but they had a national flag in the background instead of the map.  Still a nice looking card, I give it a mention, but not a scan.

On to the Major League cards.

Politte has one of those prospect cards in the 1998 Topps set.  He appears with Braden Looper, who was also a short lived Cardinals prospect.  The Cardinals traded him to the Marlins for Edgar Renteria.  Looper returned back to the Cardinals later in his career.  

So, after returning to the Minors for the second half of the 1998 season, Politte struggled a bit.  At the end of the season, he traded to the Phillies.  The first paragraph from this UPI wire story is a gem....

Obviously Politte ended up being the prospect the Cardinals sent to the Phillies.  Garrett Stephenson, who had squabbled with Curt Schilling in Philadelphia was the "marginal major-league prospect" that was sent to the Cardinals.  

Politte still popped up in a few baseball card sets in 1999.  Not many, but he did get one final appearance as a Cardinal in the Upper Deck Black Diamond set.  

Politte is also in the Metal Universe set wearing a Cardinals uniform, but the markings and logos on the card are of the Phillies.  

As far as the rest of Politte's career, he played a few seasons with the Phillies before heading over to the Blue Jays.  They converted him over to a relief pitcher, which gave his baseball career a little bit of life.  Eventually he ended up on the White Sox for a few seasons, including 2005.  

Politte appeared in 4 games during the White Sox run to the World Series title, including three against the Astros in the World Series.  His 2006 was rough and led to Politte being released mid way through the season.  In 2007, he tried to come back with the Indians.  In 2008, he tried a comeback with the Cardinals.  Politte ended up pitching a handful of games in Memphis, but never made it back to St. Louis.  

Black Diamond Belle

One of the best baseball villains of the 1990s was Indians/White Sox/Orioles outfielder Albert "Joey" Belle.  His career started with the Indians in the last 80s, when he was briefly known as Joey, and was an MVP candidate by his second full season in 1992 when he posted a .260/.320/.477 line with 34 home runs and 112 RBIs.  The next four seasons (1993-1997) saw Belle finish in the Top 10 in MVP voting and make the American League All-Star team.  Honestly, I have no idea how Belle did not win an MVP award during that time.  Actually, I know why he did not win, but still he was an awesome player.  

Starting in 1994 Belle was one of the best offensive forces in baseball.  People really underestimate his 1994 season when he posted a .357/.438/.714 with 36 home runs and 101 RBIs.  His OPS+ that season was 194, which is one of the Top 100 marks for a season in Major League Baseball.  He could have easily won an MVP, except Frank Thomas....who posted the 26th best season ever, measured by OPS+ with a .353/.487/.729 line with 38 home runs and 101 RBIs.  Is there a wrong answer?  Not really.  

In 1995, Belle posted a 50 home run season, when the number meant something, and also managed to get the hapless Indians franchise to the World Series.  MVP worthy?  Yes, probably so.  Here was the deal with Albert if you are not familiar.....

Really awesome hitter.....

Really not cool.  

So, needless to say a lot of Albert's antics failed to win him popularity contests, but he was really good in his prime.  After he left the Indians he landed with the White Sox for two good years before leaving for the Orioles.  He was still a good player on the Orioles, but a hip problem slowed him down and he ended up retiring after collecting a lot of money for not playing.  His last official season on the field was 2000, but he collected pay checks until 2003.  Which is probably a good reason why most Orioles fans are not big fans of the Albert Belle cards.......

I still like Albert and I like his cards, which is why I picked up this card recently.   This bat card is another early on bat relic card from Upper Deck out of their Black Diamond product.  Back when bat cards and jersey cards were actually pretty tough pulls.  I always really liked these cards, in terms of design, and have been able to find a bunch of them for my collection.  However, unlike some of the early Upper Deck relics some of these can be found dirt cheap depending on the variation of relic you find.  The rarer, and much more expensive versions of the Black Diamond relics, have multiple relic pieces, like this Chipper Jones.