Baseball Card People Are The Best.......

I received a package of cards from Mark over at San Jose Fuji a few weeks back, it took a day off school to get them scanned with a write up. Mark has been writing on that blog for more than a decade and it is easily one of the best blogs out there. Definitely worth your time to go check out.  

Here are the cards in the package.  

First up is an oversized card of former Cardinals second baseman Tommy Herr.  

The card comes from the 1986 Donruss All-Star Pop-Ups set.  You can see the outline around Herr, which can pull out or push in, the card stand-ups with the Metrodome in the background. The 1985 MLB ALL-Star Game was hosted by the Twins and Herr was the National League starting second baseman over Ryne Sandberg.  

The back of the card features the All-Star Game logo and directions for the fold-out.  No mention of Herr getting 110 RBIs with only 8 home runs in 1985, which I find to be one of the cooler stat lines from the decade. Still, I love these cards.   

Next up, a 1981 Kellogg's card of Gary Templeton.  

The 1970s and 1980s Kellogg's sets are always so much fun. This was the only full-sized, non-mini Kellogg's set from the 1980s and prominently featured all the concrete, cookie cutter stadium from this era of baseball in all their glory, including Busch Stadium.  

The arches.

The red seats.  

The concrete overhang.  

There are non-Cardinals players with pictures inside of Busch Stadium from this era as well.  Great card of a guy who was one of the better shortstops in the National League during the late 1970s and early 1980s.  

Next up, more 1981 Cardinals cards.  

This trio of cards is from the 1981 Topps Scratch-Offs set. Great little oddball set. Love that the Cardinals players are all wearing the powder blue road unis on these cards. Great hair on display here as well. 

Next up. 

This might be my favorite card in this package.   

I do not think I have ever seen this card and I have never heard of Holsum Bread. Still, I love the looks of this round card with the red border. Definitely trending towards some type of product that appealed more to kids during Vince Coleman's time with the Cardinals, I did some digging into the background here.  

The card comes from the 1990 Holsum set, which was a small 20 card set distributed in packages of white bread. Holsum was a common bakery brand during the 1980s and 1990s. However, there is not a Holsum Bread Bakery in St. Louis, rather the Holsum products sold in that market are contracted out to a regional bakery there that sells Holsum Bread under various brand names. So, the Holsum Bread Brand in the St. Louis area........

We did not eat Bunny Bread in my house.

I missed out, but I like this card even more after playing connect the corporate bakery dots online.  

Next up.....

One cannot have Vince Coleman and not Willie McGee.  This is from the 1988 Topps UK Mini set. Good looking design and I love the photo on the front of the card. Not many 1980s Cardinals cards with photographs inside of Busch, but these sorts of ground level shots are really rare. I believe this might be from a 1987 World Series game. McGee has a patch on his front sleeve, it is blurry, but those playoff games were the only time the team wore a patch that season.

Mark also included a nice relic card of pitcher turned outfielder Rick Ankiel. Before Othani, there was Ankiel. Not quite the same player, not the same circumstances either.  

Onward........

The next three cards are from the 1995 Signature Rookies Autographs, which borrow their design from the Old Judge tobacco cards. The majority of players in this set are from the high Minors with a surprising number being former Major League Players.  

Petkovsek was a long reliever for the mid 1990s Cardinals teams. He actually won 11 games for the 1996 National League Central team that came within a game of getting to the World Series. Since Petkovsek was in the Majors at the time this card was produced, I am curious as to where they got the uniform for this picture. Prior to being on the Cardinals, Petkovsek had been pitching for the Louisville Redbirds and Tuscon Toros.  Looks like neither.  

Frascatore was another 1990s relief pitcher for the Cardinals. He had played with the Cardinals in 1995, but spent a lot of time going in between St. Louis and Louisville.  This looks like a Memphis Redbirds uniform with a random "O" airbrushed onto the hat.  

Last up, T.J. Matthews. He was a high-leverage reliever who was Eckersley's set-up man when LaRussa first started managing the Cardinals. Matthews ended up getting traded to the A's in the Mark McGwire deal. Matthews is actually wearing an Arkansas Travelers uniform on this card. The hat may be altered slightly, but that was the Cardinals Double A team at the time.  

Nice looking cards. All three have great signatures too.  Can you imagine signing 6,000 copies of a card?  

Last card from the package.  

I recently learned an interesting Sean Lowe factoid at the end of the 2022 baseball season.  

For background......Sean Lowe was selected by the Cardinals in the first round of the 1988 MLB Draft. His first baseball card was in the 1989 Bowman set. He was oft-injured and ended up spending the majority of his short career as a middle reliever for the Chicago White Sox.  

Cool factoid.  

On Jun 16, 2001 the Cardinals were playing the White Sox and leading 6-3 in the seventh inning. Shortstop Placido Polanco started the inning with a walk, which was followed by a J.D. Drew single. The White Sox brought in Sean Lowe to pitch to Pujols.  

What happened next, only happened once in the career of Albert Pujols.....

It's hard to read, but Pujols sac bunted Polanco and J.D. Drew over a base.  

Overall, this was a great package of baseball cards. I am always impressed by the generosity of the people in this hobby. Thank you, Mark, I will drop something in the mail for you one of these weekends.  

Friday Five: My Favorite 1988 Topps and Topps Traded Cards

I got a copy of the 1988 Topps set from my parents for Christmas that year. I was excited about getting a complete set, so I opened the set box and sorted out all of the cards. Everyone from the 1980s knows you are supposed to leave your complete Topps sets sealed, right? I was in fifth grade and baseball cards are fun, of course I opened the box. Also, it's the 1988 Topps set.  You can probably find a copy of the set at your local thrift shop for $5.  

There are probably multiple copies for less than $5 at your thrift shop.  

Is the 1988 Topps set unpopular because it's really that bad, or because it lacks a signature rookie card Truth be told, I kind of dig the 1988 Topps set. The design is underrated.  

Topps is using the 1988 design as an insert set with the 2023 Topps set. Many have not liked the 1988 Topps set for the past thirty years, but you're going to love it now and buy all the retail packs from Target and Wal-Mart.  

I personally like the Nolan Arenado card.  

Now, let me get to the countdown. I am going to include cards from the 1988 Topps Traded set in this post, because there are some good cards in there and it is also a $5 set.  

Shall we?  

5T. 1988 Topps Traded Andy Benes #14T 

5T. 1988 Topps Traded Ron Gant #39T 

I did not touch the 1988 Topps Traded set until the Cardinals signed Andy Benes and Ron Gant as a free agents before the 1996 season. There was a high-end card store that was a few minutes from my house back in the 1990s. When the Cardinals signed Benes and Gant, they set out a huge stack of 1988 Topps Traded sets on one of their counters with all the sets costing $10. I bought the set expecting it to have a Ron Gant rookie and a bunch of junky cards. 

Not the case.  

As a Cardinals fan, I got cards of Jose DeLeon, Luis Alicea, and Tom Brunansky on top of Gant and Andy Benes. There was also David Wells, Jim Abbott, and Roberto Alomar amongst others. It's a pretty good set and I have no idea how it is only crispy Alexander Hamilton.  

4. 1988 Topps Traded Robin Ventura #124T

Robin Ventura is not quite a Hall of Famer. One of the best third baseman from the 1990s and early 2000s, just a step below players like Scott Rolen. In the aftermath of the 1982 Topps Traded set, every Topps Traded set had a potential Cal Ripken waiting to rising from the checklist. This was the "it" card from the 1988 Topps Traded set. Not sure it was every really all that expensive at any point, but the fact that the card costs less than a dollar is insanity.  

This card should cost at least a dollar at a minimum.  

3. 1988 Topps Vince Coleman #1 

I loved the design of the Record Breakers cards in the 1988 Topps set. That red background really pops and it was great to see a Cardinals player on the first card of a Topps set.  The Record Breaker was for Coleman's third consecutive season with more than 100 stolen bases. I believe that Topps has reused this design in one of their Throwback/Customer Direct products.  

Here is the moment.......

The previous record was held by Rickey Henderson.  

2. 1988 Topps Mark McGwire #580 

Mark McGwire with a Topps All-Star Rookie logo in the corner. It was a no-brainer. No goatee or crazy muscles, just skinny Mark McGwire holding a bat and posing for a picture. This is one of my favorite early McGwire cards. Topps also used a picture from this same photo shoot on McGwire's 1988 Glossy Mail-In card and the A's Team Leaders card.  

I am sure if I looked hard enough, Topps has probably recycled these photos on modern McGwire cards as well. It would be borderline shocking if they have not.  

1. 1988 Cardinals Leaders #351 

Great picture here with long-time Cardinals player, manager, and coach Red Schoendienst standing next to catcher Tony Pena. Most coaches do not get cards, so it was nice to see someone as high-profile as Red get the nod from Topps. It is somewhat surprising that Pena appeared on this card over some of the more popular 1980s Cardinals players like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, or Vince Coleman. 

Still, not a complete reach.  

If you weren't around for 1980s baseball, Pena was the premier defensive catcher in the league and the Cardinals were loaded with Gold Glovers. The Cardinals had outfielders to spare, but no catcher. Prior to the 1987 season, the Cardinals traded Andy Van Slyke to the Pirates for Pena. The Cardinals ended up winning the National League that season, but injuries caught up with them in the World Series and they lost in seven games. 

A card back.  

Solid numbers on the Cardinals Team Leaders. I am sure Red helped somehow, someway. 

A 1980s Card Part 45 - 1984 Riley's Louisville Redbirds Vince Coleman

I have done 44 of these posts, and I have not touched a single Minor League card before this post.  I figured it was time to search through the Minor League card box and find a good 1980s Cardinals player before they got the Majors.  The Coleman card in today's post is a favorite. 

I have a few 1980s Cardinals players on Minor League cards, probably not a really deep part of my collection though.  I actually think my favorite Minor League card of a 1980s Cardinals player in my collection is not even with a Cardinals affiliate.  I am sharing it anyway really quick.  I picked this up at a card show for a $1 a few years back.  This is a 1976 Phoenix Giants Jack Clark card.

Love the little motto and logo at the bottom of the card.  That alone made me want to buy the card. 

Back to Vince Coleman.

There are a few different Vince Coleman Minor League cards, but this Riley's Louisville Redbirds card is a pretty easy to find, and generally inexpensive.  I am not sure if these were a giveaway, or if they were sold as a set at the team store.  Either way, they are plentiful, and these sets ran throughout the 1980s. 

The Riley's cards all have similar designs, regardless of year, and most of the position players have action photos of them batting with this weird red thing in the background.  Not the most attractive stadium, so I get the tight crop on the photos.  I went to a Louisville Redbirds game once in middle school.  It was an odd stadium that doubled as the football field for the University of Louisville.  It had a baseball grandstand, but football seating in the outfield.  

This is the best picture I could find.  

Looks a little bit like the old Blue Jays stadium before they moved into the SkyDome. 

The back of the card has a small dissertation about Vince Coleman, but it's actually pretty good information.  Sometimes wordy Minor League cards can stray into all sorts of useless information.  I like that I can now tell people Vince Coleman's college major. 

Tangent about a fact on the back of the card, and something cool I found last week.  

All Cardinals All The Time commented on my post last week about Coleman's athletic prowess in college, which is also talked about here on the back of this card.  Coleman played baseball at Florida A&M, but was also the kicker on their football team.  I did a little digging to see if he was any good.  Not really any consensus, but that probably does not really matter.  What does matter is that in 1979, the Miami Hurricanes had a really bad week against Florida A&M, and got upset by the score of 16-13.  

The deciding play in the game was a late fourth quarter Florida A&M field goal.  Who kicked the field goal?  

Vince Coleman.  

I love that he runs at the football straight on.  

The other thing that pops out for me on the back of this card is his 1983 stolen base numbers at Macon, which would have been an A Ball team.  Coleman stole 145 bases in just 113 games.  That's an insane amount of stolen bases.  

Second week with a Coleman card, I will pick someone different next week.  

A 1980s Card Part 44 - 1989 Foot Locker Slam Fest Vince Coleman

Foot Locker was a quality place to buy shoes back in the 1980s.  We had one in the mall near my house growing up.  First thing you remember about Foot Locker stores in the 1980s and 1990s?  They always had that scoreboard and basketball hoop above the checkout counter.

Makes me happy that this one is showing UNC with a loss.  Thank you internet.

This week's 1980s card comes from a Foot Locker promotion they did with college basketball in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I am not sure if they gave out these cards in set form, or if they were given away as single cards in the store with a purchase.  However they did it, there were Foot Locker Slam Fest sets in 1989, 1991, and 1992. Vince Coleman is the only baseball player who appeared in the 1989 set.

This is the card.

Slam Fest was more than just a set of cards with athletes holding basketballs.  There were Slam Fest episodes aired during the halftime of nationally broadcast college basketball games on NBC, with athletes from various sports participating in a slam dunk contest.  While the cards only ran three years, the Foot Locker Slam Fest episodes ran into the mid 1990s.  

This is a short video clip from an episode with Barry Bonds and others.

I looked hard for a video of Vince Coleman participating in the Foot Locker Slam Fest, but could not find one anywhere.  He was a pretty good athlete, had to be decent to participate. Plenty of other baseball players appear in the 1990s sets.  None of these cards are very expensive.  I picked up this Coleman in a dime box at a card show years ago.  

Here is the back of the card.  

The light blue print is not the easiest to read, but the front of the card more than makes up for anything that is printed on the back of the card.  Overall, a solid oddball card.  Not everyday that you run across a card featuring a player who can steal 100 bases, and dunk a basketball on national television.

Set Appreciation Post #1 - 1986 Topps Mini Leaders

I have taken all the extra time at home to do a lot of sorting.

Part of the sorting has involved finishing off several sets.  I thought it would be fun to write about some of those sets, along with other sets that I have never had a chance to write about.  I have to start somewhere.  Why not here?

I posted a mid 1980s Topps Mini Leader card a few weeks back on my weekly Monday Cardinals post.  The product line started in 1986, running through 1990.  I really liked these sets, so I went on a bit of a hunt through my boxes to see what I had, and what holes I needed to fill in order to complete the sets.

My 1986 Mini Leaders set is finished.  Here's a look. 

Basic Design 

The 1986 Topps Mini Leaders set has an independent design from the Topps base set.  Some years the two sets were similar, but the first year the two were completely separate.  Really simple design, but I like the cloudy edges and simple print along the bottom of the card.  

The card backs for the Mini Leaders sets are all generally the same.  They have a short list of stat categories with the players rankings on the back.  Generally, the players featured in the set have finished in the top 5 of some important category. 

Well, most of the stats are important.  There is one stat in the 1986 Mini Leaders set that is somewhat ridiculous, but that is for later in the post.  

A quick note before I move on in the post.  I used a new scanning app for these cards.  They all fade on one edge of the back of the card.  Not sure why, but I am guessing I did something wrong with the lighting.  

Favorite former Durham Bulls player: Brett Butler 

I only had one choice in this set, so I have to go with Brett Butler.  He was with the Bulls during the 1980 season.  He had a spectacular season in Durham batting .366/.513/.513 with 36 stolen bases in just 66 games.  

The back of the card....

I wish that Topps had listed the categories printed on the bottom of the card in a similar fashion as the two at top.  I think it would have made for a cleaner look.  Perhaps if they had made the white box that reads "Major League Leaders" on the left side a tad smaller, they could have fit the other stat categories onto the card back easier.

Favorite Cardinals Card 

This would be a Vince Coleman rookie card.  Obviously not the one that I really wanted back in 1986, but this card had grown on my over the years.  I like seeing an action shot of Coleman.  Looks like a practice swing before stepping in the batter's box.  Is he yawning?   Still not as nice as the portrait photo on his card in the base set, but again a very nice card.  

Runs, steals, and triples.  This card back is Whitey Herzog approved.  I also love seeing the actual total number of steals that Coleman had in 1985.  That is the sort of number that we may never see again in our lives.  Coleman is in all four versions of this set, and I think each of the cards lists him as a League Leader in steals, runs, and triples.

Favorite Non-Cardinals Card 

This is a cool action picture.  Wonder what happened to his batting helmet?  

Who Would Lead The League In That Now? 

Let's look at the card of a pitcher from the set.  I randomly picked out Bert Blyleven.

When I first started flipping back through these cards the other week, there was on pitching stat that really stood out.  If Topps brought this set back, they would most definitely have a problem finding many players to include.  

Take a look.  Which of these stats never happen anymore?  

Look at that Complete Games and Shutouts stat line.  Who even led the Majors in that stat last year?  How many complete games and shutouts?  Bonus if you know the answer before you read any further down the post.  The answer is below.  

Those 24 complete games and 5 shutouts would never happen anymore.  Just scrolling around and looking at a few modern players, Justin Verlander has pitched in a total of 26 complete games in his career after pitching 2 last year.  In other words, it took him 14 years to pass Bert Blyleven's total from just 1985.     

Last season, Lucas Giolito and Shane Bieber led the Majors in complete games with 3.  Giolio, Bieber, and Sandy Alcantara were the leaders in shutouts with 2.  Not very impressive totals.  

The Dumbest Baseball Card Stat Ever 

Sorry to single you out here Lance Parrish.  You were a good catcher.  

Here is the dumbest stat that ever appeared on a baseball card.  The game-winning RBI stat.  

I am not anti-RBI.  I know there are people who put the stat in the same category as wins, but I am not willing to go that far.  There are is skill in getting runners across the plate.  I leave it at that. 

Why do I think it's a dumb stat?  I went and found an example that involves Lance Parrish.  He only finished third in the stat, so it took me a whole five box scores from the 1985 Tigers to find a good example.  

The game took place on April 14th against the Royals.  The Tigers scored two early runs, tacked on three more in the seventh, before the Royals scratch across a run in the 9th.  

In the third inning, the Tigers first three batters got hits, including an Alan Trammell single that put Detroit ahead 1-0.

After a Kirk Gibson flyout, Parrish grounds out to Royals shortstop Onix Concepcion, and Lou Whitaker, who was on third base, scored the second Tigers run of the inning.  That became a game-winning RBI for Parrish after the Royals scored a run off of reigning American League Cy Young Award Winner Willie Hernandez in the ninth.  

A ground out in the third inning of this game was one of Lance Parrish's 16 game inning RBIs.  The Tigers were already winning.  They never trailed the entire game.  There are plenty of other examples out there too.  

Yes, game-winning RBIs appear in other Mini Leaders set.  No, I won't complain in any other set appreciation posts about this stat being showcased in this product again.  

Cards I Love Part 15 - 1986 Topps Vince Coleman

I have written a lot about this card over the years, so I am going to keep this post short.  There are only so many times that you can write about a card.  A brief summary for your Sunday morning. 

There are a lot of people who have pointed out the lack of important rookie cards in the 1986 Topps set over the years.  The nine year old me strongly disagrees with that assessment of this set.  The Vince Coleman card is the best rookie in the 1986 Topps set.  It's important.  You should own one.  If you don't your in luck.  A lot of people do think there is a good rookie card in the 1986 Topps set, and this card is cheap. 

I spent my entire spring, summer, and fall in 1986 trying to pull a copy of this card out of a pack of cards.  My parents bought me two packs per week at the grocery store.  Plus there were trips to Ben Franklin during the week too.  Eventually, I landed one. 

Who wouldn't want the rookie card of the last player who stole 100 bases? 

We are at 32 years and counting since Coleman stole his 100th base of the 1987 season against the Mets in mid September. 

He ended the year with 109 steals. 

For some, the trio of Willie McGee rookies are their favorite first year Cardinal cards from the 1980s, but I gave Coleman the nod at the time.  I still like the 1986 Topps Vince Coleman rookie card more.  Nothing against Willie.  He's one of my favorite Cardinals, and I do really like his rookie cards.   This was I card I loved as a kid, and as an adult.  I still love it. 

I actually own the photo negative from the Topps Super version of this card. 

Same thing as the regular Topps card, just on a larger scale.  

 

A 1980s Card Part 1- 1986 Topps Vince Coleman

I am out of 1990s Cardinals players that I am interested in writing about.  On to the 1980s.  

My favorite 1980s Cardinals card has to be the first post.  The first full year that I lived in St. Louis was 1985.  Vince Coleman stole 100 some bases that season.  Yes, there is a 1985 Topps Traded card of Vince, but I did not own that card until I was an adult.  The 1986 Topps card was the first card of Coleman that I actually had a chance to own.  Every week during the summer, two packs of cards from the Manchester Dierbergs.  

The store has been remodeled at least ten times since I was kid, probably too conservative an estimate, but this cool brown and orange sign is supposedly still out in front of the shopping center.  I spent a summer pushing in carts at this store.

At some point during the summer of 1986 I finally pulled a copy of the card.  I don't remember the exact moment, but I am sure that I was excited.

Something else I love from 1986:  Ferris Bueller's Day Off