1999 Fleer Brilliants Gold Ray Lankford

It has been a great week for the Ray Lankford collection.  After collecting Lankford cards for more than a dozen years, it is rare when you see a new card that you need to add.  I have my favorites and will still get excited when I see a cool Lankford card that I already own, but I am ecstatic when I fill holes in my collection.  This week I have already added a 1998 Fleer EX-2001 Essential Credentials Now card numbered out of 49.  I cannot remember the time I added two new Lankford cards in a week.  It's probably been four or five years.  Anyway, here is the new addition:

1999 Fleer Brilliants Gold Ray Lankford /99

The scratches are on the case

This set was only a one year run for Fleer, but it is actually one of my favorite sets from the late 90s.  Fleer Brilliants had no autographs or game used cards, but was simply constructed on a few inserts and variations on the base cards.  There were three primary variations in the set: Brilliant Blues, Brilliant Golds, and 24 Karat Gold.  I am still missing the 24 Karat Gold version, but was happy to add this short-printed card to my collection.  Boxes of the Fleer Brilliants product can be found really cheap if you are looking for a fun and inexpensive box to bust.  

The Worst Card of 2012

I put together several sets during the course of a year.  Since I started blogging this year, I had been writing up a nice little snippet about each set giving some pluses and negatives.  A few weeks back Topps released it's 2012 version of their Allen & Ginter product.  Immediately I began to assemble the set, but was taken back by a name on the list: Don Denkinger.

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Don Denkinger

For those who are not familiar with the legend of Don Denkinger I will gladly catch you up.  During the 1985 World Series, Denkinger was a part of the umpiring crew calling the I-70 series between the Cardinals and Royals.  The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-2 series led and were winning the sixth game heading into the ninth inning.  The first batter of the inning was Jorge Orta.  He hit a slow roller to first base where it was fielded by Jack Clark and flipped to Todd Worrell covering at first base.  Denkinger incorrectly called Orta safe.  Orta eventually came around to score to tie the game and later the Royals would win the game.  

The next night the Cardinals had to deal with Denkinger as the home plate umpire.  Hard to believe, but he tossed Juaquin Andujar and Whitey Herzog early in the game and the Cardinals lost the series.  Now, I am aware that there have been plenty of bad calls in recent baseball history.  However, none of them cost a player or team as much as Denkinger cost the Cardinals that season.  It's pretty hard to believe that an umpire who caused that much harm would be celebrated with a baseball card.  Way to lay an egg Topps.  

1998 Skybox EX-2001 Ray Lankford Essential Credentials Now

My super collection of Ray Lankford took a big step forward this week with the addition of a 1998 Skybox EX-2001 Ray Lankford Essential Credentials Now.  There are very few Ray Lankford printing plates floating around in the world, so low print parallel cards are the next best thing in my world.  In fact, if Beckett would care to price accurately, they would find that parallel sets such as the Essential Credentials, Circa Rave, and Upper Deck Exclusives cards often draw premium prices.  Even on minor stars such as Ray Lankford.  

1998 Skybox EX-2001 Essential Credentials Now Ray Lankford 22/49

The Essential Credentials cards were featured in all the releases of the Skybox EX sets starting in 1996 and running all the way through 2003.  The print run for each card Essential Credential varies, but they are tough finds and have an attached premium on them after ten plus years on the market.  Every set also features a Now and Future version of the cards.  The 1998 set is my personal favorite.  The cards are everything to love about a set from the 90s.  

I found this card on Ebay about a week ago and probably paid a little bit more than I would have liked to, but I haven't even seen one of these cards in three or four years.  It seemed like a good idea to put one into the collection while one was available and floating around.  It adds to my two other Essential Credential cards of Lankford.  

1998 Skybox EX-2001 Essential Credentials Future Ray Lankford 50/52 

1999 Skybox EX-Century Essential Credentials 38/75

2012 Bowman Platinum Carlos Martinez Jersey/Auto

I've continued my work on assembling a 2012 Bowman Platinum set the past two weeks and my work is rapidly approaching it's conclusion.  I will post the base set at some point this weekend and give a little feedback to the good people over at Bowman.  In the meantime, I added my second autographed jersey card from the set this week.

2012 Bowman Platinum Carlos Martinez Jersey/Autograph 

This Carlos Martinez autograph is probably the best Cardinals autograph from the Bowman Platinum set.  There is an Oscar Tavares autograph, but it is a dual autograph with Charlie Tilson.  Tilson also has a solo autograph in the set.  However, I am not sure how great of a prospect Tilson truly will be and I think his autograph waters down the dual autograph card.  Despite having a short stint on the D.L. for a shoulder, Martinez is still pitching well and is considered a high end prospect.  

2010 Topps Johnny Mize Bat Card

2010 Topps Peak Performers Johnny Mize Bat Card

I traded for this card last week and was happy to see it arrive in my mailbox this afternoon.  Mize is more noted for his years as a New York Giant, but did have a brief stint early in his career as a Cardinal.  In fact, Mize finished second in the MVP voting twice as a Cardinal during the 1939 and 1940 seasons.  Most importantly, he held the Cardinals single-season home run record from 1940 until 1998.  

The card itself from a Topps base set which is a little bit of a strike against, but I tend to think the vintage players from these sets tend to dry up quicker than the modern players.  For example, a quick search of Ebay shows there are no available copies of this card available at the moment and he same is true of COMC.  Rick Ankiel, Albert Pujols, and other modern Cardinals players in the same relics set have multiple copies available on both sites.  This is my first Mize relic card and I am hoping to add a few more.  

2012 Bowman Platinum Matt Moore Autograph/Jersey

I started to put together my 2012 Bowman Platinum set.  I am a little bit behind on a few of my sets for the year, but I had to put together the Platinum set.  In my opinion, this annual set has become the nicest prospect set that the Topps company has put out each of the past few years.  Sadly, I think it has based the Bowman base set by in many ways.  One of the biggest pluses for this set is the autographs.  I particularly liked the autos from last years set which were on a clean looking card with an on card autograph.

This years autographs are a little bit different, but they still have their pluses.  Mainly, I like that they added the jersey and patch pieces to the cards.  It's a nice wrinkle to the set and design.  So, here's my first autograph in my set building process for 2012 Bowman Platinum.

2012 Bowman Platinum Matt Moore Autograph/Jersey

2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball Matt Morris Autograph

This card was really cheap, but is a must have for anyone who watched the Cardinals during the past twenty years.  Matt Morris might have been the only decent pitcher on most of the late 90s teams and was a good solid starting pitcher for most of the early 2000s.  His run with the Cardinals did include one spectacular season in 2001 where he won 22 games and finished third in the Cy Young voting.  His career ended with a few years in San Francisco and a few starts with the Pirates.

2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball Matt Morris Autograph