I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 42 - Bernard Gilkey

No pictures of Bernard from Men In Black. 

Bernard Gilkey was in the wave of prospects that the Cardinals called up in 1990 to replace the WhiteyBall Era players.  Willie McGee was traded towards the end of the season, still won the National League batting title, and Vince Coleman was not going to re-sign with the team.  The Cardinals reconstituted their outfield with Felix Jose, who came over in the trade for Willie McGee, along with Ray Lankford and Bernard Gilkey. 

According to Baseball America, Lankford was the 19th best prospect entering the 1990 season, Felix Jose was the 51st best prospect, and Bernard Gilkey was not on the radar for whatever reason.  Admittedly, he showed little power in the Minors and mainly just stole a bunch of bases every year.  Gilkey did have good discipline at the plate, so he at least drew a lot of walks.  His career Minor League on-base percentage was .361. 

In 1991, Lankford and Jose both established themselves as everyday Major League players.  Gilkey hit .216/.316/.313, which earned him a spot on the bench and only slightly more than 250 at bats.  It didn't help that Milt Thompson had a career year of sorts. 

Baseball card wise, I am not sure that any Gilkey rookie card was highly desired enough to be considered valuable.  There are a bunch of them, they have never had any value, and can be found for pennies all over the internet, or in the cheapy boxes at card shows. 

I am partial to his 1990 Leaf card. 

Gilkey had a really unique stance, video in a few minutes, but I am not sure he had it when he first got called up to the Cardinals.  

Not a rookie card, but an early card and one of my favorite all-time Gilkey cards is his 1992 Upper Deck.  He's running over the bullpen mound in Busch II catching a ball.  

The picture is everything on this card.  Great action shot.  

After a shaky first season, Gilkey turned around his performance and became a good player for the Cardinals, save for a down year in 1994.  He ended up surpassing Felix Jose and Mark Whiten as the complementary piece to Ray Lankford in the Cardinals outfield.  Gilkey had OPS+ of 127 in 1992, 129 in 1993, 85 in 1994, and 124 in 1995.  100 is an average player.  The Cardinals ended up settling on an outfield with Gilkey in left, Lankford in center, and Brian Jordan in right.  

After the 1995 season the Cardinals traded Gilkey away to the Mets after signing away Ron Gant from the Reds.  The Cardinals were looking for offense and more power, Gilkey offered the least of the three outfielders prior to Gant's signing.  Gilkey went on to have a career year with the Mets in 1996.  He hit .317/.393/.562 with 30 home runs, 117 RBIs, and 33 doubles.  

Some say the season got Bernard an acting gig in a Will Smith movie.  Something about aliens running around New York City.  It would be funny to see a UFO flying over Shea.  

Gilkey had some off the field issues, which hurt his on field performance.  He bounced around between the Diamondbacks, Red Sox, and Braves for a few years.  Gilkey was out of professional baseball by the end of 2001.  

A few more cards.  

I have always been a huge fan of this card.  It's a 1993 Upper Deck.  Gilkey and Lankford are on the sides of Ozzie Smith and Geronimo Pena is in the back.  These were the three young players who eventually stood out amongst the group of players that were promoted to replace the WhiteyBall Era players.  Pena is the least recognizable of the group, good player when he was healthy.  He was never healthy.  Kind of a good passing of the torch card from Ozzie, the best player on the 1980s Cardinals, to Lankford and Gilkey.    

Two more.  This is a great picture of the old Busch Stadium on this 1995 Upper Deck.  I would recognize that blue color on the dugout walls and the outfield walls in the background anywhere.  If you go back up to the Upper Deck card where Gilkey is running over the mound, the wall behind him in left field is that same color.  The blue went away in 1996 when the team switched over to a grass field.   The walls turned green.  I also like that you can see the arches on the top of the stadium.  Great still shot that does a great job of capturing some of the signature elements of the stadium.  

 Last card for this post.  This is also from 1995, it's a Flair.  Really nice set from the mid 1990s.  The design from this era is a little bit more gaudy than the designs from the 2000s, but I dig the sparkly stuff in the background.  The card stock on these are really nice too.  One of Gilkey's last cards as a Cardinal, this is my favorite from the tail end of his run in his hometown.  

The Pirates? It Could Be Worse.

My first run in with Chris Archer came back in 2012 while he was pitching for the Durham Bulls.  He was a fun player to watch and quickly became one of my favorite prospects.  I was fortunate enough to see a bunch of his starts while he was pitching in Durham. 

The bullpens at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park are on the field and close to the seats.  When I attended games where Archer pitched, I would always try to arrive early and take in his pre-game throwing and bullpen session.  He has great stuff, a live arm.   

Archer was a very popular member of the Bulls.  In part because of his on-field talent, but he also grew up and went to high school in Clayton, North Carolina which is short drive from Raleigh.  A few years ago I was able to actually meet him at the USA Baseball facility during the offseason.  Sort of an under the radar free signing. 

I do not do a lot of in person signing, not really much into tracking down autographs, but I will go to free signings.  Archer was very out going.  He sat and talked with the people who came out to see him, answered questions, and took the time to personalize items.  I got a ball signed and he wrote a short message on the side of the ball.  

My son, who was three at the time got a Durham Bulls card signed by Archer.  It's the only baseball card that he has owned that has not met some terrible ending.  The smudge is from the day it was signed.  

Needless to say, I have collected a few Chris Archer cards over the years.  However, with him now moving over to the Pirates it might be a little bit harder.  The Pirates are not exactly low on my list of teams, certainly not the Cubs, but they are in the same division as the Cardinals.  That complicates things a little bit.  Plus, I would have really liked to have seen that Cardinals trade for Archer.  That was a reported possibility.  

It could be worse, I could be seeing cards of Archer on the Cubs or Brewers.  I will still dabble in Archer cards from here on out, but I will still primarily focus on cards from the Rays years.  Since we are at the end of an era, I wanted to take a few minutes and share out a few of my favorites from the past seven to eight years of Chris Archer cards.  A little bit of everything.  

Speaking of Archer cards on the Cubs.....

First up is a 2010 Bowman Platinum card of Chris Archer.  Everyone remembers him as a Cub?  He actually never pitched for them, but was in their Minor League system for awhile.  The Cubs traded him to the Rays for Matt Garza.  Not always a good topic of conversation with Cubbie fans, so I like to bring it up every once in awhile.  It's not nearly as bad of a trade as most make it out to be, but still not good. 

Plenty of good cards in this set.  Plenty of sticker autographs in this set too, but fortunately the Archer signature is on the actual card.  I would still own it if were on a sticker though. 

I have barely touched the whole patches and swatches and pieces of stuff that players might, or might not have worn at some point scene over the past few years.  However, this card is pretty ridiculous.  Would not surprise me that Archer wore this jersey for 5 minutes once, but at the same time maybe he wore it more.  Possibly even in a game.  

Minor Leaguers no longer wear these patches, but they used to be on the back collar of their jerseys.  Here is a picture of Archer wearing a jersey with the patch, it's above the flag.  

At minimum, the card is an interesting conversation piece.  

Archer is a pretty good signer, lots of autographs out there, but this 2013 Heritage autograph is easily my favorite.  Clean design, nice signature, not much not to like with this card.  There are shinier autographs, low serial numbers, autographs with huge patch pieces, but I think that sometimes simple is better.  

Favorite insert, actually a parallel.....

is this acetate card from the 2014 Topps set.  Great looking card, I love the colored front with the black and white back.  If I had to own just one Archer card it would be a coin toss between this card and the Heritage autograph.  

That's it for the moment.  I will continue to follow Archer's career as a Pirate and wish him many wins against the Cubs, Reds, and Brewers.  Let's just stick to some no decisions against the Cardinals.  Either way, I will continue to support your tweets about books and bookstores.....

If I drank coffee I would follow those tweets too.  Later Archer.  

Project Durham Bulls #38 - Joey Gathright

2004-2006 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

The Devil Rays drafted Gathright in the 32nd Round of the 2001 Draft out of Kenner, Louisiana.  Gathright actually started his professional career the following summer in 2002 with the Charleston River Dogs in South Atlantic League (Low A) and immediately impressed with his ability to get on base and steal.  During his first professional season he stole 22 bases and had an on-base percentage of .360.  The next season in High A and Double A he pushed his on-base percentage over .400 and he stole 69 bases.  By 2004, Gathright reached Triple A with the Durham Bulls as a top 100 prospect with Baseball America.  He ended up splitting time with the Bulls, Double A Montgomery, and in the Majors with the Devil Rays.  Gathright appeared in 60 in Durham, stole 33 bases, and had an OBP of .384.  His 2005 was split between Durham and Tampa, while he hit with the Bulls, he did not duplicate that success with the Devil Rays.  In 2006, he started the season with the Durham Bulls, but was traded in June to the Royals for relief pitcher J.P. Howell.  

Gathright ended up playing seven seasons in the Majors with the Rays, Royals, Cubs, and Red Sox.  In the end, he was never able to consistently get on-base and that limited his chances to steal bases.  Sometimes you are a good enough athlete you can jump over cars at the mall.....

Yes, it's Joey Gathright.  His incredible jumping ability did not translate into hits and walks. 

Card- 

Fleer Authentix was around for a few years in the early 2000s.  I really liked this product the first year or two that it was out, but it went downhill quickly.  The set obviously revolved around tickets, this was it's final appearance due to Fleer going bankrupt.  Not anything really special about this card, but I picked this card based more on what it was not, more than what it is.

Back of the card really quickly.  

Gathright signed a healthy number of cards during a 5 year window between 2004 and 2009.  Almost all of the cards are signed on stickers.  This card is not an on-card autograph, but it was better than most of the options.  Really, I did not want a card with a giant silver sticker on the front of it that came out of some iffy product like Donruss Team Heroes.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 41- Ron Gant

The Cardinals ownership changed after the 1995 season.  Anheuser Busch had owned the team since the mid 1950s, but after the passing of Gussie Busch in 1989 the team had been run by his son August Busch III.  Gussie loved the Cardinals and worked to put a winning product on the field.  August III liked the idea that fans spent money at Busch Stadium, but could care less about what happened on the field.

The new ownership group was headed by Bill DeWitt Jr..  He grew up in St. Louis where his father, Bill DeWitt, was a baseball executive with the St. Louis Browns, Yankees, Tigers, and Reds.  DeWitt Sr. even ended up owning the Reds for a few years in the 1960s.

DeWitt Jr.'s made many moves after taking ownership of the team in hopes of improving the on-field product.  Tony LaRussa was hired as manager, the team traded for half of the Oakland A's and Royce Clayton, and the team signed two high end free agents.  Andy Benes was signed to lead the rotation and long-time Brave Ron Gant was signed to bolster the middle of the lineup.

During his time with the Braves and Reds had frequently appeared in playoffs and was one of the better impact bats available that off season.  He had left the Braves after he broke his leg in an ATV accident before the 1994 season.  Gant proved himself worthy with a good year in Cincinnati....

which landed him a 5 million dollar a year contract with the Cardinals.  

Gant's first season with the Cardinals was a huge success.  He hit 30 home runs in just 122 games and the Cardinals got within a game of the NLCS.  Gant was clutch throughout the unexpected playoff run.  

Gant spent two more seasons on the Cardinals and they were not good.  In 1997 the Cardinals struggled to score runs during the first half of the season and Gant was a large part of the problem.  He had an OPS of just .698 and a slugging percentage of .388, or 50 points lower than leadoff hitter Delino DeShields.  

Mark McGwire came over to the Cardinals from Oakland at the end of July in 1997.  Gant was pushed down the lineup in 1998 in favor of hitting McGwire, Lankford, and Brian Jordan in the middle of the lineup.  The team eventually traded for Fernando Tatis and brought up top prospect J.D. Drew.  Add in the free agent signing of Eric Davis and Gant was toast in St. Louis.  

Gant's role as a starter eventually diminished after leaving the Cardinals, but he still had some nice moments down the stretch of his career.  Including a pretty good playoff game as a spot starter for the A's in 2001.

Baseball card wise, there are a lot of Ron Gant cards in a Cardinals uniform.  I had a few hundred to sort through to find a few for this post.  I narrowed it down to a small stack of cards.  More specifically, one marble and a few baseball cards.

Marble first.

One of the great oddball sets of the 1990s is the 1997 Topps Marble Shooters set.  The small plastic marbles are tough to find and can be pretty pricy at times.  I have managed to scrap together the complete Cardinals set, three different marbles, over the course of 20 years.  Gant was included in the set along with fellow outfielders Brian Jordan and Ray Lankford.  

Not my favorite Gant, but certainly a great conversation piece.  

Next up is a sort of cool low budget card.  

Who can forget the old "You Crash The Game" cards that Upper Deck used to put in their card packs during the 1990s?  Not sure how many people actually followed along with these cards and took advantage of the exchange program.  Gant went yard twice against the Cubs on in a July 12th win.  

Since Gant hit the home run, this card could be exchanged for a winning card.  

I have seen some people call these Winner cards, other Cell cards.  Whatever you want to call it, Ron Gant is wearing a Reds uniform on the card, but you just cannot see the logos on his jersey and batting helmet.  There is only one number 6 on the Cardinals......

and it is not Ron Gant.  

Last two quickly.  I am supposed to be writing a newsletter, but this has been a great few minutes of procrastination.  

This is THE Ron Gant baseball card.  It does not matter if you get the 1997 Topps or Topps Chrome version of this card, both are pretty incredible.  Same picture, just a matter of whether you want shine or no shine.   If someone asked me about Ron Gant, this is where I would point them.  This is what Ron Gant was as a baseball player.  Even when he was on the Braves, his arms were rather bulky.    He is still ripped to this day.......

Which brings me to my last card.  If the 1997 Topps card shows what Ron Gant was as a baseball player, the 1999 Topps card shows what Ron Gant was a Cardinals player.  This photo says it all....

He's swinging, he looks happy, and I am not sure he hit anything.  I am not saying that Ron Gant was somehow happy about not hitting while he was on the Cardinals, but if I were getting paid a bunch of money to hit baseballs and have huge biceps I would be pretty happy most of the time too.  Gant was not actually on the 1999 Cardinals, don't worry Topps got him a Phillies card in 1999.

Let's procrastinate three extra minutes to talk about why Topps made a card of Ron Gant in a Cardinals uniform after he retired.  This is the card.....

Ron Gant got traded off the Cardinals at the end of the 1998 season because he could not hit consistently for power and then he and Tony LaRussa got into some sort of verbal spat.  Not sure much good came out of Gant's time as a Cardinals.  Why are we revisiting these three years?  I am sure there are some Braves fans who would love to see a Ron Gant card, maybe the Reds?  At least Topps stopped at one.  

1989 Durham Bulls Part 2

This is the second half of my 1989 Durham Bulls set, which was put out by Star.  The first half of the set can be found here.

I said it would be a week before I posted the second half of the set in the original post, it turned out to be a month.  Close enough. 

I did not do much information on the 1989 Bulls outside of the baseball cards during my first post, so a little more on their performance before we tackle the second half of the team.  During the regular season, this was the best team in the Carolina League, finishing 7 games ahead of the Kinston Indians in the Southern Division.  The Bulls reached the Carolina League Championship, but fell to the Prince William Cannons (Yankees) in the finals.

Manager Grady Little took home the Carolina League Manager of The Year.  Phil Plantier, a Red Sox prospect at this point, took home the League MVP with a pretty ridiculous stat line.

On with the cards.

A pretty good set of cards opens the second half of the set, let's start with Ken Pennington.  This was his second season with the Bulls and he put up a respectable .275/.323/.413 slash line with 10 home runs and 34 doubles.  He led the Carolina League in doubles.  

Neid was a good prospect for the Braves and ended up being the first draft pick in the 1993 Expansion Draft by the Rockies.  However, 1989 was not his finest moment.  Neid went 5-2 in 12 starts, seems good, until you look his 6.63 ERA.  That's 43 earned runs in 58 innings.  I guess the Bulls hit when he pitched.  

Last up is Al Martin.  I best remember him as a Pirate, but he was also the fourth outfielder on the 2001 Mariners team that won 116 games.  Easily had the best career of any position player on the 1989 Durham Bulls who reached the Majors.  

Stoker and Ross were solid players for the Bulls, neither reached the Majors, but they did well in Durham.  Ross hit 11 home runs, 24 doubles, and stole 22 bases.  He was in the Braves farm system until 1992 when he was traded to the Red Sox for Jeff Reardon.  Stoker won 8 games for the Bulls with an ERA in the mid 4s.  Solid, but this was his last year in the professional baseball.

Ben Rivera pitched a few seasons for the Phillies.  That included 13 wins for the 1993 Phillies National League Championship team.  He also pitched in Japan, Korea, and Mexico.

Tomberlin was probably the best player on this team during the 1989 season.  He hit 16 home runs, drove in 61 runs, and also managed to steal 35 bases.  He made his Major League debut with the 1993 Pirates and ended up playing a total of 6 seasons.  Tomberlin played for a total of five different teams during his 6 seasons:  Pirates, Red Sox, A's, Mets, and Tigers.  He was a career .233 hitter, but he made it.

Theron Todd played three years in Durham, 1989 was his second.  His first season with the Bulls was his best, but he could not duplicate again and ended his career in A Ball.

Tilmon won 11 games for the Bulls in 1989.  One of his best seasons as a professional, but not his best.  He ended up playing for a long time in the Northern League, which is independent Minor League ball.

Last two players.  Ziem and Turner were both very good for the Bulls and both made it to the Majors.  Ziem was a perfect 9-0 in Durham in 1989.  The team used several different players in the closer role, Ziem was amongst the pitchers who held that role during the season.  He reached the Majors in 1987 with the Braves, pitched in 2 games, and ended up all the way back down in Durham.  Not sure if that was because of an injury?

Turner went 9-9 for the Bulls in 1989, but had almost a strikeout per inning and an ERA of 2.90.  He was traded to the Astros for Jim Clancy in 1991, but made it the Majors when he signed with the expansion Florida Marlins during December of 1992.  The Marlins used him in 55 games where he pitched 68 innings.  Turner had an ERA+ of 147 and a 2.0 WAR.  Not bad.  He ended his career with a few games with the 1994 Cleveland Indians.  

Which brings me to the coaches.  

First, we have long time Cardinals pitcher Larry Jaster.  He pitched on the 1967 World Championship team and the 1968 National League Championship team.  Jaster was a role player on those teams.  Perhaps his best known accomplishment was being the first player to throw a pitch in a Major League game in Canada.  

Incocencio Guerrero was a player on the 1988 Durham Bulls.  He was a long time Braves farmhand who played a total of 10 years in their system.  He also appeared for the 1982 and 1983 Bulls teams.  Not sure of exactly sure of all the details, but Guerrero stuck with coaching for awhile.  In looking up some of his other cards, he has plenty as a coach.  

Little managed the Red Sox for two years in 2002 and 2003, later the Dodgers in 2006 and 2007.  Before those two Major League managing gigs, he spent a lot of time in Durham.  He managed the Bulls from 1988 through 1991, never had a losing season as the team's manager.  

I Just Want To Give It My Best Shot

A quick post about player collecting.  I have given up on it over the past year in the traditional sense over the past year.  Not sure I ever put that in a post.  There was one in the works at one point about it, sure it's my my drafts somewhere.  Sort of felt like revisiting the whole thing after the Canseco super collector retired and started selling off all thousandsomething of his cards.  

I need to revisit that draft badly. 

There are so many different card products these days, with all sort of parallels, and variations.  It's not really possible to go out and track down a large percentage of a player's card checklist the way you could in the 1990s when I first started a few player collections, mainly focused on Ray Lankford.    

I do not own a bunch of Ray Lankford printing plates, and there are several low print run cards that I do not own, but I usually crossed off the overwhelming majority of his cards every calendar year.  

That feels nearly impossible nowadays.  Money being one factor, but also the fact that I do not want to take the time to track down all of the cards.  So, instead I have borrowed one of the cliches from Bull Durham to describe my modified approach to find cards of favorite players.

Of course they're boring, that's the point.  

I like Anthony Banda at the moment.  True, he's on the disabled list and is not coming back until next year.  It's also true that he pitched well for the Durham Bulls and Rays while he was healthy.  Banda has many cards for sale on Ebay.  I have been picking out a nice card here, nice card there.  Really, not bad prices for a decent prospect with some upside.  

So, two new cards to start the weekend.  

This is from Museum Collection.  Love how many different uniforms the Diamondbacks wear.  Earlier in the week I posted an Inception card with a picture of Anthony Banda wearing a purple and green throwback Diamondbacks jersey.  The patch swatch on the card was the dark grey road jersey.  

This card has the purple and green jersey swatches that match the Inception card.  Seems like there could have been some better planning here.  

Always amazed at products that cost more than $200 a box, but the autographs are on a sticker.  That's why I do not buy $200 boxes of cards, just buying your $5 cards of Minor Leaguers.  Just gave it my best shot and I won an Ebay auction for this card.  

This Banda Inception autographed card was a little bit harder to find at a good price.  All I wanted was to own a nice card of a player I enjoy watching.  I just wanted to give it my best shot.  I can't blame collectors for listing cards like this for $30 and $40 considering the cost of the Inception boxes.  I set out to find one copy of this card, the color of the parallel and serial numbering did not really matter.  Just wanted to own a nice card of a player I enjoy watching. 

Even though this copy if numbered to 150 copies, kind of a high number for Inception, it's a great looking card with a nice piece of patch.  Second Banda card in the past two weeks with a huge chunk of jersey patch, those are still sort of cool. 

Stack Of Stadium Clubs

Stadium Club came out awhile ago, there are a lot of repeat signers for the Cardinals and Rays who are in multiple 2018 products, so I took my time trying to add a few cards.  I really like the Stadium Club cards.  Topps has done a great job of bringing this product back over the past few years and reviving it's 1990s branding of being a high quality set with high photography. 

I have done some posts in the past just to showcase some of the base cards from the recent Stadium Club sets.  They are fun sets to sit down with and just flip through the cards.  So many great photographs. 

In keeping with putting together fewer sets this year, I have actually decided to add single cards of the Cardinals and former Durham Bulls players, along with a few other cards that I thought looked really nice.  Obviously, I am going to showcase my autographs for my post this evening. 

I managed to land a pair of Cardinals cards and a former Durham Bulls player.  However, I am going to start out with a different card.  I participated in a charity break awhile ago.  It was for a good cause, I was given two spots in a case and got whatever autographs were pulled. 

One of them was one of the Cardinals players, the other was a 1980s nemesis of my favorite team.  Pretty sweet looking card.....

If you ever saw a Darryl Strawberry at bat, this is a pretty cool moment in the whole process of how he swings a bat.  He always had a leg kick when the ball was being thrown and his bat was angled forward.  You can tell this is a second before he swings, or maybe he took the pitch.  Either way, it's a cool moment in time.  

Here is a look at the swing on a pretty crazy looking home run.  Apologies for the announcers.  McCarver is on this video and he's the better of the two.  

On to the Cardinals.  

Flaherty has been a priority of sorts for my Cardinals collection.  The was my second autograph out of the charity break.  I am a believer in the abilities of Jack Flaherty.  I like the red Spring Training jersey with the green grass in the background.  Nice contrast.  I also like that you can see his grip on the ball.  I'd guess some sort of changeup.  

Next. 

I am posting a Tommy Pham card on the day he was traded.  It's got a nice photograph.  I will miss Tommy, but I understand why the Cardinals traded him.  I made my peace with it about thirty seconds after I saw the news of the trade.  

Let's share a good Tommy Pham moment and move onto the last card.  

Last one is a former Durham Bulls card.  

Tim Beckham has been in a few different sets this year as an autographed card after having a good half season in Baltimore.  It seemed like a change of scenery really helped, but he's not having a very good year at the moment.  The Orioles have cleaned house the last week, so I am pretty sure that Beckham and Chris Davis will now be covering the entire infield.