Mailday From The Mitten

I received a nice envelope of cards a week and a half ago from Julie over at A Cracked Bat.   I will run through the cards in a minute, but I really need to get a business card or something catchy to stick into packages.  This is nice.....

My eight year old son was initially really excited about this package of cards.  He checks our mail as part of chores around the house.  If it is mail for me then it is a baseball card, and there is not much excitement over the mail for the day.  However, this package threw him off because the return address was from Michigan.  He was jumping up and down. 

My wife is from Michigan, so there are grandparents, aunts and uncles who live there are mail him stuff.  

Her hometown is actually on this map.  It's right there, next to one of the lakes.  It's a nice place.

So naturally, he opened the envelope and was a little disappointed to see that it was baseball cards, but I was pretty excited.  So, here's what I got:

First off, this was a card from a set that Julie had posted on Twitter, and we had spent some time talking about it one day.  I had never seen anything out of this Church's Chicken card set before.  Are there Church's Chickens in Missouri?  According to Google there are a dozen of them around St. Louis.  I just missed out on these back in the day.  There are even Cardinals players in the set. 

Love the design on these cards, they look like something from the mid 1990s too.  I am going to have to find more of these.  I appreciate that Julie introduced me to these cards.

More cards.

These three Cardinals are out of the 2003 EX set.  Always one of my favorite products from the late 1990s and early 2000s.  These are from the 2003.  Great looking cards.  

Next.  

I know that the Action Packed cards were an oddball set from the early 1990s that featured older players, but I do not know much about them.  I actually have two other Action Packed cards in my collection, a Bob Gibson and a Jerome Bettis, but I am a little fuzzy on how they got here.  Never really got into collecting Rams cards.  I love the photograph on the card.  Nice action shot of Lou Brock running the bases is always a winner. 

 I do not do much with Furcal, but he was on the 2011 Cardinals World Series winner.  Kind of easy to forget he was there.  This is a gold sparkle variation of his 2012 Topps base card.  Not sure the scan really did it justice, sometimes shiny and bright does not scan well, but it's a sharp card. 

This is a really sharp looking card of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong.  Love the die cut.  

Last.  

There are not many Ray Lankford cards in this world that I do not own.  However, he is one of the few players whom I actively welcome duplicates of in my collection.  This is a 1998 Donruss Preferred card, which was not only a great set, but also a card from Lankford's prime years as a player.  The years where card companies sort of paid interest in him. 

A great package of cards.  Thank you Julie, I will get you a return package at some point in the near future. 

Got One Of Them Hot Boxes

I bought baseball cards at Target.  Not a real common occurrence, but I am usually at least willing to walk past the card aisle and see what is there.  I think about it for a few minutes. 

There is the "Remember you pulled an Al Kaline autograph out of a $20 box here once"

There is also the "Isn't this the store where some jerk slit the top of a pack of cards we bought?"

If I do decided to buy cards, I now make sure the packs are sealed, or the box is not wrapped in Glad Food Wrap or something.  

On with the story.  

Now, if you have never heard of a hot box, they are sort of a mythological creature in the world of baseball cards.  I liken the hot box to things like....

The chupacabra. 

The Loch Ness monster.  

Bigfoot.  

So, I start opening up my packs of Topps Heritage cards and I get a Chromium looking card of Aaron Judge.  I flip the card over, no serial number.  

Weird, but I am in the middle of opening up packs, so I just set it aside and open the pack.  I get another Chromium looking card of Jose Ramirez.  No serial number.  

At this point I am intrigued, but I am still not going to stop for two of these cards in two packs.  

Then the next pack started out with this card......

and ended with this card......

I knew something was up with the box of cards that I was opening.  I checked out a few different checklist type sites, you should read Cardboard Connections, and I found the answer was indeed something called a "Hot Box".  These aren't just Chromium cards, or Chrome, or whatever you want to call them.  They are some form of purple Chrome.  

I was stunned, so what did I end up?  This is great stuff for a retail box.  I mean, it's not Al Kaline, but for $20 at Target.....

All a very good haul, but I got one other card, which is going to go along way towards putting together this set.  

Hot Box!!!! 

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 68 - Chuck Carr

The 1980s Cardinals "Whiteyball" teams were known for their speed and aggressive base running.  There were few players on those teams who were not capable of swiping a base when the team needed to manufacture a run.  The height of the "Running Redbirds" was the 1985 National League Championship team, which featured Vince Coleman's 100 stolen bases, Willie McGee with 56 stolen bases, and then more than 30 steals out of Tom Herr, Andy Van Slyke, and Ozzie Smith.

They were fun to watch.

With the success of the running game at the Major League level, the Cardinals filled their Minor League system with players who were capable of pressuring defenses and pitchers with the threat of stolen bases.  Several popped up with the team in the late 1980s and the early 1990s.  

The one you may know best is long time White Sox outfielder Lance Johnson.  

The "One Dog" only played 33 games in St. Louis before he was traded for starting pitcher Jose DeLeon.  He went on to play 14 years, stole more than 300 bases, and collecting 1,500 hits.  Pretty nice career.   

Alex Cole was another speedster who was drafted by the Cardinals in the 1980s.  While Cole never played for the Cardinals, he stole more than 50 stolen bases in 4 different seasons in their Minor League system.  

He was also traded away for starting pitching, going to the Padres for Omar Olivares.  Cole did not have the success that Lance Johnson enjoyed, but still managed a 7 year career as an outfielder off the bench primarily for the Twins and Indians.  

Which brings us to Chuck Carr.  

The Cardinals did not actually draft Chuck Carr, his career started with the Reds.  He bounced around a bit and eventually ended up with the Mets.  However, he was blocked in the Mets outfield due to the fact that the team signed Vince Coleman away from the Cardinals.  

The Mets traded him to the Cardinals.  The Cardinals used him in 22 games towards the end of 1992, which got him 64 at bats, and he managed to steal 10 bases.  This was after Carr stole 61 bases in Triple A and Double A during the 1992 season.  

Card companies pounced on the Cardinals new speedy outfielder.  We got two pure Cardinals cards.  

Always liked these 1993 Score cards.  Decent design, the Cardinals cards have some nice photography.  Carr is by no means a "favorite player", but this is a great picture of him running down the line at Wrigley.  The Cardinals went away from their polyester pullovers in 1992, so it was nice to see cards like this that showed off the classic Cardinals uniforms.  That 100th Anniversary patch on the sleeve was sharp too.  Quality card. 

Carr also had a 1993 Donruss card with the Cardinals, but he was fielding the ball in Wrigley Field instead of running.  Same company, same game.  He played in one game in Wrigley as a Cardinal, and he went 0-5.  

Guess that Score card is showing a ground out.  

and then there are two cards with a Cardinals picture, but with Marlins logos.  

There is a Donruss Update card with the Expansion Draft logo on the bottom of the card, which is where Carr went after the Cardinals left him unprotected.  Say, that picture looks familiar.  

His Fleer card is a little odd.  Check out his grey pants and white jersey.  This looks like Spring Training Photo Day.  I like the border with Marlins update.  Subtle, but better than "NOW WITH MARLINS"   

Let's talk about the rest of Carr's career.  He spent a few years on the Marlins, and then ended up on the Brewers.  This is the important and memorable part of his career.  He did not last long in Milwaukee, apparently he did not agree with all of Phil Garner's strategy decisions.  Luckily, James Nelson from the Milwaukee Sentinel celebrated the 20th Anniversary of one of the great moments in 1990s baseball a few summers back and offered a retell of the incident.   

From his May 16th, 2017 article:

"In the 8th inning of a game in Anaheim, the Brewers were trailing 4-1 against Angels' ace Chuck Finley. Leading off the inning, Carr had a 2-0 count and was given the signal to take a pitch. He ignored the sign, swung and popped out.

Brewers manager Phil Garner who had already had two dustups with Carr in the still-young season confronted the player at his locker about the at-bat, the Journal Sentinel reported.

Carr responded in the third person: "That ain't Chuckie's game. Chuckie hacks on 2-0."

And that was the end for Carr in Milwaukee. He was sent to the minors the following day, refused the assignment and was cut, forfeiting his $325,000 salary."

and that was the end of Chuck Carr.    

Cardboard and Random Facts From 1996 Part 1

It's been awhile since we have done a Durham Bulls team set.  Getting close to baseball with the start of Spring Training.  Feeling like looking at some 1990s baseball cards this week, so let's go through an old team set.  I am going to go with the 1996 Bulls, which was a good team in terms of talent and wins and loses in the standings.  However, the Bulls 73 wins was somehow only good enough for third place in the Carolina League's South Division.

Here is the team card along with the back scan of the card.  

First part of the set today.  Let's start out with the star of the Durham Bulls in 1996....

If you are doing the math in your head thinking about Andruw Jones being on the Durham Bulls in 1996, he started out there at the beginning of the season, but ended the season playing with the Braves in the World Series against the Yankees.  

The Braves did not win the World Series, but that was not Andruw's fault...

and the back of the card.

I think it's not only amazing that Andruw Jones made it from A Ball to the Majors in a single season, but even more impressive that he made the majority of those jumps after the All-Star break.  

The first one-third of the Bulls cards are below with one interesting fact about each player.  Almost half the facts are that half the team ended up playing with the Bulls and the Carolina Mudcats.  That's the team that plays in the far reaches of the eastern suburbs of Raleigh. 

Anthony Briggs- Played for both the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats 

Ken Giard- Played for both the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats. 

Ray King- Played for the Durham Bulls, but not the Carolina Mudcats.  Ray did play for the Charlotte Knights though.  

and their stats on the back of the cards, which are borderline unreadable.  

Gator McBride- He's in the Frontier League Hall of Fame for his play with the Chillicothe Paints.  

Derrin Ebert- gave up Barry Bonds' 442 home run 

Eric Olszewski- Went to the same high school as Ke'Bryan Hayes and Shane Baz 

Del Mathews- His real name is Delmar and he pitched for the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats.

Terry Wright - Uses this card as his profile picture on Twitter.

John LeRoy- Appeared in one Major League game against the Mets at the end of the 1997 season, and earned the win for the Braves in extra innings.  The game was tied on the final home run of Rafael Belliard's career.  He hit only 2 home runs in more than 17 seasons with the Pirates and Braves.  Sadly, he died at the age of 26 after suffering a heart attack.

Damian Moss- Played for the Durham Bulls (Braves affiliate) and for the Durham Bulls (Devil Rays affiliate) 

Kevin Millwood- Threw a no-hitter for the Phillies in 2003.  

Mickey Correa- His card says his name is "Mickey", but every other card of his lists his name as Miguel.  His name is actually Miguel Correa, not sure where the card company got the name Mickey. 

2019 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 1

There have been two major Topps releases this year, and there are a few brand new 2019 Blake Snell autographs out there.  Each Snell autograph that I get this year is going to get its own blog post.  They probably would have anyway, but I am just making them their own thing.  

First up.  

This is out of the 2019 Topps Set.  Yes, it's a 1984 Topps autograph, but there are a few different versions of this card floating around out there.  Two of them are slam dunks, others are a possibility based on the price that I can find them at.  This is the middle ground on Snell autographs in Series 1.  He has an autographed card just like this one, picture and all, but it is missing the MLB 150 logo in the corner that is also going to appear here shortly.  

The 150th Anniversary parallels are serial numbered out of just 150 copies, as seen on the back of the card.  

  

There are several colored variations of this card in Series 1, as well a few other relic/autograph type cards that might be tricky to track down, or cost more than I am willing to spend.  Win a Cy Young and everyone is suddenly a fan.  

College Cards

I spent last week working on some cards of players who share a college with me.  I have two degrees from two different school, and managed to find a card from each school.  The idea of finding a card of a player from NC State is not all that surprising, but the whole Southeast Missouri State thing is a rarity.  Throw in the fact that one of these cards was an exchange, which never seem to actually pan out in my world, and I did not even know of the other's existence before this month.  

Let's start with the NC State player, who is also a prime Cardinals prospect.  

Andrew Knizner was drafted out of NC State a few years ago.  The infielder, turned catcher, was a good college player, but was a bit of a mess defensively before entering the Minors.  While in Raleigh, Knizner was switched from third base to catcher literally before the start of a game.  He's been a bit of a project on defense, but apparently has improved.  The Cardinals always have some catcher in waiting behind Yadier Molina, but Yadier never seems to slow down.  I am not sure if the team is serious this time, or if Knizner will end up playing somewhere else.  Meaning either a different position, or in a different town.  

I am not a big fan of Leaf cards, but this is the only Knizner autograph that is out there.  The card also uses a picture of Knizner from college.  The red looks good on a Cardinals card, but check out the sleeves on the jersey.  Check out the sleeves on the catcher's jersey in this picture....

The mask and chest protector are different in this picture, but this is Knizner from college.  Sleeveless jersey, red stripe on the side of the pants.  Pretty cool that Knizner's first Cardinals autograph also has him wearing an NC State jersey.  

Next.  

This was an exchange card from Bowman Chrome last year.  I never count on these to actually show up anymore.  This one showed up.  

Lucchesi went to Southeast Missouri State a few years back.  It has been awhile since there has been a player from that school in the Majors.  In the past twenty years there have been a total of four players from the small teacher's college: Lucchesi, Justin Christian, Shae Simmons, and Kerry Robinson.  Not a lot there.  The fact that Lucchesi played an entire Major League season pretty much makes him the greatest player to ever come out of Southeast Missouri.  

The school even gets a shout out on the back of this card.  

Lucchesi has a good stuff, and the card does a good job of describing the pitches he throws, but there are also a lot of arms and legs in his delivery.  This does not do his pitching motion justice, but I think he is definitely a hard player to hit against....

especially for lefties.  Last year he struck out slightly more than one-third of the left-handed batters that he faced.  I think he's going to be around for awhile.  

Before we go, y'all know I hate those Topps stickers on the exchange cards.  That's no way to enjoy a baseball card.  I want to see the card, not a giant white sticker.  

That's better.  I should have taken it out of the top loader too, which always shows every scratch and scuff mark on cards with reflective surfaces.  For another day though....