This past summer Will Wilson played for the USA Baseball College National Team, which plays mere minutes away from NC State's campus, and even closer to my house.
We are all caught up.
I got to see Will Wilson play last summer while the College National Team was playing Chinese Taipei. Pretty fun game to attend.
More importantly, since he was on a USA Baseball team you know he is getting a baseball card at some point. Do these guys get any money for signing all of these cards, or is more just a thing that they have a card?
Curious.
Here is my Will Wilson card.
It's a sticker autograph, and there is a slight flaw in between his first and last name. At first, I thought that maybe someone at Panini was eating a half melted candy bar while they were putting together this card.....
but it is not. Just some sort of weird mark underneath the sticker. It sort of made me wonder if someone didn't put the sticker on the card, and then pull it back off because it was not straight or flat. More Will Wilson cards later.
I think of Coleman as being a 1980s Cardinal, but he did appear with the team in 1990. I have done several other players from the 1990 team, which was one of the worst in the history of the franchise, who were similar in that they just spent the single season with the team. Just looking at the names on the roster, you would think that they would have at least been decent, but there were too many players who underachieved. It has been a long held opinion of many, including former manager Whitey Herzog, that half the team was playing for a paycheck in 1991, rather than playing the team oriented style that made the 1980s team successful.
Some big names on that team were free agents to be. There were players like Terry Pendleton, who hit .230 with a .277 on base percentage, and had a career worst season. Then there were players like Vince Coleman. He set career highs in almost every offensive category with the exception of stolen bases.
While the quantity of stolen bases on Coleman's stat sheet declined, he became more efficient during his later years with the Cardinals.
From the middle of September of 1988 through the end of July in 1989, Coleman was not caught stealing once. In all, Coleman stole 50 consecutive bases during that stretch, which is a Major League record. Given the lack of stolen bases in the game at the moment, it's a record that is likely to last awhile.
On to the baseball cards. Coleman is a name player, but only one season means that there is a limited amount of cards. Just going with four 1990s cards for this post.
My favorite.
His 1990 Topps Record Breaker card. This was a card for his consecutive stolen base record which was set in 1989. The 1989 Topps Traded set had no record breaker cards, or highlights like some years do, so this was it. The 1990 design seems to be hit or miss. People either love it, or hate it. I am fine with it, not high on my list though. Just like that a stolen base record got a highlights card.
If I had to go with a plain, regular base card from 1990, I would have to choose his Leaf card. These are basically a white frame card, with that little grey thing in the corner. I like the picture of Coleman batting. In sitting down and flipping through his cards, it seems like there are not a lot of cards with him batting for whatever reason. Stands out from the rest of his cards.
This is the Cardinals checklist from the 1990 Upper Deck set. I like it better than Coleman's actual 1990 Upper Deck card. When I was a kid, everyone used to love the Donruss Diamond Kings drawings, but I think these were better done. Plus the artist was Vernon Wells, father of Blue Jays outfielder Vernon Wells.
One more.
The last Cardinals card of Vince Coleman on a Topps card was in 1991 with his 1990 stats. The majority of his cards that year were as a Met, which is where he signed after leaving the Cardinals. Vince got a nice contract, but did not do well in New York. Interesting that his last Cardinals card has a picture in Shea Stadium, not sure if it was a coincidence, or done intentionally. He played until 1997, and retired after a very brief stint with the Tigers.
Since retiring Coleman has worked as a coach for several teams. He was also elected to the Cardinals team Hall of Fame.
Coleman has occasional appeared on baseball cards since his retirement. His autographs are affordable, and he's got a nice signature. Definitely a high priority for me when they pop up.
Plus, while Coleman ended up playing for a bunch of different teams during the second half of his career, all of his post retirement cards have been in a Cardinals uniform. This one above is nice, but my favorite is actually a Panini. I know, no logos.
Beautiful. I was always surprised someone took the time to make this card.
Last summer the Cardinals traded Tommy Pham to the Rays in exchange for one of my favorite Durham Bulls players Justin Williams, along with Double A pitcher Genesis Cabrera, and another Minor Leaguer. We aren't going to worry too much about Roel Ramirez. Pham has played well for the Rays over the last few months. Currently, he is in the middle of a long consecutive games on base streak.
Meanwhile, Justin Williams is not playing because he lost a fight with a television set during the off-season. I still liked him from his time in Durham.
I honestly think that Justin Williams is also the last Cardinals player on the 40 man roster. There are tons of outfielders on the team, and he is the worst of them. Even worse than Dexter Fowler for the moment. We'll see how much longer he's a Cardinal.
Which means there is a lot riding on Genesis Cabrera to do something. Cardinals fans are relying on him to make everything alright. I picked up a few of his cards last fall. Probably my best was his Topps Heritage Minor League card, which featured him as a Double A player with the Montgomery Biscuits.
Genesis has a deckle edged card, along with a few other different variations. You know the routine.
I did skip over his Donruss/Panini stuff last fall. It was more expensive, and it's Panini. Sometimes all of the airbrushing really bothers me. Not to be snobby, but I like seeing the full uniforms and logos. All of it.
The price fell enough that I finally went out and got a copy of his Donruss Extra Elite card. The autographed version. It did not look great on Ebay, but he's a Cardinal right?
It's pretty bad.
First off, this is really a card of Genesis on the Biscuits. They have a pretty easy to like Minor League uniform, yet here we are with this card. I know, Panini can't do logos.
The sticker autograph is also not very well done. It's obviously a sticker, not blended in very well with the card. Feel a little buyers remorse.
Back of the card.
We've got a description of his pitches, a good outing, and the details of him being traded to the Cardinals. This is going to send a little weird, but the red coloring on the back of the card bothers me more than anything else. The front of the card is purple, but the back is red?
Is it because he is a Cardinal, or are all the backs of the cards colored red? The only other cards I have from this product are either of USA Baseball players, or Cardinals. Not really sure. It would have been nice to match up the coloring a little better. Maybe just make it a card where everything ends up with the Biscuits coloring. Pretty messed up.
This one probably should have been up awhile ago. It might also be the Snell autograph I post for a bit, unless I can find one from a previous year that I do not already have in my collection. Not going for duplicates, but Snell has also not popped up in any of the recent baseball card releases. No Inception, nor Gypsy Queen.
Here's his autograph out of Topps Heritage.
There is also the red version, but I am not going to break the bank for one of those. Probably means that I will not end up with one of them.
Back of the card.
There is a whole bunch of Durham Bulls on the back of this card. That 2018 stat line is pretty impressive too.
There is not a complete stat line on Gene Mauch's time in Durham, but he had 117 at bats with the Bulls and hit .322 as a 17 year old in his first summer of professional baseball. Mauch reached the Majors, but only played 300 games over 9 seasons for several different teams including the Dodgers, Red Sox, Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, and Pirates.
Mauch is really known for his time as a manager. After his final season in the Majors, the Red Sox gave him a chance to manage in their Minor League system, he was eventually hired by the Phillies and the rest is history so to speak. Besides the Phillies, he also spent time managing the Expos, Twins, and Angels. While Mauch won more than 2,000 games as a manager, and won the National League Manager of the Year three times. His career his most frequently remembered for two not so great moments.
First, the collapse of the 1964 Phillies, who were 6 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals with 12 games to play. The Cardinals did not lose a game for two weeks, the Phillies could not win a game for two weeks. Dick Allen recalls an incident with Lou Brock towards the end of the season, and also mentions Gene Mauch......
Lastly, the 1986 Angels who were a strike away from the World Series in 1986 when Dave Henderson hit a game tying home run for the Red Sox.
He should probably be remembered for some better moments in his managerial career. Mauch is often considered the best manager to have never won a World Series.
Card-
It is really easy to find cards of recent Bulls players, but the older players can be tough. My preference over the first 49 posts has been to find certified autographs of the players. I have dropped that this year, and have started trying to find nice copies of older cards for the Bulls players from the 1960s and earlier. I knew Mauch played for the Bulls, notable name, but I figured he would be someone who would just have cards. No autographs. I knew he retired because of health reasons from smoking, and remember him passing away awhile ago. I just figured this type of card was not out there.
If you collected in the early 2000s, you know this set. If you did not, you should get to know this set. Except for that one year the autographs all faded off the cards. Sweet Spot cards were pieces of signed baseballs that were attached to cards. Kind of a cool concept from Upper Deck that lasted for seven or eight years. Based on the wrinkles and crinkles, they did not show well in the scan, I would guess that Upper Deck may not have had Mauch actually sign for this set, rather they just bought a bunch of his signed baseballs.
Way back in January I wrote a bunch of goals about what I wanted to do with my collection this year. It was so long ago, and it is so easy to lose track of those sorts of goals. I am not sure how many different baseball card products have been released this year, I am thinking five to six, but I have only put together two different sets so far. I have a Heritage set, and a base set of Topps.
I have picked up a few packs of Donruss, not cool, but otherwise I have stuck to the plan.
During this past week, Topps released their Gypsy Queen product. I have been a fan in the past, and kind of dig the look of the base cards this year along with a few of the inserts. I can tell you that I have been in Target and Wal-Mart during the past week. I bought no Gypsy Queen cards. None.
However, I did pick up a pair of Gypsy Queen cards. Sticking to the plan, only Cardinals and former Durham Bulls. I am kind of excited about the Cardinals card.
There are other Jose Martinez cards that have come out of the last year or two, but the guy has had zero certified autographs. I have seen a few locally in person autographs, since he spent five years in the Carolina League, but nothing that I really wanted to add to my collection.
I was hoping the day would come when Jose would sign something for some card company. Here we are.
Next, the Durham Bulls portion of the post.
Adames has been in Durham the last few years, but seems to finally have found a spot on the Rays roster. His autographs seemed to have cooled off a bit over the last two years, which has helped me add a few more of his cards to the collection. I like that he's an actual Ray on these cards now, not just a random photo from Spring Training.
Dubbed "Little Louie" by Cardinals announcer Mike Shannon, Luis Alicea started his career as a pretty highly touted prospect. I am not sure I realized this until after I moved to North Carolina, and was bequeathed an oddball card of his from college, but Luis Alicea was a really good player in college.
What is this card?
It may, or may not be official, but Luis Alicea is in the Hall of Fame at Florida State. He was an All-American, helped get the Noles to the College World Series, and was a number one draft pick of the Cardinals.
I did know he was a number one draft pick, just did not remember the Florida State part. The card looks really shady. I am voting not official. Although......
found this one on Ebay. Burt Reynolds looks 12.
Moving on to the Cardinals cards.
Luis had two different stints on the Cardinals during the 1990s. He was up on the Cardinals during the 1988 season for a stint, and was up for good by the middle of 1991. Luis might have been a light hitting second baseman on a second half of the league team, but he ended up with a decent number of quality cards over the years. The Cardinals traded him to the Red Sox in 1995, but he was back on the Cardinals in 1996.
A few early ones....
This 1992 Score is not the best action shot, but you get a good feel for Busch II in the early 1990s. Blue walls, giant logos on the walls, and astroturf. The card is a microcosm of the Cardinals 1960s era cookie cutter concrete bowl.
I have no idea what is happening on his 1993 Topps card. Is he flipping the ball back to Ozzie? I like that the picture was taken in Candlestick, which had those clear walls for a long time in front of the football seats. I also like the flip down sunglasses.
I like the 1993 Fleer card because of the uniform. The Cardinals ditched the polyester pullovers for the button up jerseys in the early 1990s. Such a better look.
Last card from 1993.....
Incredible photo, or incredible photoshopping? If the ball is photoshopped onto the end of the bat, then Upper Deck's 1993 photoshopping technology is better than Topps in 2019. Also, always a plus if a baseball card's picture is taken in Wrigley Field.
Bet this was an opposite field single over Rey Sanchez's glove.
Final two Cardinals cards. Both good fielding action shots of Luis.
Pretty cool action shot of Luis jumping over a runner. It's not Ozzie Smith.....
but it also looks like that might be Tom Candiotti running the bases.
Last Cardinals card.
Another quality action shot. More astroturf, more blue walls, and not many giant logos in this one. Alex Cole is sliding in for the Rockies, another former Cardinals farmhand. He was from the 1980s, otherwise he might get a post.
So, where are the stats, or cool stories about Luis? The guy played second base for a long time, he did not really hit that well, and was a decent fielder. He played all the way until 2002....
when he played for the Royals.
My lone Luis Alicea story. Luis hit five home runs in 1996. Three of them in a week. I saw the third one, which was hit off of Todd Jones in the ninth inning to tie the game. Pagnozzi hit a walk off in the tenth. It's in small print, or just click here.
