Jubilant Cards

In my hunt for a few new Durham Bulls cards last fall, I ran across a Johnny Vander Meer card that was out of the 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee set.  I did not know much about the cards when I found it, just really liked the looks of the card.  

Robert Laughlin made all sorts of cards during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.  Most of his sets are drawings or cartoons.  I actually found another Laughlin card in my collection after picking up the Vander Meer.  I am not sure when I got this card exactly, but it was probably in the last couple of years.  

This is from the 1971 Laughlin World Series set.  I am sure I own this card because of Jack Coombs, who was the long time baseball coach at Duke. Their on-campus baseball stadium is named after him.  His cards are quite pricey, so I only own oddballs of him that are typically inexpensive.  

So, back to the Jubilee cards.  I liked the Vander Meer card enough that I have been watching a few of these on Ebay, COMC, and a few other places.  I actually ended up picking up two of the cards last week.  It's only a 32 card set, so maybe this will be a project that I take on for the summer.  

This is one of the cards I was most interested in finding from the set.  

This is the only Cardinals card in the set.  Seems like in the 100 years of the National League there would be some other notable accomplishment by a Cardinals player that would be worthy of a card, but this was a recent event at the time this set was made.  I get it.  

This was my second card.  Pretty cool drawing of Brooks Robinson diving to stop a ball.  I did a little research to see if this is a specific event, or just the way that Laughlin choose to draw Brooks Robinson.  The answer is.......

The correct answer is Game 5 of the 1970 World Series against the Reds.  

I like both of these cards, and am looking forward to finding the other 29 cards that I have left to complete this set.  

The Other Fernando Tatis

I am a big fan of Fernando Tatis, the former Cardinals third baseman.  Hard to believe that he has a kid in the Majors.  Saying Fernando Tatis Jr. makes me feel old.  

I remember the old days when Fernando Tatis cards just said, "Fernando Tatis" on them.  

Then one day, several years ago this card showed up in my collection.  

Notice the front of the card does not say Jr.. 

I was a little skeptical of the other Fernando Tatis at first.  I mean, the White Sox did trade him to the Padres for James Shields.  That's either not a ringing endorsement of the other Fernando Tatis, or someone in the White Sox front office does not know what they are doing.  

I think we have our answer. 

I really like the other Fernando Tatis.  He's a fun player to watch, and I have dabbled in his cards a bit over the last two years.  Plenty of base cards, but nothing much in the way of a bigger card.  I fixed that last week.  

I ended up with an Allen & Ginter autograph.  

Not the most expensive, not flashiest, or shiniest Fernando Tatis Jr. card out there.  However, I am happy that I was able to add this card to my collection.  Maybe a few more to come, as long as people do not go too crazy over his cards.  

A 1980s Card Part 40 - 1987 Mini League Leader Danny Cox

I am a big fan of mini cards.  Sometimes I feel like that they might be unrepresented in my 1980s Cardinals collection, until I actually spend a little time flipping through my collection.  There are plenty of Cardinals minis from the 1980s.  I especially like the League Leader sets that Topps put out during the second half of the decade. 

The front of the card has some similar design elements of the Topps base set.  Not exact, but close. 

The wood grain is there on this 1987 Topps Mini League Leaders card, but the inside of the wood frame is a completely different design.  I know a lot of people like the 1987 Topps, and consider it one of the great base set designs. 

It's not. 

Here is the regular Topps Danny Cox card. 

I like the front of the Minis better.  Both the design and the action photo.  

The back of the Mini League Leaders is also different than the base set.  The cards only focus on a single stat, and show where the player ranked in their league.  Danny Cox was a League Leader in complete games.  

Tied for fifth with 8.  I am pretty sure that 8 complete games in a season nowadays would lead the league by five or six complete games.  I wish that they gave the other league rankings on the back of the card in a similar fashion as the featured stat.  That's a pretty big space.  Topps couldn't fit another bullet point in there with a "ERA #6 2.90"?  I think it would look a little nicer.  Still, a good card though.  I need to pull out my Jose DeLeon League Leaders card next week. 

The Normally Scheduled Post Has Been Cancelled

Monday post are always about a 1980s Cardinals card.  There are plenty of 1980s Cardinals cards still left to write about. However, while we all have a little extra time at home, I am using my card time to do some sorting, appreciate some of the cards that I have not looked at in a long time, and fill in a few holes in the collection.

Today, I thought I would cover a little long running side project that I have been working on the last few years that I was able to move forward recently.  I dabble in basketball cards.  I post some here and there, and in celebration of the Blues winning the Stanley Cup last June, I posted my 1961 Fleer St. Louis Hawks cards.  The connection being that the city of St. Louis had a team win a championship in the other three sports leagues prior to the Blues winning last season.  Many people forget that the Hawks were in St. Louis, and that they won an NBA Championship while they were there.

I have most of the St. Louis Hawks 1961 Fleer set, I am just working on the last few cards.  In the last weeks I found two of the missing cards that were in my price range, so I added both.

First up, a card of Len Wilkins, or Lenny Wilkins.

I am not sure if this is a rookie card, but he was drafted out of Providence College in 1960.  Seemed like a good player, but I don't know too much about his play on the court.  I just remember him coaching the Cavaliers and Hawks for a really long time.

Love the colors on these cards with the black and white player photos.  Really pops.  Love that Hawks logo too.  Almost looks like a volleyball, or something besides a basketball in the hawks talons.

My second new Hawks card.

I know that many people who collect this set like the base cards much better than the action shot subset.  They are kind of an after thought, but I like this card of Cliff Hagan.  I wish I knew more basketball players from the 1960s, and could figure out everyone who is in this picture.  Jerry West in the background perhaps? Anyway, I know that Hagan was a really good player around this time, multiple All-Star games, and ended up in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

One more Hawks card to find.

Baseball Card Cover Songs Part #1

I have spent a lot of time during my "work day" listening to music lately.  My wife and I are still fortunate enough to have jobs, but we are also teaching a third grader and pre-schooler while we are working.  The house is busy, and the music helps me drown out all the background noise while I am doing whatever it is that I have to do for the day.

My two sources of music are the music I have burned off of CDs into my ITunes account, as well as all of the songs and albums that I have purchased over the years from the ITunes store.  I also have found some really good playlists on YouTube.

One of the surprising finds along the way is a set of covers by Radiohead performing songs that you probably wouldn't put in their genre of music.  Glenn Campbell?  Not half bad.  Carly Simon? They pull that off too.  Probably my favorite are their covers of The Smiths.

The unfortunate part of listening to music on YouTube is that the second you pick out one song, they start recommending all sorts of different things they think you should be listening to while you are visiting their website.  Since I listened to all of those cover songs by Radiohead, I get all sorts of other cover songs in my feed.  

Like this one, don't listen for long.  

I don't actually mind Weezer, Pinkerton is really under appreciated, but this is not even close to as good as the original.  This is one of my favorite 1980s songs, but this is just something that I cannot listen to from start to finish.  

Which brings me to some baseball cards.  If you could go back and redo the way an old baseball card looks, what would you do?  Topps has been doing something along these lines with their Project 2020, which is taking 20 different rookie cards and having artists remake them in their vision.  Sort of like musicians redoing other musicians music.

Unfortunately, the cards are a direct buy from Topps.  

We all know I don't usually buy from them after they mangled my Aledmys Diaz rookie card a few years back, and they figuratively shrugged their shoulders.  It's been a few years, but I have not forgotten.  

So, the Project 2020 cards come in a case.  How bad can they mess them up?  I rolled the dice.  

They even used bubble wrap this time, along with a protective cardboard box.  The shipping department at Topps is stepping up their game.  

The packaging is actually really nice.  

I have ended up with two of these cards.  I am going to share one card in this post, and the other in a second post.  I am likely stopping there.  The first card I bought is a recreation of the 1959 Topps Bob Gibson rookie card.  It is one iconic Cardinals card that has alluded me over the years.  Here's what the original looks like.....

Obviously not mine.  Thanks internet.  

Here is the "cover" version.  

Obviously I like this card, or I would not have spent money on buying it.  Good 1950s vibe to it, and I like that the artist kept the pink coloring around the picture of Gibson.  I wish the picture of Gibson were slightly larger, but the design makes up for that minor detail.  

The back of the card.....

A quick description of the Project 2020 cards, and an artist bio.  The artist's name is Grotesk.  I am speechless.  I like the old fashioned Cardinals logo down in the bottom right hand corner.  Another Project 2020 card later in the week.  

The Super Utility Team Part 2

It's been a few days, back to some former Durham Bulls players. 

The last time I shared a card of a Durham Bulls player, it was an Inception card of Michael Brosseau, one of the current Rays players who seems to play everywhere on the field.  Really nice card too. 

Which brings me to another newer card in my collection.  I think I might have picked this up our first week at home.  A little bigger name than Brosseau.  Here is the card which is from this year's Topps Heritage set.  Love the black borders. 

I saw Brendan McKay while he was in college with Louisville, and again with the USA National College team a few summers back.  I am not sure if he is going to hit enough to stick in the Majors as a DH, but he's certainly talented enough as a pitcher.  For the moment, I just think it's neat to see the old "pitcher-dh" label on his baseball cards.  

I also like that McKay squeezed his signature into the lone light colored space on the card.  He's always had a small autograph, this card would stink he used that blue pen over a dark blue Rays uniform.  

A 1980s Card Part 39 -1988 Donruss Lance Johnson

Another week, another cool set of Donruss cards.  Last week, I gave this space to a Diamond Kings card of George Hendrick, this week I am going to spend a little time looking at the Rated Rookie cards.  The Cardinals did not get one in the first few Donruss sets, but starting in 1986 with Todd Worrell, they had a good run of players into the early 1990s.  I decided to pick one that flies under the radar a bit for my post this week. 

If you watched baseball in the 1990s, I am sure you ran across Lance Johnson with the White Sox, Cubs, or Mets.  He also briefly played for the Yankees at the end of his career.  I am not sure many people would remember him playing for the Cardinals, although he does seem like the type of player who would fit on their 1980s teams.  Speedy base runner, good defender.  He made his Major League debut in 1987, and the Cardinals actually used him as a pinch runner during the playoffs in the NLCS and the World Series. 

Our friend over at Courtside Tweets actually has a short video clip of Lance Johnson getting a hit in a Cardinals uniform. 

  

Johnson got traded to the White Sox in the middle of Spring Training in 1988 in exchange for pitcher Jose DeLeon.  The Cardinals played an outfield of Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, and Tom Brunansky that season, so Lance Johnson was blocked.  Although, Brunansky was an early in season trade.  

Back of the card.  

Lance did not do much with during his brief stint with the Cardinals, but he was a really good player in their Minor League system.  The numbers at the bottom of the card are pretty impressive.