I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 28 - Mike Gallego

There are tons of players who made brief appearances with the Cardinals during the 1990s.  Several of the those players came over with Tony LaRussa from the A's when he took over the manager's position before the 1996 season.  When I look at the Cardinals rosters from 1996 and 1997 there are literally a dozen different players who could fit into that category.  I have covered a few of them in previous 1990s Cardinals posts, the most prominent of them being Dennis Eckersley.  

Others are a little less well known.  

This week's 1990s Cardinals is probably a little bit more well known by A's fans than by those in St. Louis.  Mike Gallego only played 78 games for the Cardinals over two seasons, but LaRussa used him frequently during the team's National League Championship Series run during 1996.  His career slash line for the Cardinals stands at just .199/.254/.220 with only 4 doubles.  No triples and no home runs.  

Prior to his time with the Cardinals he played for three of LaRussa's World Series teams in Oakland.  He appeared on the 1988, 1989, and 1990 World Series teams.  Gallego's best postseason performance took place in 1990 when the A's swept past the Red Sox and into the World Series. 

Gallego spent a few years with the Yankees before he rejoined the A's for one more season in 1995.  The Cardinals signed in January of 1996.  LaRussa loves his utility players and Gallego seemed to fit the bill for the Cardinals.

For a player who barely appeared for the Cardinals, the card manufacturers got the number of Gallego cards with the Cardinals just right.  There are three of them in a Cardinals uniform, but I only have two of them.  If you really want a good Gallego card consider one from earlier in his career.  While most of his early cards are after thoughts to other A's players like Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, his 1989 Upper Deck card is somewhat legendary.....

Mainly because it is one of the cards with a reversed photo.  Gallego's photo reversal is more difficult to spot than some of the other ones in the set since you cannot see the writing on the front of his jersey, or his uniform number, but he is a left handed thrower on the card.  

On to his Cardinals cards.  Up first, is his first Cardinals card.  

This is a Spring Training photo with the red jersey on during a game.  This is a Leaf Signature card, which makes it somewhat cool, but it's also one of the cards from that set that you can find for $1.50 on Ebay or COMC.  Gallego has a nice signature, so there is that.  Really, if I had to make a Mike Gallego autograph I would put it in one of those Topps Archives sets and package it around some other 1990s A's players.  I'm sure someone in the Bay Area would love to have a certified autograph of him.  At least more than Cardinals fans love this autographed card of him.

Last Gallego card.  

The old Spanish-English Pacific sets.  This is from the 1997 Crown Collection set.  If I had taken a few seconds to scan the back of the card you would find it written in Spanish.  I like this card because it feels like Gallego is really short here.  He's listed at 5'8 on the back of his baseball card and on his profile over at Baseball Reference, but I am guessing that they might have measured him with his hat on while he was also wearing his cleats.  

I searched for photo evidence of his true height by comparing him to a larger Oakland Athletic player from the late 1980s, or the early 1990s.  My first thought was McGwire, but this picture does not really offer any help....

but he is clearly a lot shorter than McGwire.  My second thought was Canseco, although he's shorter than McGwire, he is still a large individual.  This is what I found.....

George Bush, Barbara Bush, Queen Elizabeth, Mike Gallego, Rick Honeycutt, and Jose Canseco all in front of an Orioles banner.  Why was this not a baseball card?  I feel like someone really missed a golden opportunity here.

That last photo is actually better than any of the Cardinals cards of Mike Gallego.  I am missing a card stadium giveaway of Gallego from 1996.  I have single cards from that set, but not the whole thing.  Not going out of my way to find it either.  

A Quick Check In On The 1983 Durham Bulls

I am having a pretty good time assembling the 1983 rehash inserts from this year's base Topps set.  I am working on the regular version of the 1983 cards, not the Chrome versions, nor the autographed versions.  However, I have decided that I am willing to take on a few of the other variants if it is a Cardinals card, or somehow connected to the Durham Bulls.  Just a few cards really fit into those two categories.  I recently found a few of the 1983 cards that have some connections to the Durham Bulls., still working on those Cardinals.  

The actual 1983 Durham Bulls finished almost 20 games below .500 and their star players were corner infielder Inocencio Guerrero and shortstop, and future Brave, Andres Thomas.

So, how do the former Durham Bulls on the 1983 Topps style cards of today compare to the star of the actual 1983 Durham Bulls?  Andres Thomas did have a six year Major League career, which is longer than any of the other players in this post, but he also had a career batting average of just .234.  He also had a negative WAR during that time.  The bar is not very high.....

First up....

This one hurts a little bit since Souza was one of those players that the Rays parted with this past offseason.  I was first introduced to Souza a few years back while he was a member of the Syracuse Chiefs.  He won the International League Player of the Year in 2014 and also made the All-Star team that summer, which took place in Durham.  

The picture is a little blurry, not one of my better efforts, but that is Souza as a Syracuse Chief.  He ended up back in Durham for a few days in 2015 on a rehab assignment.  Very good player, already better than Andres Thomas.  

Faria played for the Bulls in 2016 and 2017.  I actually got to see his Triple A debut back in July of 2016 against the Syracuse.  

Faria spent the second half of the 2017 season in Tampa, won 5 games, and struck out almost a batter an inning.  It's hard to compare a starting pitcher to a light hitting shortstop, but I am going to give Faria the nod over Andres Thomas.  

Last card, the best chance for Andres Thomas to claim superiority over a more recent Durham Bulls player.  I actually collect this player because of one catch he made in a game a few years back.  Lots of other baseball people like him because of his name.....

I went to a game a few years back on a Sunday afternoon.  The Bulls were playing the Gwinnett Braves.  The game went into extra innings and my son was eager for the contest to end since it was a run the bases day.  I am not sure how Boog did not break his hip.....

but it was a great catch.  I am not sure what sort of future Boog has in the Majors, but the A's are giving him playing time this year.  He seems like a fourth outfielder type, reminds me a little bit of Peter Bourjos, but that still probably means he is going to be better than Andres Thomas.  

I will do a little comparing to the 1983 Cardinals soon....

Phamtastic

At the beginning of this year I had pledged to put together less sets in order to focus on current single cards of players and teams that I collect, or filling holes in sets from previous years.  There have been a few different sets put out so far this year, so here's how I have done....

I have a Topps Series 1 set put together mostly because one of the parents at the school I teach at bought me a bunch of packs.  It wasn't hard to put together, didn't really cost me much, and it did not take up a lot time.  I also got a good current year project off of this project......

with the 1983 Topps insert set.  I have a whole bunch of these cards and I am getting close to finishing off this set.  It's not been very expensive, but it has taken some time to track down the cards.  There are a lot of these 1983 rehashes that are being sold and traded in lots, they make for quite a few duplicates, but I am done to just a few cards.

The others.....

Donruss?  Absolutely not happening.  

Heritage?

 

Just a Jack Flaherty autograph.  Pretty nice card.

Which brings me to this week.  There are two different Topps products that have come out this week, with Gypsy Queen coming out at the beginning, and Tribute coming out today.  I have scoped out a few single cards from each of the products, but I am not touching the base cards from these two sets.  One of the first cards that I scoped out showed up in the mail earlier this afternoon.

I was happy that Topps got a Cardinals player outside of Luke Weaver, Matt Carpenter, and the other usual suspects to sign something....

that they put into packs of cards.

I have other Pham autographs, but he just has not been used in dozens of card products.  At least not yet.  The best part of getting a Pham autograph at this moment is that he's probably the best player on the Cardinals at the moment.....

Phamtastic.  

I might have another Cardinals card or two that I might track down from this set, and there are definitely a few Durham Bulls related cards on their way already.  

Project Durham Bulls #32 - Jeff Niemann

2007, 2008, and 2011 Durham Bulls 

Background-

Niemann was a great college pitcher at Rice University in Houston.  His best season at Rice was in 2003 when he went 17-0 with a 1.56 ERA, he was consensus All-American.  The Owls ended that year by winning the College World Series.  There were actually three pitchers on that college team that ended up getting drafted high in the 2004 MLB Draft: Niemann, Philip Humber, and Wade Townsend.  

The right handed Houston native is probably best known for being one of the tallest Major League players in recent history standing at 6'9.  Niemann started his Rays career in 2005 with stops in Visalia and Montgomery.  He missed part of the 2006 season after having a shoulder operation during the offseason.  Niemann reached Durham in 2007 and 2008.  He had two solid seasons as a member of the Bulls before joining the Rays at the end of the 2008 season for a few starts.  Throughout Niemann's time in the Minors he was regarded as a good prospect making Baseball Prospectus Top 100 Prospects list every year between 2005 and 2008.  The following spring in 2009 the Rays made him apart of their rotation.  

Not exactly Cy Young, but he definitely had his moments.....

Niemann had double digit wins during the 2009, 2010, and 2011 seasons.  He started out the 2012 season strong, but had his leg broken by a ball hit back through the middle of the field.  At the end of the 2012 season he had shoulder surgery, that was the end of his career.  Niemann was granted free agency at the end of the 2012 season, never signed with another team, and he never attempted a comeback of any type after recovering from his shoulder operation.  

Card-

The 1990s versions of Stadium Club were great.  The current reincarnation of Stadium Club has been pretty great too.  In between, there was another attempt by Topps at a Stadium Club product in 2008.  It did not go over very well.  The base cards were okay, nothing special.  The design was boring.  There were some Stadium Club like insert sets, but they were just boring rehashes too.  Even the autographs were kind of uninteresting.  Most importantly, it lacked the cool photography that is the signature feature of that set.  

Most of the autographs were of younger players, many of them flopped.  A few noteworthy names made it into the set, but not many.  As a Durham Bulls collector, I was first introduced to the autographs in this product when I found one of Evan Longoria.  Niemann's autograph was also a nice plus as a Bulls fan, and he was a good prospect at the time of this card's release.  I also like that this Niemann card was an on-card autograph.  There are plenty of sticker autographs in this product, some of them are a mess.  Imagine this Niemann card with a silver Topps autograph.  Terrible.  

Niemann has a ton of different autographed cards from both his playing years and time in the Minors as a prospect.  His cards started coming out in the mid 2000s, so there are a ton of sticker autographs mixed in there.  Still, there are a few nice Upper Deck and Topps products that are nice and come with on-card autographs.  I also considered getting a Sweet Spot autograph, but the Stadium Club ended up winning out in the end.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 27 - Alan Benes

The better of the two Benes brothers who pitched in the Majors.  Well, it was shaping up that way until his shoulder fell off.  His first full season in 1996 was fairly ho hum with 13 wins and an ERA of nearly 5.  Then there was 1997.  His record was only 9-9 through the beginning of July, with ERA of 2.89, and 3.5 WAR.  At the time he went on the disabled list, he never returned that season, his numbers were right in line with pitchers like Kevin Brown, Curt Schilling, and Tom Glavine.

Not the top tier with Maddux and Pedro during that 1997 season, but a very very good pitcher.  Mind you he was only 25 and his numbers had been trending up to this point in his career prior to the injury.  Could the first half of the 1997 season have been a complete fluke?  Sure, but I tend to think that he was headed that direction.  Not a stretch to say that the numbers put up by Alan Benes in 1997 were better than anything posted by Andy in his 14 years in the Majors.

The Cardinals drafted Alan Benes out of Creighton in the first round of the 1993 Draft.  He was a pretty highly regarded draft pick and immediately made his way through the Minor Leagues.

He had baseball cards almost right away too.  Like all mid 1990s prospects, he had a bunch of cards in Bowman products, but I actually liked his Upper Deck cards from that era better.  Benes was in both the 1994 and 1995 Upper Deck base sets.

He was in the 1994 set as a Top Prospect.

A lot of these cards were draft picks from 1993, it might have been all, did not do that much homework on the checklist.  When I think of these Upper Deck prospect cards, I always remember the Billy Wagner rookie.  He was taken a few picks in front of Benes in that draft.  The Benes card kind of sticks out because of the uniform.  I was never quite sure where the good people at Upper Deck took this photo, but that Cardinals uniform is straight out of the 1980s.

It could be that this card was made at some sort of photo shoot, or if they took it while he playing for a Minor League team that wore the old polyester Cardinals uniforms.  I found a Dmitri Young card from 1994 where he is playing for the St. Petersburg Cardinals.....

and wearing an old polyester style Cardinals uniform.  Young played for the Cardinals A Ball team in 1993, Benes played there in the early parts of 1994.  The Benes card is a high number, second series later release, so it would have given Upper Deck time to have taken the picture after the season started.  I would lean that direction for the picture.  

Benes was also in the 1995 Upper Deck set as a top prospect.  

They use pictures of him in the polyester uniform again, even though he was in Double A and Triple A during the first parts of the 1995 season.  He actually pitched a few games for the Cardinals towards the end of that season.  I hate recycled pictures, and the effort on this card seems really low when you take into account that his 1995 Upper Deck Minor League card had an updated photo of Benes playing for the Arkansas Travelers.  They would have been the Cardinals Double A team at that point.

I still like the blue background on the 1995 Upper Deck card.  I always prefer to see what is actually happening in the picture when it's an action shot, but this backdrop seems like a good Upper Deck card design element from the mid 1990s.  

Is this a game shot, or is he throwing in the bullpen?  You will never know.  

Before we get to the Major League cards of Benes, I would like to put up one more Minor League card of sorts.  Upper Deck had some Arizona Fall League cards in their Collectors Choice product in 1996.....

which had an Alan Benes card.  There are some other Arizona Fall League cards which have been floating around in more recent sets, but the Minor League players in that league now just wear their team's Major League uniform with a Fall League hat.  I like these mid 1990s cards when the Fall League teams had there own uniforms.  

Not sure when the unis switched over, but I am sure it was some cost saving move.

Benes did not have a ton of cards once he reached the Majors, mainly because he had a major shoulder injury towards the end of the 1997 season and was never quite the same pitcher after that year.  I have it narrowed it down to three or four cards.  

First up is my favorite card of Benes, which is 1997 Topps base card.

Speaking of recycled pictures, if you look up the other Alan Benes cards that Topps made in 1997 they are either this picture, or a photo that was taken from this moment in whatever game he is pitching in here.  Why do I like this picture?

I like the background of the picture.  It's a nice action shot too, but the Cardinals had spent the first half of the 1990s with an astroturf field and blue walls in Busch Stadium.

It's how Busch Stadium looked during my childhood through my years in high school.  After the Rams played a few games there during the fall of 1995, the playing surface was changed over to grass and the outfield walls were painted green.  

I have good memories of the blue walled, astroturfed field of the 1980s and early 1990s, but the green grass and green walls were a nicer place to watch baseball.  The 1997 baseball cards were the first year where you could find a plentiful number of Cardinals with the green fixings of Busch Stadium in the background.  I like that on this Benes card.

A few more classics from the mid 1990s....

The Emotion XL cards were always pretty cool cards.  Sometimes I could clearly see why the cards had a certain emotion printed on the side, other times not.  Alan Benes is excited?  He looked this way.....

almost every time that he threw......

a pitch.  

Good effort though and I still like these cards.  You cannot get them all right, but I am just excited that a smaller set from the mid 1990s had a Cardinals player in it outside of Ray Lankford, Ron Gant, or Dennis Eckersley.  Did not get many Alan Benes cards in these types of sets.  

Next.  

Another classic 1990s set.  Still trying to figure out what the Crusades have to do with baseball cards, but the design is really nice.  Sad story behind this card.  A few years ago this guy with basically everyone of these Crusade cards, all of the color variations, was dumping them all on Ebay.  I tried buying the Lankford red variation, a print run of just 25 cards, but the card ended at almost $200.  I lost, but I won this Alan Benes card.  

Last one.  

Alan Benes does have an autographed card in the 1997 Donruss Signature set.  It's not very hard to find and is also very affordable.  For whatever reason, Benes signed all of his cards across his picture rather than the space for the autograph that was provided at the bottom of the card.  There were not many players who missed the memo on where to sign these cards, but curiously three of them were on the Cardinals at some point during their career.  Benes from above.  

Edagr Renteria also signed his picture, as did Larry Walker.  

Benes did pitch after sitting out the 1998 season recovering from his shoulder injury.  Between 1999 and 2003 he only managed to pitch in roughly 60 games.  He was on the Cardinals until the 2001 season when he became a free agent and signed with the Cubs.  Benes would also pitch briefly with the Rangers and tried a comeback with the Cardinals in both 2004 and 2005.  Neither was successful.  

You can find an occasional Benes card from the later years of his career, but they are rather sparse,

although its nice that Topps made a few cards of a player who could have been great, minus the injuries, even though he did not ever live up to his potential.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 26 - Eric Davis

Eric Davis should be on baseball cards in a Reds uniform.  I'd also accept him as an Oriole, but I really always place him with the Reds.  When I was growing up he was a dynamic player, a great combination of speed and power.   The Cardinals and Reds were in different divisions at that point, and their games were not nearly as tense as they have been in recent years.    

Davis had some pretty insane stats early in his career.  My favorite being his 27 home runs and 80 stolen bases in 1986.  The next year in 1987 he hit 37 home runs and had 50 steals.  I loved the run the Reds made through the playoffs in 1990 too.  Not a huge Barry Bonds/Pirates fan, not a huge A's fan at that point either. 

The Nasty Boys were the lesser of several evils.  Plus, they were diluted by actual likable players on the Reds like Eric Davis, Chris Sabo and his goggles, Barry Larkin, and Paul O'Neill.  

I had Eric Davis rookie cards.  His 1985 Fleer was my favorite.  

In my opinions, this photo is much better than the one on his Topps rookie card.  The red border around the card helps too. Very clean design, nice card.   

A rundown of the baseball happenings of Eric Davis between 1991 and 1998 with some pictures and a video....

He was injured much of the 1991 season and was eventually traded to the Dodgers.  Plenty of people were excited that he got traded to his hometown Dodgers, but he did little with the team who traded him again to the Tigers.  After hitting .183 with the Tigers in 1994, Davis missed the entire 1995 season.  He returned to the Reds in 1996 and things started to look up again after he stayed healthy for a full season and hit like the Eric Davis from the 1980s.  

Davis left the Reds after 1996 for the Orioles.  His 1997 season started out well, but he was diagnosed with colon cancer in May of that season.  He only appeared in 42 games, but returned for the playoffs and helped the Orioles get to the American League Championship Series against Cleveland.  

Major League Baseball presented him with the 1997 Roberto Clemente Award before Game 4 of the 1997 World Series.  It was 35 degrees when this game started, so there is no picture of Davis with the Roberto Clemente Award on the field.....

but I assure you he has it somewhere in his house......

right next to the Gold Gloves.  

In 1998, Davis hit .327/.388/.582 with 28 home runs and 89 RBIs.  

A remarkable comeback.  

The Cardinals bought in, but there was not much left in the tank.  I am not going to use the word "bust" on a guy who had colon cancer, beat it, and returned to play professional sports.  He still showed up in games, played hard, but he just was not the same guy who was an All-Star caliber player for the Reds and Orioles.  

The Cardinals had actually signed both Eric Davis and Shawon Dunston to help out with some of the younger players on the team during the 1999 season.  The team had J.D. Drew, Fernando Tatis, Placido Polanco, and Edgar Renteria.  Good talent, but at that time all of those players were under 25.  

At the end of the 1999 season, Davis had a .257/.359/.403 slash line with 5 home runs, 9 doubles, and 30 RBIs.  He managed to play in just 58 games.  The next season, in 2000, was much better for him.  Davis was still a bench player at that point, but he did help the team win the National League Central hitting .303/.389/.429 with 6 home runs and 14 doubles off the bench.  

Davis does have a few Cardinals baseball cards.  The first few were of the mismatched logo variety, not really a good look.  This Pacific Aurora is terrible......

I used to always say that I would rather have a card with mismatched logos, uniform of one team with card logos of another team, but this is a really unattractive looking card.  I understand that the Pacific Aurora set was a one time thing, no second series, so if they wanted to include Eric Davis in the set this was what they had to do.  I guess they could have airbrushed.....

The back is slightly better since the photo is black and white and it does not have an odd background color like the front of the card.  Never really liked the stat lines on some of these late 1990s/early 2000s Pacific baseball cards.  

Pacific eventually got it right later on in the summer.  

Much better picture on the Paramount card.  Aurora was a spring release, Paramount was a summer release.  This photo is from Spring Training.  The Cardinals in the late 1990s wore blue helmets on the road, note the grey pants, but during the spring the team wore red helmets.  The Cardinals also have never worn red jerseys in regular season games.  Ever.  Clearly a batting practice jersey.  

The Spring Training photos are a common theme with the Eric Davis Cardinals cards.

Leaning towards this being a Spring Training picture too on his 1999 Bowman card.  I actually have another post coming up on this card at some point in the next week or two.  Always surprised when I run across an Eric Davis card in a Cardinals uniform, even more surprising when it is in a newer product.  

Now, for my two favorite Eric Davis card in a Cardinals uniform.  

First up is a Fleer Premium from 1999.  I am not sure what is going on with the red and yellow hazy stuff that is lingering around Davis, but I like the rest of the card.  Good photo of Davis stretching out before a Spring Training game.  The background is blurry, but you can still clearly tell that it's a Dodgers players, maybe a ballboy.  

I was curious about his shoes since they have an 11 on them next to the Nike swoosh.  There were no Cardinals with the uniform number 11 in 1999, but there were three different members of the quad with that number from the previous year.  Fernando Tatis and Luis Ordaz wore the number later in the year, but Royce Clayton started the year with that number.  

Royce, your shoes.....

I'm guess that maybe Royce Clayton abandoned them when he was traded to the Rangers in the middle of the 1998 season.  Maybe there is some other story here too, I don't know, just speculating.  

Last card.  

This is a really cool card of Davis signing autographs in a sea of kids.  It's always nice to see a card of players interacting with fans.  No creepy adults shoving any of the kids out of the way.  Quality picture.  I really miss Upper Deck.  

Davis would end his career with the Giants in 2001.  He does some work with the Reds still and recently appeared in a video opening a pack of baseball cards.  Makes fun of Geronimo Pena and Joey Votto gets in the video at the end.  

Eric Davis opens 25-year-old baseball cards

Former 2-time MLB All-Star Eric Davis joins Mike Oz of Big League Stew to open a pack of 1992 Topps baseball cards.

I Like My $15 Card Better Than Your $700 Card

There are a lot of collectors who are enamored with the newest Angels pitcher/hitter Shohei Ohtani, or the Japanese Babe Ruth.  He was both a good hitter and pitcher in the Japan Pacific League the last few years.  His crossing over to Major League Baseball was one of the biggest stories during this offseason.  Anytime a noted names moves across the Pacific Ocean card collectors seem to take note with their wallets.

Exhibit A.

$700 plus for an autograph from the 2018 Topps Heritage set.  Seems like a lot for a player who has not taken a single regular season at-bat, or thrown a single regular season pitch.  Ohtani has thrown innings and taken at-bats during Spring Training.  They have not gone so well.  He is hitting .100 at the moment and has struck out almost one-third of the time.  Ohtani has also pitched a little more than 2 innings and given up 9 runs.

Not exactly the type of player who would have a large card budget in my collection.  Even if he were a Cardinals player, or made an appearance on the Durham Bulls, I would pass him by without a thought at the moment.

I felt like there were better uses of my money in the Topps Heritage set this year.  Namely, there is an autograph of Cardinals prospect Jack Flaherty.  It's a nice looking card, but more importantly there is a pretty good chance that Flaherty is going to be a pretty nice pitcher......

even if his first time around in the Majors could have been a little bit better.  

He has a nice looking card in Heritage too......

and for around $15 this seems to be a little bit more sound of an investment.  Flaherty does have an ERA of almost 5 in Spring Training, but he also has 20 strike outs in just 13 innings.   Swings and misses are always a good thing with pitching prospects.  I am guessing that Flaherty ends up in Memphis to start the season, but at some point he will end up on the Cardinals.  Just a hunch, but I am guessing my $15 card might end up being a little bit better than your $700 card.