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....

Project Durham Bulls #48 - Andy Kosco

1960 Durham Bulls 

Background-
Andy Kosco is a bit of a local legend in Youngstown, Ohio.  He excelled at football, basketball, and baseball in high school.  By his senior year he had more than 44 football scholarship offers, many from large conference powerhouses such as Michigan State and Ohio State, along with more than 20 basketball scholarship offers, and a deep interest from several baseball teams.  Ultimately, the Detroit Tigers signed Kosco for more than $62,000 in bonus money, which was an enormous amount at that time. 

Kosco appeared for the Durham Bulls in 1960, his second year in professional baseball.  He hit 22 home runs, drove in 75 runs, and won the Rookie of the Year Award in the Carolina League that season.  For the next several years, Kosco lingered in the Tigers farm system, but was ultimately released in 1964 when the Tigers thought his talents had maxed out in the Minors.  He signed with the Twins and made his Major League debut in 1965.  Eventually, he ended up on the Twins World Series roster that fall.  He never got an at bat in the Series though, and the Twins lost the World Series to the Dodgers.

After three partial seasons in Minnesota Kosco began to bounce around the league.  He was sold to the A's.  The A's left him unprotected on their 40 man roster at the end of the 1967 season where he was selected by the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft.  The Yankees traded him to the Dodgers.  The Dodgers traded him to the Brewers.  The Brewers traded him to the Angels.  The Angels traded him to the Red Sox.  The Red Sox traded him to the Reds.  10 years, 7 teams.

Card- 
In honor of the release of the 2019 Topps Heritage set, I decided to pick a Durham Bulls player who was featured in the 1970 Topps set.  The highly anticipated Topps product is using the design from the 1970 flagship set.  Topps had some pretty bold designs during the 1970s, this was obviously not one of them.  The grey borders were pretty drab, but for me this was one of the first "vintage" sets that I owned a card from, which was a Red Schoendienst manager card.

Kosco's frequent trades made him a frequent subject of airbrushing.  His rookie card in 1966 was airbrushed, along with his 1969 Topps, 1971, and 1972.  Almost half of his cards.  I was actually able to get a pair of Kosco cards for next to nothing, also landing his 1967 Topps card.  Obviously the connection to the this week's Topps Heritage release made me go with this Dodgers card. 

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 67 - Cliff Politte

Politte's Cardinals career only lasted eight games, but he is someone who still comes up from time to time amongst the team's fans.  Cliff Politte was a local player who attended Vianney High School in suburban St. Louis, and later at Jefferson College, which is just south of St. Louis County.  Eventually he ended up being selected by the Cardinals in the 54th round of the 1995 MLB Draft.

He pitched in the Cardinals minor league in 1996 and 1997 appearing for two different A Ball teams, and the Double A Arkansas Travelers.  The Cardinals ended up starting Politte out in St. Louis to begin the 1998 season.  He won his first start at the Major League level on the second game of the season against the Dodgers.  After a few starts though, Major League hitters caught up to Politte and he was sent back down to the Minors.

A few cards from Politte's time in the Minors.

I usually hold out the best card(s) for the end of the post.  However, with Politte his best card was one of his firsts.  He signed in the 1997 Bowman set, also appeared in the base set.  Obviously this is the better card.  This is not the most common autographed card in the world, not always the cheapest either for a player who had a short career.  I know that there are Bowman autographs that are tougher than others, I would have to imagine that this card is one of those that is short printed.  

Second best card from his time in the Minors.......

has to be his 1998 Bowman, or Bowman Chrome.  The International variation is a must since the card shows Politte as a Cardinal, but also shows his hometown on the map in the background of the card.  Always a little nice when the hometown and the player's team line up.  Bowman also made these cards in 1997, but they had a national flag in the background instead of the map.  Still a nice looking card, I give it a mention, but not a scan.

On to the Major League cards.

Politte has one of those prospect cards in the 1998 Topps set.  He appears with Braden Looper, who was also a short lived Cardinals prospect.  The Cardinals traded him to the Marlins for Edgar Renteria.  Looper returned back to the Cardinals later in his career.  

So, after returning to the Minors for the second half of the 1998 season, Politte struggled a bit.  At the end of the season, he traded to the Phillies.  The first paragraph from this UPI wire story is a gem....

Obviously Politte ended up being the prospect the Cardinals sent to the Phillies.  Garrett Stephenson, who had squabbled with Curt Schilling in Philadelphia was the "marginal major-league prospect" that was sent to the Cardinals.  

Politte still popped up in a few baseball card sets in 1999.  Not many, but he did get one final appearance as a Cardinal in the Upper Deck Black Diamond set.  

Politte is also in the Metal Universe set wearing a Cardinals uniform, but the markings and logos on the card are of the Phillies.  

As far as the rest of Politte's career, he played a few seasons with the Phillies before heading over to the Blue Jays.  They converted him over to a relief pitcher, which gave his baseball career a little bit of life.  Eventually he ended up on the White Sox for a few seasons, including 2005.  

Politte appeared in 4 games during the White Sox run to the World Series title, including three against the Astros in the World Series.  His 2006 was rough and led to Politte being released mid way through the season.  In 2007, he tried to come back with the Indians.  In 2008, he tried a comeback with the Cardinals.  Politte ended up pitching a handful of games in Memphis, but never made it back to St. Louis.  

Cards, And A Bull, For Some Cubs

A quick trade post.  I am a little behind with a few stacks of cards on my desk, this is one group of cards that got lost in the shuffle for a week or two.  I picked these up from Shane, who can be followed on Twitter, or at his blog Off The Wall.  Good baseball card follow.

We worked out the trade around a group of oddball Cubs cards which had been sitting in card closet for a few years.  They were given to me by a college friend who was dumping off different parts of his collection.  I was sent a Facebook Message one day about a box of baseball cards, a few days later there was a box on my front porch loaded down with all sorts of 1980s Cubs oddballs.

As a Cardinals fan, it was really hard to fit them in with any part of my collection.  There were not any Durham Bulls players in those sets either.  Eventually, the Cubs cards just ended up in a random box, but luckily they have found a good home.

Which brings me to what came back in return for the Cubs cards.  Obviously, some cards that better match my collection.

Let's start off with a pair of Ozzie oddballs.

I was actually surprised to find that I did not have either of these cards.  I don't have any Wonder Stars cards in my collection, but I do have a bunch of the Jimmy Deans.  These were the prototypical oddball cards from the 1990s.  Love them both.

One other modern Cardinals card from the package.....

This is from the 2013 Topps Archives set from the 4-in-1 insert.  I like all the 1980s and 1990s stolen base guys on one card.  I was big into the steals, very nice.  

A few older cards.  

Next up is Reggie Smith from the 1975 SSPC set.  I always think of Reggie Smith as a Red Sox or Dodger, but he was with the Cardinals for a few years in the middle of his career.  Might be one of the better Cardinals players who really lacks a presence in my collection.  Not sure why, but just have never gone there.  I am a big fan of the SSPC cards too.  Simple designs are sometimes the best designs.  

Which brings me to my three favorite Cardinals cards in the package.  Love those cereal cards.  

First up is a 1962 Post Cereal Curt Simmons card.  He the majority of his career as a Phillie, but had some good years with the Cardinals in the early parts of the 1960s, including the 1964 season, which ended with the a World Series over the Yankees.  These Post cards are fun.  

Next up.  

I have done a bunch with these Kellogg's cards over the past six months, but mostly with the 1980s sets.  Nothing really from the 1970s.  This McGlothen is from the 1975 set.  Beautiful card.  I have barely touched these 1970s Kellogg's, I would really like to add more of these at some point.  This is a great start.  

I like the back of the McGlothen card.  The sketch in the top left hand corner, the old Cardinals logo in the top right corner, all the copyrights across the bottom of the card.  Definitely an interesting card back.  It even has his hobbies up at the top, feels like the 1990s Studio cards might have copied off of these.    

The last Cardinals card, which is tremendous.  Another Kellogg's card.  

This is from the 1970 set.  One of the best oddball card sets of all-time, such a great looking product.  The other Kellogg's sets have all sorts of colored borders and designs, but the 1970 set has this simple white border.  I think it makes the pictures really pop.  

The back is really pretty standard with the stats and player vitals at the top of the card.  These last two cards really make me want to go out and find some more of the 1970s Kellogg's cards.  They are a project for another day, but still going to get added to my baseball card to do list.  Even if it does not happen for a year or two.  

Last card in the package, and the only Durham Bulls related item.  

Jim Morris was a popular player in the early 2000s.  The movie "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid was based on his journey from high school science teacher and baseball coach, to player for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  He was actually a Minor Leaguer for the Brewers and White Sox back in the 1980s, played a few seasons, but blew out his arm.  He made a bet with the players on his high school team that if they won their district championship he would try out for a Major League team.  There is more story in there, but he made his way through the Rays system, which included a stop in Durham, before he reached the Majors.  

It's a decent movie.  Not Bull Durham though.  

Overall, a really great trade package from Shane.  Some great cards in here that will have a good place in my collection.