A 1980s Card Part 25- 1981 Topps Traded Gene Tenace

I have written a little bit about Gene Tenace before on my blog.  He was a Cardinals player that I discovered later on in life, and did not fully appreciate while I was collecting as a kid.  Tenace was the backup catcher for team when I first started watching baseball and collecting cards, so he was not high on my list.  At some point around college, or maybe right after, I learned all about Gene Tenace on the A's.

I believe that I found this rather rough copy of his 1973 Topps card in a dime box at a card shop in the south part of St. Louis County.  His career numbers did not look great at this point, but the little write up about his World Series MVP caught my eye.

I did a little more digging after this card.  Pretty impressive player.  He's never going to be in the Hall of Fame, but he is definitely in the Hall of Very Good Players.  The first Gene Tenace card I ever bought after I realized he was a good player?  

His 1981 Topps Traded card.  

Like almost all the other Cardinals cards in the 1981 Topps Traded set, the Tenace card shows him wearing the powder blue road uniform in a picture that was likely taken during Spring Training.  Love that his draw strings are hanging out the top of his pants.  Quite the fashion statement.

Here is the back of the card.

Look at those walks.  He was the forerunner of the Moneyball A's teams.  Tenace played with the Cardinals for two seasons before he ended his career with the Pirates in 1983.  These numbers are really close to his final career totals, which Jay Jaffe has as the 13th best catcher all-time.

I know pretty hard to believe.  If you do not have any Gene Tenace cards in your collection, he's somebody you should check out.

Some good tunes from 1981.....

Keep Durham Odd

It's been a little slow the past two weeks looking for additional color variations of the La Pizza Royale cards I have been collecting of former Durham Bulls players Rusty Staub and Gene Mauch.  The cards have multiple color variations, I have picked up a few already......

but the remaining cards are going to be tough.  The Staub cards are especially going to be tough.  A little disappointing, but along the way searching to find these Canadian pizza cards, I ran into a few other oddball cards of some former Durham Bulls players.

I really like this group of cards.   

The first card comes from a Bob Parker set.  He did a bunch of hand drawn picture sets, but I do not know much about him beyond the style of cards he made, and several of them were of the Reds.  This card is from his 1977 Cincinnati Reds set.  The orange card stock is unique to say the least.....

Frank McCormick played for the Durham Bulls during the 1936 season.  He went on to win the National League MVP for the Reds in 1940, and as it says underneath his name on the card, is in the team's Hall of Fame.  The Reds also won the World Series that season.  The little pictures around McCormick remind me a lot of the cartoons on the backs of Topps cards.  Definitely something different.  I believe there is a card in this set of Johnny Vander Meer, who was also a Durham Bulls player, so I might need to find that one.  

Speaking of Vander Meer....

This is from the 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee set, which celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the National League.  The cards all have this style of cartoon picture.  Vander Meer is not a Hall of Famer, but is a notable former Durham Bulls player because of the consecutive no-hitters in back to back starts during the 1938 season.  

The back of the card gives out some details about the two no hitters.  There are also other former Durham Bulls players in the Laughlin set, along a Cardinals player or two that might be worthy of some effort in the near future.  

Last card.  

This is from the 1947 Signal Gasoline set, which featured players from the Pacific Coast League.  From what I have read about Minor League Baseball during this era, the PCL was the most competitive and talent rich league outside of the Majors.  Some really good names played for these teams during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.  

This card reminds me a lot of the Frank McCormick card minus the orange card stock.  

Albosta pitched for the Durham Bulls during the 1941 season.  He won 15 games in just 23 games started, and had an ERA of only 1.74.  His time on the Durham Bulls actually gets mentioned on the back of the card.  He made it up to the Dodgers that same season where he got two spot starts.  

Albosta did not have much of a Major League career, but he missed several years for World War II.  He pitched the 1942 season for the Montreal Royals, who were a top Minor League affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, but entered the Army at the end of the season.  He ended up pitching for the Pirates briefly after the war, but than played the rest of his career in the Minors.  

He played the last several years of his career with a semi-pro team in Saginaw, Michigan.  I drive through that town seemingly every year.  It's got the giant curved bridge in the middle of I-75.  

It's not the Mackinac Bridge, or the Ambassador Bridge.  Still unique.  

I wish I knew something more about this set, but I do not.  There are not many old Minor League cards, but the PCL seems to have quite a few.  This is my second PCL cards that is more than 50 years old.  I also have a manger card of long time Giants great Met Ott managing the Oakland Oaks.  This is from an early 1950s Mothers Cookies set.  

Always nice to find some interesting cards for the collection.  

2019 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 23

I picked up a copy of Blake Snell's red Clearly Authentic autograph, which is serial numbered out of 50.  I am not sure that I like this card as much as the base autograph that I posted here last week.  Here is a look at the front of the card......

My main complaint with this card is the red border.  I am hit or miss on the colored parallels, but this is one that does not really work for me.  Maybe I am stuck on having the white border on a 1984 style card.  Maybe the red border just does not look right on a Rays card. 

Here is the back of the card. 

This card back is the same the base autograph.  Two more to go.  

A 1980s Card Part 24 - 1987 KMart 25th Anniversary Bob Gibson

There were no KMarts near my house in 1987.  I know that there were KMarts in St. Louis County, just none that were next to my house.  Western St. Louis County had it's own discount retail store at that time called Granda Pigeons, there were several stores in several locations throughout the area.  If you are familiar with the St. Louis, the store I went to was west of 141 on Manchester Road, sort of out near all the car dealerships in Ballwin. 

Not sure if this is the exact store, but this seems like the best picture that I can find on the internet that fits my memories of Grandpa Pigeons.  It's floating around on Pinterest, so I am not sure who originally posted this picture, or where it was taken.  The main thing I remember buying at Grandpa Pigeons was fishing tackle boxes for my Legos.  I had tons of them as a kid, I built the castle sets, and I used the tackle boxes to keep the different pieces organized.  

They are still in my parents' basement.  My son plays with them when we visit.  

Not having a KMart near my house resulted in me not having any KMart baseball cards in my collection until I was much older.  Somehow I survived, probably by collecting thousands of other baseball cards.  As an adult, I found that KMart made some quality baseball cards, and luckily most of the cards can be found in dime boxes at card shows.

One of my favorites is the 1987 Bob Gibson card that was included in the retail chain's 25th Anniversary set.  Here is the front of the card.  

It's not a terrible design for something that is a really cheap mass produced baseball card from a discount retail chain.  I actually like the picture on this card a lot.  If you know anything about Bob Gibson, he was a rather intense player.  There are not many pictures or cards of the Cardinals Hall of Famer with this type of expression on his face.  It's different, I like it.  

Back of the card.  

The set is organized by decade, with the majority of players coming from the 1960s and 1970s.  They may not be very expensive cards, and there are some really good names on the checklist.  I kind of like that they broke the set down by time.  Gibby is one of the "Star of the Sixties" portion along with Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Juan Marichal, Roger Maris, Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, and Frank Robinson.  

Lou Brock is another Cardinals card in this set.  Maris was also on the Cardinals, but obviously pictured as a Yankee.  Same with Steve Carlton and the Phillies.  

This set of cards is a really great hidden gem of the 1980s.  If you don't have any of these cards in your collection, they are dirt cheap.  There are several copies of the set available on Ebay at the moment for less than $5 shipped.  

I Forgot

Willy Adames spent two years playing for the Durham Bulls.  I collected quite a few of his cards during that time, and continued to track down a few once he got called up to the Rays last season.  I think my favorite was his Topps Living Set card. 

I have a few Minor League cards of him too, also a few autographs. 

The beginning of the year was not kind to Willy, and with plenty of other former Durham Bulls players on the Rays I set my sights elsewhere.  Well, I mainly collected Blake Snell cards, but there were a few other Rays players who made an appearance in this space during this baseball season too. 

Willy did not. 

Then the second half of the season happened.  Willy improved his OPS by more than 100 points, played Gold Glove caliber defense, and helped the Rays get into the playoffs.  He even hit a pair of home runs in the ALDS against the Astros. 

So, maybe it is time to find a few new cards of this former Durham Bull.  His cards have gotten a lot less expensive, so I was actually able to pick up two of his cards rather than the one that I had originally set out to find.  

First up.  

This is from Topps Heritage High Numbers.  The autograph looks a little smudged, but there are other copies of this card with a similar appearance.  Perhaps this was not Willy's best effort on signing cards.  The card cost a few dollars, so I am not overly worried about the the slight smudge.  Just happy to own an Adames autograph from this set.  Always one of the best every year.  

Next.  

This is from this year's Archives set, the autograph is on card, and the design in borrowed from the 1994 Topps set.  When I saw this card, I was reminded that the original 1994 set had different shortstop prospect that was on my rooting interest.......

No autographs from Tripp "Homer" Cromer, but I hope that Willy Adames turns out a little bit better in the long run.  

2019 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 22

This is one of my favorite Snell autographs that I have picked up this year.  In fact, I have generally avoided picking up multiple parallels of Snell's autographs, but that might change with this card.  The other variations of this cards seem fairly reasonable, so I am sitting here watching them on Ebay.  We will see.

Here's the new Snell autograph, which brings the count to 22.

I know this is a rehash set of the base Topps set, and I usually gripe about those in this space, but this one is really well done.  In fact, I feel like I have really ignored the Topps Clearly set the last year or two when it is "clearly" up my ally. 

Why? 

My favorite Topps parallel the last five years has been the acetate, or clear cards.  They are numbered to 10, so they are tough to find.  Way back in 2013, or 2012, or whenever they started I posted a bunch of them.  Then they got popular, they are not here as often.  Very much worth the effort though.  This Snell autographed card is the same thing as the acetate parallels. 

Here is the front and back of an acetate parallel.

Someone at Topps loves Jon Jay.  He always has good cards.  

You've already seen the front of the Snell autograph from Clearly Authentic.  Here is the back.....

Same thing as the Jon Jay, which is not a bad thing since it is something that Topps does really well.  I have a feeling that the Clearly cards are going to help me reach my goal of getting to 25 Snell autographs this year.  My goal is within reach, but we are running out of calendar days and new 2019 products.  

A 1980s Card Part 23 - 1987 Donruss All-Star Pop-Ups

The Cardinals were not very good in 1986, but that did not stop Ozzie Smith from making the National League All-Star Team as their starting shortstop.  He missed the 1980 All-Star Game while he was with the Padres, but otherwise made it every year during the decade.  There are more than a few All-Star cards of Ozzie, this Donruss is one of my favorites.

In general, the Donruss All-Star Pop-Ups are one of my favorite oddballish sets from the 1980s.  I usually just bought packs of Topps, with an occasional Donruss and Fleer pack, so I am not quite sure where I got my Donruss Pop-Up cards.  I might have picked them up at some point later on too.  They are supposed to be a knock off of the 1964 Topps Stand-Ups.

At least the same concept, perforations around a picture of a baseball player that fold into a stand-up model. Other years look a lot closer. 

Here is the Ozzie Smith card.

Donruss used the host stadium of the previous year's All-Star game as the background for these cards.  The game in 1986 was hosted by the Astros at the AstroDome.  The picture of Smith is oddly blended in though.  You can tell it's a picture from Spring Training because it's the only time the Cardinals ever wear solid colored uniforms.  Still true today.  You can also see what looks like a group of Blue Jays players sitting in the dugout in the background.  

Small things, but I think the card would have looked better if they had completely blacked out the background behind Ozzie.  Maybe it's just me though.  

The back of the card has the All-Star Game logo from 1986 along with directions about how to assemble the stand-up figurine.  I have a bunch of these in my collection, and I am not sure that I have ever made one into the stand up figure.  I am going to have to do that the next time I run across one.

A good song from 1987.  Never Let Me Down Again.