TCMA

One of the great things about the trade packages I have received from Trading Card Database (TCDB) members is the variety of Cardinals cards that I have received.  From minor league sets, to oddballs, to some sets I have never heard of I have received just about every type of card you can imagine.  The latest package I received Wednesday contained quite the variety.

One great feature about trading on TCDB is you see the cards you are trading for.  I have never seen these 1987 TCMA 1934 Cardinals cards before.  I like the use of sepia photos on cards of retired/old timers.  The 1934 Cardinals were know as the Gas House Gang.  This 9 card set highlights key members of that team.  I have read that Paul Dean hated to be called Daffy, but did not say anything in order not to make his older brother Dizzy mad.  Dizzy and Daffy rolls off the tongue better than Dizzy and Paul.

The Cardinals traded Rogers Hornsby for Frankie Frisch in 1926 after Hornsby wanted more money.  Frisch would serve as the manager and second baseman for the 1934 team that won the World Series.  I think everyone on that team had a nickname.  Durocher was the Lip, Frisch the Fordham Flash, and Ripper Collins real first name was James.

Medwick is the last National League player to win the Triple Crown, doing it in 1937.  Most of his other baseball cards use his first name Joe instead of Ducky.  Keeping with the nickname theme,  Spud Davis was actually Virgil Davis and Tex Carleton was James Carleton. 

This 1983 TCMA card is part of a 68 card set featuring member of the 1942-1946 Cardinals teams that 3 World Series.  Considering I only have 2 of these cards, it is going to take a while to finish the set. 

I received all but one of the 1987 Hygrade Cardinals in a trade a couple of weeks ago.  This Musial was the last one I needed to finish the team set. 

The only card I had from the 88 Best Springfield set is Ray Lankford.  As I have said in a previous post, I find it strange that collectors only have one card from a team set that did not come in packs.  The Tewksbury is a 1989 CMC card.  It is strange to see him on a minor league card when he played 3 years in the Majors before 1989 and had regular Topps, Fleer, and Donruss cards issued. 

Two More Trade Packages

Besides the trade package I highlighted in yesterday's post, I also received two smaller packages on Monday.  Though not as big or full of oddballs, the Cardinals I received still knocked out a few sets.

It sounds like the Cardinals will sign Molina to a contract extension sometime this week that should make him a Cardinal for life.  I am sure somewhere in California a certain blogger will be overjoyed.  I did not go crazy buying Wal-Mart pizza last year trying to pull the 2 Cardinals in this set, maybe 2 boxes of breadsticks and 1pizza.  Along with the Michael Wacha I had, this Yadi completed my team set.

Stadium Club almost looked as good in 1997 as it does today.  I am not a huge fan of the blue ribbon and stars, but the great photo makes up for it.  The card also completed my team set.

Failed Cardinals draft picks seem to be a recurring theme in my posts lately.  Lovinger had long odds anyway as a 25th round draft pick, but Hall was a fourth round selection.  He never made it past Double A during his 5 year minor league career. 

The Geronimo Pena card sums up his career very well.  Very athletic second baseman who could not stay healthy.  That photo just makes me hurt in more areas than one.  Arocha was one of the first Cuban defectors who played in MLB.  He played for the Cardinals from 1993-1995.  He was almost 30 before he pitched in the Majors, so that may have something to do with this short career.  Other than his Cardinals tenure, he pitched in 6 games for the Giants in 1997. 

New Week, More Trades Coming in

I am starting to think my mailman likes to hold my bubble mailers until Monday.  For the second week in a row, I received 3 trade packages.  Once again they were all from Trading Card Database members.  The largest of the 3 features a lot of oddball sets from the mid to late 1980s.

These are 1985 Topps Rub Downs.  According to the instructions that came in the original pack (which also included a very hard piece of gum) you place a piece of paper under the player, then scribble over the top with a pencil. The image will then be rubbed on the paper.  High tech stuff in 1985.

Ozzie received a lot of cardboard love in the 1980s.  Being a member of 3 World Series teams, a Gold Glove winner every year in the 80s, and an All Star every year in the 1980s helps.  The Topps Coin is from 1989. 

1986 Sportflics put out a lot of multi player cards.  You can somewhat make out Darrell Porters's pants and Pedro Guerrero's swing on the card on the left that highlights past World Series MVPs.  The card on the right shows pitchers who won 20 games in 1985.  John Tudor is on the top, while Joaquin Andujar is not pictured. 

I like the fact Fleer used different photos for the mini set in 1988 than what was used for the base set.  I think they could have found a more popular Cardinal player to feature than  Bob Horner, but o well.  It was nice to get the entire team set in one trade.

I get mad at myself when I discover I have not updated my wantlist.  I already had a copy of the 1998 Sportflics Coleman.  Maybe Kerry or Brady will need a copy.  The Ozzie card knocked my needs down to just 2 more.

1991 Panini Stickers are smaller than the later versions I showed in yesterday's post.  They are very similar in size to the Red Foley stickers. 

I have a hard time telling the difference between the 1991 Topps Archives and 1994 Topps Archives sets.  These 3 are from 1994.  Gotta love Peanuts, Rip and Mr. Moon. 

Canadian Blaster Part 2

Today's post will finish up the trade recap of the box of cards I received from a Canadian trader on Trading Card Database.

I believe these 1990 Best cards were a team give away of the Springfield Cardinals.  Not much happening with these cards fronts.  Never heard of any of the players either.

 Funny how one small line on the back of a card can make 1990 Fleer collectible.  As noted on the very bottom line, this version was printed in Canada.  I received the entire team set minus the Ozzie Smith card.  Might have to find that one on COMC or Sportlots.

OPC was still cranking out the Topps like cards in the early 1990s.  The Cardinals drafted Paul Coleman in the hopes of finding the next Bo Jackson.  He never made it out of Double A.

I do not recall ever seeing a card or sticker featuring a World Series ring before I received this 1990 Panini sticker.  It is a different concept I suppose, but it would make for a small set.  (Not many Cubs cards either).

These two cards complete my 1991 Classic Game team set.  I still need a handful of cards from a few other Classic sets to finish up that brand. 

Line Drive put out Double A and Triple A sets in 1991.  There were a few future big leaguers in the sets, most notable being Brian Jordan. 

Jaime Moyer only pitched in 8 games for the Cardinals in 1991, but that was long enough to get a OPC card. 

The Cardinals played a lot of rookies in the early 1990s.  As a result, the teams were not the greatest.  Pena had a lot of potential, but never could stay healthy.  Gilkey has some good years before really breaking out for the Mets.  Olivares was a regular member of the rotation before the front office starting to bring more established pitchers like Andy Benes, Pat Hentgen, and Todd Stottlemyre.

These 1992 OPC shows another failed Cardinals draft pick in Tom McKinnon.  The early 1990s were not good to the Cardinals in any way, on the field or in the draft room.

1993 O-PEE-CHEE moved away from the Topps design into something that looks more Pacific like to me.  If it was me, I would have stuck with Topps.  This design is not terrible, but the team name can be hard to read and the player name plate is fairly small.

I like the pennant design of these 1993 Panini Stickers.  Green would not have been my first choice for the border color, but it looks better with other teams like the A's.

Classic was busy cranking out the minor league sets in 1994.  These 2 are from the Classic Best Gold set.  Good luck trying to read the player names written in gold on top of the team name.  All you need to know is both these players were also failed draft picks who never reached the Majors for very long with the Cardinals.

Classic did a little better with its regular 1994 set.  The photography is nice, and finally a player is featured that played for the Cardinals for more than a year or two.  Alan Benes pitched in 6 different season for the Cardinals, but had arm problems that shortened his career.  He still works for the Cardinals front office today.

Jose "The Secret Weapon" Oquendo is back as a Cardinals minor league instructor this year after sitting out last year because of knee replacement surgery.  I believe his absence hurt the Cardinals defense big time last year. 

1997 Donruss Limited was a short lived set.  There were some cards that had both a glossy and non glossy version.  These two are both glossy.  The cards also featured dual sides.  Kevin Brown is on front of the Morris card, Ray Lankford on the Jordan card.  Of course the Lankford/Jordan card is my favorite.

2002 Bowman Chrome cards look better in person than my scans.  I like the use of team colors for the borders.  I remember watching Bud Smith throw his no hitter in 2001 and thinking why is he still pitching with such a high pitch count.  He finished the game with 134 pitches and was never really the same afterwards.  I think Johan Santana can relate to his story.

I am not a huge fan of the MLB Showdown cards.  The backs are boring as can be, and it can be difficult to tell what set the cards are from.  This is a 2003 version.  I guess the cards were more meant to be played with than to be collected.

Canadian Blaster

My son's baseball practice was rained out last night, so I finally had time to scan some cards that have been sitting on my desk since last Monday.  This was the third and largest trade package that arrived on that day, all from Trading Card Database members.  It was a 300 count box that came all the way from Canada.  It had been forever since I mailed anything outside the US, so I had to ask the trader if postage would affect the deal.  He assured me it would be less than $20.  I was getting over 250 Cardinals in the deal, so I figured it was worth the chance.  It cost me $15.50 and about 10 minutes in the post office, but I ended up spending less than a blaster to pull of the trade.  The cost per card was about 6 cents.  I could not have bought these cards at a show for that price.  In addition, you do not see a lot of the cards at shows.  Here are the cards from the 1980s.

The box was full of Topps O-PEE-CHEE cards from every year in the 1980s.  I have very few of these in my collection, with most of them coming from a package I received from Kerry of Cards on Cards fame.  I believe there were about 10 1980 cards.  Some of the card had the same photos as the Topps brand, but others had different pics.  The backs also featured French text.  Some of you may recognize Vuckovich as slugging first baseman Clu Haywood from the Major League movie.  He won the AL CY Young award in 1982 as a member of the Brewers, but would lose in the World Series to the Cardinals.

1981 added the O-PEE-CHEE name on the front.  I am not crazy about cards like the Shirley being listed as a Cardinals, but it is so it was be filed away with the rest of my Cardinals. 

Check out the sideburns on the 1982 Lonnie Smith.  He won a World Series with 3 different teams: 1980 Phillies, 1982 Cardinals, and 1985 Royals. 

I like to think of 1983 as the bulls-eye design.  Sadly Porter and Forsch have both passed on.  Porter died of a drug overdose in 2002, Forsch of a heart attack just days after throwing out the first pitch of Game 7 of the 2011 World Series.  He is the only Cardinals pitcher to throw 2 no hitters.

Smith was still rocking the sideburns in 1984.  Tom Herr chose to go with the perm look.

Jack Clark was the only power threat of the Cardinals during the 1985 season.  I know a lot of athletes age once they retire, but I bet Clark is almost twice as big now as he was on this card. 

The first non O-PEE-CHEE card in the package was this 1985 Kondritz Vince Coleman.  This was part of a 20 card set that highlighted his 1985 Rookie of the Year season.  VMC stands for Vincent Maurice Coleman.  I thought it was strange the other trader only had 1 card from this set.  I am pretty sure you had to buy all 20 cards as a set.

I mentioned in yesterday's post how I love the 1986 design.  The OPC version looks good also.  I hate to be mean, but I don't think many cards used a close up of Willie McGee for a reason.  Various Cardinals fans have given him the nickname ET.

Leaf was the Canadian Donruss version in the 1980s.  I always think of the crazy prices the Jose Canseco Rated Rookie card brought in the late 1980s when I see the 1986 design.

Classic 1987 wood grain design.  Enough said.

I am not sure why O-PEE-CHEE used different font colors on the front of the 1988 cards.  I have seen white, blue, and black versions. 

Look closely and you will see Leaf added a leaf to its name in 1988. 

Who doesn't love stickers that double as baseball cards.  The front of these 1988 Topps stickers have 2 peel offs, while the back features just one player.

1989 OPC closes out the decade.  Like 1988, black and white fonts were used. 

Topps changed some of the stickers in 1989 to a single player on the front.  I like that version a lot better.

Panini also produced stickers in 1989.  I will give them the edge over Topps because of the use of Cardinal colors for the borders.