Monday, March 27, 2017

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.



2 comments:

  1. The full bleed photos of the minor cards are very nice-better than most 90's minor issues

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    1. I agree. What the card lacked in design, they made up for in the phototgraphy

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