Time to Fly

Happy Opening Day Everyone!  The Cardinals are set to start in about 30 minutes against the Brewers.  Should be a fun 4 game series to open the season against the defending Central Division champs.  The Cardinals slogan for this year is Time to Fly.  It is all over their website and pocket schedules.  My son and I like it and hope St. Louis will sore to the playoffs this year after a 3 year drought.  What better way to celebrate Opening Day that highlighting a Cardinals package from TCDB member jimetal7212.

 

Mikolas gets the starting nod today after a great 2018 All-Star season.  I hope he can repeat the success for another 5 years to justify his new contract extension.  Ankiel had to put his comeback attempt on hold due to an injury, but hopes to return sometime this year as a reliever.  I am pulling for him, but have my doubts.

Martinez also signed an extension this year, but only a 2 year deal worth $3.25 million.  Assuming Dexter Fowler slumps again (which I think he will), Martinez should get plenty of at bats.  I would think Hicks will get an extension later this year if he repeats his success from last year.  The Cardinals have a pattern of extending young players a year or two after their debut.

Matt Carpenter is returning to third base this year.  I hope Goldschmidt is great at digging bad throws.  I don't look for Carp to repeat his home run total, but you never know.  It is still weird for me seeing Carlton in a Cardinals uniform.  Growing up in the 1980s  I always think of him as a Phillie.

Heritage Flashbacks are good about featuring short term Cardinals.  Both of these guys played big roles for the 1967 World Champions team.  Cepeda even won the MVP award that year.

The 2004 Bowman Gold Rolen is a thick card.  These have a lot of chipping issues due to the black border.  The Ozzie is more my style.  This is from the 1987 Fleer Baseball All Stars box set.

Before Toys R Us was making purple Topps parallels, they cranked out some rookie sets in 1991.  Zeile and Jose were the Cardinals included in the 33 card set.  The Cardinals of the early 1990s featured some good young position players on some bad teams.  These 2 were long gone by the time the Cardinals returned to the playoffs in 1996.