Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part V

Part I II III IV


I've got a lot of McGwires to go through. I'm nowhere near the St. Louis years yet.

1990 Starline Long John Silvers #9 Mark McGwire
1990 Starline Long John Silvers #11 Mark McGwire (x2)
1990 Kmart #32 Mark McGwire
1991 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-9 Mark McGwire
1991 Score 100 Superstars #39 Mark McGwire
1991 Score #324 Mark McGwire (x3)

I think those Green-Bordered cards were some sort of Long John Silvers giveaway, from some searching around the web.

1991 Upper Deck #174 Mark McGwire
1992 Donruss #348 Mark McGwire
1992 Fleer Ultra #115 Mark McGwire (x2)
1992 Pinnacle #217 Mark McGwire
1992 Upper Deck Fanfest #32 Mark McGwire

The 1992 Upper Deck FanFest set is another new one for me. It's increasingly rare for me to get a card from a set I don't already have cards from, but that one and the Starline cards were both new sets to my collection.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part II

Part I

Next up from Junior Junkie: More Bo Jackson.

1990 Stadium News #BJ Bo Jackson
1991 Topps #600 Bo Jackson
1991 Upper Deck #545 Bo Jackson
1991 Upper Deck #744 Bo Jackson
1992 Donruss #470 Bo Jackson
1992 Score #361 Bo Jackson

That first card has no copyright notice on it, but 1989 Stats, so I assumed it was a 1990. A reverse Google image search led me to find that the set is called Stadium News, which I should have assumed, and I found several other cards from the set in Zistle.

1992 Topps #290 Bo Jackson
1992 Triple Play #164 Bo Jackson
1992 Upper Deck #555 Bo Jackson
1993 Leaf #316 Bo Jackson
1993 Topps #400 Bo Jackson
1994 Sportflics 2000 Rookie/Traded #150 Bo Jackson

These cards have brought me to a decision. I must find a black White Sox jersey T-shirt with Jackson #8 on it.

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part III

Several weeks ago, I read a post at Johnny's Trading Spot titled Instant mini collections up for grabs. "Up for Grabs" always gets my attention, so I threw my name into the mix. They were supposed to be randomly assigned, but through a lucky draw and one trade, each of the winners wound up with exactly what they originally wanted most. For me, that was cards with batting donuts.

Part I II

It's a busy week for me. So, let's just see some more donuts, featuring 3 Cardinals this time, though all in other uniforms.

1991 Topps
#139 Jeff Treadway
#604 Billy Hatcher
#726 Phil Stephenson
#781 Darryl Hamilton
1991 Fleer #75 Joe Oliver
1991 Upper Deck
#3 D. J. Dozier
#291 Joey Cora
#340 Larry Sheets
#502 Bob Boone

Bob Boone doesn't look nearly old enough on this 1991 card to be the father of Bret Boone, on the 1992 card below.

1991 Upper Deck
#560 Chris Gwynn
#675 Hensley Meulens
#754 Tony Fernandez
1992 Upper Deck
#121 Hal Morris
#327 Kevin Seitzer
#771 Bret Boone
#737 Dan Gladden
1992 Topps
#333 Pat Tabler
#647 Marquis Grissom

1991 Donruss
#80 Kevin Reimer
#109 Ken Oberkfell
#253 Glenn Braggs
#255 Kevin Mitchell
#445 Kirk Gibson
#530 John Olerud
1992 Donruss #759 Dave Anderson
1992 Triple Play #24 Reggie Jefferson
1992 Fleer Ultra #279 Thomas Howard

Ken Oberkfell and Thomas Howard are the two Cardinals in this bunch, along with Royce Clayton below. The Howard card has a sneaky donut on it, on the bat of the player on deck.

1992 Leaf #272 Royce Clayton

eBay Wins #148

I'm now at the end of 1991 as I gradually go through my stack of eBay penny cards. I had 3 Upper Deck cards.

1991 Upper Deck
#106 Dave Stieb
#187 Luis Polonia
#614 Bill Landrum

None of these 3 were ever Cardinals, so let's have a look at the backs.

1991 Upper Deck
#106 Dave Stieb
#187 Luis Polonia
#614 Bill Landrum

Ah ha, I found a Cardinal. Pat Borders makes a cameo on Dave Stieb's card. I believe that's Galen Cisco at the mound there as well.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3235
Total Spent	$50.85
Per Card	1.572 cents
Change	0 cents

Trading for McGwires

Alex at Chavez Ravining was kind enough to scour my Zistle list for McGwires I didn't have, and in return I sent him some Dodgers for his Topps Team Set project.

1988 Mother's Cookies Mark McGwire Set #2/4
1988 Mother's Cookies Mark McGwire Set #3/4
1988 Mother's Cookies Mark McGwire Set #4/4
1989 Mother's Cookies Mark McGwire Set #3/4

I always see Mother's Cookies cards, but I haven't owned any until now. These arrived still in the plastic wrapper that protected them from the cookies, so I figured I'd leave the 25-26 year old plastic intact...for now.

1991 Upper Deck #656 "The Bashing Years"
1995 SP #185 Mark McGwire
1995 SP - Platinum Power #PP13 Mark McGwire
1996 Metal Universe #101 Mark McGwire
1996 Topps #145 Mark McGwire
1997 Topps #62 Mark McGwire

It's kind of funny to me that a 1991 card referred retrospectively to the late 80s as "The Bashing Years", since McGwire's 97-99 total was 193 Home Runs. In his 4+ seasons before 1991, he "only" hit 156. I know it's a reference to the Bash Brothers, but he had plenty of power left for his later years.

1996 Leaf Preferred - Steel #14 Mark McGwire

This card is actually printed on steel. These were inserted 1 per pack in 1996 Leaf preferred, so I'm surprised I didn't own any. That seems like exactly the type of gimmick that would have convince me to buy quite a few packs in 1996. I even only have 2 cards from the main set, both of which came in contest prizes. Maybe my LCS never had any for some reason. The printing is surprisingly high-quality for being on a metal substrate, and I've added a few Cardinals from the set to my want list.

That's all. Thanks to Alex for adding to my McGwire collection!

eBay Wins #98

This time, I picked up 2 rookie cards for their minimum bid of 1 cent each. I wonder what these would have cost me in 1991. Maybe up to a buck, or more in LA or Houston.

1990 Donruss #34 Eric Anthony
1991 Upper Deck #4 Dave Hansen

Here we've got 2 promising young rookies, from a time when your rookie card typically came out the year after your first season of play. Eric Anthony made the Astros for 25 games in 1989, and Dave Hansen played 5 for the Dodgers in 1990. I also picked up the Topps version of the Eric Anthony rookie, a "Future Stars" card, last year.

Since both of these were rookies, I decided to have a look at baseball-reference.com to see how their careers compared. I was a little surprised, especially since my firsthand baseball knowledge goes back to 1992 when I discovered I really liked the game.

Eric Anthony played 9 years, all the way through 1997, for Houston, Seattle, Cincinnati, Colorado, and the Dodgers, but only 682 games, 282 of which came in 1992-1993 as a starter. I feel like I vaguely remember him being around, which is about right considering his role on his teams later in his career.

Dave Hansen, I was certain, must have flamed out after a year or two. His name didn't ring a bell at all. But, he played 1230 games in 15 seasons, missing 1998 but playing from 1990 to 2005. Either the unbalanced schedule kept me from being exposed to the Dodgers and Padres much more than I thought, or my memory of the full league isn't as good as I thought. He also played 90 games for the Cubs in 1997 at a time when teams play 10% of their games against each division rival, which should mean he faced the Cardinals more than a few times. Memory is a funny thing.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2521
Total Spent	$44.04
Per Card	1.747 cents

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 16

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
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2005 Upper Deck #184 Edgar Renteria

I felt like Edgar Renteria was ageless, having already had a World Series winning hit before arriving at the Cardinals, playing here for 6 years, and then 7 more seasons elsewhere after that. Of course, he was actually quite young on arrival, and he was only 21 in that World Series win for the Marlins.

2005 Upper Deck #185 Jason Isringhausen

I think I see some Wrigley Field ivy in the background of Izzy here.

2004 Fleer Legacy
#8 Sammy Sosa
#48 Hideo Nomo
#53 Richie Sexson

These cards were a little dinged up and sort of used as packing material on the outside of each stack in the team bags. Still, those are some medium to big stars on the cards (Sorry Richie, you necessitated the "medium to" there).

2003 Topps
#469 Brett Tomko
#567 So Taguchi
#702 Jim Edmonds

I'm continually surprised that I keep finding sets I don't have cards from. 2003 Topps was one of those as well, which is even stranger, since Topps base cards from any year seem to just float around and settle in my card boxes.

2003 Upper Deck Game Face
#102 J.D. Drew
#104 Scott Rolen
#106 Tino Martinez

Game Face is a bit more of an obscure set, so it's not surprising I didn't have any of it. Rolen has a legitimate focus-on-the-pitch game face. However, it would appear someone caught J.D. Drew after fouling a ball off his shin, and Tino before a dugout tirade.

1991 Upper Deck
#636 Stolen Base Leaders (Lou Brock/Ricky Henderson)

1991?! That's right, there's a bit of a gap in the cards I received as prizes, from 1992 to 2002. Given that it took me 16 posts to get through the 11 years of 2003-2013, I figure that saves you about 16 more posts of reading. We're at the beginning of the end now. Or is the end of the beginning, since I'm going reverse chronologically?

eBay Wins #33

I bought this lot of 23 cards with some stars peppered in for 49 cents. They're from 1988-1991, but for just over 2 cents apiece I figured I couldn't go wrong, and I'd get a nice long blog post taking me, and maybe you, down memory lane

1988 Score #7 Wally Joyner

1988 Score #275 John Tudor

I only vaguely recall John Tudor as a Cardinal, and I think mostly I've just heard the name over and over, I don't actually remember him playing.

1988 Score #278 Jerry Browne

1988 Score #481 Kevin Mitchell

The yellow border goes nicely with the Giants, so much so I didn't even remember Score has colored borders by card number, not by team, until I went to file this one with the rest of them.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-22 Will Clark

Speaking of the Giants, it's MVP and former (future?) Cardinal Will Clark.

1989 Score #193 Dwight Evans

1989 Score #221 David Cone

1989 Score #429 Tim Leary

1989 Score #534 John Costello

Another Cardinal I've never heard of. Maybe he was traded to whichever team Jim Abbott was on to give the local sportswriter an easy headline season.

1989 Topps #5 Orel Hershiser

1989 Topps #300 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #390 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #478 Doug Drabek

If I was going to get some 1989 Topps, these are pretty good cards to get. I always think of the guys who were aging superstars in 1992-1995ish as the greatest cards ever, corresponding with the first time I started paying attention to baseball. And of course Doug Drabek was on the last successful Pirates teams.

1990 Donruss #269 Kirby Pucket

The lone 1990 Donruss was one I already had, so this will go on my trade list. Not that anyone will trade me for a 1990 Donruss, so it'll probably languish there for awhile until I clean house.

1990 Fleer #314 Ruben Sierra

1990 Fleer #399 Orel Hershiser

I like the look of 1990 Fleer, and another Orel Hershiser isn't bad either. I'm kind of surprised to see he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2007 on just his second try. He seemed like a plausible candidate to me.

1991 Donruss #433 Ryne Sandberg

1991 Donruss #490 Kirby Puckett

I like the green 1991 Donruss better than the blue for some reason, but both designs scream 90s.

1991 Upper Deck #193 Mitch Williams

1991 Upper Deck #418 Jeff Reardon

1991 Upper Deck #744 Bo Jackson

Of all the non-Cardinals out there, Bo Jackson is a player I've really considered collecting for awhile. I really like every time I get one of his cards, but I can't bring myself to add another player to my list. Although, there must not be too many of him out there for the few years he played, right? That's it, I've talked myself into it. Bo Jackson is now a player I collect.

1991 Upper Deck #768 Vince Coleman

Here's Vince Coleman trying not to get run over by a tarp.

1991 Upper Deck #769 Mitch Williams

In case I lost you along the way, notice that's the second Mitch Williams from 1991 Upper Deck. Without looking it up, I assume the cards were put out in two or more series that year, giving them time to print up a new card with Mitch on his new team. According to baseball-reference, he was traded April 7, the day before opening day for the Phillies. That seems strange, but I don't see any "crazy" stories about the trade online anywhere.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1926
Total Spent	$37.52
Per Card	1.948 cents

eBay Wins #2

Catching up on my eBay card wins should keep my blog busy for quite some time if I lack material.  Here is the oldest yet to be blogged:

1991 Upper Deck Brook Fordyce, Scott Aldred

1989 Donruss Rookies Ken Hill

1988 Topps Traded Tino Martinez

1991 Topps Traded Charles Johnson

1991 Topps Stadium Club Jim Mecir

1991 Bowman Roberto Hernandez, Todd Ritchie

1991 Fleer Ultra Juan Guzman

1991 Line Drive Rusty Meacham

1987 ProCards Roberto Hernandez

1990 ProCards Juan Guzman

12 cards for 16 cents.  Can't complain about that.  The listing was actually only for the first 10, but the  Hernandez and Guzman penny sleeves contained their minor league cards as well.  The big draw for me was Tino Martinez (a Cardinal from 2002-2003) and Ken Hill (1986-1991 and part of 1995).  So how do I make this post interesting?  Well, Ken Hill came to the Cardinals from Detroit along with the infamous "Player To Be Named Later".  That wound up being Mike Laga, who is the only man known to hit a ball out of Busch Memorial Stadium (the 1966-2005 version).  Recently, a local radio station tracked down the video, and I've been looking for an excuse to post it...but during the time I left this post in my drafts, the video went slightly viral (is it possible to go slightly viral?) and MLB ordered a takedown.


The Mike Laga Foul Ball from JoeSportsFan.com on Vimeo.

Oh yeah...it was a foul ball.  I promise you this video was real and amazing.  And now I know my Dad was telling the truth when he told me about it as a kid.