eBay Wins #257

There's still a whole lot of 1990 cards left, and here's the smallest stack out on my table, 60 cards from Topps Traded, cut down to just the Cardinals.

1990 Topps Traded
#15T Tom Brunansky
#39T Keith Hernandez
#90T Tony Pena
#117T Bryn Smith
#122T Bob Tewksbury
#124T John Tudor

When I arranged these by number, I figured that the set was arranged by team, but then I saw Cleveland's Keith Hernandez splitting up Boston's Tom Brunansky and Tony Pena. It's alphabetical order by last name, and I just happened to get some Cardinals all between S and T. Keith Hernandez is a player I'd really like to get an autograph from, but with him having a solid job in the Mets booth, he doesn't seem to get back to St. Louis for appearances.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5302
Total Spent	$65.39
Per Card	1.233 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

August Card Show Autographs

The monthly card show returns, along with one of the signers that was supposed to be there in July. Here's my haul:

Ivan de Jesus                    David Green                    Bryn Smith
1982 World Champ

Ivan de Jesus was supposed to be at the July show, but apparently missed his flight. He played for the Cardinals for just one year, 1985, so came extremely close to being a World Series champ.


David Green played for the team in 1982, so he gets to write the inscription on his autographs. He was sent by the Cardinals (with more players) to San Francisco for Jack Clark before the 1985 season. His line wasn't terribly long by the time I got there, so he took some time to talk to a kid that was there getting an autograph, and seemed like a really nice guy.

Finally, Bryn Smith was here during some lean years, 1990-1992. He played most of his career in Montreal, and his final season was in Colorado. Interestingly, the person in front of me was getting autographs on a Colorado Rockies inaugural season book, and knew Bryn won the first game in Rockies history. Bryn one-upped him and said "That's right, we started 0-2 that year". I looked it up, and of course he was right.

eBay Wins #223

Continuing with 1988 Donruss, I've got 122 more cards today from my half-cent box. Only 90 are unique. so again I haven't scanned the duplicates and the one triplicate. The Cardinals were a little less dense in this bunch, allowing me to post more before running out of tag space.

1988 Donruss
#233 Dick Schofield (x2)
#234 Jose Oquendo
#235 Bill Doran
#236 Milt Thompson (x2)
#238 Bobby Bonilla
#243 Phil Bradley (x2)
#253 Bob Welch
#257 Mitch Webster (x2)
#258 Brian Downing

Although, there are 3 Cardinals in this first scan; Jose Oquendo, obviously, along with Milt Thompson and Bobby Bonilla.

1988 Donruss
#260 Carlton Fisk
#261 Billy Hatcher
#264 Randy Ready (x2)
#265 Kurt Stillwell (x2)
#266 David Palmer
#267 Mike Diaz
#268 Rob Thompson
#270 Lee Guetterman
#278 Pedro Guerrero

Pedro Guerrero is another former Cardinal. I remember having this specific card, or at least seeing it, when I was very young, and thinking he must be wearing football pads for some reason. Now, I'm just assuming his arms are slightly raised, like maybe he's leaning against the batting cage.

1988 Donruss
#280 Kevin Seitzer (x2)
#281 Mike Davis (x2)
#283 Devon White
#284 Pete O'Brien
#286 Kevin Bass
#287 Carmelo Martinez
#288 Juan Samuel
#289 Kal Daniels (x2)
#290 Albert Hall (x2)

1988 Donruss
#291 Andy Van Slyke
#299 Mickey Hatcher
#304 Pete Incaviglia
#306 Bill Long
#309 Darren Daulton (x2)
#310 Tracy Jones (x2)
#312 Mike LaValliere (x3)
#314 Glenn Hubbard
#320 Kent Hrbek

Andy Van Slyke makes another appearance in this set, along with the catcher he was traded with, Mike LaValliere, whose card had 3 copies in my bargain box.

1988 Donruss
#325 Jeff Dedmon (x2)
#327 Jeffrey Leonard (x2)
#332 Larry Anderson
#333 Jack Howell
#334 Ken Williams
#335 Bryn Smith
#339 Mike Greenwell
#340 Claudell Washington (x2)
#341 Jose Gonzalez (x2)

I only know Bryn Smith as a Cardinal from the several cards I've had of him for a long time showing him in a Cardinals uniform, but I don't really remember him as an active player.

1988 Donruss
#342 Mel Hall
#344 Tony Bernazard
#348 Thad Bosley
#352 John Shelby
#356 Gus Polidor
#358 Danny Darwin (x2)
#359 Lance Parrish
#360 James Steels
#361 Al Pedrique

Al Pedrique would be an important part of a mini collection of mine if I ever had the time to put it together. He was the NL All Star at SS in RBI Baseball, because Ozzie Smith was already on the Cardinals. He wasn't actually an All-Star at all during his career, so I'm not sure why he was chosen.

1988 Donruss
#362 Mike Aldrete
#364 Len Dykstra
#365 Luis Quinones
#366 Jim Presley
#367 Lloyd Moseby
#371 Dave Schmidt
#372 Mark Clear
#373 Dave Bergman (x2)
#374 Charles Hudson (x2)

Mike Aldrete is another case, like Carney Lansford in the last post, of a player who would one day put on the Cardinal uniform, but never actually played for the team. He was a bench coach from 2012-2014.

1988 Donruss
#375 Calvin Schiraldi
#376 Alex Trevino (x2)
#379 Mike Gallego
#385 Don Carman
#389 Rick Mahler (x2)
#390 Mike Dunne (x2)
#402 Brian Holton
#405 Dwayne Murphy (x2)
#406 Jeff Parrett

Mike Gallego and Jeff Parrett both came to the Cardinals later in their careers, oddly enough right as the Cardinals started getting good again.

1988 Donruss
#410 Dave Smith (x2)
#413 Nick Esasky
#414 Damaso Garcia
#415 Brian Fisher (x2)
#423 Matt Young
#424 Steve Balboni (x2)
#425 Luis Polonia (x2)
#431 Gerald Young
#432 Rick Schu

Gerald Young was briefly a Cardinal in 1994, brief enough I've apparently never posted one of his cards before.

1988 Donruss
#435 John Cangelosi
#437 Gerald Perry (x2)
#441 Greg Gagne
#442 Jesse Barfield
#445 Ed Nunez
#448 Rafael Ramirez (x2)
#449 John Smiley
#450 Atlee Hammaker (x2)
#451 Lance McCullers

And we finish with Gerald Perry, the player who caused me to learn what a platoon was, and to realize you can't play every "good" player every day, but it's good to have a serviceable backup. As I recall he was used pretty often as a pinch hitter, and would sub in at first base from time to time.

Those 122 cards cost me 61 cents, bringing my bargain hunting average down just a little more again. I'm nearing 1.4 cents per card, and also nearing 4000 total cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3963
Total Spent	$55.73
Per Card	1.406 cents
Change	-0.029 cents

eBay Wins #218

Now I finish off my pile of 1987 Topps with the last 52 cards. 48 are scanned here because there were 4 doubles.

1987 Topps
#499 Bruce Ruffin
#504 Mickey Hatcher
#505 Bryn Smith
#519 Curt Young
#521 Rick Reuschel
#525 Phil Bradley
#528 Ken Dixon
#536 Terry Mulholland
#538 Tom Niedenfuer

Tom Niedenfuer and Bryn Smith both eventually came to the Cardinals after these teams.

1987 Topps
#539 Reid Nichols
#541 Rafael Belliard
#549 Bob Melvin
#551 Frank Wills
#552 Larry Sheets
#553 Mike Maddux
#568 Earl Weaver
#574 Manny Lee
#592 Chris Welsh

I like manager cards, like this Earl Weaver, and future manager cards, like Bob Melvin.

1987 Topps
#604 Fernando Valenzuela
#614 Roger Clemens (x2)
#617 Al Nipper
#619 Jerry Reed
#623 Kurt Stillwell
#636 Darren Daulton
#641 Domingo Ramos (x2)
#650 Hubie Brooks
#655 Jesse Barfield

I didn't mention it before, but some of these cards were actually from 2 unopened packs I had in among my bargain purchases. The second Roger Clemens was one of those from the unopened packs.

1987 Topps
#658 Robby Thompson
#670 Jose Cruz
#682 Jerry Reuss
#685 Jerry Hairston
#689 Darrell Porter
#702 Greg Gross (x2)
#703 Dave Schmidt
#706 Rick Manning
#713 Tom Brookens

I can't seem to get cards from the 80s without picking up a Jerry Reuss.

1987 Topps
#714 Dan Quisenberry
#722 Bob Knepper
#734 Bill Madlock
#735 Rickey Henderson
#737 Floyd Bannister (x2)
#738 Jorge Orta
#748 Mike Flanagan
#762 Gary Ward
#768 Dennis Lamp

I'm always happy to get a Dan Quisenberry card, since I modeled my pitching motion after his. This was only for pickup games, of course. I'd bet any kids' team's coaches would probably discourage that style.

1987 Topps
#778 Jack Morris
#785 Terry Francona
#789 Dan Schatzeder

And we finish off with another future manager, Terry Francona.

Once again, these were in my half-cent box, so they add 26 cents to my eBay purchases.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3749
Total Spent	$54.65
Per Card	1.458 cents
Change	-0.013 cents

eBay Wins #130

If you paid any attention to my last eBay post, you noticed the card numbers stopped right around the middle of the set. That's because I had a total of 88 cards from 1987 Topps in my penny card piles. Here are the rest.

1987 Topps
#433 Ed Hearn
#452 Dave Henderson
#462 Scott Fletcher
#464 Butch Wynegar
#476 Danny Tartabull
#480 Jim Rice
#495 Gorman Thomas
#499 Bruce Ruffin
#502 Dick Schofield

1987 Topps
#505 Bryn Smith
#520 Jack Clark
#524 Bob Shirley
#531 Astros Leaders (x2)
#555 Dennis Rasmussen
#556 Angels Leaders
#567 Greg Mathews
#573 Hal McRae

Hal McRae, like Don Baylor and Bengie Molina, is a player I collect because he coached for the Cardinals, even though he never actually played for them. In this block of 9, which only had 6 player cards, 5 of them were at one time Cardinal players or coaches.

1987 Topps
#575 Pat Tabler
#582 Bruce Berenyi
#593 Chuck Tanner
#599 Tony Gwynn
#604 Fernando Valenzuela
#610 Jim Rice
#622 Glenn Braggs
#650 Hubie Brooks
#660 Bob Horner

Fernando Valenzuela finished his MLB career as a Cardinal, and so did Bob Horner. neither managed a full season, though, which, I guess, isn't that uncommon at the end of a career.

1987 Topps
#672 Chili Davis
#673 Don Sutton
#675 Ed Romero
#683 Gary Roenicke
#689 Darrell Porter
#691 Dave Parker
#698 Ernie Whitt
#704 Jesse Orosco

Jesse Orosco was Jamie Moyer before Jamie Moyer, playing from 1979 to 2003, including a grand total of 2.1 innings for the Cardinals in 2000. Also, I've always seen Darrell Porter in glasses, but these are nearly Harry Caray level frames.

1987 Topps
#705 Bruce Hurst
#711 Ken Griffey
#717 Ed Vande Berg
#746 Bob Ojeda
#766 Don Aase
#767 Ron Cey
#768 Dennis Lamp
#772 Harold Baines

Ron Cey is clearly sick and tired of this post. So I'll end it after pointing out that I crossed 3000 cards purchased via eBay with this lot.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3042
Total Spent	$48.95
Per Card	1.609 cents
Change	-0.009 cents

eBay Wins #119

Today I've got 9 more penny cards, this time from 1985.

1985 Fleer
#235 Tom Nieto
#367 Bob Bailor
#352 Bob Knepper
#446 Steve Farr
#514 Scott Fletcher
1985 Topps
#88 Bryn Smith
#164 Jorge Orta
#416 Wayne Gross
#652 Joe Nolan

My scanner's dimensions allow me to scan 3 cards wide and 3 cards high, or 4 cards wide and 2 cards high, so groups of 5 or 7 always give me trouble. Thus, your 1985 frankenset above, with 5 Fleer and 4 Topps. Aside from Tom Nieto, who is wearing the birds on the bat on his card, Bryn Smith was also a Cardinal, from 1990-1992. I started watching baseball in 1992, and didn't really learn all the players until 1993, so I have no direct memory of him. I didn't even know he left us for the Rockies along with Andres Galarraga in 1993 until I looked him up on baseball-reference, though I vividly remember being upset at Galarraga's departure.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2883
Total Spent	$47.36
Per Card	1.643 cents

eBay Wins #113

I won 97 auctions for individual 1991 Leaf cards this time around. The seller couldn't find one of them, and asked if he could replace it with another card from the set, and since I was agreeable to that, he sent me two replacement cards. So this bundle is 98 cards for 97 cents. The cards were just curved enough to make them annoying to scan, so I've trimmed this post down to just the 11 Cardinals in the stack.

1991 Leaf
#23 Pat Borders
#45 Chuck Finley
#139 Delino DeShields
#193 Mike Morgan 

1991 Leaf
#226 Bryn Smith
#227 Todd Stottlemyre
#234 Mark Whiten
#268 Danny Jackson

Mark Whiten made me want to be an outfielder, because it was simply amazing to see him throw the ball from to the warning track to home plate on the fly. I'm not sure how many runners he actually threw out, but he certainly made runners think twice about tagging up, much like Molina seems to give would-be base-stealers pause.

1991 Leaf
#350 Danny Cox
#376 Ken Hill
#403 Lance Johnson

These cards really aren't curved that badly when I put them in sleeves, but for some reason it took me way too long to line them up on my scanner.

Before these 98, I had 23 cards from the 1991 Leaf set. There were a few duplicates, but now I have 116 cards from the set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2821
Total Spent	$46.74
Per Card	1.657 cents

182 Packs Giveaway, Part III

When I claimed the Cardinals - and Mark McGwire and Todd Stottlemyre - in the pack-per-day giveaway held at TribeCards, I had no idea just how many cards I'd wind up with, and how many different players. So that I can tag all of the sets and Cardinal players, I've broken this up into a series of who knows how many posts. Thanks for all the cards, David.
[Part I]
[Part II]

1991 Topps
#262 Tim Jones
#734 Bryn Smith

Here are Tim Jones and Bryn Smith sporting a look the cardinals have brought back this year, red caps on the road.

1990 Score
#235 Scott Terry
#347 John Costello
#537 Greg Mathews
#556 Ken Dayley

More road shots except for Scott Terry. These cards kind of remind me of the blue and red parallels modern Topps has.

1991 Studio
#65 Storm Davis
#106 Mark McGwire

Storm Davis arrived via the randomizer, and here's the final McGwire I received.

1991 Studio
#232 Pedro Guerrero
#237 Lee Smith
#240 Todd Zeile

Now here are 3 guys I remember well from when I first started watching baseball. I'd have traded you any other 1B, Closer, or 3B for these cards back then.

1995 Topps
#167 Bret Wagner
CyberStats #173 Todd Zeile

Bret Wagner - never heard of him. I enjoy how baseball-reference.com let's me immediately find out what happened to these unknown draft picks, though. Bret made it up to AA, then got traded to Oakland, but stayed at AA. The Todd Zeile card is a parallel set with a dumb name but an interesting concept. Topps jumped at the rare chance to simulate the rest of the 1994 Season after the strike, and put out the projected stats onto cards. Todd would have hit over 50% more doubles than he did in the real season (38 vs 25), but just under 37% more home runs (26 vs 19). I wonder why that is.

That's it for today, and there are still plenty more to go.