In with the Old

This sums up the Big Red’s 1980 Season. As the ‘70s ended on a whimper the ‘80s would begin on a whimper. The 1980 season would be their 5th consecutive season missing the playoffs. Their record was 5-11 which matched the previous campaign. As with the baseball Cardinals and the hockey Blues the 1980 season would be one of the first I really remember-or at least remember the players such as QB Jim Hart, Running Back Otis Anderson, Wide Receivers Mel Gray and Pat Tilley, Offensive Linemen Joe Bostic and Dan Dierdorf, and Defensive Back Roger Wehrli.

Really nothing else to say about the season except they continued their history of sucking and losing, however, this season would see the rookie card of Running Back Otis Anderson. Why isn’t he in the HOF? In 1980 Otis rushed 301 times for 1352 yards. This would be the third highest total of his career.

Generally the design of the 1980 Topps isn’t very popular with collectors-couple this with few key rookie cards-and the airbrushed logos-and you have set without much demand.

Topps didn’t have a license with the NFL to show team logos so a la Panini you see a great many photos of players without helmets, and all logos were air brushed off.

I would argue it is an attractive set regardless-I think the photos are sharp, the fronts are framed with team, position, and name in a football at the bottom. The reverse is horizontal with red background and black lettering. On the left is a football with some sort of factoid and a cartoon. Career stats are given as well as the usual bio info. You will notice there is only the endorsement of the NFL Player’s Association.

Checklists were provided as part of the previous season’s team leaders.

Only missing the 1979 Record Breaker card of Otis to complete team set-16 of 17.

Out with the Old

The 1979 Football Cardinals weren’t good. They had coaching issues and changed coaches after Bud Wilkinson went 3-10. Former Cardinal Larry Wilson took over and the team went 2-1 to finish the season. For whatever reason, Larry didn’t come back in 1980. Since ownership sucked, and still does, it was probably a bad decision on their part. The one highlight of the season was the outstanding rookie performance of Running back Otis Anderson. Otis the 8th overall pick for the Cardinals in the 1979 Draft rushed for an amazing 1,605 yards in 1979 the most for a rookie season up till then. In his debut game he rushed for 193 yards one shy of the record.

Yoourrrr 1979 Football Cardinals 17 Jim Hart, 32 Ottis Anderson, 85 Mel Gray
25 Roy Green, 83 Pat Tilley, 54 Tom Banks C, 72 Dan Dierdorf T, 71 Joe Bostic T
78 Ron Yankowski DE, 22 Roger Wehrli CB, and 12 Steve Little K/P. One can see how a young boy from the STL would be following and rooting for the 49 teams of the 80s.

Still no agreement with the NFL, Topps would continue their airbrush magic. Somewhat like the 1973 Topps issue the fronts of the 1979 Topps would use a pennant. Since there was no license there is no city with the team name-so there is a little pennant in the right top corner-with a football in the middle containing the player’s position. Team and player name are in the top left. The player’s picture is framed in a three color border with each team having a color-Cardinals’ color is Purple and Orange-which are the colors of the pennant and one of the border stripes.

The player’s photos are well done. They look like many were shot in training camp and have a relaxed intimate feel to them. Which is a nice departure from the norm.

The reverse is a little different than you would normally see-and I can’t say much except whom ever designed this was stoned. Not sure what else would explain the oddness. There are four “boxes” that contain the bio information, the name and card #, stats and a factoid, and a cartoon. What saves the reverse is the color combination of yellow and purple on a grey stock.  There is a cream back variation (the normal version is on the left and the cream on the right). Some of the team set cards I picked up are doubles and I will compare against the ones I have to see if I have one.

We have 18 of 19.

Black Friday put me in Black Mood

Happy post-Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Like many of you I bought a few boxes from Dave and Adams' Cards and Blowout Cards during their Black Friday sales.

I can't say I am overly impressed with the way Blowout Cards ran theirs. I was manipulated, or least felt I was. I had watched the "door buster" promos and eyed a few boxes to pick up. Including Super Break Frozen Heirlooms box at $9.99. Now I am not a hockey collector per se but for half the cost of a blaster I will get 3 autos etc from Hall of Fame Players-I am in. SO I have a few in to my cart only with a box of Pinnacle Baseball. I have them in there for a little while as more deals are released. Then I noticed they are down to 5 boxes-so I pull the trigger. Paid god knows what for shipping and there ya go.

However, a few minuets later the deal is "reposted" with about 300 more boxes! This in addition to the 80 or so they said they originally had. So this makes me very angry and is poor marketing as I would have purchased a few different boxes including Topps' Heritage Minors etc. if they would have don't this.

On the bright side Dave and Adams was a smooth ride-picked up a box of 2016 Donrrus Optic Baseball plus their shipping is less the $7. The only draw back is the selection from Dave and Adam's Cards isn't as strong as Blowout Cards. In the future, I will need to develop a new strategy.

That is enough of me complaining. What Blowout Cards could do and I don't know the logistics of this but they could allow you to pay for the boxes as you go then once done calculate shipping etc. Plus I never get a confirmation for orders unlike Dave and Adam's which does come quickly.

I will enjoy busting some boxes and seeing what is revealed-Bobby Orr graded rookie card? I would be so lucky-as that may pay off a couple of cars.

Configuration: 3 hits per box.

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Find Top Scorers and Goalies from 2016 and the way back to the 1930's
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1977-78 Blues' Topps-Thanksgiving Special

This really has nothing to do with the beginning of a 4 day weekend-called Thanksgiving. I wish everyone a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.

The 1977-78 Topps/OPC Hockey set ranks up there in favorite designs for me with the 1977 Topps/OPC Baseball set.

I recently picked up various Blues Topps team sets from the 70s among the sets was a complete set of 1977-78.  The Ed Staniowski (#54) is off-center so I will look to upgrade. Also, not included was a League Leader for Penalty Minutes Dave Williams / Dennis Polonich / Bob Gassoff LL card, which I have always been amused by, a sport that acknowledges and celebrates the importance of doing something bad enough to get in trouble. This is even a category in Fantasy Hockey.

Who were the 1977-78 St. Louis Blues? Prior the their 11th season in the NHL the ownership of the team sold them to the Ralston Purina Co. and the Arena became the Checkerdome-ah, the Checkerdome. So many memories. Unfortunately, the Checkerdome would be razed in 1999.

To say the team stunk would be an understatement. This season would be only the second in 11 they would not make the play offs with a record of 20 wins, 47 losses and 13 ties for a total of 53 points.

Some of the Blues players on the roster included  lead scorer Center Gary Unger who played in all 80 games, rookie Center Bernie Federko who scored 17 goals in 72 games, veteran and legendary Center Red Berenson who played in all 80 games and scored 13 goals and had 25 assists.  Leading goalie for the Blues was Phil Myre who played 2620 in 44 games and had an 11 and 25 record with a 3.64 GAA.

Red was originally traded in 1970 to the Redwings for Gary Unger. Now Red would play his final season with the Blue Note. Eddie Johnson veteran goalie who started in pro hockey back in 1953-54 would start his final season with the Blues but end it with the Hawks. Blues’ legend Bob Plager would end his career after the season but did play in 18 games.

Making way for new blood such as Bernie Federko who would be with the team for a full year after a partial one the year before, this was also true for Brian Sutter.

Chuck Lefley would leave the Blues before the season and play in Finland.

As with other OPC/Topps Hockey sets there were differences in players depicted with OPC having far more players than tops.

These players only had OPC cards

Bill Fairbairn
Bob Hess
Bob Plager
Bruce Affleck
Chuck Lefley
Dick Redmond
Doug Grant
Doug Palazzari RC
Ed Johnston
Floyd Thomson
Inge Hammarstrom
Len Frig
Rick Bourbonnais RC, UER
Yves Belanger

These players had both Topps and OPC

Bob MacMillan
Claude Larose
Dave Williams / Dennis Polonich / Bob Gassoff LL
Ed Staniowski
Garry Unger
Jim Roberts
Larry Patey
Red Berenson
Rod Seiling

Poor Rick Bourbonnais’ only NHL card was the 1977-78 OPC card. However, he isn’t actually featured on the card. Blues’ fans will recognize the player as Bernie Federko. Technically Bernie’s rookie card will be issued the following year.

Sadly, both OPC and Topps would include the last card a league leader of Defenseman Bob Gassoff who was killed May of 1977 as a result of a motorcycle accident on the property of his good friend and teammate Gary Unger. As I remember my dad coming in to my room to tell me Thurman Munson passed away I remember when he told me of Bob’s passing.

Regarding the cards- they are clean to say the least. The team logo and name, player name and position along the bottom with a player action shot framed in white. Nice, nice design.

The reverse echoes other Topps and OCP cards. Topps utilizes the darker paper and again reminds me of their football issues. The reverse has a hockey stick as part of the border, with Topps going with a blue and brown ink combo. Career stats are included and the usual bio information along with a cartoon regarding the player along the bottom. A real clean reverse, I think sometime Topps was burdened by the need to remain traditional in their baseball card designs.

For the OPC set, same set up except bilingual French-English and a light cardboard stock.

Topps 8 of 9-only missing the League Leader with Gassoff and OPC 17 of 25.

Whose your Daddy? Better than a Blaster Edition

Growing up in the STL-there are some foods/dishes etc. that are St. Louis-Toasted Ravioli (oddly a place in downtown San Jose next to one of my offices has this-but I don't have it in me to try), Gooey Butter Cake, Thin Crust Pizza with Provel, and Dad's Original Scotch Oatmeal Cookies-yes there are others. How does this relate to cardboard?

When the St. Louis Blues were still babes in the woods, Dad's Cookies for the 1970-71 season came out with a set of NHL cards that resemble book marks. The set consisted of 144 cards from all NHL teams. The cards are 1 7/8 inches wide by 5 3/8 inches tall. The cards have player portraits with them wearing a generic NHL Jersey-the bilingual front of the cards have player's name and team above their position and statistic from the previous season and career totals.  The reverse is bilingual with instructions on how to redeem wrappers for a NHL decal. The cards were in packages of Dad's Cookies and "Hat-Trick" candy bars.

Bobby Clarke and Gilbert Perreault have rookie cards in the 1970-71 OPC issue-the Blue Notes have 10 players in the set-Bob Wall, Brit Selby, Gary Sabourian, Jim Roberts, Barclay Plager, Noel Picard, Frank St. Marseille, Ab McDonald, Tim Ecclestone, and Red Berenson. Images from the Bay lot.

Some sources indicated these were from Dad's Cookies of STL. But alas they are from a Canadian baker and confectioner. They also make a Scotch Oatmeal Cookies-found this image on the Net-but alas no Hat-Trick Candy.

Everyone's Favorites

It has been several months since I last post updates to our Topps Fan Favorites Auto pick ups-I added one Redbird-2003 Vince Coleman.

When I saw that Wally Moon was included on this year's checklist I knew I would pick up one but would need to wait out the initial rush of listings-after a few months of waiting I grabbed for a few bucks.

Mr. Fuji posted this card some time ago and I decided I "needed" this too. 2017 Billy Bean-several years back Billy came out as gay when that wasn't easy-unfortunately he had to wait UNTIL after his career-there are things I know of which is there are more gay men in baseball now, in the past, and in the future who haven't been able to come out. Hopefully some day it will be much easier for them to do so. Plus he is a Padres! on this card.

I remember him as a Redbird and I remember him being very popular-the grinder type of player that Redbird fans love. 2017 Joe Mac

Lastly, I grabbed this 2017 Mark Mulder-yes a man crush.

I look forward seeing the checklist for next year-Redbirds I would like to see? Lonnie Smith, Pags, Ted Simmons, Eli Marrero, Lance Berkman, So Taguchi, Rex Hudler,  Gary Gaetti, Todd Stottlemyre, Matt Morris, Andy and Alan Benis, and Pedro Guerrero. There are Bruce Sutter, Tim McCarver, Kieth Hernandez, and Willie McGee ones out there that pop up once in a while.

Shout out to Panini

Back in late spring of this year I bought an inexpensive box of 2014 Donruss which yielded a redemption for a rookie auto-of course this redemption ended two years ago but the chatter on the web indicated one should try to get it redeemed as Panini is very generous-so I said "what the heck" why not. Fast forward 3-4 weeks ago and this bad boy shows up in my mail.

I appreciate that Panini redeemed this and as a result of this, and other reasons Panini will hold a special place in my cardboard heart.

A Post with no Name

As I sat watching the World Series I remembered I picked up a card a few months ago that I meant to post about, but didn’t. It is an All-Star Fan Fest Card-I will keep you in suspense for the time being.

I wondered when were the first All-Star Fan Fest Cards issued. A search of The Trading Card Database gives 1991 as the first. The 1991 Mid-Summer Classic was held at the Sky Dome in Toronto and for which Petro Canada issued 26 cards-sans photos for each of the players. As the photos indicate, they were very simple. So there you have it-the First Fan Fest Cards. **Correction-Reader Angus pointed out the Petro cards DO have photos inside. Actually they are really nice and well done-will find a few of these. Thank you Angus!

Upper Deck for the 1992 game in San Diego issued 54 cards to mark the event-and even had a gold parallel version of each.

After skipping 1993 and 1994, 1995 saw Pinnacle issue a 30-card set and because it was held in Arlington, TX a special Nolan Ryan set. Pinnacle issued a 30-card set for the game in Philly in 1996.  As with the previous year another set was issued for volunteers-players and non-players, and another set dedicated to Steve Carlton.

For the 1997 game, again Pinnacle issued a Fan Fest set (No Redbirds); the set also included non-player insert cards. Pinnacle also issued a set of 7 promo cards.

The 1998 game was played in Coors Field and the cards issued for that event consisted of 5 cards; one each from Topps, Fleer, Upper Deck, Pinnacle, and Donruss-and I am not sure why, because frankly I don’t remember why-but the set commemorates Cardinal Lou Brock. Nice looking set of cards. We have the Upper Deck one but I haven't picked up the others yet.

For the next year’s game Pacific would issue a set of 21 cards. No cards issued in 2000, and for 2001 affair a MLB Showdown Promo set of 6 were issued.  In 2001, the game was held in Milwaukee and one of the most attractive All-Star Fan Fest Card sets were issued. I mean these really pop.  There was also a wrapper redemption set of 4.

Playoff Prestige, one of my favorite card lines, issued a 144 set of Playoff Portraits FanFest Green cards-another attractive set from Playoff.

After skipping 2004, 2005 would see two Fan Fest card sets issued for the Classic in Detroit. One contained 9 cards from various producers-Topps, Upper Deck, and Donruss. The two cards of Tigers in this set-Ivan Rodriguez and Dmitri Young were jersey cards. Topps would also issue a 5-card set specifically of Tigers.

Not until 2010 would we see another Fan Fast edition. Now I don’t know if the 5 cards with manu relics were issued at the Fan Fest. Then not again until 2012 would we see another set-this one 6 cards plus anther 4 Fan Fest patch cards-again not sure if there were for the actual Fan Fest or not.

In 2014 there would be 7 cards issued by Topps for the game in KC. Again another issue of patch cards.  Because Kris Bryant went to University of San Diego-one card was issued for the game at Petco Park in San Diego-a pretty cool one.

OK, OK so what is the card led me on this long Fan Fest Card sets? A 1996 Phillies All-Star Game Fan Fest Steve Carlton Rookie Reprint. The only card of the 5 cards that have Steve as a Redbird. The reverse is weird since it has him as a Philly. I posted this without a title at first-hence A Post with no Name.