Cards from Another Angels Enthusiast

Featuring one of the early Cuban defectors.

Tom from The Angels, In Order contacted me awhile back about a 1993 Toys 'R Us set that he was busting up. My memory can be fuzzy, but I'm at least 80% certain that's what kicked off this latest deal. Prior to this, I may have accidentally acquired one of the cards from this set (and I don't think it's in great shape), so it was nice to get the whole Cardinals lot. Apparently, this was a set that was focused solely on "Future Stars", "Rookie Stars", and "Young Stars". This explains why there's no Ozzie Smith in the set, which in turn provides a pretty good reason why I had never previously given these a second glance.

David Freese continues to be the guy that caught fire in October 2011 and led the Cardinals to an improbable World Series win. It looks like that may be this man's only lasting legacy in baseball, but if so, there aren't many sports memories better than Game 6 of that wonderful World Series.

This is badly Photoshopped, of course. The Cardinals haven't gone numberless on their jersey fronts since the Big Mac days, and it's a look I am glad they haven't returned to. Bowman Prospect cards, more often than not, provide head-scratching names of dudes that only sometimes become meaningful years later. (If the name Piscotty didn't crack me up because it sounds like food, I probably would have been more surprised to come across his cards from 2013 in my binders again.)

I always bashed Cal Ripken back in the day because of his offensive superiority to Ozzie's. Ripken won a World Series a year after Ozzie did and went on to become baseball's Iron Man, but I always enjoyed Ozzie's sensational defense just a tad bit... okay, a lot more.

Tim also tossed in some minor league cards from a set I haven't seen much of. Mabry had three separate turns with the Cardinals in his major league career and is now in his third season as the St. Louis hitting coach.

From the well known to the completely unknown -- I never would have guessed that the Cardinals ever had a guy named Wander Pimentel in their farm system. That's nutty.