A Long Break Between Baseball Games

A big box of cards from Nolan's Dugout helps pass the time. 

The whole thing could fall apart on a moment's notice, but actual Major League Baseball games are scheduled to be played later this week. It's been a long time since I've seen a Cardinals game that counted for anything. The last time there was this much time between games I've watched for me, personally, was back in the mid-90's. I'm fairly certain I didn't watch any Cardinals games in 1994 or 1995. This had more to do with me adapting to life as a (barely) college student than the labor strife that was going on around that time, although I do remember being pretty pissed that things got so bad that there was a cancelled World Series.

By the time I returned to watching games for the first time in a couple of years, I was shocked to see what newly annointed GM Walt Jocketty (and Tony La Russa) had done with the team. Here were a bunch of names of guys in Cardinals uniforms that I remembered from my late '80s card collecting days. This is probably a pretty good time to mention that Kyle from Nolan's Dugout sent me a huge box of stuff in late May that featured some of these stars for previous teams.

Ron Gant and Gary Gaetti? Was Kent Hrbek out of baseball at this point?

Henke pitched his final MLB season in a Cardinals uniform in 1995, so he actually just missed out on the La Russa era. With La Russa's arrival in St. Louis, he also brought along Mike Gallego and Todd Stottlemyre in addition to Dennis Eckersley.

Eventually, guys like Eric Davis, Shawon Dunston and Bobby Bonilla would wear the Birds on the Bat. And, oh, you know... that Big Mac guy. It was only after the arrival of Albert Pujols on the scene that the team seemed to transform from weird fantasy baseball collection of guys to an actual cohesive team, though Jocketty's wheelings-and-dealings would continue for the rest of his tenure.

Kyle also included a bunch of current Cardinals cards, like this trio of Allen & Ginter minis from last year's set.

There's also this card of Paul DeJong on a Bowman Platinum design that is still really strange to me. DeJong is on the verge of becoming the first Cardinals shortstop to make three straight Opening Day starts since David Eckstein. The position really hasn't had a lot of stability since the days of Ozzie Smith.

The majority of the 400 count box was actually a whole lot of set filling needs. I only grabbed a few of these cards to scan, as I cannot possibly do it justice here.

I hadn't received anything from this 2008 Topps insert set in quite awhile until this card of the Hawk showed up. It might have been years, in fact. Here's what I'm still looking for.

Back-to-back Expos? That's practically unheard of for this blog.

Klubeard alert!

Kyle is one of the many fine folks who have helped me out with 2020 Topps Heritage this year. His contributions to the cause are very appreciated.

Here's a Hall of Famer on the old Bowman TV set design, which was reprised in 2004.

Lastly, we'll take a look at Giancarlo Stanton's card from the 2014 Allen & Ginter set. There's been talk of limiting Stanton to DH duties exclusively this (weird) season, which is basically saying they would constantly cover him in bubble wrap if it was feasible.