The Elephant in the Room

Cards from @SpiegelMichael and some thoughts on the 2020 "season". 

 

Now that's it's officially the end of September, I feel like I was mostly successful at avoiding talking about this season here as if it were a real baseball season. I've been watching the games (mostly), of course, because I just can't look away. I won't be doing my silly playoff prediction preview stuff this time around, however. Before we move on to look at the cards I got from Spiegel (via Twitter) recently, let's just take stock of what happened to this team this year.

Closer Jordan Hicks opted out of the season as he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Reliever John Brebbia was lost for the entire season due to injury. Starting pitcher (and 2018 All-Star) Miles Mikolas was lost for the entire season due to injury. Starting pitcher (and 2-time All-Star) Carlos Martinez contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized several times before succumbing to a late season oblique injury that shut him down for the year. Starting pitcher Dakota Hudson became the latest to need Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2021 season. Key reliever John Gant had recurring groin issues and seems unlikely to participate in the playoffs. Brand new free agent signee (and starting pitcher) Kwang-hyun Kim came down with a kidney ailment but returned to the rotation, albeit under heavily medical watch. And of course, all told, more than a dozen players (including Junior Fernandez, pictured, and other more prominent names) and staff members contracted COVID-19 which saw their season shut down for 16 days.

I'm sure there were more maladies and players affected by things than I am even recalling right now. By my count, thirteen players made their MLB debuts in this super short season with the Cardinals. And they're a playoff team, which I suppose means something even in the incredibly watered down playoff field where most of their division sits around .500 and practically everyone gets a spot anyway (sorry, Pirates.) I'll keep watching, but like most things, I'm ready for 2021 now.

On to the cards...

This is a fun card from the days where interleague play was still a novel idea. Now we have a DH in both leagues, which they'll probably make permanent along with all of the other ridiculous changes that were rolled out for this "special" year. It's really sad.

Spiegel dug up a relatively common Ozzie Smith card that I didn't actually have. I'm impressed!

Here's a couple of Big League George Springer cards. His collection has been put on the backburner a bit for me, but I still made a few updates to it this year.

Here's a great looking trio of 2002 UD Authentics cards with the matching red borders. Was UD Authentics a step down from SP Authentic, or are they totally unrelated?

The best card of them all, however, is this green bordered '80s Cardinals tribute that has become one of my favorites of the year in all forms. This one is numbered to 299.

Thanks again to Spiegel, who I owe some Dodgers cards. If only I knew where to buy cards these days.