'Graphs and Such

 

Cardinals cards and autographs (what else?) from @padrographs include some familiar names and cards. 

 

Rod from Padrographs bestowed upon me another generous package of cards several months back. As you might expect, there were even some signed cards in the bunch. Let's take a look at a few of the non-signed ones.

I totally missed out on last year's Finest Flashbacks craze. It came out fairly early in the pandemic at a very reasonable price, until people went super nuts over it. I'm glad to at least have secured one of the base cards from the set, which is modeled after the first Topps Finest set from 1993.

Portland Beavers cards are always appreciated here! There are several of the team sets I still need, especially from the team's final years in what was then called PGE Park. Dirk Hayhurst is better known for his career in writing about baseball than the brief time he spent in the big leagues.

Here's a nice refractor version of one of the Cardinals draft picks from 2020. He had Tommy John surgery earlier this year, so it may yet be a bit before he starts ascending the ranks of the minor league levels.

As promised, there were signed cards, too. Alan Benes, of course, is the lesser known younger brother of Andy Benes. Alan was a top prospect in the mid-'90s but ended up having his promising career derailed by injuries.

Craig Wilson was a part-time player in parts of four seasons with the Cardinals.

Let me say this: "Sugar Bear" Rayford does not really look much like a professional baseball player. He was, however, and spent all but a small part of his career with the Baltimore Orioles. I believe this is his only baseball card with the Cardinals, or at least the only one that comes to memory.

Jim Lindeman spent several years as a bench bat with the Cardinals, most notably as the fourth outfielder on the pennant winning 1987 team.

Lastly, here's one of a former Cardinals farmhand. I'm guessing Rod got ahold of most of these through TTM exchanges, but how does one go about tracking down Ricardo Bautista?

This was some really cool stuff from Padrographs.