317 Keith Hernandez Baseball Cards

The box of 317 Keith Hernandez baseball cards I recently bought. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

I’ve always liked Keith Hernandez. He was one of those players I knew about pretty early on in my childhood baseball fandom, which started right around 1986 and 1987, probably the peak of Hernandez’s fame. I knew Keith Hernandez played first base for the Mets and had an awesome mustache. I knew that his nickname was “Mex,” even though he wasn’t actually Mexican. (The 1980’s were a different time...) I knew the Cardinals had made a disastrous move by trading him to the Mets in 1983 for Neil Allen. (And Rick Ownbey, but as a kid it stuck in my mind as Hernandez for Allen.) And from the backs of his baseball cards, I knew that Keith Hernandez was a Civil War buff. I theorized from all of this that Keith Hernandez must be a pretty cool guy. (And this was before I knew that Keith smoked cigarettes in the dugout and did crossword puzzles.) I read Hernandez’s book If At First, a diary of the Mets’ 1985 season, when I was a kid, although I don’t know if I made it through all 400+ pages of it. And a good amount of it just went over my head, of course. As an adult, I read Hernandez’s entertaining book Pure Baseball, in which he examines two baseball games pitch by pitch. I remember finding the book in a used bookstore and thinking to myself, “Wow, going through a game pitch by pitch? That’s for like a hardcore baseball fan. Oh wait, that’s me.” And I always enjoy reading random articles about Keith and his cat, or whatever random things he’s been talking about on Mets broadcasts. 

Recently I had a dream that Keith Hernandez figured in somehow. I don’t remember exactly what it was, maybe I saw one of his baseball cards? Who knows, my subconscious focuses on odd things sometimes. After that I decided, “You know what? I need to get all of Keith Hernandez’s baseball cards.” I found an inexpensive lot on eBay. Fittingly enough, it was for 317 Keith Hernandez cards—Keith wore number 17 for the Mets. (The Mets retired his number in 2022.)  

Some of the special 1980's cards included in the lot.

The lot featured a nice variety of Hernandez’s cards from 1980-1991. Nothing super rare, but a few special cards beyond just the base issues from the major manufacturers.  

Keith Hernandez's iconic 1979 Topps card. It's such a great card.

The lot unfortunately didn’t include Hernandez’s iconic 1979 Topps card. This is a card that I’ve had since childhood, and it’s just so cool. Keith is looking off-camera, smiling and handsome, his iconic mustache now at it’s full glory. (Vern Rapp had forbidden facial hair during his stint as Cardinals’ manager, so Keith was clean-shaven on his 1978 Topps card.) As a kid, I remember finding it odd that the “STL” logo on Keith’s batting helmet was peeling off. (Same with the helmet on Lou Brock’s 1979 Topps card.)  

Hernandez’s 1980 and 1981 Topps cards are pretty cool as well. I can’t believe that Topps gave Keith card number 321 for the 1980 set, instead of a “star” number ending in 5 or 0. Hernandez had “star” numbers in the 1977 and 1979 sets, so I guess they were on an every other year pattern with Keith. But he led the majors in batting average in 1979, hitting .344! He was the co-MVP with Willie Stargell in 1979, of course he should get a star number card the next year!  

Sorry Fleer, Keith doesn't live in St. Louis anymore.

It’s funny to see that Fleer still thought that Keith lived in St. Louis in 1987. Obviously, no one at Fleer had read If At First, where Keith describes his East Side condo.  

These baseball cards stuck in my memory. Athletes can be intelligent too!

Keith’s 1985 Topps card and his 1988 Topps Big card both reference his interest in the Civil War. As a kid who was also interested in the Civil War, I thought this was pretty cool, and proof that Keith must be a smart guy.  

Keith's 1991 Score and Fleer cards. It's so odd to see him with the Indians.

This lot of 317 cards also featured a few cards of Hernandez with the Cleveland Indians. It’s just weird to see Keith in a uniform that isn’t the Cardinals or Mets. Hernandez only played 43 games for the Indians in 1990 before injuries forced him to retire. This lot of Keith Hernandez cards brought back fond memories of one of the coolest baseball players of the 1970’s and 1980’s.  

Steve Carlton 1983 and 1984 Topps Gallery of Champions

 

Steve Carlton 1983 and 1984 Topps Gallery of Champions. These are some of my favorite Carlton oddities. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

You'll need a magnifying glass to read the stats on the back. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

These cool little bronze cards of Steve Carlton are from the Topps Gallery of Champions. The Gallery of Champions bronze cards were included with cases of Topps Traded cards from 1983-1991. I don’t remember ever seeing them during my childhood, but they’re cool little collectibles. Another oddity that I didn’t know I was missing until I started trying to complete my Steve Carlton collection. I was able to track down the 1983 Carlton bronze pretty easily, but the 1984 eluded me for a while. I thought I had the 1984, but the collector actually sent me the 1983, which I already had. This happened a couple of times, so I ended up with several 1983 cards, but that’s fine with me. The Gallery of Champions bronzes are some of my favorite Carlton oddities, and they’re not too expensive if you want to collect them. Be warned, you’ll need a magnifying glass to read the stats on the back.

Vida Blue: 110 Baseball Cards

 

A collage of some of the Vida Blue baseball cards I bought. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

A while ago, I decided I should collect more of Vida Blue’s baseball cards. So, I bought a lot of 110 cards from eBay. The oldest cards in the lot are from 1980, so there’s nothing covering his years with the Oakland A’s.

I just wrote an overview of Vida Blue’s career in baseball, and I was planning on writing about these baseball cards in the same post, but the overview became longer and longer, and it felt like too much to shoehorn the discussion of the baseball cards into it, so I decided to discuss Blue’s baseball cards in a separate post.

1981 Topps Scratch-off, 1982 and 1983 Fleer Stamps

There was nothing truly rare in this lot of cards, but there were some fun oddities included, like the 1981 Topps scratch-offs and the 1982 and 1983 Fleer stamps. These are the types of curiosities that I never encountered at the card stores back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, so it’s nice to add them to my collection.

Vida Blue's 1980 and 1981 Topps cards. Blue with a blue sky.

Blue’s 1980 and 1981 Topps cards are similar, as I guess the temptation to photograph Vida Blue against a blue sky was just too much. Both cards still look cool, though. I like the classic simplicity of the 1980 design, and I have a soft spot for the 1981's, with their ridiculous hat, because I was born in 1981.

1983 Donruss and 1983 Fleer, featuring those cool power blue uniforms.

Because of his name, it seems only fitting that Vida Blue got to play for the Kansas City Royals when they had those cool powder blue uniforms. One of my cool baseball card treasures is a Vida Blue 1983 Topps card of him with the Royals signed in blue sharpie. Blue on blue on blue. Unfortunately, Blue’s tenure with the Royals wasn’t that successful, and they ended up releasing him in August of 1983.

Shortly after the Royals released Blue, he pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and served about 3 months in jail. Blue was banned from baseball for the 1984 season. He went to spring training in 1985 with the Giants as a non-roster invitee and pitched well enough to be added to the roster.

1986 Topps and 1987 Fleer

Blue went 18-18 for the Giants over 1985 and 1986, and he picked up his 200^th win in April of 1986. After the 1986 season, Blue became a free agent. The photo on Blue's 1986 Topps card has the glossy look of a traded card.

1987 Topps and 1987 O-Pee-Chee. Blue retired just before spring training 1987 began, so he didn't get to finish his career with the team he started with.

Blue signed with the Oakland A’s in January of 1987. This is reflected in his 1987 O-Pee-Chee card, with the designation “Now with A’s.” A month later, Blue abruptly retired just before spring training began. It turned out that Blue had tested positive for drugs, and no doubt this was his impetus behind retiring. Blue's O-Pee-Chee card remains the only baseball card evidence of his short-lived second tenure with the A's.

SPBA cards featuring Blue with the Orlando Juice and St. Lucie Legends.

Vida Blue pitched again in 1989 for the St. Lucie Legends and the Orlando Juice of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. Blue was 2-7 with a 4.87 ERA for the Legends over 11 games, and 1-2 with a 7.20 ERA in 4 games for the Juice. He finished the 1989 season with a record of 3-9 with a 5.55 ERA over 15 games. In 1990, Blue pitched for the San Bernardino Pride and pitched in 3 games with no decisions and a 4.15 ERA when the league went under. The Senior Professional Baseball Association is fascinating to me, as I only heard about the league, made up of former MLB players, maybe 10 years ago.

Blue pitched in 3 games for the San Bernardino Pride in the winter of 1990 before the SPBA folded.

The fact that this lot included Blue’s cards with the SPBA helped me in deciding to buy it. The SPBA cards aren’t especially valuable, but you don’t see them very often, and they’re cool post-career mementos to have.