Logan Baseball Card Show Cancelled

Just got this concerning the annual John A. Logan baseball card show. It's a shame it's been cancelled. I always enjoyed covering the event and getting a chance to talk baseball in the middle of winter.

Logan’s baseball card show canceled
Logan Media Services

CARTERVILLE – For 23 years, the Jerome “Mimi” Alongi Baseball Card and Sports Memorabilia Show has been a fixture at John A. Logan College. That long-standing tradition will take at least a one-year hiatus with the announcement this week that the January show has been cancelled.

JALC Athletic Director and head baseball coach Jerry Halstead explained that there has been a shift in philosophy within the St. Louis Cardinals organization, for many years now the provider of guests at the show. Players are no longer encouraged by the club to participate in shows like the one at Logan.

Halstead said he thought he had a chance at landing former Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, but when it was learned a couple of weeks ago that Herzog will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010, the New Athens native’s itinerary changed. Halstead then thought he had brokered a deal to get Cards’ third baseman candidate, David Freese, on campus as the featured speaker. Freese, a St. Louis native, then backed out of the deal after a recent DUI offense.

“It’s been a great 23 years and we’ve had some wonderful guests over the years,” Halstead said. “Hopefully, we will be able to bring the show back a year from now.”

Marion native Ray Fosse, an all-star catcher with the Cleveland Indians and Oakland As, was the first-ever guest at the show in the late 1980s. The only other non-Cardinals featured were ex-Logan standout Jamey Carroll, an infielder who just last week signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Kirk Rueter, a lefthanded pitcher from Nashville, who enjoyed a successful career with Montreal and San Francisco.

A few former and current Cardinals who have made the trek to Carterville include: Vince Coleman, Andy Benes, Alan Benes, John Mabry, Tom Pagnozzi, Mike Matheny, Gary Gaetti, Kyle McClellan, Brad Thompson, Joe Torre and Herzog. The show was organized as a fundraiser for the Logan baseball team and helped finance spring trips to Florida and Alabama.