Brian Raabe on baseball cards

Brian Raabe played nine years of professional baseball, including three years in the major leagues for the Twins, Mariners and Rockies. He now works at Central Bank in Forest Lake, MN, and is also a baseball coach at Forest Lake High School. He kindly responded to my request for his thoughts on baseball cards.

"I don't have many stories about cards, but one story is that my picture was on a major league card with Marty Cordova's name. I don't collect cards anymore but my son Zack loves to collect cards."

Thanks! I couldn't figure out which Cordova card he is referring to - any of you readers know?

Here is Raabe on a 1995 Signature card.

Rags and other riches from the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame

Recently I wrote about the three on-card autographed cards in my collection. SpastikMooss at the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame decided that was insufficient for a self-respecting blogger and immediately sent me six autographed cards, thus tripling my total! He also sent me some of his duplicate Fred McGriffs and 1990 Donrusses.

My favorite, of course, is this Dave Righetti from 1989 Donruss. "Rags" was easily the best pitcher on the late 1980s Yankees, so much so that NY headline writers would call the Yankee pitching staff "Righetti and Meatballs." This card has an interesting provenance - SpastikMooss recently won this card from Omega Cardboard. So this will be the third blog a picture of this exact card will be on in just over a month.


He also sent me four of his winnings from Padrographs.
Andy Benes won 155 games over 14 big league seasons, mostly with the Padres and Cardinals.


Adam Eaton has won 71 games in his ten year major league career. This year he was 3-5 for Baltimore and Colorado.


Heath Murray pitched in parts of four major league seasons, going 2-15 with a 6.41 ERA.


Greg Sain was the Padres fifth round draft choice in 2001, but retired from pro baseball in 2007 without making the majors.


Finally, here's an autographed 1988 Donruss Curt Ford. He played six years in the major leagues, mostly for the Cardinals. He was a .245 lifetime hitter who hit .318 in the 1987 playoffs.


Thanks, SpastikMooss! There are some Gary Sheffields, Bob Walks, Red Sox, and other oddities on their way to you!

Attack of the killer ivy

A great card from 1993 Upper Deck, showing Pittsburgh's Denny Neagle about to be completely devoured by Wrigley Field's man-eating ivy.

Ouch!

The biggest free agent on the market this year is Matt Holliday, who is most famous for trying to catch a fly ball with his thighs, blowing a playoff game for the Cardinals. He's got nothing on Joe Orsulak, captured on this 1991 Leaf card attempting to catch a long fly ball with his chest!

Pitching scared

It is rare to see much emotion on a baseball card, which makes the sheer terror on Bryan Rekar's face on this 1996 Donruss card so interesting.

This appears to be in Florida, so I am guessing he is pitching to Gary Sheffield and is afraid of a line drive coming back toward his head.

Bullseye!

Got a free pack of 1990 Donruss cards yesterday, just for printing out a coupon and going to a local card shop (Bullseye Collectibles in Merrick, Long Island) and signing up for the mailing list. (For any readers on Long Island who are interested, here's a link to the coupon.) While I was there, I also picked up some .50 packs of common cards from 1994 Donruss and Score and 1995 Pinnacle and Classic Draft Pick.

I was pleasantly suprised that five of the sixteen cards in the 1990 Donruss pack were ones I didn't have, since I have more than two-thirds of the set. My favorite from the pack is Kal Daniels, with some random rope barriers behind home plate at Jack Murphy Stadium.

Recently I posted a Donruss card of light-hitting Oriole Brady Anderson posing with six bats. Here's a Donruss card of light-hitting Oriole Damon Buford posing with six bats.

The Pinnacle pack had a lot of Yankees, which is surprising because usually places like this will pull out all the Yankees and Mets. Here's a great picture of Yankee catcher Mike Stanley.

The 1994 Scores included a bunch of checklist cards with very nice stadium shots. Here's one of Montreal. It's a little hard to tell from the small picture, but it's an exciting moment in the game with two runners going on contact. Which must make it very irritating to the fans that two idiots in the front can't wait until after the pitch to get up.

The Classic pack, interestingly, was the only which was mostly dupes, if anyone is interested in a trade - I now have two dupes of the Garciaparra rookie in his Georgia Tech uniform.

My three favorite on-card autographs

Dinged Corners has asked the blogging community to show off their three favorite on-card autographs. Here I am posting my most favorite and my least favorite - as I only have three. (I don't actively collect autographs but I enjoy the ones I've gotten.) I also have one sticker autograph card but that apparently doesn't count - I'm not really clear on how a signature on a card is better than a signature on a sticker.

This one came from David at TribeCards - George Williams was a backup catcher for Oakland in the mid-1990s.

And here are two Yankees I got a while back in a trade with Paul's Random Stuff. Brett Jodie made one start for the Yankees in 2001 before being traded to San Diego for the second coming of Sterling Hitchcock.

Lee Guetterman had a fine Yankee career for some bad teams. In 1989 he set a record for longest scoreless streak for a reliever to start a season - 30.2 innings.

Jason and Voorhees minor league cards

As I was going through some minor league cards last week I found some cards of players posing in a different position from the one listed on their card. Then I noticed the juxtaposition of their names and realized I should hold this post until Friday the 13th.

Here's a guy named Jason wearing an awful lot of extra gear for a third baseman. Actually, though he only caught in 1993, Moler was moved to third base for the 1994 season, which is probably why Upper Deck went with that position on his card.

And here is the only Voorhees in major league history, Van Voorhees Snider. That's some really shallow infield he's playing. Actually, he was solely an outfielder in his pro career, then switched to first base in 1991.

Interview with Matt Hirsh

Matt Hirsh made his professional baseball debut in 2005 as a pitcher for the Greeneville Astros. He is now attempting a comeback as an outfielder and played this season for the Long Beach Armada. You can follow him and his brother, Yankees pitcher Jason Hirsh, on their Hirsh Brothers website and blog. Matt kindly answered my questions about his baseball card experiences.

-Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?
This is a story about my one and only baseball card. Back when I was playing with the Greeneville Astros of the Appalachian League, we were all looking forward to getting our first pro baseball card. To our disappointment, the cards didn't arrive until about 2 weeks before the season ended. The photographers had all season to capture great photos for the cards and we were all anxiously awaiting to see what they would look like. When they arrived I looked for my card of course and couldn't believe my eyes. My first baseball card is a picture of me eating a sunflower seed. Out of all the games I pitched in, that was the one picture they chose for me. I was thoroughly disappointed with the way it turned out and now it's kind of a joke to me that the one card I have the only action you see is a sunflower seed being put in my mouth. On the other hand, I've never seen a card like it so in a way it's a one of a kind card, but still disappointing nonetheless.

- Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?
I can't really say that I have a favorite baseball card of any other players. Like I said before, my card is quite unique.

- Do you collect baseball cards?
I used to collect baseball cards when I was younger. I have quite the collection, but haven't added to it in a very long time. There are too many sets and different types of cards to collect these days, which makes collecting a very expensive hobby nowadays. I don't have quite the passion or the money for collecting as I did when I was younger.

Thanks, and good luck next season!

Invisible basketball

Is David Wells dribbling an invisible basketball here? Or tempting Schottzie with some doggie treats?

Or perhaps he brought some object onto the field that is not family-friendly (no surprise for Boomer) and Donruss had to cover it up with the big ugly logo box they used for their 1996 design.

Baseball card stories from Kevin Sweeney

Kevin Sweeney was one of the original members of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, playing in their minor league system between 1996 and 1998. He is now a Financial Advisor at Smith Barney's Biltmore Group in Phoenix. He sent me some great answers to my questions about baseball cards.

- Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?

The photo of my 1997 Topps card, shared with Nick Bierbrodt, was taken in front of the outside wall of a motel in Idaho Falls, ID.

- Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?

My favorite of myself is the 1997 Bowman international, with the US Flag background.
[I couldn't find a picture of the international version, so here is a picture of the base card.]

- Do you collect baseball cards?

Yes. One of my best friend's dad opened a shop in 1983 in western NY (Bases Loaded Sports Collectibles). He was my little league coach. His son is still one of my best friends. They have expanded to the largest in western NY. I used to help out there growing up and was paid in baseball cards. I still visit them when I am in town.
In 1989 I bought a Nolan Ryan rookie card for $150. A year later I sold it for $750. Though I loved Nolan Ryan, I could not pass up that profit!

Growing up, my favorite player was Steve Carlton. I have all his cards, including his 1965 rookie year...in perfect condition. I will never sell them.

I have been working on a 1964 Topps set since I was in high school. I started buying all the stars, one card at a time. I have all the majors...Mantle, Rose, Niekro rookie, Clemente, Koufax, Mays, Aaron etc. I am slowly working on the "common cards, high number commons and checklists." In fact, I visited Bases Loaded in WNY last month to review my checklist. They just got a big collection in, so my friend Jeff is going through my list as we speak.

Thanks! Readers in the Buffalo area may want to check that store out.

A dangerous philosophy

The Yankees' most recent World Series victory was pretty amazing. But it is especially incredible given Joe Girardi's philosophy as revealed on the back of his 1992 Donruss Triple Play card. Presumably, he was disabused of this sacreligous notion before being hired as Yankees manager.

Just in case...

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Topps used to list the names of the player's kids. Perhaps the best name belonged to the son of San Diego pitcher Dave Leiper.


What's so great about the name Justin Casey? According to the April 11, 1988 Sports Illustrated, he got his name because Dad was always warming up in the bullpen "just in case" they needed him.

Yankees Card o' the Day

Here's Paul O'Neill, winner of four World Series with the Yankees and now a YES commentator, in action on his 1996 Donruss card.

It's part of a great batch of cards I got in a trade with Kevin of Orioles Card "O" the Day, where we filled some needs we had in various sets.

To give equal time, here's my favorite of the Orioles in the package, Brady Anderson and his six-pack of bats.

LINE DRIVE BASE HIT!

Recently completed a great trade with SpastikMooss, curator of the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame. I sent him some 1997 Circas for his collection, and he sent me back some great Line Drive brand baseball cards.

I love the goofy minor league logos, like this one for the Arkansas Travelers - "A-Travs, The Greatest Show on Dirt."

And how about these two players, whose hats seem to imply that they play for Great Britain? Looks like the photographer had a one-track mind.

If you are curious about the title, it refers to Chip Caray's blown announcing call in the one-game Detroit-Minnesota playoff, where he called a fly ball out a base hit. MLB had the guts to replace the umpires who did such a bad job in the playoffs. Hopefully they'll do the same with the announcers.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no greater feeling than your favorite team winning the World Series!

Interview with Joe Siddall

Joe Siddall played thirteen years of professional baseball, including major league stints with Montreal, Florida and Detroit. He is now a coach for the Windsor Stars, a Canadian team, and kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?

Getting a major league baseball card of yourself is quite a thrill. I have two, one from the Montreal Expos and one from the Florida Marlins. Unfortunately, I did not get one with the Detroit Tigers.

He attached scans of his two cards:

Do you collect baseball cards?

I did as a kid, but not anymore. Collecting cards was the way we learned all the players (and their batting stances). Of course, we imitated them when we were up to bat playing with our buddies.

Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or other players?
I won't mention any names, but it is quite funny when a pitcher's card is made up and he is posing as a hitter. Or, when a batter is posing his opposite hand. This occurs occasionally in the minor leagues because I'm sure the photographers have no idea of who a player is.

Thanks!
I looked in my own collection of minor league cards. Here is an example of a pitcher posing as a batter:

And a right-handed batter posing lefty.

Ugh-ley

The Yankees loss last night was ugly. It was also Utley, who is treating the Yankee pitching staff like it's batting practice.

Speaking of Utley and ugly, why does FOX keep showing him in the dugout with his hat off, showing off his slicked-back Pat Riley hairdo?

Let's hope Pettitte on three days rest is better than Burnett on three days rest was. Girardi may have painted himself into a corner with his pitching staff. If the Yankees do blow this, he could go down as one of the worst postseason managers ever.

So close, and yet so far...

The Yankees can win the World Series tonight. Or they can still blow the whole thing. The fourth win in a series, like the third strike of a batter or last out of a game, can be the hardest one to get.

Still, what a great game last night. I never saw someone steal two bases in one day, like Johnny Damon did last night.

Another huge hit for A-Rod last night. When asked after the game if he was excited to be so close to a world champion, he replied that he and the Yankees have "been down that road before," and they can't take anything for granted. Good attitude.

Up 2-1

Well, the Yankees stopped hitting like the Royals and started putting some runs on the board. The Yankees remain the only team to win a game that started on Halloween, after Game 4 of the 2001 World Series. Let's hope they turn around their 1-2 franchise record in games that actually start in November.

DH? Andy Pettitte don't need no stinkin' DH, driving in the tying run in the fifth and pitching a solid six innings, continuing the remarkable run by Yankee starting pitchers.

Go Yanks!

Baseball card stories from Rob Murphy

Rob Murphy pitched eleven seasons in the major leagues for the Reds, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros, Cardinals, Yankees, Dodgers and Marlins. He now runs a horse-racing business, M375 Thoroughbreds. He kindly replied to my request for some baseball cards stories.

"My favorite card story involves the 1992 Astros Bullpen Coach, Stretch Suba. Someone had altered about 10 cards of other players to make them Stretch's. My 1989 Upper Deck card was changed to Rob Suba. It got a lot of laughs in our clubhouse.


My favorite card of myself is my 1990 Upper Deck card. It is a picture of me using a laptop computer in the dugout. The picture was taken by the Upper Deck photographer while I was doing a shoot for PC Laptop Magazine. The computer was sent to me by NEC so that it would appear in the magazine. Notice the size of the laptop...it was a luggable at best."

Thanks! Astute baseball card blog readers will remember that this card used to be the masthead for Dinged Corners - now we know the backstory!

Sweep averted

The Yankees squeaked through, beating Pedro without even having to get Enrique Wilson out of retirement. The Phillies still have home field advantage which is huge, but maybe the Yankees can make it competitive.

What a fantastic game by A.J. He came up with the biggest performance of his career in the biggest game of his career. Hope this inspires the Yankees.

Sigh...

No hitting + no bullpen = no chance. Burnett vs. Pedro means the Yankees will be down 2-0 heading into Philadelphia. This is 1996, and these Phillies are far tougher than the Braves team that choked against the Yankees that year. It would appear that Jimmy Rollins's prediction of Phillies in 5 was, if anything, overly pessimistic.

Well, this wouldn't be the first time the Yankees opened a new Yankee Stadium by getting swept in the World Series by the defending champions. (Of course, when they opened the original, they beat the defending champions. I wonder if there's a lesson there.)

Baseball card stories from Clay Snellgrove

Clay Snellgrove played six years of professional baseball, mostly in the Padres organization. He is now an Emergency Medical Technician and runs a baseball school called Bases Loaded in Tennessee. He has written a novel called The Ball Player, about a professional baseball player burdened by his responsibility for his best friend’s death, and confused by a love for the same friend’s fiance, while trying to make it in the major leagues. You can read more about the novel and purchase it here. His excellent writing style can be seen in the great baseball card stories he shared with me.

"I grew up a huge baseball fan. My neighbor and I both collected cards. We competed to see who's collection would be bigger and better. This was back in the late eighties, so needless to say many of the cards we purchased are not worth much on the market now. At 12 years old, we battled to save lawn mowing money to purchase the coveted wax-box of Topps, Fleer, or Donruss (then making ourselves sick on cheap gum as we shredded through 36 brand new packs in minutes). During this ongoing contest of collecting, one of his mom's friends heard he liked baseball cards. The family friend said he had some cards that he was trying to part with. He brought a shoebox full of unsorted cards over for my buddy to inspect and to see if he would like to buy them. We both reviewed the box and found near complete sets of 1970-73 Topps (he would complete these sets card by card in the years following). A few random cards from the 60's were included for good measure. We leafed through the Beckett Pricing guide and stopped looking after 5 cards by themselves topped $20 in value. The next day the family friend asked if he wanted the cards. My buddy said, "yes." Without any conversation the friend said he would part with them for $50 dollars. To my buddy's credit he informed the man that they were probably worth much more than he could afford. He shrugged and said, "Fifty is fine." With that transaction I lost the competition.


I never made it to the major leagues during my pro career, but did get a $10 check from Topps, as all players do, for the right to make one. The minor league cards of me were really cool. The day I autographed my own card for a fan, I really felt like I had made it.



I don't collect anymore but do have my collection in boxes waiting to share it with my son when he's old enough. His grandfather has started giving him baseball cards for special occasions. He got a Mickey Mantle for his 1st birthday and his collection is now officially better than mine.


As far as my only regret from my collecting days, it would be passing, on my parents instruction, on purchasing a Dale Murphy rookie card for $2.75 when I was 7yrs old. I had saved several weeks of allowance and was given the offer by the teenage boy down the street. My parents were sure he was suckering me so forbid me from doing business with him. I managed to collect nearly every Dale Murphy card over the following years, but as his career soared, so did the price of his card. I could never afford it. When I stopped collecting in the early nineties that card was selling for $50."


Thanks!

Ken Smith on baseball cards

Ken Smith played eleven years of professional baseball, including three years in the majors with the Atlanta Braves. For the last eighteen years he has had a career in the automotive industry, and is currently a sales consultant at Bluff City Jaguar/Land Rover in Memphis. He kindly replied to my questions about baseball cards.

"Yes I do collect baseball cards, favorite cards are the whole set of the 1982 Atlanta Braves 13 game win streak to start the season."

Thanks! I believe the set he is referring to is the 1982 Braves Burger King Lids, but I couldn't find any pictures of it online. Perhaps Dayf or another Braves fan can confirm?
**UPDATE: Ken saw what I wrote and clarified:"What I have is a card of each player that played in the 13 game win streak."

Here is the one card of him I have in my collection, from 1983 Fleer.

40!

Forty pennants. Wow! To put that in perspective, the Yankees have as many pennants as the Milwaukee Brewers have seasons.

Andy was dandy last night. The starting pitching has been darned impressive, and bailed out some shaky offense. His post-season career numbers - 38 starts, 16-9, 3.83 ERA, would be the numbers of a Cy Young contender if they were a season line, and these were all compiled against the best teams in baseball, no Royals or Brewers softies to pad the stats.


I loved Mariano's low-key celebration, just this fist-pump and an embrace of Jorge Posada. No jumping up and down like a maniac for this closer, who acts like he's been there before - which he has, six times. This photo would make a great baseball card.


Up now are the Phillies. Damn, they look like a tough team, a mirror image of the Yankees in many ways with their power, pitching, and ballpark. At least the Yankees will be familiar with some of their starters, like Lee, Pedro and Blanton, so they won't have the excuse that they don't do well against pitchers they haven't seen.

Interview with Gerald Smiley

Gerald Smiley pitched four years of professional baseball, mostly in the Rangers organization. He is now an associate scout for the St. Louis Cardinals and the pitching/catching coach and recruiting coordinator at Northeast Oklahoma A&M, where he is always on the lookout for any good high school baseball prospects. In addition, he runs Smiley's Baseball Institute and is a scout at Perfect Game Showcase. He kindly took the time from his busy schedule to answer my questions about baseball cards.

- Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?

1.Every city I go to coach or scout in, it seems like people find me and have a card handy. And I gladly sign them. It's the fans who support all of our paychecks. Without them there would be no baseball.

- Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?

2. My favorite card of myself is the T264 Topps Platinum Rookie Card.


My favorite card of someone else is the Topps Rookie Card of Mark Teixeira.

- Do you collect baseball cards?

3. I used to as a kid. I stopped collecting cards in High School. I'm going to start back up though. That's a good hobby. My grandfather used to buy my boxes of Topps cards as a kid.

Thanks! Any high school baseball prospects interested in playing in Oklahoma should look him up.

Don Slaught answers my baseball card questions

Don Slaught played sixteen years in the major leagues, mostly for the Royals, Rangers, Yankees and Pirates, catching over a thousand major league games. He is now the President of RightView Pro, a baseball instruction technology company that is the only analysis system licensed to use video of Major League Baseball players. He kindly replied to my questions about baseball cards.

- Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?
I was listed as a pitcher one time.



- Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?
The 3D card from Texas Rangers.


- Do you collect baseball cards?
No.

Thanks!

I had to include a Yankee card of Slaught, so here he is making his Yankee debut on April 9, 1988, going 2-3 with an RBI in the Yankees 4-1 win at Milwaukee.

Burger time

Looks like the Yankees are gearing up to blow another one against the Angels. What can they do to stop the Angels momentum?

As you can see from his 2006 Topps card, Angels manager Mike Scioscia is not a small man. He loves junk food so much that he proposed to his wife at an In-N-Out Burger. Maybe the Yankees should make sure he gets a constant supply of burgers in the dugout to distract him from the game.

Benching Swisher for Gardner and making Robertson the eight-inning guy might help too. Just some suggestions, Joe.

Nikco Riesgo on baseball cards

Nikco Riesgo played six years of professional baseball. The 1990 Florida State League MVP with the St. Lucie Mets, he made his major league debut in 1991 with the Montreal Expos. Now the president of Major League Players Organization, which promotes youth baseball around the world, he kindly replied to my request for his thoughts about baseball cards.

"I used to collect cards as a youngster. I knew everything about everybody. When I first saw my own MLB card, I was like a kid in a candy store. My dreams actually came true."

Thanks! Here is that first major league card, from 1991 Bowman.

The Stopper

What a magnificent performance by CC Sabathia last night, in what was really a must-win game for the Yankees.

It's funny, the announcers always talk about how he has such an outsize personality to match his outsize frame, but he has actually had a really low profile for such a major acquisition - which is a very smart thing to do in New York. There's nothing better than a player who quietly goes out there and just gets the job done.

Most Valuable Angel

Is Joe Girardi secretly in the employ of the Angels? That is the only explanation for his bizarre managerial moves last night.

Also, would it kill the supposed best offense in baseball to get a hit with runners in scoring position in this series? If not for A-Rod and the Angels defense the Yankees would be down 3-0 instead of up 2-1.

I am fearing that the collapse is beginning...

Greg Sheppard on baseball cards

Greg Shepard played four years in the White Sox organization. His best year was 1997, when he hit .307 with 12 HR and 62 RBI for Hickory of the South Atlantic League. He is now a hitting instructor who runs the site www.hithardernow.com. He kindly responded to my request to his thoughts about cards.

"I stopped collecting after 2000 which was my last professional minor league season.

My favorite card is posted on my blogsite."

Thanks!

The best offense is your opponent's bad defense

Once again, an error by the Angels gave the Yankees a win. Thanks, Maicer!

Jerry Hairston's clutch single leading off the thirteenth put him in position to score when Izturis threw the ball away, making him the latest Yankee to get a pie in the face.


On an unrelated note, the announcers were talking about the Angel coaches, and I noticed that their hitting and pitching coaches were Hatcher and Butcher. That's pretty funny, I thought, their names rhyme. So then I thought what the equivalent for the Yankees would be.

Long Eiland. Nice.

CC! CC!

CC was spectacular for the Yankees last night, which was key considering that the Yankees best offensive contributors were the Angels' gloves. This is quite a performance for AJ and Andy to live up to. I can't get too excited yet as the last two times the Yankees played Anaheim in the playoffs they won Game 1 then completely fell apart. Still, better to win Game 1 then lose it, right?

Baseball card stories from Reed Secrist

Reed Secrist played twelve years of professional baseball, hitting over 100 home runs for teams in the Pirates, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Rangers, Reds and Indians organizations, as well as Hanshin in Japan, between 1992 and 2003. He is currently a PE/health teacher and head baseball coach at Snow Canyon High School in Utah and runs MVP Showcases, which spotlights Utah high school baseball stars. He kindly responded to my request about his baseball card stories.

"I remember in 1995 being told I was going to be in the 1996 Fleer Excel series I was excited because I really hadn't had a decent card yet and it was my first big step into a card that you could actually purchase at a store. I remember waiting to see it, I received a phone call from a friend in Virginia that had seen it and he said I don't think that is you, he was right! On the front of the card was Rob Leary it makes me laugh now but I was mad back then so that basically sums up my career the rest of the way! My favorite card of myself is the 1997 Japanese card, the only thing is I can't read the back. My favorite card of someone else is George Brett's rookie card. I've been a collector since I was young. I remember getting .25 cents and running to the local drug store to get a pack. As I got older I got away from it for awhile and then decided to start collecting certain players which I ended up just collecting George Brett cards. I remember going to the park as a player and fans knew I collected George Brett and they would bring me cards of him all the time so my collection of him grew."

Thanks, Reed!

Oddly, considering that he played twelve years of pro baseball and, according to Beckett.com, was on 16 different baseball cards, I couldn't find a picture of one of his cards, and found only this picture from his playing days.

Shane Rawley on baseball cards

Shane Rawley won 111 big league games over 12 seasons for the Mariners, Yankees, Phillies and Twins. He now runs Shaner's Restaurant, a pizzeria in Sarasota, FL. He kindly answered my inquiry about his thoughts on baseball cards.

" I don't collect cards or have a favorite one. The only thing of any consequence is a mistake card of me. The picture is of Jimmy Anderson, but my name and stats are on the card."

Thanks! Here's the correct version, with the left-handed Rawley.

And here's the error, with the right-handed Anderson.

For good measure, here's Rawley in his Yankee days, preparing to do battle against the dreaded Angels.

Allan Anderson on baseball cards

Allan Anderson pitched for the Minnesota Twins from 1986 to 1991. He was the American League ERA champ in 1988, with a 2.45 ERA to go with his 16-9 record. The next year he led the team in wins, going 17-10. He now runs AA Sports, an indoor sports facility and baseball/softball clinic in Ohio. He kindly took the time to reply to my request for his thoughts about baseball cards.

"I didn't collect cards when I was a kid, I used them in my bike spokes. I like my rookie card the best, Topps. I have some cards during the time that I played."


Thanks!

Yankee fans remember that after his Twins career, he attempted a comeback with the Yankees that was ended by injury before he could pitch for the Bombers. Here is the only card of him in a Yankee uniform, from 1992 Stadium Club.

Interview with Andre Robertson

Andre Robertson, known as a defensive wizard and great all-around shortstop, played five years for the New York Yankees (1981-1985). He is now a shift supervisor at DuPont's Sabine River Works, and kindly took the time to answer my questions about baseball cards.

- Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?
New workmates liked to say check out the famous "One-Legged" player Andre Robertson rounding the base paths on the 84 Topps card.


-Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?
Favorite cards are the 84 Donruss and 86 Topps.


-Do you collect baseball cards?
Don't collect cards.

Thanks!

Sweep!

What a great pitching performance by Andy Pettitte, outdueling Carl Pavano (!) in a tight game to win his record-tying 15th postseason game, as the Yanks won their first playoff series in five years. I thought he was washed up last year; I'm glad to be proven wrong.

Here's Pettitte in 1995 Stadium Club. I wouldn't say he's old, but he pitched in the same starting rotation as Melido Perez!

The Twinkies proved to be cream puffs, but the Angels are probably the team the Yankees match up worst against. They're going to need everything to go right to win this one.

Baseball card story from Bob Scanlan

Bob Scanlan pitched nine years in the major leagues. His best season was 1992, when he saved 14 games with a 2.89 ERA for the Cubs. He now hosts the pre-game and post-game shows for the Padres. He kindly replied to my request for stories about baseball cards.

"The only one I can think of off the top of my head is that when I was with the Phillies I used to get requests every day to sign Von Hayes' card. Also had a request to sign Paul Assenmacher's card once - I never wore a beard!

I haven't been a collector since my mom sold my good size collection at a garage sale when I was a kid...geez!"

Thanks, Scan! I can see the resemblance between him and Hayes:

Assenmacher is a tougher one to figure out. Maybe the fan thought he had shaved his beard?

Two out of three ain't bad, but it's not enough

What a great game last night. The two big guys really came through. The Yankees better not get cocky against Pavano tomorrow.

A-Rod with the game-tying single in the sixth and a big game tying homer in the ninth. He's clutch against the Twins at least.

Teixiera with the rally-starting single in the ninth and the game-winning walk-off home run in the eleventh!

Interview with Dick Perez

Dick Perez is undoubtedly the most well-known baseball card artist in the industry. He painted the famous Donruss Diamond King cards and does the Topps Allen & Ginter and Turkey Red as well. He kindly took the time to answer my questions about his baseball card experiences.

1) Do you have any behind-the-scenes stories about cards you created (or cards of yourself)?
Most of stories about cards I created have to do with the Perez-Steele Hall of Fame Art Post Cards. Here is just one of them. There were a few Hall of Famers who refused to autograph these cards because they thought we were ripping them off, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio among them, even though they knew that we were in partnership with the Hall of Fame and they had signed waivers before they were produced. In fact, Joe DiMaggio had seen one of his HOF cards in a Cooperstown store window that was autographed by him and was selling for $350.00. He thought we were getting that money and called my partner Frank Steele to complain and to tell him that he was not going to sign anymore of those cards. Frank told him that all we got was .50 cents for the sale of his card, just like any other member of the Hall, which outraged him even more to find out that his card was selling for the same money that lesser than him Hall of Famers like Burleigh Grimes, Charlie Gehringer, Billy Herman, etc., were selling for. I read in the Richard Ben Cramer biography of DiMaggio that at hobby shows he would put up a list of things he would not sign, such as gloves, caps, jerseys and a bunch of other stuff, near the top of the list were Perez-Steele Cards. Eventually, players began to sign the cards when they found out that they could get more for an autograph on a Perez-Steele card due to their rarity. I don't know if Joe D ever did, though.

2) Do you have favorite card?
If you mean cards that I have created, my favorite year for Diamond Kings was the 1995 collection, so my favorite card from that entire body of work is the '95 Chili Davis DK. By then Donruss let me do anything I wanted to do. I was tired of painting realistic watercolors year after year so in '94 and '95 I decided to get more stylistic and experimental. At the time I got no feedback from collectors about the new style, it is only in later years that I have received numerous comments and emails from grown up kids from those years telling me how much they appreciated the style.

3) Do you collect baseball cards?
Not anymore. I collected when I was a kid in the '50s. My favorite set was the 1952 Bowmans and 1953 Topps. These were art cards, so to speak, and it was what inspired me to seek a way to bring art back to baseball cards. My favorite cards of all time, though I wasn't around to collect them, were the popular T-3s, better known as Turkey Reds produced in 1911. If you visit my web site and click on Topps and then Turkey Red Statement you will know why.

Thanks! Everybody seems to like Diamond King cards with the Angels - Luis Polonia's favorite was also a Diamond King in a Halo uniform.

One and hopefully not done

Well, at least the Yankees won't get swept out of the playoffs this year. Now let's see if they can avoid losing their fourth straight four-game ALDS.

Nick Swisher had the biggest hit of the night, giving the Yankees the lead for good.

Derek Jeter's two run homer tied it up after CC struggled a bit.

After that CC settled down and had his best playoff game ever.

With two RBI-singles hopefully A-Rod is over his playoff jitters as well.

My new least favorite team

I guess all the small-minded baseball fans everywhere will be rooting for this "underdog" because their jealous that the Yankees care more about winning than their team does.

Interesting (if irrelevant) fact: the Twins are the only MLB team whose location was picked because their owner was racist:
"I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ballgames, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."

Let's hope the Yankees have a "Good Ol' Time" in Minnesota like they did in '03 and '04.

What is Bill Spiers looking at

On the back of Bill Spiers's 1992 Leaf card, he is shown looking through a small pile of baseball cards.

The card visible in his hand is clearly this Mark Knudson card.

However, behind the Knudson is a card in a sleeve with a "ROOKIE CARD" header. Knudson was not a rookie on this card, so there's really now way to tell who it is. If I had to guess, I would assume Greg Vaughn, as he was the biggest Brewer rookie in 1990 Donruss.

By the way, I bet it's not easy flipping though cards with your batting gloves on.

Walt Weiss and the Motor City Kitties

The back of this card features a nickname I never heard of before for the Tigers - the Motor City Kitties. Tomorrow, of course, the Kitties play a team that used to have a star pitcher named Kitty.

And why is Walt Weiss carrying a salami? This needs to be explained.

Arrrr, Pirate hats

Johnny Ray's afro is so big, it crawls up the side of his helmet! Although it is a Donruss Highlights card, no highlights are in fact visible in Ray's hair.

Willie Stargell's cap in this picture only has half his name - does he also have a hat which says "GELL"? The scrambled eggs on the bill of the cap indicate that he is in fact a Pirate Captain.

The hair-raising Silvio Martinez

There have been a lot of posts lately about big hair on baseball cards. Night Owl posted this 1981 Donruss card of Silvio Martinez, which is certainly an eyecatcher.

I bet a lot of people looking at that card in 1981 were wondering, how does he get a cap on over that? Donruss obliged by showing him with his cap the next year:

Interestingly, Martinez never pitched again after that. Perhaps he got a neck injury from carrying all that extra weight on his head?

Chris Rosenbaum on baseball cards

Chris Rosenbaum is a catcher in the Angels organization who hit .319 this year at Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. Rosenbaum, who has both a BS and an MBA from the University of Tampa, writes a blog called "Looking Through the Mask" that can be found at both MLBlogs and Wordpress. He kindly took the time to answer my questions about his baseball card experiences.

"I used to collect baseball cards when I was younger. I think I stopped getting new ones around when I was 12. I still have them at my home in New York (I have been living in Tampa for the past five years) and will look through them from time to time. It's interesting seeing cards of people that are now coaches and managers in my organization, as well as others.

I think there are only two things worth noting about the three cards that have been issued of me. On my 2007 Orem Owlz card, it mentions my accolades when I played at the University of Rochester (2003-2004). There was nothing mentioned about The University of Tampa (2005-2007), where I transferred to and completed my collegiate career. The other tidbit to mention is that on my 2009 Rancho Cucamonga Quakes card, my birth date is listed incorrectly as 4-25-87. It should read 4-2-84. However, I'll never complain about appearing to be younger than I really am. It also says my hometown is Albany, NY. However, my hometown is Castleton, NY (a suburb of Albany). I don't know why these were the first year of these mistakes."

Thanks!
I couldn't find a picture of either card, so here is a picture of him in action with the Quakes from his blog.

Tony Tarasco 1995 Donruss

Here's a card of Tony Tarasco that came out a year before he was pwned by a 13-year-old in a playoff game. His position on the front is listed as OF. However, judging by the inset picture, it looks the correct position would be BATBOY.

Interview with Ruben Flores

Ruben Flores (who likes to be called "Flo") started his pro baseball career in the Mariners organization. A Midwest League All-Star in 2009 with 18 saves for the Clinton Lumber Kings, he was traded to the Brewers on August 19, 2009 straight-up for veteran infielder Bill Hall. He kindly took the time to answer my questions about baseball cards.

Bo Rosny: Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?

Ruben Flores: Stories about my self unfortunately i don't have, but i can remember as a kid my favorite athletes were Michael Jordan and Nolan Ryan which might i add still are. But i can remember that one day eating cereal i saw on the back of the Wheaties box there was a chance to get a collection of Jordan cards if i mailed in like 10 upc's. So me being excited and wanting the cards, I asked my parents if we could buy the 10 boxes of Wheaties to get the UPC's so i could mail them in. I was happy that we were able to send the 10 upc's in but sad that i had to eat 10 boxes of Wheaties and let me tell you Wheaties don't exactly have the best taste for a 10 year old kid, i think by half way through the 2nd box i had given up and told my parents that i would work off the other 8 boxes.

BR: Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?

RF: This last year i made the MILB Midwest league all star game which was pretty sweet and i got a baseball card that says exactly that. i thought it was pretty cool first one ever, hopefully more to come.

[His card is on the top right in this picture]

BR: Do you collect baseball cards?

RF: I used to collect them, i had a ton. I had all the players put by their team and position in a little binder in card sheets. I stopped after about 12 years old, just got way to busy traveling with my teams that i grew up with but something i could really get back into.

Thanks, Flo!

What is Upper Deck to do?

With Topps's new monopoly on baseball cards, they can't put team logos on cards. So will they merely rip the logos right off, leaving just a few threads hanging?

Or make up their own random logos for each player? (That would be cool!)

Topps commercial

Last night I was watching the MLB Network and there was a commercial for Topps. It was pretty bad, just a mishmash of cards flying across the screen. Pretty much looked like this except not staying on the screen long enough to make out any individual cards.

Doesn't exactly make one rush out to buy baseball cards. I guess now that they have a monopoly Topps feels like they don't have to try very hard.

In the land of the beltway, football is king

Living in baseball-mad New York, you can forget that in most of the country, football is more popular than baseball. This is not usually reflected in baseball cards, but check out this 1992 Upper Deck card of Baltimore first baseman Randy Milligan playing with a camera in Memorial Stadium.

It's hard to see, even when I zoom in on the camera, but if you have the card you can clearly see that the camera actually belongs to the Redskins.

I guess the Orioles had to borrow cameras from the big football team in the area. I assume that these days the Orioles borrow their equipment from the Ravens.

Al Leiter is a Toys R Us Kid

During last night's Yankee game on YES, Michael Kay and Al Leiter were going through some viewer mail and opened a letter to Leiter with this card inside:

Kay thought it was very funny that it was a Toys R Us "Collectors Edition." Leiter said he remembered the card and thought it came with a toy - I think he was confusing it with a Starting Lineup card.

When Leiter saw the card he was struck by two things. One was the stirrups - "Those weren't painted on, they're real stirrups!" More interestingly, he noted that his hands were too far back in his windup, which helped lead to the injuries he suffered early in his career.

Kay jokingly asked how much it was worth, offering to sell it to Leiter. I looked it up on Beckett, and in mint condition is twenty cents.

Goofy Upper Deck backs

Kent Hrbek prank calling the bullpen.

Mariano Duncan going earwax hunting.

Steve Howe failing at push-ups.

Mariners bullpen

What do relievers do to kill time in the early innings of a game?

Some catch up on their reading . . .

. . . while other exercise.

Rare baseball card with a player out of uniform, in shorts, wearing non-cleat sneakers.

The many moods of Andy Van Slyke

Here is a cool card from a set called 1994 Upper Deck Holo View FX. It features an action photo of Andy Van Slyke with a head shot in the lower right.

But no ordinary head shot - the holo view gives the illusion of Van Slyke turning his head and moving his face!

Angry Andy.

Bored Andy.

Happy Andy!

More Dave Martinez misadventures

A while back I wrote about how baseball card photographers didn't seem to like Dave Martinez, as multiple cards showed him failing in the outfield. Here's another awkward picture of Martinez. He may have caught the ball, but this is not a flattering pose.

Blog Bat Around - Soul Crushing Losses

In Thorzul's introduction to this blog bat around, he opines that fans in major markets haven't experienced humility, disappointment, and disgust. Then he posts a picture of bloodied New York Giant Y.A. Tittle. I may be too young to remember the Giants of his era and soul-crushers like the "Greatest Game Ever Played (Unless You're a Giants Fan)." I do remember more recent ones for the G-Men, most notably the 1997 Wild Card game where they blew a nine-point lead with less than two minutes left in the game.

Except for one year, 1994, the Rangers have been pretty brutal to their fans. Ditto the Islanders after 1983. And few teams personify losing like the Mets, Jets, and Knicks.

As a Yankee fan, I have been quite fortunate, although there have been plenty of down spots. The 2004 playoff collapse is an example, though there was an air of inevitability about that one. The three straight ALDS losses from 2005 to 2007 have been frustrating, and are the reason I don't expect much from them this year in the playoffs either - the Yankees have actually lost thirteen of their last sixteen postseason games.

I've always preferred to lose a blowout to a close game, especially blowing a lead. Nothing is worse than losing a postseason series on a walkoff hit, but that has happened twice in recent years to the Yankees.

The first was the heartbreaking 1995 ALDS, when the Yankees blew a 2-0 series lead and lost three straight in Seattle. This was the first time the Yankees made the playoffs in my memory and was pretty crushing. This is the only card I have from that series:

The second was the 2001 World Series. I threw the TV remote against the wall (it broke) after this guy's lucky blooper.

Mark Grace has been scoring for years

The website Hugging Harold Reynolds had a post about Mark Grace having a "friend" he has been "meeting" in St. Louis every time he comes to town for years. Wrigley Wax posted the link on his blog, and added a picture of this 1993 Upper Deck card of Grace "scoring the old fashioned way," featuring Grace about to make contact with Kirt Manwaring.

However, according to the photographic evidence on this 1991 Score card, Grace and Manwaring have been meeting for years to do the horizontal mambo. Guess he's got a "friend" in San Francisco as well...

Frustrating Fleer

A couple of weeks ago I sent a bunch of Dodger Stadium cards to Garvey Cey Russell Lopes. When he got them, he noticed that the picture on Damon Berryhill's 1991 Donruss card was actually from 1989, not 1990. Things like that are a bit of a pet peeve for me. I've always believed that a card set should be a chronicle of the previous season. Therefore, all photographs should be from that season.

Berryhill's card was not the only one with a 1989 picture. Steve Balboni's card is clearly from 1989 as well, as Don Slaught, who is on deck, was a Pirate in 1990.

It's a shame they didn't use that picture on his 1990 Fleer card, it is a lot more interesting than the one they did use that year. This is actually one of the most interesting cards in that snooze-fest of a set.

Brady Raggio's favorite card

Brady Raggio pitched thirteen years of professional baseball, including three years in the major leagues with St. Louis and Arizona. He is now a corporate sponsorship account executive with the Diamondbacks' Triple-AAA affiliate, the Reno Aces. He kindly took the time to answer my question about his favorite card.

"My favorite card of myself is from 1997, when I was with the St. Louis Cardinals. It is just a head shot, but the background is our American Flag. That was my rookie year in the big leagues, and I heard that the rookies that year for that set of cards got the flag of their country as the back drop."

Thanks, Brady! The card is from the 1997 Bowman International parallel set. I couldn't find a picture of this card, so here is a picture of his regular 1997 Bowman card as well as an international card, so you can imagine what it would look like.

What is the (answer)?

Another early awkward attempt at integrating baseball cards and the internet was 1999 UD Choice. Each one featured a trivia question on the back, such as this poorly-written one on David Wells's card: "Mariano Rivera is one of three Yankee pitcher to have a 40-save season. Who are the others?"
Each card would then say "for the (answer) to the above question get online at www.upperdeck.com"
I got online at www.upperdeck.com but couldn't find the answer, but that's OK because I knew it anyway.

Dave Righetti and John Wetteland.

Rocking the mustard yellow pullover

Styled hair (no cap), perfectly trimmed mustache, shirt open to reveal one chain (no multiple chains or chest hair), bat held at a rakish angle - Kurt Bevacqua is doing his best to make one of the most infamous jersey designs ever to look good.

Trade that never happened

Got this odd card in my trade with Gooch. Its a 1992 Upper Deck checklist card that features Mariners prospect Marc Newfield and Expos prospect Rondell White. I thought that it was commemorating some kind of trade, but these two were never traded for each other. Weird.

It's 2:56. Do you know where you're third baseman is?

Either he is playing a very deep third, or Mike Blowers should really be called a 3b-of on this card.

Interestingly, even though he only played nine games in the outfield in 1994, he did so in all three Mariner day games at Tiger Stadium, including his only right field appearance of the season.

You've got card

One of the Cubs I got from Gooch was from a site I never saw before - 1998 Pacific Online. The card is eleven years old - back from when the internet was new, and I guess card companies like Pacific were figuring out to incorporate the "Information Superhighway" into the product. There are two URLs on top, where fans could type them in on their AOL or Netscape:
http://players.bigleaguers.com/Jose_Hernandez.html is now a dead link: "Firefox can't find the server at players.bigleaguers.com."
http://www.cubs.com is still the Cubs site, though it now points to the more ungainly http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=chc
At least they weren't links to Geocities or Angelfire sites.

Trade with the Gooch

I recently did a trade with The Gooch, a Yankee fan with a new blog called In The Ballpark. I sent him a bunch of Yankees (mostly doubles from my recent trade with GCRL) and in return he sent me some Marlins, Cubs and Mariners he had too many of. The great thing about being an omnivorous collector is that cards from any team, not just your favorite, are fun.


Getting a couple of hundred Marlins cards was a sea of teal that actually looks pretty cool.

Here's Steve Buechele with his little Cub.

Current Yankee Damaso Marte's rookie card in 1999 Fleer Tradition Update. Gooch must have a ton of this set - I got about ten cards of each Mariner, Marlin and Cub in the set. If you have any needs for this set, let me know (or maybe let him know!). Also if you have any Mariner, Marlin or Cub needs or if you collect one of the teams and want to do a general trade let me know!