An Upper Deck error

I was looking at the back of Marc Pisciotta's 1994 Upper Deck Minors card and noted it said he was born in 1965, which would have made him 29 years old that year, pretty old for a minor leaguer.

Well I looked him up and it turned out he was born in 1970. So who was born November 18, 1965 in Beaumont, TX? Pitcher Mark Petkovsek, who was also in the Pirates system in 1993. I bet Upper Deck had an alphabetical list of Pirates minor leaguers and switched the info on Petkovsek and Pisciotta.

A unique and entertaining baseball card photograph

When writing my blog I usually just type the address in my browser. However, today I googled it instead, and found to my surprises that there was a caption inserted by google. Now when you google Baseball Cards Come to Life it will tell you that this site "highlights unique and entertaining baseball card photography." I didn't write that but I suppose it's a pretty accurate description. It seems to come from a directory site called dmoz.org, which lists a bunch of baseball card blogs and gives them descriptions like "Topps baseball card reviews and general commentary" (bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog) or "St. Louis Cardinals baseball card collecting commentary" (Cards on Cards). The list of blogs on this site is by no means comprehensive; it seems to be mostly sites with some variation of "baseball card" in the title.

Well, here's a fairly unique and somewhat entertaining card. Things I like about:
1. The unusual angle making Mr. Stubbs look even taller than his six feet two inches
2. Dugout steps made of half-rotted planks of wood nailed to the ground
3. The sweatbands with the player's picture on them - how awesome would a comeback of that fad be?

Rookie IPO

Here are some goofy cards that are a relic of the dot-com era - 2000 Fleer Rookie IPOs. Just like the numerous tech IPOs of that time, the stock for both Ruben Mateo and Kip Wells fell sharply and never recovered.

Sunshine Kids

A few weeks ago I posted some cards of Craig Biggio, wondering what the yellow logo on his hat was. Reader "sar" answered the question - it is the logo of Sunshine Kids - an organization that provides free activities for children with cancer. Biggio is the organization's spokesman.

John Smoltz Jr. - then and now

John Smoltz and John Smoltz Jr., 1993

John Smoltz and John Smoltz Jr., 2008

(2008 photo from "Hooked on Celebrities")

Do you like funny baseball cards?

Of course you do! That's why you're here! You don't come to this website for the latest news on a parallel refractor of Heyward Strasburg, after all. A reader of this blog knows that for me, the weirder and funnier, the better. I'm glad to say I'm not alone in this love for cardboard strangeness - there is a pretty new blog called funnybaseballcards.com which looks awesome.

Some of the things on the site are similar to what I have here. Like early 80s Fleer? He's got it.

Like funny hair? He's got it.

But he's got so much more. Like funny names (did the Browns really have a RB named Ben Gay?) Awkward action photos. Nolan Ryan in short shorts. And that's just from the first two pages!

Don't send Swish, send Thames

Went to my first Yankee game of the year today, and boy was it a doozy. Usually when I go to a game it is a blowout one way or the other, but this game had it all. The big highlight, of course, was Marcus Thames's walk-off pinch-hit single hours after coming off the disabled list. I had been to a game with a walkoff before, but never in the AJ Burnett era, so it was my first time seeing a player getting a pie in the face, which was pretty cool.

Other things I had never seen live in a major league game before today:
1. Mariano Rivera blowing a save.
2. An inside the park home run.
3. A double play on a sacrifice bunt that was not caught on a fly.
4. Three Yankees getting thrown out at home, two on successive plays.

Nick Swisher is one of the 5 players on the ballot for the last player to get on the AL All Star team, and all day on the scoreboard there were signs to "Send Swish!" Third base coach Rob Thompson took that to heart, twice sending him home just to get thrown out.

Oscar Munoz on his awesome card

Back in May I posted some great cards from 1994 Upper Deck Minors, the best of which was this card of Oscar Munoz.

I asked him about this card and he wrote me back:
"Saw the post, that's one funny card! That's Joe Siwa catching, I never thought that would make a card, oh well brings back some good memories."

Thanks!

Oscar Munoz pitched six seasons in the Cleveland, Minnesota and Baltimore organizations. He pitched in ten games for the Twins in 1995, going 2-1 with a 5.60 ERA.

Somehow he'll manage

Kirk Gibson should make a very interesting manager - if he's the same as when he was a player he could be an entertaining skipper, especially when arguing calls!

There have certainly been some interesting managerial choices this year that don't fit the usual stereotypes. Remember the 1994 Tigers? They hit a lot of home runs (161, 2nd in the AL) but struck out a phenomenal amount (897 times, over 150 more than any other AL team). They were entertaining but not a team known for playing fundamental baseball. If you had told a fan in 1994 that sixteen years later two players on that team would be major league managers, who would they guess? Chris Gomez and John Flaherty? Scott Livingstone and Skeeter Barnes? I doubt anyone would guess Juan Samuel and Kirk Gibson. Who's next? Cecil Fielder? Travis Fryman? Mickey Tettleton?

Trade with Jason from CT

A while back I answered a craigslist post buy a guy named Jason in Connecticut who wanted to finish his 1983 Topps set and had some 1984's to trade. Yesterday we met in Grand Central Station. I got there before he did and he told me to look for a guy in a suit carrying a brown folder. I never realized how many men walk through Grand Central Station wearing suits and carrying brown folders - had to have been at least 20 in the ten minutes I waited. Nevertheless, the exchange went off without a hitch and I got 37 cards from 1984 Topps I didn't have before. Here's my favorite of the lot: U L Washington.

Why is it great?
1. U L is his name, not his initials.
2. He always played with a toothpick in his mouth. It's hard to see in the top picture, but in the bottom it is pretty clear.
3. The picture is at Yankee Stadium. Washington was the Royals shortstop in the Pine Tar Game, so there is a chance the picture could be from that game. In fact, checking retrosheet, it is the only day game he played at Yankee Stadium, so it is entirely likely, although he also played in a twi-night doubleheader or it could be the early innings of a night game.