In 1982 Topps and Donruss used almost the same exact photo on Chris Welsh's Card

I am willing to guess that these photos came from the same inning but not the same pitch. The question is which card photo came first.

Topps called him Gene, Donruss called him Phil. Mr. Roof

This is one of the few times that I can recall, the Major Card Companies using a different name for the same player. In 1982, we have such a case. I personally remember him as Phil Roof. Of course that is a completely different player. On the back of his Donruss card his full name is Eugene Lawrence Roof. It also mentions that he is the younger brother on Phil. This is a Donruss Bad. Topps got it right.

Alan Ashby

Here  is Alan Ashby wearing the post retro Astro jersey. These were a toned down version from what the Houston Astro's wore during the late 1970s and 1980 season.

Phillies Finest

This is just a great card. Schmidt and Rose. The card harkens back to those early 1960s days when Topps would give you those superstar specials as Fleer would later call them. The word Finest would become a staple in the Hobby industry. In fact. in 1994 Fleer Ultra had a insert called Phillie Finest showing top players on the 1993 Phillies. And of course, Topps began a brand name that they still use today called Finest.

Bob Boone

The Phillie catcher before Bo Diaz took over. Boone was part of the great generation of Boone's in this country starting with Daniel all the way to Aaron.  This is a decent afternoon shot of Bob - the Phillie uniforms dont seem to work with this design except for the next card.

Bo Diaz

The guy that did not catch Len Barker's perfect game. Bo would become a pretty good hitting catcher for the Phillies. As Keisha would say. Nice Beard.

CBS Sunday Morning had a segment about the death of the Baseball Card Industry. I SAY NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have only begun to fight.  We are not going to let Baseball or Sports Card Industry Die. We are going to keep it alive right here on the blogroll.

Some interesting facts about the segment. They said there were 81 billion baseball cards made in 1991. That is a lot of cards.  Based on those numbers that would come out to 115 million (700 card sets) sets.  Topps Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, Score made a lot of sets that year.

Ricky Henderson v. Mark McGwire (a new stat)

OPS. I like OPS and any new stat but this stat is not an end all be all stat. Mark McGwire ranks 10th all time in OPS and Ricky Henderson is 300th. Ricky Henderson was better than Mark McGwire and I think McGwire easily deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.  Here is a new extended statistic that I think should be used in conjuntion with OPS. It would take into account baserunning and I would call the stat OPSB. I would add/ create a baserunning pct stat. It would be Stolen bases + Runs minus HR /divided by (AB + BB). The runs minus HR is the hidden base that is never accounted for in Baseball Statistics Lexion. It is a measure of a player getting on base but also getting around the bases. Getting around the bases is not accounted for in OPS. Lets look at Henderson v. McGwire.

Henderson AB 10961 R 2295 H 3055 TB 4588 BB 2190 HR 257 SB 1406 PA 13151
McGwire AB 6187 R 1167 H 1626 TB 3639 BB 1317 HR 583 SB 12 PA 7504

Henderson OBA .398 SLUG .418 = .816
McGwire OBA .392 SLUG .588 = .980

Lets look at there baserunning averages.

Henderson 1406 + (2295-257) / 13151 = .261
McGwire 12 + (1167-583) / 7504 = .079

Lets add BR Aver to OPS and you get.

Henderson = 1.077 (or average of all there stats = .359)
McGwire = 1.059 (or average of all three stats = .353)

See I told (knew) you that Henderson was a better player. He also had a nice baseball card

Gene Nelson #513

Gene became a great setup man on the A's  during their great run in the late 1980s.  This is his rookie card and a blue sky spring training shot.

Gary Lucas #296

A kind of faded photo of Gary Lucas. Lucas was great in 1981 with a 2.00 ERA in 90 innings. Not sure what staduim that is in the background  with that distinct scoreboard.

Mike Proly #345

Mike appears like he is about to fall over or that he is leaning against an invisible wall.  This photo was taken at Wrigley Field.

Randy Lerch #595

No this is not the guy from the Adams Family. He has some nice hair. He had a losing record while pitching for some great Phillie teams in the late 1970s.

Jim Fanning #492

Jim Fanning is the only manager in Montreal Expos/Washington National history to take the team to the playoffs. He took over as manager on Sept 8, 1981 and finished out 17-10 for the Expos. The beat the Phillies in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual World Series winners the  Los Angeles Dodgers.

Larry Christenson #219 and Juan Eichelberger #422

I don't have a Donruss photo of either card but here is Larry's card from Topps which I think is an interesting shot. Juan 1982 Donruss card was taken at Wrigley and it is a posed shot with him on one knee with the ivy of Wrigley Field outfield walls in the background. Larry's Donruss 1982 card is a posed

Why Topps Why

Over on Atlanta Sports Card Blog, it was posted that Topps will make Bowman Draft a Hobby exclusive product. After collecting the Bowman regular set, collectors who want Bowman Draft will not be able to find them in stores. Thus, no more value packs with 3 purple chrome extras. Say what you want about Bowman, Draft  (and Bowman Chrome), I think they are Topps best baseball brands.  The Chrome cards hold their value. The parallels are more collectible than the inserts in the Topps brand. Bowman is a fun easy to understand collectible set. Pulling Bowman Draft from the stores shelves now maybe a signal that Topps may pull the whole Bowman brand from the stores make it a hobby only product. That would be a shame but possibly a signal of something brewing in the Hobby Industry

Women we love to see Naked: Charlotte Ross

This is my second post in a row involving nudity. Yesterday, the Supreme Court threw out FCC fines for a brief display of nudity on an eposide of NYPD Blue (this scene involving Charlotte Ross) as being indecent.  Kudos to the Court. This eposide was around the time of with the Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake Super Bowl incident, though the eposide happened before the Jackson incident.  The Supreme Court decided to punt on the opportunity to issue a broad ruling on the constitutionality of the FCC indecency policy.

Jenny McCarthy sends a nude picture of herself to her son's dentist

I guess I got in the wrong profession. Here is Jenny's card from the 2005-2006 Topps Basketball Set, what was interesting about this card (and Jay-Z and Carmen Electric) was that it was part of the regular base set. I recalled that Topps had Colin Powell in 1991 Bowman but I don't recall any other time non players appeared in a base set.

Dave Collins #169

Dave Collins was fast. In 1979 he had  these 3-35-.318-16 numbers. In 1980 he had these numbers 3-35-303-79. The last numbers 16 and 79 were stolen bases. I think that increase of 63 steals is the largest one season increase for a player who had played at least 120 games back to back.  Here is a nice tight shot of Dave at Wrigley field.

Topps Rookie Logo Card Rules Explained

Bret Lawrie has a rookie card logo on his 2012 Bowman card but he is not a rookie in 2012. How does this work.  This is a description of how and when a player gets a rookie logo card.  If the player is a major league rookie on the opening day roster, the player will get a rookie card logo in Series 2 of Topps (and in Bowman Draft) of that year. If the player makes his major league rookie debut some time after opening day and up until early August of the year, the player will get his rookie card logo in the Topps update set of  that year (and in Bowman Draft.). If a player makes his major league rookie debut in late August or September of the year, the the player receive his rookie logo card in series 1 of the Topps set next year (and the next years Bowman set). Lawrie falls in the last category, he appeared in 43 games in 2011 (coming up in late August) and thus exhausting his rookie eligibility but getting his rookie logo card in Series 1 of Topps and in 2012 Bowman. 

Bill Buckner

There has been a story going around the web about some kids in Kenya reenacting the 1986 World Series play involving Buckner. My Buckner moment occured in 1980. I told a kid in school I knew everything about baseball. (The summer before I found the 1969 Baseball Encyclopedia at the library and during 6 weeks in the summer, I memorized it. - Always I had all the stats for the 1970s on the back of my cards). So he tried to test me.  His first questioned that he asked me was "Did Bill Buckner use to be fast"  I answer yes (correctly) as he stole over 20 bases in 1974 (I believe now). It would be a little time after that I think he blew out his knee. 

Here he is with the Cubbies in the position he made famous in 1986.

Miguel Dilone #515

Miguel was fast. In 1978, in 256 at bats he stole 50 bases.  Here he is on this card with a look away pose. I never understood these poses. He set Tribe record for steals in 1980 with 61.

Whitey Herzog #190 The White Rat

I did not know this but Whitey was the manager for 4 games in 1974 with the California Angels. I have no recollection why he left the Royals after the 1979 season. His worst season was 85 wins. This is a great card that shows his Cardinal logo.

Rollie Fingers June 15, 1976

It was on June 15th, 1976 that Charlie Finley sold Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Red Sox and Vida Blue to the Yankees (I am doing this all from memory). The deals would be voided within a day or so by Commisioner Bowie Kuhn.  Here is a nice poised shot of Rollie, I am not sure what staduim that is in the background.

Larry Gura #338

Lary Gura was a good pitcher. He was stolen from the Yankees for Fran Healy. His middle name is Cyril.
Here are his pitching stats for the lasr 5 years. (77-81)

8-5-3.14 (10 saves)
16-4-2.72
13-12-4.46
18-10-2.96
11-8-2.72

This is a nice tight spring training shot of Larry. Too bad too much shadow on his face.

Dave Rosello #617

It is always great when a player knows that he is posing for his baseball card photo. Dave gave us a big smile. It appears from the background that this photo took place later in the afternoon.

Juan Bonilla #220

A very shadowy dark looking rookie card of the 26 year old Bonilla. He hit .290 as a rookie. He was a top college player at Florida State.

Hey Topps: How about an update of the 1973 All-Time Grand Slam Leaders Card

With Alex Rodriguez tying Lou Gehrig with 23 Grand Slam Homers (most all-time), I would hope that Topps would honor that feat with a card of A-Rod on this design in the update set as a regular card or an insert card. I would hope it is a regular card as the design would be completely different than the rest of the set.

Dave Smith #191

This is an interesting shot because of all os those people standing in the background. 2 of those legs belong to the umpire while the rest appears to be fans and on lookers as Smith is either warming up or actually pitching in a game. He had a 1.92 ERA as a rookie in 1980.

Bill Almon #637 and Luis Salazar #472

Both of these cards feature batters in the batters box with Salazar's photo just appears to be a little bit later in the abat than Almon. Almon is a little more tighter shot.

Contest over at Fuji's

Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's Contest over at Fuji's; Contest over at Fuji's

Bobby Murcer vs. Don Mattingly

The M&M boys who were the Yankee stars between the Yankee Championship runs. I love Mattingly (and his baseball cards) and still get a tingle when I think about those 3 fantastic years he had between 1984 and 1986. However, I also love Bobby Murcer and feel he is a very underrated player who played at a time when hitting 32 Home Runs would lead the league.

In comparing both players triple crown categories I found that Murcer finshed in the top ten in HR (3 times), BAT (3 times) and RBI (5 times).  While Donnie Baseball finished in the top ten in HR (2 times), BAT (5 times) and RBI (5 times).   Donnie finished at (222-1099-.307) while Murcer finished with (252-1043-.277) numbers. These guys were very similar, with Mattingly having the higher average in a little more offensive era..

Paul Molitor

Here is a pretty average looking card of the hall of famer. I always thought  that Molitor was a borderline superstar during his career but a spurt at the end gave him enough hits to reach 3000 to put him over the top. I think 3000 is an automatic induction unless you are Raphael Palmerio.

Kelvin Moore

One of my favorite cards from the set. It is a card easy to remember over time because of the vibrant colors of green and yellow on his uniform and helmet. He looks very young in this picture also

Sam Mejias

This is an up close and personal picture of Sam around the batting cage. This card has an odd lighting background but I don't think it was taken at night. The Red of his helmet clashes nicely with the 1982 Donruss Design.

Mark on a Clear Day you can see Fenway

Mark Clear #452.  I imagine that this photo was taken on a Saturday at Fenway during NBC game of the week. Mark is striking an odd pose here but this photo is just one nice piece of work.

Randy Niemann #473 or Short people got no reason to...

A blurry picture of the journeyman pitcher for the Astro's. No airbrushing here. Niemann was traded 8/31/81 to Pirates but appears in his Astro uniform

Rick Honeycutt #494 or where does the first name Rick come from.

I always wonder were the ser name "Rick" came from. Rick Honeycutt actual first name is Frederick. I have known people who have been called Rick with the actual first name Eric and Richard. So what is it. What is the actual most popular first name to give someone the nickname Rick. Is it Frederick, Eric or Richard. Here is a spring training shot of Honeycutt. Back Facts: Was suspended 10 days by the AL 9/30/80 for having a tack taped to the finger of his glove hand, an incident he later apologized for.

Mike Ramsey #316

Here is a nice tight close up of the Cardinal utilty infielder. I like the clash of blue and red on his uniform. The odd thing about this photo, it appears to have been taken late in the day or on a vary overcast day.

Bob Brenly #574

The Bill Cowher look a like. He made his major league debut in 1981 at age 27 with the Giants. Back Facts: He broke Mike Schmidt's school record for HR at Ohio, University.

Len Barker #137

With last nights no-hitter in Seattle, we bring you Len Barker Mr. Perfect game. He threw a perfect game 5/5/81 vs. Toronto. He led the AL in strikeouts in 1980 and 1981.

Puberty Highlight: The day I found out Sigourney Weaver was not a man

There is a movie out now that is a prequel to the Alien Flics of years gone by. This makes me recall my Puberty moment. I went to see the original Alien movie when it first came out in the late 1970s at the dawn of my teenage years. The movie had 7 space explorers that were getting picked off one by one on a dreary starship by an Alien monster. Watching the movie from the beginning, I thought there was only one female on the starship and it was towards the end of the movie as people were getting picked off there actually was another female on board and I wondered where she  had came from. I guess, I thought she was a man earlier in the movie. I just did not notice her.  I ended up getting my puberty moment at the end of the movie from her though. Towards the  end of the movie, Sigourney goes to a space pod and begins to disrobe to put on a space suit. In the pod she began stripping down to her panties and a tee - shirt that left little to the imagination. Then it hit me. Wow! Holy Cow! Whamo! She is not a man. It was my first big suprise going to the movies (later to be topped by Luke, I am your father). All I could think about was I never noticed her before in this movie. She went from a man  to Sprung,  Thumbs Up all in one film.

I went to see that Movie a second time (of course that movie was rated R and I did not go with an adult, so don't tell anybody) a few weeks later just to better prepare myself for that ending. It was my first teenage highlight.

2013 Topps to eschew the all white borders

This seems to be the early indication for 2013. Since 2008, the Topps baseball cards sets have had all white borders and that has been the case every year since 2004 (except for 2007). However, this does not  necessarily mean the borders will be an entirely  a different color from white. The card  border design may be like the 1963 or 1986 Topps sets where part of the borders were white and part of the borders  were a different color. These is a possibilty of a sort of a blended design where the non white borders will be faded into parts of the borders that are white. It seems Topps maybe going for a little more flashy design as a way to combat any loss of market share to Panini baseball cards.

Carlton Fisk

Here is a close up of the 1975 World Series hero. Carlton probably hit the most famous home run in the world series for a team that did not win it. (While Bobby Thompson shot heard a round the world, was big the Giants would also lose to the Yankees after getting to the World Series.).

Gary Carter

This is the Donruss 1982 card of Gary Carter. Carter recently passed away this year. Here is a nice looking batting / in action shot of Carter

Larry Bittner and Dave Concepcion photos taken in the same inning

The great thing about these two card are they were taken by the same photographer most likely in the same inning of the same game. There is just a slight angle adjustment to the cards. You notice the same guy with the dark hat in the stands. It appears to be a Cub or Met cap

Mike Scott #128

Mike would become a very good pitcher with the Houston Astros. This photo was taken in spring traing.  A nice shot of the Mets logo on his shoulder.

Sixto Lezcano #64

Sixto would not make it to the 1982 World Series with the Cardinals, he ended up on the Padres. A decent posed shot. Though for some reason it has a slight blur to it.

Keith Drumright #616

Keith would make it into all of the Major sets in 1982. All three photos were interesting. Topps had him leading off the bag, in an interesting shot. Fleer had him around the batting cage and Donruss had him here. I think this is the worst of all him one time baseball card

Bryan Clark #596

The Shadow Knows. Like most Mariners in this set, the cards are dark looking or come with a Shadow. You can barely make out Bryan's face. In College he majored in Dental Hygiene.

Larry Bradford #553

The bearded one. I like this card. I like the blue of the braves uniform. I like that Larry is posing for the camera. I like that it is a tight shot and that you can still see the scoreboard in the background. Through 1981, he pitched over 100 innings and had a 2.51 ERA.