Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Salina Kansas

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites was an early feature of the blog. I was riding my stationary bike and plotting my course on a Goggle map. The plan was to 'travel' enough miles to virtually visit each major league ballpark. On the way, I would 'visit' (by showing their baseball cards) players in the home towns as I passed through. I wasn't likely to do such a trip for real so I thought this would be the next best thing. At some point it got too much to get to the gym often enough to maintain the feature but since I retired last January I'm at the gym 2-3 days a week. Time to get back on the journey.

When I left off, I was in Wichita Kansas, visiting with a couple of former Phillies. My next stop was planned to be Salina Kansas.  Here's the trip so far.

I'm now at a crossroad. I can either head east to Kansas City and on to teams on the east of the Mississippi or I can head west to Denver and pick up the western teams before finally turning back east. Any thoughts in which was to go?

Salina is a small town with a population of about 48,000 people and lots of wheat. It's motto is "Right Place. Right reason. Right now". According to it's Wikipedia page the largest employer is Tony's Pizza with 1,850 employees. It must be the largest pizza joint in the world.  It turns out there are a few baseball players born in Salina.

1993 Stadium Club #210 Pat Meares

Meares was born in Salina on 9/6/1968. He went to college in nearby Wichita State. He was drafted by the Twins in the 15th round of the 1990 draft. Pat played 6 years for the Twins and 3 years with the Pirates. He was a middle infielder with a decent enough average (.258) and a little bit of power (58 career home runs). He was mostly a shortstop and in 1995 he lead the league in errors (18) at short. His other claim to fame is that he made the last out during David Wells' perfect game in 1998.

1964 Topps #157 Gene Mauch

The most famous baseball person from Salina is undoubtedly Gene Mauch. Between 1960 and 1987, Gene managed somewhere in the big leagues every year but 2. No wonder his nickname was Skip. He managed the Phillies from 1960 through 1968 with a record of 646-684. But most people in Philadelphia will remember him as the manager of the 1964 Phillies. With a 6.5 game lead with 12 games to go, Mauch decided to pitch his two best pitchers, Jim Bunning and Chris Short in 7 of the last 10 games. The Phillies lost 10 games in a row finishing in a tie for second place.

2001 Topps Traded #35 Ryan Kohlmeier

Ryan was the Orioles 14th round pick in 1996. He was 1-3 in 59 appearances (1 start) for the O's in 2000-2001. He spent a few more years in the minors before retiring in 2004.

2009 Topps Update #303 Luke French

Another short-timer. French was drafted by the Tigers in the 8th round of the 2004 draft. He compiled a 9-2 record in 2009-2919 with the Tigers and Mariners.

The only other player born in Salina was Bob Swift who was born in 1915. He had a 14-year career as a catcher, mostly with the Tigers. I've got no cards of his.

That wraps up Salina Kansas.

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Arkansas City Kansas

I had a long layoff from the gym over the holidays. First, I got a bad cold around Thanksgiving which cost me a week. Then things got busy at home. Then it was just one excuse after another. But no more excuses for awhile. I got back last week. My next stop is a little detour to Arkansas City Kansas, the birthplace of Darren Daulton. Click on the map to get a better look.I'm taking the easy way for this post and just posting a mess of Daulton cards, pretty much one for each year of his career.

1985 Fleer Update #33
1986 Donruss #477
1987 Topps Tiffany #636
1988 Tastykake
Tastykake is a local Philadelphia pastry company. They used to publish these cards as give aways at Vet Stadium back in the 1980s.

1989 Upper Deck #448
1990 Leaf #369
1991 Topps #89
1992 Studio Heritage #13
1993 Upper Deck Iooss Collection #17
1994 Ultra Phillies Finest Autograph #2
This Daulton autograph is one of my favorite cards.

1995 Topps Embossed #61
1996 Stadium Club#106
1998 Topps #218
I'm using this Topps card to represent his 1997 season as he retired at the end of 1997. Daulton was traded to the Marlins in July of 1997. He went 7-18 with 1 HR in the 1997 World Series as the Marlins beat the Indians for the Championship.

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Oklahoma City

I rolled into Oklahoma City on my virtual bike trip. I'm doing pretty good at the gym. My plan is to go 5 days a week and get about 4 hours/week on the bike. That would about 40 miles a week. The weird detour north of Dallas as an attempt to get a few stops between Dallas and Oklahoma City. Not too many baseball players were born in Texas, north of Dallas it seems.

I've pretty much decided that I'll be turning eastward from here, toward Kansas City.Oklahoma City is the birthplace of quite a few ball players, including one Hall of famer, Johnny Bench. I have no cards of Bench from when he was playing.
The card above is from the 2003 Topps Shoebox set. I had bought this box set when it was new. It features reprints of player's rookie cards.
Also in 2003, I got this 2003 Sweet Spot Classic Patch Card. I actually pulled this from the only pack of this I bought. Bench was the 2nd round pick by the Reds in 1965 and played his entire 17-year career for the Reds. He was the Rookie of the Year in 1967, a 13-time All-Star, 2-time MVP, hit 389 home runs and appeared in 4 consecutive World Series (1973-1976) winning the last 2. No wonder this guy is in the Hall of Fame. And as everyone who has been following the baseball playoffs knows by now, the Big Red Machine was the last NL team to win consecutive World Series.
Don Carman was a not-so-great pitcher for those terrible Phillies teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was a free agent signing by the Phillies in 1978. In 8 years with the Phillies he was 53-54, including a 5-15 year in 1989. This card is part of a set produced by Tastykake and given away at Phillies games. Tastykake is a snack company which mainly sells in the Philadelphia area (although you can get some Tastykake items here in the Houston Area). Their eclairs are to die for.
A somewhat better player than Don Carman is Joe Carter who was born in OC on March 7, 1960. He was the first round draft pick by the Cubs in 1981 but spent most of his 16 year career with the Indians and Blue Jays. Phillies fans will always remember Joe for the walk-off home run that won the 1993 World Series for the Blue Jays over the Phillies (get over it!). This card is a 1947 Fleer All-Star insert card.
1962 Topps Card of Don Demeter. Don was born in Oklahoma City on June 25, 1935. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. In his 11-year career he played for the Dodgers (Brooklyn and Los Angeles), the Phillies (1961-1963), the Tigers, the Red Sox and the Indians. He hit 71 home runs and 260 rbis for the Phillies. I just got this card last summer at a card shop in the Philadelphia area when we were visiting in July.
1989 Upper Deck. John Russell was born on January 5, 1961. Although he was the Phillies #1 pick in 1982, he never became a full time catcher. The closest he came was in 1986 when he caught 93 games. But Darren Daulton took over the catcher spot in 1987. Russell also played one year with the Braves and 4 years with the Rangers. Of course, today he is the manager of the Pirates.
2009 Topps Target
1990 Upper Deck Checklist Mickey Tettleton. This is the third catcher from Oklahoma City. Mickey was born on September 16, 1960. In his 14-year career he played for the A's, the Orioles, the Tigers and the Rangers. He was a 2-time All-Star and a 3-time Silver Slugger. I can't say I know too much about him as a player.
1997 Finest Bronze Refractor Jamey Wright. He is the youngest player I'm featuring here, born on December 24, 1974. He was the Rockies #1 pick in 1993. In his 14-year career he has played for the Rockies, the Braves, the Royals, back to the Rockies, the Giants, the Rangers and is currently back with the Royals. His career record is 82-115. He used to be a started but seems to be mostly used in middle relief in the past few years.

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Greenville Texas

Although I'm heading, at the moment, toward the northeast, my next major goal is Oklahoma City, birthday of such baseball notables as Johnny Bench, Don Carman and Joe Carter. It's a long haul to Oklahoma City by bike so I need some rest stops along the way. The whole point of this is to highlight baseball players who were born along the route. I've had to plan a circuitous route in order to find towns where players that I've at least heard of were born.So today's detour brings me to Greenville, Texas. Greenville, population about 24,000 people, is the county seat of Hunt County and is located about 50 miles from Dallas. A couple of baseball players were born there but the only one of note is Burt Hooton. Audie Murphy was also born there. If you don't know who Audie Murphy was go look him up.
I remember Hooton as a pitcher with the Dodgers. I don't own a single card of his. He retired in 1985, which was the first year I began collecting cards. I do, however, have this nifty Capewood's Collection card featuring a photo I took at spring training in 2006. Hooten was the Astros pitching coach that year.

While I remember him I didn't know a lot about him. He was the second player drafted in 1971, by the Cubs. He was signed on June 8, 1971 and made his first start in the majors on June 17, 1971, just 9 days after he was signed! Has another player ever gotten to the majors faster than that? I know, for example, that Jim Abbott went right into the majors without pitching in the minors first but he was signed on 8/3/88 and didn't make his debut until 4/8/89. Hooton was 2-0 with the Cubs in 1971 and then was 7-4 in the minors. He would never pitch in the minors again.

Hooton played for the Cubs until 1975 when he was traded to the Dodgers for Eddie Solomon and Geoff Zahn. His glory years were with the Dodgers from 1975 to 1981 when he had a combined record of 96-63. The Dodgers got to the World Series 3 times during that span, against the Yankees each time. They finally won the World Series in 1981. Hooton was 11-6 with an ERA of 2.28 in 1981 and was also an All-Star and was the NLCS MVP.

Hooton finished his career for the Rangers in 1985. He retired with a career record of 151-136 and a career ERA of 43.38.

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Dallas Texas

My last stop was Arlington. Today I (virtually) rolled into Dallas. There were quite a few major league players born in Dallas. I'll list a few.Ernie Banks

There's nothing I can add to all that's been written about Ernie Banks. His 19 year career stretched from 1953 to 1971. For most of that time I was either too young to appreciate baseball or not much of a fan so I don't remember ever seeing him play. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1977. He was born in Dallas in 1931. I don't have any cards from his playing days but have several post-career cards.

2006 Topps Heritage Flashbacks

2005 Topps Heritage Flashbacks

2001 Topps HD Images of Excellence

Wes Bankston

Bankston was born in Dallas in 1983. He was the Devil Rays 4th round draft pick in 2002 although never played for them. He appeared in 17 games for the A's last year hitting .203. He was a free agent signing for the Reds last fall and is currently playing for the Reds AAA club in Louisville. Not much of a career so far but I have this cool card of his.

2002 Topps 206 Polar Bear

Jason Jennings

Jennings was born in 1978 and was the Rockies 1st round pick in 1999. He was 58-56 with a 4.68 ERA in 6 years with the Rockies. Not too bad for pitching in Colorado. The Astros traded Taylor Buchholz, Jason Hirsh and Willy Taveras for him in December 2006. That was a lot of talent to give up and the trade wasn't much liked in Houston. He was 2-9 for the 2007 Astros and hurt most of the year. He left for the Rangers after that season via free agency. I don't have many Astros cards of him. 2002 was his best season (he was 16-8) so here's a 2003 card.

2003 Topps Opening Day

Clayton Kershaw

Kershaw is a young Dodgers pitcher. And by young I mean he was born in 1988, making him 21. He is 8-6 with a 2.89 ERA for the Dodgers this year.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter

Keith Moreland

Moreland was born in Dallas in 1954 and was the Phillies 7th round pick in 1975. He played 4 years with the Phillies (1978-1981) as backup for catcher Bob Boone. It was good enough to get him into the 1980 World Series. In 1981, the Phillies traded him to the Cubs for pitcher Mike Krukow. It was a good move for him as he was a starter, mostly in the outfield, for the Cubs. In 6 seasons he hit .281 with 100 home runs.

1980 Topps Burger King

1981 Donruss

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Arlington Texas

The next stop on my virtual grand tour of major league cities is Arlington Texas, the home of the Texas Rangers. I've lived in Texas (outside Houston) for 14 years now and haven't had a chance to visit Ameriquest Field. It's only about a 5 hour drive from my house. Click on the map to get a larger view.I'm up to almost 11 miles on the stationery bike per trip to the YMCA. I've decided to head north and then east from here as there are more major league teams to the west. If I can stay with this for a few years I should be able to make it back to the West Coast.

Arlington is the birthplace of 2 major league players, Ben Grieve and Hunter Pence.

1998 Donruss #415 (Spirit of the Game subset)
Ben Grieve was the A's #1 draft pick in 1994. He made is major league debut with the A's on 9/3/97. He was the American League ROY in 1998 and was selected for the 1998 All-Star Team. He had a 9-year career, retiring after the 2005 season, with a career batting average of .269, 118 HRs and 492 rbis. I don't know too much about him but he seems to have been a steady player.

1999 Upper Deck View To A Thrill Doubles
This was a serial numbered (to 2000) insert in 1999 Upper Deck. It's die cut and full of gold foil. It's designed to look like something you'd plug into an computer circuit.

1999 UD Choice Mini Bobbing Head
You could punch out the pieces and make yourself a little Ben Grieve bobbing head. It was an insert in 1999 UD Choice, which was Upper Deck's successor set to Collector's Choice. I only got a few of these so I never actually tried making one.

2004 Justifiable #62
Hunter Pence was the Astros #2 draft pick in 2004. He came up in 2007 and finished 3rd in the ROY voting. He was an All-Star this year (the only NL player not to get into the game). He is an exciting young player and is great fun to watch. I paid $3.34 for this card on eBay in 2007. Today you can get it for $0.99 with free shipping.

2007 Bowman Heritage #226 (Short Print)
These short-printed 2007 Bowman Heritage cards are fun. The cards missing the facsimily autograph are short-printed. I pulled this from a blaster box.

2007 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Write of Passage (12/60)
The pride of my Hunter Pence collection. I got this card (and another great card) by contributing $10 to a group box break hosted by Saints of the Cheap Seats last year. Beckett books it as $60 and 40/60 is on a Buy It Now sale in eBay for $60.

2009 Topps Turkey Red

It was nice to see Turkey Red cards come back this year even if only an insert in Topps.