The $100,000,000 Men Part 1

Pretty much arbitrarily, I decided to split this list between players I collect and players I don't collect. Here are the players I don't collect. All of these guys are active players. All are long-time players with at least 13 years of service. Some are getting a bit past their prime.

2009 O-Pee-Chee Black #106 Bob AbreuAbreu is a 15-year veteran with a career .296 BA and 276 home runs. He is signed with the Angels through 2012 for a career salary of $124,379,666.

2010 Topps 206 Mini American Caramel #109 Carlos BeltranBeltran has been hobbled by injuries the past two years. He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1999 and is a 5-time All-Star. He is in the last year of a 7-year $114.5 million contract with the Mets. His career earnings will be $134,127,346.

2011 Topps #144 Lance BerkmanAfter 12 years with the Astros he was traded to the Yankees in 2010. Although slowed by injuries the past few years this 5-time All-Star has a career .296 BA with 327. The Cardinals have him signed in 2011 for $8 million bringing his career salary to $102,005,000.

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #197 Johnny DamonAfter 16 seasons, Damon is still pretty much an everyday player with a career .287 BA and 215 homer runs. He's signed with the Rays this year for $5.5 million giving him a career salary of $110,439,000

2009 Topps Heritage #593 Jason GiambiGiambi, a 16-year veteran, has a career BA of .281 with 415 home runs. Although only a part-time player these days, this 5-time All-Star is signed with the Rockies through 2012, and will have made $132,658,996 by then.

2011 Topps #255 Torii HunterHeading into his 15th season, Hunter is a 4-time All-Star with a career .275 BA and 258 homer runs. He is signed with the Angels through 2012 and will have made $134,055,000.

2010 Topps #192 Andruw JonesJones actually played for the White Sox. Although his stats and playing time have decreased in recent years he is a 5-time All-Star with 407 home runs. After 2 years of suffering with only a half-mil paycheck, he is signed with the Yankees in 2011 for $2 million which will give him a career salary of $105,433,410

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #250 Magglio OrdonezOrdonez is a 5-time All-Star with a career BA of .312. He also has 289 home runs and a .511 career slugging percentage. He is signed with the Tigers through 2011 by which he will have made $133,470,746

2010 Topps 206 #95 Jorge PosadaPosada has played his entire 16-year career for the Yankees. He has a .275 career BA with 261 home runs. He has a .992 fielding percentage as a catcher and is 5-time All-Star and a 5-time Silver Slugger. He is signed with the Yankees through 2011 by which he will have made $104,358,500. I haven't checked but I would guess that would make him the highest paid catcher in baseball history.

2009 Topps Update All-Star Stitches #45 Mariano RiveraComing into 2011, Rivera is an 11-time All-Star with 559 career saves. He is signed with the Yankees through 2012 by the end of which he will have made $159, 530, 125.

Song of the Week - Colours by Grouplove

This is probably a band you never hear of. I never heard of them before this song was a daily podcast from KEXP this week.

Movie of the Week - The Adjustment Bureau

So do you believe in free will, or do you think that snappily dressed men in fedoras are controlling your fate? This is the existential question posed by "The Adjustment Bureau".

When former congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) finds out the answer to this question, a question he never asked, he's faced with a choice. Have the girl of his dreams or eventually be elected President. From the trailers, it's obvious that he chooses the girl but the story gets much more complicated then that. I'm happy to say that the trailers did not give too much of the story away.

When Norris steadily refuses to conform to the plan laid out for him (by fate, God, the Chairman, whatever), the Bureau has to directly intervene. The concept of the Bureau was well done. These guys are just bureaucrats. They are given a plan to enforce. They don't understand the plan, it's above their pay grade, as one of them says. But the plan is important, it's their job to make sure it stays on course. What about free will says Norris. The last time we let you have free will, Mr. Thompson explains, was 1910. After the Cuban missile crises we had to step back in.

So does love conquer all, even The Plan? You'll have to see the movie to find out. I recommend that you do.

Random Phillies cards of the Week

1968 Topps #225 Richie AllenRichie Allen (as Phillies Phans remember him) broke on the scene with the ill-fated 1964 Phillies. He led the league with 125 runs, 13 triples and 352 triples. He also hit 29 home runs, drove in 91 runs and lead the league in strikeouts with 138. All this was good enough to win him the NL Rookie of the Year Award, but not good enough to get the Phillies in the World Series. By the end of 1968 he was a 3-time All-Star who had hit 145 home runs.

1983 Topps #225 Bill Robinson
Bill played for the Phillies in 1972-1974, then went to the Pirates. He came back to the Phillies in 1983 and ended his 16-year career there. He was a career .258 hitter with 166 home runs and 641 rbis. He was a member of the 1979 "We Are Family" Pirates who won the World Series. After retiring as a player he remained active in baseball as a hitting instructor and coach and was with the 1986 World Series winning Mets and 2005 World Series winning Marlins. He died in Las Vegas in 2007 of unknown causes. At the time he was the Dodgers minor league coordinator and was visiting their affiliate team in Las Vegas.

1993 Leaf Limited Rookies #7 Mike Grace
Mike was the Phillies 10th round draft pick in 1991 and played for the Phillies from 1995-1999. He was primarily a started, although in his last season he was mostly a middle reliever. He compiled a 16-16 record with the Phillies with a career ERA of 4.96. In 1993 he was still just a potential major league pitcher. Looking at his minor league career, I see he didn't even play in 1993, perhaps shut down due to injury.

2005 Topps Cracker Jack Mini Stickers #90 Bobby Abreu
2005 was Bobby's the last full year of his 9-year stint with the Phillies. In that span he batted .303, had 195 home runs, and 814 rbis. He was an All-Star in 2005 and won the Home Run Derby. He also won the Gold Glove Award. He was traded in 2006 to the Yankees for a bunch of low-level prospects, in a trade not liked by Phillies fans.

Topps Worthless Website

Just a little rant here.

Does anyone understand why Topps.com is completely worthless?

The latest release they have on the site is 2010 Topps Series 1 baseball, which came out 14 months ago.

Their release calendar shows nothing coming out.

The search function does absolutely nothing.

Have they just abandoned this site? Is there some other website they maintain to get information about their releases?

Pitchers Batting

In the National League pitchers still have to come to the plate. Oftentimes they are asked to bunt, but sometimes the manager tells them to swing away. Here are some cards featuring pitchers batting.

1998 Upper Deck #99 Darryl KileSome of my favorite cards feature a batter just when he makes contact with the ball. Here's Darryl Kile getting a hold of one. Kile was a .132 career batter with 2 widely spaced home runs (one in 1993, the second in 2001).

1997 Collector's Choice #197 Curt SchillingI wonder where Curt's bat ended up. He's let go of the handle at the top of his follow through. For a pitcher, Schilling had a decent career average of .151.

2010 Upper Deck #297 Yovani GallardoLooking very much like Prince Fielder, Yovani swings hard. In four seasons he's got a respectable batting average of .218 with an amazing 8 home runs!

2007 Upper Deck #339 Roger ClemensRoger, of course, spent the bulk of his career in the American League. So most of has career batting stats were compiled in the 3 years he played for the Astros. He hit .166 for the 'Stros with 11 RBIs. Here he ends up with a broken bat.

2004 Bazooka Red Border Chunks # 93 Greg MadduxMad Dog, wasn't exactly a push-over at the plate with a .171 career average and 5 home runs. Most of the cards I have of him at the plate feature him bunting but here he's just taken, what looks to me, like a clumsy swing.

1995 Upper Deck #142 Fernando ValenzuelaEl Toro was actually a pretty good hitter with a .200 career average, 10 home runs, and 84 RBIs. It looks like he's watching one sail out of the park here but he only had 3 hits with the Phillies. Maybe this was the only extra base hit with the Phillies, a double.

Random Phillies cards of the Week

1970 Topps #186 Rick JosephYou're excused if, no matter how big a Phillies fan you are, you don't remember Rick Joseph. He played for the Phillies from 1967 to 1970, appearing in 253 games. He seems to have been a spot started at third, first and in left field. He had a .245 batting average and 13 home runs for the Phillies. 1970 was his last season in the majors.

1988 Panini Stickers #349
Although I was collecting baseball cards in the late 1980s, I don't ever remember seeing Panini stickers on sale. I've acquired several in repacks and trades over the past few years. This particular sticker is a gold foil version of the Veteran's Stadium era Phillies logo.

1991 Topps 1953 Topps Archives #140 Tommy Glaviano
In these random posts I try to feature a card from prior to 1980, from the 1980s, from the 1990s and from the 2000s. This is from a set that Topps produced in 1991, which was a replica of their 1953 set. Since that time, Topps has plundered it's past for many card issues. Tommy only played one season for the Phillies, his last, in 1953. His nickname was Rabbit. Perhaps because in his 5 year career he stole 11 bases. Or perhaps for some other reason.

2002 Topps #83 Ricky Bottalico
Ricky had two stints with the Phillies, from 1994-1998, and 2001-2002. He was a relief pitcher and had his best two years in 1996 and 1997 when he saved 34 games for the Phillies in each year. He pitched one inning in the 1996 All-Star game which was held in Philadelphia. In his 12-year career he also played one year each for the Cardinals, Royals, Diamondbacks, Mets, and Brewers. According to Wikipedia he is currently an analyst for Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia.