Baseball Birthdays December 11-17

December 11

Derek Bell 1996 Fleer Road Warriors #1

Bell came to the Astros in December 1994 as part of a massive 12-player deal with the Padres. In 5 years with the Astros he batted .284 with 74 home runs.

December 12

Ervin Santana 2008 Topps Dick Perez #24

In 7 years with the Angels, Ervin has compiled an 87-67 record with an ERA of 4.22. He's signed through 2013.

December 13

Larry Doby 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #47

Larry was the second black player in major league baseball and the first in the American League. He made his debut with the Indians in 1947. He played for the Indians for 9 of his 13 years and was a 7-time All-Star. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1998.

December 14

Craig Biggio 2002 Diamond Kings Diamond Cut Collection #83

Craig spent his entire 20-year career with the Astros. He came to the majors as a catcher but moved to 2nd base after a few years. He also played some outfield. He has a career batting average of .281, he hit 291 home runs and stole 414 bases. He was also an outstanding defensive second baseman. He retired in 2007 so will be eligible for the Hall of Fame next year. I expect him to enter on the first ballot.

December 15

Mo Vaughn 1996 Leaf Hats Off #4

Hit Dog was the Red Sox #1 draft pick in 1989. He played with Craig Biggio at Seton Hall University. He hit .293 in his 12- career with 382 home runs. He was with the Red Sox for 8 years and then signed an enormous contract with the Angels. Apparently the Red Sox weren't sorry to see him go. He was eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2008 but only received 1.1% of the votes and  was dropped from the ballot.

December 16

Billy Ripken 1992 Ultra #10

Cal's little brother had a fairly non-distinguished 12-year career in the majors. He is perhaps best known for his 1989 Fleer baseball card with an obscenity written on the bat knob. If you're one of the handful of collectors who haven't see this card, take a look here.

December 17

Chase Utley 2008 UD A Piece of History Box Score Memories Red #43

Finally, a Phillie. Chase was the Phillies #1 pick in 2000 and has played 9 years for the Phillies. He is an excellent 2nd baseman and pretty good at the plate. There is considerable concern in Philadelphia over his physical condition. He has spent parts of the last few seasons hurt.

2011 Topps American Pie

This is at least the third edition of Topps American Pie. The other two were in 2001 and 2002. For all I know this product comes out every year but I don't think so. The past years cards were mostly baseball players while this set is mostly not. The set is not listed at Beckett.com and I really don't feel like expending too much effort. The cards seem to be separated by decade, probably starting in the 1940s. I only bought two 6-card packs so I'll post them all. Early next week I post 2 packs of Panini Americana for comparison and contrast.

Of the 12 cards I got, this is the only one related to baseball. You can hardly go wrong with a Jackie Robinson card.

OK, this one is ridiculous. These shocked women appear to be reading a tabloid newspaper. Is that how the Kinsey report was published? According to the back of the card Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was a bestseller. I kind of doubt that women gathered together to read it aloud to each other.

What this set is all about is American cultural icons and there are few more iconic than the Muppets of Sesame Street. This is, of course, before they all became Communists.

The Saturday Evening Post was still being published in the 1960s? Who knew? You would think they could have used a cover from the 1960s instead of this cover from 1903.

Star Trek, of course, got it's start in the 1960s but this picture is from, as you should well know, the making of Star Trek, The Motion Picture which came out in 1979. Gene Roddenberry is the guy behind the camera, the pointing guy is the movie director, Robert Wise. I'm not sure who the pointy-eared guy is.

The television mini-series Roots was one of the biggest television events of the 1970s.

The dumbest card in the two packs. According to the back of the card, this is the actual bar code from an actual 10-pack of Wrigley's (hey, another baseball connection) Juicy Fruit sold in Ohio in 1974. The pack is now in the Smithsonian. I'd like to see the chain of custody on that exhibit.

Giant icon of course. An American icon?  He did live here for quite awhile and was killed here. I still remember when I heard the news.

More Muppets!

An unfortunate sad note to end with.

In addition to the 10 base cards I got two insert cards. The wrapper lists a bunch of inserts including numbered foil board parallels, cards with autographs and relics and cards with coins embedded in them. I guess they had a lot of change left over when they finished the Topps Heritage set. I got two cards from the insert set called Topps American Pie Hirsute History. My question is, who's stupid idea was this?

Sideburns! This looks like Robert Redford to me. General Burnsides is mentioned on the back along with more modern wearers of sideburns like Elvis Presley and Luke Perry. I still think this is Redford even though he is not mentioned on the back of the card.

I wouldn't have thought you could fill up the entire back of a card writing about the soul patch. Who is this guy?  The back mentions Rush front man Geddy Lee and Olympic speed skating champion Apolo Ohno. It is surely not Geddy Lee. It sort of looks like Ohno but it sort of looks like a young Jeff Bridges as well.

Song of the Week - In Your Arms by Kina Grannis

Normally I like to feature songs that I have in my iTunes, but I'm going to make an exception in this case. This video was featured on the Time Magazine site as one of the top 10 creative videos of the year. It's a fantastic piece of work. The background is made of jelly beans. Over 280,000 were used in the creation of the video. And the song's pretty good too. A making of video is available here.

Baseball Birthdays December 4-10

December 4

Lee Smith - 1992 Topps Kids #28

I can never hear Lee Smith's name without hearing Harry Kalas saying "Big Lee Smith". Smith played for the Cubs, the Red Sox, the Cardinals, Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds and Expos. I mainly remember him with the Cardinals in the early 1990s. He is second all time in saves with 478.

December 5

Cliff Floyd - 2000 Pacific Omega Platinum Blue #56

Cliff looked like he was going to be a great player when he first came up with the Expos in 1993. Injuries throughout his career have perhaps stopped him from being the megastar he might have been. He had a pretty good career anyway, playing for 17 years with a career batting average of .278 and 233 home runs.

December 6

Larry Bowa - Topps #233

One of my favorite cards, it was signed by Bowa for me in the early 1990s. Larry played for the Phillies from 1970 through 1981 and was known as one of the best shortstops of his day.  After his playing career he became a manager and coach. Always a fiery competitor, his temper and lack of patience made his managing stints (including with the Phillies) shorter than maybe they should have been.

December 7

Johnny Bench - 2003 Sweet Spot Classic Patch Card

Johnny was an integral part of the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati in the 1970s. His list of accomplishments is impressive: 14-time All Star; 10-time Gold Glove; 1968 NL Rookie of the Year
1970; 1972 NL Most Valuable Player; 1970 TSN Player of the Year; 1975 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award; 1976 NL Babe Ruth Award; 1976 WS MVP; and 1981 Hutch Award. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989.

December 8

Mike Mussina - 1996 Bowman's Best Mirror Image Refractor #9

Mike was the Orioles #1 draft pick in 1990. He played for them from  1991 through 2000 and then played another 8 years for the Yankees. With a career record of 270-153, he seems a shoo in for the Hall.

December 9

Juan Samuel - 1985 Philadelphia Phillies Police #1

Samuel came up with the Phillies in 1983 and was traded to the Mets during the 1989 season. During his Phillies career he hit .268 and hit 100 home runs. He also struck out 835 times, leading the National League in strike outs in from 1984 to 1987.

December 10

Pedro Florimon - 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects #25

No real big name players were born on this date so we'll go with the youngest. Pedro was born in 1986 and he made is debut on 9/10/11. He has one hit (a double) in 8 at bats.

Song of the Week - Here We Are Juggernaut by Coheed and Cambria

I almost never listen to the radio anymore. I get new music from a couple of daily podcasts, recommendations from my daughter and CDs from the library. Consequently, I have a lot of stuff that I like, but I have no conception of whether or not the performers are popular or get air play. Not that this bothers me, as my musical tastes have always run away from pop radio.

I picked up an album called The Second Stage Turbine Blade by Coheed and Cambria earlier this year at the library. It mostly seems like heavy metal to me which is not a genre I particularly like, but there were clearly other influences at work in this album and it appeals to me. Wikipedia calls them progressive, but that term has undergone a lot of revision since the days of late 60s and early 70s bands like Yes and Pink Floyd. They've been around since 1995 so they must have some sort of following. Is this sort of music played much on radio these days?

When I decided to feature something by them I found this.



The science fiction aspects of the video were interested so I looked them up on Wikipedia. Second Stage is their first of 5 albums, all revolving a central science fiction theme called The Armory Wars. A series of comic books and a full-length novel also work out the story. I've not listened to the album in any coherent way (I just hear tracks when iTunes decides to play one) so I had no idea there was a story setting.

Baseball birthdays November 27 - December 3

November 27

Ivan Rodriguez: 2009 Topps Update #1

It's hard to believe but Pudge has just completed his 21st year in the majors. He's currently a free agent but there is apparently a lot of interest in him, even though he missed a lot of time in 2011 with an injury. He has a career .296 batting average and 311 home runs and has played all those years as a catcher. He only played for the Astros for a few months but I picked this card because it is such an odd photo.

November 28

Sixto Lezcane: 1985 Donruss #529

There are literally no big time players born this date. When facing this situation, I like to either go with a player with an unusual name or a Phillie. Here I get both. Sixto played about half of his 12-year career with the Brewers. He played for the Phillies in 1983 and 1984.

November 29

Mariano Rivera: 2000 Upper Deck MVP Second Season Standouts #2

The Sandman has played his entire 17-year career with the Yankees. He's one of the most celebrated players currently playing. He holds the career record for saves with 603 and the career record for games finished with 883. He's a 12-time All-Star. I could go on but I'm running out of space.

November 30

Shane Victorino: 2008 Upper Deck Documentary Gold #1708

The Flyin' Hawaiian was drafted by the Dodgers in 1999 and came to the Phillies through the Rule 5 draft. He's played 7 years in Philadelphia and he is a big fan favorite there.

December 1

Walter Alston

I don't have any cards featuring Walter Alston but he is by far the most famous baseball person born this date. He managed the Dodgers from 1954 through 1976 amassing a 2040-1613 record, including 4 World Series Championships. And here is a trivia question for you. Name the Hall of Famer who has the fewest at bats of any player in the Hall. It's Walter Alston. He had one at bat with the Cardinals in 1936. He struck out.

December 2

Darryl Kile: 1995 Collector’s Choice Special Edition Silver #41

Darryl had a career 133-119 record over 12 years. He spent the first 7 years with the Astros, 2 years with the Rockies and 3 years with the Cardinals. He was a well liked player and his death of a heart attack in 2002 (at age 33) was devastating to his Cardinal teammates.  All three of his former teams have a "DK 57" memorial in their stadiums.

December 3

Clay Dalrymple: 1964 Topps #191

Clay played for 12 years, the first 9 with the Phillies. He was their everyday catcher from 1961 through 1968. In 1963 he lead the National League in both stolen bases allowed (56) and runners thrown out (50). I wasn't a baseball fan when I was a kid and Dalrumple is one of the few Phillies I remember from the early 1960s.

2011 Baseball Card Review - Batting cards

The 2011 baseball card season is just about over. I will probably buy a blaster of Bowman Draft if I see one but not much else. I bought (or traded for) 2,944 different cards this year, up from 2,313 in 2010. The difference is mostly the extra 500-card box of Topps Update I got from an eBay dealer. By my count, there were 54,564 different cards released in 2011. That's up from 48,641 in 2010. The counts were derived from Becket.com and I have no idea how accurate they are. When I scan cards, I categorize them by the picture.

Here's a sampling of cards featuring players at the plate.

Batting Stance: Topps All-Star Set #11 Ryan Braun

Is it my imagination or does Braun use an enormous bat?

Broken bat: Topps #233 Ramon Hernandez

I love broken bat cards. This is the only one I got this year.


Bunting: Topps #284 Reid Brignac

Not a lot of bunting cards this year either. This is the best one I have. I presume the ball is heading away from his bat, otherwise this would be a pretty poor bunt attempt.

Swinging: 
Topps #100 Albert Pujols

Topps Update #6 Prince Fielder

There are a lot of cards featuring players swinging. I decided to go with a couple of big men just letting it fly. Prince really is swinging for the fences as it's the Home Run Derby.

Leaving the box: Bowman #135 Chris Young

For me, the classic leaving the box shot. The player is just starting to run and the bat is just out of his hand.


Stretching: Topps Update #55 Anthony Rizzo

This is a photo you don't see much of and usually it's Ryan Howard. Not a lot of players do this at the plate.