Fathers Day came early

I received an early fathers day "gift" and wanted to share with everyone my newest addition. Before I continue I must say that this "present" was given to me by . . . drum roll please . . . well to be honest, I bought it myself. That's right, I bought myself an early fathers day "present"; why, just because.

Here it is . . . weighing in at 6.2 pounds, 1848 pages worth of baseball cards; The 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, 17th edition, edited by Don Fluckinger.

I have never bought a book that was this heavy nor had as many pages - except maybe my daughters huge SAT practice test book. My book will get opened much more.

This book boasts "the hobby's biggest and best price guide". However, I did not buy this volume for the price guide but for the vast collection of cards, over 140 years worth. This book catalogs sets, individual cards, errors, reprints, coins, stamps, rookie cards, short prints, double prints among its many different designations.

A 6 pound history lesson and for me an early fathers day "gift". Happy early Fathers Day to all you Dad's out there - may you be as nice to yourself as I have been for me. Thank you to me !

to tweet or not to tweet

for some unexplainable reason I have decided to join Twitter and become a twit. For those of you who think I just flipped my lid and have no clue what I am talking about, I am proud of you and you can stop reading this post now.

For the two people left reading (ok maybe less than two if not only one or none) I can be found here: Wait til next year Twitter

Twittering, or as they say "to tweet", is the craze these days. Real-time short messages from people and organizations all around the world telling of what is happening "now". My life is certainly not exciting enough to be followed by too many but if you do have an account I would like to follow you.

Maybe I have lost my mind but with this blog, facebook and now twitter I think I have entered the 21st century of communication (albeit nine years late). Time for me to tweet.

They said this !

I was going to title this post "who said this" and make a contest of sorts but I don't have any cards or really anything worthy of a winner so . . . the title stays as "they said this".

Recently I stumbled upon this website Brainy Quote filled with interesting and sometimes humorous quotes and there is a whole category of sports quotes.

Some of my baseball favorites:

1) Other sports play once a week but this sport is with us every day. Peter Ueberroth

2) The only way to prove you are a good sport is to lose. Ernie Banks

3) The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them. Hank Aaron

4) Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field? Jim Bouton

5) One thing you learned as a Cubs fan; when you bought your ticket, you could bank on seeing the bottom of the ninth. Joe Garagiola (note needed here: between Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola quotes, an entire blog could evolve)

6) Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing. Warren Spahn

7) I went through baseball as a "player to be named later". Joe Garagiola

8) The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out your glass. Martin Mull (I just had to share this one with everyone)

Check the site out Brainy Quote you might get a laugh or two. Maybe one day there will be a site of the greatest quotes by bloggers ?

a shadow of a career

in my Websters New Collegiate Dictionary copy written in 1973 (yes it is the only middle school graduation present that I still have) the word shadow has several definitions including:

a) an imperfect and faint representation
b) an imitation of something
c) a source of gloom and unhappiness
d) not functioning in a official capacity
e) of questionable merit

Knowing all of that I think this card of Kevin Orie (1998 Pinnacle # 71) and his shadow fits. Looks like Orie has a scared look on his face, is running from success and his career is well . . . all of the above work.

Orie was billed as the next Ron Santo for the Cubs after being drafted in the first round of the 1993 amateur draft. All those expectations lasted about a year as Orie never could produce numbers anywhere close to staying in major leagues.

Interesting to note is that Orie did have a respectable year in 1997, earning him enough rookie of the year votes to place 11th, yet from then on it was down hill. The Cubs traded Orie to the Marlins mid season in 1998, and Orie disappointed them too.

After appearing in just 77 games in 1999 the Marlins sent Orie to the Dodgers which began Orie's minor league travel odyssey; to the Royals, Yankees, Phillies and then back to the Cubs in 2002 to play 13 games with the big boys and then off for more travel signing with the Indians, Astros and Brewers yet never making it back to the senior circuit, finally "retiring" in 2006.

His career fits the above definitions of a shadow very well.

"Big Z" reaches 100

Carlos Alberto Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs reached victory 100 last night ! Now I know that his 100 wins is over shadowed by Randy Johnson reaching 300 wins earlier this week but the Cubs and Zambrano should celebrate just a little bit.

Zambrano becomes only the fourth Chicago Cub pitcher in the last fifty years to reach that plateau with the club; thats right he is now in the company of HOF'r Ferguson Jenkins, soon to be HOF'r Greg Maddux and the powerful Rick Reuschel as the only Cub pitchers in the modern era to garner 100 wins wearing Cubbie Blue.

Zambrano also hit his franchise record 18th career homerun to help the Cubs win 2 - 1 while allowing only 2 hits through 6 2 /3 innings. He celebrated his 28th birthday last week; comes off his suspension, hits a homerun, pitches a gem and then announces he "wants to retire when his current contract expires" in 2012.

It bothers me that after a strong performance on the mound (and at the plate), reaching a minor milestone (100 wins is minor in the overall scheme of things) this three time all-star and two time silver slugger awardee is bombarded with questions concerning reaching 300 wins. I guess that is the state of the game these days - the constant comparison and pressure to achieve stratosphere status. Zambrano makes $ 16 million this year, will make upwards of $ 50 million more by the time his contract runs out . . . why should he even contemplate pitching after he turns 32 ? ! He is the state of the game - play hard, play to win, play with emotion and energy, get paid buckets of money and "retire" !

I like to celebrate "little" things like; a beautiful Florida sunset, an unsolicited hug or "I love you" from my daughter, finding an extra $ 20 in my pocket, receiving a bubble mailer with baseball cards from the mail box, and a Chicago Cub pitcher reaching 100 wins !

Congratulations "Big Z", this Cubs fan wants you to pitch strong, hard and win as many more games as you can. Never mind personal milestones, lets get the World Series Ring . . . then you can "retire".

the greatest singles hitter of his time

the title of this blog might conjure up names like Cobb, Carew, Boggs or Ichiro but as great as they all were the hitter I am referring to has incomparable stats.

Have you ever heard of a young man named Kosman ? Maybe yes, maybe no. Well you should, he batted .929 his first year of organized ball and .893 his second year with only 1 extra base hit. That is right, I said nine twenty nine and eight ninety three. Ok, wait a second, truth be told it was in t-ball and this youngster was only six and seven years old, but who cares, his batting average is the highest I have ever seen anywhere.


He was promoted to the minors in 2007 and Kosman settled back to reality by hitting .327 and .382 the next two years respectively. With only two extra base hits out of his 38 minor league safeties, he just might be the greatest singles hitter of his time.

Before he could even swing a bat this year, 2009, an off season mishap with a trampoline has sidelined him a bit. A broken arm may slow this kid down but his coaches and trainers are sure he will continue where he left off; hitting singles when he gains his full strength back.


Thanks to his Dad, Paul of Wrigley Wax "little" Kosman will be a star for a long time. Keep hitting singles Sean, the record books await !

I was on the radio today

I will try to make this short story long (or is it the other way around ?).

For starters, I dealt blackjack (yes I am a "professional" blackjack dealer) at a charity event this past weekend and on Monday I sent an email to the party planner / guy who hired me to say how well I thought the event was run and that I appreciated being involved. On the bottom of my email, as some of you may have noticed, is a tag line (signature) that promotes my blog (this blog that you are reading).

Unbeknownst to me this guy also does a sports talk radio show on AM 1490 in the Sarasota, Bradenton area from 5 - 7 pm on Wednesday called "Out of Bounds". He noticed my signature and called me to see what my blog was all about and then asked me if I wanted to be on the radio as a guest to talk about my collection and the Cubs. Naturally I said yes. This might be a good time to say that I have been told I have a face for radio - sorry for that old joke.

So this evening at 6:30 pm I called as instructed and was his guest for about ten minutes talking baseball, the 1969 Chicago Cubs and baseball cards. For me, this was exciting.

I think I did well (that is according to the two people who listened to me, my wife and daughter) since he did call me after his show was done and thanked me for being on. He also invited me back to talk "anytime". That only means he likes me or is desperate for guests. I would like to think that I did ok for my first time on the air.

The bulk of our conversation was about the cornerstone of my collection; the Cubs of 1969 pennant and the cards from 1970 that are framed, but he also asked me about the "Bartman" incident and our hopes for this year. He even plugged my blog on air !

I hardly doubt this will turn into anything regular but it was fun to be on the radio today.

Afro, Sideburn and Mustache

three words that could describe 1974 perfectly:

AFROS, SIDEBURNS and MUSTACHES

One of the most knowledgeable and generous Cub bloggers around, Paul at Wrigley Wax sent me the complete Topps 1974 team set of the Chicago Cubs. Twenty-seven cards which also include the Jerry Morales in a Padre uniform # 258 and Rookie Infielder Bill Madlock # 600.

However, the three cards that stand out to me are the Afro (Jose Cardenal # 185), Sideburn (Randy Hundley # 319) and Mustache (Bob Locker # 62). Those were the days . . .

Thank you Paul for the complete set and bringing me back to 1974.

Moyer gets win # 250

Congratulations to Jamie Moyer for earning his 250th win today . . . some of us remember a younger Moyer wearing the big red "C" on his blue cap and pitching for the Chicago Cubs.

Moyers' major league debut AND first victory was on June 16, 1986 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Interesting enough win # 250 on May 31, 2008 he is wearing the colors of the Phillies.

You have come so far and it all started in Chicago . . . Congratulations Jamie Moyer !