When 500 HR meant something

Today in baseball history two HOF'ers hit their 500th home run. Two of the greatest players of any era; Willie Mays and Frank Robinson.

Mays hit his 500th in 1965 while Robinson hit his in 1971. Back in the day when hitting 500 home runs was a commodity for a select few both Mays and Robinson were tops in their class.
September 13th certainly does mark a special day in baseball lore.

Willie Mays Topps 1970, # 600: the eyes awaiting a home run pitch
(I know it is a photo from spring training but I still love those intense "eyes")

Frank Robinson Topps 1967 #100: another shot of the "home run" eyes

Ranking 4th (Mays with 660) and 7th (Robinson with 586) in career round trippers, I salute Mays and Robinson for reaching that 500 HR club on the same day, albeit six years apart.

Congratulations to Sheffield ? !

Gary Sheffield hit home run # 500, on April 17, 2009 in a NY Met pinch hitting role; becoming just the 25th player to join that once exclusive club. Sheffield hit his first home run on September 9, 1988 as a Milwaukee Brewer.

It was twenty one years ago that Sheffield appeared in a major league uniform, with a gold chain, silver braces and a label of a "future star". Since then he has been mired in controversy and played in an era (steroids) that will be forever tainted. However, he has reached this "milestone" and should be given his due (for at least one day).

A career .292 batting average, over 2600 hits, 1600 RBI's and 450 doubles; 5 silver slugger awards, 9 time all-star, one world series ring (1997 Marlins), a batting title (1992) and now membership in the 500 HR club.

From his little league days to today . . . congratulations are in order for Gary Sheffield . . .Uncle Dwight is proud of you . . . your granddad is smiling and you finally made "the club" . . . now what ? !

"It's a beautiful day for a ball game . . .

. . . lets play two". That is only one of so many "happy" quotes from Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks.

Today is April 1st (no pranks planned) and marks the 101st day of my blog. I do know 101 days is nothing to "shout about" in the world of the blogsophere but 101 is an important number (this year) for Cub-dome.

So I thought I would revert back to the reasons why I started this blog and do a post on a Chicago Cub of my youth, the one and only Ernie Banks.

This 1964 card, # 55 has several things I like about it. First, the 1964 set is appealing to me; the traditional white border and large team name offset by the usual portrait (or posed) photo of the day. This thoughtful head shot of Banks makes me think "what is he thinking about" ? Could it be that he is staring out to the horizon as he just completed his tenth year in the majors and saying to himself "awards mean a lot, but they don't say it all. The people in baseball mean more to me than statistics" (yes another quote from Banks himself).

The back of this card is that unusual orange (this scan does not do it justice, sorry) with a clever rub off question / answer panel. This card asks "Who was the last AL man to pinch hit 2 consecutive HR's ?" A rather odd question for the two-time NL MVP (1958, 59) and "super star" but . . . the answer is Johnny Blanchard of the Yankees in 1961 (as an aside, Blanchard recently passed away on March 25th, 2009 at the age of 76).
I also like the back of this 1964 card of Banks for this reason; he just completed his tenth full year in the majors and the stats are easy to calculate his career year-to-year averages (just divide by ten or drop the last number, you can do the math): 1500 games, 1617 hits, 250 doubles, 353 HR' and 1026 RBI's. Not too bad for the first ten years of his career.

While Banks would keep this pace up until age and injuries hit him during the 1970 and 1971 campaigns, his career numbers are pretty impressive; 2528 games, 2583 hits, 407 doubles, 512 HR's and 1636 RBI's.

Banks ranks fourth all-time for most homeruns hit for one team and playing for one team only. Only Mike Schmidt (548), Mickey Mantle (536) and Ted Williams (521) who spent their entire careers with only one team and hit more homeruns.

It is only natural to end this post with another quote from Banks himself: "Work ? I never worked a day in my life. I always loved what I was doing, had a passion for it."