my Bad(Wax) Luck

in honor of a quarter million hits, BadWax held a rather random contest a few weeks back. Anyone could leave a comment and had to indicate the exact hit number we were at the time of our comment and share our most favorite post. In shear luck and randomness I won.

My luck and a most generous award was sent to me; the entire base set of the 2008 Allen & Ginter's includng SP's (350 cards) as well as the 50 state cards. Naturally I was and still am shocked yet very pleased.
This first picture showcases 11 inches of A & G (I was going to title this post "the 11 inch gift" but opted not to). These cards for those who are not familiar are an extra thick off-white card stock depicting artwork of every player.

A few of my favorite horizontal cards are the "Babe Ruth HR point" of Jim Thome, "leading off" of Ryan Braun, the "bat behind the back stretch" of Justin Morneau and the "airborne catch" of Eric Byrnes.

Most of the cards are actually the vertical style like "why are my eyes glancing to the left" from Greg Maddux, "in full gear" Jason Varitek and a nice "look over my shoulder" Edwin Encarnacion.

This set is extra special for a number of reasons and one of those are the non-baseball cards within the set. Such as top row of: Pablo Picaso, Jeff King (of Iditarod fame), Benjamin Franklin
and the bottom row of Billy Mitchell (Pac-Man champion), Joey Chestnut (hot dog eating champ) and Frank Morris (Rubik Cube fame).

A & G also had several sub-sets and one of the most popular are the state cards of which BadWax included. These cards are of even a heavier card stock than the base set and boast of a player from each state.
Three of special note are: Illinois - Curtis Granderson (I lived in Illinois for 42 years); Florida - Lastings Milledge (currently live in Florida) and Alaska - Curt Shilling (I never knew Alaska even had baseball).

This set is now going into a special binder, centered in my binder shelf and will be forever treasured as a most special set from a most generous "quarter million" blogger. Thank you BadWax !

two "special" cards

for those of you who know me probably know I am a Cubs fan and prefer "vintage" cards to the "modern" cards (though I am a quiet Rays fan since I live the Tampa Bay area called Sarasota and am slowly coming around to appreciate some newer cards)

That being said, two cards came to me from Jim at GCRL that are worthy of a "special" designation. First of all they came from a very generous blogger and that always makes a card special - thank you again, Jim.

Secondly, both of these cards are Dodgers; ok true, not my favorite team by a long shot but coming from a Dodger fan makes them special as well. Many of us get flooded with cards of our favorite team's so when cards come from the senders favorite team, it should be noted as "special".

Probably not as important as the two reasons above but both of these cards are what I have termed as a "Clemente-ism" (look at some previous posts under my irregular special feature onthe right, if you need a explanation of what I mean).

This 1978 Steve Garvey # 350 showcases his batting average at the end of the '77 campaign at exactly .300 !

And this 1986 Steve Yeager # 32 after fourteen years as a Dodger has his total career homeruns at exactly 100 !

You will have to believe me because I purposely did not show the backs of these cards in hopes that some of you might look at your own collections and see if you can find any other "Clemente-isms", just to designate them "special" too.

And finally these two cards are special because they are Steve's . . . and anyone with the first name Steve in my book is "special".

a Motor City trade

a couple of weeks back an email came across my path from a reader of my blog who was looking for some "vintage" Detroit Tiger card. Communication went back and forth a few times and a trade was easily agreed upon.

So, I sent out a handful of Tiger cards from the years 1966, 68, 71 and a Rusty Staub from 1979 any Tiger fan should appreciate (vintage or otherwise). In return I got a bunch of Cubs cards ranging in year from 1961 to 1975 including 5 cards from 1970 which is helping me put together another team set.

A couple of my other favorites are the "floating head" team photo from 1972 and the 1973 Batting Leaders with HOF'rs Billy Williams and Rod Carew.

This mystery reader also looked at my want list and included three Topps All-Star cards I needed; a 1966 Marcelino Lopez of the Angels # 155, a 1972 Chris Chambliss of the Indians # 142 and the 1973 Jon Matlack of the Mets # 55.

I really like readers of our blogs who make trades, regardless of whether they have blogs or not. Everyone participates in this blogging world in different ways and I only hope the cards I sent are finding their new home as friendly and safe as my new cards are. Thank you Tiger Fan.

way too busy of a card

maybe it is just me but i like cards that highlight a player; especially those old fashioned posed photos from the "vintage" days of baseball cards (ie sixties and seventies).

Action shots are nice when players are turning double plays, sliding into home with a dust cloud or swinging for the fences but when I saw this "action card" (2004 Topps Kyle Farnsworth # 232) it made me think this is "way too busy" for my liking.

The 84 Lumber ad is larger than the Cubs logo and the red shirted bleacher "security guy" in the back row draws my eyes to the packed outfield (it is a nice left field stadium shot).

I realize the Farnsworths' pitching career is rather un-remarkable and should go unnoticed (career wins 30, career saves 27 with a 4.47 era) so maybe it is appropriate that he is a second thought and goes unnoticed on this card as well.

I think I am going back to my "vintage" binder to appreciate some old posed / air brushed photos.

Birthday Wishes for . . .

Rick "Big Daddy" Reuschel, born on May 16 1949. Standing 6 foot four and weighing in at 225 pounds Reuschel was an intimidating figure on the mound.

A 3X all-star (1977, 87 and 89) Reuschel played for nineteen season and is most remembered for being a Chicago Cub (more than half his career was in Chicago). His only 20 win season came in 1977 as a Cub and was 3rd in Cy Young voting that year.

His career numbers of 214 - 191 with 102 complete games, 26 shutouts tell just a small part of his story. Reuschel pitched over 3500 innings; and in a eight year span form 1973 to 1980 he had more than 230 IP each year. His strikeout to walk ratio of 2.15 (2015 K's to 935 walks) and his career era of 3.37 are both very respectable. He did have two World Series appearances; 1981 with the Yankees and 1989 for the S F Giants.

Happy Birthday "Big Daddy" Reuschel . . . today I celebrate with you . . . oh did I mention that today May 16 is also my birthday and I got myself a new set of wheels.

20 % done 80 % to go

Your first thought might be that this post is about a set I am trying to complete and letting everyone know how far I have to go but no, I would not be advertising if I had such a long road ahead.

What I am alluding to is that I can not believe that the baseball season is already 20 % complete (most teams have played 32 games, give or take) and it is already over one month into this young season. It does seem like just a few days from opening day.

Being a numbers guy as I am (that is the former math teacher coming out in me) I was looking at some statistics and am interested to know how some players and teams might perform, such as:

a) Evan Longoria has 44 RBI's . . . projected to 220 . . . will he break Hack Wilson's record of 191 ?

b) Aaron Hill has 54 hits . . .projected to 270 . . . can he break Ichiro's 262 hits ?

c) Zack Greinke . . . 6 wins . . . projected at 30 . . . will he be the first since McClain to see 30 Wins ?

d) Juan Pierre hitting .426 . . . Youkilis is at .393 . . . will either of them stay the course and threaten a year long average of .400 ?

e) Blue Jays and Dodgers . . . 22 wins . . . will they be able to flirt with the Mariners 2001 "record" of 116 ?


f) will either the Nationals or Indians continue with their losing ways and challenge the 1962 Mets futility of 120 losses ?

I am fairly confident the records mentioned above will stand pat though if I was a betting man I might put some money on Longoria to break Wilson's RBI record. The season is only 20 % done . . . lots of games to go . . .

P.S. I thought this had posted to my blog a few days ago but in error I guess I never clicked on the "publish post" button . . . this all might be old news by now, but because I wrote it I am now posting it . . . this season has a long way to go . . .

Was Harry Bright?

It might sound like a strange question but Harry Bright had a rather quiet nine year major league career. Though originally drafted by the N Y Yankees prior to the 1946 campaign it would take him 12 years before he had his major league debut in 1958 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bright would also go on to play for the Senators in 1961 and 1962, appeared in one game only for the Reds in 1963, then being purchased by the Yankees in 1963 (appeared in four games in 1964) before signing on as a free agent for the Chicago Cubs in 1965.

His best and only year as a regular was in 1962, playing in 113 games and hitting 17 homeruns for the Senators. Bright also appeared twice as a Yankee, in the 1963 World Series, as a pinch hitter, striking out both times. In game one of the 1963 series, Bright was actually Sandy Koufax's 15th strikeout, a record strikeout at the time.


So this card, # 227 Topps 1960 stating his team as the Chicago Cubs was quite a mystery to me at first. When I was reviewing the team roster and stats for the 1959 (and 1960) Chicago Cubs, there was no mention of Harry Bight anywhere. So you may be asking yourself, how did Bright get on a 1960 Chicago Cub card if he never appeared as a Cub until 1965 ?

Simply put, the Cubs drafted him in November of 1959 in the "rule 5" draft and returned him to the Pirates in April of 1960. Obviously too late for correcting this Topps had his "right" team at the time, though his uniform is clearly that of a Pirate (note the banding around the collar and vest).

It was probably only a strange coincidence that Bright ended up in a Chicago Cub uniform in 1965, though he only appeared in 27 games with 25 at -bats getting seven hits and striking out eight times.

I think Harry must have been very Bright . . . having the ability to have a 1960 Chicago Cub card for my collection, though not playing for them until five years later.