Albert William Kaline, 1934-2020

The man known as "Mr Tiger," Al Kaline, passed away on Monday at the age of 85.

I started to write this post on Monday night, but between trying to figure out what to say to honor Al Kaline, and my health, the post was put on hold.

Albert William Kaline was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 19, 1934.

Kaline signed with the Detroit Tigers right out of High School, at age 18, never played a day in the minor leagues, playing all 22 years with the Tigers.

In 1955 Kaline won the American League Batting Title with a .340 average, collecting exactly 200 base hits.

For 67 years, from the day he signed out of high school, to the moment he passed away, Al Kaline was a Tiger.

His passion for the game, the grace at which he played the game, and the grace at which he carried himself as a broadcaster, mentor, and advisor, is why he is now, and always will be, the  image of the club, and why he will always be, Mr. Tiger.🐯⚾

Rest in Peace, Al Kaline. 

Happy Baseball Birthday... Phil Niekro

Today we send out Happy Baseball Birthday! wishes to Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro.


The 24 year big league hurler known as "Knucksie" turns 81 today.

Phillip Henry Niekro was born in Blaine, Ohio, on April 1, 1939,  played high school baseball at Bridgeport HS in Ohio, turned down college offers to pursue pro baseball, and signed with the Milwaukee Braves on July 19, 1958.


Niekro's  first black type on the back of his baseball card was his National League leading 1.87 ERA in 1967.

Phil would go on to win 318 games in the big leagues, striking out 3,342 batters pitching for the Braves, Indians, and Blue Jays.

As I finish up this quick post, remember to be safe, stay at home, and practice social distancing if you have to go out.


Enjoy your day, and, as always, PLAY BALL! ⚾

Tigers Card Tuesday... Digital Niko Goodrum

Tigers Card Tuesday goes digital today with a cool autographed card of Tigers utility player extrordinare, Nico Goodrum.

Last Saturday I was fortunate enough to get Nico to digitally sign the above photo of his 2019 Topps Stadium Club card by way of Twitter.

Pretty cool, right?


▶️ With the baseball season on hold until the Coronavirus pandemic is defeated, big league clubs on social media are finding creative ways to interact with their fans.

🐯My Detroit Tigers are having Signature Saturdays, asking fans to connect with players by posting baseball pictures and asking a designated player to sign their favorites.


I hope to be able to acquire a Tigers players signatures each Saturday, especially when my guy Matt Boyd is involved.

What is your favorite ball club doing to connect with you?


I hope y'all are making it through this tough time in our lives.


Remember to be smart, stay at home as much as possible, so that we can come out the other side with our health intact.


Have a great week!

Play Ball! 🐯 ⚾

Tigers Card Tuesday...Best Baseball Card of 2020. (So Far)

To call any card issued in the first two months of the baseball card season the card of the year is getting way ahead of ourselves.

Usually.

The best card so far is gonna be awfully hard to beat out, and if it happens, well, that's going to be one heck of a baseball card.

BOOM! 

   🐯 Topps Series 1 #57, Travis Demeritt 🐯

I know I'm a Tigers fan, but as soon as I saw the image of this card on eBay, well, I thought, hey, this shot never happens to a Tigers player.

To make the card even better, Demeritt is coming out of the home dugout wearing the the beautiful Detroit Stars uniform from Negro League weekend. 


Travis Demeritt was acquired by my Detroit Tigers at last year's trading deadline, July 31, from the Atlanta Braves.... pretty cool that Topps got this shot and was able to get it into Series 1 .


I'm a positive baseball fan, and I like the way these young guys in the Detroit outfield play, and have fun playing.

Hey, there not Cobb, Kaline, or Heilmann, but they're the guys putting on the Olde English D, and  that's good enough to make me root for you.


We'll see our heroes play baseball at some time again, until that happens, keep collecting and posting on your awesome blogs.

➡️ I've gotten two of these cards of Travis so far.

I got one from eBay, and then, soon after it arrived, I got a hot pack with six Tigers players in the pack, including this cool RC of the Tigers right fielder.

It's gonna be fun trying to acquire as many of the rainbow versions of this beautiful card. 👍


Play BALL!🐯 ⚾

If I had a HOF VOTE for 2020

Today the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the players who'll be enshrined in Cooperstown next summer.


The player, or players who receive 75% of the total vote of the BBWAA will join former catcher Ted Simmons as the Class of 2020.

My Ballot:

Derek Jeter

Larry Walker

Todd Helton

Paul Konerko

Andruw Jones

Curt Schilling

Omar Vizquel

Jeff Kent

Scott Rolen

* As usual, no steroids abusers belong in the HOF, and that's why Sosa, Sheffield, Clemens, and Bonds, aren't on my Ballot.



Play Ball! ⚾

Tigers Card Tuesday... Merry Christmas!✝️ 🎅🌲☃️

       🐯  Belated Tigers Card Tuesday! 🐯


Wishing you all a Very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year!


I absolutely LOVE this 2018 Panini Diamonds KING 119/299 of former Detroit Tigers catcher James McCann!

PLAY BALL! ⚾️✝️🎅🌲

Football Card Friday... 1963 Topps Dick "Night Train" Lane

Last week former Detroit Lions defensive back Dick "Night Train" Lane was honored as one of the top 100 players in the NFL.

Looking for today's card didn't take long after I opened up my Lions binder, as Night Train's 1963 Topps card immediately called my name!

   🏈 My 1963 Topps #32 DICK LANE 🏈

It looks like Night Train is ready to rip your head off! 

If you don't know Night Train Lane, just head over to YouTube, his highlights are easily found there.

Richard Lane was born on April 16, 1928, in Austin, Texas, played college football at West Nebraska CC.

💯 In 1952 as rookie playing with the Los Angeles Rams, Lane set a NFL record with 14 interceptions... a record that still stands!


Lane played for the Rams, the Cardinals... the Chicago Cardinals and my Detroit Lions.

Now, I didn't see Lane play football, unless one of my Uncle's had me sitting with me watching the Lions play when I was a little tyke.

Have a great weekend...one football game remains, the Army/ Navy Game.

Go Navy! ⚓🏈 Beat Army! 

Play Ball! 

Topps Living Set Wednesday/ World Series Contest Winner(s)

It's Wednesday, hump day for you working citizens as you look forward to the weekend.

To me Wednesday means it's another Topps Living Set release by Topps.

This week's cards are:

Roy Halladay is a must have for TLS HOF collection. ✅

🐪 Hump Day is the day I get to see what new cards have been added to the TLS, and, of course, to see if I correctly guessed either of the two players in the weekly contest run by Topps Living Stats over on Twitter.

❎ I did NOT correctly predict either Halladay or Keller.


👉 Back in October I had a World Series contest, with the winner receiving two TLS cards, one of the Nationals Juan Soto, and one of the Astros George Springer.

I'd like to apologize for the delay...It's totally my fault that I'm terribly bad at technology and tried, futilely, to figure out Tweetdraw.

I actually had to stop for a couple of weeks as well because of my health...I'm not using these as excuses, it's just how bad my November was.

Two entries had the Washington Nationals winning the World Series in 7 games, and after all this time, well, it's only fair that both entries are winners!

Matt and Derek both had the Nats in 7, but neither had the MVP of the Series (Stephen Strasburg), so, Im declaring a tie and will get both cards out to them.

In addition, CapKirk42 and The Lost Collector both had the Nationals as winners, and I'm going to send them their choice, Soto, or Springer.

Winners- If you're on Twitter, message me your addresses, or, email me.

📧 johnsharp1960@gmail.com. 


Again, I sincerely apologize the delay, and hope you'll all have a very, very, Mery Christmas and Happy New Year!

PLAY BALL! ⚾️🎁🎅🌲

Tigers Card Tuesday... 2014 Topps #500 Miguel Cabrera

Today's Tigers Card Tuesday is my 2014 Topps #500, Miguel Cabrera BLACK Variation.

You know you've made it when Topps gives you Card #500!

🎁 What makes this card special to me is that it was my first Twitter card trade.


The transaction put me in touch with one of my now favorite baseball card collectors, Jenny, from Jenny's Card Collecting.


Jenny sent me that Miggy card after I posted on Twitter and wrote a blog about this card from 2018 Topps.

👫⚾️ So, after my tweet, Jenny, who I didn't know, or follow on Twitter, reached out to me to see if I wanted to trade the card, as she was a HUGE fan of Miguel Sano.


Since that simple transaction I've followed Jenny on Twitter, on her blog, and, on the Topps BUNT App, a terrific place to celebrate baseball cards in this digital age.

👉 Jenny wrote a great blog post about the BUNT app.


Jenny is as good as it gets, even though she cheers on the Twins. Ha Ha! 😂


🐯⚾️ As I tweeted out, there's only one Miggy, and as long as Miguel Cabrera continues to play baseball, that simply won't change.

Make sure to follow Jenny's blog, and, if you're on Twitter, make sure you do the same.


Until next time, PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Tigers Card Tuesday...1976 Topps Sporting News Ty Cobb

For the past month, or so, I've gotten back into playing baseball quizzes/trivia games on SPORCLE.


My favorite is the Hall of Fame quiz.


I start every HOF quiz by typing in all the Detroit Tigers players in the HOF, starting with the very first player elected into the HOF, Tyrus Raymond Cobb. 


My favorite card of Tyrus growing up collecting cards was the 1976 Topps #346 Sporting News All-Time ALL STARS.

The Cobb card is, easily, (in my opinion), the best of all the cards in this 10 card group of All-Time greats...look at that picture of The Georgia Peach!

🐯⚾️🍑

The Sporting News was the go to paper for all things baseball when I was growing up, and the cards came out during the American Bicentennial, and 1976 was also the 100th Anniversary of the National League.

  ⚾️🇺🇸⚾️🇺🇸⚾️🇺🇸⚾️🇺🇸⚾️🇺🇸⚾️🇺🇸⚾️🇺🇸

✅ After I type in all the Tigers HOFers in the Sporcle quiz I go to the 1800s, w/ Wee Willie Keeler, Ed Delahanty, Old Hoss Radbourn, and BIG Dan Brouthers.

Next, I go through all the HOF ballplayers elected through the 1940s, as well as any players that pop into my head, like Tinkers to Evers to Chance.

After I get through those HOFers, I go to the most recent, Roy Hallady, Mariano Rivera, etc.

I also go through all the Negro Leagues HOF players, starting w/ Detroit Stars great Turkey Stearnes.

The Sporcle quizzes are a ton of fun, especially those on the American League and National League MVP, World Series winners, all the players w/ 3,000 base hits, 500 HRs, and 300 big league victories.

Head over and play the games, and let me know how you do on the HOF quiz.

I've gotten up into the 220s (out of 260) on the HOF quiz, probably about 5 years ago, and now I'm around the 200 mark, and trying to improve.

Enjoy the baseball quizzes, and, as always, PLAY BALL! ⚾️