Roberto Clemente

August 18, 1934-December 31, 1972

75 years of Topps Baseball Cards

Old Baseball

Love these cool old school baseball photos.

Paul Blair

Paul Blair, the former Gold Glove center fielder of the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and Cincinnati Reds, has passed away.

Paul Blair was 69.

Article... http://www.decaturdaily.com/sports/pro_sports/article_d367622f-be85-59d8-8238-e1fbe520880d.html?mode=jqm

In my 6 decades of watching baseball, there was no better center fielder in the American League while Paul Blair was roving the outfield for the Orioles.

Mickey Stanley, the Tigers CF in 1968, won a couple of Gold Gloves, the others always seemed to land in Blair's glove,  just like thousands of lost hits did.

My thoughts and prayers for the Blair family.

May God Bless Paul Blair.

My BBA Hall of Fame Ballot

Here are the ten big league baseball players I wrote on my ballot for this years BBA Hall of Fame ballot.

●Craig Biggio, C, 2B, OF, Houston Astros

●Jeff Bagwell, 1B, Houston Astros

●Greg Maddux, P, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres

●Tim "Rock" Raines, OF, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Flirida Marlins, Oakland Athletics

●Jack Morris, P, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians

●Edgar Martinez, 3B, DH, Seattle Mariners

●Frank Thomas, 1B, DH, Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics

●Alan Trammell, SS, Detroit Tigers

●Mike Piazza, C, Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, Oakland  Athletics

●Tom Glavine, P, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets

The Bambino wishes you a Merry Christmas

Can't imagine getting a Christmas card from Babe Ruth.

Thanks to "When We Wore Fedora's" for posting the Babe Ruth card on their Facebook page.

1909 Detroit Tigers

Terrific photo via Twitter, courtesy of Just Baseball Photos( @Baseball_Photos ), of the 1908 Detroit Tigers.

Ty Cobb is stting on the far right side, second row.

The 1909  Tigers won their 3rd consecutive American League Pennant, finishing with a 98-54 record under Manager Hughie Jennings.

Ty Cobb had one of the greatest years any big league ballplayer has ever had.

In 156 games in 1909, Cobb led the American League in...

Batting Average...377 Home Runs...9 Runs Batted In..107...

...116 Runs scored, 216 hits, 76 Stolen Bases, a .431 on base %, .517 Slugging %,  and 296 Total bases.

I just love vintage baseball pictures of Cobb's era, 1905-1928.

Rudolph the Red Nose Shortstop

The great baseball people  over at baseballreference.com have come up with quite the Christmas gift for all us fans with a special player page for Santa's Christmas Ace, Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer.

www.baseball-reference.com/friv/rudolph.

I like Rudolph's baseball card, and the fact that he's a 5' 3", 375 lb. shortstop.

*******UPDATE**********UPDATE************UPDATE************UPDATE*******

The Rudolph Baseball Card below is now available on zazzle.com. 

I placed my order today,  and you can still get the card before Christmas.

I'll post again when my card arrives.

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Happy Baseball Birthday...Old Hoss Radbourn

Today we celebrate the birthday of 19th Century baseball legend Old Hoss Radbourn.

Charles Radbourn was born on December 11th, 1854, in Rochester, New York.

Old Hoss is most famous for his 59 wins for the Providence Grays World 's Champions of 1884.

In that unbelievable 1884 baseball season, Old Hoss pitched nearly every day for the Gray's,  678 2/3 IP, faced 2,672  batters, threw 11 shutouts,  and managed to come in and save 2 games as well.

Radbourn made his big league debut at age 25 for the Buffalo Bisons, on May 5th, 1880.

Radbourn also pitched for the Boston Beaneaters (1886-1889), Boston Reds (1890), and Cincinnati Reds (1891).

It was the Providence Grays though, that defined the Hall of Fame career of Radbourn.

Between 1881 through 1885, Old Hoss had a 193-88 record, with a 1.96 ERA, an 1,228 strike outs and 26 shutouts.

Radbourn passed away on February 5, 1897, in Bloomington,  Illinois, at the age of just 42.

Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

If you have a Twitter account,  @OldHossRadbourn is a must follow.

Happy 159th Birthday Old Hoss!

Play Ball!

Happy Baseball Birthday...Barbaro Garbey

Today's Happy Baseball Birthday wishes go out to former big leaguer Barbaro Garbey.

Garbey was born on December 4th, 1956, in Santiago de Cuba.

Garbey was signed as a Free Agent by the Detroit Tigers in June of 1980.

On April 3rd, 1984, at age 27, Garbey made his big league debut for Detroit.

In 110 games Garbey hit .287 (94 hits in 348 plate appearances), smacked 5 home runs, drove in 52 runs, and a .325 on base percentage.

For whatever reasons, Garbey played in just 86 games for manager Sparky Anderson in 1985, hitting .257, with 6 dingers and 29 RBI.

The Tigers traded Garbey to the Oakland A's on November 13th, 1985.

The A's released Garbey in Spring Traning of 1986.

The Texas Rangers signed Garbey as a free agent on December 13th, 1987.

In 1998 for the Rangers, his last big league season, Garbey appeared in just 30 games, batting .194, in 67 plate appearances, with no homers, and just 5 RBI.

Happy Birthday Barbaro!