Falling off the Scooter

I hate days like today.


I've spent most of the day in pain as my arthritis beat down my body...I'm use to it, but today was particularly bad, as it caused me to pay very little attention to any social media.



My day...take meds, eat, watch TV, sleep, take more meds, watch some TV, sleep.


I wasn't myself, and my train of thought really wasn't good, my focus was all about the pain...not baseball, which during the regular season is something I think about even when I'm sleeping.



The thing about baseball is that you simply don't know what's going to happen in a ballgame...162 game days...never the same thing twice.



If you lose, well, tomorrow there's another game to play.



That's how my health is, except it's literally hour by hour most days.



Today I missed something that only happened 16 times before tonight...I missed it because my pain wouldn't allow me to follow the magic that happened at The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati tonight.



Scooter Gennett, a average big league ball payer with the Cincinnati Reds,, had the game of his life, going 5-5, with 4 home runs and 10 RBI.




                                                        

                                                          I couldn't find a Reds card of Scooter.




Not only was Scooter the 17th player, and the first Reds player to smack 4 dingers in a game, he became the very first batter in the 141 years of the big leagues to go 5-5, collect 10 RBI and bang 4 homers...THE FIRST!



Ken Rosenthal of  FOX Sports has 8 things you didn't know about Scooter Gennett.


Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated shows us just how impressive Scooter's 4 HRs were.





As usual, I'll have Quick Pitch with Heidi Whatney on at 1 am...I'll see all the baseball highlights, watch Scooter's 4 HRs, and hope that I fall asleep before the Tigers loss comes up on the screen.



Here's hoping for a much better day tomorrow... PLAY BALL!

Breaking Down 1,000 Baseball Cards

OK, It's 11:40 pm on Sunday Night, and just as I was ready to close up for the night I find a awesome 1,000 Baseball Card Giveaway Contest.





                               




Defgav is celebrating 1,000 blog posts over at Baseball Card Breakdown.




Man, a thousand posts about baseball cards!



Head on over to the above link, post a comment on the post, and well, heck, you never know, you may have 1,000 baseball cards headed to your mailbox!




Play Ball!

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge...Day 26

Day 26 of the 30 Day Baseball Card Challenge is a favorite oddball baseball card from the 1980s.

As I have with some posts, I had to google this, because, well, I really didn't feel like going through every single card album and boxes of card I have to find one.



I just got back into this challenge after taking a break, and so I need to get it done quickly, so I don't have another break because of my health.



I found a blog, The Oddball Card Collector, and used his page to help me decide on a set of oddball cards that I like from the 1980s...and what a success it was!




                                                1981 Drake's Big Hitters Baseball Cards

1980s Drake's Heavy Hitters Cards are absolutely awesome and I wish they would've been available in the Jacksonville area when I lived there.




The American League players are in a Red Border, while the National League players had a Blue Border.

Topps produced the cards for Drake's, and the cards were inserted into the company's baked goods products through 1985.



Now I have more Detroit Tigers cards that I need to add to my collection wish list.



Up next in the challenge is a favorite oddball card from 1990 or later...that should be fun to serch for as well.


PLAY BALL!

SABR Cards has a 1980s Baseball Card Poll

The fine folks over at SABR Cards is asking collectors to VOTE on the BEST Baseball Cards of the 1980s.



The poll starts with years 1981 through 1985...remember, 1981 is when the Topps card monopoly was ended and Fleer and Donruss were allowed to produce big league baseball cards.

Next week SABR Cards will do years 1986-89.



That first year was brutal, especially the Donruss cards...yikes!



Here's how I ranked the cards, 1st, 2nd, 3rd...



1981 


#1    Topps

#2 Fleer

#3 Donruss

1981 Donruss might be the worst baseball cards ever made.




1982


#1 Topps

#2    Donruss    

This could've been a great card...I love the pose by Dale Murphy, but the photography was bad.


#3    Fleer

Same here with the '82 Fleer Reggie Jackson... Great pose of Reggie waiting to get into the batting cage, but the picture is dark.



1983


#1  Topps

The 1983 Topps cards are my favorite set of all the '80s cards that Topps produced...easy call here.




#2   Fleer

#3   Donruss

I really should've switched Donruss to the second spot because of The San Diego Chicken card!





1984 



#1    Topps

Another great card design by Topps in 1984...the Mattingly card is in my Top 10 cards of All-Time.




#2   Fleer

You have to give Fleer props for cards like this...they were really trying to be different, separate themselves from the other two card companies.




#3   Donruss

1985


#1   Topps

I put the '85 Topps Mark McGwire card on here because this was the must have card to get, not only when he hit 49 HRs as a rookie in 1987, but the card hit the collecting Hall of Fame Chase when he was chasing the single season HR record in 1998.



#2   Donruss

#3    Fleer

1985 was probably a tie between Donruss and Fleer, as their cards were getting better, but I chose Donruss second...don't ask me why.




Obviously I showed Topps lots of love for the first 5 years, and well, that's because the early photography from Donruss and Fleer wasn't good, and the cards themselves lacked in design, although both get props for creativity, especially with the great San Diego Chicken cards.

The next poll, years 1986-89, will be much different , as both Fleer and Donruss challenge Topps in design and improve on the pictures on the cards.




Make sure to head over to the SABR page and vote for your BEST 1980s baseball cards.... Play Ball!

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge... Day 25

Day 25 of the 30 Day Baseball Card Challenge is a oddball card I like from the 1970s.

Hammering Hank Greenberg powered the 1945 Detroit Tigers past the Chicago Cubs in the first Series after World War II,  and my beloved 1968 Tigers, after a magnificent play by Willie Horton and my hero Bill Freehan, came back after being down 3 games to 1 to the St. Louis Cardinals.




I knew that I'd use these cards for this challenge...they're  probably the most unusual, well, oddball baseball cards that I own.



Unlike most of my cards in this challenge, I really don't remember how or when I got these cards, and they're the only 2 cards of the 1970/71 Fleer World Series Cards that I own.




Fleer 1970 World Series Cards were great cards that taught you the history of the Fall Classic in a set of 66 baseball cards.



It's been awhile since I posted in this challenge, and I apologize for that...sometimes my health gets in the way, but I'm hoping to get back at it and finish days 26-30 off quickly.



Up next is another oddball card, this time from the 1980s.

PLAY BALL!