John's Big League Baseball Blog: 2023

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Tigers Card Tuesday-

Go check out Cards on Cards annual College Bowl Pick 'Em Contest.

1️⃣1️⃣

This special Bill Freehan card was made for me by Cigar Box Cards via his X page

Hope all of you are doing well this Holiday Season.

Play BALL

⚾️🎄🎅

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Blog Bat Around- Without Words

Friday, September 8, 2023

Football Card Friday- Goff Leads Lions over KC

The NFL is back, and my beloved Detroit Lions went into Kansas City and beat the defending Super Bowl Champions, 21-20.

📺 Detroit/KC television ratings was up in 2023.

9️⃣0️⃣ 2023 is the 90th Anniversary of the Lions.

🦁🏈 Lions QB Jared Goff , in his 3rd year wearing the Honolulu Blue, was 22-35, 253 yards, and one TD pass, to, of course, 2nd year wide receiver Amon- Ra St. Brown.

🐻 I've been a fan of Goff since he came into the league in 2016, the 1st overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams from the Cal Golden Bears.

2022 Panini Prism Mosaic #64

Camo Pink

In 2022, Goff was traded to the Lions for QB Matthew Stafford, who, after 12 years in the Motor City, led the Rams to the Super Bowl title.

👉👉 Got these cool Panini Mosaic Goff cards from Jeff of My Sports Card Obsession earlier this year at a card show in Indiana.

Hope all of you are enjoying the end of summer, as the big league regular season is ending, and college & pro football are beginning.

As always, thanks for taking part of your day to stop by and read my blog.

Play BALL! 🏈

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Tigers Trio No-Hits the Blue Jays!

It's been a tough year in the Motor City this baseball season, w/ my beloved Detroit Tigers sitting at 38-49 before Saturday's game against the visiting Blue Jays.

After being pounded around their own ballpark Friday night, 12-2 vs Toronto, the Tigers lived up to the old "put it behind us" "baseballism," with a 2-0 win over their Canadian counterparts, making history along the way.

Three Detroit pitchers, starter

Matt Manning, reliever Jason Foley, and closer Alex Lange, no-hit the Blue Jays, the first time in Tigers history that the team had a "combined" no-no!

Photo courtesy of Detroit Tigers. Twitter page.

🐅⚾️ The feat was the 9th no-hitter in Tigers history, and, just the 20th time in big league baseball history that a combined no-hitter was pitched.

2️⃣- It must be noted that the man wearing the "tools of ignorance," catcher Eric Haase, was also the backstop that caught the last Tigers no-no, by Spencer Turnbull, on May 19, 2021, and he's the only catcher in club history to catch to no-hitters.

👀👀 Looking forward to tomorrow's Topps NOW card release to see what the No-Hitter card looks like.

Hopefully, the card is a good one, although, I'll certainly have to get one of them, regardless.

⚾️🐅 All Detroit Tigers No- Hitters

🐅⚾️ Have a great rest of your weekend, and, of course, Play BALL!

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Tiger Card Tuesday- Jake Rogers

Last night in Arlington, Texas, my Detroit Tigers beat the Rangers, 7-2, partly due to catcher Jake Rogers, who had two hits, including his club best 10th HR.

🐅⚾️ Jake was born in Canyon, Texas, and had plenty of family and friends cheering him on.

🐅⚾️ Today's Tigers Card Tuesday! subject was acquired by the Tigers in the 2017 Justin Verlander trade with the Houston Astros, and is in his 3rd season with the Detroit.

😡 Jake is a good catcher, who's battled injury, including the entire 2022 season.

🐅⚾️ The Tigers have been very inconsistent at the catcher position since the James McCann days, and it's good to see Jake returning, and, although he's struggling at the plate batting average wise, his defenive caught stealing percentage is just a tick under the league average, at .21%.

5️⃣7️⃣%... In 2021, in 35 games, Jake's caught stealing was an amazing 57%, w/ a fielding percentage of .997%!

🐅⚾️ Tigers fans are hoping that he continues to improve in the second half, and that by 2024, he'll be one of the best defensive backstops in the big leagues.

🐅⚾️ Heck, he may even be an All-Star before his career is over.

Have a fantastic week, and, as always, let's Play BALL! ⚾️

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Tigers Card Tuesday- Miggy Goes 3/3

A quick Tigers Card Tuesday! post in honor of the great Miguel Cabrera going 3/3 today, collecting his 1,135th career extra base hit, moving him into 15th place.

🐅 2023 Topps Heritage #151 🐅

🐅⚾️ Miggy hasn't had the best of times this season, which make for games like this, albeit in a loss, fun to watch.

🐅⚾️ Miggy's 3 knocks give him 3,107 in his career, and shot his batting average up to .196 (.167 before).

Have a great night, sweet dreams, and as always, Play BALL! 🐅⚾️

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Blog Bat Around- Alphabet Challenge

Here's my entry into Nacho Grande's Blog Bat Around.

J- Jon Jay

O- Orestes Destrade

H- Hank Aaron

N- Nellie Fox

S- Sandy Koufax

B- Brennan Boesch

I- Jose Iglesias

G- George Sisler

L- Chet Lemon

E- Earl Averill

A- Tony Armas

G- Charlie Gehringer

U- Cecil Upshaw

E- Eldon Auker

B- Matthew Boyd

A- Jesus Alou

S- Sixto Lezcano

E- Luke Easter

B- John Boccabella

A- Aaron Judge

L- Buck Leonard

L- Larry Sheets

B- Bill Freehan

L- Lamarr Hoyt

O- Ed Ott

G- Hank Greenberg

Really had fun with this, and I hope you'll join in.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and, as always, Play BALL! ⚾️

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope ya'll are having a terrific Valentine's Day!

From the Detroit Tigers Twitter Page...Yeah, BOYD!

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Happy Baseball Birthday! The BOYD is back!

HappyBaseballBirthday! wishes go out to my favorite big league pitcher, Matthew Boyd!

4️⃣8️⃣ Matthew has resigned with my beloved Detroit Tigers, after spending a year away in the San Francisco Giants organization and then pitching for the Seattle Mariners on September of 2022.

🐅⚾️ As Matthew is my favorite big league hurler, I certainly didn't stop collecting his baseball cards, and last month I hit the 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ unique card mark on Trading Card Database.

🐅⚾️ A special shout out to my friend Michael Miller, for surprising me in January with the above autographed photo of Matthew...thanks, again, appreciate you thinking about me.

⚾️ I'm not sure what to expect when 2023 Topps is released in a couple of weeks, but I'm sure hoping that Matthew has a Mariners card, because I'm hoping that means he gets in Topps Update at the end of the year.

Here's to hoping the winter wisks by fast, so we get the 2023 season off and running!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Play BALL!

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Tigers Card Tuesday- Topps Living Set Cecil Fielder

Wednesday is Topps Living Set Day, and so I thought I'd make a quick post for Tigers Card Tuesday! on the last Detroit Tigers player to be added to the set.

Cecil Fielder, a.k.a. BIG Daddy!

Cecil is the-

19th different Tigers player in the set, and my 19th Tigers Card.

The 14th different Tigers position player//batter in the set.

The logo in the bottom left is the 3rd different Tigers logo to be used in the set.

As February arrives, we're just a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Tiger Town Spring Training in Lakeland, and I'm hoping we'll see another Detroit player in the Living Set.

Have a great week!

Play BALL! 🐅⚾️