Baseball Bulletin... July 25, 2017

It's been some time since I last made a Baseball Bulletin post...it seemed as if every time I started to write any blog post my bad health rared up and stopped me from finishing, so, I'm hoping this one gets finished.



Last night may have been Justin Verlander's last start in a Detroit Tigers uniform, and maybe that's why I'm posting today...I can't wrap my head around Verlander pitching for any other team than my Tigers.

For 12 years Verlander has been there for us to enjoy, winning 178 games, striking out 2,317 batters, tossing 2 no-hitters, winning the 2011 Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award, while leading our boys from Motown to 2 American League pennants, in 2006 and in 2012.


If last night was his final start wearing the Olde English D, I wish JV the best, and will continue to follow him wherever he goes.


At times I write about baseball cards here on the blog, so why not add my favorite JV card...

...his 2012 Topps Series 2 Short Print... JV's holding two baseball's, one for each of his 2 No-Hitters.



Here are a few other things going on across the baseball world that I've come across...

➽  Speaking of my guy Justin Verlander, Marlowe Alter of the Detroit Free Press has the 20 Best Detroit Athletes right now.


➽ My favorite new player in baseball is... Johnny Field, a outfielder in the Tampa Bay Rays organization... how can you NOT like a ballplayer named Johnny FIELD!

I'm now in need of a Johnny Field baseball card...absolutely!

➽ Michael Clair had a great piece over at Cut 4 on old bullpen cars.


➽ T.M. Detwier of The Washington Post asks you how many of the 30 big league ballparks you've been too.


➽ Ben Linderg at The Ringer on how the baseballs are juiced this season.


➽ I love watching 12:25 With Alexa. a terrific 35 minute show from mlb.com that I watch LIVE on my Facebook page Monday thru Friday at 12:25 pm.



Oh, and why not, if last night was Justin Verlander's last start as a Tigers pitcher, here's a picture that I love, of Justin and his finance Kate Upton.

Well, that'll do it for now...until next time...PLAY BALL!

Topps National Baseball Card Day Checklist

Watching the Go GTS Live show last week I found the link to the checklist of the set of cards that will be given out by Topps on National Baseball Card Day on August 12th.

The only Detroit Tigers player in the set is RHP Justin Verlander.

All participating local baseball card shops will hand out FREE packs of cards, and any collector purchasing $10 or more at the card store will receive a special Mike Trout card.


The Trout card is card makes the set 30 cards...one for each big league ball club, but to get the Trout card you must make a purchase.

There are 11 autographed cards that are possible to pull, including, of course, the Yankees superstar rookie Aaron Judge.



Contact your local card shop for details.

Play Ball!

Jason Kendall and Bob Walk the Plank

My fellow baseball fan and blogger Matthew over at Bob Walk the Plank wrote a terrific piece on former  Pirates catcher, Jason Kendall.




It's a well thought out post on how Kendall has some of the best action shots on his baseball cards, and, well, because Blogger doesn't let me post a photo in the comments section,  I wanted to post about how I liked watching Kendall play baseball...being a guy who loves big league backstops...and post my favorite Jason Kendall card in my collection.

I know, its a relic card, not a action card, but it's a card called Gamers Lumber, and I pulled it out if a pack of 2000 Fleer Gamers, and, well, Kendall was a good hitting catcher, and I thought it was awesome that he was in the set...even though Jason only hit 75 HRs in his career.




Another reason why I always liked Jason is that he's a 2nd generation big league catcher...and I remember watching his Dad, Fred Kendall, also a catcher, who played in the 1970s, mostly with the San Diego Padres...he only smacked 31 dingers in the big leagues.


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If you're a Pirates fan, or a card collector, head over to BWTP and check out Matthew's blog.



PLAY BALL!

WIN a Aaron Judge Autographed Card

He's been the biggest slugger of the baseball card season in 2017, and now you have a chance to win an Aaron Judge  2016 Topps Certified Autographed refractor card from 2016 Bowman's Best.



                           



Blowout BUZZ has a contest running through July 15th , so head over to their site for your chance at a beautiful autographed card of the clear front runner for the American League MVP.




Judge has powered the Yankees into the surprise team in the first half of the baseball season, batting .326, smashing 27 home runs, with 62 runs batted in, as the Pinstripers are only 1 game behind the Red Sox in the A.L. Eastern Division as we start the month of July.




So, head over to Blowout BUZZ before July 15th to get entered into this awesome contest.



PLAY BALL!

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!

A Cracked Bat...Congrats on 100 Posts!

My blogger friend Julie at A Cracked Bat is having a very cool contest on her blog as she celebrates her 100th blog post.



                             



Julie is simply the best, and finding her, a blogger and Tigers fan, has been a true blessing.

Head over to the link above, give her 100th post a look see, FOLLOW HER BLOG, and enter her contest...you just might win some cool baseball cards!


PLAY BALL!