One Week Til Cooperstown

The Baseball Hall of Fame announces its 2020 Class one week from today. Let's take a look at the ballot. Eric Chavez is appearing for the first time this year. Injuries wrecked an otherwise promising career.

Carlos Peña is a talented analyst on MLB Network and a champion of baseball's sabermetric community. His Rays tenure included a HR title, another season with a Silver Slugger, another with a Gold Glove, and yet another with an All-Star appearance.

The 2020 ballot features plenty of familiar faces for the first time, and it is an honor just being nominated.

Some guys, like Konerko, were the face of a franchise, or made significant contributions for multiple teams. They might not be Hall of Famers, but certainly it is fun to make a case for them, or at least discuss their careers again.

Alfonso Soriano passed that 400 HR milestone, and started out burning up the record books. He was a 40/40 man in Washington, and had over 2,000 career hits.

Rolen and Jones had an injury history, Vizquel was all glove / no hit for a long portion of his career, and Billy Wagner was a closer just outside the inner ring of all-time-greats. All have compelling cases for induction, but so far have been on the outside looking in.

Some players may have the numbers, but have a cloud of real or perceived questions surrounding their integrity. There is no denying their talent, but PED use, even the suspicion of it, could derail their campaigns.

Others would present cases so strong that they might even override the proven fact of PED use.

Whether you hate him or really hate him, Curt Schilling seems to be gaining real momentum towards election. His post season stats are much more favorable than his Twitter feed. Todd Helton and Larry Walker may have been beneficiaries of the "Coors Effect," but they put up numbers that no one else could, even in the thin air. 

The only question would be whether or not Jeter would be a unanimous selection or not. He might be overrated, but he was still one of the best hitting shortstops of all time. There's no question about his leadership, or toughness, or any other intangible a New York sportswriter could come up with.

I'm guessing Jeter (and Ted Simmons) will be joined by Larry Walker, Curt Schilling, and maaaaybe Bonds and Clemens.

How about you? Who do you think will get the call next Tuesday?

My Favorite Padres, Just in Time* for Father's Day

*a few days late

Padres, Father's Day ... are you with me? I have been having a tough time getting the motivation to post. Summer in MN are to be enjoyed outdoors. So even though I have a fair amount of new stuff to post, I haven't been getting down to the basement to scan new stuff. Anyway, here's a bunch of Padres cards, just in time for Father's Day!

The best Padres mascot is the San Diego Chicken. That's science.

A couple righties and a couple lefties. I wouldn't say that these choices will be the "Best" Padres, rather these are the pitchers that I remember collecting as a kid, or liked watching play as an adult, or because their 1990 Upper Deck reminds me of Aphex Twin. Andy Benes wasn't even with the Padres all that long, but the sweet spot of my collecting as a kid lines up right with his rookie and prospect years.

Like Benes, Sandy Alomar Jr didn't stick around San Diego for too long, but her certainly left a card collecting impression. Benito Santiago was one of my favorite players in the early 90s, even though I only saw him in highlights on the weekends (This Week in Baseball, thankyouverymuch). There were plenty of 1B options like Garvey, McGriff, Joyner, Nevin, but I went with Adrian Gonzalez, who I think had his best years in San Diego. Chase Headley was probably the closest to a franchise player the Padres had since Gwynn retired.

Oh! I need a closer! Of course there's Trevor Hoffman, or Heath Bell, or Craig Kimbrel, Rollie Fingers. . . but when I think Padres closer, I think Goose Gossage. Doesn't have to make sense to be true! He's got a bit of reputation these days as a grumpy goose, but I don't mind that too much. He'll say something awful about younger players and for the most part I just laugh at it.

I am too young to remember Ozzie Smith as a Padre, but I definitely recall Garry Templeton. Robbie Alomar had a short stop in San Diego as well, but like his brother, his Padre cards were the ones I remember fondly from my early collecting days. Bip Roberts and Tim Flannery were utility guys that had some good days in the 80s and 90s.

It's not all a nostalgia trip - I have been able to watch a bit more Padres baseball now that I have cable and my parents no longer make me go to bed before the West Coast games get started ( I do what I want, Dad!). These 4 guys are making noise at the big league level or, in Buddy Reed's case, in the minor leagues. I saw the AZ Fall League Championship Game and Buddy had a great moment at the end of the game (even though he was not the hitter or one of the runners).

And of course last but not least, my favorite Padre also happens to be the best Padre of all-time. He has 2,000+ more hits than any other player in a San Diego uniform, and has most of the career hitting marks thanks to a Hall of Fame career.

Happy Padres Day!

Pirates' All-Time Team

Everybody likes lists, right? I sure do, especially Highly Subjective ones. Here are my picks for the All-Time Pirates Team, with a hat tip to COMC.com for some photos and baseball-reference.com for some hints on the older generation's greats.

Catcher - Jason Kendall
- Pirates' All-Time Leader in HBP
- 3X All-Star as a Pirate
- hit .306 as a Pirate

First Base - Willie Stargell
-All-Time Pirates' leader in HR, RBI, and Walks.
- 1979 NL MVP
- 2X World Series Champ (1971 and 1979)
- 7X All-Star
- Hall of Famer

Second Base - Bill Mazeroski
- Pirates' All-Time Leader in Defensive WAR
- 10X All-Star
- 8X Gold Glove Winner
- 2X World Series Champ (1960 and 1971)
- Hall of Famer

Third Base - Pie Traynor
.320 Average, 2400+ hits, 1100+ Runs
1923 NL Triples Leader
2X All-Star (The first two all-star games)
World Series Champ (1925)
Hall of Fame

Short Stop - Honus Wagner
Pirates' All-Time Leader in WAR, Runs Scored, Times on Base. Tied for most games played.
8X NL Batting Champion
World Series Champ (1909)
723 Career Stolen bases (10th all-time in MLB history)
3420 Career Hits (8th all-time in MLB history)
252 Career triples (3rd all-time in MLB history)
1739 Career Runs Scored
Hall of Fame

Left Field  Right Field  - Roberto Clemente
(in left because Paul Waner has less range. Updated- of course he's in Right, don't know what I was thinking)
Pirates' All-Time Leader in Hits and Total Bases - Tied for most games played
15X All-Star
1966 NL MVP
12X Gold Glove Winner
2X World Series Champ (1960 and 1971)
1971 WS MVP
4X NL batting champ
Hall of Fame

Center Field - "Scoops" Carey
Pirates' All-Time leader in Stolen bases and sacrifice hits
10X NL Stolen base champ
World Series Champ (1925)
735 career Stolen bases (9th all-time in MLB history)
5th All-time in MLB history in Range Factor as a CF.
7th All-time in MLB history in OF Assists
2600+ career hits
1500+ career runs scored
Hall of Fame

Right Field  Left Field  - Paul "Big Poison" Waner
Pirates' All-Time leader in doubles, Runs Created
4X All-Star
3X NL batting champ
1927 NL MVP
National League Pennant winner (1927)
3100+ Career Hits
191 Career Triples (10th All-time in MLB history)
Hall of Fame

Bench -  Ralph Kiner, Arky Vaughn, Barry Bonds, Andrew McCutchen, Manny Sanguillen
Kiner (1B/RF/LF) - Pirates' All-time leader in AB/HR, 6X All-Star, 7X NL HR champ, HOF
Vaughn (3B/SS/2B) - 9X All-Star, 1935 batting champ (.385/.491/.607), HOF
Bonds - Pirates' All-Time leader in Power/Speed rating, 1990 and 1992 MVP, 3 Gold Gloves as Pirate.
McCutchen - 5X All-Star, 2013 NL MVP, 2012 NL Hits leader, 2014 NL OBP leader. 2012 GGlove
Sanguillen - Pirates' All-Time Leader in Smiles. 4th in Defensive WAR. RH pinch hit specialist.

photo courtesy of COMC

Photo courtesy of COMC

photo courtesy of COMC

Starting Rotation - Babe Adams, Wilbur Cooper, Bob Friend, John Candelaria, Sam Leever.

Adams - 2X World Series Champ (1909 and 1925), Pirates' All-Time leader in Pitching WAR, shutouts

Cooper - Pirates' All-Time leader in Wins, 279 Career Complete Games, 35 Career Shutouts

Friend - Pirates' All-Time leader in Innings, Strikeouts, 3X All-Star, World Series Champ (1960) 

Candelaria - Pirates' All-Time leader in WPA, 1977 All-Star and ERA title. WS Champ (1979)

Sam Leever - 4X 20 game winner, 1903 ERA title, WS Champ (1909), 39 Career Shutouts

Bullpen - Kent Tekulve, Dave Giusti, Mike Williams, Tony Watson
Teke - Pirates' All-Time leader in ERA+, 1980 All-Star, WS Champ (1979), saved 3 games in 79 series
Giusti - 133 Saves as a Pirate, 1973 All-Star, WS Champ (1971), 1971 NL Saves leader.
Williams - 2X All-Star, 140 Saves as a Pirate, 11.7 K/9 in 1999
Tony Watson (Gotta have a LOOGY) - 2014 All-Star, NL Leader in Games Pitched (2014). career 2.61 ERA

Closer- Roy Face
Pirates' All-Time Leader in Games, Games Finished, Saves.
6X All-Star (in 3 different years)
World Series Champ (1960)
3X NL Saves Leader

Manager - Danny Murtaugh
2X World Series Champ as Manager (1960 and 1971)
1115 Career Wins

Kicking Off The Blog In A Brand New Direction!

Behind that calm demeanor lies the heart of a champion.

Ya know what? I'm sick of baseball. It's time to shake things up and start showing appreciation for the true athlete - the kicker.  Moseley is the only kicker to win a regular season MVP award, but there's no way he'll be the last. Right? Kickers have been getting snubbed for years, and this blog will now be dedicated to getting the MVP trophy back to the real heroes, the Kicker. Remember, it's called FOOTball, not Catchball or Runball or Throwball.

To prove my point, I'll be publishing a new post each day until the next NFL MVP award day (when do they do that? Sometime in May?) We'll be covering all the greats - and Fuad Reveiz.

And who says it has to be a place kicker? Maybe we should talk about the great punters, too, huh? Ray Guy, he's in the Hall of Fame for some reason, why don't we figure out how that happened? Maybe there should be, like, 2 Punters in the Hall Of Fame? Oh, and let's not forget Fuad Reveiz. He should be in the Hall of Fame too.

We'll cover the weird dudes that refused to wear shoes when they kicked. These brave souls had no fear of splinters, loose screws, or stray Lego pieces. Some of them still refuse to wear to shoes to the dinner table. Gutsy. And we'll check in with Fuad to see if he's planning on kicking those footballs any time soon, or can the offense start practice?

We'll talk about this guy. Someone had to kick the extra point after the exhilarating Montana TD passes to Jerry Rice. Maybe it was this guy? He was from Austria.

We'll cover Kicker ROOKIE CARDS! Oh Man, so exciting! The Moseley card at the top is also a rookie card, I think the photo is from his high school yearbook.

We'll discuss Kicker Oddballs! This Greg Coleman card was distributed by local Minnesota Police forces in collaboration with the D.A.R.E. program. Kickers Don't Use Drugs.

Blog Bat Around - The Arbitrary Sources of My Subjective Collections

This Blog Bat Around is courtesy of Tom from Eamus Catuli! who in turn got the idea from Kin's comment.

What is it about the players you collect that made you want to collect them in the first place? Like many of my blogging colleagues, the hometown team(s) provide the foundation of my player collections.

My first player collection began all the way back in 1987 with one card -

My mother likes to tell a story about one of the first games I went to-  I was probably 4 or 5, and the seats we had were in the general admission section of the Upper Deck at the Metrodome, probably the portion of the section that in later years were cordoned off by large banners showing the Twins' retired numbers. We were, however, sitting dead center, so our closest professional athlete was Kirby Puckett, roughly 100 feet away and 50 feet below our seats. The batter crushed a deep line drive to right center field, and Puckett raced over on his tiny legs and made some impressive leaping/diving/acrobatic catch that dipped out of our sightline. The crowd's reaction was all that was needed to clue in to our family that Kirby had made the catch. As he headed back into view, the crowd's cheering got even louder, prompting him to briefly lift his cap, and his focus stayed squarely towards home plate. I grabbed my mother's arm and pulled her closer.

"Did you see that?!" I said.
"Yes, Kirby made a great -"
"KIRBY. WAVED. AT ME!"

So, from that moment on, Puckett was my favorite player.

When I returned to collecting as an adult, I became more interested in the history of baseball, and a set like the T206 tobacco from the early part of the 20th Century held a certain appeal. When I started to look more closely at the checklist, I found another local connection - the set contained players from the minor league Minneapolis Millers. Among those players was the fascinating  Gavvy "Cactus" Cravath. What started as a quest to collect various Minneapolis/St.Paul and outstate Minnesota players turned specifically to this forgotten Home Run King of the 1910s. Cravath has all the ingredients for a great player collection target. Great talent; a long and winding road to success; a set of killer nicknames; and enough mystery to keep people interested.

Pioneers, innovators, and players that broke new ground are of particular interest to me. The only player I know of that broke a team's color barrier and played in a professional game in my lifetime was Minnie Minoso.  Whether or not you think the Saint Paul Saints are wrong to trot out old timers to get legitimate professional at bats long after their careers were otherwise over, I still think it is objectively cool to give the fans (and the players) a thrill. Kevin Millar was the latest guy to do it, hitting a home run this weekend at the age of 45.

The Completely Arbitrary Best Card of 2016

Oh, it was all build up - that other post about the Highly Subjective "Best" cards of 2016? See, This card above is the true winner, in completely arbitrary fashion. The Card has a history - you can see the 1967 Topps card that inspired the makers of Topps Heritage: 

Both of these cards - the 1967 original and the 2016 remix - came my way in 2016 as new additions to my collection. The 2016 version came from opening several packs of Topps Heritage, and the 1967 version came in a trade.

The 1967 card has a "behind the scenes at Topps" feel. Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew appear to be posing for a different photographer to the left of the image. The 2016 version has the same off camera gaze, however Buxton and Sano seem to be interested in action taking place on the field of play. The new card seems to be capturing a candid moment of players at the top step of the dugout.

I could have picked this card, or any of the dozen or so cards from my top "10" list, but it can be so hard to pick just one favorite!

This post was inspired by the contest being run by P-Town Tom on his blog Eamus Catuli!(formerly known as Waiting Til Next Year). It's been great to see everyone else's choices, and there's still a couple days left to add yours!