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Saturday, March 8, 2008

89 Topps vs. 89 Topps: This Time It's Personal!

I believe that all sequels should have that title!

The second '89 Topps cello pack battle pits Berenguers Boys up against Lind's Ladies. I decide who wins based on no criteria.
Card 1: J.Berenguer v. J.Lind – Lind wins on account of his teeny-tiny glove.

Card 2: P.Bradley v. T.Steinbach – Steinbach was on my fantasy team back when I had to calculate my own stats from box scores from The Sporting News.

Card 3: R.Raines v. F.Bannister – Yea, the R is for Rock. Tim must have asked Topps to do this. You should be a Hall-of-Famer but I hope your plaque says Tim.

Card 4: T.Frohwirth v. M.Stubing(Mgr) – Stubing managed 8 games in 1988 and lost them all. He deserves to win something!

Card 5: J.Kruk v. R.Murphy: I love Krukers on Baseball Tonight. I think he knows he says crazy things. Also, he was a pretty good hitter. Do you think it's OK that I called him Krukers?

Card 6: R.Craig(Mgr) v. F.White – Craig won 10 games for the really bad 1962 Mets.

Card 7: G.Bell v. J.Robinson – G.Bell was a classic late-80s slugger. He hit 47 homeruns in 1987. McGwire and Dawson hit 49 that year.

Card 8: C.Washington v. J.Cecena – Claudell may have been my favorite Brave. But he played for the Mets first.

Card 9: R.Bush v. C.Crim – Randy Bush won two World Series with the Twins in 1987 and 1991.

Card 10: J.Youngblood v. P.Tabler – Youngblood got a hit for the Mets and Expos on the same day. Both against HOFers. How cool is that?

After 10 cards, Berenguer’s Boys are up 7 to 3 over Lind’s Ladies.

Card 11: J.Moyer v. H.Cotto – Jaime Moyer has won 230 games. That is a lot of games.

Card 12: J.Traber v. D.Martinez – El Presidente won 245 games. That is more than 230!

Card 13: B.Smith v. D.Henderson – Bryn Smith used to be the reason his 1982 Topps RC was worth $1. Now Terry Francona is the reason it is worth $5.

Card 14: C.Ford v. M.Tettleton – Tettleton was the best hitting catcher in the league for about 5 years.

Card 15: A. Nipper v. C.Ford – Yes, it is the same Curt Ford card from the previous match-up. It startled me more than it should have. Ford wins!

Card 16: G.Gross v. A.Nipper – Yes, it is the same Al Nipper card from the previous match-up. Greg Gross still wins because I always thought he and Glen Wilson were really the same person.

Card 17: W.Fraser v. G.Gross – Yes, it is the same Greg Gross card from the previous match-up. Fraser wins because I’m irritated and he will probably lose in the next round.

Card 18: E.Hearn v. W.Fraser – This sucks. Ed would have won anyway because he is in a super-goofy catcher pose and he was a Met in 1986.
Card 19: M.Thurmond v. E.Hearn – Ugh. Ed still wins.

Card 20: D.Edwards(Mgr) v. M.Thurmond – I hate everything. No winner!

It is interesting but it makes my picks less interesting, even to me. Many have discussed collation issues about newer packs and boxes but this is ridiculous. It is a good thing I am not completing this set. I will continue. I am not peeking at the rest of the cards. The score is now Boys 12, Ladies 7.

Card 21: A.Pena v. D.Edwards – No winner!

Card 22: J.Blauser v. A.Pena – Pena played for the Mets and is not named Blauser.

Card 23: K.Williams v. J.Blauser – No winner!

Card 24: I.Sanchez v. K.Williams – No winner!

Card 25: G.Cadaret v. I.Sanchez – No winner!

Card 26: T.Trebelhorn v. G.Cadaret – No winner!

Card 27: R.Ventura(Draft) v. B.Anderson – The double-fest is over! Ventura, future Met and Oklahoma State God beats out cheating, oil-painted hat wearing punks.

Card 28: B.Bonilla(AS) v. M.Greenwell(AS) – Bonilla was a Met but never belonged.

Card 29: T.Teufel v. W. Tejada – Teufel. Easy choice.

Card 30: H.Pena v. Checklist – At least the checklist has the names of good players. Harsh choice. Sorry Hipolito!

Thankfully we got out of our double rut. In ran for 12 cards, which is a multiple of 3. And so is 39, the number of cards in a pack. With 9 cards to go, the Boys 14, Ladies 10. Lind’s Ladies need a miracle.

Card 31: JOE Magrane v. JOE Hesketh – Hesketh won 60 games, 3 more than Magrane. I would not have thought that since Joe M won 18 in 1989.

Card 32: J.McKeon(Mgr) v. S.Bailes – McKeon won the World Series with a Florida team that only won 75 regular season games.

Card 33: P.Guerrero v. J.Tudor – Great 80s match-up. I consulted Baseball-Reference’s HOF monitor. (100 is a likely HOFer) Guerrero 53.5, Tudor 37.

Card 34: J.Franco(AS) v. Orioles(TL) – Julio has 1 billion hits if you include the years he played in Mexico and other leagues. And he is still playing.

Card 35: M.Davidson v. D.Cox – Danny Cox was decent for a number of years and I do not remember Mark Davidson.

Card 36: A.Dawson(AS) v. S.Anderson(Mgr) – Sparky is in the Hall and Dawson is not. But should he be? I lean towards no.

Card 37: T.Lasorda(Mgr) v. M.Witt – Do you remember when the Silver Spoons kid tried to collect every Tommy Lasorda card to drive up the value. Awesome!

Card 38: A.Hawkins v. M.Campbell – Hawkins lost a no-hitter by 4 runs, Why shouldn’t he lose here too?

Card 39: R.Johnson v. D.Winfield – Tough call. Randy’s card is a RC and he will be a HOFer.

Card 40? Berenguer’s pack had an extra card. It’s a Met!!! Kevin McReynolds steals 21 straight bases without being caught. I just don’t think the catchers were trying.
Topps Company Store Cards: Topps Card Album v. Topps Sweatshirt – You can't put all these sweet 1989 Topps cards in a sweatshirt.

Berenguer’s Boys 22, Lind’s Ladies 14

That does it for my stash of 89 Topps. If anyone needs wax boxes of 1988 Donruss, let me know. I could do pack battles for life with what I have.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

W-W-W-W-Willie and the Mets

There has been quite a few "I hate the Mets" sentiments across several of the card sites as of late. Dayf at "Braves Junk" makes comments all the time. I guess not getting that 15th division title in a row really stings. And Joe at "RedsRBetterThanMets Cards" seems to be piling it on my Mets as well.
In response, I bust out the big guns:

And by big guns, I mean the serious biceps of a 41 year-old Willie Mays. He played for a year and a half for the Mets and made the All-Star team in 1973.

Speaking of Hall-of-Famers who ended up with the Mets: Duke Snider played for them in 1963 and made an All-Star team. Richie Ashburn played in 1962 and also made an All-Star team. One might argue that these aging players were just fan favorites or were the best players on bad Mets teams...

But Warren Spahn also played for the Mets late in his career, in 1965, but was not an All Star. I blame it on his inherit Braveness. (Yogi Berra also played for the Mets in 1965 and was not an All Star but he only played 4 games. Warren played 20 before pitching 16 more for San Francisco)

17 days until my simulation league draft (I need Tulowitzki) and 20 days until MLB Opening Day (in Japan?) I am looking forward to see how this blog thing will go during an actual baseball season!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Say What???

The name of the site is Stats on the Back because of how much time I spent of my youth reading the backs of cards. I am pretty sure that my love of math came from all the statistics. That being said, I haven't really mentioned the backs of cards here on the site.

That all changes today. I present you with 1973 Topps Steve Arlin.
Why does this Padres uni look so bad here but when Jake Peavy wears it on Turn Back the Clock Day it is awesome?

Steve looks like a nice guy, who has spent two straight full seasons with the big club but might be unsure of what to really do with his life. A flip of the card tells you that his father announced the first broadcasted game in 1921. The picture at the top tells us even more: Is Steve kidding me? My first question is: Who does volunteer dentistry work (other than Steve of course)? My second and more important question is: Who lets volunteers do dentistry work on them?
A quick internet search tells me that Arlin did become a dentist after his career ended in 1974. I also found that he holds College World Series single-game records for striking out 20 batters in 15 innings. He led his team to 2 CWS, including a national championship for the Buckeyes in 1967.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

OUCH!!!


Cecilio is grimacing because he has just thrown off his hand. You can just make out the mangled nub and a haze of shattered hand innards.
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Impressively, Guante pitched for another 6 seasons after this horrific injury. He was a slightly above average pitcher for 9 seasons and paved the way for handless pitcher, Jim Abbott.
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The Yankees traded Doug Drabek for Guante in 1987. They also traded JT Snow for Abbott in 1992. If Johan Santana was missing a few digits, the Yankees may have pulled the trigger on a deal with the Twins!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Getting Paid with Cards!

When I was a kid, my brother and I would appraise cards for people my dad knew who collected cards. Our reward was getting to see a lot of cool cards and getting all the doubles as payment!!!

No one ever had 2 Mickey Mantles but I have a nice collection of cards from 1969-1974 for my trouble, including this Dave Winfield RC:
There was always one big prize card in each collection we appraised. We alternated who picked first each collection and this card was an obvious first choice. Dave Winfield was a superstar whose rookie season was sooooo old. It may have been my best rookie card until I pulled a Pujols Topps Stars RC a few years ago. I was always impressed that Winfield was drafted by teams in the MLB, NFL, NBA, and ABA. I once missed seeing one of his homeruns at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore because we could not find a parking space. He was rounding the bases when we walked in.

We would log every card for our "clients": year, brand, player name, number, condition, and Beckett value. All on notebook paper. I would gladly do this again if anyone ever asked.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Best and Worst: Kenny Lofton

Kenny Lofton had a pretty good 40-year old season in 2007. He has had a long and impressive career bouncing from team to team, always coiming back to the Indians every few years. Lofton hit .375 during the ALDS versus the Yankees and helped Cleveland reach the American League Championship Series.

Best Card: 1991 Upper Deck Final #24F
Kenny was a stand-out basketball player in college. He made it to the Final Four, as back-up behind Steve Kerr, and to the Sweet Sixteen as a starter the following year. He came to NC State University to play in a charity basketball game with other Major League players. I paid $20 to get autographs from players who were there: Brian Barnes, Tracy Woodsen, Lenny Harris, Lee Smith, Kenny Lofton, and others. All the players were happy to be signing for a good cause and were gracious with the fans.

My only complaint about this card is that it actually looks like Dikembe Mutombo.

Worst Card: 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Connection #592

If Kenny doesn't pay attention, he's going to run into that foil Upper Deck logo. Oops...too late. It looks like he is running from that grey haze on the left. And what position does it say he lays in the upper right. Oh yea, he plays "f". All they needed to do was reverse all the graphics and it would be a perfectly acceptable Kenny Lofton common.

Anybody have a worse Kenny Lofton card? Send me a scan at mark_mosley@yahoo.com.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Best and Worst Redux: Piazza

Cliff, who just started Capewood's Collections, sent this scan as his contender for Worst Piazza card.

It isn't as ugly as this one, but there is definitely some ugly stuff going on. This Astro runner may have been safe, but he will be OUT for a while! Ouch!!!

Maybe Piazza just lost his concentration because all of that gold foil!

Got a worse Piazza or a worse Rose? Send me a scan!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Bush and Giuliani are Nothing New

There has been an awful lot of trading card buzz around politics these days. Presidents, Presidential candidates, and the Mick seem to be showing up a lot on the fronts of baseball cards where current ballplayers used to be. Topps and Upper Deck are fighting for supremacy and control over our collectible dollars. Inserts and relics just won't do anymore.


But this is nothing new. Topps has been pulling these stunts for 30 years.
Check out this 1971 Topps Jim Fregosi card!
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I didn't know Tricky Dick was an Angels fan!
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Editor's note: I was going to pluralize Fregosi, but Fregosis seemed like some rare skin disease that I wanted no part of.
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Hope you enjoy the card!

Do You Remember Mark Davis?

I remember Mark Davis. He pitched great in 1989. His ERA+ was 192. He was an All-Star, won the Cy Young and finished in the top-10 in MVP voting. (He never received another vote for either award in any other year. ) Despite being a reliever, Davis' Rookie Cards went up to about $5.00. My brother and I both asked for Mark Davis RC's that Christmas. He appears with Ozzie Virgil, and Bob Dernier on a 1982 Topps card. It is hard to say who was the best out of the trio. I suppose Davis gets the nod because of the Cy Young hardware but Ozzie matched his All-Star appearances with 2 and Dernier showed in the MVP voting in 1984. Both Virgil and Dernier appeared in the post-season while Davis did not. Who would you take Mark Davis or Virgil and Dernier?This is one of only about 5 1984 Donruss that I have ever owned. The Mattingly RC from that set was one of the "cards I will never own" along with anything from 1984 Fleer Update. Now any card with the words "refractor" or "sterling" fit that description.

Here's to relief pitcher RCs and to 1984 Donruss!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Best of the Best

I have been posting some rough looking cards so I thought I would go all out and share my best card.




I bought this card when I was 10 years old at Tom's Coins and Antiques in New Bern, NC. I think I paid $35 for it. I wanted an old cigarette card and was happy to get one of the best pitchers ever to play the game. Christy Mathewson was one of the first five inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

I will never have the card graded but I assume it would be a 1. No matter, it's my favorite card and probably always will be. I just got the book, The Card, about the famous Honus Wagner card and look forward to reading it this summer.

Now my second favorite card is a 1987 Pat Sheridan, but I'll save that for a later post!