Baseball Card Want Lists

Top 99 Hits (preferably with bat)

Jake Beckley, Willie Keeler, Frank Frisch, Jesse Burkett, Vada Pinson,  Doc Cramer, Max Carey, George Davis, Harry Heilmann, Lave Cross, Jim O'Rourke, Ed Delahanty, Richie Ashburn, Willie Davis, George Van Haltren

Top 99 Ks (preferably with glove)

Jim Bunning, Don Drysdale, Sam McDowell, Camilo Pascual, Ryan Dempster, Dazzy Vance, Billy Pierce, Red Ruffing

 Frankensets (need any base card with the given number. Better players, cooler cards preferred)

Any Mini (A&G, GQ, T206, Obak)

2, 14, 23, 41, 42, 61, 65, 96, 97

107, 118, 130, 146, 148, 156, 158, 159, 169, 179, 183

202, 208, 214, 216, 244, 246, 256, 261, 262, 269, 271

309, 310, 314, 315, 324, 330, 334, 336, 344 

Chrome/Optic

59, 87, 88, 147, 169, 196,

207, 218, 219

Upgrades wanted (would like to improve on player/card)

34 Andrew Toles     55 Gavin Cecchini     57 Dylan Cozens     58 Felipe Vazquez

122 Lewis Brinson     126 Victor Reyes     130 Scott Chiasson     160 Yuan Moncada

177 James Shanks     199 Elijah Dukes     And 204 Rico Washington

205 Brian Bocock     206 Daryl Clark     208 Ronald Belisario     209 Chris Jakubauskas

211 Sergio Santos     214 Clete Thomas     215 Kenny Baugh     217 Richard Lewis

219 Craig Brazell

New Donruss (2014-present)

6, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 26, 37, 42, 49

53, 91

100, 108, 110, 112, 134, 137

151, 179, 180, 184, 192, 197, 199

202, 209, 230, 246

257, 258, 261, 262, 267, 269, 270, 272, 274, 275, 277, 285, 289, 291, 292, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299

Have 310, 325, 327, 333

Stadium Club (2008-present)

1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 16, 18, 37, 49

56, 57, 67, 69, 71, 74, 91

109, 117, 119, 124, 126, 128, 134, 136, 138,

157, 159, 167, 171, 173, 175, 176, 183, 186, 190, 191, 192, 194

201, 208, 216, 217, 218, 219, 225, 232, 233, 238, 240, 243, 248

251, 259, 261, 265, 270, 273, 274, 277, 279, 282, 284, 288, 293

HOF

Bowie Kuhn, Doug Harvey, Jacob Ruppert, John Schuerholz, Bud Selig

Best of Each Uniform Number (# must be visible on card)

4-Lou Gehrig, 6-Stan Musial, 36-Gaylord Perry, 37-Dave Stieb, 49-Ron Guidry, 54-Goose Gossage, 58-Jonathan Papelbon, 61-Livan Hernandez, 63-Rafael Betancourt, 65-James Paxton, 66-Yasiel Puig...to be continued

All_Time Teams (Must be a card featuring listed teams

Braves - Tommy Holmes, Johnny Logan, Vic Willis

Orioles - Urban Shocker

Cubs - Grover Alexander, Clark Griffith

Reds - Noodles Hahn

Tigers - Dick McAuliffe, Frank Lary

Yankees - Bob Shawkey

Pirates - Wilbur Cooper

Cardinals - Harry Breechen, Max Lanier

Giants - Roger Connor

Actual Stats on the Back: 1986 Fleer

1986 Fleer #591 Otis Nixon



These comments are meant to be yelled, for no apparent reason.

1. New Shipment of HIGHLIGHTER YELLOW!!!!!!!

2. Where did the TINY picture go??????

3. Why do I feel like I'm looking at a SOCCER JERSEY????

4. Otis Nixon was an original CALIFORNIA RAISIN!!!!!!!

5. PCT AGAIN????????

6. There are obviously ONLY 12 STATS that exist in the world!!!!

7. DID I KNOW??????
    Otis Nixon was NOT a HR hitter? Yep
    Otis Nixon was a base THIEF? Yep

8. DID YOU KNOW?????
    Otis Nixon enjoyed the CRACK?
    Otis Nixon also enjoyed the LADY GOSPEL/R&B SINGERS?

Actual Stats on the Back: 1985 Fleer

1985 Fleer #24 Lou Whitaker



And I thought I had nothing to say about 1984 Fleer Stat backs!

Red and black replace blue in 1985. Same fonts, same placement of info, same stats, same size picture, same PCT, blah, blah, blah.

Let's check out those tidbits:
1. 6 runs and 2 doubles in '84 World Series (Trammell was "awesomer" in that series and won the MVP)
2. started career at the hot corner (who doesn't?)
3. Tiger's 5th pick (Only 3 of the Tigers' 26 picks in 1975 ever made the majors -Whitaker, Jason Thompson, and Bruce Berenyi )
4. BONAFIDE STATISTICAL NUGGET!!! .988 fielding average in 1982 (according to Baseball Reference, Sweet Lou had his best fielding years in 1981 and 1982, He won gold gloves from 1983-1985)

Do you remember this?

Actual Stats on the Back: 1984 Fleer

1984 Fleer #599 Darryl Strawberry

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...........

It's blue now?
The photo is slightly bigger and comes out of the blue frame.
The name and card number switched places.
That's all I got.

In review: Less brown, more blue.

Actual Stats on the Back: 1983 Fleer

1983 Fleer #507 Ryne Sandberg

BROWN
The last drops of the Highlighter Yellow was used, the Canary Blue was obviously too expensive. So Fleer went with BROWN. Actually,  2 shades of brown! Don't get me wrong, my favorite color is brown. I love brown shoes and pants, brown cars, and I miss the light brown M&M's every time I eat them. But brown is not the ideal choice for the front or back of a baseball card.

VERTICAL
How do you include more years of Stats on the Back? Easy! Make the card back vertical. I still remember seeing cards of Major League Veterans like Carl Yastrzemski with stats from the top of the card to the bottom starting with 1983 Fleer. Awesome.

TIDBIT
If there aren't enough Stats for the Back, then how about an interesting tidbit? Don't mind if I do.
Did I know?...
Sandberg was a record-setting QB in West Virginia? Nope.
Ryno was traded with Bowa for DeJesus? Yep.

Did you know?...
Sandberg won 9 consecutive gold gloves?
Gold gloves are probably the most meaningless award ever given?

71 TOPPS TRIBUTE?
1971 Topps was the first set to include player photos on the backs of the cards. Topps wouldn't try such a stunt again until 1993. Fleer steps in and fills the giant card-back-photo-sized hole for all us kids of the 1980's. Thanks Fleer!

NOTED
1. Pct. - Again?
2. 12 Stats - Are there any others?
3. Why trade Sandberg to the Cubs? - Mike Schmidt at 3B, Manny Trillo at 2B. No room in Philly, future HOFamer!

Actual Stats on the Back: 1982 Fleer

This is Part 2 of Actual Stats on the Back. The Fleer company comes back for the 1982 edition. Let's take a look!

1982 Fleer #416 Hal McRae

Blog Flashback: I featured this card's front way back in the first month on this blog in 2008.

What's the Same From 1981: 
1. MAJOR & MINOR LEAGUE RECORD. McRae has been in the Bigs too long for any Minor League data to show. I do wonder if it says "complete" if in fact all years fit on the back. (I did a quick check on the interwebs and the answer is no)
2. HIGLIGHTER YELLOW. And more of it. I can only assume they got a good deal at Costco for yellow ink and were determined to use it all.
3. GENERAL FORMAT. Name, Position at top. Same 12 stats in the middle. Generic profile data for those stalker inclined fans.
4. PCT.  ?????  Still ugh!

Same but Different:
1. 2 CIRCLES. One has the card # (Badly Off Center), the other has TEAM LOGO. I consider the team logo an almost MUST for baseball cards. Sure wish it was on the front.
2. ML AVG. Moved from right circle to the middle. Still LAME.

New:
CANARY BLUE. Reminds me of some sweet throwback Expos, Royals, Phillies, Braves, etc uniforms. The blue improves the look of the back quite a bit.

Still no Wikipedia-esque factoids from Fleer. See you in 1983.

Actual Stats on the Back: 1981 Fleer

This is a series of posts I thought of soon after I started the blog back in 2008, bu never got around to. With a name like Stats on the Back, it seems only right that I post about all those numbers on the back of baseball cards. I am choosing Fleer because they were my favorite card backs for reasons I'll share throughout these posts. I'll start with Fleer's return to cards in 1981 and end with the beginnings of mt first breakup with collecting in 1991 (No, it wasn't the yellow cards' fault).

1981 Fleer #34 UL Washington

The Good:
1. COMPLETE MAJOR AND MINOR LEAGUE BATTING RECORD. I like seeing all the minor league stats. UL was pretty much the same player in the minors as he was in the majors. I'm sure he used a toothpick on the field in San Jose just like he did in K.C.
2. EASY TO READ. Black on white makes every number clear.

The Bad:
1. ML AVG CIRCLE. I get that this cannot be card number .265 but it does take a place traditionally for the card number. This is card #34. Why use the career average? I realize that Bill James was still writing in his basement at his parent's house in 1981 but come on, Fleer.
2. BLANK SPACE. Luckily, UL had enjoyed 10 years in professional baseball or that blank space at the bottom could have taken over back there. I don't want my cards pointlessly filled but I do enjoy the occasional tidbit or statistical nugget.
3. HIGHLIGHTER YELLOW. Is this 1981 or 1991?

The Ugly:
PCT. ?????????? Fleer, you got it correct in your ridiculous AVG Circle and then you go and do this! What dos this stand for? Batting Percentage? As self-proclaimed stathead, this hurts my feelings.

Something New I Learned About UL Washington:
Not a whole lot of extra info in 1981. He was a switch hitter from Oklahoma!

Listen to What I'm Saying to You!

"How the BLEEP am I supposed to catch a BLEEPING ball with this BLEEPING glove? There is a BLEEPING hole in the BLEEPING glove! Can you believe this BLEEP? BLEEPING BLEEP! The BLEEPING ball will fit through the BLEEPING hole! What the BLEEP happened to it? BLEEP! Do you see the BLEEPING hole? It's the size of the BLEEPING ball! Holy BLEEP! I can play any BLEEPING position you want me to. I played every BLEEPING one in a BLEEPING game in 19-BLEEPING-68. But don't be BLEEPING complaining when I don't catch the BLEEPING ball. BLEEP, the BLEEPING glove is BLEEPING got a BLEEPING hole in it. Anybody can BLEEPING see that. I'm must be going BEEPING crazy! BLEEP!"

I hope Cesar Tovar sounded like a Venezuelan Samuel L. Jackson!

A "Real" Jackie!

Holy Cow! I own this card.

When I was 10, I bought a T-206 Christy Mathewson card for $35, easily the most I ever spent on a card growing up. It was one of the few times I chose quality over quantity. My 37 year old self is pleased that my 10 year old self ponied up the cash to add a first class Hall of Famer to his collection of 1980's baseball cards. 

Last year, I excitedly went to the Jackie Robinson biopic, 42, at the theater soon after its release. Jackie is a legend through and through. His legend is so great that I had always listed him among Ruth, Wagner, Cobb, etc as a player whose "real" baseball card I could never own. ("real" card = a card produced while the player was an active player.) Robinson has shown up in many recent releases by Topps but those just aren't the same.

How can I consider giving my kids my collection, filled with vintage Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Stan Musial cards and not so vintage Jeter, Pujols, and Kershaw cards without Jackie Robinson? It suddenly seemed like the largest hole in my collection. 

I did my ebay research and put in my max bid of $60. I won the card. There will never be a card that cost me more than this one. I am proud that my most expensive card will always be Jackie. Thanks Jackie for making the game I love better.

Now, how exactly do you split ONE Jackie Robinson card between TWO kids??????

Red Sox LEGEND: Jack Clark

When I think of the Red Sox, two things immediately come to mind, The Green Monster and Jack Clark.

In 1992, Topps got it right by photographing the Red Sox legend in front of the iconic left field wall:

Clark was known for his slick fielding, his ability to stay injury free, and for getting along with teammates.










Wait a minute. Jack Clark hacked my blog and wrote this ridiculous post. Everything not about the Green Monster is FALSE.

Here are some Stats on the Back!

Jack Clark feuded with most every star he played with. He and Tony Gwynn did NOT appreciate each other's approach to the game. Clark fussed that Gwynn hit to protect his average, not win games. Gwynn argued that the team's #4 hitter should not walk so much (Clark led the league in walks in both seasons with the Padres.).

Warning: Blasphemy Ahead!!!!!!

According to Baseball Reference's WAR statistic, Clark was more valuable than Gwynn in 1989 and 1990.