Archive for the 'Card of the Week' Category

John Russell's career in Major League Baseball is probably over. He had a fairly unremarkable playing career as a backup catcher and a fairly disastrous managerial career with the Pirates. In his 3 seasons as Pirates manager, the Pirates lost 299 games and got worse each year under Russell. The last time the Pirates lost that many games over 3 seasons was 1953-1955.

In the last few days we've seen (probably) how Russell's major league career ended. The card I chose this week helps us to remember how it began. As per the info on the back of the card, he was the Phillies' top draft pick in 1982. Although Russell didn't turn out to be a great draft pick, the 1982 draft wasn't a very good one anyway. By the time Russell was picked at #13, Dwight Gooden was already off the board. There were no other superstars in the first round, although later rounds saw the drafting of David Wells, Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin, Jimmy Key, Randy Johnson, and Will Clark (some one whom did not sign).

1985 Donruss is a pretty poor design. The black borders were not a deep, dark black but rather often washed out with a lot of variability from lot to lot. Moreover, the edges were tough to keep looking decent since any chip stuck out against the black color. Add in the fact that the design calls attention to off-centering, and the cards just never looked that nice. Note too that the backs closely resemble the other Donruss issues of the 1980s...so boring.

Russell reminds me of a lot of other part-time catchers. He had some decent pop in his bat. Over his first 162 career games (spanning 1984-1986) he had 18 HR and 63 RBI. He also had 43 BB and 154 K's.

If this is end for Russell, he has nothing to be ashamed about. He's had 28 years in professional baseball and accomplished more than most.

By the way, I couldn't get a photo of Russell's other rookie card. In 1985, Fleer issued a rookie prospects card for the Phillies featuring Russell and Steve Jeltz. Very cool.

For a few years, Topps put out a series of All-Time Fan Favorite cards that featured classic player photos on classic Topps designs. Collector reaction was quite mixed. I myself absolutely love the cards because they invoke all the iconic Topps designs of the past in new cards. A good amount of effort went into designing each card and using a photo from the appropriate time period. These are high-quality cards in terms of the cardstock and printing, so they lack the look and feel of the classic cards, as compared to the Heritage series they've had, which intentionally used lower-quality printing and card stock so that the cards more closely resembled the classic examples.

This 2004 card uses the 1974 Topps set, in which Schmidt had his first solo card.

That classic photo of Schmidt is pretty cool. In the background we can see a billboard for the Pinellas County Title Company. Phillies fans will probably know that Clearwater, the longtime spring training home of the Phillies, is in Pinellas County in Florida.

The backs of the All-Time Fan Favorites cards were similarly styled after the classic card backs, except that they showed the player's career stats with the team. For a player who had more than one stint with a team these cards show the stats from the various stints with that team.

Usually I put some stats in these posts but I think we all know about the exploits of Michael Jack Schmidt.

Further reading:

I posted all of the All-Time Fan Favorites cards that used the 1988 Topps design.

As we've already seen, when Upper Deck came onto the baseball card scene in 1989, a lot of things changed. The UD cards were much higher quality with better photos, a high-gloss finish, and thicker card stock. The 1989 and 1990 sets completely sold out. Fans started paying much higher prices for packs of cards, plus the secondary markets for these cards exploded.

All of the other card manufacturers followed suit, coming out with higher-quality, higher-priced sets. Stadium Club was one of Topps' entries into this higher tier of baseball cards.

A few things to notice right away about the cards:

• Full bleed photos (going right to the edge)
• Full color, glossy backs instead of just 1 or 2 colors on matte cardboard
• The Stadium Club logo and 6 little arrows on the front are in foil (for no good reason...)
• You can't tell from the photos, but the card stock itself was much thicker than standard Topps issues at the time

The Stadium Club series was a favorite among many card collectors, including a younger version of me. The photos were full-bleed (better than what even Upper Deck was offering at the time) and there were really interesting stats on the back. Look at the back of DeLeon's card--it talks about his pitch selection breakdown against righties and lefties and even gives an extra tidbit about what he throws on 0-2 counts. For a card series that was complementary to Topps' main run, these were great card backs.

But I haven't yet mentioned the coolest thing about the cards--Topps showed a mini picture of each player's rookie card on the back. See below for DeLeon's 1984 Topps rookie card when he was with the Pirates. They would even show cards from Topps Traded sets when they were the rookie cards.

The inclusion of this photo tells you something about collecting at the time. Right around 1990 was when collectors began to get obsessed with rookie cards. They started to take on a premium value beyond just being the most valuable card for a given player. In the future (through the present) card companies started putting "rookie card" right on cards for all rookies, not just a select group of "rated rookies" or "future stars" as had been done for a while before then.

I chose a 1991 DeLeon card as my subject because of this unusual streak:

DeLeon has the longest streak since 1920 with no earned runs allowed in a game start without getting a win. Notice that he pitched only 13.2 innings over those 4 starts. In the second game of the streak, he left after fielding an inning-ending grounder, perhaps getting a minor injury. In the 4th game, he left after a line drive. The box score does not specify the location, but I would bet that DeLeon was injured then too.

I have long felt that DeLeon was an underrated pitcher because he lost 19 games in a season twice but was a much better pitcher than those loss totals would indicate. I've written about him before. See what I wrote about his 1988 Topps card, his 1988 Topps Traded card, and his 1988 Score Traded card.

In 1975, Fleer sued Topps and the MLB Players Association over an alleged monopoly on the production of baseball cards, particularly when packaged with gum. It took years, but eventually the courts upheld Fleer's claim, opening the door for other companies to sell baseball cards. Unfortunately, this decision came down not too long before the 1981 baseball season, forcing Fleer and newcomer Donruss to produce a set of cards very quickly.

As a result, both companies used some questionable photographs (out of focus, etc) because they didn't have time to get something better. Also, there were many errors present on the cards in both sets.

This 1981 Donruss Bobby Bonds card is an example of both. The picture isn't terrible but certainly isn't great. Check out the back, though. Did you know that Bobby Bonds is the all-time HR leader with 986 dingers?

The mistake is an odd one. For starters, Hank Aaron had retired fairly recently at that point with his then-record 755 homers. This number, 755, was known to every single baseball fan from 1976 until recently, when I suspect some younger fans don't know it. Many fewer fans know the number associated with career leaders for, say, doubles, triples, or RBI. But the idea to me that anyone could look at this card, check the stats, and not have 986 as career HR stick out as totally wrong---that boggles my mind.

I also wonder where that particular erroneous number came from. After the 1980 season, Bonds had 326 career homers. Looking down at my keyboard, I see that it's possible somebody using a keypad might accidentally hit 9-8 when they meant to hit 3-2. I don't know if keyboards were like this in 1981, though.

How about the fact that Bobby Bonds has a card that incorrectly identifies him as the MLB leader in homers, but now his son hold that record?

I have blogged about this card before but I like it so much that I'm doing it again.

How many cards feature pictures of two Hall of Fame players where neither one is the subject of the card? That's what we have here, as Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson are visible in the background at Wrigley Field. Can anybody come up with another such example of a card? As we know, Sandberg is in the background on lots of baseball cards, but I can't think of any other card with two HOFers.

This card comes from the 1988 Score Rookies & Traded set, an update set to the regular issue of 1988 Score. This set is quite similar to the regular issue set, with the exception of the orange color, which was not one of the featured colors from the base. I dedicated an entire blog to looking at all 110 cards from this set.

Schiraldi is best-remembered for being a goat in the 1986 World Series, in which he lost 2 games. This is ironic, given that even though he's best-remembered for this, he still isn't given nearly as much blame as he deserves, whereas Bill Buckner gets way more blame than he deserves.

People forget about Schiraldi's performance that helped the Red Sox get past the Angels. He closed out 4 out of 7 ALCS games in 1986, striking out 9 and walking 3 over 6 innings. He did allow 3 inherited runners to score, getting a blown save in one game, but he pitched well overall.

Schiraldi finished his career as one of 84 pitchers with at least 20 wins and 20 saves in no more than 600 career IP.

Bobby Thomson's 1951 home run made such a large impact that more than 50 years later, baseball card companies are still issuing cards to celebrate his achievement and career.

Take, for example, this 2008 Goudey card. Actually produced by Upper Deck, this set carries the name of a long-gone bubble gum company that sold trading cards (including baseball cards) along with pieces of its gum. The baseball cards sets were produced between the years of 1933 and 1941. The 1933 Goudey Napoleon LaJoie card is among the most valuable baseball cards in existence, thanks to the fact that it survived in only small numbers and LaJoie's Hall of Fame career.

Anyway, Upper Deck has followed the lead of Topps in producing sets that closely follow the design of classic set, and this 2008 Goudey set resembled some of the earlier Goudey sets.

Thomson's name will be forever linked with that famous home run, but he was a pretty good player for a bunch of years. For example, from 1949 to 1953, he was in the top 10 in MLB in homers:

and RBI:

He finished his career with a solid 110 OPS+, 32.9 WAR, and over 1,000 RBI.

We congratulate you, Mr. Thomson, on a fine career. Rest in peace.

The 1955 Bowman set remains for many the iconic modern baseball card set. Released at a time when Bowman had dominated the card market (but was quickly losing ground to new upstart Topps) and color TV was still a new wonder to most American households, the design was unusual but very successful (at least in the long run--Bowman itself was bought out by Topps following this set.) This set came out when selling bubble gum was still the main focus and the cards themselves were enticements to get kids to choose the Bowman brand of gum. (The B. G. part of "B. G. H. L. I." seen on the back stands for Bowman Gum.)

There's just one thing I don't like about this design: real estate allocation. About 60% (believe it or not) of the card is taken up by the TV illustration, which is the same from card to card and therefore adds very little to the set as a whole. I would have preferred larger-format illustrations.

I chose Tom Brewer as my subject because he came up second on my list of worst ERAs against the Yankees since 1955. Brewer also pitched in 1954 and his overall record against the Yankees isn't pretty.

Here are his career splits against the 8 teams he faced in his career:

Well that really says something about the strength of the Yankees at that time. (Over Brewer's 7-year career, the Yankees played in the World Series 6 times.)

Against the rest of the league, Brewer was quite good, and overall he still ended up with a winning record and an ERA+ (just) over 100. A pretty darn good career, if you ask me.

Other random thoughts:

• Can anyone identify the stadium shown in the card? Brewer's got a road jersey on so presumably it's not Fenway Park (although since it's an illustration and not a photo, anything is possible.)
• It's a shame that Brewer didn't play for the Brewers, although he was out of baseball 9 years before that team took that name. Dave Philley played for the Phillies. Red Schoendienst played for the Redbirds but not the Reds. Lenny Metz was much too early for the Mets. Cub Stricker didn't play for the Cubs. Conrad Cardinal played for the Colt .45's but Jose Cardenal played for the Cardinals for one season. No Rocky has ever played for the Rockies. Indian Bob never played for the Indians. I couldn't find a Ray who played for the Rays although there is probably one. Who did I miss?
• The back of the card does not identify the year for the stats, instead just calling it "PAST YR." I believe this was done so with the idea that the cards would become less dated to kids and still be of interest in subsequent years (even though the text on the card makes it clear that the stats refer to the 1954 season.)

Further reading on 1955 Bowman:

Dinged Corners

Wrigley Wax 1955 Bowman Ernie Banks

The Pursuit of 80's(ness) has some 1955 Bowman Yankees

(click on  images for larger versions)

OK, here is a real 1983 Topps card to take a look at. This is a favorite set of many collectors thanks to the dual photos--the action shot and the head shot. In fact, Topps included many great action photos for the main picture since all the head shot were, umm, head shots. (In most other sets, there are lots of posed head shots since the cards had only one picture.) Here, we always get two photos. I think the design of this card is inspired, in particular the two color system (brown and orange on this one) and the thin border used on both halves of the card. Unlike 1975, when the bold colors were not consistent across different teams, this year they were consistent, i.e. all the Giants cards were brown and orange like this one.

This Bergman card caught my eye as a particularly great example. The action shot is unusual for the 1980s--a first baseman snagging a liner on the foul line. Plus we have the easily-identifiable Candlestick Park in the background. And how about the banner for retired uniform #4 for Hall-of-Famer Met Ott? Very cool.

The card back is typical of most other Topps sets of the era, again doing a nice job with black ink and one color (in this case orange) creating an interesting-looking set of stats and information.

Dave Bergman was part of the 1984 Tigers championship team, and like a lot of guys on that squad he played above his head that year.

Check out his career value grid, especially his RAR and WAR:

Every year, Bergman hovered right around zero for fielding runs. Every year except 1984, that is, when he registered a huge +10, a big number for a first baseman. That, plus an above-average-for-him +6 batting runs, enabled him to earn a career high 2.1 WAR in 1984. He regressed big time in 1985, dropping to -12 batting runs and a career-worst -1.3 WAR.

(click images for larger versions)

This is our first entry from 1983 although I'm going to pretend it's not. This was a very good year for baseball cards and each of the big three sets deserves a little love. I picked this card because of its subject, Ted Simmons, and because it is a cool Super Veteran card.

Topps included a 35-card subset in their regular 792-card set featuring veteran players in a recent photo and a photo from the past. The old photo was always shown in black-and-white. The Simmons card is a great example, in particular because although he played for the Cardinals in the late 1960s, Simmons didn't get his first Topps card until 1971. Their choice to use a photo from 1968 was inspired.

You can view the entire Super Veterans subset here at 30-Year Old Cardboard.

Be sure to check out the back of the card, too, posted below. Great stuff.

I chose Simmons so I could sneak in a discussion about his Hall of Fame candidacy. He appeared on the ballot in 1994, got 3.7% of the vote, and therefore was dropped from consideration. Many folks feel that he is one of the top catchers of the last 40 years and deserves more votes.

Let's take a very quick look:

• One of just 130 players since 1901 with at least 9,000 plate appearances
• Of those 130, only 4 were catchers and Simmons and Carlton Fisk are tied with the best career OPS+
• From 1975-1980, Simmons was tied for 12th in best OPS+ among players with at least 3,000 plate appearances. The guys he was tied with? Joe Morgan and Dave Winfield. Uh huh.
• MVP votes in 7 different seasons and an 8-time All-Star
• A bunch of career rankings in the top 100: hits (96th), doubles (67th), total bases (100th), RBI (71st),  intentional walks (18th), WPA (92nd).
• Take a second look at his ranking in intentional walks--18th all-time. This is not a guy who batted 8th in front of pitchers--he hit in the middle of the order and was a feared hitter.

So here's a poll for hos HOF candidacy:

(click on images for larger versions)

Folks, you are looking at what might be a perfect baseball card.

Here's a list of what I love about it:
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