Hi Joe, I'm doing a presentation on '73 Topps (for my group at work, believe it or not) and I'd love to have a quote from you about how you feel about the 73 set :-)
Found that book shortly after it came out back in the 70s, still have it & love it. We do need an updated edition, though -- all the cards referenced in the book are way before my time.
Definitely would love to see more of this. Although it's always enjoyable to read about the stars and great moments from baseball, I find the obscure, trivial and possibly forgotten to be just as enjoyable, and sometimes even more so.
I would definitely enjoy more columns like this. It’s also going to lead to me and my son picking out random cards from our home collection to look at very soon.
Love the premise. Grabbing the hoops guy just made it more randomly official. Would enjoy seeing it as a regular -- nice that your comments are not crazy long, either.
I guess 1987 was Eric Davis's "miracle year," but I think of his 1986/1987 seasons the way I think of Babe Ruth's 1920/1921 seasons. The counting stats were most gaudy for Ruth in '21, but he had a better slugging percentage (although .847 vs. .846) and home run percentage in '20. By Bill James' secondary average, not that that's any more than a fun thing, Davis was actually better in '86 than '87, and there is also something to be said about the first time that a player flashes special ability. Davis stole 80 bases in '86, despite not even qualifying for the batting title. I don't think there had ever been a player, at least not in the NL or AL, who teased that he could be an all-world base stealer and a great home run hitter. Mays sort of qualifies. He was the most prolific base stealer of his era. His home run/steal totals had he begun 20 years later would have been something to see, but I don't know if one can project that a player would have been willing to take the wear and tear that would have come with 80 steals and not 40.
I pulled a table of all players since 1961 with more than 50 SB in a given year from baseball-reference, and stuffed it into an Excel spreadsheet. Then added a column of (SB+CS)/(PA*OBP)
The answer is yes, please feel free to do more of these! It's a great interlude when there's not a ton of other stuff going on.
And in case it matters, if I'd won the contest you and Mike just had, I would have asked for an essay on Otis Nixon, so (ya know), feel free to add that to your queue, too! (i kid of course...i mean, i'd love it, but you don't take writing assignments from the comments section)
This is always fun, Joe. Don't hesitate to do this more often. Two random thoughts:
(1) I'm guessing this is the only time the word "locksmith" has appeared on a baseball card. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my bet. I love that Moose Haas got into magic. I absolutely love sleight of hand, and one of my favorite contemporary players, Michael Cuddyer, is a very good amateur magician. He was a fine player and he's a really good guy, and the fact that he can do magic just makes him all the cooler.
(2) Your observation, re Danny Schayes, about spending casual time with really tall people. One thing I noticed as a sportswriter is ... well, as you point out, if you cover basketball, you kind of get used to being around guys who are between 6-8 and 7-foot. And you notice that a lot of that height is in their legs, so that if you sit down with them you're still kind of looking them in the eye even though they're 7 feet tall. But every so often you run into the guys who are 7-5 or 7-6, and even when they sit down they tower over you. Back when I covered Big Eight basketball (back when there was a Big Eight), Oklahoma State had a guy named Allen Bannister who was easily 7-foot-6, maybe taller. Gary Leonard, who was a 7-footer, looked Bannister in the throat. He wasn't any kind of player, but man he was something to look at. I saw Oklahoma State emerging from the locker room, and Bannister didn't just duck to get through the door, he had to bend at the waist. He was British, and he had a line he liked to use when, inevitably, someone would ask him if his parents were tall: "Well, me mum's 5-6 and me pop's 5-10 - but the mailman was 6-foot-10 ... "
Also, not to nit pick, but there are a couple more scenarios to include for stealing/reaching base opportunities for Coleman. He pinch ran 5 times that year. In addition, he could've reached base on fielder's choices. Odds are he didn't hit into too many fielder's choices seeing that he only had 64 ABs with a runner on 1st and less than 2 outs and 26 of those ABs ended in either a H, K, GIDP, SH, or ROE, leaving only 28 possibilities (not considering fielder's choices with a runner on 2nd or 3rd since those aren't common and he probably didn't hit into more than a couple, if any)
Hi Joe, I'm doing a presentation on '73 Topps (for my group at work, believe it or not) and I'd love to have a quote from you about how you feel about the 73 set :-)
Love the four baseball card segment. Fascinating to learn about these random players.
This can be Joe’s version of the “Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum” book!
Found that book shortly after it came out back in the 70s, still have it & love it. We do need an updated edition, though -- all the cards referenced in the book are way before my time.
Definitely would love to see more of this. Although it's always enjoyable to read about the stars and great moments from baseball, I find the obscure, trivial and possibly forgotten to be just as enjoyable, and sometimes even more so.
Yeah, these are wonderful. Definitely keep sharing them.
I’d read a post like this one every time ...
I would definitely enjoy more columns like this. It’s also going to lead to me and my son picking out random cards from our home collection to look at very soon.
Love this series
Love the premise. Grabbing the hoops guy just made it more randomly official. Would enjoy seeing it as a regular -- nice that your comments are not crazy long, either.
I guess 1987 was Eric Davis's "miracle year," but I think of his 1986/1987 seasons the way I think of Babe Ruth's 1920/1921 seasons. The counting stats were most gaudy for Ruth in '21, but he had a better slugging percentage (although .847 vs. .846) and home run percentage in '20. By Bill James' secondary average, not that that's any more than a fun thing, Davis was actually better in '86 than '87, and there is also something to be said about the first time that a player flashes special ability. Davis stole 80 bases in '86, despite not even qualifying for the batting title. I don't think there had ever been a player, at least not in the NL or AL, who teased that he could be an all-world base stealer and a great home run hitter. Mays sort of qualifies. He was the most prolific base stealer of his era. His home run/steal totals had he begun 20 years later would have been something to see, but I don't know if one can project that a player would have been willing to take the wear and tear that would have come with 80 steals and not 40.
These are great.
I pulled a table of all players since 1961 with more than 50 SB in a given year from baseball-reference, and stuffed it into an Excel spreadsheet. Then added a column of (SB+CS)/(PA*OBP)
The answer is yes, please feel free to do more of these! It's a great interlude when there's not a ton of other stuff going on.
And in case it matters, if I'd won the contest you and Mike just had, I would have asked for an essay on Otis Nixon, so (ya know), feel free to add that to your queue, too! (i kid of course...i mean, i'd love it, but you don't take writing assignments from the comments section)
This is always fun, Joe. Don't hesitate to do this more often. Two random thoughts:
(1) I'm guessing this is the only time the word "locksmith" has appeared on a baseball card. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my bet. I love that Moose Haas got into magic. I absolutely love sleight of hand, and one of my favorite contemporary players, Michael Cuddyer, is a very good amateur magician. He was a fine player and he's a really good guy, and the fact that he can do magic just makes him all the cooler.
(2) Your observation, re Danny Schayes, about spending casual time with really tall people. One thing I noticed as a sportswriter is ... well, as you point out, if you cover basketball, you kind of get used to being around guys who are between 6-8 and 7-foot. And you notice that a lot of that height is in their legs, so that if you sit down with them you're still kind of looking them in the eye even though they're 7 feet tall. But every so often you run into the guys who are 7-5 or 7-6, and even when they sit down they tower over you. Back when I covered Big Eight basketball (back when there was a Big Eight), Oklahoma State had a guy named Allen Bannister who was easily 7-foot-6, maybe taller. Gary Leonard, who was a 7-footer, looked Bannister in the throat. He wasn't any kind of player, but man he was something to look at. I saw Oklahoma State emerging from the locker room, and Bannister didn't just duck to get through the door, he had to bend at the waist. He was British, and he had a line he liked to use when, inevitably, someone would ask him if his parents were tall: "Well, me mum's 5-6 and me pop's 5-10 - but the mailman was 6-foot-10 ... "
Gerald Perry, primarily a 1B, with 42 steals (and 58 attempts). Different world.
Great article and please write more of these!
Also, not to nit pick, but there are a couple more scenarios to include for stealing/reaching base opportunities for Coleman. He pinch ran 5 times that year. In addition, he could've reached base on fielder's choices. Odds are he didn't hit into too many fielder's choices seeing that he only had 64 ABs with a runner on 1st and less than 2 outs and 26 of those ABs ended in either a H, K, GIDP, SH, or ROE, leaving only 28 possibilities (not considering fielder's choices with a runner on 2nd or 3rd since those aren't common and he probably didn't hit into more than a couple, if any)