If Bud Harrelson played in the 21st Century, it’s doubtful if he would make the majors. If he did make the majors, it wouldn’t have been as a starter. And even if he somehow became a starter, he wouldn’t have made two All-Star teams. Harrelson wouldn’t have been the “star” that he was in his [...]
When I was a kid, the Gil Hodges cards I had from his Mets managerial days showed a guy who looked like an old man. When he died in 1972, he was two days shy of his 48th birthday. My current age is past Hodges when he untimely passed away. Yet, when viewing those 1968-72 [...]
In 1958, Richie Ashburn led the league in AVG (.350) and OBP (.440) and finished seventh in the MVP race, the eighth time in his career that he drew MVP support. And it was all downhill from there. In 1959, he fell off considerably, going from an .881 OPS to a .667 mark. And his [...]
I have nine cards of 1970 Diego Segui, a journeyman pitcher whose claim to fame is the answer to a trivia question of being the only player to pitch for the Seattle Pilots and the Seattle Mariners. Either that or teaching Danny Frisella the forkball when they were on the same winter ball team. The [...]
Javier Baez made his MLB debut in 2014. Guess how many cards he has? If he made his debut in 1964, the answer would be easy. Well, maybe not the exact answer but pretty close. Assuming Topps guessed right and gave him a spot on a multi-player rookie card in his debut season, that would [...]
I’m shocked this Johnny Stephenson card of mine hasn’t gotten the COTW treatment before now. This card is a hand-me-down, either from one of my older brothers or from one of their friends. It’s beat up pretty bad, with bowing of the card, soft corners, a bit of paper missing by the catcher's mitt and [...]
1979 TOPPS JERRY KOOSMAN In 1976, Jerry Koosman won 21 games and finished second in the NL CY Award balloting. The next two years weren’t quite so good. He went a combined 11-35 those two years, including a 20-loss season in 1977, making him one of just seven pitchers since 1960 to win 20 games [...]
1972 TOPPS DANNY FRISELLA IN ACTION The previous year, Topps introduced on a wide scale action shots into their set. But too often those action shots looked like they were taken by a child with an Instamatic 110 camera from the mid-60s. Could they at least have gotten a shot of Tommie Agee’s face in [...]
In the second half of the 1970s, there was another major baseball card set distributed nationally available to collectors. These were the Hostess Baseball Cards, which were issued in both individual size and in three-panel formats if you bought a box of Ding Dongs or Twinkies. These were officially licensed, too, so you had the [...]
Do you keep your ticket stubs? I do, or at least try to. My main problem is remembering where they are. It’s like there are supply lines all over Asia or something and where they are is a big mystery, much less where any one specific one is. Last night my wife found a box [...]
Listen: Brian Joura has come unstuck in time. Yesterday the time travel was all through the 1970s up until around 1986. Who said you could never quarantine the past? There were two shelves of … stuff that had been quarantined for at least 34 years. Found some neat items, things that brought me back to [...]
Back in 1966, the Mets weren’t considered a good team but they did participate with a few other major league teams in a gas station plastic cup giveaway promotion. That year, the Mets joined the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in giving away these cups featuring the [...]