Inscriptions on steroids. Whenever a player signs HOF or MVP below his name, it costs extra. On this particular Ryne Sandberg autographed poster, the inscriptions are stacked five high.

1. Ryno
2. HOF ’05
3. 84 NL MVP
4. 10K All Star
5. 9K Gold Glove

This is like a quadruple cheeseburger with a Big Mac on top. There are so many stats on this poster, it should be a baseball card. That would be a cool baseball card.

Topps should release a set of baseball cards where each baseball player writes his own stats on the back of the card.

The post Fun idea: Baseball cards with hand-written stats written by the player appeared first on 57 hits.

What happened to the multi-player posters from the 80s? These posters are a great blast from the past with their combination of highlighting the popular players from a team, along with being done in an ultra cheesy design.

Although I do have to tip my hat to the picture selection in this 1989 Cubs poster by Sports Illustrated. Jerome Walton and Mark Grace batting provide nice bookends framing the falling Mitching Williams in the center. In the bottom row, Ryne Sandberg and Dwight Smith strike a running pose to frame the leaping Shawon Dunston. If you are going to do cheesy design, you might as well make it symmetrical.

It’s kinda funny now how this old photo of Wrigley makes you nostaglic for the days of Wrigley Field before they expanded the bleachers. The days of regular rooftops with plastic lawnchairs that didn’t make millions. I wonder if there are Cubs fans from the 50s that are nostalgic for this view of Wrigley when there wasn’t high-rise buildings in the background.

These posters truly capture a moment in time. A search on MLB.com’s online shop doesn’t yield any sort of multi-player poster. I was hoping for at least some sort of collage of players from a team. But it looks like this tradition has been rolled up and stored in poster tubes of closets.

The post The cheese-mo baseball posters of the 80s appeared first on 57 hits.

Another reason why learning about baseball players from the backs of baseball cards is cool. The back of his “2013 Topps Opening Day” card says,

C.J. has been called “the most interesting man in Baseball.” He can recite poetry in four languages; he practices Eastern philosophies and a gluten-free diet; and he’s an expert in postmodern art.”

We need more interesting people like this in baseball. A guy who likes art and baseball? He should check out my art blog, spudart.org.

He recently took these photos in Chicago:

You can follow him on twitter, @str8edgeracer and his website, leftylefty.com.

Who are the most interesting players in baseball today? CJ Wilson is one, who are the others?

— Matt Maldre (@57hits) May 17, 2013

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Opening baseball cards from packs gives you a chance to slowly learn about today’s baseball players. Open up a pack and take a look at each card. Analyze the photo. Read the trivia on the back. This sort of slow enjoyment is a nice alternative to today’s fast news clips and videos.

Often MLB and the media will focus on the top-tier players. How about the lesser-known players? I never knew about pitcher James Shields until I read his baseball card saying he was the first K.C. pitcher to win 15-plus two straight seasons since Kevin Appier in 1992-93.

I learned about Starling Marte by pulling his blue foil card earlier this year. And now again his regular card appears in this pack. Pulling well-known players also grants you the chance to look over their player photo. Mark Teixeira features him exhaling of a huge amount of air as though he is some sort of steam locomotive–befitting his slugging style.

We have so many options to learn about baseball through ESPN, FOX, mlb.com, blog posts by fans, twitter, tumblr animations, in-depth analysis by stat geeks; we often relegate baseball cards to a collecting commodity, not a learning source.

The slow traditional way of learning about baseball players via baseball cards fits the sport of baseball itself. Traditional, slow and savored.

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When you think of a baseball family, who do you think of first? The Griffeys or the Ripkens? I quite frankly never think of the Ripken family. Griffey Jr and Sr. always come to mind first, because they were the first father and son to play on the same team as teammates. They even hit back-to-back singles and back-to-back home runs! Can the Ripkens claim that? No. They cannot.

The Griffey family is the best baseball family. One could make an argument for the Hairstons. They have five MLB players. What do you think? Who is the best baseball family?

Beckett ran a poll asking people to pick the top baseball family. They included:

• Ken Griffey Sr, Ken Griffey Jr
• Cal Ripken, Cal Ripken Jr, Billy Ripken
• Joe DiMaggio, Dom DiMaggio
• Sandy Alomar, Sandy Alomar Jr, Roberto Alomar
• Bobby Bonds, Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonds Jr
• Lloyd Waner, Paul Waner
• Tony Gwynn, Tony Gwynn Jr
• George Sisler, Dave Sisler, Dick Sisler
• Ray Boone, Bob Boone, Bret Boone, Aaron Boone (Bret Boone is the first-ever third-generation MLB player in baseball history)
• Felipe Alou, Jesus Alou, Matty Alou, Moises Alou

Some notable families missing from Beckett’s poll:

• Sammy Hairston, Jerry Hairston, Sr., Johnny Hairston, Jerry Hairston, Jr., David Hairston (the biggest baseball family with five)
• Cecil Fielder and Prince Fielder (the only father-son combination to both hit 50+ home runs in a season)
• Tim Raines and Tim Raines, Jr. (the second father/son duo to play as teammates)
• Shawon Dunston, Shawon Dunston Jr (Shawon Sr is one of my favorite baseball players)
• Gus Bell, Buddy Bell, David Bell, Mike Bell (baseball family of four)

There have been 203 father/son pairings in baseball. Wow.

Which is your favorite baseball family?

The post The top baseball family: Griffeys or Ripkens? appeared first on 57 hits.

You will get:
イチローは殿堂入りです

Now take that Japanese and translate it back into English. Look how it translates:

Those Japanese feel strongly about Ichiro!
You are spellbound.
I know.

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The only 2012 cards in existence for Miguel Tejada are only limited edition signature cards. SEVEN different signature cards. Print runs of: 5, 1, 5, 5, 25, 3, 15. If you are a Miguel Tejada collector, and you want a 2012 card, there only 59 printed cards in existence.

Thankfully Tejada came back in 2013 with the Kansas City Royals. If he didn’t, there would have been no baseball card listing the stats for his final season.

So far this year through 20 at bats in nine games, his average is .368 and OPS of .821. The Royals have him playing first, second, and third base. He’s started 3 times at third, one time at second, one time at first, four games as a pinch hitter. “He’s just a spot starter. he’s there to give the starters a break,” says baseball expert Erik Maldre.

Check out this catch in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic this year:

Here’s Tejada (#4) in the infamous pointing photo when the Dominican Republic won the World Baseball Classic:

In the WBC he batted .316 AVG and .718 OPS.

Miguel Tejada did make it into the 2013 Topps Tribute World Baseball Classic set. However, it costs $50 per pack of five cards. (One autographed card or relic card numbered to 99 or less in every pack.)

The Tejada 2009 World Baseball Classic card is available as a jersey card. In fact, Tejada has 171 jersey cards. What if someone bought a ton of jersey cards and then stitched all the swatches together to make an actual jersey?

According to Baseball Reference the most similar player to Tejada is Ryne Sandberg.

1. Ryne Sandberg (868) *
2. Ted Simmons (856)
3. Adrian Beltre (847)
4. Alan Trammell (841)
5. Yogi Berra (836) *
6. Joe Torre (832)
7. Scott Rolen (826)
8. Carlton Fisk (826) *
9. Joe Cronin (822) *
10. Barry Larkin (821) *

* – Signifies Hall of Famer

So is Miguel Tejada a Hall of Famer?

• Black Ink: 13 (Average HOFer ≈ 27)
• Gray Ink: 80 (Average HOFer ≈ 144)
• Hall of Fame Monitor: 148, Likely HOFer ≈ 100
• Hall of Fame Standards: 43, Average HOFer ≈ 50

Interesting to note that Tejada’s errors committed as SS have consistently ranked high.

• 1998 AL 26 (2nd)
• 1999 AL 21 (4th)
• 2000 AL 21 (4th)
• 2001 AL 20 (2nd)
• 2002 AL 19 (2nd)
• 2003 AL 21 (2nd)
• 2004 AL 24 (3rd)
• 2005 AL 22 (5th)
• 2006 AL 19 (3rd)
• 2009 NL 21 (2nd)
• Career 255 (97th)

But his putouts as SS are also quite high.

• 1999 AL 292 (1st)
• 2000 AL 233 (4th)
• 2001 AL 256 (2nd)
• 2002 AL 229 (5th)
• 2003 AL 240 (2nd)
• 2004 AL 263 (2nd)
• 2005 AL 252 (4th)
• 2006 AL 237 (4th)
• 2009 NL 214 (3rd)
• Career 2,891 (51st)

I kinda like Miguel Tejada now.

The post Miguel Tejada has no 2012 Topps baseball card! appeared first on 57 hits.

from Peanuts (July 28, 1963)

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Any and all Babe Ruth baseball cards are awesome, this one especially so because:

1. The simplistically elegant design
2. Classic mis-registered printing
3. The trademark way Ruth is wearing his hat

Can you think of any other reasons why?

The post Three reasons why Babe Ruth’s 1932 U.S. Caramel baseball card is awesome appeared first on 57 hits.

The original mockup by the Ricketts makes the outfield advertising look all nice and pretty. The Jumbotron has nice green ads to match the nice green Jumbotron, which matches the original scoreboard. But these are just mockup ads to hide how loud the real advertising will be.

My brother took the Ricketts’ mockup and put advertising from real sponsors of the Cubs. This is what Wrigley Field will look like soon. Check out the real mockup at http://www.unlikelymoose.com/blog/comments/P2073_0_1_0/

My brother says:

I just want the public to be properly informed. It’s interesting how Ricketts is using the threat of moving as a smokescreen to cover up the reality of dump truck advertising he’s dumping into the stadium.

It’s too bad that the Cubs owners have to be deceptive about what the ads will look like. What do you think of the advertising in Wrigley Field? Should we plaster ads all over the park? Are the Ricketts being deceptive with their mockup?

The post Ricketts Wrigley Field mockup vs the real Jumbotron ads mockup appeared first on 57 hits.

Someone recently paid $2.1 million dollars for a Honus Wagner card. However, $2,105,770.50 is not the highest every paid for a baseball card. That honor goes to a PSA 8-rated T206 Honus Wagner card for $2.8 million in 2007.

With Honus Wagner going for millions, it seems like his photo should appear on the million dollar bill.

Which would you rather have? The Wagner card or the million dollar bills? You can answer on Quora, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, or in the comments on this blog post. I’ll copy your answer and post it on this list:

• I would rather have the two million dollar bills, because I bet they are worth more than two million dollars because of their rarity. I’m betting they are worth ten million dollars. [from Matt Maldre]
• I would rather have two million one dollar bills. [from Scott Backer of Twitter]
• I would rather have 2m. The card can go to nada very quick. [from Abhay on Instant Messenger]
• I would rather have the money. I could use it! [front Ellen Levitt on Quora]
• I would rather have the Honus Wagner card: a million dollar bill doesn’t exist.  [from C.M. Latsha on Quora]
• I would rather have _______________
• I would rather have _______________
• I would rather have _______________

The post Honus Wagner T206 or two one-million dollar bills? appeared first on 57 hits.

All baseball cards have the position listed on the front of the card, right? Nope. Of the 62 base sets that Topps has produced, 19 do not feature the position on the front of the card.

Traditionally, Topps would include the player’s position on the front of the card. For the first 35 years of Topps cards, only two sets didn’t feature the position. 1952 and 1972.

For 19 consecutive years Topps placed the position on the front of the card. For some odd reason the 1972 design broke that streak. Perhaps Topps was too distracted that year by their most hideous design ever with the projecting 3D text.

After 1972 Topps returned back to tradition placing the position on the card for 14 straight years, then came the 1987 set.

A faux wooden background was featured on the card. I like me some faux-wood. I feature it on my site and in my infographics. However, this year Topps started a trend of forgetting to put the player’s position in the design. Perhaps Topps wanted to make their designs more simple. However, I don’t see what’s so hard about include a simple two-character designation somewhere. It’s really simple. P, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, or C. Done.

For 35 years nearly 100% of their designs included the position. For the next 27 years, it fell off a cliff down to only one-third. Topps would forget the position 17 times.

• Before 1987: 94% of the sets featured the position (33 of 35)
• After 1987: 37% included the position (10 of 27)

Perhaps Topps thinks that fans don’t care what position players play. Or maybe Topps thinks that fans already know all the players. Topps either think fans are too stupid or too smart to care. Today I fall into the “stupid” camp as I barely know any of the players. But many fans, including myself do care. We want to know the positions. I’d say I don’t know baseball players as much today because I don’t collect cards as much as I did in the 80s.

Baseball cards helped me learn the player’s position.

Perhaps Topps thinks that it’s good enough to list the player’s position on the back of the card. But who looks at the back of the card? When you display a card on your bulletin board, do you have the back showing? No. When you see baseball cards online, do you see the back of the card featured? No.

Topps needs to return back to their traditions and include the player’s position on the front of the card. Do you want to see the position return to the front of the card? If so, please leave a comment below.

The post Why doesn’t Topps baseball cards list the position? appeared first on 57 hits.

Baseball teams with the most current players on twitter:
The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays have 13 apiece.

Baseball teams with the least number of players on twitter:
The Brewers have two players. The Chicago Cubs have a mere one player, Edwin Jackson ‏@EJ36 with his first year on the Cubs. What’s happening with the Cubs? One player? Yipes.

The American League outnumbers the National League 118-92.
Interestingly, the East divisions in both the NL and AL have the most players. It must be that East Coast media that hypes up players to join twitter. The West and Central divisions all have roughly the same number of players.

I was thinking about pulling the OPS for all the batters and displaying if the players on twitter are above the MLB median for OPS. Perhaps I could pull the WAR stats as well. What other stats could be included in the next infographic on baseball and twitter? Some ideas:

• Number of years per player in pro ball
• OPS
• Number of tweets (just because a player is on twitter, doesn’t mean the player tweets)
• Number of @replies (which players are the most active in responding to others)
• Followers
• Which player is followed the most by other MLB players? (that would be really interesting to see which player is followed most by his peers)

If you have any ideas for what stats I should pull for the next MLB-twitter infographic, please leave your suggestions in the comments. Thanks!

The post Infographic: Baseball players on twitter appeared first on 57 hits.

Continuing the fun with 3D baseball cards, my brother found this 1996 Sammy Sosa Sportflics card on eBay. I was so taken aback by the delight of seeing Sammy Sosa in 3d, that I sent a message to the seller of this card.

Hi tommybill100,
Sammy Sosa in 3D!? That’s like a real life Sammy Sosa! If I buy this card, does that mean Sammy Sosa will visit me at home?

What will tommybill100 say in response?

UPDATE: tommybill100 has responded! Read what he said in the comments.

The post Sammy Sosa 3d baseball card appeared first on 57 hits.

Lenticular technology comes back to baseball cards for 2013! vine.co/v/bD3UlzgLxFF

— 57 hits (@57hits) March 26, 2013

3d baseball cards are back! Back in 1986 Sportflics made cards that changed photographs when you moved the card. I never understood why they didn’t make the player animate. Why put three random photos on a card? Or why not make the card 3d?

With lenticular technlogy (the same tech that powered the 1986 Sportflics), you can make a photograph appear to be in three dimensions. The 2013 Topps Opening Day uses this technology to show off 3d photos. I love lenticular. When you move, the image in the card moves.

Wouldn’t it be cool to make lenticular photos? I’d like to shoot 3d images of Chicago. There’s a WOW factor to 3d lenticular photography. This Buster Posey card has that WOW. It’s hanging in my cube, like buster posey is in my cube with me.

But really? Buster Posey? Blerg. At least 3D is awesome. So are the San Fransicso Giants. Those two things makes up for it being Buster Posey. In fact, instead of thinking of it being Buster Posey, think of it as the San Fransciso Giants catcher.

Let’s summarize. Why the 2013 Topps Opening Day card #ODS-4 is cool:

1. It’s 3d lenticular
2. San Fransicso Giants
3. Catcher. Catchers are cool.
4. 2013 Topps Opening Day. These cards are the coolest, most-best cards created in 2013. Why? Because they are a buck a pack. YES, KIDS. Affordable cards are cool.
5. I was able to get a special 3D card from an affordable pack.
6. The design. My brother noted, “It’s neat that his foot is on the front side of the graphic and his other foot is behind it. That’s a nice card. Very nice.”
7. It’s crazy. When I move in my chair at work, there’s a baseball card on my wall that changes as I move.

For all my friends who are baseball fans, I’m gonna buy a bunch of 2013 Topps Opening Day packs and give a pack to each friend. If you are reading this blog post, and you didn’t get a pack, let me know.

The post 7 reasons why the Buster Posey 3D card is cool (2013 Topps Opening Day #ODS-4) appeared first on 57 hits.

This is humbling. All these 1989 sets for only $24 total.

1989 and 1990 were the peak years of my brother and I collecting baseball cards. The years when all the card companies over-produced a ton of cards so they are worth nothing now. But that’s fine with me. I’m glad that the cards are readily available. Collecting cards is fun. It should be affordable.

Now the question is to purchase this collection or not. That’s a lot of card to store!

(The original photo is from store.cardsone.com)

The post The peak years of my card collecting when cards were simply cardboard appeared first on 57 hits.

If you folded that card in half, it drops the condition down to “Very Good” GSA rating of 3.0, making it worth $6,600. That simple fold decreases the card’s value by $123,400.

That’s just too bad. Creases should add value to a card–especially if the crease has a fine art to it.

Take this LA Dodgers card from the 1960 Topps set. I acquired it, along with two other cards for a buck on eBay. The crease mark dances down the center of the card across the seated players and through one of their faces. The subtle movements of this foldmark are like a river, flowing through the lanscape of the card.

Creases across baseball cards are like lightning bolts on cardboard. Starting in the sky, meandering down to the ground, whatever comes across the path of the lightning bolt gets electrified. Crease marks have an excitement about them. I would love for collectors to get more excited about artful crease marks on baseball cards.

The post Fold a baseball card to create excitement appeared first on 57 hits.

Leaf Trading Cards says they listen to their customers. Do they really? I wrote them the following letter:

Brian Gray said at his corporate address Monday that the company’s mission statement is: “Ask people what they want. Listen to what they tell you and give them what they want.”

I’d like to make two points in response Leaf’s mission statement.

Point 1: Affordable cards
I’ll tell you what customers want. Affordable packs their kids can buy. Not expensive rare inserts. That only scares away the general average baseball card fan. High-end collectors love the rare cards, but the everyday fan is immensely turned off by cards that cost in the hundreds of dollars.

The widest range of your customers, is the average American. These people want affordable packs. Packs that do not cost $4 or $5 each. Baseball card packs should cost one dollar or less.

I just bought two boxes of Topps Opening Day, because the packs are a buck each.

You say you want to to hear customer feedback, yet on your own website there is no contact form. There is no email address. Your Facebook Page doesn’t even allow fans to post on your wall. Those are not signs of a company that listens.

I love baseball and I love baseball cards. Please attract new collectors into the industry by making cards people can afford.

I will be very interesting to see if Leaf responds. The only way I could contact them was via a Facebook message.

The post Mission statement of Leaf trading cards appeared first on 57 hits.

Panini America announced on Tuesday that it has signed Stephen Strasburg to an exclusive autograph deal.

Oh wow. I thought Topps had the corner on the market for this. I guess it’s just trading cards that Topps has the monopoly on. Well, good then. I’m happy for Panini. Time for Topps to move over to the side in the area of autographs.

The post Topps giant, not the monopoly in autographs appeared first on 57 hits.

Do you subscribe to Becket Baseball magazine? I haven’t since I was in high school. On the order form they ask for comments, so I let loose:

This is the first time I’ve subscribed to Beckett Baseball since I was in high school in the early 1990s. I’m curious what Beckett Baseball will bring now. One thing I do have to say is that I would like the current covers to be simplified and more classy, like how they were in the early 90s. They didn’t have all those editorial messages plastered over the cover.

Perhaps now that I’m a subscriber, they will listen to my comments.

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