Sculu Sports Blogs

1960 Topps Whitey Ford

PoolOldBaseballCards — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:04:35 +0000

Here’s another classic baseball card that has seen better days.

In 1960, Topps included only the previous year and career totals on the back of the card. Not a big fan.

One of the reasons I cherish looking through old baseball cards is comparing stats through seasons.

I would much rather see year-by-year totals. I would rather see how the player has progressed. I would rather see if a players great season was a fluke.

I’m also not a big fan of the horizontal card.

Except for the 1971 Thurman Munson. That’s a beautifull baseball card.

These Cards are Mine!

CardsOnCards — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:03:58 +0000

Yes, yes, I bet you know where this post is going already. Sometimes I enjoy writing the post titles. Most of the time, however, I just cringe after I read it. This might also be a good time to confess that I don’t really proofread anything I write here because all of my writing generally makes me cringe. Feel free to point out any typos, poor sentence structures, incorrect usage of words or outright slanderous lies (unless they pertain to the Lakers in which case they’re absolutely true!) that you may find along the way.

Oh, yes, the cards! The cards came courtesy of BigD from Hey, That’s Mine! I actually received them well over a month ago, which goes to show how I’ve fallen even further behind on posting about this stuff. I’m making it a goal of mine to get more or less caught up on trade posts by the end of the month, so you may be seeing a lot of these posts for awhile. BigD sent a mix of Cardinals including this Yadier Molina 2006 Ovation insert. I like the card a lot, but it seems like it belongs with something more suitable like the base set. Ovation cards are fancier than this and seem to usually have baseball stitches or some sort of etching to them.

I received both a Sweet Spot and Sweet Spot Update card of Jim Edmonds. I don’t think I’m ready to see him in a Brewers uniform. I also haven’t really looked to find out what his chances are of making the team out of spring training. I would be shocked if Jimmy accepted any sort of minor league assignment and I don’t imagine that there would be a ton of other teams calling, unfortunately, if he doesn’t work out with Milwaukee. The Cardinals are actually rather thin in terms of 4th and 5th outfielder types going into the season, so I actually started to get my hopes up that he might rejoin the team for a short spell.

This card does not look like Albert Pujols. That’s all I can really say about it.

Here’s a card of the Braves new first baseman. Hopefully can rebound from his career-threatening injuries and have a solid year for Atlanta. The 2008 version of Troy Glaus would be incredibly useful to the Cardinals this season, but unfortunately he can’t really throw anymore. By the way, this card is one of the “perforated” parallel cards, but my scanner is unable to scan those without making them look… well… not perforated. So there you go.

I unloaded all of my Dallas Mavericks cards (minus the doubles) on BigD and he paid me big time in mid-to-late ’90s Topps Finest Blazers cards. I’ve never seen so much peel-off protective coating in one place in my life. Some of the Finest cards from this era are as goofy as their baseball counterparts, like this “Heirs” card of Isaiah “J.R.” Rider. What was J.R. an heir to, exactly? It must have been some sort of throne of the King of all of the Morons.

Great looking card of my second-favorite Blazer of all-time. I tend to think all Sabas cards are great, though.

Topps apparently can’t tell the difference between the Detroit Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers. They’re nearly spelled the same and their logos are pretty much identical.

Finally, there were a few cards from the current Panini base set thrown in. This is only my second Travis Outlaw card in my collection as far as I can tell. It was a bit sad to watch him and Steve Blake playing for the Clippers last night on ESPN. I wouldn’t normally stay tuned to a Clippers/Bucks matchup for more than a few seconds, but I had to stick around to watch those guys play.

Thanks again to Hey, That’s Mine!

getting to third base is perfection

GarveyCeyRussellLopes — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:03:10 +0000

i haven’t posted about any ‘perfection on cardboard’ in a while, so i’ll hit two of my favorite cards in this post. it just so happens that this 1992 topps darryl strawberry

and this 1992 upper deck chris gwynn

have more in common than just being two of my favorite cards. i contend that they depict back-to-back plays.

why do i say this? well, they both feature shea stadium as a backdrop. and, you can see that the lurker in strawberry’s card is gwynn pulling into second as strawberry rounds third. note on the scoreboard that it’s the 2nd inning, and the count is 3 balls 2 strikes. then gwynn’s card shows him being forced at third (notice that gregg jefferies’ arm is cocked as if he were going to try for a double play). so, i figured i would try to find a game that featured the dodgers at shea in 1991, with gwynn, strawberry and a force of gwynn at third.

how about july 21, 1991? dodgers at mets. strawberry singles off of dwight gooden to start the 2nd. gwynn walks. lenny harris singles on a 3-2 pitch, with strawberry scoring and gwynn stopping at second. mike scioscia grounds to third, and jefferies forces gwynn but is unable to get either harris or the speedy scioscia at first. i think we have a match.

for those of you expecting something along the lines of meat loaf, phil rizzuto, and ellen foley, go here instead.

here’s to you, 1992 topps darryl strawberry and 1992 upper deck chris gwynn - ‘on a hot summer night’ you were perfect.

steve sax is ef hutton’s homeboy

GarveyCeyRussellLopes — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:03:09 +0000

or maybe charles schwab’s.

roberto at vin scully is my homeboy recently caught up with the former nl roy over the phone. i am guessing that saxy is recommending that we buy shares in the monty burns casino.

1961 Post Gil Hodges

PoolOldBaseballCards — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:48:20 +0000

So I was looking through a box of beat-up cards and really wanted to pick something different for this post.

This 1961 cereal card is unique enough, and then I realized this is the first mention of Gil Hodges on this blog.

While I am too young to ever remember Hodges as a player, he’s one of those guys you’d read about while studying baseball’s heyday. I wasn’t sure if I remembered him more for his numbers or the fact that he was one of the old “Boys of Summer” Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s.

So I took a minute to actually look up his accomplishments:
• 3 time World Series champ
• 3 time gold glove winner
• 8 time all-star
• Lou Gehrig award winner

The numbers aren’t bad. But then I learned of his early death at 47 and that he was beloved by teammates.

A nice card of a nice player.

Boom!

NightOwlCards — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:18:34 +0000

Topps has done a dangerous, dangerous thing. It has put its vast catalog of cards in image form on its Million Card Giveaway site.

I often insist on using only the scans from my collection for this blog, unless a post absolutely requires the image of a card that I don’t have. But with Topps’ MCG site, I almost never have to scan in a vintage card again.

That would be very lazy of me. So I’m going to try very hard not to use the MCG site as a crutch. But because I don’t have some of these George Scott cards for this “Best of the ’70s” post, and because it’s still freakin’ March, the most kick-my-ass month on God’s green earth, all of these scans were filched.

For the record, the 1970s Topps Scott cards that I do have are from 1971, ‘73, ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, ‘78 and ‘79. I will gladly accept your 1970, 1972 and 1977 Scotts.

All right, you know the format: I show the 1970s cards from one of the decade’s more notable players. You pick the one you like in the best in the poll on the sidebar at right. After a week, we have the “Official Best ’70s Card of George Scott,” preserved forever and ever.

Here we go …

Behold: It’s Boomer!

1970 Topps: What a great card. This sums up Boomer very well. I like a lot of these cards, but this could be my favorite.

1971 Topps: Another favorite. I first saw this card when I was a teenager and instantly wanted it for my collection. But I didn’t obtain it until many years later.

1972 Topps: Ugh. Not a nice card of the just-traded Mr. Scott. Very disappointing for one of my favorite sets.

1973 Topps: This card was featured sideways on the Million Card site. As I mentioned once before, Scott and Bert Campaneris appear to have been cut out of some other photo and placed in another stadium. That is almost as bad as that Manny Ramirez card from Stadium Club a couple of years ago.

1974 Topps: Scott either just hit a titanic home run or skied one to second base.

1975 Topps: The first appearance of Scott’s puka shell necklace, or whatever it was. Scott solidified his selection for the I’m Badass and You’re Not Club by claiming it was strung with second basemen’s teeth.

1976 Topps: A classic card. The first card of Scott I ever saw. This is the ‘76 set done right.

1977 Topps: An up-close shot of the shells and Scott’s helmet, which he wore while batting and fielding. For a varition on the helmet, see this card.

1978 Topps: You’ll be happy to know that on the Million Card site, Scott’s card is listed with the name of Paul Moskau, a pitcher for the Reds. If you look up Scott’s card, the card picture is of Moskau.

This is another one of my favorites from when I was a kid. Scott was enormously popular at that time, so it was a great card to have.

1979 Topps: Scott’s final appearance as a Red Sox player and the penultimate card of his career. Not a great card to end the decade.

OK, time to vote. Remember, you have a better chance of having your favorite George Scott card selected than winning your NCAA tournament pool.

Oh, and aren’t you glad I didn’t use “Great Scott” for the post title?

Card Corner Radio Update

VoiceoftheCollector — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:06:02 +0000

Many of you know I got my start at this sports trading card content producing thing through Card Corner Club in 2003 and one of the things I most enjoyed was doing radio, be it at live events like the National or podcasts. The advent of Web 2.0 has created new opportunities in this medium and I very proud to be co-hosting a regular show on Fridays at 11pm CST on Blog Talk Radio.

We had our trial run tonight to get used to the navigation, switchboard, etc. It was great talking to former public relations frontman at Upper Deck Justin, Ryan from Sports Card News and Marie from A Cardboard Problem. My co-host and co-founder of Card Corner, Doug Cataldo L-O-V-E-S giving stuff away so for those of you who need an incentive, FREE schwag is available. The show will run for an hour and then be available on demand. The first episode is available here.

So join us every Friday to talk about The Hobby. http://blogtalkradio.com/card-corner-club1

Cavaliers-Bulls, Box

cbssportschicago — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:01:04 +0000

Acie Law gives Bulls points off the bench

cbssportschicago — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:01:04 +0000

King-sized question: Will James leave Cavaliers?

cbssportschicago — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:01:04 +0000