Baseball Happenings Podcast: Recent Episodes
Nick Diunte
Searching for a podcast that celebrates baseball's culture? Join Nick Diunte on the Baseball Happenings Podcast as we cover all of the bases with interviews from players, authors, and trendsetters. Join us on the web - www.baseballhappenings.net
| | | Tom Qualters, pictured here on his 1955 Topps card, passed away February 15, 2024. |
In 1953, the Philadelphia Phillies gave pitching phenom Tom Qualters a $40,000 contract, immediately making him their highest paid player, eclipsing the combined salaries of his Hall of Fame teammates Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts. The fresh-faced right-hander quickly earned the nickname “Moneybags” and became the poster boy for the bonus rule, which required teams to keep a player on the active roster if his bonus exceeded $4,000. “It was somebody — a newspaper guy — who started that,” Qualters said about the nickname’s origin during a 2008 interview from his home.
Qualters died February 15, 2024 in Somerset, PA. He was 88. When we spoke in 2008, his memories were sharp, and he didn't hold back about his rushed entrance to the majors.
Bonus Baby Blues Some teams struck gold with their “bonus baby” signings, producing Hall of Fame talents such as Sandy Koufax and Al Kaline. However, others turned a cold shoulder to players like Qualters. He pitched just one game on the mound during the two years the Phillies were required to keep him on the roster.
“That was about the worst rule they could have ever done,” he said. “You had to stay there two years. I was there 1953–54 and a little bit of 1955. … Basically, I was a batting practice pitcher. That was a sad thing. A lot of guys were in the same situation.”
The Phillies front office had different plans for Qualters. They shielded him from major league competition until he finished his mandated service time. For two years Qualters suffered on the bench while teammates resented him for holding a valued roster spot hostage.
“For some reason, the management in Philadelphia had this theory that if I went out there and got beat up, that it would ruin me,” he said. “What a bunch of bulls–t that was. It was the most frustrating period in my life. I hated being there. Some [players] were really good to me, and others ignored me altogether.
“I didn’t belong there. All I was doing was taking up space for someone who was a major league player. Imagine how that made me feel; I’m hurting the team, not helping them. I’m not even getting a chance to go out there and learn the game. It was two years out of my life that was totally a waste. You can sit there, talk and listen to guys — sure I got an education about the game, but it’s not like being on the field and playing it. You can’t learn to play the game by sitting on the bench. I could have bought a ticket. It was just a horrible thing.”
Supportive Teammates Not all of the players, however, turned their backs on Qualters. He made it a point to acknowledge those who looked out for him.
“There were some guys who were very kind,” he said. “Robin Roberts and Curt Simmons were super guys. Jim Konstanty was [also] nice. There were other guys who didn’t want anything to do with me. As time wore on it got better and it wasn’t a personal thing anymore.”
Satchel Paige IntervenesQualters was relieved when the Phillies sent him to their Reidsville, North Carolina, Class B team. From there he was promoted to their Triple A team in Miami. With the Marlins, he linked up with Satchel Paige and thrived under the Hall of Famer’s tutelage.
After a shaky Triple A debut, Qualters showed up to the ballpark still doubting his abilities. The ageless Paige knew something was off about his new teammate.
“I’m sitting down in the bullpen, Satch sits down beside me and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’” Qualters recalled. “He recognized there was something wrong with me by the way I was acting. I did not know what to do so I just flat out told him that I did not have the courage to play the game and that I shook all over, etc. He called me Climber. He said, ‘Imma tell ya, Climber, them sons of bit–es can beat ya, but they can’t eat ya!’”.
Paige’s words were just the right recipe to help Qualters get through tough times on the mound. It was the push he needed to move forward with his career.
“Another tight game and I get called up there and I just get the shakes again,” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘You sons of bit–es, you can beat me but you can’t eat me!’ It was all over from then on; I couldn’t wait to get out there.”
Baseball Card Legacy Qualters eventually made it back to the Phillies briefly in 1957 before resurfacing with the Chicago White Sox in 1958. His time in Chicago led a 1959 Topps card appearance. Even though he pitched only 43 innings, he said that didn’t make a difference to the baseball card manufacturer.
“They didn’t care what you did or didn’t do, as long as you were on the team [you had a card],” he said.
Fifty years later, the amount of fan mail he received after being on the team for only one season still amazed him. Topps even had him sign 300 cards for their 2008 Topps Heritage set.
“It’s been crazy the last 4–5 years,” he said. “I probably get 3–4 of them per week. I have a card from 1959 when they went to the World Series. I didn’t even play [for the White Sox] in 1959, that’s when I hurt my arm. A guy came here with 300 cards I had to autograph and [Topps] paid me money for it.”
I originally wrote this article for the Wax Pack Gods website.
Charlie Maxwell's journey to becoming a celebrated Major League Baseball player was marked by perseverance through adversity. The Detroit Tigers fan favorite made it to All-Star status after almost giving up on the game early in his career. Maxwell, a Paw Paw, Michigan legend, died December 27, 2024. He was 97. The Boston Red Sox initially signed Maxwell in 1947 after serving in World War II, and he excelled in the minors, particularly with the Louisville Colonels in Triple-A. However, his tenure with Boston proved frustrating. Despite hitting close to .400 in Louisville and breaking home run records, Maxwell rarely saw playing time in the majors. Repeated call-ups and demotions left him disheartened, and he nearly quit baseball due to the lack of opportunities.
Reflecting on his time with Boston, Maxwell said in a 2008 phone interview, "They'd call me to Boston, they wouldn't play me for a few weeks, and send me back down. I didn't like that too well. I was doing so good at Louisville, hitting almost .400 a few times, but I never got to play in Boston."
His frustration peaked when management repeatedly misled him about playing time.
"They said I was going to play and never did. Nobody ever told me why," he said.
One incident encapsulated his discontent.
"I got to Chicago, I was there for three weeks and never got into a game—not even to pinch-hit. Then they sent me back to Louisville. I said, 'I'm not going to go.' I went back home and stayed for a week before they found me."
Breakthrough in Detroit Maxwell’s career took a turn for the better when he joined the Detroit Tigers. Unlike in Boston, he finally got the chance to play regularly.
"In Detroit, Jim Delsing was struggling, and they never could get me out. I got the chance to play regularly, which I didn’t get in Boston," Maxwell said.
This shift allowed him to showcase his talent and establish himself as a reliable hitter. One of his defining moments came in a doubleheader, where he hit four home runs in a single day. Maxwell credited his success in Detroit to the opportunities he received and the chance to finally play without being overlooked.
"I was leading the team in homers, but I couldn’t even play,” he said. “The coaches made up the lineup, and that was the day I hit the four home runs. We won 12-15 in a row after that before getting beat."
Memorable Moments Maxwell’s early years in the majors included unforgettable highlights. In 1951, his first three major league home runs were hit off Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Bob Feller, and Bob Lemon. He recounted his grand slam against Paige with pride.
"I faced him the day before, and he struck me out on a hesitation pitch," he said. "The next day, I said, 'Well, I’ll be ready for that one,' and that’s when I hit the grand slam off him in St. Louis."
Reflections on the Game and Management Maxwell spoke candidly about the challenges players faced during his era. He criticized the way minor league stars were often overlooked for major league roles and how poor management decisions could derail careers.
"There were guys playing regularly in the majors that didn’t compare to the guys in the minors trying to come up. A lot of players quit because of this," he said.
He had little respect for managers like Bill Norman, who Maxwell felt mismanaged the Tigers.
"Norman was one of the worst managers," Maxwell said. "It was chaos from day one. He was playing guys that shouldn’t be playing."
Similarly, he expressed frustration with Al Lopez.
"Lopez would make players look bad," he said. "He’d wait until a guy got out to the field, then send someone to replace him. I never played with a manager that made players do those things."
The All-Star Experience Maxwell made it to two All-Star games (1956-1957), but described it as underwhelming compared to today’s spectacle.
"It wasn’t one of the highlights of my 14 years in the majors," he admitted. "There were no parties, no cocktail hours—nothing for the players except playing the game. By the time the game was over, most of the regulars were gone. It didn’t feel like an All-Star Game looking back."
Retirement and Life After BaseballBy the time Maxwell retired at 37, he knew it was time to move on.
"You know because you aren’t quick enough with your hands," he said.
While he believed he could have extended his career as a designated hitter, the role didn’t exist at the time.
"Back then, if you couldn’t play regularly, they didn’t want you."
Maxwell transitioned into business, finding success and fulfillment in manufacturing.
"I enjoyed competing in the business world," he said. "Even today, I can’t watch a game more than an inning or two. I have other interests. I got tired of competing in sports and enjoyed competing in business instead."
"I enjoyed my time in baseball, but I’ve enjoyed life after baseball just as much."
| | | Chase Budinger at the 2018 AVP NYC Open / Mpu Dinani |
Fans watching the 2024 Paris Olympics see a familiar face in Chase Budinger, but playing in a less-than-familiar arena on the sand. The NBA veteran made the switch to beach volleyball in 2018 after seven-year NBA career, focusing on making the Olympics in his first love, beach volleyball. Below is a 2018 interview I conducted with Budinger in New York City, just as he started on his Olympic journey. We discussed his transition, as well as how he was tested guarding LeBron James and Kevin Durant, both who have joined Budinger as 2024 Olympians.
Making The Switch Entering this year’s AVP Gold Series in New York City, there was a big question mark as to whether Chase Budinger was truly ready to compete at the top tier of professional beach volleyball. Skeptics were weary of the 6’7″ California native, as he just returned to the sand this winter after capping a seven-year NBA career—as well as a season playing in Europe.
Spending the weekend playing alongside two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal, the pair came away with a fifth-place finish—led by Budinger flashing dominant stretches at the net both blocking and hitting.
“I had a good run,” Budinger said at the 2018 AVP Gold Series last weekend in New York City. “[I had] three great years at Arizona, seven years in the NBA, and one overseas professionally. This winter, I didn’t want to go back overseas, and pretty much Sean [Rosenthal] came calling. It was the right fit and the perfect timing for me to make the transition.”
For those inside of the volleyball community, Budinger’s prowess is of little surprise. He was one of the most lauded prep stars in California’s history. He was Volleyball Magazine’s 2006 National High School Player of the Year. However, he was also the co-MVP of the 2006 McDonald’s All-American basketball game alongside Kevin Durant. When it came time to choose a college, he could not resist Hall of Famer coach Lute Olson’s pitch to focus solely on basketball at the University of Arizona.
“I pretty much went to Arizona because of Lute Olson,” he said. “Looking at that team, I felt like I could play right away and he had high expectations for me. … My three final schools were Arizona, UCLA, and USC. If I chose the other two schools, I would have played both [sports] … At that time I pretty much put it in my head to get away from volleyball and focus on just basketball and see how far basketball could take me.”
Committing To TrainingOnce he committed to returning to his volleyball roots, Budinger leaned on Rosenthal’s two decades of professional beach volleyball experience for support. Training together for the past six months, Budinger has tried to soak up as much knowledge as he could while building their partnership.
“It has definitely been a learning curve for me,” he admits. “There has been a lot of learning on the fly just because it comes so quickly. We started in late January teaming up and practicing. For now, communicating is the biggest thing while working together at every practice just picking each other’s brain, me especially picking his brain.”
Even though it is early in the beach volleyball season, the duo are already showing signs that they will be a formidable team for the rest of the summer. At the first AVP stop in Austin, Texas, they lost both of their matches en route to a 13th-place finish. But just a few short weeks later in New York City, the pair had a breakthrough performance that put them within a few points of advancing to the semi-finals.
“Every tournament is going to be really helpful for us getting that game experience,” he said. “For me, it’s really just about repetitions and game experience. It seems like you play these guys over and over in the AVP. I am so new to these guys and they are to me, but eventually you’ll start getting some reads on these guys. Taking it all in, I knew this first year was going to be a lot ups and downs for me.”
In most professional sports leagues, a 30-year-old rookie would be far from prospect status. But in the world of beach volleyball, the top talents peak in their late 30s, with many competing well into their 40s. Budinger felt that he is right on time to make an impact on the tour.
“I want to play for a long time,” he said. “I think I started at a good time. I’m still young. Volleyball players can play for a long time in their 40s; that is at least another ten years for me. That is kind of the goal, to play for ten years. When I made the transition, I always knew that in the back of my mind that I wanted to go back to volleyball and the only way that I was going to permit it was if my body could hold up. I think I came here at a time when I am still athletic, still can jump, and still can play.”
Guarding The Greats Budinger’s showing in New York City came on the heels of the Golden State Warriors winning the NBA championship. Playing as a small forward in the NBA, he had the daunting task of guarding both LeBron James and the aforementioned Kevin Durant. Taking a moment to reflect on how he approached defending both superstars, he explained the nearly impossible task of stopping them.
“They’re un-guardable,” he admitted. “I had to try to guard Kevin and LeBron. Those two guys are just unbelievable. Durant, the way he could handle the ball, it is just unreal for being 6’11”. His handle makes him everything, just how he could cross people up, get into the lane and get to his spots. Once he gets to his spots, all he needs to do is jump and shoot over you and you can’t do anything about it.
“LeBron is just a bully. If he knows that he’s bigger than you, he’s just going to bully you and you can’t do anything. That’s what happened to me.”
So, does Budinger’s experience of going up against arguably two of the best basketball players of his generation transfer to the volleyball court? He said it’s another world where facing those legends earn you no points on the sand.
“It’s different,” Budinger says. “I just put my basketball days back and enjoy the memories I had from them. Out here, the energy is completely different. I will take all of the work ethic and approach that I learned over the years [playing basketball] to this game. But as far as playing against those guys, it doesn’t mean anything here.”
The issue of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights has become a hottopic in the sports world, especially in collegiate athletics. However, theconversation around NIL rights is also gaining traction in youth sports,particularly concerning organizations like Perfect Game. Sports agent Josh Kusnick,who is ensnared in a lawsuit with Perfect Game, shed light on the pressing needfor reform in a recent interview. Perfect Game originally hired Kusnick to develop NFTs and consult fortheir expansion into trading cards and memorabilia. As talks soured,Kusnick went public with his dealings with Perfect Game. The amateur baseballgiant sued Kusnick for defamation, claiming his statements affected their licensingdeal with an immensely popular trading card maker.
We've got a new lawsuit involving trading cards to talk about! It's...well...basically Perfect Game v. Joshua Kusnick...and it's a defamation/libel/slander lawsuit.
Who wants to do a (kinda) live-read of this?
(Kinda, because I skimmed it already) pic.twitter.com/DLM0q3Rusy
— Paul Lesko (@Paul_Lesko) June 13, 2024
Kusnick recently filed amotion to dismiss, with a lengthy 400-page document filled with revealing details he hopes will clear his name.
Conditional Participation and Inadequate CompensationOne of the most contentious issues is the conditional nature ofparticipation in Perfect Game’s events. Kusnick highlighted Perfect Gameforcing players to sign over their NIL rights as a prerequisite forparticipation. This practice not only exploits young athletes but also raisesethical concerns about commodifying children's talents.
"If you sign a permission slip and you go to a Perfect Game event,they can make stuff of your kid from that event,” Kusnick said. “So, like, ifyour kid's 12 and he becomes Mike Trout, they can make a card of him when he's,like, 12. They can make cards of 12-year-old you forever and not pay you forit."
**| | | Perfect Game NIL Release - Kusnick's Motion To Dismiss |
The Value of Every Athlete**Kusnick stressed the importance of recognizing the value of everyathlete, not just the elite performers. He challenged the notion that onlystandout athletes deserve compensation.
"Think about what that kid's worth to mom and dad, and that's whatthey're looking at,” he said. “Yes. And that's not me talking. No. I'm telling you;I was in those rooms. … The contributions of all athletes, regardless of theircurrent skill level, are vital to the success of youth sports events.Recognizing and compensating these contributions is not just a legal obligation,but also an ethical imperative."
The Need for Reform and TransparencyAs NIL rights gain recognition and legal backing, significant reforms areneeded in youth sports organizations. Kusnick called for transparency and fairpolicies that compensate all athletes for their contributions.
"The absence of a robust NIL model in organizations like PerfectGame reflects a reluctance to adapt to the changing landscape,” he said. “Thecurrent approach, which requires athletes to sign over their NIL rights withoutcompensation, is incompatible with the evolving legal and ethical standards ofthe sports industry."
Perfect Game’s Business Model: A Closer LookPerfect Game's business model is another point of contention. Accordingto Kusnick, the organization's revenues have historically come primarily fromon-field tournaments. However, recent management shifts indicate a significantportion of their revenue now comes from other sources, such as merchandise and branding opportunities.
"When they took over, 95% of the business revenues came from theon-field tournaments, right?” he said. “That was the product and the model.Most of the money comes from the games, but then they started branching out.”
In Kusnick’s motion, he filed Perfect Game’s contract with Leaf, showinga $275,000 deal between the two companies for the trading card rights for PerfectGame’s events.
| | | Leaf / Perfect Game Contract - Kusnick's Motion To Dismiss |
As these young athletes help to generate additional revenue for PerfectGame, Kusnick feels this is a situation where these players can no longer allowPerfect Game to exploit their talents.
"If 35% of your revenues are not on-field tournaments and it'sadvertising, baseball cards, bat companies and all the other stuff that you'rebragging, I'm sorry, what is that called, then?” he said. “Explain that to melike I'm stupid, like you described in the first sentence."
Potential Privacy ConcernsAnother issue Kusnick brought up in his motion, as well as our conversation, was access to personal information. He explained how anyone can purchase Perfect Game's Scout level plan for $799.99/yr to gain contact information for all Perfect Game athletes. While this information might be useful for scouts, Kusnick alleged this access is unchecked without a screening process, allowing any person willing to pay the fee to have address and phone contact data. This little-known feature opens a major question about privacy concerns with how Perfect Game does or does not protect their data.
| | | Perfect Game Scout Access / Kusnick's Motion To Dismiss |
Embracing a Fair FutureThe handling of NIL rights in youth sports is at a critical juncture. Kusnick’shopes this legal battle pushes organizations like Perfect Game to adapt to thechanging landscape and implement transparent and equitable NIL policies.
"This is not just a legal obligation but a step towards fostering afair and respectful environment for all athletes,” he said. “Embracing thesechanges is essential for ensuring a just and equitable future in youthsports."
| | | DJ Groove Da Moast |
We take a short break from the baseball happenings to salute two hip hop pioneers, DJ Mark The 45 King and DJ Groove Da Moast. Sadly, both DJs died within a week from each other in October 2023, but we have this gem from The Formula Radio Show archives connecting the two legends. In February 2005, DJ Mark The 45 King was the show's featured guest, masterfully spinning exclusive tracks from his personal archives.
DJ Groove Da Moast (aka Fredy Blast) followed The 45 King with a tribute set of his own, expertly mixing up 45 King's classics. DJ Skeme Richards and Primetime provide the commentary in between the mixes, giving you a slice of the hip hop landscape at the time.
Roger Craig, the split-fingered fastball master, who was part of Brooklyn's only World Series championship in 1955, died June 4, 2023 at the age of 93. The 12-year major league veteran later became the long-time San Francisco Giants manager from 1985-1992.
| | | Roger Craig Throws Out First Pitch In 2012 At Citi Field / Mets |
I wrote the following piece below for Metsmerized Online after interviewing Craig when he returned to New York in 2012 to throw out the first pitch at Citi Field. He celebrated his 50th year as an "Original Met" and relished discussing his playing career in both Brooklyn and Queens.
Roger Craig holds a special place in New York baseball
history lore, carrying the distinction of the first pitcher to take the mound
for the New York Mets, as well as being a member of Brooklyn’s lone World
Series championship team. At 89, Craig has outlasted nearly all of his peers
that made the Brooklyn-heavy component of the 1962 Mets inaugural season.
Growing up in North Carolina, the lanky 6’4” pitcher faced a strong pull from another sport, basketball. He spent one year as a guard on North Carolina State’s freshman basketball team playing for the legendary Everett Case. While the opportunity to learn from a pioneer such as Case was tempting, it was not enough to compete with Brooklyn’s $6,000 bonus offer.
“I went to North Carolina State on a basketball scholarship,” Craig said. “When baseball season came around I talked to my dad [and told him] I wanted to drop out of school and play baseball and that is what happened. I dropped out and signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.”
The Dodgers assigned Craig to their Class B team in Newport News to start the 1950 season. Still a teenager, Craig quickly discovered he was in well over his head.
“I was surprised they started me there,” he said. “That was a high way to start a young guy. I was 18 or 19. I started out in Newport News, and Al Campanis was the manager; I was really wild, and he sent me down to Valdosta, Georgia.”
With Craig in the modern day equivalent of rookie ball at Class D Valdosta, he was in the proper atmosphere for his skills to grow. Judging by how he explained it, his performance was far from perfect.
“I led the league in wins, strikeouts, base on balls, hit batsmen — everything,” he said.
While he was in Valdosta, Craig made the first of his Dodgers-Mets connections when he teamed up with a 20-year-old catcher named Joe Pignatano. He immediately noted the spark of his Brooklyn-born batterymate.
“Joe was a fiery competitor,” he said. “He went to the major leagues and became a great coach for a long time with the Mets.”
Before Craig could really mend his control as well as fortify his relationship with Pignatano, Uncle Sam arrived with a new uniform. The Army assigned him to a post in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where he stayed for two years (1952-53) while many of his peers went overseas to Korea.
“The military really helped me because I was a basketball and baseball player,” he said. “All of my buddies went to Korea, and I stayed there and played sports. I had three catchers [who helped me], Haywood Sullivan, Frank “Big” House, and Ed Bailey. They said, ‘Kid, you have good stuff and a chance to play in the big leagues.’ They helped me, worked with me, and gave me a lot of confidence. I think I was 17-2 and 16-1 in two years down there.”
Just as Craig was to return to the Dodgers in 1954 after completing his military service, he suffered a cruel twist of fate that delayed his big league dreams.
“The day before I went to spring training, I was playing basketball to keep in shape,” he said. “I intercepted a pass, and a guy bumped me; I fell and broke my left elbow. I happened to have a family doctor; I talked to him and told him I had to go to spring training tomorrow. I told him to put an ace bandage on it and let me go to spring training. Finally, I talked him into it. I went to spring training and did not tell anybody for a week or two.
“Finally, Al Campanis came over, grabbed my left arm, and squeezed it. He said, ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ I told him the fracture was small but had gotten bigger since spring training. When I played catch with my catcher down there, I told him not to throw the ball back too hard because I had a sore hand. If they threw it too hard, I’d let it go.”
His injury set off a true season beating the bushes, as Craig bounced around three teams in the Dodgers organization. He finally settled in with their Class B team in Newport News for the majority of the 1954 season.
With his impressive performance for Newport News in 1954, the Dodgers promoted Craig to their Triple-A team in Montreal for the 1955 campaign. After breezing through the league with a 10-2 record, Craig received a call to meet with his manager while the team played a series in Havana, Cuba. What happened next not only was a shock for Craig, but also for another of his future Hall of Fame teammates.
“When I got called to the big leagues, Tom Lasorda and I both pitched a doubleheader and [we] both pitched shutouts,” he said. “The next morning, the manager Greg Mulleavy called me in his office in Havana, Cuba. I said, ‘What the heck is going on? I went out and had a couple of beers.’ He said, ‘You’re pitching Sunday.’ I said, ‘I know, you already told me that.’ He said, ‘You’re pitching Sunday in Brooklyn!’ What a shock. Tommy was upset because he didn’t get called up.”
Pitching in Ebbets Field on a Sunday, Craig led the Boys of Summer to a 6-2 complete game victory. The man who went to North Carolina State with visions of hoop dreams was now standing tall on the mound as Brooklyn’s newest favorite son.
“When I first walked in that clubhouse with Jackie, Pee Wee, Duke, Furillo, and all those great Hall of Famers, I said, ‘I don’t belong here, what am I doing here?’” Craig said. “They made me feel welcome. I was lucky enough I pitched the first game of a doubleheader we played and beat Cincinnati with a complete game three-hitter victory.”
The Dodgers kept Craig on their roster throughout the rest of the regular season and the postseason. With the 1955 World Series knotted at two games apiece between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees, Dodgers manager Walter Alston called upon the rookie to give them the edge in the series.
“About the World Series, I pitched pretty well all year,” he said. “We lost the first two and won the next two. I told Joe Becker the bullpen coach, ‘I’ve gotta throw some.’ After I had thrown about ten minutes, he told me, ‘Sit down, you’ve had enough.’”
Craig did not immediately understand why his coach told him to stop throwing. That evening, after the Dodgers Game 4 win, Walter Alston made it evident why they wanted him to rest.
“He didn’t tell me then, but Walter Alston called and told him to sit me down,” he said. “We win the game. I go to the clubhouse, sit in front of my locker, and Alston walked up and said, ‘How do you feel?’ I said, ‘I feel great, I haven’t pitched.’ He said, ‘Well you’re starting tomorrow!’ I think Newcombe and Erskine were ready to pitch. I pitched six innings and we ended up getting a win. That was a great thrill.”
Fifty-seven years later when the Mets invited Craig to throw out the first pitch in 2012, all of his memories of World Series victory came screaming back as he toured New York City.
“My wife and I were here in New York and I threw out the first pitch for the Mets because I pitched the first game 50 years ago,” he said. “We stayed in Times Square and I remember the night I won my World Series game — my mother was there, my brother and my wife were with me, and I was on a TV show with Floyd Patterson.”
“After the show was over, we went to Jack Dempsey’s restaurant. He found out I was there and he sat down and talked with me. We came out and they had that big display in Times Square with the names going across it. My brother said, ‘Look up there, ‘Roger Craig beat the Yankees.’ It had my name up there. They got a big kick out of that.”
As the Dodgers emerged victorious over the Yankees to bring home Brooklyn’s first and only World Series championship, the young rookie was unaware of the moment’s significance. While he and the other upstarts were celebrating with hollered emotions, Craig noticed something different with the veterans.
“One thing about after the game was over, we were in the clubhouse and everyone was celebrating and drinking Schaefer and Rheingold beer,” he said. “All of the young guys, Roebuck, Bessent, Spooner, and myself were having a good time. You looked around, and all these guys, Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, Pee Wee Reese, and Duke Snider had tears in their eyes. I just realized that they had not won in so long and it was the first time they ever won it.”
“To get to this point and all, they all got very emotional. It was really something to witness. We just quieted down and let them be themselves.”
Craig stayed with the Dodgers as they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. As one of the newer players on the Brooklyn team, he did not have the same attachment as his teammates who had planted their roots over a decade earlier.
“I was a young rookie and all that,” he said. “I was such a young guy and didn’t really see the total impact of guys like Gil, Erskine, Newcombe, Duke, and Campanella. A lot of the other guys did not want to leave. I am surprised that some of them even went.”
As he reflected further on the move, Craig realized how both National League teams’ westward migration opened the door for fresh New York Mets allegiances.
“I read the book O’Malley wrote about all the things he went through to build a stadium,” he said. “It was a bold move to do something like that. He talked Stoneham into going with the Giants. To move two clubs —that is why the Mets had such great fans. The Giants and Dodgers fans did not want to be Yankee fans. They were great Mets fans and it helped.”
As the Mets tried to capitalize on those nostalgic hopes that Craig noted, he and Gil Hodges were amongst the many former Dodgers that the Mets selected in the 1961 expansion draft. As sentiment has grown for Hodges’ Hall of Fame induction, Craig shared what made his late teammate special.
“He was the nicest individual I ever met in my life, on the field or off the field,” Craig noted. “He was a real professional and a gentleman. I could see why he was a great manager. He was a great hitter, but also probably, the best defensive first baseman I have seen. He was a catcher too; he could catch if he wanted to. He would have pine tar over his hands all the time. I would take a brand new ball and throw it over to him, he would rub it one time and it would have pine tar all over it. Sometimes the cover would be loose because he had those big strong hands. He was a great guy to play with.”
Craig was a mainstay in the Mets rotation during their first two seasons, pitching in 88 games, 27 of them complete games. He played an additional three years afterward, wrapping up his 12-year major league career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1966. While he took the brunt of 46 losses with Mets, often with little to no run support, he still found happiness being in the company of familiar faces.
“It was like you had gone to a new team and all that, but with all those guys that played with Brooklyn and Los Angeles, it wasn’t that bad,” he said. “We just kinda had the good camaraderie right away, Don Zimmer, Gus Bell, Frank Thomas, Richie Ashburn, Hobie [Landrith], Felix Mantilla, etc. You think with those names that we would have won more games than we did, but it just didn’t happen.”
Fred Valentine, former major league outfielder with the Washington Senators and Baltimore Orioles, died December 26, 2022 in Washington D.C. He was 87.
Valentine grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he excelled at Booker T. Washington High School in both baseball and football. A star quarterback and shortstop, he drew interest from multiple major league organizations out of high school; however, he decided to pursue his education at Tennessee A+I (now Tennessee State University).
At his college football coach's behest, Valentine chose to sign with the Baltimore Orioles in 1956, despite offers from NFL teams.
Like many Black players in his era, Valentine endured Jim Crow segregation in the South while playing in places like Wilson, North Carolina. Minor leaguers frequently received gifts from local businesses for stellar play. When Valentine went to collect his rewards, he was instantly reminded of the inequities he was fighting to escape.
"When I won something," Valentine said in Bob Luke's Integrating the Orioles, "which I did often, I couldn't go in the front door. I'd have to go around back. If it was a meal, they'd box it up for me."
Valentine persisted in the minors, receiving a call-up to Baltimore in 1959. He joined a select group of major leaguers who played through MLBs first decade of integration. His time with Baltimore was short-lived, as he spent the next four seasons at AAA trying to work his way back to the big time.
He caught his big break in 1964 when the Senators purchased his contract from the Orioles. Valentine's hustling spirit drew manager Gil Hodges' favor, something that resonated with Valentine over 50 years later when discussing his late manager.
“The biggest thing I remember from Gil was that when I came [to] spring training, the only thing he asked was for 100 percent," Valentine said in 2018. "Regardless of how the game turned out, he just wanted a hundred percent from his players, and I always felt I didn't have any problems with that. He was going to give me an opportunity to play, and I told him I was going to give him a 110 percent, and I think I did.”
Valentine played with the Senators through 1968, even earning MVP votes in 1966. A midseason trade returned Valentine to the Orioles to finish his major league career. He played one more season in the minors in 1969 and then spent the 1970 season playing for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan.
In retirement, Valentine worked with a group of former major leaguers to establish the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association in 1982. He remained active in many charities, including the Firefighters Charitable Foundation, where he was an annual guest at their dinners and golf outings.
In 1971, Mike Vail and Randy Poffo were anonymous teenagers at the entry level of the St. Louis Cardinals farm system, eagerly trying to navigate the murky depths of professional baseball. Both would go on to garner national attention for their athletic feats. However, only one of them made their calling on the diamond.
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Darius Dutton “Dave” Hillman, a former major league pitcher and the oldest living member of the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets, died Sunday, November 20, 2022 in Kingsport, Tennessee. He was 95. In eight big-league seasons spanning from 1955-1962, Hillman pitched for the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Reds and Mets, compiling a won-loss record of 21-37 with a 3.87 earned run average.
Hillman’s best season with the Cubs was in 1959 when he posted an 8-11 mark and 3.58 ERA, completing four games and pitching seven or more innings in nine others. He tossed a two-hit shutout against the Pirates; struck out 11 in seven innings of relief to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers; and in the next-to-last game of the season stopped the Dodgers in their bid to wrap up the National League pennant. The Dodgers were one game ahead of the Milwaukee Braves with two to play. A win over the Cubs and Hillman clinched a tie.
“I went out there, honey, and I’ll never forget the control that I had,” Hillman recalled. “I could thread a damn needle with that ball. I was just sitting back and sh-o-o-o-m-m-m…throwing that thing in there.”
Hillman scattered nine hits and struck out seven in the Cubs’ 12-2 win. The Dodgers ended up beating the Braves in a playoff and winning the World Series. It took Hillman six years to work his way up through the minors to the majors.
| | | Dave Hillman (r.) with Ernie Banks (l.) / Author's Collection |
He started his professional baseball career in 1950, winning 14 games at Rock Hill, South Carolina, in the Class B Tri-State League. He won 20 for Rock Hill in 1951, one of them a no-hitter. He also led the league in strikeouts with 203.Hillman won only eight games the next two seasons, but he notched another no-hitter in 1953, playing for the Springfield, Massachusetts, Cubs in the Class AAA International League. A 16-11 record in 1954 for a seventh-place team, Beaumont, Texas, in the Texas League, earned him a shot with the Cubs.
A sore throwing arm nagged Hillman in 1955 so the next year the Cubs sent him to their Pacific Coast League affiliate, the Los Angeles Angels. Despite missing the first month of the season, his 21-7 record, 3.38 earned run average, three shutouts and 15 complete games paced the Angels pitching staff.
“Dave Hillman was Mr. Automatic,” said Dwight “Red” Adams, a ’56 Angels teammate who went on to become a highly respected pitching coach for the Dodgers.
After the 1959 season, the Cubs traded Hillman to the Red Sox in Major League Baseball’s first inter-league trade. He pitched primarily in relief for the Red Sox in 1960-61 before ending up with the Reds and Mets in 1962.
Hillman appeared in 13 games for the Mets, with no decisions, one save and a 6.42 ERA. When the Mets optioned him to the minors in late June, he headed home to Kingsport to work in a men’s clothing store owned by an uncle. He figured selling shirts and shoes was better than being with the hapless Mets and getting kicked in the pants every time he pitched.
Hillman was born in Dungannon, Virginia, on September 14, 1927, the fifth of seven children. He married his high school sweetheart, Imogene Turner, in 1947 and relocated to Kingsport in 1952.
Hillman is survived by a daughter, Sharon Lake of Portland, Tennessee, three grandchildren and six great grandchildren. His wife, Imogene, died in 2011 and their son, Ron, in 2017.
This obituary was written by author Gaylon H. White, who featured Hillman in his book, The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels*.
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Ted Schreiber experienced every Brooklyn boy’s dream, making it to the major leagues with the New York Mets in 1963 after playing at James Madison High School and St. John’s University. While Schreiber’s MLB career lasted only one season, he represented a rich lineage of ballplayers who cut their teeth at the Parade Grounds on the way to the pros. Sadly, Schreiber died September 8, 2022, at his Boynton Beach, Florida home. He was 84. Born July 11, 1938, Schreiber grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, admiring legends like Duke Snider who would ironically become his teammate on the Mets. Schreiber first cut his teeth playing softball, only picking up baseball at age 15 when he attended high school.
At Madison, Schreiber was a multi-sport star, garnering St. John’s attention in both baseball and basketball, the latter in which he earned All-City honors. At St. John's, Schreiber continued playing both basketball and baseball. With the help of Jack Kaiser’s connections, he signed with the Boston Red Sox in 1959 for a $50,000 bonus spread out over four years. While in the Red Sox’s minor league system, he played with fellow New Yorkers Carl Yastrzemski and his Manhattan College rival Chuck Schilling. Schreiber quickly realized Schilling was blocking his path to the show and rejoiced when the Mets selected him in the Rule V draft at the end of the 1962 season.
As a second baseman, Schreiber faced intense competition on an otherwise hapless Mets team. He told author Bill Ryczek how Charlie Neal made sure the Brooklyn kid was on the field enough to gain manager Casey Stengel’s favor.
“I never had a rabbi with the Mets,” Schreiber said. “Larry Burright had Lavagetto. Ron Hunt had Solly Hemus, though I’ve got to say, he was a really good ballplayer. Another thing against me was that the Daily News and Journal-American were on strike that spring. They might have backed the local boy. If it wasn’t for Charlie Neal giving me some time in spring training, I wouldn’t have had a chance.”
Schreiber made the team out of spring training, but sparingly saw the field. After appearing in only six games, the Mets sent him down to the minor leagues where he could get more playing time. The Mets recalled him in July and remained with the club in a reserve role for the remainder of the season.
On September 18, 1963, Schreiber made history when he played in the final MLB game at the Polo Grounds. The Mets squared off against the Pirates in front of a sparce 1,752 spectators. Pinch hitting in the 9th inning, Schreiber hit a ball he was sure would evade Cookie Rojas’ glove. Rojas turned it into a double play that was the final two outs at the famed stadium.
“Sure, I remember the game because I made the last two outs,” Schreiber told me in 2011. “I thought I had a hit because I hit it up the middle, but Cookie Rojas made a great play on it. … That’s why I’m in the Hall of Fame; they put the ball there because the stadium was closed after that.”
Schreiber tried to hang on in the Mets farm system, but he chose to follow a teaching career which limited his availability to the summers. After doing double duty at Triple-A in 1964 and 1965, Schreiber decided to trade his cleats for chalk as a New York City teacher.
Perhaps Schreiber’s most significant legacy didn't come in a Mets uniform, but was the 27 years he spent as a math and physical education teacher at Charles Dewey Middle School in Sunset Park. He lived in Staten Island until his retirement, moving to Centerville, Georgia, and then settling in Boynton Beach until his passing.
Ed Bauta, a former Cuban pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets died July 6, 2022, at Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin, New Jersey. He was 87. With Bauta’s passing and the recent deaths of Leo Posada and Cholly Naranjo, only a few players remain who played in the Cuban Winter League prior to Castro’s takeover. The 6’3” right-handed pitcher grew up in the town of Florida in Cuba’s Camagüey province. He caught Pittsburgh Pirates scout Howie Haak’s attention at a 1955 tryout in Camagüey and was later signed to the Pittsburgh Pirates with a $500 bonus.
Toiling in the low minors, Bauta returned home to Cuba, but couldn’t latch on with one of the four major teams. “I tried out, but they sent me home,” Bauta said in 2011.
He trained with Marianao as a reserve, but never saw any regular season action. Finally, after a strong showing in A-ball in 1958, he earned a spot on the team. He pitched the final three seasons of the Cuban Winter League, finishing the 1960-61 season with Havana.
“I finally played with Marianao for two years and then ended up with Havana,” he said. “Everybody’s salary was cut in two to help the revolution [the final season].”
Sadly, Bauta had to make the decision, like many of his Cuban brethren to leave his family behind in Cuba after the 1960-61 Winter League season.
“My family house was gone,” he said. “I had a few dollars in the bank and that was gone too.”
Stateside, Bauta continued to make strides towards the major leagues. When the Pirates traded Bauta in 1960 to the Cardinals with Julian Javier, it opened the door for Bauta to make his major league debut. He stayed with the Cardinals for the rest of the 1960 season.
He shuttled between the majors and the minors the next two seasons with the Cardinals, before being traded to the New York Mets for Ken MacKenzie in August 1963. The late-season acquisition allowed Bauta to be a part of Mets history, pitching in the final game at the Polo Grounds on September 18th. The game was played to little fanfare and Bauta didn’t recall much about the game during our 2011 conversation.
Bauta was also connected to another bit in Mets history, as he was the losing pitcher in the first game at Shea Stadium. He came in relief of Jack Fisher in the 7th inning, but couldn’t hold the 3-2 lead, giving up both the tying and go-ahead runs. Less than a month later, Casey Stengel sent Bauta to the minor leagues. It didn’t sit well with the Cuban reliever.
“In 1964, I only pitched eight games,” he said. “They sent me down to Buffalo. I went 8-4. They didn’t send me back up. I got pissed off and quit.”
Bauta never reached the majors despite pitching in the minors and the Mexican League until 1974. He worked in the moving business until 1988 before retiring due to knee problems. In retirement, Bauta kept close contact with fellow Mets and Cardinals pitcher Craig Anderson.
“He knows everything about baseball,” he said. “He’s a hell of a guy.”
At the time of our talk in 2011, Bauta also shared the news of his MLB annuity payments. The union agreed to make annual payments to non-vested players who were on MLB rosters at least 43 days before 1979. While Bauta played in parts of four seasons, he did not play long enough to vest for a pension. He welcomed the extra money.
“We’re really happy about it,” he said.
As spring training emerged in 1994, one manager would be provided with the task of guiding the Seattle Mariners’ highly regarded first round draft pick Alex Rodriguez into the ranks of professional baseball. Mariners general manager Woody Woodward realized the importance of having a seasoned veteran to help the highly touted prospect navigate the nuances of the system. He bestowed that honor to Carlos Lezcano, a former major league outfielder, who played under Woodward’s watch when he was the head coach at Florida State University.
“When they made the rosters and we met before spring training started, I knew there was a good chance that he would start with me,” Lezcano recalled via telephone. “They gave me a lot of responsibility to have the number one draft pick playing for me.”
| | | Alex Rodriguez / Carlos Lezcano 1994 Appleton Foxes Pro Cards / Author's Collection |
Lezcano immediately noticed Rodriguez’s physical gifts during their first spring training encounter. He had a presence on the field that was unparalleled by your typical 18-year-old fresh out of high school.
“The first thing that impressed me was his size—how strong he was, his coordination, and his ability to do things at a young age with that kind of body,” he said. “He had so much talent.”
With Rodriguez oozing potential out of every inch of his six-foot-three frame, Lezcano directed Rodriguez in the ways of carrying himself like a major league ballplayer. This education included navigating the hordes of press that ensued, preparing him for the intense scrutiny that would follow him for the remainder of his career.
“The main thing I had to do with him was help with the media,” he recalled. “He was very mature and he knew how to talk to the press. Everywhere we went, they wanted to talk to him all the time. I had to tell the reporters to interview him the first day we were there and then on the last day. We usually played a four-game series, so we had to give him a break from the press, as it would have been too much for him to be talking to the press every day. I think that helped him. We had him concentrate on his field work and his play on the field. That’s something I had to deal with that I never had to deal with before, or since.”
While Rodriguez showed poise for a teenager dealing with the media, some of his actions still reminded his skipper that he was handling someone who was trying to figure out how to manage his life away from home. Lezcano recounted a time where the mere threat of telling Rodriguez’s mother about his close calls with being late to the ballpark was enough to straighten him out.
“He was never late, but he was cutting it close a couple of times,” he said. “His mother was going to come to visit him to see him play. I told him, ‘You’re a professional baseball player, you’ve gotta be here sooner or I’m going to tell your mother.’ By just saying that to him he was always there earlier and did whatever he had to do. He had a lot of respect for his mother. You could see he was raised the right way.”
Rodriguez played 65 games for Appleton, batting .319 with 14 home runs and 16 stolen bases in 1994, playing barely half the season with Lezcano before he was whisked up the minor league ladder en route to the major leagues. Looking back, Lezcano feels that the minor leagues were a mere formality for Rodriguez and that if the situation presented itself out of spring training, that he could have bypassed the minor leagues entirely.
“I’ve been in baseball 40 years, that kid could have played in the big leagues out of high school,” he said. “With the right situation and the right manager, ability wise he could have played in the big leagues. [Most impressive was] his ability to take instruction into the game so quickly; he’s the fastest guy I’ve ever had [to make adjustments]. Right away he just took it into the game, it was unbelievable.
“At 18, he would hit balls 400 feet. One time I’m coaching third base and he hit a triple and he slides into third base. The guy who caught the ball was 23-24 years old and Alex looked like the man and the other guy looked like the young kid. He was that dominant of a player.”
Fresh off of coaching the Liberal Blue Jays against Roger Clemens’ team of former major leaguers in the National Baseball Congress World Series, Lezcano shared how working with the college-aged players reminded him of how advanced Rodriguez was for his age.
“It’s like young people play the game too fast,” he said. “They get excited and they play fast. He always played the game under control and kind of slowed the game down. That’s what you want to do with young players. Slow the game down, have options in your mind. He was like that from the beginning. That’s part of the reason he was so good, his ability and way of slowing the game down at a young age was very unusual.”
As the Yankees sent Rodriguez off the field with an epic farewell, his first professional manager wondered if it was truly the last time that his prodigy would set foot on major league soil. He is holding out that another club will give Rodriguez a chance to reach the 700 home run milestone. “I hope he latches on with someone else,” he said.
“The guy’s got 696 home runs. I just hope he gets a chance to hit 700 somewhere. Alex had his things throughout his baseball career, but I think way down he’s got a good heart and he’s a good man. I just hope that this is not the end of him. He hasn’t been treated fairly. I don’t know the whole details, but I hope he gets another chance to get that 700.
“I only have good things to say about Alex. He’s behaved like a true professional. I’m glad that people are taking care of showing that side of him instead of the negative stuff; talking about that raw talent, that innocent face, and that kid that was worried about what his mother would say if I said something to her.”
* This was originally published for the now-defunct Sports Post on August 15, 2016.
It was a call I knew was coming, but I didn’t want to take. A week ago, one of Cholly Naranjo’s family members called to tell me he was hospitalized with COVID and was on a ventilator. I somehow hoped he could summon his mighty curveball to foil the toughest hitter he ever faced; however, at 9PM on January 13, 2022, they came and took Cholly from the mound for the final time. I often write these memorials for other players I’ve met in my baseball travels, but this one is different. Cholly Naranjo was my best friend. How does someone who is almost 50 years your senior become that close?
It was an innocent meeting at a 2009 Cuban baseball reunion in Philadelphia. At the time, I didn’t know much about the Cuban Winter League, but I was very familiar with Minnie Miñoso. I decided to make the two hour drive from New York to interview the Cuban Comet and meet the others as well.
Sitting quietly at a table with not much fanfare was Cholly Naranjo. I did some scant research about his lone 1956 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but didn’t know the depths of his career. While the line was quite long for Miñoso, I decided to talk with Cholly. He was so vibrant and excited to share. He told me he lived in South Florida and to visit him the next time I go to see my mother, who also lived there.
| | | First trip to Paul Casanova's home in 2009 / N. Diunte |
A few months later, I took him up on his offer, and that’s how our friendship began. At the time, I was still playing competitive baseball. Knowing that, he took me right away to Paul Casanova’s home. Waiting there was Casanova, Jackie Hernandez and Mike Cuellar. Cholly introduced me as his friend and they immediately welcomed me. We spent an hour talking baseball (actually I just mostly listened) and Casanova invited me back for hitting lessons.
Soon the wheels started turning. I found there was this corner of baseball I didn’t know; the rich history of the Cuban Winter League. Cholly was the key. He knew everybody and had a story for seemingly everyone that played in the 1950s, as well as the decade before, as his uncle Ramón Couto, was a star catcher in Cuban winter league, Negro Leagues and minor leagues in the 1930s and 1940s.
| | | Ramón Couto and Luis Tiant Sr. / Couto Family |
I leaned into Cholly for his encyclopedic knowledge. On almost a dime he could recall exact instances of players, games, and hilarious stories surrounding them. At the same time, he knew I was good with technology, so he would ask me to retrieve artifacts from his career. I was something I later discovered that kept him energized.
| | | Cholly in high school with Chico Fernandez (r.) |
We would talk weekly, sometimes about baseball, sometimes about life, relationships and everything else in between. As our trust increased, Cholly reached out to me to handle many of his other personal dealings, as he said I had the, “American style of communication.” Some reading this might think with Cholly being a former major league baseball player, he was swimming in financial riches; however, this was far from the truth. Because of the fact he played in the majors when baseball players needed four full seasons to earn a pension (now it is 43 days), he didn’t receive one. He figured out how to live his best life on a small social security check with help from some baseball organizations. I was often tasked with the correspondence to make sure everything was running smoothly.
In 2010, I had him at my home in New York for a few days. He was invited his cousin‘s wedding, who was Daniel Boggs' son, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. It was the first time Cholly visited New York since he returned from Cuba. We took the subway to the MLB offices to visit and personally thank the B.A.T. staff for their help. The trip to the MLB offices gave him so much validation behind his big league career.
| | | 2010 Wedding / N. Diunte |
The day before the wedding, he told me he wanted to go to the park to have a catch. I thought it was going to be a short session, but he just kept telling me to move back the longer we threw. Eventually, we were throwing from at least 120 feet apart. Mind you, Cholly was 77 at the time and he made the throws with ease! He finally said his arm was loose and as he shortened the distance, he showed me how to throw his famous curveball, the one Branch Rickey courted him for.
| | | Branch Rickey's 1956 Scouting Report |
After that trip to New York, I made it a point to visit 2-3 times per year. It was easy to visit my mother and then also spend a day or two with Cholly. I would meet him in Hialeah, and he would drive. It was on these winding card rides through Miami’s back streets where we bonded. He had story after story and told them with such clarity. He would take me to different Cuban restaurants, one’s that he thought I would enjoy. Every meal was “outstanding” in his words, and he was often right.He had this little black book filled with telephone numbers. He would ask me who I wanted to see, and we would go. Every player he called said yes. They knew Cholly was genuine and took me in as the same. Everyone was relaxed because as they all said, “it was family.” As I started to look around, I was slowly not only being accepted as part of that family, but his family as well.
| | | Cholly with Almendares |
Cholly’s major league stats don’t tell the whole story. It was deeper than that single season in Pittsburgh. He was a star pitcher in the Cuban Winter League from 1952 until 1961, primarily with Almendares. It’s hard to sit here and write down all the legends he encountered either as teammates or opponents. He loved discussing the 1954-55 Carribbean Series where his team had to face the Puerto Rican Santurce team that had Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente in the same outfield (and the fight between Roger Bowman and Earl Rapp after Rapp misplayed a ball)! He lit up talking about Jim Bunning who he faced in Cuba and then later welcomed Cholly into his office in Washington D.C., or a young Brooks Robinson who played second base his one year in Cuba. Then there was the hijinks Tommy Lasorda got into after they won the championship in 1959. He told stories about Martin Dihigo, Satchel Paige, and his good friend Minnie Miñoso, who was also another tremendous gentleman.
He almost made the majors in 1954 with the Washington Senators. He got through all of spring training and they took him up north for Opening Day; Cholly even made the official team photo. A few hours before the first pitch, manager Bucky Harris informed Cholly they would be sending him to the minors on a 24-hour recall. He was disappointed, but he still stayed with the team for that day.
| | | 1954 Washington Senators |
President Eisenhower threw out the first pitch, and his throw was launched into the crowd of ballplayers. Cholly ended up with the ball and had a historic catch with the President for a photo-op that was chronicled in Time magazine and earned him a spot on the TV show, “I’ve Got A Secret” the next morning.He played with the Hollywood Stars in 1955 and 1956, when his team was the city’s main sports attraction (this was before the Dodgers and Giants moved). Famous entertainers would come to watch them play. Cholly regaled me with stories of his dinners and even dates with these luminaries. I wish I could remember them all, but the names have evaded my memory too.
He finally made the majors in 1956, coming up from Hollywood with his roommate and future Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski. Cholly saved his best performance for his final game, pitching 8 2/3 innings in relief for his first and only MLB victory. He told me how that win also kept Robin Roberts (whom he faced that day) from winning his 20th game of the season.
| | | Cholly Naranjo with Roberto Clemente 1956 Pirates |
In 2017, Paul Casanova called me, as MLB wanted to honor the Cuban players at the All-Star Game in Miami. He asked me to work as a liason for a group of players to help with the paperwork, negotiations and communications. Cholly was one of the players in the group selected to be a part of the festivities, and without hesitation, he took me along for the ride.
| | | Cholly (r.) with Dr. Adrian Burgos (l.), Jose Tartabull (center) 2017 All-Star FanFest / N. Diunte |
For three days, Cholly was in heaven. MLB rolled out first class treatment, as did his peers. On the day he appeared at the FanFest to sign autographs and speak on a panel, MLB gave us a private SUV ride back and forth from the hotel to the convention center. They provided us both (yes me!) private security detail that followed us through the FanFest. He was so excited to interact with the fans, as well as tell his stories on stage with José Tartabull and Dr. Adrian Burgos.
We spent the extended weekend with Luis Tiant, Tony Oliva, Bert Campaneris and Orlando Cepeda. It didn’t matter that Cholly wasn’t an All-Star or a Hall of Famer; not only was he readily accepted into the group, I found out they all looked up to him, as he was the senior member. Cepeda remarked how tough his curveball was on the rookie in winter ball. Tiant said he was a veteran influence on him as a rookie in the Cuban Winter League, and Oliva went out of his way to talk to B.A.T. to make sure Cholly was taken care of.
| | | Tony Oliva, Cholly Naranjo, Juan Marichal / N. Diunte |
We stayed up each night until 2AM talking about the game. The brotherhood was evident. Not only were they all there in the majors, they all faced the same challenges playing through the segregation in the United States. Every night, Cholly insisted at 84, to drive us back to my apartment in Fort Lauderdale. I was amazed how easily he navigated driving that late at night.Things slowly started to change for Cholly after that wonderful weekend, and unfortunately, not in a good way. Paul Casanova died shortly after the Fan Fest (it was his last public appearance). Cholly worked with Casanova at the batting facility at Casanova’s home. He no longer had a place to go and interact. The young baseball players kept Cholly alive and the money Casanova paid him kept a little something extra in his pocket to enjoy life.
| | | Paul Casanova, myself, Cholly / N. Diunte |
Around 2019, Cholly stopped driving. He got into three accidents in a year and as he said, it was God’s way of letting him know he needed to get away from the wheel. I started noticing Cholly's once sharp mind started to show some cracks. He would lose his phone, or start to miss details in our conversations. Despite all of that, when we sat down for a formal interview in 2019, he was amazed at how good he felt. “I’ve got my health at my age,” he said. “I got this far, and I’m better than when I was playing ball. Can you believe that? Sometimes I think, well, give me the ball; I’m going to get somebody out. “It makes me feel well that I can be a normal person and do all the things necessary to live in the United States and travel. … To me, it’s like a prize that I have proven that it can happen to anybody. ... I’ve lived over there and over here, and I’m clean in both of them. I have lived long enough to show everybody what is what. I feel proud of that inside. … I say Cholly, how old are you? Well, I’ve got more miles than Pan American Airlines!" I saw Cholly early in 2020, right before the pandemic. We met for dinner, and he told me he walked for over 18 hours in a day just to prove to himself he could do it. I was amazed, but also feared for his safety, as the area in Miami where he lived wasn’t a walking city.
| | | Our last meeting July 2021 / N. Diunte |
Last year, he moved in with his nephew to be closer to the little family he had. I visited him in July 2021, as the pandemic put a huge wedge in my ability to travel. I could see the early stages of dementia from the time we spent together. A few months ago, Cholly had to be put into a nursing home, as he just couldn’t take care of himself any longer. Physically, he was in good shape, but he needed the care that comes with a nursing facility.We would still talk on the phone a few times a week. When I called, it was always, “Coño! Nick! I am better than expected!” even as he struggled with recall. We kept the conversations short, but he always asked when I was coming down. I was aiming for the Christmas holiday to visit for a few days, but I came down with COVID on Christmas Eve. By the time I found a possible window to travel, his family let me know he also contracted COVID and wasn’t doing well in the hospital. I thought Cholly would miraculously find a way to pull through, but when the big man comes to get you off the mound, as Cholly would say, “You have to give up the ball.”
I am going to miss my friend. Cholly said he looked at me as a son, as he never had any children. I feel honored I was able to be a part of his life for so long and learn so much about his history, his culture and life story. I hope I can continue to elevate Cholly’s memory, as it was much greater than those 17 games he pitched with Pittsburgh in 1956.
QDEP Lazaro Ramón Gonzalo Naranjo Couto - November 25, 1933 - January 13, 2022.
Books Featuring Cholly Naranjo -
Last Seasons in Havana by Cesar Brioso
Growing Up Baseball by Harvey Frommer
Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History by Jorge Figueredo
There is an ominous feeling within the sports card industry for 2022. Collectors are likely looking at the last full year of Topps branded major league baseball cards, as its MLBPA license expires at year's end. With the window potentially closing on Topps' MLB legacy (unless there is a Fanatics merger), we looked at three pressing questions for my Forbes Sports Money column that fans and collectors are looking for answers to in 2022.
After opening a box of 2021 Topps Chrome Black Baseball, it appears Topps has saved its best design for this late-season release. The black matte finish gives these cards a sleek look and feel that is markedly different from Topps' traditional releases. The deep black background isolates the players and cuts out much of the noise that comes with other Topps issues. With just four cards in each box, one is left with the feeling of wanting more cards from the base set before getting to the encased autographed card. 2021 Topps Chrome Black Baseball Base Set and Checklist The 100-card base set checklist is awash with rookies including Alec Bohm, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Joey Bart. Each card is also minted in Topps' standard parallel rainbow (Refractor #/199, Purple #/150, Green #/99, Green Atomic #/99, Blue #/75, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Magenta #/10, Red #/5, Superfractor 1/1), giving collectors even more opportunities to chase down their favorite players from this set.
| | | 2021 Topps Chrome Black Fernando Tatis Jr. / Topps |
2021 Topps Chrome Black Baseball AutographsThe encased autographs, which come one per box, feature a mix of past, present and future stars. The signer list includes Hall of Famers Derek Jeter, Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson, as well as Mike Trout, Luis Robert and all of the rookies included in the base set. These autographs also have serial-numbered parallels (Refractor #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, Superfractor 1/1) that add excitement to the chase in each box.
Topps sweetens the deal by adding a highly curated 21-player Super Futures autograph set that is numbered to 99 or less of top rookies and young stars such as Randy Arozarena, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Juan Soto.
2021 Topps Chrome Black Baseball Box BreakWatch our box break video below of 2021 Topps Chrome Black Baseball to see which autograph we pulled, as well as to get an up close look at the tremendous design that we think make this set one of Topps' best this year.
Topps rolled out one of its high-end products earlier this year with 2021 Topps Tier One Baseball. The three-card boxed product is a high-risk, high-reward proposition, as collectors hope to hit one or more autographs that justify the $250 price tag. Each box offers two autographed cards and one relic with a dizzying level of signature variations. A look at the checklist reveals nine different autographed card categories and an additional eight types of autographed relics. Major starts past and present are included in this set, with Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuña Jr. alongside the recently deceased Hank Aaron and the Hall of Fame's newest member, Gil Hodges.
Baseball's next wave is also heavily represented, as Topps highlights the game's emerging stars. Fans will find on-card autographs of coveted young talents such as Ke'Bryan Hayes, Jo Adell and Luis Robert in 2021 Topps Tier One Baseball.
The set's design is crisp, with the photo and signature getting an even split on the front, giving the signature room to breathe without disrupting the card's flow. The thick card stock has a premium feel in one's hand, which should be expected at this price point.
In the box Topps provided for this review, we scored a major hit that sure made 2021 Topps Tier One Baseball a fruitful dive. Watch the video below from our YouTube channel to see which superstar's autograph we pulled from the box.
No more debates about whether Gil Hodges belongs in the Hall of Fame. The 2021 Golden Days Committee voted Hodges in the Hall of Fame during its December vote, giving Hodges the 12 votes necessary for election. Leading up to the vote, I debated in my Forbes Sports column whether the Hall of Fame had a financial interest in electing Hodges, as past committees haven't been favorable to deceased candidates from his era. Apparently, the committee went all in on four candidates—Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva and Hodges (with Dick Allen narrowly missing), focusing on widening the Hall's reach, instead of focusing on the living candidates who could promote the museum.
The three-time World Series champion (two as a player, one as a manager) died of a heart attack on April 2, 1972 during spring training with the New York Mets. Prior to his election, Hodges was the only Hall of Fame candidate eligible for the Veterans and Eras Committees that received at least 50% of the BBWAA vote and didn't get enshrined.
| | | The 2021 World Series won by the Braves / Topps |
The Atlanta Braves just overcame the Houston Astros to claim the 2021 World Series after what was an utterly enthralling season of baseball, but we are already thinking about how next season will go – and who might win the 2022 Fall Classic. Read on to find out who the favorites at vegasbetting.com to make the playoffs are – and what baseball fans can expect to see in the ballparks next year.
Braves to Repeat? Atlanta ‘only’ won 88 games in the regular season in 2021 and was ranked third in the National League going into the playoffs. An excellent postseason run saw the Braves overcome Milwaukee in the NLDS, before beating favorites Los Angeles Dodgers in six in the NLCS. It then took another six games to get past Houston to win the World Series.
There doesn’t seem to be too much appetite for backing the Braves to repeat in 2022. A lot will depend on whether Freddie Freeman will return, even though Atlanta should be fine to finish atop of what is a very inconsistent NL East. Anything can happen in the playoffs, of course, but Atlanta might not be celebrating again this time in 2022.
Dodgers the Sportsbooks’ Favorites Unsurprisingly, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been named the favorites with the bookmakers to win the World Series next year. That was the case this year. The Dodgers won 106 regular season games, but couldn’t take the NL West; however, they got revenge against the Giants in the NLDS.
There are plenty of question marks about the Dodgers going into 2022. A lot of money was spent two years ago to win multiple World Series – and that hasn’t quite happened. The flag was won in 2021, but there was no repeat. Now with many of their leading players as free agents, there is an uncertainty that hampers any real confidence in a Dodgers title.
MLB Teams to Look Out for in 2022 It doesn’t look as though there will be many surprises in 2022. A bunch of teams will be expected to make repeat postseason appearances – but once it gets to that point, that is where things will get interesting. As far as the regular season goes, the NL West is worth keeping an eye on. San Diego was disappointing in 2021, but could upset either San Francisco or Los Angeles next year. The American League looks a little bit more predictable. Houston and the Chicago should win their respective divisions once again, while Tampa Bay should have the East locked up. The real battle in that division is with Toronto pushing to upset the Red Sox and Yankees to sneak into the wild card spots.
Race for the Flag The 2021 MLB playoffs showed that anything can happen once the regular season ends. Tampa won 100 games last year and then fell to the Red Sox in the ALDS – a team that won eight fewer in the regular season. Both number one seeded teams fell away well before the World Series too. Baseball’s postseason system might seem a little cruel to fans of other sports. After such a long and grueling regular season, only five teams out of 15 have a chance of progressing – and one of those only gets a one-off wild card game to stay in the competition. Whoever does make it to the World Series has definitely earned it.
Final Words This article didn’t set out to confidently predict the winner of the 2022 World Series; however, hopefully you will see the race for the flag will be just as intense next year as it always has been. There will be some very familiar faces at the business end of the season – that’s for sure. But as far as the 2022 champion goes at this point it's all speculation.
We recently opened a box of 2021 Topps Luminaries Baseball for our YouTube channel. Each box contains one encased autograph or autographed relic card. The checklist is impressive, containing the top modern stars such as Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, as well as Hall of Famers Ichiro, Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. One lucky fan will pull the 50-player Home Run Ultimate Book card which features 50 of the top past and present home run hitters. Watch the video below to see which autographed card we pulled from 2021 Topps Luminaries Baseball.
Bob Oldis only played in seven games during his 1953 rookie season with the Washington Senators, yet one almost perfect game stands out in his mind nearly 70 years later. On June 25, 1953, Oldis was placed in the starting lineup against the St. Louis Browns. Making only his second major league start, he played flawlessly. He went 3-3 at the plate with an RBI, and threw out the lone baserunner who dared to steal that day.
Most rookies would have been elated with that type of performance, but something about that game didn't sit right with the young catcher. With the Senators down 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning, Oldis was due to bat third in the inning.
Pitching in relief for the Browns was the ageless Satchel Paige. Undaunted by his presence, the first two batters were able to get on base with a walk and a single. This set the stage for Oldis, who was swinging a hot bat that day, to be the hero ... or so he thought.
As he approached the top steps of the dugout, Oldis represented the winning run. After battering starter Harry Breechen for three hits, the tap on the shoulder from manager Bucky Harris wasn't what he expected. Instead of words of encouragement, Harris let him know outfielder Carmen Mauro would be taking his place at the plate.
Dejected, Oldis returned to the dugout to watch Mauro hit a pop-up to third base, and Gil Coan finish the game by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play. He never was able to test himself against Satchel Paige in the majors, as he was sent down a short time afterwards.
When the 93-year-old was reached recently via a letter to his Arizona home, I asked if he was upset with Harris' decision to remove him for a pinch-hitter against Paige.
"Yes!" Oldis wrote.
Oldis later had his chance to face Paige in the minor leagues during the 1958 season when he played for the Richmond Virginians and Paige hurled for the Miami Marlins; however, seven decades later it is the meeting they didn't have that stands out in his memory.
| | | Shohei Ohtani / 2021 Onyx Vintage Extended |
The baseball card collecting world was turned upside down when both MLB and the MLBPA announced they would not renew Topps' licensing deals. This was a tremendous blow to Topps, as it foiled its merger deal with Mudrick Capital just one day after the announcement was made. Fanatics will get the MLPBA license starting in 2023 and the MLB license in 2026. The MLBPA license will allow Fanatics to use the entire active MLB roster on its trading cards, while the forthcoming MLB license will give them use of the coveted team logos.
Onyx Authenticated, a small trading card company from Orlando has been producing trading cards without either license for nearly a decade, specializing in top tier minor league players. Speaking with Onyx's president Lance Fischer for my Forbes Sports Money column, click here to read what he shared their vision for the hobby's future will look like and their playbook for success in the interim.
Topps' Allen and Ginter Baseball set traditionally appeals to a broad spectrum of collectors with it's vintage design and celebrity infused checklist. This year's 2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball set stays true to form featuring the likes of Marc Anthony and Jason Biggs, alongside current stars and retired MLB legends. Old school collectors will be happy to see names such as Dick Allen, Vida Blue, Mo Vaughn, and Kent Hrbek in the set, as well as Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry getting his first Allen and Ginter card.We took a look at the entire set, as well as spoke with Topps' communications manager Emily Kless about the set for our Forbes Sports Money column. Click here to read the review.
2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Box Break
| | | San Francisco Giants / Pixabay |
The NL West race has been fascinating all year. Tension is increasing as the playoffs approach, with the Dodgers and Giants practically shadowing each other’s results since the trade deadline. The Dodgers have been atop the MLB World Series odds all season long. It’s a different tale for the San Francisco Giants, who were widely tabbed as a .500 team at the start of the year. San Francisco has the advantage in mid-August and they keep finding a way to win even when games appear to have escaped them. Tussling in the standings, the teams also dueled at the trade deadline. Los Angeles was victorious on that occasion, landing Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. San Francisco was not left empty-handed, however, as they added Kris Bryant and Tony Watson to their roster of resurgent veterans and surprise breakouts. Schedule Challenges Holding a lead in the division, the Giants have margin for error. They can lose their three remaining games against the Dodgers and still be ahead. The schedule is not kind to Gabe Kapler’s team, though. The Giants have the fifth-toughest remaining schedule. There are 10 games against the Padres, six with the Braves and four with the Brewers. San Francisco has seen off the best MLB has to offer, beating the Dodgers, Brewers and Astros in recent weeks, but there are plenty of stern tests to come. Sitting middle-of-the-pack in schedule difficulty, the Dodgers also see a lot of the Padres. Crucially, they have 12 games against the Rockies and Diamondbacks. Dave Roberts’ club are the runaway leaders in run differential, contributing to a 50% chance of winning the division at FiveThirtyEight. Although doubted for months, there’s no question the Giants are the real deal. Holding off the Dodgers is going to take a special effort, however. They are on course to win over 100 games, which is a pace they need to maintain. The rotation must be strong, and the health of their veterans is crucial.
Going Deep Into September Even pushing for a wildcard would have been a good season for the Giants. Looking to defend their World Series crown, the prospect of a one-game shootout just to make the Division Series will scare the Dodgers. The 2021 season has already been a great one for San Francisco. The entirety of the NL West race has been enthralling. It’s not over yet, and there are bound to be more twists and turns before the regular season wraps up on October 3rd. This division race is going to the final days of the regular season. After months of hype about the Dodgers and Padres’ fledgling rivalry, it is the old foes in The Bay who pose the real threat to the Dodgers’ NL West supremacy. This battle has history, it has massive fan bases, and it has star power. Projections might still give the Dodgers the upper hand, but it would be brave to bet against the Giants given what they have already achieved in 2021.
| | | April Ross 2020 Topps Team USA Cards |
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were nothing short of a miracle. Delayed a year by a global pandemic and devoid of fans at the live events, the Olympics gave many hope in a year filled with darkness. The athletes survived the uncertainty and pushed through an extra year of training to pursue Olympic glory. The United States emerged victorious at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, with 41 gold medals en route to a leading 113 overall medals. With attention in the athletic realm most often going to the ESPN mainstays, Topps has provided a stage in the trading card market for many of the amazing United States athletes with its 2020 Topps Team USA U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team & Hopefuls trading card set.
Base Set and Checklist Tokyo gold medalist April Ross headlines the 76-card set, and is backed up by other familiar names including USA softball's Cat Osterman, as well as USWNT members Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. In a somewhat ironic twist, men's beach volleyball star Taylor Crabb, who had to withdraw from the Olympics due to a positive COVID-19 test gets his rookie card in this set, as well as Tri Bourne, who was selected as his replacement. Collectors will also find cards from debut sports such as 3-on-3 basketball, skateboarding and surfing are also included. Click here for the entire checklist.
Parallels and InsertsTopps sticks with its Olympic theme by creating parallels in bronze, silver and gold colors, as well as serial numbered cards wrapped in the United States flag. Notable inserts include the For Pride and Country set, which detail the hometowns of the Olympic stars, as well as the New to the Games set, which gives collectors a primer on the new sports in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
| | | Cat Osterman 2020 Topps Team USA Flag Parallel |
Autographs and Relics Each box advertises three major hits including at least one autograph. The box provided for this review yielded two relics and an autograph of karateka Sakura Kokumai. The Olympic Champions autograph subset gives collectors a chance to get signatures from heralded Olympians such as Amanda Beard, Kerri Strug and Kurt Angle.
| | | Sakura Kokumai Autograph |
Box Break And Final ThoughtsAfter watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, collectors now have another reason to familiarize themselves with the many athletes who worked to propel the United States to Olympic victory. While the set lacks the household names from Team USA Basketball (most likely due to Panini's NBA contract), it allows kids who compete in the lesser televised sports across the country to dream of having their own Topps card in the future.
| | | Cat Osterman / Jade Hewitt |
Athletes Unlimited announced they will be partnering with GigLabs to produce exclusive NFTs for both its women's lacrosse and softball leagues this season. The NFTs will only be available for those who attend the matches and games in-person. The NFTs debuted during the first week of Athletes Unlimited's lacrosse season, with a different one being released during the subsequent weeks of the season. The set will expand during softball season which begins August 28th, 2021 in Chicago. Multiple 2020 Tokyo Olympians will be playing in Athletes Unlimited's softball league, including Team USA silver medalists Cat Osterman, Amanda Chidister, Kelsey Stewart and Janie Reed, as well as Team Canada bronze medalists Victoria Hayward and Sara Groenwegen. Click here to read more about how Athletes Unlimited plans to implement these NFTs during the season and integrating them with Giglabs' platform in my Forbes Sports Money column.
Betting can get you an impressive return on investment - though there’s one caveat. Sure, you can bet on any sport at random and have a chance of winning some sweet cash, but you’re more likely to get a profit if you know the odds for that particular game.Today, we’re doing a deep dive into baseball odds. What do you need to know, and how can you use betting odds to help you to make the best possible betting decisions? That’s what we’re here to explain today. Keep on reading for more information.
Why Is It Important to Understand the Odds of a Baseball Game? It’s pretty simple. When you know how something works, you are more likely to be successful with it. The same goes for betting. It’s entirely possible to make a bet on a random baseball game, and have a slim chance of winning. When your hard earned cash is on the line though, do you really want to take a chance on just guessing? No! That’s where betting odds come in.
Betting odds are determined based on a few different variables, and they essentially give you some indiciation about how risky your bet is. It helps you to make a decision that will give you the best return on investment. It helps you to figure out whether you want to take a gamble or play it safe. Ultimately though, until we learn how to see into the future with accuracy, there’s no concrete way of determining whether a team can definitely win. We can just make some sort of prediction based on the information at hand.
Betting Odds Explained So, how do baseball betting odds work? It’s a little complicated, but let’s break it down.
Moneyline The most common way that betting is done for the MLB is with money line odds. In other parts of the world, these are known as American odds.
Theoretically, it’s sort of similar to percentages. Let’s say that someone tells you that there’s a 75% chance that it may rain tomorrow. That could also be written as -300 that it may rain. It’s the same thing with baseball, to some degree.
We have a baseball game coming up. The New York Yankees - 160 vs the Houston Astros +140. Wait, what do those numbers mean?
Well, as you can see, the Astros are +140. That little plus symbol essentially tells you that they aren’t favored to win. They’re basically the underdogs. The Yankees, on the other hand, are favored to win. If you bet on Houston, then you’re going to get $140 in profit for each $100 that you bet. Pretty neat, huh? Of course, you don’t have to bet 100 - this is just a little easier to understand since the $100 is used as an easy reference point.
If you bet on the Yankees, on the other hand, then you have to bet $160 for each $100 that you are looking to win. So if you want to make a slightly smaller bet, then you’d need to bet $16 for every $10 profit that you want to make. Because they are more likely to win, you’re not going to get as much money. Boo!
Other Kinds of Bets You can vote on which team you want to win, but you can also bet on other parts of the game. They will usually all be expressed in moneyline odds.
For instance, you can bet on totals. These are the run amounts that are expected for the game. You can also bet on run lines. For instance, with this kind of bet an underdog team may have +1.5 odds, meaning that if they lose the game by just one run you could still potentially have a winning bet. If the odds for a team are -1.5 then the team in question would need to win by two runs if you wanted to have a successful bet.
You can also bet on alternate run lines which are just a level up from this. Finally you have prop bets, and these are bets that you can make on something specific happening on a game. You may wish to bet on how many strikeouts a certain player may have, for instance. It’s worth looking into all of these bets, but if you’re just getting started it can help to stick to the basic moneyline bets for which team you think will win.
Baseball betting odds are complicated, but they don’t need to be rocket science! Now that you know all about baseball betting odds, you can make an informed decision about where you want your money to go!
| | | Charlie Gorin, former Milwaukee Braves pitcher from 1954-55, died February 21, 2021 at 93. |
Coming out of the University of Texas, Charlie Gorin had a winner’s pedigree. Pitching under the legendary Bibb Falk's guiding eye, the left-hander propelled the Longhorns to consecutive College World Series titles in 1949 and 1950. Gorin continued that streak early in his minor league career; however, he could not translate that success to the major league level. Gorin, who pitched seven games for the Milwaukee Braves from 1954-55, died February 21, 2021. He was 93.
The Waco, Texas, native enlisted in the Navy during World War II out of high school, delaying the start of his baseball career. After his discharge he enrolled at Texas, using the GI Bill at the urging of one of his Naval mates. He made good with Falk at a spring tryout, and a local legend was born.
The Boston Braves took notice of Gorin after his second CWS championship in 1950 and signed him to a minor league contract at Omaha on the spot. After a short stint at Triple-A Milwaukee, Gorin settled in with their Double-A club in Atlanta and led them to the playoffs with a 7-1 record.
Gorin entered the 1951 season with a fresh start at Milwaukee that eventually led to two championships in the span of a year. The 1951 Milwaukee club ran away with the pennant, showing how Major League Baseball organizations could benefit from having an integrated team. Former Negro Leaguers Bus Clarkson and George Crowe led the offensive charge with respective .343 and .339 batting averages, while starters Ernie Johnson, Bert Thiel, Virgil Jester, Murray Wall and Gorin all posted double-digit victory totals. They then toppled the International League’s Montreal Royals to win the 1951 Junior World Series.
Most pitchers would be exhausted after a long playoff season, but the lure of a paid winter to pitch in Puerto Rico was too much for Gorin to pass up. At the recommendation of teammate Luis Olmo, Gorin headed to winter ball.
“That was the only way to make money,” Gorin said during a 2008 phone interview. “There wasn't big money like now. I was married with two kids; that's how I saved money. They paid our way down with the wife and kids, and they paid room and board. Puerto Rico was a good place to play.”
After faltering early with Mayagüez, Gorin latched on with San Juan after the team owner came to the airport to stop him from going back home. He was determined to make Mayagüez realize its mistake.
Gorin reeled off 12 wins, leading San Juan to the league championship. He pitched two complete-game victories in the playoffs, punching their ticket to the 1952 Caribbean Series. Unfortunately, for Gorin, he couldn’t enjoy the fruit of his labors. A full year of pitching finally caught up with him, his body giving out after epic playoff run. Instead of representing Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series, he was sent home to recover.
“I had a chance to play in the Caribbean Series in 1952, but I had a muscle spasm in my back, and I just couldn't make the pitch,” he said. “They sent me home. I went to the doctor here. I had a chance to rest, and finally I worked out of it.”
Fresh off his incredible 1951 campaign, Gorin looked forward to competing for a spot on the Boston Braves. With the Korean War raging on, Uncle Sam had other plans for him that did not include the major leagues.
“I was called back to active duty in the Navy for Korea,” he said. “I went to Pensacola, because I had a degree in physical education. I was an instructor in the Naval school for gymnastics, physical education, swimming, and water survival. I had to stay two years.”
Gorin, like many of his contemporaries including Willie Mays, Don Newcombe and Ted Williams, lost prime years of his major league career to the Korean War. Unlike the aforementioned trio, Gorin could not regain the momentum he had going into his service upon his return to the pros.
The Braves honored his contract, keeping him on the roster for the 1954 and 1955 seasons. He pitched sparingly over the two years, making seven relief appearances for a 0-1 record with a 3.60 ERA.
Gorin continued to play in the minor leagues through 1962, settling into Austin towards the end of his career so he could make the move into teaching and coaching. Luckily, he found an opportunity with his former high school coach who was flexible enough to let him off to play professional baseball.
“In 1959, I was in Austin, and they wanted to send me to Atlanta,” he said. “I said, ‘Keep me in Austin, that's my hometown, they have a AA team and I could make the transition between baseball and teaching school.’ My high school coach was the athletic director here, so when I got here, he got me on as a coach and teacher. Then he let me off to go play ball. One year I went to Mobile, then back to Austin. I was married with two kids, and I needed the extra money. We made more than teachers, that's for sure.”
He wrapped up his baseball career in 1962 and went full-time into education. He coached football and baseball for over 20 years and became an assistant principal at John Reagan High School in Austin. He retired in 1990 and enjoyed playing golf with his family and friends.
Speaking with Gorin in 2008, he was proud of his baseball career; however, he was quick to note the changes he observed over the 60 years since he started.
“Things have changed,” he said. “The young players don't know how nice they have it. … It's a different game, if the ball hits the ground, it gets put out of the game. You wanted that ball that was hit on the ground, so it was rough, and you could do something with it.”
Jim "Mudcat" Grant was determined to spread the Black Aces legacy for as long as he could, similar to how Buck O'Neil preached the gospel of the Negro Leagues well into his 90s. Walking with the aid of a cane, Grant traveled across the country to baseball events as a septuagenarian to tell the story of baseball's Black 20-game winners. It was a subject where Grant was an expert; he was the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League.
Grant used his platform to share how Black pitchers faced an uphill battle their entire careers, often questioned by an establishment who doubted whether Black pitchers were "equipped" to outsmart big league hitters. His 2005 book, The Black Aces gave this brotherhood of 13 Major League Baseball pitchers (at the time of publishing) the opportunity to put their untold stories on record about how they succeeded against insurmountable odds.
Grant died June 11, 2021, in Los Angeles, leaving behind a legacy for many to discover. I profiled Grant's life and career for my Forbes Sports Money column, which includes Grant's own words from an interview I did with him in New York. His book and continuing efforts to promote this select group's legacy will continue to inspire future generations of Black athletes to follow his lead on the mound.
Things aren’t quite back to normal in the MLB just yet, but we are getting closer to some semblance of sports as we knew them before the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the United States. While it may still not be all that of a typical season, all of the main elements still exist, such as the yearly introduction of new stars as they go through their breakout periods.
It’s been quite an exciting season, despite the alarming rate of no-hitters. We have seen a good few players emerge as players who could greatly influence MLB scores with stellar performances on any given night.
We’ll take a look at three of these players in the list below. While there’s still a lot of time in the season as it pertains to things changing, the players noted below certainly have the looks of performers who could keep things going for as long as their teams are involved.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was considered a player to keep an eye on prior to the start of the season. He’s leading the MLB in swing/take runs at 29, and is considered to be the best hitter in the league at the moment. It was thought that he would do much better if he put some height on the ball and it appears he’s been doing just that, registering a lower ground-ball rate, a higher average launch angle, and a higher sweet spot rate.
Guerrero Jr. has nearly doubled his career-best with a 16.1% barrel rate, but his composure at the plate is what’s really brought the best out of him this season. He has been swinging less, but the swings he takes are more valuable. As previously mentioned, he has 29 swing/take runs - the analytic concept places run values to each pitch and can measure a player’s value in various parts of the strike zone.
The 22-year-old is doing less chasing while making the most of the pitches he's seen. His 21 swing/take runs in the middle of the zone are the most in the MLB this season and, should he keep up that sort of discipline, we anticipate a bright future.
Carson Kelly The Arizona Diamondbacks catcher has only played 28 games this season, having suffered a broken toe, but he ranks in the top 10 in batting average with .381 for players with at least 100 appearances at the plate. He also ranks in the top 10 for slugging percentage with .613, and OPS at 1.103. Kelly leads the league in on-base percentage with .491, besting Mike Trout.
Kelly’s hitting was not very impressive in his first two seasons with the Diamondbacks, but he has made improvements to his game by chasing less balls out of the strike zone. He’s walked in 20.9% of his plate appearances, a huge improvement on the 4.7% from last year. And, while he still doesn’t hit as aggressively, he’s swinging at his pitch more often, which has caused his barrel rate to go up from 4.3% to 13.4%.
His batted-ball data also backs up his numbers, given he’s swinging at pitches he can barrel up while leading MLB with an .458 on-base average.
Freddy Peralta Freddy Peralta is having a great season as he leads the Milwaukee Brewers in strikeouts this season and has the fewest hits per nine innings at 4.3 among qualified pitchers. The 24-year-old wasn’t guaranteed to be a starter until a few days before the start of the season, but the Brewers can hardly regret the decision given his performances. Peralta is missing a whole lot of bats and attracting low-quality contact in the air. Thirty-nine of the 96 batted balls he’s allowed this season have been weakly-hit fly balls, which is one of the league’s highest rates at 40.6%, with opponents batting just 1-39 on such pitches.
Peralta was inclined to throw a curveball for his breaking pitch in the past and, while it was effective, he’s opted to use a slider more often, throwing those 32.7% of the time. He’s still throwing the four-seamer but the slider has allowed him to use his curve a bit less. The change has resulted in him allowing a .140 average with 72 K’s in 157 at-bats that end on a slider or four-seamer.
As teams adjust to a full-season after a pandemic-shortened 2020, young stars will have a chance to make a few trips around the league, showcasing their talents to a fan base that is hungry to anoint baseball's next superstar.
This MLB season seems to be on course to make light of the record for the most no-hitters in a single campaign, with six thrown so far. It has been a great season for pitchers, who have been salivating at the opportunity to jot their names down in the record books but, on the other end, we also see a few teams that are close to getting their names in the books for shameful reasons.
The Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, and Texans Rangers have all delivered two no-hit games this term. Given there are still four months to go, it’s very likely that one of them could end the season as the team with the unwanted record of most no-hitters thrown against them.
With a total of six such games have been seen this season, the no-hitter odds offered by some sportsbooks have become very attractive. Considered a bit of a sucker’s bet in the past, the trend has made it so that bettors could strike it big off a game in which zero strikes are hit. Of course, it has also cost them money but there are plenty of ways in which one can recoup lost funds as the season continues, so why not put that moneyline calculator to work?
The MLB’s record for no-hitters in a single season stands at seven, at least since 1900. It first happened in 1990 and was repeated in 1991, 2012, and 2015.
Joe Musgrove of the San Diego Padres threw his team’s first-ever no-hitter against the Rangers on April 9 and just five days later, the Chicago White Sox’s Carlos Rodón left Cleveland nursing their own. Baltimore’s John Means recorded a no-hitter against the Mariners on May 5, Wade Miley registered his against the Indians on May 7, and the Mariners got their second no-hitter courtesy of the Detroit Tigers’ Spencer Turnbull on May 18.
The Rangers suffered another no-hit contest via Corey Kluber of the New York Yankees.
Baseball fans have seen six-no-hitters in the space of just 42 days. Something similar happened way back in 1917 when five were thrown in just 23 days. A sixth no-hitter came around a month later to tie a record set in 1908.
What makes this season’s more impressive is the fact that Musgrove, Rodón and Kluber were one batter away from perfect outings. Musgrove and Rodón hit batters, while Kluber walked one.
As to why this season has thrown up as many no-hitters is left to debate, but it could be because pitchers are simply becoming more dangerous, although all of the no-hitters thrown so far have not come from pitchers considered to be among the league's elite.
There have been changes to the baseball itself. The league has admitted that certain alterations have affected the flight of the ball, which has, in turn, led to fewer home runs. Pitchers also agree.
Batting averages have been lower this season, making it all the more likely that no-hitters are thrown on a nightly basis.
"It's great for your team when a guy throws a no-no, it's great for that guy, it's a great accomplishment,” Yankees legend and current Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly was quoted as saying recently. "But, when there's so many, so early, strikeouts are at an all-time high, things like that. It tells you that there are some issues in the game that need to be addressed."
No MLB team has ever been no-hit three times in a season, but the Indians, Mariners and Rangers are all one no-hit away from having what would be a pretty poor record. The last two sides to collect double no-hits, the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, went on to win their divisions in 2015. The Mets also won the National League before bowing out to the Kansas City Royals ahead of the World Series that year.
This sort of puts things in a better light for the aforementioned trio of teams but they certainly do not have the look of contenders where the World Series is concerned.
Out of the seven no-hitters from 2012, three of them were perfect games. Chicago right-hander Philip Humber, San Francisco Giants right-hander Matt Cain and Mariners icon Felix Hernandez all threw perfect games that season. Musgrove, Rodón, and Kluber came very close to the feat, which would have seen to the 24th, 25th, and 26th perfectos in MLB history. The current nine-year wait is the longest since Catfish Hunter’s perfect game in 1968 and the one thrown by Len Barker in 1981.
We’re very likely to see the record surpassed this year and we imagine a good few wagers are already in play in that regard. As to whether a no-hit game should be cause for excitement has been a subject of debate for several years. This season might just be the one to provide the answer. We already know Mattingly is not impressed.
By the time Shaquille O'Neal wrapped up his first NBA season in 1993, it was clear O'Neal was a global entity whose marketability extended well beyond the confines of the basketball court. Whether it was his best-selling Shaq Attack sneakers, his domination of the sports card market, or serving as a pitchman for Pepsi products, everything Shaq touched in 1993 turned to gold.
His Midas touch gilded the hip-hop realm when the nubile O'Neal kicked a verse on the Fu-Schnickens single, What's Up Doc?, helping to propel sales of the song to RIAA Gold certification. O'Neal 's microphone exploits turned many heads in the industry, including that of Def Jef (Jeffrey Fortson), a Grammy nominated MC and producer who released two critically acclaimed albums on the Delicious Vinyl imprint. As Fortson watched O'Neal perform on television one morning, the idea of collaboration was spawned by a phone call from one of his close friends.
“My friend Ron Mack saw Shaq rapping on one of those morning shows on TV at seven in the morning,” Fortson said during a recent telephone interview. “I've never been a huge sports fan, but I just happened to be watching this show at 7:30 in the morning and Shaq is rapping with the Fu-Schnickens. I was like, 'Wow, check out Shaq, he can rap.' My friend Ron calls me and says, 'Hey you should get up some tracks.' I said, 'That's probably not going to happen, he has the opportunity to work with anybody in the industry he wants to.'”
At the time, Fortson had a publishing deal with Chrysalis for his production crew The Arsenal, which was comprised of Fortson and Meech Wells. As fate would have it, one of the executives at Fortson's label had a close connection with O'Neal's agent. It opened the door for the two to forge a relationship.
“The person that signed me was named Tom Sturgess … he was friends with Shaq's agent at the time, Leonard [Armato],” Fortson said. “He called me one day and said, 'Hey would you be interested in working with Shaquille O'Neal, he needs an intro for his album.' Tom knew that I was a DJ as well. The idea was to meet him at the studio and bring a bunch of records where rappers mentioned his name so we can kind of scratch in an intro of all the rappers that said his name.”
While creating the intro for Shaq Diesel, Fortson used the opportunity to showcase his production talents to the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year. By the time Fortson arrived, all of the tracks slated for the album were completed; however, one beat Fortson played for O'Neal was so undeniable that the roster was expanded to fit an additional song. That track, which also featured Fortson rapping, became the lead single, (I Know I Got) Skillz.
“He [O'Neal] actually told me before we started working, 'The album is done, I just need an intro,'” Fortson said. “After we worked on an intro, I played a track for him and said, 'Hey, what do you think of this track?'… He said, 'I like that; I want to work on it.' We kind of worked on that song, 'Skillz,' and that set off us working on the first single from his album. I think because his album was done and that song was a new energy, that's why it became the first single.”
Skillz was a hit, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Top Rap singles chart, and No. 35 on the Billboard Top 100, ascertaining O'Neal another Gold plaque. His immediate success affirmed O'Neal could deliver the goods, quieting those outside of the music community who fancied the NBA player as a novelty act.
Core artists of the era openly welcomed O'Neal on the mic because of his budding skill and genuine appreciation of the culture. He aligned himself with such heavyweights as A Tribe Called Quest, Erick Sermon, and the aforementioned Fu-Schnickens.
“He reached into the music community,” Fortson explained. “It was an opportunity to work with Shaq because I thought he was good. I didn't just jump at the chance because he was Shaq. When I first saw him rapping with the Fu-Schnickens, I was like, 'Shaq can rap,' because it could have gone the other way. At the time I was a producer, and I had success as a producer, so I didn't look at this as an opportunity like Shaq would help me get a plaque. It was more like let's work on this and it's awesome. Plaques and all of that [expletive], that is a by-product of trying to make something good; doing your best to make something great. We all worked on something great and we were rewarded for it.
“Let's take a step back," he said. "A Tribe Called Quest was huge; they weren't some fledgling rap group. They were A Tribe Called Quest, the standard in hip-hop, [at least] one of them. They were a very credible, respected rap group. … Everyone he worked with was successful. Erick Sermon, EPMD, people [that] had status in the music business. … He aligned himself rightfully so and smartly about it with his hip hop heroes.”
O'Neal took the same work ethic he had from the sports world and applied that to his approach in the studio. Fortson said O'Neal showed tremendous respect to a world where he was no longer the main attraction, not only by how he carried himself in the studio, but also his pride for writing his own songs.
“Every line that Shaq said on the several songs we worked on was his lyrics,” Fortson said. “He might have mentioned a lyric to me and said, 'Is this pretty good?' He was 100 percent professional in the studio. He was never late. The guy worked like he respected the craft. At that point, he was probably a millionaire. He was doing really well and brought none of that energy into the studio. He was 100 percent dedicated to making something good. He would spit lyrics for me and say, 'Hey what do you think of this?' He would give me his ideas, but I didn't write one lyric for him. Everything we worked on, he wrote.”
While discussing Fortson's studio experience with O'Neal, the conversation turned to the few live performances they shared together. Immediately, Fortson recalled how a show they did in Minneapolis at Prince's club, First Avenue, later led to an impromptu meeting at Prince's studio with the recently deceased superstar.
“I do remember that date in particular because I got to go to Prince's studio,” Fortson recalled. “I remember going because I remember playing the club and then going to Prince's studio. I met him [Prince] briefly. One of the guys in his band recognized me. He said, 'Hey, you're Def Jef, you're the rapper. You're the real deal.' We exchanged a few niceties and pleasantries. He said, 'Do you want to meet him? I was like, 'Sure.'
“This figure scurried by that I didn't know and he was like, 'That's him right there; he went to the bathroom.' Prince came back out and he was very short. I don't mean that in a mean way. He was surprisingly much shorter than I anticipated. The guy said, 'Hey this is Def Jef, he's a real rapper, he's the real deal. Prince said, 'If he says you're good, I'm sure you're good. Do you want to go up and do something later?” We were in his rehearsal stage. He had a sound stage in his studio. It was the most amazing place ever; it was like a fun house.”
MC Supernatural corroborated Fortson's story.. Known for his tremendous freestyle abilities, Supernatural remains one of the most highly regarded MCs in the game. When reached via telephone, just the mention of Shaq's name triggered lucid memories of an unbelievable evening.
“It's definitely a true story,” Supernatural said. “I'll never forget the night; it was amazing. I remember Shaq coming out doing the running man on stage looking like a giant, like he was getting ready to fall off the stage.”
Supernatural observed that O'Neal was well received within the hip hop community for similar reasons that Fortson earlier expressed; he was real.
“We loved it,” he said. “At that time, Shaq was like that dude. He was fresh in the league, blowing up crazy, doing all types of stuff across the board media wise. When he did that record [Shaq Diesel], it was amazing to be there to see it. He was probably one of the first basketball players ever to do a rap record. That was a big deal to MCs, especially to guys like myself. I always thought it was dope that he was so involved with hip hop.”
O'Neal released three more studio albums, but none had the commercial success as his Platinum debut, despite later enlisting the likes of Jay-Z and the late Notorious B.I.G. Artists and producers sought to capitalize off of Shaq's fame and budget by charging exorbitant amounts, when just a few years earlier, they were all posturing for a spot on his album.
“The first time around everyone wanted to record something with me,” O'Neal said in his 2011 autobiography, Shaq Uncut. “Now all of a sudden they're calling up and saying they'll do it, but they want $200,000.”
Fortson remained proud that he was able to work with O'Neal at the nascent stage of his rap career, well before finances complicated the situation. The experience had a purity that couldn't be replicated in future efforts.
“I was glad I was in on the ground floor because it was genuine,” he said. “After a couple of albums, people saw a check.
“I think he did his best to honor whomever he listened to because he took time to write his rhymes. People might say he wasn't saying anything particularly deep, but he was having fun making cool and clever rhymes, and really at the end of the day that's what hip hop is about.”
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- Originally published for The Sports Post on September 9, 2016.
| | | Phil Lombardi (l.) a former MLB catcher with the New York Mets and Yankees died May 20, 2021 from brain cancer surgery complications. |
Phil Lombardi, a major league catcher who played parts of three MLB seasons with the New York Mets and New York Yankees from 1986-1989, died May 20, 2021 from complications due to brain cancer surgery. He was 58.Lombardi was a third round draft pick of the Yankees in 1981. He played mostly as a September call-up during the 1986 and 1987 seasons with the Yankees. They traded him during the 1987 off-season to the New York Mets for shortstop Rafael Santana.
Injuries plagued Lombardi throughout his career. Years of catching took a toll on his knees, with Lombardi enduring two knee surgeries by the time he was traded to the Mets. He had a third surgery in 1988 and recovered enough to play 18 games with the Mets in 1989.
“When I was with the Mets, (catcher) Todd Hundley watched me behind the plate one day,” Lombardi said to the Los Angeles Times in 1992. “He could tell I was hurting and noticed that I had all my weight shifted onto my right leg to alleviate the pain. Then he told me his father (longtime major league catcher Randy Hundley) had the same type injury to his left knee when he had been catcher, and shifted his weight onto his right side too.
“The result was that his father’s hips were thrown out of alignment and at the age of 50 he had to have a hip-replacement operation. Right after he told me that story, my hips started to hurt. I swear.”
The Braves invited Lombardi to spring training in 1990 with the promise of being their third catcher, but the thought of getting behind the plate for another season was too painful to bear. Instead of signing on with Atlanta, Lombardi retired. He was only one of five players to spend their entire MLB careers with the Mets and Yankees.
“I had idols like Johnny Bench and Pete Rose because I thought I could have a career like they did,” Lombardi said. “Instead, I became a so-so player, in all honesty. My career was one step forward and one step backward. A lot of things happened, but in the end, my injuries wiped me out.”
Lombardi turned to real estate, launching a successful career with Pinnacle Estate Properties in Valencia, California. As a parent of three daughters, he also turned to coaching softball. He lent his MLB expertise to hundreds of girls throughout the years, including his children.
His two eldest daughters played college softball at Long Beach State, while his youngest, Gianna, is currently playing for Cal State University-San Marcos.
Looking back at his injury shortened baseball career, Lombardi acknowledge the pain of knowing he never reached his full potential.
“All I’ve got left is my baseball card,” he said. “Really, I was just a common player. My card isn’t worth a nickel. And it hurts, because I know I could have been so much more.”
Greg Larson wanted to live the big league dream, but after batting .091 during his senior season, he knew his only way he was getting into a pro clubhouse was if he worked there. Fresh out of college, Larson searched for any opportunity to get his foot in the door. When a spot opened up at baseball's lowest rung with the Baltimore Orioles short season Class-A Aberdeen Ironbirds, Larson jumped at the opportunity. The ensuing two years completely flipped his perception of a professional baseball player's life. Minor league life was filled with squalor and despair, with salaries that hugged the poverty line. He decided to chronicle his wild two year ride with Aberdeen in his new book, Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir.
Larson joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast for a candid talk about the ups and downs he experienced while working in the clubhouse and how it forced him to grow up quickly.
Click here to listen to the Greg Larson interview or stream below.
Gary Vaynerchuk, the entrepreneur and social media giant, has set his eyes on the sports card industry with a laser-like focus that could quickly elevate the hobby back into national prominence. While some may think "Gary Vee" is trying to ride the wave of the most hyped prospects; however, he is no stranger to collecting. Vaynerchuk built his chops in the late 1980s and early 1990s, making thousands of dollars as a teenager selling baseball cards at local shows.
| | | Gary Vaynerchuk / Twitter |
One just has to look at stacks of Todd Van Poppel and Gregg Jefferies rookies from the sports card boom as a reminder that collecting was designed to be a hobby instead of a venture into an alternate stock market. Despite the historical warnings, collectors are diving into prospects hoping to find the next Mike Trout while sidestepping the likes of Greg “Toe” Nash. With new money flying into sports card investing, will the top cards reach new highs in the coming year?
I’ve been studying the sports card market quietly since August and intensely for the last 4 weeks. Im@so excited to enjoy it. Vintage classics graded are wonderful long term.
The wild ride will be bowman baseball speculation and prizm base rookies psa10 if young talent— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) April 21, 2019
Modern-era baseball cards will always lag well behind their pre-WWII counterparts, but recent history shows that modern-era cards are starting to attract more lucrative bids. Just six months after a Shohei Ohtani rookie card sold for a modern-era record of $184,000, a Mike Trout rookie card has attracted a $92,000 bid on eBay and could climb higher. According to SBD, on-field greatness only goes so far in upping a card's value, but if Trout continues to stake his claim to the title of best (non-steroid) player since Willie Mays, they set the odds at 1/2 that a Trout card becomes the most valuable modern-era card within the next decade.
| | | 2011 Mike Trout Gold Canary Diamond / PSA |
With Gary Vee’s massive following turning their attention towards the new generation of sports cards (Vaynerchuk has 1.88 million Twitter followers as compared to Topps’ 125,000), we could get a win-win on both sides of the hobby. Excited hustlers and entrepreneurs could easily drive up the higher ends of the card market while simultaneously drawing an increasing amount of casual fans back into the joys of collecting.
| | | Willie Mays celebrates his 90th birthday at Oracle Park in San Francisco. |
Hall of Fame legend Willie Mays turned 90 on May 6, 2021, and the entire baseball community celebrated the milestone with a variety of tributes including a grand celebration at Oracle Park.
Happy Birthday, Willie! #SayHey90 pic.twitter.com/aNYxuPfFlr
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 8, 2021
As part of the festivities, the Giants announced the creation of the Willie Mays Scholars program, which will offer college prep and support to Black high schoolers in San Francisco. The initial class this fall will include five students who will receive $70,000 in support, including up to $20,000 in scholarships.
“I have always made kids my priority by helping them in any way I could throughout my playing career and life,” Mays said in a statement. “To have the Giants Community Fund and the Giants ownership group create this program in my name and to provide a path to college for Black children in our community means the world to me. I can’t wait to meet the first class of Willie Mays Scholars to offer my encouragement and support.”
Mays was a World Series hero for the New York Giants in 1954, his infamous catch of Vic Wertz's smash during Game 1 paved the way for the Giants to sweep the Indians. While the World Series odds seemed a longshot at +6000 for the Giants to start the 2021 season, the club's first place standing during Mays' celebration could be the inspiration needed to drive towards another championship appearance.
While honors have poured in across the landscape offering Mays his flowers, we take a look back at our coverage of Mays throughout his career, often through the words of his teammates.
- Willie Mays bringing the 2010 World Series trophy to the Harlem public school on the site of the former Polo Grounds.
- Willie Mays and former Giants teammate Ruben Gomez once fought each other in Puerto Rico.
- How Willie Mays inspired Mets rookie George "The Stork" Theodore during Mays' final season with the Mets.
- Willie Mays' candid interview with former MLB player Billy Sample.
- Willie Mays "The Life, The Legend" book review.
- Willie's Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, The Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend
Topps and Athletes Unlimited joined forces in 2021 to produce the first volleyball card set in the company's history. The 52-card set highlights all of Athletes Unlimited's volleyball players including Olympians Jordan Larson, Sheilla Castro and Bethania de la Cruz. Topps produced the set as part of its on-demand series and was made available to fans and collectors during the five-week season. The set finished with a print run of 3,048 copies, making it a limited-edition collectible for years to come.
2021 Topps Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Base Set and Checklist
| | | 2021 Topps Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Cards |
The base set features 47 athletes and five additional cards dedicated to the league and the upcoming Athletes Unlimited softball season. Click here for the set's checklist. The cards are on glossy stock with the backs dedicated to their personal and professional bios, as well as their college accolades. An interesting aspect of the card design is the interlocking feature between cards when placed side-by-side. Speaking with Cassidy Lichtman for Forbes right before the season started, she said these Topps card fulfilled an unexpected dream. “It’s a dream that I didn't know I was supposed to have,” Lichtman said. “Growing up in volleyball, you just don't expect to get that same kind of level of visibility and recognition because you never had it. I didn't even think I should be thinking about it, but now that it's an actual possibility and an actual thing happening, what an amazing thing! I grew up in a sports family; we used to buy baseball cards, and my brother collected them. To know that Topps, which is the name in baseball cards, is giving us our own set and giving us space within the platform that they have, is just kind of surreal.”
2021 Topps Athletes Unlimited Autographs and Parallels
| | | 2021 Topps Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Parallels and Autographs |
With each athlete signing 50 cards for Topps, more than 75% of the sets will contain an autograph. The autographs are of the sticker variety, as the short season necessitated a quick turnaround for the set. In addition to the autographs, each card has four parallels as part of the rainbow, with the elusive Gold 1/1 being the chase cards here. The three other parallels are: Purple / 50, Blue /25 and Orange /5. The set provided for this review featured a Sherridan Atkinson Purple parallel /50 and a signed Nia Grant card. 2021 Topps Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Set / Box Break VideoCollectors who are finding out about the set after its release will have to hit the secondary market on sites like eBay to pick up a copy. If you want to get a preview of the entire set, watch the box break below as we went through each card in the debut issue. Topps' partnership with Athletes Unlimited Volleyball is a major step towards tapping into a huge market for one of the most popular sports in the United States, as girls' volleyball is the second most widely participated high school sport in the country. As interest in the league grows, watch for more young fans turn into collectors of their favorite athletes from the league.
Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder and 2019 National League MVP joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss his new partnership with Flonase and why the move was in alignment with his personal branding, as he has suffered from allergies his entire career.
He also explained what it was like to play through the pandemic, including winning the 2020 World Series and what the Dodgers are looking forward to in defending the title in 2021.
Click here to listen to the Cody Bellinger interview and subscribe to the podcast.
When Rusty Staub died March 29, 2018, the New York Mets lost a franchise icon. The Mets traded a trio of young prospects to the Montreal Expos in exchange for the six-time All-Star just before starting the 1972 season. Mike Jorgensen, a 23-year-old homegrown talent from Bayside, Queens, was one of the traded players who had to replace Montreal's most beloved superstar.
“He was a hero,” Jorgensen said in a phone interview. “He was the Montreal Expo at the time, and it wasn't a very popular trade in Montreal.”
Going to Montreal with Ken Singleton and Tim Foli, Jorgensen found strength bonding with his new teammates. They turned their collective energy towards the field rather than worrying about living up to Staub's lofty expectations.
“That trade gave me a chance to be a regular player,” he said. “That was the foremost [thing] on my mind. I played up there for five years, so after a little while, [the fan reaction to the trade] wore down a little bit. At first, it was unpopular because he was an All-Star; he was, 'Le Grande Orange,' and he was a big deal.”
The baseball tradewinds reunited the duo in New York at the twilight of their careers. Jorgensen returned to the Mets in 1980 via a trade with the Texas Rangers. Staub joined him from Texas the following year through free agency. Now both seasoned veterans, they became friends by sharing a similar role on the team.
"We would go out to dinner a number of times; it was kind of unusual because we were both kind of winding [down] out careers at the time," he said. "We were both left-handed pinch hitters, [which] I guess you could do it in those days when you had seven guys on the bench; you wouldn't have room for that kind of a thing in today's game."
He recalled one candid bench conversation early in their Mets tenure that exemplified how attentive and competitive Staub was in his reserve role.
“The one thing I'll remember is that he studied the game,” he said. “He was one of the best pinch-hitters in the game, if not the best. He would study those pitchers, sit in the dugout, and look for something if they were tipping pitches or something like that. After a while, he'd say, 'I got him, I got it.' I'd always sit by him and try to pick up the tip myself. The first time he did that, I said, 'Yeah okay, what is it?' He looked at me and he said, 'You know, we're both kind of fighting for the same job.' It wasn't in a bad way, that was just the way he was.”
The 69-year-old Jorgensen, who currently works for the St. Louis Cardinals as their Senior Special Assistant to the General Manager, acknowledged how his former teammate's passing is a tremendous loss to the entire baseball community.
“He was great,” he said. “Obviously, everybody knows the stories about the restaurants and how he was a gourmet cook. … He was a wonderful man [with] everything he did there in New York, especially [with] the police department. It was enjoyable to play with him; it really was. I enjoyed my time with him. Baseball's going to miss him; we'll all miss him.”
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- Ed. Note - This story was originally published for the now-defunct Sports Post on April 11, 2018.
Cassidy Lichtman, an outside hitter for the newly minted Athletes Unlimited Volleyball league, joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss all of the exciting developments the league has planned going into its debut season. The former Stanford star explains how significant it is to be part of this pioneering group, the feelings behind having her own official Topps trading card, and the work she's doing to move the game forward with her organization, Progress Through Athletics (P/ATH).
Click here to listen to the interview with Lichtman on the Baseball Happenings Podcast.
Dr. Anthony Fauci believes there is a ‘pretty good chance’ that fans will be able to attend MLB games in 2021 provided that the rate of Covid-19 cases continues to drop. The chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden appeared on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast on February 19th and said: “We could have people in the stands, maybe not right next to each other”.
Local municipalities will make decisions on fan attendance, and the Tampa Bay Rays have already revealed their plans to kick off their campaign with around 7,000 supporters in the ballpark.
A small number of fans were able to attend some games last season, and other major American sports leagues have been able to let some people in at a reduced capacity.
With the Covid-19 vaccine still in its early stages of being implemented across the country, the hope is that more baseball fans will be allowed in as the situation improves.
The season is scheduled to start on April 1st with all 30 teams set to play. ESPN will be showing live coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays @ New York Yankees at 1:05 p.m. ET, and that will be followed by the World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers kicking off their title defense at Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies.
Part three of the quadruple header sees the Washington Nationals host the New York Mets, and the action concludes in LA as the Angels welcome the Chicago White Sox to Angel Stadium.
The Dodgers are the favorites to win the World Series for the second year in succession, with most of the best betting sites offering odds of +350 on the National League West outfit.
Next in the betting is the Yankees who lost the American League Division Series to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020 but are +550 to bounceback and win a 28th World Series crown.
The San Diego Padres look absolutely stacked this year and it is no surprise to see them priced as a +900 third-favorite. Last week, shortstop Fernando Tatis committed his future to the Padres with a whopping 14-year, $340 million contract. All-Star pitcher Yu Darvish was also acquired from the Chicago Cubs, adding to an already impressive roster.
The Atlanta Braves have no shortage of star power themselves, and after three straight National League East division titles, they are expected to go deep again with odds of +1200 to win the World Series.
Both the New York Mets and Chicago White Sox are also in the +1200 range, while the Minnesota Twins are as big as +2000 with some online sportsbooks.
Despite winning the American League in 2020, the Tampa Bay Rays are +2500 to go one better this year and are +900 to repeat their AL success. There are question marks over their ability to repeat what they achieved last term, especially with so many other American League teams breathing down their neck.
The Toronto Blue Jays are among those that many believe could mount a challenge this year, and they are +2000 for the World Series.
Topps created a fresh design for their 2020 Topps Chrome Black Baseball set that provides a completely different look from its 2020 Topps Chrome Baseball partner. Base Set And Checklist Each four-card box comes with a hefty $180 price tag, guaranteeing one encased autograph. The 100-card base set (see checklist here) contains almost 40 rookies including 2020 American League Rookie of the Year, Kyle Lewis. If the base cards weren't scarce enough, they all come with a variety of serial numbered parallels, sure to keep the player collectors busy search for these rare gems.
Autographs The signer list for 2020 Topps Chrome Black Baseball is impressive, boasting Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Mariano Rivera, alongside top stars Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The box provided for this review yielded this Patrick Corbin gold autograph #/50.
| | | 2020 Topps Chrome Black Patrick Corbin Gold Autograph / Topps | | |
Box Break VideoHead over to our YouTube channel to check out our 2020 Topps Chrome Black Baseball box break, along with our archive of baseball interviews.
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Emily Kless, Topps Communications Manager, joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss the 2021 Topps Series 1 Baseball release, as well as the ensuing Virtual Rip Party on February 9, 2021, which features Hall of Famers, celebrities, and the top breakers celebrating Topps' 70th anniversary.
Click here to listen to the interview with Kless on the Baseball Happenings Podcast.
| | | Flavio Alfaro - 1985 Topps Baseball Card | | |
Flavio Alfaro, a shortstop on the 1984 USA Olympic Baseball team died on January 27, 2021 after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 59. The announcement was made on Facebook by a high school classmate.
Alfaro played at the College of the Canyons before transferring to San Diego State University in 1983. His steady defensive play attracted the attention of the United States Olympic Team and coach Rod Dedeaux. He batted .389 in five games for Team USA in 1984. Topps gave him an iconic card in their 1985 set, which also included Mark McGwire's famed Team USA card.
| | | Flavio Alfaro - 1984 USA Olympic Team |
The Atlanta Braves drafted Alfaro in the fourth round of the 1984 MLB Draft. After batting .193 in one season with their Class A team in Durham, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers with Rick Cerone for future Hall of Famer Ted Simmons. During the offseason, he had a dispute with Brewers management over the minor league level where he would be placed. Instead of accepting their assignment, Alfaro retired. He became the first player from the 1984 USA Olympic team to retire from professional baseball.After his baseball career, he worked as a salesman and farmer in Sacramento.
I am saddened to hear about the passing of Flavio Alfaro. He was a great teammate. I have great memories from that summer of 1984. RIP Flavio https://t.co/t9lfhK0P6D
— Don August (@DonAugust38) January 28, 2021
| | | Flavio Alfaro 1984 Team USA Media Guide |
Topps give a chromium upgrade to the Allen and Ginter baseball card series with the 2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Baseball set. The 300 card set features an array of current stars, legends, and pop culture icons that annually draw a wide range of collectors to the set.
2020 Topps Allen And Ginter Chrome Base Set and Parallels The chrome finish gives the Allen and Ginter cards a premium look, making for an attractive play on the original set. Produced in limited quantities as compared with the regular 2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball set, Topps mixes in colored refractors and rare autographed cards to spice up the action.
| | | 2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Chris Paddack Green Parallel |
Topps has also taken the inserts and made them mini versions, which include parallels of the entire set (these have refractors too), as well as the Booming Cities, Buggin Out, and Safari Sights sets.
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Baseball Box Break 2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Baseball Autographs The autographs are the toughest to chase, averaging one per case. The 29 signers for the set include the recently deceased Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Derek Jeter, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Mike Trout.
Coming in around $180 per box, some might find the price is a little heavy; however, the cards really pop and the lure of pulling a rare autograph might just be enough for collectors to take a shot on a box.
| | | Hank Aaron (l.) and Davey Johnson (r.) with Bowie Kuhn |
Davey Johnson spent three glorious seasons alongside Hank Aaron on the Atlanta Braves from 1973-1975. Playing with Aaron as he surpassed Babe Ruth’s home run record, Johnson witnessed many of the hardships Aaron faced as he pursued the historical mark. Watching Aaron chase baseball's cherished milestone, Johnson also secured his own place in the record books alongside the future Hall of Famer. In 1973 along with Darrell Evans, they all reached the 40 home run plateau, becoming the first trio of teammates to accomplish the feat in the same season.
Even though Johnson was a three-time All-Star and World Series champion with the Baltimore Orioles, he soaked up Aaron's lessons in their time together. He credited Aaron, who died this week at 86, for teaching him how to hit one of the nastiest pitches in baseball.
“Playing with Henry Aaron and [I watched] him really make the game look easy,” Johnson said during a 2010 interview. “Henry hit whenever he wanted to. I saw so many times things he would do that just were impossible to do. He taught me how to hit a left-hander’s slider off the plate [inside] fair. He did it all the time. … Most normal human beings with the ball slider in, you have to hit it over the dugout over there, but he would be able to hit it fair.”
After Aaron seized his place as MLBs all-time home run leader in 1974, the Braves usually rested him after flying to the West Coast. Johnson recalled how the legend made an exception from his rest day after he read some incendiary remarks by a opposing rookie pitcher.
“We were going to San Francisco from Atlanta,” he said. “When [we] traveled all night, Henry wouldn’t play the next day.
“Well the next day, he read the paper and a guy named [John] 'Count' Montefusco said in the paper, ‘Why I gotta face this Atlanta club? I’d rather face a good hitting club.’ Henry went to [Eddie] Mathews and said, ‘I’m in the lineup, I’ve gotta teach this guy a lesson.’ He had a wicked slider. I remember two guys were on. Henry’s up, first inning, he looked for his best pitch. He threw him a low and away slider and Henry hit it over the left field wall and came in and said, ‘I had to teach that kid something.’”
[Ed. Note - Aaron hit the home run in the second inning as the lead off batter facing Montefusco in a September 18, 1974, game.]
| | | Tommy Lasorda celebrating the 1958-59 Almendares championship |
Tommy Lasorda’s mighty curveball took him many places during his 14-year playing career, including Canada, Panama, Puerto Rico and Cuba. The tenacious southpaw’s fiery personality played right into the spirit of the Caribbean Winter League, making him a popular choice among the fans. During the 1958-59 Cuban Winter League season, Lasorda’s 8-3 record helped propel Almendares to the championship. They dominated in the Caribbean Series, going 5-1 with their pitching staff completing five of the six games. Lasorda was the lone starter not to go the distance, throwing 3.1 scoreless innings against Panama.
While Almendares’ near-flawless championship would have been the highlight of any baseball season, another event during the 1958-59 campaign dominated anything that happened on the baseball field.
On New Year’s Eve in 1958, one American baseball player noticed there was an uncomfortable quiet during the day. As John Goryl rode to the ballpark with Cienfuegos teammate Bob Will, there was an eerie silence on the road. “We were driving into Havana,” Goryl said during a 2011 interview. “We lived eight or nine miles outside of the city. We were driving down this main thoroughfare, and it was New Year’s Day. We were driving down the highway and not a soul in site. No traffic. All the windows when we got close to town were boarded up, curtains were down, and shutters were down.”
When they arrived at the stadium, his Cuban teammates quickly updated Goryl on what was happening. There was a drastic change coming.
“When we got to the ballpark, all of the Cuban ballplayers were gathered in one corner in the ballpark,” he said. “I took Pedro [Ramos] aside and he told me, ‘They think Batista left the country, and Castro will be coming in.’ I asked, ‘Are we gonna play?’ He said, ‘It doesn’t look like it, but they haven’t made that announcement.’ About 30 minutes later, an announcement was made, and we would be told when we would be able to play again.”
With the inevitable change of power from Fulgencio Batista to Fidel Castro, chaos ensued. It was a long ride back to their protected beach compound at Club Náutico where the foreign players stayed.
“All hell broke loose when we left that ballpark,” he said. “People tore down parking meters to get money, looting, and everything else.”
Goryl thought his family was safe at the compound; however, one American player thought otherwise. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he looked out his window and saw Tommy Lasorda out front armed with a rifle.
“We were living in a compound that was completely surrounded by water with guards,” he said. “I had a wife who had a small baby and was pregnant. I looked out the window one morning down to the street and there was Tommy walking around with a .22 rifle trying to protect everybody. It was the damndest thing I'd ever seen.”
This is a guest post by Bill Brown.
A powerful baseball coach should have in-depth information about baseball. A baseball coach must possess specific characteristics that can help make a winning soccer team. The focus of the coach should also be on physical and technical specifications. Coaching at every level includes much more than creating the lineup, hitting fungos, or coaching third base. Let’s look at a few characteristics and skills that a successful coach should possess.
1- Experienced and Knowledgeable A baseball coach acts as an instructor and possesses expert knowledge of the sport. The coach should help players improve their skills to maximize the team's ability to win. Extensive knowledge of the game is imperative for a baseball coach. The coach should be able to explain basic rules to rookies, while also being able to provide information that is more complex to advanced players. The baseball coach should teach players to stay low and make quick transitions from the glove to the throwing hand instead of teaching them to stay in front of ground balls. A successful baseball coach possesses intelligence and an understanding of the adjustments needed to win games, and they watch the action closely and consider all angles. The coach observes the opposing batters hit the ball and makes changes in the defense accordingly.
2- LeadershipA baseball coach should have leadership qualities. The coach should motivate players to stay positive, fair, patient, sincere, concerned, and honest to succeed. The baseball coach should also communicate effectively and display credibility, competence, respect, and authority. Clear communication is a good leadership quality. It means defining goals, giving direct feedback, reinforcing the key messages, and acknowledging success. Apart from being a good communicator, leadership quality also includes having a compassionate ear, welcoming the athletes’ comments, questions, and input. The effective baseball coach actively seeks out information from players and creates a positive environment by encouraging players to present their ideas and thoughts to the coach.
3- Organizer and Time Management Expert A great baseball coach gives players a pre-game, post-game, and off-season schedule to ensure that players give their best on the field. The effective coach clearly states a code of conduct for players, and if violations occur, discipline should follow. A baseball coach should set a mild, prompt, and consistent discipline to effectively change behavior. A good coach wants to make sure that they stay on top of diverse talent and never let the player get complacent between the lines. The coach has to manage the time of all of its players if a team has the goal to maintain its winning ways.
4- Strategical and Mechanical Genius A great coach identifies a player’s specialty and mechanics as a hitter, infielder, pitcher, catcher, or outfielder. Every position has its unique mechanical criteria. A hitter has a different approach to every pitch in the count. An infielder has a spot to cover and a stance to emulate based on outs, pitch count, and situation. An outfielder should have a perfect catch and throw mechanics to be able to make those plays to a base or the cut-off. Baseball is a game of repetition in which a coach needs to see a flaw in skill sets and mechanics of a player and fix it. For example, a great coach looks for whether or not a pitcher is staying tall, balanced, gliding outward, and directly toward the catcher. It helps advance the player into the type of contributor he or she expects to become.
5- Staff Motivator To become an efficient baseball coach, the mentor should produce activities inside the baseball workout to help motivate players to accomplish better in each game. The coach has to remind players why they wished to learn baseball and develop a winning staff. The coach who displays a positive attitude and enthusiasm for the sport and the players can generate the desire in a player to excel in the team. While motivating a player, a good coach stresses trying to reach performance goals, not outcome goals.
6- Talent Scout and Evaluation Evaluation of players, in the beginning, is crucial to advance through minor leagues to Major League Baseball. Baseball success requires teamwork. Therefore, a baseball coach should evaluate players and build a team by spotting skilled players during high school tryouts, college recruiting visits, and pro scouting trips. While one basketball player might take 30 to 40% of the team's shots, baseball teams count on all nine batters in a lineup. Therefore, a successful coach looks for ways to build a team of players with good hand-eye coordination, strong arms, fast hands and feet, and outstanding core strength. Strong-armed players are usually good pitchers, and tall and strong players serve as the team’s power hitter. Final Thoughts The key to becoming a great baseball coach is to have years of knowledge and experience as a player that results in earning your team's respect. Besides, it is crucial as a baseball coach to build and maintain positive relationships with your players. A successful coach runs the team firmly and exhibits good character and even-handed, even-tempered treatment of each player.
With the announcement that breakdancing will be an official event in the 2024 Olympics, we sat down with world renown Rocksteady Crew DJ, Skeme Richards to discuss how the news will affect the tightly knit community. As one of the foremost experts on the musical backbone of breakdancing culture, Richards is in high demand to spin at breaking events and competition across the globe. He offers his insight on what the greater public can expect during the Olympics, and why he hopes the IOC will consult with those deep rooted in the artform to preserve its culture while on full display for the masses.
Click here to listen to Richards' interview on the Baseball Happenings Podcast.
Onyx Authenticated brings their third series to their 2020 Onyx Vintage Baseball release this year with its 2020 Onyx Vintage Baseball Extended Edition set. Each four card box guarantees two on-card autographs and two base cards.
This release has an intriguing focus on the unsigned international prospects from the Class of 2020, '21, and '22, providing collectors with their first certified autographs on the market. In addition to the international players, MLB stars Pete Alonso and Luis Robert headline the autograph checklist alongside a who's who of 2020's Top 100 prospects.
Click here to read the entire review for our Forbes Sports Money column, as well as to watch the box break video posted below. If you haven't already done so, we would appreciate you clicking here to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more box breaks and interviews.
Gary Vaynerchuk joins Nick Diunte (@Examinebaseball) for the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss the growing sports card industry, what he would do if he were in charge of Topps, his new VaynerBaseball sports agency, and why he thinks MLB has stunted its own long-term growth. If you enjoyed this interview, we would love if you subscribed to the Baseball Happenings Podcast and leave a comment on this video.
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Lauren Taylor, MLB / MLBPA / Baseball Hall of Fame artist joins the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss her emerging art career while recovering from a traumatic brain injury and the ensuing depression. Check out her designs at - https://laurentaylorillustrations.com/Click this link to listen on your favorite platform, or use the player below to stream the interview.
Rob Friedman, better known to his 240,000-plus Twitter followers as the PitchingNinja, fulfilled every kid's dream when Topps asked him to be a part of their 2020 Allen and Ginter baseball card set. The lawyer-turned-analyst, who created one of the most popular baseball accounts in the Twittersphere, joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to tell how Topps' rigorous standards for being a part of the set made him feel like a major leaguer.Click here to listen to Friedman on the Baseball Happenings Podcast on your favorite platform, or use the embedded player below to directly stream the interview.
Join us as we open a box of 2020 Topps Opening Day baseball cards on our YouTube channel. Historically, Topps' Opening Day product has been a fun and inexpensive way to get into the flagship set, and this year's release only serves to confirm it. Check out the video below for our look at 2020 Topps Opening Day Baseball. As always, we welcome you to subscribe to our channel for more box breaks and interviews.
Blake Jamieson, Topps Project 2020 artist joins the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how being involved in Project 2020 has allowed him to expand his brand and business faster than he ever imagined. During the 20-minute interview, Jamieson explains how he has seized the opportunity to start multiple businesses, including a new podcast, and establish his CardArt.com website. Use this link, or click the stream below to listen.
Greg Modica thought his six-year minor league career was over when he tore his rotator cuff in 2006 while pitching for the Long Island Ducks. He spent the next 14 years molding New York City ballplayers to follow his lead on the mound, putting away any dreams he had of returning to the mound.
Fast forward to March 2020, with COVID-19 shutting down both New York City and Modica's successful pitching business, he had nothing else to do but train. Two months shy of turning 40, he made a promise to throw 90 MPH by his May birthday. What happened next wass a Hollywood-esque story where an innocent bet on one's fortitude turned into an opportunity to play professional baseball after a 14-year hiatus. During the latest Baseball Happenings Podcast, Modica explains how a 40-year-old with a surgically repaired right arm defied all odds to return to a professional mound for the first time since 2006. Click here to listen on your favorite podcast platform, or use the player below to share in Modica's incredible journey.
Growing up in the 1980s, Olympian and professional beach volleyball star Nick Lucena poured through packs of baseball cards looking for his favorite players. At the time, Ken Griffey Jr.'s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card was the must-have card for any Gen X's collection. That card's demand put the sports card manufacturer's name at the forefront in an era where Topps previously dominated.
| | | Nick Lucena 2020 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions / Upper Deck | |
Fast forward three decades later, little did Lucena imagine he would be in Upper Deck set alongside Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Wayne Gretzky; however, if you look closely at the 2020 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions set, you will see Lucena mixed in with sport royalty. Click here to read our latest Forbes Sports Money column where we spoke with Lucena to find out how Upper Deck brought him into the set and how it feels to finally have your rookie card at age 40.
Below is our box break of 2020 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions where we not only pulled Lucena's rookie cards, but also a host of stars, including a special autograph and relic card.
Rally, the collectibles investment platform, has developed an unique partnership with Topps to produce ten "1st edition" 2020 Topps complete sets to be sold in shares exclusively through Rally's app. Rally's co-founder, Rob Petrozzo, joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss the details of their partnership, as well as explain exactly how Rally's platform works.
Three-time Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Misty May-Treanor is back with the AVP; however, this time, she's not scooping up shots on the sand, but rather she's calling them from their broadcast booth. May-Treanor joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how she's exploring her new role as a commentator for their broadcasts and what she can bring to the table with her decades of experience in the sport.
Gary Vaynerchuk made another power move in the sports agency world by announcing a partnership with Greg Genske to lead VaynerSports' newly formed VaynerBaseball division. Genske joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how he linked up with Gary Vee to bring his talents to VaynerSports to expand their agency's reach into Major League Baseball.
Bill Oster, one of the last surviving Philadelphia Athletics players, died June 6, 2020 in Centerport, New York. He was 87.
| | | Bill Oster / Author's Collection |
Oster made his major league debut in 1954 with the Philadelphia Athletics after they pulled him from the Long Island sandlots.
“Two nights later I was down in Philadelphia,” he said in my Forbes column earlier this year. “I threw to one of the coaches [Augie Galan]. He said, ‘Take your time, and throw easy.’ After 15 minutes he told me to throw harder. I threw a little harder, and he said, ‘Okay, let's see what you got!’ I threw a fastball to him and he fell on his back. He came up laughing like hell. I can still see it. He said, ‘Let's have that once more.’ He called [manager] Eddie Joost and said, ‘Eddie, you have to see this!’ They signed me right there and put me on the roster.”The 21-year-old lefty spent the remainder of the season with the A's, his only one in the big leagues. You can click here to read the entire story, which was the last public interview he did he before he died. He discusses his brief, but excting career, including how he struck out Hall of Famer Ted Williams.
Bartolo Colón still has hopes of returning to the majors leagues. At 47, and with labor negotiations at a stand still, his chances are as good as Vegas bookmakers trying to set the odds to win the World Series.
According to SBD, "The second-tier favorites have generally gotten longer with the MLB planning to play a shortened, 80-game season with an expanded playoff field. Fewer games means greater likelihood for unexpected outcomes."Despite the uncertainty surrounding Colón's return to the field or if the season will take place, fans will rejoice reading Colón's journey in his new autobiography, "Big Sexy: Bartolo Colón In His Own Words". The 21-year MLB veteran partnered with Stahl through a series of interviews at his New Jersey home to tell how he achieved major league stardom from his humble Dominican Republic beginnings.
In the latest Baseball Happenings Podcast episode, Stahl discussed how the rookie author was able to link up with Colón for his "big league" publishing debut. During the 18-minute interview, he tells some of his favorite stories from the book, while also explaining how this venture has validated his transition from a New York City high school English teacher to author during an unprecedented pandemic.
Jeff Frye was a fan favorite during his eight major league seasons with the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies, and Toronto Blue Jays, but little did he expect to gain massive social media fame almost 20 years after he last put on the uniform. After a series of videos where he is spoofing hitting instruction methods he's seen online, including the one below which has received 1.4 million views as of this writing, Frye's "She gone!" has become a cult cry among his fans and retired MLB peers.Frye joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how he's handled the unexpected attention, and how he hopes his videos will help young baseball players and their families become better informed consumers when selecting a hitting coach.
@examinebaseball What to do if your ##hitting coach hands you a PVC pipe. ##baseball ##mlb ##tips ##shegone ##baseballcards ##batting
♬ original sound - examinebaseball
Brad Balukjian, author of The Wax Pack: On The Open Road In Search of Baseball's Afterlife, joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast for a special Q&A interview where readers submitted questions for Balukjian to answer live on-air about his 11,341 mile journey across the country to uncover the afterlives of 14 retired Major League Baseball players.
In 2015, I met with Balukjian in Brooklyn while he was in New York to meet with Lee Mazzilli and Doc Gooden for the book. After being rejected by multiple publishers, his book is currently the best-selling baseball book on Amazon at the time of this writing.
During the 45-minute Q&A, Balukjian explained his crazy travels trying to track down Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, getting batting lessons from World Series champ Rance Mulliniks, and his conflict peeling away layers from his baseball hero, Don Carman.
Throughout a long Major League Baseball career, one might have hundreds who they call teammates, but only a select few they can call true friends. Despite bonding while traveling the country for six months trying to win a World Series championship, as soon as teammates clean out their lockers, they often go their separate ways until spring training.
With the platitudes expressed for Darren Daulton in the wake of his passing, one of his teammates shared how a union formed before their first major league game together persisted through Daulton's final hours. Don Carman, a former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher who broke into the majors with Dalton in 1983, explained the nature of their transcendental friendship.
“We had something special, because in baseball I have a lot of really good friends that I spent time with, [but] the day they stop playing, they go home and you never hear from them again,” Carman said via phone shortly after Daulton's death. “It happens all the time. … That's the rule. … He and I had an amazing friendship, a wonderful friendship, [we were] very close, and I loved him like mad. There's not a time where we wouldn't hug, kiss each other, and say, 'I love you,' because you knew you had something different.”
To understand just how their relationship started, go back to the 1983 season when the two were a battery for the Philadelphia Phillies Double-A team in Reading, Pennsylvania. After both had breakout seasons in the minors, the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies called them up when rosters expanded. Arriving in the heat of a pennant race, the pair watched as future Hall of Famers Steve Carlton, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and Mike Schmidt worked at clinching the pennant. Finally, with the pennant in hand, manager Paul Owens inserted Daulton into the starting lineup on the next-to-last game of the 1983 season.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Daulton scored the go-ahead run against the Pittsburgh Pirates, giving Owens the opportunity to summon Carman to seal the deal. The lefty spent most of the season as Reading's closer and he now was in the position to get a save in his major league debut. As a nervous Carman approached the mound, a familiar face greeted him with the right message to get him under control.
“I remember being scared to death,” he said. “Then he [Daulton] came out the mound and said something like, 'We made it. You and I made it. We're here, and we're playing in the big leagues.' I remember still being afraid, but at least I didn't have to worry about how to pitch and what I wanted to do because the guy knew me so well. And I did, I had a 1-2-3 inning. It was obviously my first outing, but it was as much as being comfortable with knowing that I didn't have to think; all I had to do, whatever he put down, I'm going to throw it because I couldn't think because I was so scared. I was the closer in Reading for the last three months of the season, so he knew me, what I wanted to do, and what made me effective, so I didn't have to worry about that.”
Just how Daulton helped to guide Carman in his debut, Carman noted that “Dutch” had a magnetism that drew his teammates to follow him. From the beginning of his career, Daulton had an uncanny ability to inspire that was evident across the league.
“The strange thing about him, everybody in baseball knows he was one of the most special baseball-type people—he was the consummate player and everybody looked up to him, even when he was 26-27, the 35-year-olds looked up to him," Carman said. “He was the leader of every team he was on. I've never met a better leader, just an amazing guy; he was like that in the minor leagues. He was a natural.”
Daulton made it a point to extend himself not only to his teammates, but to everyone around him who made the game run. Carman felt it was how “Dutch” treated those whose names did not show up in the box score that was a true testament to his character.
“It didn't matter if you were grounds crew or the owner of the team, everybody wanted to be around him and everybody felt special,” he said.“It was every person; it didn't matter who you were. If the owner of the team came over, he would walk over, grab him by the face with both hands and kiss him on the cheek. If it was the guys who just dragged the field and they walked by, 'Dutch' would do the same thing. It didn't matter who you were, you demanded his respect because he gave it to you, and everybody felt special.
“There's something about his personality that gave you this feeling that he really does care. This moment he cares about me, enough to pay attention to me, to listen to me, to smile at me, to make eye contact with me, and hear what I just said.”
Philadelphia's love affair with Dutch grew as his spirit and personality resonated with the Phillies faithful. The Phillies honored their leader when they inducted him into their Wall of Fame in 2010. Even amongst the of Hall of Famers, Carman's keen eye noted that in later years, Daulton stood out as the obvious fan favorite.
“When you go to the Wall of Fame in Philly, they call them all out on the field,” he said. “They always call him out last because they know he's going to get the biggest ovation every time. You're talking about Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt, who spent more time there and are in the Hall of Fame. People would cheer, but when he came out, the place would erupt. He even made fans feel special."
While Daulton stayed in the spotlight, he and Carman remained tight behind the scenes. They participated in each other's weddings while becoming confidants throughout tough times in their lives. They stuck together even when many walked away from Daulton when he released his controversial book, “If They Only Knew” in 2007.
“Throughout all three marriages, he and I talked because he knew he could trust me," Carman said. “He would come to me for advice through all of this, so we've become very close over the years. When he went through his bizarre time when he wrote the book [If They Only Knew], a lot of people didn't know how to respond; I didn't know how, but it wasn't by leaving him because I knew this person and something was wrong. It turns out he had a brain tumor. As soon as they removed the bulk of the brain tumor, the crazy behavior changed and he was back. It was amazing."
When Daulton's brain cancer recently took a turn for the worse, Carman dropped what he was doing to make the three-hour trip to Daulton's bed side. For the next two weeks, he made spending time with Dutch his main priority.
“I kind of put work on hold for the last two weeks because that's when he made a really downward turn,” he said. “I've been with him every other day for the past 15 days. He lives three hours away. I would drive up, see him, and leave [his wife] Amanda, her mother, and his parents. I would spend the day there, go to a hotel, and then come back see him, and then drive home. A couple of days later, I would do it again.”
Even in his final days, Daulton stayed true to form, mustering up whatever strength he had left to make Carman feel welcome. This time, Carman did most of the heavy lifting.
“Obviously it was difficult,” he said. “The last ten days, he couldn't talk, but he could listen, smile, and hug you with one arm as the right side was paralyzed. Since he could do that, I did the talking.”
Carman spent five hours with Daulton on the day he died. Speaking with him only two days later, Carman did his best to hold back tears while humbly expressing gratitude for being there one last time for his good friend.
“I'm just glad I could talk to him.”
- This article originally appeared in the now defunct Sports Post on August, 10, 2017.
Bobby Valentine joints the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss playing for Bobby Winkles with the California Angels. Winkles, who also managed the Oakland Athletics and won three College World Series championships at Arizona State University, died April 17, 2020 at age 90.
Winkles managed the Angels in 1973, when Valentine suffered his career-altering injury while playing the outfield. Valentine explains how the injury changed both of their career trajectories.
Queens based artist Sophia Chang joins the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss her work on Topps Project 2020. In the interview, she explains what inspired her debut 1992 Bowman Mariano Rivera design, her foray into the baseball card collecting world, and how she's putting a Queens touch on the new cards.
- Website - www.esymai.com
- Instagram - @esymai
Mike Sommer of Wax Pack Hero joins the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how collectors are adapting their purchasing habits due to the coronavirus pandemic. We also take a dive into how the card companies like Topps are reacting with their production plants temporarily shutting down to due to forced work stoppages.
On the latest Baseball Happenings Podcast, we present an interview with New York Yankees and Team USA catcher Erik Kratz. The 39-year-old MLB veteran discussed how he is dealing with the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Games postponement as just another speed bump in his well-traveled career.
Today's guest author is Bill Thompson from Words Above Replacement. He shares how baseball cards opened the door to a deep love for the game that still runs strong today.
One Forgotten DetailWhen discussing my baseball fandom, there is one critical element I often leave out. I’m not sure why; it’s an important part of my past. I will tell people over and over again the first time I went to Wrigley Field, the first time I heard Harry Caray, or that I realized I loved baseball by going games at Comiskey Park with my uncle. These stories roll off my tongue without hesitation; however, I rarely tell people that baseball cards most influenced my development as a baseball fan.
To this day I can recall going to the store and opening packs of cards. It didn’t matter whether it was Donruss, Topps, or anything in between (truthfully I was more partial to Upper Deck because their cards were always more colorful), I just wanted baseball cards. From the day I opened my first pack, I was hooked. From then on, I spent my money on three things—baseball cards, comic books, and pro wrestling.
There was no better feeling than walking up to the counter at Venture or K-Mart with a handful of packs and knowing I was about to discover more about baseball. The Chicago Cubs and White Sox were known quantities, but the rest of the Major League Baseball landscape was fleeting. My exposure consisted solely of the few days they spent on my television screen while playing one of the two Chicago ballclubs. Baseball cards were the only way I had, at the time, to learn more about the players.
A Trip Into Baseball's PastBaseball cards were also a conduit to baseball history. I don’t remember the company, but I know early in my collecting life, one of them started including historical players in their packs. Years later, I can’t tell you who the players were, but I can tell you those cards led me to the library to seek out books on baseball history. Historical cards opened my eyes; there was more to baseball than what I could see in the present.
I mainly knew of MLB clubs in my early years. I was going to major market retailers for my packs, which meant I was only getting mainstream offerings. I knew there was a larger baseball world out there; prospect cards made that possible in my mind. Still, knowing Dwight Smith played for the Iowa Cubs didn’t prepare me for what was beyond MLB.
New Collecting HorizonsThat all changed when the Venture I frequented suddenly had plastic packs exclusively of minor league cards. I bought as many as I could and dove headfirst into the world of Minor League Baseball. I returned to the library and looked for any books I could find that included the minors in their talks about MLB’s history.
By the mid-1990s, I had binders of baseball cards. They were organized by the team, not by the card company, or year. Talking to other card collectors, I soon realized everyone had their method of storing cards. My method was the correct one, or so I told myself whenever confronted with a different way. Around this time, I recall attending a Schaumburg Flyers game and convincing my uncle to buy me a pack of novelty Flyers cards; the world of unaffiliated baseball was thrust into my lap. I didn’t do much with this new world at first, but over time I used baseball cards as a way to keep track of unaffiliated leagues, teams, and players the best I could before the dawn of the Internet.
Meeting other collectors also took me down a path of self-discovery. For a few years, I thought I needed to have the biggest collection. I gave up pro wrestling and focused all my money on comic books and baseball cards.
An Unexpected Turn Unfortunately, I also started to steal baseball cards, usually from Venture. I did this unabated for some time until I was finally caught. My obsession with baseball cards led to yet another important moment in my life. While I didn’t spend time in jail, or face any truly harsh consequences beyond a lifetime ban from Venture stores, I learned my actions carried a price. I discovered I didn’t like doing something blatantly illegal, and that having the most cards wasn’t a prize in and unto itself.
Years later, I wish I could tell you I still collect baseball cards. The truth is, I don’t, and my one attempt at getting back into the hobby was neither fruitful nor impactful. Baseball cards don’t play a role in my present-day life; however, baseball cards shaped my baseball fandom and the love I have for the game. Undoubtedly, without these small cardboard treasures, baseball would not have been an easy love affair. They helped me to grow as a fan and a person. While the cards are no longer physically in my possession, their influence is still profound in my heart today.
Bob Stephenson was a giant for many, but it had little to do with his professional baseball career. The former St. Louis Cardinals infielder turned oil magnate and philanthropist, died March 20, 2020, in Oklahoma City. He was 91.
| | | Bob Stephenson / Author's Collection |
A second-team All-American shortstop at the University of Oklahoma, Stephenson signed with the Cardinals in 1950. He played two seasons in their minor league system before being drafted into the Army in 1952. He served 13 months in the Korean War, putting his baseball career on hold until 1954.
After a full campaign with Triple-A Columbus, the Cardinals gave Stephenson his big break. He broke camp with the team from spring training and spent the entire 1955 season as their utility infielder, spelling Alex Grammas at shortstop and future Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst at second base.
Stephenson batted .243 in 67 games in his lone major league campaign. While he enjoyed the experience, years later, he discussed the unspoken rigors of a nomadic baseball life.
"The average person doesn't have an idea of what that life is like," Stephenson told author Richard Panchyk in Baseball History for Kids: America at Bat from 1900 to Today. "It sounds pretty glamorous, but when you're playing at that time 154 games a year, and you're making 9 or 12 road trips, it gets to the point, at least in my situation, I'd have to almost read the paper every day to see what town I was in because the restaurants all looked the same.
"[You] go through the ballgame, get through about midnight. I would get home, get back to the room about midnight, have a big dinner, go to bed at three o'clock, get up at noon, and repeat it over. At four o'clock, go back to the ballpark."
Eventually, the travel wore on Stephenson, and he retired from baseball in 1957 to put his geology degree to use. He founded the Potts-Stephenson Exploration Company and built his legacy in natural gas and oil exploration.
Late in his career, he scored a major victory when he sued one of the largest gas and oil producers, the ONEOK Resources Company, for an alleged violation of their accounting practices. PSEC sold their controlling interests to ONEOK in 1997; however, Stephenson remained his stake in the company. In 2003, Stephenson won a lengthy court battle against the energy giant.
Throughout his life, Stephenson extended his generosity to the University of Oklahoma. He made significant donations to the OU School of Geology and Geophysics, as well as their athletic programs.
In 2018, Stephenson made a donation to Oklahoma's baseball program towards the $15 million needed to renovate L. Dale Mitchell Park. The amount wasn't publicly disclosed, but it was rumored to be more than $1 million.
"Bob Stephenson is a great Sooner and has always been a tremendous leader for us, especially when it comes to supporting our student-athletes and the resources they need to be successful," Vice President and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione said in a press release. "He has served as a fundraising catalyst on many occasions, and once again has made a significant donation that gets us moving toward our goal of securing the necessary funds to complete our baseball stadium master plan."
Steve Jaronik was nine years old in 1963 when the Milwaukee Braves gave a young kid the experience of a lifetime. Jaronik wrote the Braves asking if he could meet the players from his favorite team. What happened next seems like an impossibility in today's era of teams closely guarding access to their players.
| | | Steve Jaronik with Willie Mays in 1963 at County Stadium |
A few months later, Bob Allen, the team's public relations director unexpectedly wrote him a letter with an invitation to the ballpark. He traveled with his family from Illinois, and the Braves took him on a journey that any fan, old or young, would cherish forever. In the video below, Jaronik narrates the entire day's events, which includes meeting multiple Hall of Famers (Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Willie Mays) in an emotional play for one's heart.
Dick Bokelmann, a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1950s, died December 27, 2019, in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He was 93.
Born October 26, 1926, Bokelmann was a star at Arlington High School. He went on to Northwestern University, where the Cardinals signed the pitching star from the Arlington Heights sandlots in 1947.
“After I got out of Northwestern [a scout] showed up at a semi-pro game one day and asked me if I was interested in signing,” Bokelmann said during a 2009 phone interview from his Arlington Heights home. “I had been in touch with the Cubs for a few years, but it didn't work out, so I signed with the Rochester Red Wings. I signed a Triple A contract. I then went to Toronto to meet the team and I was only there a week [before I] was sent to Fresno.”
Bokelmann’s major league journey started on the West Coast, far from his Windy City origins. He was quickly introduced to the follies of minor league life.
“I remember joining them in Bakersfield," he said. "Our manager was a catcher but wasn't on our active roster. Our catcher slid into home plate headfirst and got a concussion. We didn't have another catcher. We had a little 5'6” left-handed first baseman. Someone else went back there, I think one of our pitchers, and he couldn't see well without his glasses. Gosh about after two pitches went back to the screen, they brought the first baseman in left-handed, and he caught the rest of the game. I thought, ‘This is professional baseball?’ It was quite different.”
Weathering his rookie season, Bokelmann returned home armed with newfound riches, ready to make a move that would greatly impact his career. He married his sweetheart Dolores Hogreve, a union that lasted 71 years until her March 2019 death.
“I went home and got married,” he said. “I was making a big $250 per month, pretty extraordinary when I think back at that time. I got a big $50 raise for the next year and made $300!”
Bokelmann went 15-11 with a 2.82 ERA at Class B Allentown in 1948. For the next three years, he moved between their Double A and Triple A affiliates in Houston and Rochester.
Finally, in 1951, everything clicked under manager Al Hollingsworth’s watchful eyes in Houston.
“I had a really good year in Houston,” he said. “That year, I started as a starting pitcher and went on a trip to Panama. I pitched good ball down there until the Cardinals came through from spring training and they dropped off Vinegar Bend Mizell, Mike Clark, and Fred Martin. I found myself in the bullpen and it worked out to my advantage. I ended up with a 10-2 record and a 0.74 ERA.
"Every night, it was like 3-2, 2-1, 4-3, so I was up in the bullpen almost every night. It was entirely different; you weren't a one-inning closer back then. I even started a couple of ballgames for Houston that year. I could pitch five-to-six innings without a problem and I even threw a complete game. We would either be ahead or behind by a run and I'd get credit for a win.”
With Boklemann pitching lights out at Houston, the Cardinals took notice. On August 1st, 1951, he finally got the call to the majors. Cardinals manager Marty Marion wasted little time putting him to the test.
“When I got up to the Cardinals, they pitched me the first three days I was there,” he recalled. “The first night I saved a game for Harry Brecheen. The next two days I pitched, I didn't give up any hits; I had the bases loaded for one, gave up no hits, and nobody scored.”
After a failed attempt as a starter, Bokelmann settled into a comfortable bullpen role. He suffered a few early losses but then responded with three wins in one week.
“[Marty] Marion then decided to start me against the Cubs, and that didn't go very well,” he said. “A couple plays screwed up. Nippy Jones and I couldn't get together on a ball up the first base line, and it kind of snowballed from there.
“I went back to the bullpen. I later won three games in a week. We were in Pittsburgh; I gave up no runs in [4 2/3] innings and only one hit. On the third day, I gave up one run in [5 2/3] innings and only one hit. The next week we were home against the Giants, and I picked up another win. I went into the game and I think I pitched about five innings. We ended up winning the game, and I got credit for the win even though I went in with a 6-0 lead. That's how they work out. That's all I got; those three!”
For the next two seasons, Bokelmann shuttled between St. Louis and the minors, making 14 appearances for the Cardinals in 1952 and 1953. The Cardinals sold his contract to the Reds in 1954. Back home in the Texas League with Tulsa, he went 10-4 with a 1.80 ERA. Despite his stellar performance, he saw the unfortunate writing on the wall when the Reds kept him in the minor leagues.
“In 1954, I came home, I was about to be 28, my little girl was six, and my boy was three; I decided I had it,” he said. “I had my shot up there. I wasn't going to make it up there anymore, so I decided to quit.”
In an ironic twist shortly after deciding to hang it up, Bokelmann discovered his services were still in demand. His phone rang with an offer he waited for his entire career.
“The odd thing was, I always wanted to play winter baseball someplace,” he said. “Our manager Joe Schulz managed in Puerto Rico. No sooner than I got home and got a job with Prudential Life Insurance, he called me to come to Puerto Rico to play ball.”
He passed on the offer, turning his attention towards his family. He worked at Prudential for 30 years until his retirement.
According to his daughter, Bokelmann received autograph requests until three days before he died. In 2009, he recalled how Topps reprinting his 1953 rookie card led to a 25-year mail stream.
“About 15 years ago, I got a letter from Topps that they were going to reprint the 1953 series and they gave me a few bucks,” he said. “I now get requests every day. Sometimes I get ten of them. They must be trading them to other people. They get three of mine for one of someone else because I don't know how they get ten of them.”
Reflecting on the stark financial difference between his generation and current MLB stars, he pointed to how fellow Cardinals alum Curt Flood helped baseball players become millionaires when he challenged the reserve clause.
“The Cardinals had so many minor league teams, you kind of had to work your way up through them,” he said “There were good ballplayers especially in the Cardinals [system] that had to stay in the minors, especially in Columbus. Besides that, you had the reserve clause in the contracts, and that killed you.
"Until Curt Flood started the suit, you were done. The year I played in 1951, I had signed the minimum contract. The next year I got my letter from the owner for $5,000. By today's standards, going 3-3 in two months, I would have probably got a big raise today. I had to fight to get $500 more. If he didn't want to give it to me, I had to stay home. I couldn't go anyplace, I was locked in. That's how baseball was until 1973 when the contracts went out of sight. I wonder sometimes how much players like [Stan] Musial who was getting $75,000, which was big money back then, would have made now.”
Neal Watlington, one of the few remaining former Philadelphia Athletics baseball players, died December 29, 2019, at his home in Yanceyville, North Carolina. He turned 97 just a few days earlier.
| | | Neal Watlington / 1952 Parkhurst |
In 2013, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Watlington about his lengthy baseball career and World War II service which included a Purple Heart. Click here to read the entire interview.
During the conversation, Watlington explained how his break came in 1952 when the New York Giants sold his contract, along with three other players to Philadelphia. The Athletics brought Watlington to spring training in 1953, where he made it to the final cutdown day.
“We got back to Philadelphia,” he said, “and the manager Jimmie Dykes told me, ‘You’ve had a good spring training, but I’m sorry we’ve got to let you go back, we can’t carry three catchers. I feel real surely we’ll call you back, and if you do, you’re going to be number one.’”
Dykes stayed true to his word, and after an injury to catcher Joe Astroth during the middle of the season, Watlington was finally a major leaguer at the age of 30.
“It was great to be there; there’s nothing like the big leagues,” he said.
Watlington played the waiting game for almost a week before he had the chance to play. He made his debut on July 10, 1953, against the Boston Red Sox, getting a hit in his first time at bat off of Greensboro native, Hal ‘Skinny’ Brown. He started the next few games but was relegated to pinch-hitting duties for the remainder of the season when Astroth returned. With three catchers on the club, there was little room for Watlington to get an opportunity.
“Both [Ray] Murray and Astroth only hit .250 in the big leagues, but both of them hit in the .290s that season,” he said. “Both of them had good years, and there wasn’t just any place for me. You can’t get a better batting average by pinch-hitting.”
He finished the season batting .159 (7-for-44), and never returned to the major leagues, spending the next five seasons at Triple-A until he hung up his cleats in 1958.
After his playing days were over, he was a tobacco farmer in his hometown of Yanceyville and owned Watlington's Inc., a department store, and the Watlington farm store before retiring in 1999.
Despite his short stay in the majors, Watlington remained proud of his accomplishments.
“I played in every ballpark,” he said. “I hit in Yankee Stadium against Vic Raschi, I hit against Bob Feller. It was just quite an experience for me.”
Don Larsen, the New York Yankees 1956 World Series hero has entered hospice care. According to a statement by his son, the 90-year-old Larsen, who lives in Hayden Lake, Idaho, has been recently suffering from esophageal cancer. Larsen is the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in World Series history. His last public appearance was in August 2019, at the St. Louis Browns Historical Society Luncheon.
| | | Don Larsen / Terry Ballard |
STATEMENT FROM SCOTT LARSEN, DECEMBER 25, 2019
On behalf of the Larsen family, my wife Nancy and I want to express our heartfelt appreciation to Don Larsen’s many friends and fans who have reached out and contacted us in recent days concerning my father.
Shortly after returning from his annual August trip to St. Louis to attend the St. Louis Browns Historical Society gathering, dad was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He immediately began a rigorous program of radiation therapy through Cancer Care Northwest. He recently completed that treatment regime.
My dad is keeping active, despite his age (90) and this continuing health challenge. He recently celebrated a 62nd wedding anniversary with my mother, Corrine, on December 7th at Capone’s, his favorite local restaurant in Hayden, Idaho.
Dad is continuing to reside in his home of over twenty-five years overlooking Windy Bay on his beloved Hayden Lake, where he has spent many joyful hours fishing, frequently with me and our sons, Justin and Cody.
My dad and the entire Larsen family are very grateful for the medical care he has received over these recent months through the Kootenai Medical Center and Cancer Care Northwest, as well as the current assistance he is receiving from Hospice of North Idaho. Dad is looking forward to the upcoming baseball season and hopes to attend Yankee spring training once again next year.
Despite facing major injuries and former manager Mickey Calloway's questionable lineup decisions, the New York Mets managed to squeeze out a respectable 2019 season. They went 86-76 but only finished third in the NL East.
Making the playoffs is difficult. Much harder than in the NBA, because you must win your division to be guaranteed a spot, not just have a good record. It makes it even harder when two of the top three won-loss records come out of your National League division. The Atlanta Braves had a break-out year, winning 97 games. The World Series champion Washington Nationals emerged from the wild-card with 93 wins.
Entering 2020, the New York Mets have a lot to build from, starting with Jacob DeGrom. The MLB Picks experts at SBR recently posted on his Cy Young-winning season. DeGrom won the Cy Young award in a landslide, with the only other NL hurler to get a first-place vote was Los Angeles Dodgers star lefty, Hyun-Jin Ryu.
FanGraphs Stats
DeGrom outpaced his division counterparts Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. His 7.0 WAR was well ahead of the Nationals' pair (6.5 and 5.7 respectively). The only pitcher with a better WAR was Houston Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole, who probably should have won the AL Cy Young award.
Cole didn’t match deGrom's ERA, and his 20 wins came largely from the American League's best batting lineup. deGrom earned his Cy Young with only 11 victories, as voters took note of his advanced pitching metrics ahead of his win total.
DeGrom was 7-1 heading into the All-Star break, and he finished the season with a .97 WHIP and 255 strikeouts – best in the National League. With his contract extension keeping him in New York for the foreseeable future, the New York Mets are +1400 to win the World Series in 2020, tied for fifth with the Boston Red Sox on the World Series odds boards. That number is just behind the Braves at +1200, the Los Angeles Dodgers at +800, the New York Yankees at +650, and the Houston Astros at +600.
The Mets solidified their pitching staff by picking up starters Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello. The two augment an already All-Star rotation that consists of Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Steven Matz, and Noah Syndergaard.
However, there are many questions about their bullpen. They took a huge step forwards on Christmas Eve when they signed Dellin Betances to a one-year deal. The pen is loaded with Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman, Brad Brach, Edwin Diaz, and Jeurys Familia. Brach showed promise but there was a lot left to be desired out of both Diaz and Familia. If both Diaz and Familia can return to form, the Mets have a potential lights-out trio at the back end of their bullpen.
They Mets shored up their outfield defense when they snagged Jake Marisnick from the Astros for a pair of minor leaguers. The move gives the Mets outfield flexibility, as they now have a back-up for Brandon Nimmo and the oft-injured Yoenis Cespedes. New Mets manager Carlos Beltran can also move Nimmo to left field and run Marisnick in center field. Additionally, Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis can also play in the infield when needed.
If Cespedes comes back healthy and Pete Alonso repeats his record-setting rookie season, their new acquisitions give rookie manager Beltran much-needed lineup flexibility. That coupled with an improved pitching staff – assuming Diaz and Familia can bounce back in the bullpen – I see the Mets winning 90+ games and challenging for the NL East.
The Mets have formidable competition with the Braves and Nationals, but with the Nationals prime for a post-Series-win slump, the Amazins' could easily slide into a wild card berth at the end of the 2020 regular season.
On the latest Baseball Happenings Podcast, we present an interview with the recently deceased Ted Lepcio, an infielder who played primarily with the Boston Red Sox in the 1950s.
During our conversation from 2017, we discuss Lepcio's relationship with his teammate, Jimmy Piersall, as well as his memories of facing Satchel Paige. Lepcio died December 11th, 2019, in Dedham, Massachusettes. He was 90.
While the 2019 Major League Baseball season may seem like a distant memory, Bowman wastes little time putting tomorrow’s stars in focus with 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball. The highly anticipated set, which features the Class of 2019’s first Bowman baseball cards, gives collectors a new focus while snow covers fields across the country.
| | | 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball / Bowman |
Bowman gave 2019 box cover honors to the first overall pick, Baltimore Orioles catching prospect Adley Rutschman, and the third overall pick, Chicago White Sox first base prospect Andrew Vaughn. Both prospects’ tremendous upsides have driven their low-numbered refractor 2019 Bowman Draft autographs over the $1,000 mark, fueling the hype behind this year’s release.
2019 Bowman Draft Baseball Base Set and ChecklistThe 200-card base set highlights the top draft picks including the above duo, as well as emerging stars from the 2018 Bowman Draft Baseball set, Wander Franco, Jarred Kelenic, and Royce Lewis. The base set also has Bowman’s trademark colored parallels: Sky Blue #/499, Purple #/250, Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25 (Jumbo), Red #/5, Black 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1.
| | | 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball Base / Bowman |
The 200-card chrome set has the same player checklist but also has short-printed image variations (code #763) as well as base refractors. Rainbow parallels include: Sky Blue (Jumbo), Purple #/250, Sparkles, Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25 (Jumbo), Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1.
| | | 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball Parallels / Bowman |
Click here for the entire 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball checklist.
2019 Bowman Draft Baseball InsertsThere are four insert sets in 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball, all featuring serial-numbered refractor parallels. The 1989 Bowman 30th anniversary set frames ten top-tier prospects in the classic old-school design, while the Draft Pick Breakdowns set takes a magnifying lens to 2019’s top draft picks.
| | | 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball 30th Anniversary Wander Franco / Bowman |
Bowman highlights organizational depth with The Franchise Futures dual player cards, and the Draft Progressions Trios, which track the past three-year draft history from select franchises.
| | | 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball Inserts / Bowman |
2019 Bowman Draft Baseball AutographsBowman Draft autographs have become must-haves for serious collectors. Eager hobbyists flock to 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball, hoping to lock down this draft’s first fully licensed certified autographs.
The base chrome autographs and their parallels are industry standards for prospecting 101. Their serial-numbered parallel variations are the ones collectors are bidding up over $1,000.
Chrome autograph parallels include: Refractor #/499, Purple #/250, Blue #/150, Blue Wave #/150, Green #/99, Black #/75 (Jumbo), Sparkles #71, Gold #/50, Gold Wave #/50, Orange #/25 (Jumbo), Red #/5, Red Wave #/5, Black Wave 1/1, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1.
| | | 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball Autographs / Bowman |
Draft Night and Class of 2019 autographs creatively feature the new talents in vivid backgrounds that serve as a break from the traditional chrome autographs. Three of the insert sets (1989 Bowman 30th Anniversary, Draft Pick Breakdowns, and Franchise Futures) also have autographed versions as well.
The jumbo box opened for this review drew three autographs. A Nick Lodolo gold chrome autograph #/50 was the top hit, while the other two were a Daniel Espino refractor #/499 and a CJ Abrams base chrome autograph.
2019 Bowman Draft Baseball Box Break and Review
Opening a 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball box is a highly anticipated adventure, as each draftee possibly holds the key to future stardom. The jumbo box opened for this review was tough on collation, as back-to-back packs had an identical run of base draft cards. Despite the duplication, buying a 2019 Bowman Draft Baseball box is still an excellent way to get familiar with this year’s draft class going into spring training, as well as join in on the hobby excitement the prospects are creating this offseason.
Emily Waldon, Detroit Tigers and National Prospect writer for The Athletic joins the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss Major League Baseball's proposal to contract 42 teams from Minor League Baseball. She shares how the two Detroit Tigers affiliates that Rob Manfred has put on the chopping block have responded to the news.
| | | Baseball Happenings Podcast |
"They're very against it, and they're both fighting to make sure that they don't lose their places," Waldon said. "They're working with Congress to try and fight against it. Obviously wanting to defend their place in the organization's farm system, I'm working very hard to make sure that that can stay reality."
In the 11-minute interview, Waldon also shares her thoughts on Lou Whitaker missing out on the Hall of Fame, her grinding journey covering the minor leagues, and the top organizational farm systems to watch in 2020.
John Strohmayer, a pitcher for the 1973 New York Mets National League pennant-winning team, died November 28, 2019, in Redding, California. He was 73.
| | | John Strohmayer "Missing 1974 Topps Card" / Giovanni Balistreri |
The South Dakota native made his major league debut in 1970 with the Montreal Expos. He pitched parts of four seasons with the Canadian club, compiling an 11-9 record before the Mets signed him off waivers midway through the 1973 season. It was a move that delighted the entire household.
“We are both so happy,” his wife Connie said to the Montreal Gazette in 1973. “He pitched so well against New York earlier this year and he had two good starts against them in ’71. I guess they remember.”
Unfortunately, Strohmayer could not recapture his Flushing magic in a Mets uniform. He pitched in only seven games with an 8.10 ERA and was left off the postseason roster. He spent most of the 1974 season in the minor leagues, making one final appearance as a September call-up with New York. Citing a sore shoulder, Strohmayer hung up his cleats and embarked on a 34-year career in education.
He returned to his alma mater, Central Valley High School, where he was once a standout multi-sport athlete. Working as a teacher and a coach, he led Central Valley’s boys’ basketball team to the CIF championship in 1989. The district dedicated the current basketball court in his honor.
“His attention to detail and getting kids to believe in themselves was the difference,” his son Kevin said to Shasta County Sports.
Strohmayer eventually moved up the administration ladder, working as an assistant principal and principal before becoming the district’s superintendent in 2005. Current Central Valley principal Kyle Turner found Strohmayer’s athletic and coaching experience enhanced his ability to relate to students and staff.
"I firmly believe that some of the best coaches can make fantastic administrators, and I know that a lot of the things that he's learned in his athletic past obviously helped him relate to students and keep the connections with students,” Turner said to ABC-affiliate KRCR. “And that's something that is an integral part of any educator, and he was able to do that very, very well, from everything that I've experienced with John."
In 2009 luck found Strohmayer, when he was one of 15 Gateway Unified School District employees who shared a $76 million lottery jackpot. He retired at the end of the 2009 school year after 32 years in education.
Collectors have impatiently waited for 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball's release the entire season. The chromium-based set casts a wider reach than 2019 Bowman Baseball, offering new rookies and prospects to enhance its desirability. The two autographs promised in each master box further increases Bowman Chrome's magnetism as fans turn their attention to next year's upstarts.
| | | 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball / Bowman |
2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball Base Set, Prospects, and Parallels
The 100-card base set features rookies from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Keston Hiura, Fernando Tatis Jr., and the 2019 National League Rookie of the Year, Pete Alonso. To add further intrigue to the base set, 15 rookies contain rare image variations. The final three digits of the CMP code (#209) will indicate if you have one of these short-printed issues.
| | | 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball / Bowman |
The Chrome Prospects set is numbered from 151-250, hosting prospects that are likely to see the big leagues soon if they aren't already there. Collectors will find Royce Lewis, Nolan Gorman, Casey Mize, and Jo Adell among the group, as well as late-season call-ups Bo Bichette and Brendan McKay.
Both sets feature serial-numbered colored refractors that will keep player collectors on the hunt to corner the market on their favorite prospect. There are eight variations - Base Refractor #/499, Purple #/250, Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1.
| | | 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball Parallels / Bowman |
Click here for the entire 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball checklist.
2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball Inserts
Bowman Chrome continues with a consistent prospect theme by highlighting the Arizona Fall League stars with their own 30-card insert set. The Stat Tracker insert set also contains 30 players, each recognized for an impressive feat from the backs of their baseball cards. The 15-card Elite Farmhands spotlights a narrow group that could have a massive MLB impact in the coming years. The set includes Jarred Kelenic, Jordyn Adams, and Wander Franco.
| | | 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball Inserts / Bowman |
Just like the base set, each insert set also has serial-numbered refractor parallels - Atomic #/150, Orange #/25, SuperFractor 1/1.
2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball Autographs
Each master box guarantees two autographs. For collectors lucky enough to score a 1st Bowman Chrome autograph of a heralded prospect, the return could be massive in a relatively short amount of time. Alexander Canario, Noelvi Marte, and Orelvis Martinez are among those who are the most sought after from this set.
Bowman also provides collectors with the opportunity to catch one of 14 signed Chrome rookies, including the aforementioned group of Alonso, Guerrero Jr., and Hiura. Both the prospect and rookie autographs have the following serial-numbered parallels - Base Refractor #/499, Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25 (Hobby), Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1.
Buried deeper into the release is harder to find 2018 Arizona Fall League autographs, relics, and relic/autograph combinations. Bowman doubles down on the AFL theme, offering AFL alumni signatures, including Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña Jr., and the Hall of Fame member, Derek Jeter.
The box provided for this review drew two Bowman Chrome Prospect autographs. The first autograph was a 1st Bowman Chrome from Minnesota Twins pitching prospect Jhoan Duran. The second came from Texas Rangers infield prospect Jonathan Ornelas.
| | | 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball Autographs / Bowman |
2019 Bowman Chrome Box Break Video and Final Thoughts
Collectors were able to follow their favorite talents throughout an entire minor league season, noting which stars came to prominence. As the top tier breaks away from the pack, 2019 Bowman Chrome Baseball allows collectors to keep them in focus the entire offseason.
Topps returns one of its popular guaranteed hit products with 2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Baseball. The encased acetate cards were a big hit in 2018 when Ronald Acuña Jr. graced the cover. This year’s release leans heavily on the 2019 Topps design, bringing a familiar element for collectors.
| | | 2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Baseball / Topps |
2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Baseball ChecklistThis year’s Clearly Authentic set is filled with over 20 rookie autographs including favorites Pete Alonso and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., as well as Washington Nationals second year phenom Juan Soto. The base version serial-numbered parallels include: Green #/99, Black #/75, Red #/50, Blue #/25, Purple #/10, Orange #/5, and Gold 1/1.
Collectors with a lucky touch will find a batch of Hall of Famers within its 150 Years of Professional Baseball subset, as well All-Stars Don Mattingly and Darryl Strawberry set in the iconic versions of their 1984 Topps cards. To further bridge Topps’ historical releases, superstars and Hall of Famers are abundant in the attractive 1952 Reimagining and mini T-206 sets.
Click here for the entire 2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Baseball checklist.
2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Box Break and Final ThoughtsThe box provided for this review drew a Justus Sheffield red base autograph #/50. The see-through back on the acetate cards gives his signed rookie a distinct display compared to other Topps issues.
| | | 2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Justus Sheffield Red Rookie Auto / Topps |
With box prices currently hovering around $50, the opportunity to score a uniquely designed Hank Aaron, Derek Jeter, Mike Trout, or Pete Alonso signed card makes 2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Baseball tough to pass up.
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Eric Moskowitz, author of the recent Atlantic piece, "How Baseball Cards Got Weird," joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss his venture into the new waters of collecting baseball cards online.
During the interview, Moskowitz explains how during his research he caught the collecting bug through watching online breaks, and eventually found a community through their chat rooms that has substituted for a lack of local card shops.
The Cincinnati Reds started the 1977 baseball season fresh off a repeat World Series victory that included an entire postseason sweep. Despite this incredible feat, opposing lineups no longer viewed the Big Red Machine as invincible. The Reds traded Tony Perez to the Montreal Expos, and for the first time since 1964, their lineup was missing their RBI juggernaut.
| | | George Foster and the 1977 Reds / McFarland Publishing |
Author Mike Shannon dives into how the Reds tried to continue their dynasty with his new book, “George Foster and the 1977 Reds: The Rise of a Slugger and the End of an Era” (McFarland, 2019). As the Reds put Perez’s replacement on Dan Driessen’s shoulders, power-hitting outfielder George Foster swooped in with an MVP performance that took the baseball world by storm.
Shannon documents the Reds entire 1977 season from the first pitch to the final out. Each development is chronologically inspected by revisiting volumes of books and newspapers to recreate how manager Sparky Anderson navigated their run at a trifecta. With the Reds staring at a losing record at the end of May, Anderson faced the press questioning if his squad was still a contender.
The Reds made a play for the pennant when they acquired Tom Seaver from the New York Mets on June 15, 1977. Not even his 14-3 record and Foster’s legendary 52-home-run performance could put the Reds any closer than 6.5 games from the runaway Los Angeles Dodgers.
"George Foster and the 1977 Reds" highlights a pivotal time in Reds franchise history, as 1977 represented the crumbling of the Big Red Machine. It marked the start of a downward spiral that the Reds never recovered from until their 1990 World Series victory.
Readers may find his look at the season too academic at times, as it suffers from an overload of game recaps that clutter the story. With a majority of the 1977 team still alive, "George Foster and the 1977 Reds" would have benefited from surviving player anecdotes. These first-person narratives would have been a valuable color commentary supplement to Shannon's play-by-play. Nonetheless, die-hard Reds fans will enjoy Shannon giving Foster his due and illustrating how much the club missed Perez’s presence despite Driessen’s valiant .300 performance at the plate.
Topps adds a new school twist to a vintage tradition with 2019 Topps Archives Baseball. The retro-designed release frames both modern and classic players in three popular sets. The site of retired players in different poses on their original releases, as well as the current stars in past designs, makes opening 2019 Topps Archives an exciting trip down memory lane.
2019 Topps Archives Baseball Base Set and DesignsThe 300-card base set is divided into three 100-card series. This year’s release highlights the 1958 Topps, 1975 Topps, and 1993 Topps sets, with the star being the 1975 Topps cards. Pulling a Nolan Ryan, Thurman Munson, or Tony Perez gives collectors the experience of opening a 1975 Topps pack, while current darlings Shohei Ohtani, Jacob deGrom, and Bryce Harper fit smoothly in the cherished 1975 design.
Cards 1-100
Cards 101-200
Cards 201-300
Collectors will also need to turn the base cards over, as parallels are stamped on the back with their serial numbers. These come in four variations: Purple #/175, Silver #/99, Blue #/25 (Hobby), and Gold 1/1.
The 30 short-prints in the set (301-330) contain three old school elements in their designs. Pete Alonso and Vladimir Guerrero's inclusion in the high numbered cards will keep collectors on the hunt throughout the offseason. Click here for the entire checklist.
2019 Topps Archives Baseball InsertsTopps digs deeper into past releases for the 2019 Topps Archives Baseball inserts. An entire set is devoted to the Montreal Expos' 50th anniversary. Other inserts include a Topps Magazine insert set, a prospect filled 1994 Topps Future Stars set, and a 1975 Topps themed mini insert set. Additionally, Topps celebrates Ichiro’s final season with a 16-card insert set chronicling his storied career.
2019 Topps Archives Baseball AutographsFans will give a long look at two Topps Archives Baseball autographs sets. The classic Fan Favorites autographs are filled with surprises from oddities such as legendary surgeon Dr. James Andrews and New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, to local favorites Cookie Rojas, Fred Stanley, and Kevin Tapani, as well as heroes Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Tony Oliva.
The Montreal Expos tribute features Andre Dawson, Bartolo Colon, Maury Willis, Tim Raines, and Vladimir Guerrero autographs as part of the 21 signers in the set. With a renewed interest to revive baseball in Montreal, collectors will get a strong nostalgia taste with these signers.
Other autograph sets include 1978 Topps Record Breakers, 1994 Topps Future Stars, Topps Magazine, and the Ichiro retrospectives.
The box Topps provided for this review yielded a Steve Sax Fan Favorites and a redemption card for an Ozzie Albies autograph.
2019 Topps Archives Box Break and Final ThoughtsTopps’ lighthearted approach to 2019 Topps Archives Baseball has done well in the hobby. The classic sets have a modern feel that gives 2019 Topps Archives Baseball a pleasant touch for both new and old collectors. At 330 cards, this set's size is just right for collectors to pursue as the postseason develops.
Check our box break video below to get the full experience of opening a box of 2019 Topps Archives Baseball. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Baseball card collectors in search of a high-end product will certainly gravitate towards 2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball. A truly premium release, each box holds one encased on-card autograph or autographed relic numbered to 15 or less.
| | | 2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball / Topps |
2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball Autographs Most of the on-card 2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball autographs come from three variations: Hit Kings, Home Run Kings, and Masters of the Mound. All three have colored parallels, Red #/10, Blue #/5, Black 1/1. The first two sets (Hit Kings and Home Run Kings) are dedicated to the top batsmen in baseball and include a powerful mix of the new (Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña Jr.), and the old (Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., Reggie Jackson). The pitchers are well represented in the Masters of the Mound set with Bob Gibson, Jacob deGrom, Mariano Rivera, and Sandy Koufax.
Click here for the complete checklist.
| | | 2019 Topps Luminaries Home Run Kings / Topps |
2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball Relic AutographsCollectors can draw relics from The Hit Kings, Home Run Kings, and Masters of the Mound sets. Each have Blue #/10 and Black 1/1 parallels. Their patch versions are either #/15 or have a Black 1/1 parallel.
2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball Book Autographs
| | | 2019 Topps Luminaries Mike Trout Book / Topps |
Where 2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball has stepped up from last year's release with their autographed book cards. These 1/1 book cards are a solidly constructed and designed collectible that comes in single, dual, and triple book versions. Those with a hand of gold will be the fortunate recipients of an Ultimate and Greatest Book cards, which has between 30-50 autographs.
2019 Topps Luminaries Cut AutographsDo autographs from Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, and Satchel Paige sound enticing? They are a prominent sampling of the legends included in the 2019 Topps Luminaries Cut Autographs. Topps dug in the vaults to provide collectors with the opportunity to add iconic cut signatures to their wares with this set, adding a tantalizing incentive for the product’s $200 price tag.
2019 Topps Luminaries Box Break VideoIn our box break video below, you can get a good look at 2019 Topps Luminaries Baseball's artful packaging and our Home Run Kings autograph that came with it. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel for further box breaks and interviews.
Fans of Topps releases have eagerly waited for 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball’s release to see this year’s prized rookies decked out in a chromium finish. With 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball offering two autographs per box in a variety of serial-numbered colored parallels, the set is poised to be in demand throughout the season.
| | | 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball Vladimir Guerrero Jr. / Topps |
2019 Topps Chrome Baseball Base Set, Parallels, and ChecklistThe 204-card set, while designed in the mold of the flagship set, is a condensed version highlighted by the inclusion of Major League Baseball’s four top rookies, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Pete Alonso, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Eloy Jimenez. Collectors will have to pay attention to the image variations, as there are 25 different players with a variation, including top stars such as Mike Trout, Javy Baez, and Christian Yelich. These are indicated with #409 as the last three digits on the back of the card. Click here to view a complete checklist.
| | | 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball / Topps |
Topps Chrome Baseball exceeds expectations this year with their colored refractor parallels. In the box provided for this review, we hit a Jacob deGrom Orange parallel #/25. The images are sharper and cleaner on the colored parallels, making them a desirable chase for collectors, especially the rookies. A guide is below to identify the different refractors.
REFRACTOR PARALLELS: Base Refractor, Prism, Sepia (Blaster), Pink (Value Pack), Negative, Purple #/299, Blue #/150, Green #/99, Green Wave #/99 (Hobby/Jumbo), Blue Wave #/75 (Hobby/Jumbo), Gold #/50, Gold Wave #/50 (Hobby/Jumbo), Orange #/25 (Hobby), Orange Wave #/25 (Hobby/Jumbo), Red #/5, Red Wave #/5 (Hobby/Jumbo), SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1.
| | | 2019 Topps Chrome Orange Refractor / Topps |
2019 Topps Chrome Baseball InsertsCollectors will enjoy seeing the 1984 Topps designs in a chromium finish as one of the 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball insert sets. The diversely designed Freshman Flash and classic Future Stars insert sets are attractive rewards for fans diving into packs and boxes, while the Greatness Returns series is a solid nod to baseball’s rich historical connections.
| | | 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball Inserts / Topps |
2019 Topps Chrome Baseball AutographsREFRACTOR PARALLELS: Base Refractor #/499, Purple #/250, Blue #/150, Blue Wave #/150, Green #/99 (Retail), Gold #/50, Gold Wave #/50 (Hobby/Jumbo), Orange #/25 (Hobby), Orange Wave #/25 (Hobby/Jumbo), Red #/5, Red Wave #/5 (Hobby/Jumbo), SuperFractor 1/1 (Hobby/Jumbo), Printing Plates 1/1.
The guarantee of two hard-signed baseball cards is a strong selling point of 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball. With a loaded rookie class, this year’s release has sold quickly, as hobby enthusiasts are hoping to land this year’s Rookie of the Year candidates. The box provided for this review yielded a Kevin Kramer base autograph, and a Jeffrey Springs Gold autograph #/50.
| | | 2019 Topps Chrome Autographs / Topps |
2019 Topps Chrome Baseball Box Break and Final ThoughtsWith 2019 Topps Chrome Baseball arriving in the second half of the season, fans and collectors have a clearer view of the 2019 Rookie of the Year contenders. Their Topps Chrome rookies and autographs have been historically amongst the most desired in the hobby. Now that the set is finally on the market, collectors have a release they can places their bets on for some short-term fun and long-term investing.
Jose Moreno, former utility player for the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, and California Angels, died September 6, 2019 in Santo Domingo due to pulmonary complications. He was 61.
Moreno broke in with the Mets in 1980. His shining moment in Queens came on August 26, 1980, against the San Diego Padres. Pinch-hitting for pitcher Mark Bomback in the 5th inning, Moreno hit a two-run homer that was part of an epic 18-inning marathon. He was used exclusively as a pinch-hitter for the remainder of the season, and in December, he was traded ironically to the Padres for former Cy Young Award winner Randy Jones.
He is the only player in the history of the Dominican Winter League to achieve a 30-30-30 season (RBIs, runs scored, and stolen bases). He played 14 seasons in the Dominican from 1974-75 through 1989-90 that included three championships with Escogido.
Onyx Authenticated president Lance Fischer joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how their company is making an exciting push for collector's in search of baseball's next top prospects. In the 20-minute interview, Fischer explains their careful prospect selection process, why they only use on-card autographs, and their new Unique Baseball Prospects and Legends set done together with the Futera brand.
You can click here to listen and subscribe to the Baseball Happenings Podcast on your favorite platform.
Hal Naragon, a catcher on the Cleveland Indians 1954 World Series team, died Saturday, August 31, 2019 in a statement the Indians released. He was 90.
We had Naragon as a guest earlier this year on the Baseball Happenings Podcast, where he spent over 40 minutes discussing his lengthy major league career. Naragon signed with the Indians in 1947 and debuted in 1951.
“I know it was a chilly day and they called me in from the bullpen,” he said. “Naturally I was a little nervous, but usually by the time you get to the plate you get yourself together and do what you can do.”
He spent the next two years in serving in the Marines during the Korean War and returned for good in 1954. He came back right in time to help the Indians to the 1954 World Series. Serving as a reliable backup catcher, Naragon looked back 65 years later at his lone series appearance as a major thrill.
“You know, I was hoping that I would get in one,” he said. “When I was called up out of the bullpen to come in, I, of course, felt a little on edge at first but then I kinda settled down. I liked to be able to play in a World Series.”
He played in the majors until 1962, spending time with the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins, before moving into coaching. He was a member of the Twins' coaching staff during their 1965 World Series appearance, and he finally won his ring as a coach with the 1968 Detroit Tigers.
“That was a good team,” he said. “They would hit in the clutch … they got hits when it really counts, they were good defensive players, and they always had a lot of fun.”
Naragon left coaching after the 1969 season to take over a local sporting goods store in his hometown of Barberton, Ohio. He ran the store from 1974 until his 1990 retirement. The town paid a massive tribute to their native son when they named Barberton High School’s baseball field Naragon Field in his honor in 2006.
You can listen to Hal Naragon's Baseball Happenings Podcast interview below, as well as subscribe to future episodes.
Click here to listen on Stitcher
On the latest episode of the Baseball Happenings Podcast, author Gaylon White discusses the life and career of former major league catcher Tom Jordan, who died August 26th, 2019 in Roswell, New Mexico. Jordan was just ten days shy of his 100th birthday, and at the time was the oldest living former Major League Baseball player. Jordan played parts of three seasons from 1944-1948 with the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and St. Louis Browns.
| | | Tom Jordan as a member of the Cleveland Indians |
White spent an extensive amount of time with Jordan in preparation for his book, "Left On Base In The Bush Leagues." The two formed a close relationship which White proudly explains on the Baseball Happenings Podcast. Click here to listen and subscribe on your favorite platform.
On the latest episode of the Baseball Happenings Podcast, we caught up with Topps Marketing and Communications Manager Susan Lulgjuraj in Brooklyn at the Topps Truck to celebrate National Baseball Card Day.
During the interview, we discussed how Topps' baseball card wrapped truck connected with National Baseball Card Day, the return of Bowman Sterling to their release lineup, and how Topps has shared in the positivity of Gary Vaynerchuk's involvement with the collecting hobby.
If you enjoyed the interview, feel free to subscribe to our podcast, or click here to follow us on your favorite social media platform.
One of Topps’ most buzzworthy products has hit the shelves in the form of 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball. The collecting community has engaged in a spirited debate over the set’s inclusion of celebrities, entertainers, and even an egg alongside Major League Baseball stars. Whether it is entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, Yahoo Sports personality Mike Oz, or former Double Dare host Marc Summers, this year’s Allen and Ginter Baseball has plenty to keep a wide range of fans happy.
2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball Base Set, Short Prints, and ChecklistAllen and Ginter’s exceptional design is the main reason why the set remains popular with collectors. The painted posed shots position the players in an attractive way that stands out against the rest of Topps’ releases. Our review box yielded this year’s four top upstarts—Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Jeff McNeil, and Fernando Tatis Jr.
| | | 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball / Topps |
The 350-card set contains 50 short prints, numbered 351-400. The numbering gap is a quirk that collectors should be aware of when collating their sets. The base cards only have two parallels—Gold Hot Box parallels and 1/1 Glossy cards.
| | | 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball Minis / Topps |
Each pack also contains one mini card. These minis are where Allen and Ginter hide the variations. Base and short-print minis feature the following variations - A&G Logo Back, Black, No Number, Brooklyn Back (#/25), Gold, Wood 1/1, Glossy 1/1, Framed Printing Plates 1/1.
Click here for the complete checklist.
2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball InsertsTo rip or not to rip? That is the question for collectors who land a serial numbered rip card. Inside these rip cards are short-printed stained-glass minis, metal minis, or red mini autographs. The lure of what hides behind the rip cards are enough to push collectors to carefully tear apart the sealed card in search of a bigger hit.
| | | 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Inserts / Topps |
Full-sized baseball-themed inserts include the Baseball Star Signs and Ginter Greats cards. Incredible Equipment, Mares and Stallions, and History of Flight are some of the non-sports insert sets. Mini inserts highlight Collectible Canines, Trains, Blue Ribbon Contests. As an added twist, some In Bloom Mini cards can be planted and grown. How’s that for a collectible?
| | | 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini Inserts / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Inserts / Topps |
2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball Relics and AutographsEach box guarantees a mix of three relics or autographs, with most being framed minis. A select few have standard signed cards, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Yusei Kikuchi. Serial numbered single and dual autographed book cards make for great display pieces.
There are two different standard sized MLB relic cards, and hobby boxes contain framed mini relics of players matched up with subway tokens, as well as fossil and arrowhead relics.
The box provided for this review yielded three relics, one of which was from Hall of Famer Steve Carlton.
| | | 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Relics / Topps |
2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball Box Break and Final ThoughtsCollectors have been loud on social media voicing their love or hate for this set. Some have embraced the diversity of Allen and Ginter; however, others can’t fathom non-baseball players with cards alongside their cardboard heroes. Despite the noise, this set gives collectors a welcome diversion from the hardcore prospecting of Topps’ other releases. Listening to Mike Oz share the joy of being in the 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball set is a compelling reason enough to add a box to your collection.
If collectors have only one baseball card set to pursue this season, 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball is making a strong push for their hearts and wallets. Last year, we said Topps should consider making Stadium Club their flagship brand, and 2019’s release has only further reinforced that theory. With outstanding photography for the current stars, rookies and retired veterans in the set, 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball is a winner on all fronts.
2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Base Set and ParallelsThe 301-card base set contains an array of interesting parallels. Collectors will find red and black logo parallels, as well as toned (sepia or black and white) cards. Scarcer variations contain Members Only or First Day Issue insignias. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Pete Alonso rookie cards set alongside the fabulous legends cards will create intrigue for collectors of all ages.
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Base Set / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Base Set / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Parallels / Topps |
2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball InsertsNinety different subjects make up the Chrome Insert set (1:16 packs), with these inserts coming in scarcer colored refractor versions (Orange #/99, Gold Minted, and 1/1 SuperFractors). The Chrome inserts feature different photos than the base set, giving collectors a second attractive card of their favorite player to track down. Other insert sets include Beam Team, Emperors of the Zone, Power Zone, and Warp Speed—all coming with multiple colored parallels.
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Inserts |
Another bonus is the oversized box topper cards. Measuring approximately 4”x6” these blowups make a beautiful display for a desk or a shelf.
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Box Topper / Topps |
2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball AutographsTopps guarantees two on-card autographs in each box. A majority of collectors will wind up with autographed base cards as pictured below; however, some with extreme luck will find signed versions of Stadium Club inserts, or Co-Signers Autographs that are serial-numbered to 10 or less.
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Autographs / Topps |
2019 Box Break and Final Thoughts
| | | 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball / Topps |
While the baseball card manufacturer has returned to a familiar set of Hall of Famers for 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball, the rarely seen photos keep the legends fresh. When they are paired with the current players, the set is masterful in capturing their excitement, grace, and skill. The combination makes 2019 Topps Stadium Club Baseball the high-water mark for Topps' annual releases.
Heading to the National Sports Collectors Convention? In our latest for Forbes, we break down some often-overlooked survival tips for attending the collecting "World Series" that is known as the National.
Do you have some tips for first-timers, as well as veterans who are checking out the National? Feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Jim Bouton's Ball Four started as a colorful documentary of baseball life, and it turned out to be a legacy journey. With 5 million copies in circulation and multiple editions of the book still in print, Bouton's story will continue to be passed down across generations of baseball fans.
Gelf magazine recently had our lead writer Nick Diunte at their Varsity Letters event in New York City to read his favorite passages from Ball Four. Click here to listen to the hilarious passages of Joe Schultz's malapropisms on the latest episode of the Baseball Happenings Podcast.
Don Mossi, one of the last living members of the Cleveland Indians 1954 American League Championship team, died July 19, 2019 in Nampa, Idaho as per his daughter Linda Mossi Tubbs. He was 90.
Mossi signed with the Indians in 1949 from Jefferson High School in Daly City, California. They immediately placed him with their Class C team in Bakersfield, keeping the California native within the confines of his home state to develop his talent. The move paid off, as Mossi worked his way to the big league club five years later, right in time for a pennant run.
| | | Don Mossi / Topps |
The left-hander joined the Indians in 1954, integrating himself into a dominant pitching staff that included Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, and Hal Newhouser. Mossi partnered with Ray Narleski to form a relief combo that sealed many of the Indians 104 victories.
“You'll never have a staff like that ever put together again,” Narleski said in a phone interview from his New Jersey home in 2008. “You had four 20-game-winners. Then you had Art Houtteman and Hal Newhouser; that's six of 'em. Then you had Mossi, myself, Hoskins, and Hooper.”
While most players would relish getting the Feller and Lemon off the mound, the site of Mossi and company coming in from the bullpen provided little relief for their opponents.
“Going into Cleveland—that was a tough weekend. You had a four-game series in Cleveland; you had Lemon, Wynn, Garcia, and Feller. Then they had Narleski and Mossi as their wrap-up guys. … It was a comfortable oh-for-twelve on that weekend,” Billy Hunter said to Gene Fehler in “When Baseball Was Still King.”
Mossi pitched four scoreless in three appearances for the Indians during the 1954 World Series. While the New York Giants prevailed, Mossi made a powerful statement to the rest of the league with a 1.94 ERA during his rookie season.
The lefty earned an All-Star selection in 1957 after he converted to a starting pitcher with the Indians. He pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning in the Midsummer Classic. He was traded after the 1958 season with Narleski to the Detroit Tigers for Billy Martin and Al Cicotte.
Mossi immediately made an impact in Detroit, spinning a career-best 17-9 record on the mound in 1959. He played five seasons there before finishing his last two seasons with the Chicago White Sox in 1964 and the Kansas City Athletics in 1965. He posted a career record of 101-80 with a 3.43 ERA in 460 appearances.
His passing leaves only two living members from the Cleveland Indians 1954 World Series team, outfielder Wally Westlake, and catcher Hal Naragon, who appeared on the Baseball Happenings Podcast earlier this year.
Topps’ choice of Cal Ripken Jr. to headline 2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball is a bet on the product matching the Hall of Famer’s legendary consistency and reliability. Serving as a Topps staple for both design and intrigue, 2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball delivers a premium experience that offers a luxurious payoff.
| | | 2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball / Topps |
2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball Base Set, Inserts, and ChecklistThe 100-card base set is fitted with a silver design, offering an immediate pop when they come out of the pack. The set is a mix of rookies, veterans, and retired players that will please a diverse group of collectors. Each pack also comes with one parallel card in Copper, Sapphire (#/150), Amethyst (#/99), Ruby (#/50) and Emerald (1/1) versions.
Click here for the complete checklist.
| | | 2019 Topps Museum Collection Base Set / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Museum Collection Parallels / Topps |
2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball AutographsEach box of 2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball contains four mini-boxes, each with either a relic or an autograph. Two autographed cards comprised half of the hits in the box Topps provided for this review.
The base Archival Autographs set comes with an impressive lineup that includes Rookie of the Year favorites Pete Alonso and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., as well as Ichiro and Mike Trout. The case-hit Framed Autographs are even more impressive, with legends such as Hank Aaron, Derek Jeter, and Sandy Koufax dominating the list of signers. For the lucky few, a dual or triple autograph card if pulled from this product can easily be the centerpiece of any collection.
Our autographs included a Sean Manaea Archival Autograph, and an Eddie Rosario 2019 Topps Museum Collection Dual Jersey Autograph numbered to 50.
| | | 2019 Topps Museum Collection Eddie Rosario Gold Patch Autograph / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Museum Collection Sean Manaea Archival Autograph / Topps |
2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball RelicsSome of Topps’ most creative relic work comes in their Museum Collection set. The multi-player quad relics focus on four stars from one team, each with a small piece in the middle from each player. As an added twist this year, Topps slid in one quad relic of four Japanese players (Ichiro, Ohtani, Tanaka, and Matsui) on the same card. For the player collectors, Topps included quad relics from both active and retired players, as well as the single relic Meaningful Materials cards. Super collectors will be busy chasing down 1/1 bat relics from the Jumbo Lumber nameplate set.
Our two relics included a Johnny Cueto Gold Meaningful Materials patch numbered to 25 and a Yankees quad relic numbered to 99.
| | | 2019 Topps Museum Collection Quad Patch Relic / Topps |
2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball Box Break and Final ThoughtsTopps has created a streak of exciting experiences with Museum Collection that would make Cal Ripken Jr. proud. Topps has upgraded from the 2018 set, making these cards look and feel even more like a collectible the moment they reach your hands. The patch and relic cards are a well-designed entry point for collectors who want a premium display that is within financial reach. With hobby boxes settling in at the $200 range, 2019 Topps Museum Collection Baseball is a drive that collectors should strongly consider taking.
Mike Oz has a knack for keeping it fresh. Whether he is running his "Old Baseball Cards" show for Yahoo! Sports, organizing the Taco Truck Throwdown, or hosting his radio show on KFRR 104.1 FM, Oz has put quality content at a premium. He joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss how a kid who collected baseball cards starting in the 1980s finally came to have his own in 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter.
| | | Mike Oz 2019 Topps Allen And Ginter / @CardboardIcons |
An idea that started from looking at sealed baseball card packs in his garage four years ago, led to the iconic baseball card manufacturer Topps taking major notice. As Oz grew "Old Baseball Cards," to include the likes of Andre Dawson, Randy Johnson, and Manny Machado chopping it up while opening packs, Topps made a move that Oz never envisioned.
“Fast forward four years later,” Oz said during our recent Forbes interview, “I get an e-mail from Topps [asking], ‘Do you want to be in Allen and Ginter?’”
In our 30 minute Baseball Happenings Podcast interview, Oz explains the surprisingly intense process of signing his official cards, what made "Old Baseball Cards" take off, and his love for hip hop music.
Cory Aldridge knows Wilkin Castillo's pain all too well. After Castillo returned to the major leagues with the Miami Marlins in June 2019 after a 10-year absence, Aldridge discussed his realities of waiting nine years to get a new lease on big league life. In my recent piece for Forbes, Aldridge said just how impactful even one major league paycheck is for a long-time minor leaguer.
“Your average minor league ballplayer is making $500 every two weeks,” Aldridge said. “If you were playing [in the majors] you probably went from making well below minimum wage to one check is what you probably made in the last two years. … Your average minor leaguer probably makes five grand a year, and your average first [Major League] paycheck is probably 10-to-15 grand.”
| | | Cory Aldridge / Minda Haas Kuhlmann - Flickr |
In our 30-minute interview for the Baseball Happenings Podcast, Aldridge shares his own struggles with injuries and how he contemplated quitting baseball multiple times after his 2001 Major League debut with the Atlanta Braves. His journey that landed him back in the majors with the Los Angeles Angels in 2010 is one of extreme perseverance under conditions that would have caused most professional athletes to hang up their gloves and spikes.
Baseball Happenings lead writer Nick Diunte recently appeared on the About The Cards Podcast to dicuss baseball cards, autograph collecting, and what we do here at Baseball Happenings. The two-hour show is below. It's a fun watch; if you love collecting, click here to subscribe to them on YouTube.
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While Glenn Mickens’ major league career consisted of four games with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953, his impact on the sport was global, as he was one of the early Americans to play baseball in Japan. The long-time UCLA baseball coach who spent 13 seasons in professional baseball, died July 9, 2019, in Hawaii due to complications from pneumonia. He was 88.
| | | Glenn Mickens / Author's Collection |
A False Start At UCLAMickens’ career hit a rocky start during his time at UCLA. Right before his 1948 freshman year, he went to a Brooklyn Dodgers tryout in Anaheim. While the Dodgers did not sign him, they told him they would keep an eye on him while he was at UCLA. Unfortunately, for Mickens, the scout running the camp gave him $20 for his food and travel. When Mickens went to UCLA, he reported on a questionnaire that he received the $20 from the Dodgers, and the NCAA ruled that he forfeited his amateur status.
For two years, he pitched for a semi-pro team while traveling with the Bruins before he signed a contract with the Dodgers in 1950. His early minor league career started a series of brushes with greatness throughout the vast Dodgers system. His first came with not a baseball legend, but a future NBA Hall of Famer, in teammate Bill Sharman.
“In 1951, we played [together] in Fort Worth,” Mickens said during a phone interview from his Hawaii home in 2011. “We would stop at every other ice cream parlor in the street when the streets were boiling and see who could eat the most ice cream. … He would be on the basketball court, and he would never miss. He always told me he liked baseball more than basketball. He slowed down from all that pounding on the basketball court. Obviously, he picked the right court.”
Korean War DraftJust as Mickens started to get comfortable with Sharman at Fort Worth, Uncle Sam called. Mickens received his draft notice for the Korean War, which caused him to miss the rest of 1951, as well as the entire 1952 season. Luckily, his baseball skills saved him from a potential fateful trip to Korea.
“I was in the medical corps down in Fort Sam Houston,” he said. “Bob Turley, Owen Friend, Gus Triandos, and Ken Staples [were there with me]. I think I was 16-1 the first year, and 18-4 the second. I got to stay in the United States. I am grateful for baseball. Our colonel had the power to put you on a boat to Korea.”
Upon his return, the Dodgers assigned Mickens to Fort Worth in the Texas League. Still relatively new to the ways of professional baseball, Mickens almost ruined his chances at the majors due to a seemingly innocuous comment he made to his manager.
“I made a stupid comment. … There was a guy on second base, and we were down by about seven runs. A guy gets a hit to right-center, and the outfielder throws the ball into one of the infielders. He didn't score.
“I said something to Max Macon like, ‘Darn skip, couldn't he have scored easy?’ He said, ‘Yeah that run doesn't mean anything.’ We lost 9-8 and like an idiot, I said, ‘Darn skip, that was a big run now, wasn't it?’ A rookie doesn't make those kinds of statements. I heard from the players that Max was going to leave me on the mound until my jockstrap was knocked off. ... He started pitching me with about two days rest [until] I got to the Dodgers.”
A Call To The Brooklyn DodgersLuckily for Mickens, his jockstrap was intact, and his arm stayed attached long enough for the Dodgers to bring him to the majors in July 1953. Upon arriving, Roy Campanella immediately let him know that he was undoubtedly in the big leagues.
“I walk into that clubhouse from Fort Worth, and it was a doubleheader,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Which one of these is the seven-inning game, and which is the nine-inning game?’ [Roy] Campanella said, ‘Man this ain't no bush leagues! There ain't no seven-inning games here!’ I wanted to crawl under a stool.”
Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen wasted little time throwing Mickens into the fire. With Brooklyn down 2-1, Dressen sent Mickens to the mound in the top of the 9th inning against one of the National League’s top sluggers, Ted Kluszewski.
“I'll still never figure out that one,” he said. “Why Charlie brought me in to be the first guy I faced? I see this big guy [Kluszewski] with a couple of arms bigger than my legs. I said ‘Oh heck, I just don't want this guy to hit the ball back up the middle.’ I got one or two strikes on him, and I think I will keep the ball away and make him hit it. He hit the ball in the upper deck in Ebbets Field; I think he ripped up about five seats. I get back to the dugout and [Johnny] Podres was sitting there laughing. He said, ‘Don't feel bad, he hit 3 or 4 off of me—and I throw from the left side.’”
Mickens only lasted a few weeks in Brooklyn, as the Dodgers hit a hot streak and no longer had room for the rookie in their rotation. He cited Carl Erskine, Gil Hodges, and Duke Snider as a few who looked out for him during his time there. While his brush with The Boys of Summer was brief, it was in the Dodgers minor league system where Mickens built his relationships with baseball’s elite.
Playing In The Minors With Baseball LegendsPlaying with the Montreal Royals in 1954, his teammate was a young rookie outfielder named Roberto Clemente. He noted that while Clemente showed tremendous upside, the manager would remove him at odd times during the game. He later discovered why.
“He [Max Macon] had orders from the Dodgers, I found this out later, to try and hide him,” he said. “They would play him 4-5 innings, and they would take him out after he'd make a great catch or hit one over the right-center field fence. There wasn't anything he couldn't do.”
Another Dodgers legend that Mickens paired with was a fiery left-handed pitcher that went on to become a Hall of Fame manager, Tom Lasorda. The future Dodgers skipper had a mound tenacity that resonated with Mickens over 50 years later.
“If you had one big game on the line and you wanted to win it, you would give him the ball,” he said. “He had that 12-6 curve, and catchers would hate him because he would bounce it so often that he would beat the catcher to death. When he had to get it over though, he got it over. He would knock his own mom down if it meant winning a ballgame. Talk about a competitor; he was amazing.”
A Regrettable ArgumentWhile Mickens was busy making connections with baseball’s future icons, he was also working hard at getting back to the major leagues. After pitching well with Montreal in 1955, a frustrated Mickens had another run-in with management that sealed his fate within the Dodgers organization.
“I had some words with Fresco Thompson,” he said. “I was with Wally Fiala. The rooms we were staying in were junior officers’ quarters in Vero Beach, just like the Army. Some [players] had been playing mumbly peg against the wall. … Thompson put a note on our door one day, and my roommate says, ‘Look at this; they’re going to take $20 out of our salary for wrecking these walls.’ I looked for him [Thompson] all over the camp, and I finally encountered him in the mess hall. I asked him if he signed it and he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘What right do you have to accuse me of something you don't know anything about?’ He said, ‘I've got my information.’ I said, ‘Tell me who your information is, and I'll call them a liar to their face.’ I was fuming. If he would have come up to me and asked, I would have told him, but he flat out accused me. He starts pointing his finger into my chest, and he said, ‘I'll send you so far down, it will take a $10 postcard to find you.’ I didn't realize it, but [after] that day, I could have won 20 games with Montreal, or anywhere in their organization, and I wouldn't have had another chance with the Dodgers.”
The Dodgers bounced Mickens all around their farm system, sending him to their affiliates in Los Angeles, St. Paul and Victoria, Texas. It was in Victoria where he sensed he needed a change. He reached out to an old friend, Ralph Kiner, who was the general manager of the San Diego Padres in the Pacific Coast League.
“I got to the airport [in Victoria], and I thought this was a place you go through, you don't get off there,” he said. “I said, trade me, sell me, or give me away. I called Kiner and said, ‘See if you can get me traded to the San Diego organization.’ He called me back and said, ‘Mick, they won't release you.’”
Heading To JapanMickens faced a situation that caused many of his peers to put aside their baseball dreams. With teams in full control of player contracts, their only other choice was to retire or leave the country. Mickens took the road less traveled, certainly by American players at the time.
“My only chance at that stage of the game to get out of the organization was to go to Japan, which at that stage was outlaw ball,” he said. “Bill Nishida, who was in Montreal [with me], got me to go over there. I was over there for five years. I got in three All-Star Games and was the first and maybe only American to win an All-Star game for the three innings I pitched. I got to pitch against Sadaharu Oh over there. My only regret is that I didn't get another shot here.”
| | | Glenn Mickens 1960 Marusan Baseball Card / Japanese Baseball Cards |
Baseball in Japan in the late 1950s was still in its formative stages. The level of play was nowhere near what it is today, and tactical methods were years behind as well. Mickens noted the stark contrast of how managers handled their players.
“Their regimen was so different,” he said. “These guys would last 4-5 years and would come up with sore arms. They would pitch nine innings and then be back in the game the next day if they were winning. … I was on the worst offensive and defensive club in Japan. The manager would ask me to throw 1-2 innings, and then [all of a sudden] you are out there 4-5 innings.
“There are so many things you have to get used to over there. I think they changed their methodology. They would not slide to break up the double play; they would run out of the way. Lefty O'Doul was doing some announcing over there. I told him I was trying to get them to play like back in the United States. He said, ‘Kid, forget it. I've been coming here for 30 years. They haven't changed, and they're not going to.’”
While Mickens could not always rationalize his team's tactical decisions, he recalled a hilarious method his manager once used to motivate him to close out the opposition.
“I'm on the bench one night and it's about the 8th inning,” he said. “The manager of our club, Chiba, he's trying to think of something to stimulate me to go out and finish the game to beat these guys. He said, ‘Remember Pearl Harbor!’” I almost fell off the bench.”
A Return Home Mickens finished up in Japan in 1963 and returned to UCLA to become their assistant baseball coach. He stayed for 25 years, fostering multiple generations of professional talent. He coached Eric Karros, Don Slaught, Tim Leary, as well as Ralph Kiner’s son, Mike, a connection to his brief major league stay.
“There's a really cute story,” he said. “I faced Ralph Kiner. On the loudspeaker, after he hit his home run off me in Wrigley Field, the announcer said, ‘He hit this for his newborn baby boy, Mike.’ Twenty years later, I'm coaching at UCLA, and who am I coaching? Mike Kiner for crying out loud! I tell him, ‘Thank your dad for me.’ The other time I faced [Kiner] was in Ebbets Field. They said Kiner didn't strike out, but I struck him out in Ebbets. I remember the guy saying, ‘You can't strike Kiner out.’ He was a super nice guy.”
In retirement, Mickens moved to Hawaii where he was active in civic affairs and traveled the world with the UCLA alumni baseball team to compete in friendly exhibitions. While his time with the Dodgers only lasted four games, he realized the monumental achievement of just making the club.
“Who's place were you going to take up there?” he asked. “Duke Snider, Carl Furillo? They had these guys in front of you. What chance did you have?”
Topps furthers their attempts to fancy collectors with their release of 2019 Topps Finest Baseball. Minted in a glossy chrome format, 2019 Topps Finest Baseball stands out from the pack with an eye-catching design and tight checklist that sharpens the focus for the cardboard obsessed.
| | | 20919 Topps Finest Baseball / Topps |
2019 Topps Finest Base Set and ChecklistThe 101-card base set features an assortment of active stars and rookies, including 2019 Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso, and a tougher to find Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in card 101. In addition to each card having a basic parallel refractor, they also carry the usual Topps serial-numbered rainbow (Purple (/250), Blue (/150), Green (/99), Gold (/50), Orange (/25), Red (/5), and Superfractors (1/1).)
| | | 2019 Topps Finest Base Set / Topps |
While a few boxes can complete the base set, Topps upped the ante for the 25-card short-printed set (cards 101-125) by limiting them to 1:30 packs. Note that two cards share #101, Guerrero Jr. and Yusei Kikuchi. The former is part of the base set, while the latter is part of the short prints. These short prints have ultra-rare refractors—Gold Refractors (/50 - 1:350 packs), Red Refractors – (/5 - 1:3,462 packs), and Superfractors – (1/1 - 1:16,756 packs).
Click here to download the complete 2019 Topps Finest Baseball checklist.
| | | 2019 Topps Finest Aaron Nola Blue Refractor / Topps |
2019 Topps Finest InsertsKeeping with the narrow theme of the base set, Topps goes for simplicity with 2019 Topps Finest Baseball’s inserts. There are four insert sets: Blue Chips, Finest Firsts, Prized Performers, and a 10-card die cut set as a tribute to Mariano Rivera. These insert sets also have serial numbered refractors, as well as autographed versions.
| | | 2019 Topps Finest Baseball Inserts / Topps |
2019 Topps Finest AutographsThis is where 2019 Topps Finest Baseball shines. The on-card autographs in this set help to separate this Topps issue from the myriad of sticker autographs on the market. With collectors growing even more refined in their collecting habits, the on-card signatures in this product when combined with the enhanced design help to give 2019 Topps Finest Baseball a proper niche in the hobby.
The two-mini boxes each yielded one autograph. The first autograph was a base Finest signature from San Francisco Giants rookie Chris Shaw.
| | | 2019 Topps Finest Chris Shaw Autograph / Topps |
The other was a much rarer Gold Finest Origins autograph from the 2018 National League Rookie of the Year, Ronald Acuña Jr. This card was serial-numbered to 50, with the odds being 1:779 packs of landing one of these difficult hits.
| | | 2019 Topps Finest Ronald Acuña Jr. Finest Origins Gold Auto / Topps |
2019 Topps Finest Box Break and Final ThoughtsWith 12-pack master boxes checking in at $120, Topps has placed a premium on quality and performance with 2019 Topps Finest Baseball. With an appealing design, on-card autographs, and cards of both potential Rookie of the Year candidates, the baseball card giant is making sure that collectors take notice of 2019 Topps Finest Baseball.
Topps takes collectors on a dice roll with the release of 2019 Topps Tier One Baseball. Each box packs a guaranteed two autographs and one relic card, making the $120 price tag on this product a high-risk bet for collectors in search of a glorious return.
| | | 2019 Topps Tier One Baseball Box / Topps |
2019 Topps Tier One AutographsThe rush of two guaranteed autographs in each 2019 Topps Tier One Baseball box will draw those looking for the immediate high of seeing multiple signatures flash right before their eyes. The impressive list of on-card Tier One signers includes Deion Sanders, Hank Aaron, Mike Trout, and Shohei Ohtani. These have lower numbered parallel versions (Bronze #/25, Silver #/10, Gold 1/1).
The Break Out autographs set is the most plentiful series in 2019 Topps Tier One Baseball. The subset (#/299 or less) features Major League Baseball's up and coming talents. Eloy Jimenez, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Juan Soto comprise some of the young stars that 2019 Topps Tier One Baseball features in their set.
| | | 2019 Topps Tier One Autographs / Topps |
Topps looks to satisfy the high-end market with the inclusion of Clear One acetate autographs. These unique inserts and their dual-autographed counterparts are limited to quantities of 10 or less.
Click here for the entire checklist of 2019 Topps Tier One baseball autographs and relics.
2019 Topps Tier One Box Break VideoThe box provided for this review yielded a bonus autograph, drawing four cards in total (three autographs and a relic). The Break Out autographs comprised two-thirds of this box — Miles Mikolas and Rowdy Tellez (#/250). The third bonus signature was an Eric Thames Prime Performers autograph (#/299). The lone relic card was of Cleveland Indians pitcher Corey Kluber (#/375).
2019 Topps Tier One Final TakeMost collectors would be excited to score a third autograph from a 2019 Topps Tier One Baseball box, as $120 is a heavy proposition for a scant few cards. While the obvious attraction is the on-card autographs, collectors will take a long pause before opening their wallets on a product that is going to have to hit a home run to deliver on its price tag.
Wander Franco. His 2019 Bowman baseball card has quickly become the face of this year’s product, with the 18-year-old Tampa Bay Rays shortstop prospect dominating the collecting realms of social media. As his chrome autographs and serial numbered parallels continue to pop up in collector’s feeds, 2019 Bowman Baseball has taken flight largely on the back of this prized phenom.
2019 Bowman Baseball Base Set, Prospect, and Chrome Checklist
The 2019 Bowman Baseball base set is limited to 100 cards. The base set consists mostly of established stars and veterans with a few choice rookies mixed in. The box provided for this review yielded a complete base set. Set collectors who are looking for a challenge, card there is a Bryce Harper SP variation for card number three (Joey Wendle).
| | | 2019 Bowman Wander Franco Chrome and Base Prospects / Topps |
Both the prospect and chrome sets contain 150 cards each, highlighted by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Joey Bart, and the aforementioned Franco. Demand for these chrome rookies have been high, especially for the lower numbered Green (/99), Gold (/50), Orange Border (/25), Red Border (/5), and Platinum (1/1) parallels.
| | | 2019 Bowman Parallels / Topps |
Click here for the complete 2019 Bowman Baseball checklist.
2019 Bowman Inserts
Bowman honors the 30th anniversary of their 1989 landmark set with stars and prospects molded in its classic design, this time fit to standard size proportions with a glossy finish. Collectors will also find familiarity a few of the insert sets that make a return in 2019 —Bowman Scouts Top 100, Talent Pipeline, and Rookie of the Year Favorites.
| | | 2019 Bowman Inserts / Topps |
Collectors will enjoy the horizontally oriented Ready for the Show inserts, which feature 20 of the top MLB-ready prospects. This set comes in a myriad of serial numbered parallels, further increasing their desirability with collectors.
| | | 2019 Bowman Inserts / Topps |
2019 Bowman Autographs
The prized possession for those going deep with 2019 Bowman Baseball are the Chrome Prospect Autographs. Collectors anticipate 2019 Bowman’s release; eagerly waiting for the opportunity to secure the debut autograph of the next player they think will make a profound mark on the game. The limited edition serial numbered colored autograph parallels are sure to keep fans coming back to this product as different prospects take off throughout the season.
Other autograph cards include signed versions of the Scouts Top 100, Rookie of the Year Favorites, and Sterling insert sets. The box provided for this review contained a Ryan McKenna autographed Atomic Refractor Chrome Prospect card #/100.
| | | 2019 Bowman Chrome Prospects Atomic Refractor Ryan McKenna Autograph / Topps |
2019 Bowman Box Break Video and Final Take
Collectors will keep coming back 2019 Bowman Baseball to this set to find players they either overlooked, or want to ride to the top as the baseball season goes deep into the summer. Whether it is Wander Franco, Joey Bart, or a less heralded prospect that emerges as the king from this set, 2019 Bowman Baseball reminds us that infinite hope that new prospects provide drives the engines of baseball fans throughout a long season.
Starting as a 17-year-old in 1952 with the Washington Senators organization, Gonzalo “Cholly” Naranjo has ties to a unique baseball world from his ten-year career in both the United States and Cuba. The Cuban-born former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher recently appeared on the Baseball Happenings Podcast to discuss the Trump administration canceling the deal between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation, his first meeting with Roberto Clemente, and a host of other wonderful tales from his baseball journey between Cuba and the United States.
| | | Cholly Naranjo / 1956 Hollywood Stars |
President Trump's decision to end MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation's relationshipIn April 2019, President Donald Trump ended a four-month-old agreement between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation that allowed Major League teams to sign Cuban players for a 25% fee over their signing bonus to the Federation, as well as paying their Cuban income taxes. In his 85 years, Naranjo has lived through a variety of regimes in Cuba, as he was one of the few ex-Major League players who stayed in Cuba after the laws changed for professional baseball players in 1961. Naranjo returned to the United States full time in 1995 and feels this decision is a repeat version of an old tale.
“You don’t pick where you’re born,” Naranjo said. “You come out wherever you come out, and you’ve gotta go through the rules in the place where you live. You come to the United States, you’ve gotta go by the rules. We come [here] to play baseball, and we don’t pick where we’re born. What can you do?
“Now all of that is kind of juggling between baseball and the places where you live. All we wanted to do is play baseball and make a living. It happened before with us. We had that in 1961. The guys who couldn’t accomplish making the big leagues came back to their home. It’s a new copy of what baseball in Cuba is going through with the ballplayers. You’ve gotta face it because you cannot do anything with the laws of the country.”
Cholly Naranjo's favorite Almendares teammateNaranjo built his chops playing for Almendares of the famed Cuban Winter League from 1952-1961, serving as a mainstay of their pitching staff for a decade. When asked to choose his favorite teammate, he went out of his way to recognize Willy Miranda. Regarded by many as the premier defensive shortstop of the 1950s, Naranjo told how even Miranda could poke fun at his own light hitting abilities.
“I was right beside Willy Miranda for 10 years and Willy was an outstanding guy,” Naranjo said. “He knew more about baseball than you could ever believe. … He came up one time to hit against Vinegar Bend Mizell with three men on. Dick Rand was the catcher. He turned to Dick and said, ‘Do you want to see a home run with the bases loaded?’ [Rand] said, ‘Are you going to hit it?’ He said, ‘No, the guy that’s coming after me [will hit it].’ That’s what kind of guy he was.
“He was incredible. Paul Richards said a lot about that. He could get rid of the ball faster than anybody he’d ever seen. He could make that play in the hole out on the left field grass and throw you out.”
Naranjo's toughest foes in the Cuban Winter LeagueOn the mound, Naranjo battled established veterans during his Cuban League tenure, even drawing Branch Rickey’s attention for how he improved his curveball in the winter league. Surprisingly, when Naranjo recalled the batters who gave him fits, he pointed to two rookies whom he just could not get out.
“Jose Tartabull and Sandy Valdespino, they could read me like they owned me,” he said. “Everybody was a tough hitter for me. Those two guys, they were rookies. The rest, were day in, day out.”
Cholly's most cherished Roberto Clemente memoryNaranjo eventually reached the majors in 1956 with the Pittsburgh Pirates after narrowly missing the Washington Senators Opening Day roster in 1954. His time in Pittsburgh opened the door for a relationship with Roberto Clemente, a topic Naranjo frequently encounters. He revealed how they built their kinship before they were teammates during a chance February 1954 meeting in Puerto Rico.
“The story about Roberto [was] in 1954,” he said. “We won the pennant in Havana. The year before, I was in Chattanooga and I went to Havana. Manuel Maldonado (Denis), the Puerto Rican pitcher who beat me in Mexico in the Amateur World Series in 1949, he went to Chattanooga when I went to Havana. He was going out with the same girl I was going out with. I came back home after the season ... we won the pennant and we flew out to Puerto Rico because the Caribbean Series was in San Juan.
“He [Maldonado] came up to the hotel and he was going to the University of San Juan. He came to see me as a friend. He said, ‘Come on, I’m going to take you to the university, and I’m going to introduce you to a guy who is going to be a hell of a ballplayer.’ You know who it was, Roberto Clemente. He was sitting in the track and field stands by himself. Branch Rickey just signed him and gave him a $15,000 bonus. Rickey was the general manager of the Dodgers. He sent him to Montreal. He told the Montreal manager not to play him. When he went to Havana, the fans in Havana knew a lot of baseball. They were calling the manager a “racista” because he didn’t play Roberto. They didn’t know that Rickey told him not to play because he didn’t want the scouts to see Roberto [so] they could get him in the draft. He already knew that he had the job with the Pirates and got Roberto for $5,000 in the winter meetings of the draft.”
During our 40-minute talk, Naranjo shared just a sliver of his baseball treasures that spanned his 85 years of playing and observing the game. He was especially proud that both his mind and body were clear enough to lead an active lifestyle.
“I’ve got my health at my age,” he said. “I got this far, and I’m better than when I was playing ball. Can you believe that? Sometimes I think, well, give me the ball; I’m going to get somebody out.
“It makes me feel well that I can be a normal person and do all the things necessary to live in the United States and travel. … To me, it’s like a prize that I have proven that it can happen to anybody. ... I’ve lived over there and over here, and I’m clean in both of them. I have lived long enough to show everybody what is what. I feel proud of that inside. … I say Cholly, how old are you? Well, I’ve got more miles than Pan American Airlines!"
Collectors in search of new fortunes will find their desires fulfilled inside in a box of 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball. Armed with an upgraded design and quality artwork, Topps has made the necessary adjustments for 2019 Gypsy Queen to compete for attention among their vast release schedule.
2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Base Set, Parallels, and Checklist This year’s base design features a framed border that puts the players in clearer focus and a colored nameplate for easier viewing. The 320-card set contains 300 base cards and 20 short prints. While the base set is a bit thin on the hot rookies, the 20 short prints highlight retired players including Hall of Famers Tommy Lasorda, Vladimir Guerrero, and Hank Aaron.
| | | 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Base Set / Topps |
The base set has a variety of colored parallels, as well as missing nameplate and GQ logo swap versions. The Jackie Robinson Day and Player’s Weekend variations will also keep collectors eyes glued to the card fronts, as these rare nuances are tough to spot at first glance.
| | | 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Parallels / Topps |
Click here for the entire checklist.
2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Inserts One advantage that 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball has over other Topps releases is the simplicity of their insert sets. There are two basic insert sets— Tarot of the Diamond, and Fortune Teller minis. With only two inserts sets to track down, the ease of completing a master set will be an attractive feature for many collectors.
| | | 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Inserts / Topps |
2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Autographs and RelicsTopps lures in collectors with the promise of two on-card autographs in each box. It is an effective hook, as the blue autographs pop against the Gypsy Queen background, making these signed cards in demand throughout the season. The traditional Gypsy Queen autograph set features a mix of both active and retired players, with the box provided for this review yielding signatures from Brad Keller and Torii Hunter.
| | | 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Torii Hunter Autograph / Topps |
Other autograph inserts of note are the Mini Rookie Autographs, Fortune Teller Mini Autographs, as well as the relic containing Autographed Garments, Autographed Patch Book, Bases Around the League Autographs, and Pull Up Sock Autographed Relics.
| | | 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Brad Keller Autograph / Topps |
2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Box Break Video and Final Take Topps’ subtle design changes from the 2018 Gypsy Queen set push the Gypsy Queen product line forward in a market where collectors are looking for both consistency and eye appeal with their purchases. The upgraded 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball delivers on both fronts, making this set one to purchase if you are looking for a fresh take on one of Topps’ time tested products.
As the April sun peaks through the clouds to signal the start of a new baseball season, excited children and parents echo Ernie Banks’ famous “Let’s Play Two!” at fields across the country. While the Hall of Famer died in 2015, author Doug Wilson ensures that fans remember his shining spirit through his new biography, “Let’s Play Two: The Life and Times of Ernie Banks”.
| | | Let's Play Two / Rowman and Littlefield |
Wilson provides a fascinating look at Banks’ early life in Dallas, Texas, connecting with Banks’ few living high school teammates and classmates to detail not only his early athletic prowess but also the history of the segregated North Dallas neighborhood.
Wilson pours through a seeming encyclopedia of sources to chronologically reconstruct Banks’ life on and off the field. While fans may be familiar with the narrative of his 512 career home runs, stories like Banks’ ill-fated run for local office serve to spice up the details of a man who projected an overwhelmingly positive public persona.
“He refused to acknowledge that anything other than good existed, in every person and every situation,” Wilson wrote. “He was a true-life Don Quixote de la Mancha, seeing the world not as it was, but as it should be, climbing aboard his trusted steed, ready to charge windmills to undo wrongs and bring justice to those in need.”
Shaving another layer of the seemingly impenetrable curtain that Banks maintained, Wilson dug into the tumultuous relationship between Banks and his manager Leo Durocher. When Durocher arrived after the end of the 1965 season, he sets his sight on Chicago’s largest target, Ernie Banks.
“He turned his wrath on Ernie Banks—something no one has ever done before,” Wilson wrote. “He nagged incessantly about little things … he quickly added complains about Ernie not taking a big enough lead as a baserunner.”
Durocher thought that Banks was damaged goods and wanted to replace Banks with faster and younger talent, similar to what he did when he jettisoned Johnny Mize and Walker Cooper from the New York Giants in 1949. However, with his hands tied by the Wrigley family, Durocher used the only power he had to voice his displeasure—his lineup card.
“Leo really treated him badly,” Cubs first baseman Lee Thomas said to Wilson. “He would ignore him; he wouldn’t play him. Sometimes he would say things in front of the team or in the papers. It bothered me, and I know the other players didn’t like it either.”
Banks maintained his composure and eventually, he played well enough that even Durocher could not keep him on the bench. It was only much later in Durocher’s life that he apologized for how he treated Mr. Cub.
Throughout the remainder of his career and retired life as a Hall of Famer, Banks befuddled the media with his bureaucratic retorts. Wilson explained how Banks frustrated writers in their attempts to gain depth into his thoughts and character.
“For whatever reason, he had decided he would not discuss subjects painful to himself or others. His image was a hard-candy protective coating. No one was ever able to crack it open to find out what was inside. … Ernie’s polished dance with writers was his way of saying the same thing but doing it while still looking like a nice guy. Writers who accepted this at face value and were content with the status quo were allowed to remain, pleasant acquaintances, even friends. Those who didn’t were doomed to frustration.”
After his playing days were finished, Banks encountered many speed bumps as he tried to escape his career in a baseball uniform. He faced multiple divorces, failed business ventures, and a reputation sullied by his inability to follow through on his promises to make public appearances. At the end of the day, there was only one place where he truly found success, and that was being Mr. Cub himself.
Wilson was not able to get Banks to open up for this work, as a Chicago area entrepreneur Regina Rice kept the Hall of Famer protected in his later years through a series of muddy dealings that Wilson explores in detail. As of the writing of his book, Banks’ will remained contested between Rice and his former wife Elizabeth Banks.
“The man famous for cooperation and peace was the subject of a nasty public battle after his death,” Wilson said.
Whatever Wilson's book lacks in the absence of Banks’ direct narratives, is bolstered by the vivid sources used for the intimate details of Banks’ career. “Let’s Play Two” shows that while heroes like Ernie Banks appear to be impenetrable on the field, away from the game, they are susceptible to imperfections that cannot be measured by the stats on the backs of their baseball cards.
If you’re in search of an artistic take on the top prospects and young stars in Major League Baseball, look no further than 2019 Topps Inception Baseball. The 100-card base set features a design that splashes the players’ images into a canvas background, resembling a painting that fits compactly into their hands.
2019 Topps Inception Base Set and ChecklistThe base set, while aesthetically pleasing, is a difficult task even for seasoned collectors. Each box of 2019 Topps Inception contains one seven-card pack, four of which are base; the other three are parallels, autographs, or autographed relics. While most will not break a case to go for the base set, patient collectors will benefit from the breakers who push aside those cards as they feverishly chase down the rare serial numbered inserts. Click here to view the entire 100-card checklist.
| | | 2019 Topps Inception Base Set / Topps |
2019 Topps Inception ParallelsTopps splits the parallels over a rainbow of colors in traditional fashion for 2019 Inception. The solid color backgrounds make the artwork jump off the card, further increasing their desirability with collectors. The box provided for this review drew a Giancarlo Stanton Green parallel, and a Mookie Betts Blue parallel numbered to 25.
| | | 2019 Topps Inception Parallels / Topps |
2019 Topps Inception Autographs and RelicsThe serial numbered base Inception autographs feature an impressive lineup, including Ronald Acuña Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Mike Trout. As with the base set, the autographs also come in rarer colored versions. Lucky fans will snag one of the two mystery player redemption cards (one of which is Eloy Jimenez), or a case hit silver autograph.
| | | 2019 Topps Inception Silver Signature / Topps |
Signed patch cards are also part of the chase, with the real hook coming in the form of the autographed relic book cards. The book cards are either limited to one or two copies, making them a real treasure for prominent display in any collection.
| | | 2019 Topps Inception Book Relic / Topps |
While we were not so fortunate to pull any of the super limited edition autographs or relics, Matt Chapman’s signature stands out boldly against the base design’s background.
| | | 2019 Topps Inception Matt Chapman Autograph / Topps |
2019 Topps Inception Box Break and Final TakeAs 2019 Topps Inception boxes sell within the $60-$70 range, they create an interesting choice for collectors this baseball season. With signatures that clearly distinguish themselves from a majority of Topps’ releases, and attractive base and parallel cards to further capture eyeballs, 2019 Topps Inception makes a ploy for value above many of Topps’ guaranteed hit offerings.
Chuck Harmon’s name may not resonate with baseball fans when discussing the sport’s color barrier in the same way as trailblazers Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby; however, the talented multi-sport athlete followed his counterparts into baseball in 1947 to ultimately carve out his own niche in baseball’s record books.
The University of Toledo basketball star who became the first African-American player ever for the Cincinnati Reds died March 19, 2019, at his Cincinnati home. He was 94.
| | | 1955 Topps Chuck Harmon / Topps |
Harmon initial athletic fame came from his achievements not on the baseball diamond, but on the hardwood courts across Indiana. He was a basketball star at Washington High School, leading the team to consecutive Indiana state championships in 1941 and 1942. Upon graduating, he played one year at the University of Toledo before he was whisked off to serve in the Navy during World War II.
University of Toledo Basketball Stardom Harmon had his first taste of stardom when the All-American helped to lead Toledo to the 1943 NIT championship game against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden. He scored six points in their 48-27 loss. It was there where he caught the attention of Abe Saperstein, the legendary owner of both the Harlem Globetrotters.
“My freshman year in college basketball we went to the final game in the NIT,” Harmon told Baseball Happenings via telephone in 2008. “St. John’s beat us in the final game. Saperstein was trying to get us. Back then, the NIT was the big tournament.”
While Saperstein’s interest was deferred by Harmon’s military duties, local scouts kept him on their radar. After returning to Toledo in 1947 to star for their basketball and baseball teams, local scout Hank Rigney took notice and offered the collegian a spot with the Indianapolis Clowns.
“I was at the University Toledo and it was summer vacation,” Harmon said. “I was hanging around school and was supposed to get a recreation job with the city. I was waiting on that to come through. Meanwhile, Hank Rigney, an old scout for the Browns, ran the concession stand at the school. He was an all-around go-getter, baseball scout, football scout, and basketball scout. He was scouting the Clowns, so he knew about me playing basketball and baseball at Toledo.
“He asked me one day if I wanted to play with the Clowns. I was still waiting for the job around school. I was tired of waiting around, so I didn’t know if it was going to come through with the playgrounds or recreation, so I told him yeah. He said, ‘I’ll sign you up with the Clowns.’ I said, ‘Anything to get out of here, I’ve been waiting here doing nothing.’”
A Chance in the Negro Leagues Suddenly, Harmon went from being an unemployed college student to a member of one of the Negro Leagues most storied franchises. Rigney sent him right into the fire as the Clowns prepared to face the formidable Kansas City Monarchs.
“The Clowns were in Indianapolis playing,” he said. “Hank Rigney gave me a letter to give to the manager of the Clowns. I went over there, signed, and started playing with them. I wouldn’t call it playing with them; I signed with them. On a Wednesday, they had a game that night against the Kansas City Monarchs. I got over there that afternoon, dressed, and played that night. Of course, I didn’t play. I was there; you know trying out, whatever they called it. They were picking up guys as they went along. It wasn’t nothing real formal.”
While the tryout process lacked formality, Harmon assumed the name Charlie Fine to preserve his amateur status while playing with the Clowns. Once the travel rigors of Negro League Baseball set in, Harmon quickly discovered the ride was not as glorious as promised.
“It was one of them deals, we climbed in the bus to go to Michigan to play,” Harmon recalled. “We played up there, and after that game, the next day we went to Michigan City, Indiana. We played that night. You get off one bus, get on another bus, and go for 300 miles and play; you don’t sleep. When we got to Fort Wayne to play a team, it got rained out, so we stayed all night there. We stayed in private homes, that’s where we stayed all the time when we [went] to those towns.”
Due to the barnstorming nature that fed the Negro Leagues, teams did not have the luxury of rescheduling rained out contests. Harmon walked right into the middle of one of the miseries of road life that was markedly different from the first class treatment he experienced while playing college basketball.
“We got rained out in Michigan City and Fort Wayne, and when we went to Chicago — that was the first night we stayed in a hotel. I think we had a Sunday doubleheader. I dressed there. To this day, I don’t think I got into a game at all from Wednesday to Sunday. That was too much for me [coming from] playing in college, staying in hotels, and eating in the fine restaurants. Playing in Toledo, we stayed in the best hotels and played in Madison Square Garden.”
Harmon thought that he could parlay his experience with the Clowns to stay on with Saperstein’s Globetrotters. After his miserable week with the Clowns, he decided to pivot and return to Toledo for the summer.
“I don’t remember getting in a game or not because we had four or five games, we played two, the first night and the night in Chicago, and then we got rained out,” Harmon said. “I said to myself, ‘This isn’t for me.’ In my mind, what was going to happen was, the Globetrotters [would take] me and another guy. He had been trying to get us to play with them anyway. The basketball was probably worse traveling than the baseball. Traveling on the bus and sleeping in private homes if you could. I told him no thanks.”
A Door Opens with the St. Louis BrownsBack in Toledo from his brief foray into the Negro Leagues, Harmon waited on the city for his recreation job. By that time, the St. Louis Browns signed both Hank Thompson and Willard Brown to major league contracts. With the organization’s door open, Rigney jumped at the opportunity to get Harmon into the fold.
“A couple weeks later after being back there, the job with the city still hadn’t come through,” Harmon said. “Finally, he came over to school and [told me] they wanted me at the [Toledo] Mud Hens office [because] St. Louis wanted to sign me to a contract. That was like going to the World Series hearing that. Going with a major league team, as they always said, that was ‘organized ball.’”
While Brown and Thompson are often touted as Major League Baseball pioneers, Harmon was part of a select group who quietly pried opened doors at a time when only a few teams embraced integration. Standing in those offices, he saw the hope that was newly available to African-American ballplayers.
“We went to the office there in Toledo,” he said. “I didn’t have any idea of signing a Triple-A contract, but still that was a step to the major leagues. They wanted to send me to upstate New York, to the Canadian-American League, Class C. They sent me up to Gloversville [New York]. It was organized ball, and you could see the footsteps to major league ball if you were good enough.”
During our talk, Harmon chose not to focus on struggles with Jim Crow segregation, but the joy of being paid to play baseball. He thrived in his new environment.
“I did pretty good and finished the season out there,” he said. “I played 50 something games, and I was on cloud nine. You didn’t care [because] you saw them checks! The first time you saw a check, you got paid. Some guys played week to week. They played and spent it. Being in organized ball, we got paid and stayed in hotels. It was a glory road for me.”
Harmon returned to Toledo to play basketball for the 1947-48 school year. He put his minor league dreams on hold to play for the Fort Wayne General Electrics in 1948 while finishing his college basketball eligibility. With his college basketball career behind him, Harmon came back to the Browns, even after they sent him down a level in the minor leagues.
“Gloversville bought my contract and they sent me to Olean, New York in Class D,” he said. “Up there I was hitting about .370-.380 each year. When Gloversville sent me up there, I started hitting, and I got married. My wife was expecting, and I told them that when they sent me down. That’s when I really started wearing the ball out there. I talked to Gloversville and my wife was expecting, so I told them if I was hitting over so-and-so, would [they] bring me back to Gloversville. That incentive helped. Meanwhile, the Browns were having money problems, moving their clubs, and getting rid of players. During the winter, they sold the teams to independent buyers, and Olean bought my contract.”
A Cincinnati Reds CourtshipUnbelievably, it took two years of Harmon hitting .374 and .375 with Olean before the Reds bought his contract in 1952. He jumped to their Double-A team in Tulsa in 1953 and those footsteps he saw in 1947 were finally starting to lead on the right path.
“I went to Tulsa next year and I was leading the team in everything,” he said. “I was driving in all those runs. I had a bad day if I just got three hits. If I got two hits, it was bad.”
Harmon spent that winter sharpening his skills in Puerto Rico by playing for the Ponce team. He tore through the league and finished second in hitting, just below Luis “Canena” Marquez, and three points ahead of a young Hank Aaron. On the cusp of realizing his major league dreams, Harmon sensed that being in the presence of young talent and hardened Negro League and Puerto Rican veterans primed him for the next step.
“They had a lot of great players in winter ball,” he said. “You knew they were going to make it.”
Making History in the Major LeaguesHe made the Reds out of spring training, and on April 17, 1954, against Aaron’s Milwaukee Braves, Harmon made history. His seventh-inning pinch-hitting appearance minted him as the first African-American to appear in a game for the Reds. Historians have argued that Nino Escalera, a Puerto Rican who batted right before Harmon, was the first black player for the franchise. Almost 65 years later, Harmon was more concerned with being on the team than being first.
“All that didn’t faze me a bit,” he said. “You knew you were good and that you were one of the best. That’s all you thought about. Not being the first black. It didn’t dawn on me at all. You know, all the players down there, you’re just trying to beat them. You’re trying to be better than them so that you get picked. You didn’t think that you would get picked before this guy or that guy, all you thought about was being on the team.”
OTD in #Reds history, 1954: Chuck Harmon becomes the first African-American to appear in a regular season game for the Reds. pic.twitter.com/JC24m87anv— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 17, 2017
Harmon played in the majors for four seasons from 1954-1957, batting .238 in 592 at-bats with the Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, and Philadelphia Phillies. He continued to play in the minors until 1961. He made one last Negro League connection in 1958 when the Phillies sent him to their Triple-A team in Miami with Satchel Paige.
“He could throw that ball,” Harmon said. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to face him, at 52! ... You just couldn’t believe that old what he could do in there. You were in awe of him more than trying to figure him out.”
He remained in the game for a few years as a scout with the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians before settling in as a clerk for the Hamilton County Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The Reds honored him in 2015 with a statue at their Youth Baseball Academy in Roselawn, Ohio.
Art Mazmanian, the star second baseman from the University of Southern California’s 1948 College World Series championship team, died March 22, 2019, in San Dimas, California. He was 91.
Mazmanian’s USC squad faced off with future President George H.W. Bush’s Yale team during the 1948 College World Series. Six decades later, he eagerly shared the details of their legendary match up.
“In 1948, we won the first national title for USC,” Mazmanian told Baseball Happenings during a 2009 phone interview from his California home. “We beat George Bush’s Yale team. He was their first baseman and captain. I remember everything. I have a good memory; it was just like yesterday. He got two hits in the three games. He batted seventh in the lineup, and both of hits were doubles.”
The New York Yankees signed Mazmanian in 1949. He marveled at the thought of a 120-pound college freshman becoming a pro prospect.
“I shouldn’t have been signed,” he said in 2009. “You don’t know how blessed I’ve been. You know how much I weighed? When I played at USC, I went there when I was 17 years old; my first year I weighed 121 lbs.”
As unbelievable as it sounds that a slight infielder would fill out in a few short years to attract the New York Yankees, even more amazing was how he earned a full baseball scholarship without USC coach Rod Dedeaux ever seeing him play.
“[Rod] Dedeaux gave me a full scholarship and never saw me play,” he said. “I introduced him at a banquet for our letterman’s club as a senior in high school. … My high school coach got Rod Dedeaux to come and speak. That was the first time I met him. At the banquet, my high school coach talked to him. I weighed 119 lbs and I didn’t make all-city, I made all-league. I didn’t hit over .260, [but] the principal talked to him, and a week later, he gave me a full scholarship. Of course, the war was on, because without the war, I wouldn’t have been noticed. I was the only civilian in classes because I was [just] 17.”
The reliable infielder played from 1949-1954 in the Yankees farm system, reaching the Triple-A level for three of those seasons. While the spray-hitting Mazmanian never made the major leagues, he had a brief taste of the major league life when Casey Stengel invited him to spring training with the parent club in 1952.
“In 1952 I was there for only two weeks, but I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I really liked Casey Stengel. I didn’t deserve to be there, and I knew that, but I loved it. I was tickled to death to be in the organization. I had been playing second base throughout the minors and when I got to Triple-A, they moved me to shortstop. They thought [Phil] Rizzuto was retiring. I didn’t have a shortstop's arm, but I did all right there.”
Mazmanian returned to his alma mater, Dorsey High School in Los Angeles where he coached football and baseball for 13 years. He took the reins at Mt. San Antonio College in 1968, holding the position for 31 years, amassing 731 wins in the process.
During the summers, Mazmanian moonlighted as a minor league coach, taking on rookie ball teams for 17 years, as the short-season fit in with his teaching and coaching duties. His prized prospects included Jack Clark, who he converted from a pitcher to outfielder, and a nubile Don Mattingly in Oneonta.
“I hit it lucky with Mattingly, he was 17,” Mazmanian recalled. “He hit two home runs that year in Oneonta, but we had a tough park. I wrote on the report that I projected him to hit 15-20 in the majors. I saw that Mattingly hit .349 in that league. You don’t know how hard it is for a high school kid to hit in that league. Eddie Williams the number one pick in the draft; he hit about .220 in that league.”
Even after Mazmanian stepped down from his position at Mt. San Antonio College to care for his ailing wife, he could not stay away from the field. He volunteered at South Hills High School from 2011-2015 and finished his coaching career as an assistant at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College in 2016.
“Money-wise, I’m right back where I started,” Mazmanian said in 2011. “I started as a volunteer at Dorsey and now am a volunteer helping out Coach (Kevin) Smith at South Hills.”
The metallic borders of 2019 Topps Heritage baseball cards rekindle visions of the concrete architectural designs that were popular in the 1970s. While some collectors passed on the 1970 Topps Baseball card set due to its cold feel, Topps attempts to accentuate its minimalist features in 2019 Topps Heritage Baseball.
| | | 2019 Topps Heritage / Topps |
Base Set / Checklist / Short Prints / ParallelsTopps marks the 500-card base set with the presence of 100-card short prints that are sure to drive collectors on a season-long mission towards completion. Topps makes an interesting turn with the set checklist, leaving a load of stars within the 100 short prints, which means collectors will have to be either very lucky or pay up for the likes of Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, and Ronald Acuña Jr.
Long-time collectors will note Pat Neshek's tribute to Lowell Palmer's 1970 Topps card in the picture below.
| | | 2019 Topps Heritage Base Set / Topps |
Base set parallels are difficult to come by, with hobby boxes offering black (#/50) and flip stock (#/5) versions, while Walmart Mega Boxes serve up a variety of serial numbered chrome cards.
Variations and RefractorsOne of the Topps Heritage annual features that draw collectors towards the product is the nuanced variations that demand a detailed look at each card. This year’s twists include French-language OPC versions, image, name, error, and throwback variations, as well as a 100-card set of both chrome and silver metal cards.
The box provided for this review landed a Mike Trout image variation card, as well as an Alex Bregman serial numbered chrome refractor.
| | | Mike Trout Image Variation & Alex Bregman Chrome Refractor / Topps |
Inserts Topps stays true to form with their inserts, honoring the time-tested Then and Now, Flashbacks, and New Age Performers series. Another tip of the cap to the 1970 set comes with the Scratch-Off insert set. All of these inserts are a strong complement to what collectors expect annually from Topps Heritage.
| | | 2019 Topps Heritage Then and Now Inserts / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Heritage Inserts / Topps |
| | | 2019 Topps Heritage 50th Anniversary Box Topper / Topps |
Autographs and Relics Each 2019 Topps Heritage Baseball box guarantees either a Real One autograph or a relic. The Real One autographs include two mystery players and red ink parallels that are numbered to 70 or less. Fortunate fans will be able to land coveted dual and triple Real One autographed cards, which are limited to 25 and 5 respectively.
The 1970 Milwaukee Brewers are in focus with a 10-card autographed set including Hall of Fame owner and Commissioner Bud Selig, as well as pitcher-turned-author Dave Baldwin.
Autographs also dominate the relic space, as Topps reserves star power for its Clubhouse Collection signed relics. These hand-numbered autographs of Aaron Judge, Kris Bryant, and Mike Trout exist in quantities of 25 or less. Topps links a further connection to the 1970 season with the Flashbacks autographed relics, celebrating the likes of Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Reggie Jackson, Bob Gibson, and Steve Carlton.
| | | 2019 Topps Jose Ramirez Clubhouse Collection Relic / Topps |
While the box used for this review did not yield one of the spectacular aforementioned signatures, a neat relic of Cleveland Indians All-Star slugger Jose Ramirez rounded out the box.
Box Break Video If you want to get a feel of the fresh excitement that 2019 Topps Heritage has brought to the 1970 Topps design, check out our entire box break in the video below. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future breaks and interviews.
Wrapping up 2019 Topps Heritage BaseballTopps has created the 2019 Topps Heritage Baseball for the patient collector, starting with the old-school details, to the extended time needed to complete the entire run of short prints. The experience is an epic that starts well before the regular season that will keep playing out well through the All-Star break. As Major League Baseball attempts to write new rules to quicken the pace of play, 2019 Topps Heritage is a reminder that baseball cards collecting is not something that needs a time clock to get to the next release.
