RIP Toy Cannon

      James Sherman Wynn 1942-2020

I recently wrote of my decades-long dislike for the Houston Astros but I will always make an exception for a great nickname and they don't come much better than The Toy Cannon.  A vastly underrated ballplayer way ahead of his time in terms of on base percentage and power, he routinely cracked 20-30 homers out of the Astrodome at a time when most of his teammates had trouble hitting double digits. He only hit .250 but walked 100 or more times a year six times (sound familiar? told you he was ahead of his time).  He bounced around the league in his 30s to the Dodgers, Braves, Yankees, and Brewers but he was so good for the Astros in the 1960s that they retired his #24 in 2005.  Godspeed Jim.

Three Bad Nicknames For The Hall.

       One of the problems with restarting the blog at the beginning of January is there's just not a lot going on, both in the hobby and life in general.  Luckily, along comes the Hall of Fame to give me something to write and rant about.  Four years after not bothering to elect anyone, the writers continued their unparalleled generosity by humbly decided to allow three men into their sacred realm. 

Jeff Bagwell.

Bagwell was named on 381 of 442 ballots (86.2%) in his 7th year of eligibility. 


I am a little biased when it comes to Bagwell as he is one of my birthday boys, born on the same day as me and the exact same day as Frank Thomas - May 27, 1968.  I am pretty sure this is the first time Hall of Famers have been born on the exact same day, and though my internet research didn't prove this for certain, I am going to make this bold proclamation.  I easily have as many Bagwell cards as I do Frank Thomas cards and it is a secret part of my collection that has somehow not seen much exposure here.  Expect a similar post like the Big Hurt's there with his cards before July.


Bags (or Baggy or Bag Pipes) had his election delayed as so many have due to unfounded rumors of PED use.  Given his amazing and amazingly consistent numbers, his inclusion in Cooperstown is long overdue.  And given his quirky batting stance and fantastic facial hair, he deserved a better nickname than a simple twist of his name. 

Ivan Rodriguez.

Pudge was elected with 336 votes out of 442 for a narrow 76% of the vote in his first time on the ballot.  He somehow overcame the incessant PED rumors (and out right admissions) and got in without years of nonsense.  I hope this is a sign of things to come. 

Rodriguez was a teenage marvel and a 40-year old wonder and pretty damn good in between.  He set the record for the most game caught, threw out runners from his knees, stole an MVP award from Pedro Martinez, led teams with fiery gusto and ended a playoff series about as awesomely as possible.  The man was unique and deserved his own fitting nickname rather than a recycled one, though he did do Carlton Fisk proud in its appropriation.

Tim Raines.

Raines was checked off on 380 of 442 ballots (86.0%) in his 10th year on the ballot.  Given the new rules, I am pretty sure this would have been his last year on the ballot before being turned over to the veterans committee.

Why it took 10 years is pretty mystifying but given the writers usual biases, Raines found himself in a perfect storm of "why players don't make the Hall of Fame when it is obvious they should."  Raines began his career in obscurity in Montreal, hardly a media hot bed.  He was great at one thing and really good at a lot of things, but he was not the greatest at that one thing so the other things got lost.  The things he was best at are kind of obscure and not very glamorous.  Plus rather than stay on one team for his whole career, he bounced around at the end and settled for being a role player on winning Yankees teams rather than compile sexy numbers like 3000 hits or 1000 stolen bases.  The strongest argument as to why Raines should be in Cooperstown is the simple, yet overlooked, figure of times on base: he is right *ahead* of Tony Gwynn, a sure-fire first ballot guy, on that list in practically the same number of plate appearances.  But they don't give fancy awards for on base percentage and they do for batting titles.   He also was the second guy to ever play on a team with his son, and you can ask Larry Doby what the Hall thinks of dudes who do things second.  He even got sick at the end of his career but it was this time, it was lupus, a disease that can kill you but also brings out the jokes rather than the telethons.  And finally, it all comes back around to the nickname Rock, which while it innocently brings an image of a strong, sturdy guy (which Raines most certainly was) that nickname probably did not have such simple origins.  I seriously doubt you will see it on his plaque.

While these are three very deserving men to be inducted, as usual, there are a few elephants in the room.  One is the awful fact that Bud Selig was elected a few months ago by the Today's Game committee, which was inevitable given the penchant for long time commissioners to be elected no matter what the circumstance.  Some of the writers saw through this slight hypocrisy and the votes for many of the PED poster boys went up.  I really wanted Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens to go in with Selig to add to his embarrassment but alas, they will have to wait.  My other issue is with how Edgar Martinez has been treated by the writers.  Follow me here, Trevor Hoffman has been on the ballot for two years and came very close to getting in this year and will probably get over the hump next year.  Closers have been all over the map on the writers' radar - some have to wait, some skate in - but all in all, they have been pretty generous to them.  The writers have accepted that closers are part of the game.  But what did poor Edgar Martinez do?  It's not his fault the American League instituted the DH rule in 1973 and never rescinded it.  And it is certainly not his fault the Mariners were too stupid to give him a starting job before he was 27 years old.  He just played by the rules of the game.  The designated hitter is part of the game and has been for more than 40 years.  They are real baseball players.  Seriously, you can look it up.  Would Edgar Martinez be that much better a candidate if he had played a mediocre third or first base for most of his career like Harmon Killebrew did?  It comes down to a simple question, if you were going to start a team and have a player for 15 years, would you rather have Trevor Hoffman or Edgar Martinez?  Exactly.

Trade with Capewood's Collections.

       Seems some bloggers are getting their spring cleaning done a little late this year.  But hell, I don't mind if there is stuff in it for me.  Cliff over at the esteemed Capewood's Collections has been having a Summer Clearance Trade extravaganza.  He has been listing team lots (and some of the goodies therein) as up for grabs with the rejoinder that you send him some of his favorite teams in return: the Phillies and Astros.  This is a rather simple and elegant way of getting rid of cards you don't want and getting your hands on the ones that you do.  So I waited patiently for my Mets to come up and wouldn't you know it, when they did I pounced on them and got my boys in blue and orange.  Let's see what I got:

There was some of this year's stuff, which is always nice since I am not buying much new product (my post-birthday trip to Target not withstanding).  There were a bunch of cool David Wright cards that I didn't have. That Upper Deck X die cut is pretty sweet; those UDX die cut cards work as well as the base cards don't.  Plus there was a nice smattering of some vague old nineties stuff and even, impressively, a 1989 Upper Deck card that has somehow not made its way into my collection.  Actually, I think there are still two or three missing from that team set.  *sigh* This is yet another gap in my Mets stuff I should write down and put up on the wantlist.  Anyway, there was about 100 or so cards here and they were all appreciated...even the Jason Bay, though as I have stated before, he is dead to me. 

I saw a few days later that Cliff had previously listed the Expos and Nats as a combo lot and that there had been no takers.  I emailed him that I would double up my Phillies and Astros for him if that lot could make its way to me as well.  He happily agreed (and even threw in a couple more Mets he had laying around to boot):

I don't know where my soft spot for the Expos comes from. Maybe because they were never much of a threat to the Mets in their day. Maybe because that team was unreasonably ripped out of Montreal. Maybe because I just like old defunct teams in general. Maybe because they had sweet uniforms.  I am only speculating.  But between this lot and a previous one from Jaybarkerfan, I now have a shitload (it's an industry term) of excess Expos.  And such sweet cards they are.  I really do dig those handsome powder blue unis they wore.  I really do hope the Hall of Fame can see past their own stupidity and puts Tim Raines onto their hallowed walls.  Good stuff all around.  All that said, I am growing worried about their successors, the Nationals.  They have a strong young nucleus and will no doubt be a thorn in the side of the whole damn NL East for years to come.  That's not good for my Mets nor Cliff's Phillies (who can't seem to get out of their own way this year).  Anyway, I hope the cards I sent to Cliff were as entertaining as his lots were to me.  Thanks Cliff!