Beirut.

       Today is Babe Ruth's 123rd birthday which had he lived past 1948 would make him the oldest person to ever live. This makes a bit of poetic sense because Ruth set records that don't make much sense even today.

I make fun of the Yankees at any opportunity but let's face facts, Babe Ruth is the greatest there ever was and the best there ever will be.  In fact, his numbers are so screwy people often just forget about him when arguing who the best player of all time is because he is such a conversation killer.  It's as if there is Babe Ruth and then everyone else. 

I remember in college, and this is 25 years ago before there was internet based smartphones to answer every argument immediately, one of my roommates was kind of ignorant of Ruth's overwhelming numbers.  When I said he once hit .390 and was in the top ten in career batting average, he laughed and said "there's no way that fat tub hit .390!" and right then and there we had to march to the library where I pulled out the Baseball Encyclopedia and gave him a humbling education.  And while there are some hitters who have approached his greatness, there is one thing that is one of the all time trump cards in history.

This last page here is one of my favorite pages in my collection.  For all his mythical qualities, the one thing that always slips through the cracks is that Ruth was well on his way to being a hall of fame pitcher when he decided that he was better at that hitting thing.  By the age of 24 his career marks were 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA. Even at the end of the deadball era, those are Walter Johnson/Christy Mathewson type numbers over 6ish years.  One can only wonder what the end result would have been if he had pitched in the majors for 22+ years instead.  If anyone ever points out the exploits of Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, or Barry Bonds and tries to make them out to somehow be better than Ruth, just ask them if they ever won 94 games as a pitcher as well.  It is a joy to watch the life in their eyes die because there's just no counter move to that argument.

“How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball... The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.”

We were all lucky to get 53 years of Babe Ruth since he lived as hard as he played.  I think one can easily say he lived 123+ years in that time.   Happy Birthday ya big lug.

I Love It When You Call Me Big Papi.

       David Ortiz.  2013 World Series MVP.

David Ortiz went 11 for 16 (.688) with two home runs and six RBIs.  They walked him three times intentionally in game six alone because he was so blazing hot.  David Ortiz reached base more times in a six-game World Series than any other player in history, breaking the mark previously held by Paul Molitor for the Blue Jays in 1993.

David Ortiz.  Scrap heap free agent signing in 2003.

David Ortiz.  Three Time World Series Champion and future Hall of Famer.

David Ortiz.  Team leader and Boston legend. 

What a lovely day for a parade. Cue the duckboats.

Yastrzemski.

       I am not a great speller but as Mark Twain said: I have no respect for a man who can only spell a word one way (or not).  If it weren't for the little red squiggles on the bottom of the words, I would be in big trouble.  In the age of typewriters, my editors would curse me, hate me, and eventually demote me to the sales department.  This opening sort of introduces our subject today, Carl Yastrzemski.  As someone who is both of Polish decent and multi-generations of Red Sox fandom, needless to say Yaz is a personal favorite.  I was born in Albuquerque NM and that is the longest city I can spell without thinking.  Similarly, because of my Boston and Red Sox roots, Carl Yastrzemski is the longest baseball player name I can spell without thinking.  I once threatened to show off my Yaz collection and considering the Red Sox honored him outside Fenway on Sunday with a new statue, it seems an appropriate time to show it off.

First, let's look at the pages:

An interesting mix of faux vintage and very early all-time greats cards.  That TCMA all time Red Sox cards has a great stadium light post in the background.  It is also hiding a 1987 Hygrade Yaz. The 1990 Glossy all star in the middle is doubled up with the 1984 Glossy all star.  I probably should have scanned the back of this one, huh?  I am thrilled with how nice that 1986 Sportsflix card scanned; rarely do you get such a nice representation of a single picture much less the best one of the three.

Here we have an orgy of faux vintage goodness:

I was once very confused about the logo on that Golden Moments card.  Turns out, it is considered a Red Sox logo because they used the red hats in the mid to late 70's - and the 'B' was blue on those (see the top two cards of this page for reference).  The more you know...

We now get to some player era cards:

That 1983 Topps is not just one of my favorite Yaz cards, it is one of my all time favorite cards period.  It is also his last Topps base card - pretty damn good way to go out.  I am pretty sure that glossy mail in all star card in the middle is from the same series of photographs.  The photo on that Drakes Big Hitters card is wonderful.  It shows a full Fenway behind Yaz as he leaves the batters box.  The crowd in that 1982 Fleer card celebrating his 3000th game?  Not so impressive.  Proof that Red Sox nation was not always so strong.

Some more early 80s's stuff.

Seeing double?  Lots of 1981 cards on this page.  And somehow, a couple of faux vintage cards wondered on to this page.  I should probably reorganize my Yaz pages...  The photo of him giving the raspberry on the American Pie card is quite amusing in an outtake sort of way.  I wish they'd use more types of portraits like that on those reprint/faux vintage cards.

Ah, some gritty dark cardboard 70's Yaz cards:

Topps loved to celebrate his 1967 season, huh?  There are four of them total on these pages, two of them alone on this one.  I remember thinking as a kid how old Yaz looked on his 1978 and 1979 cards.  I am now about the age Yaz was in the pictures on these cards. Funny how not-so-old he looks on them now.  I have always been a big fan of both his 1977 Topps cards.  I don't recall how I got that 1974 Topps card and I am still not sure if that is a b.b. hole or a pushpin gouge.  Either way, that card was well loved or despised greatly by someone back in the day.  The 1972 Topps has a great spring training shot and the 1970 Topps has a classic old Yankees Stadium pose.  My, but Yaz has some fantastic cards.  And if you are a hardcore devotee of Starting Nine, you know there is one more Yaz card hiding amongst my pages.  

Alright, let's go to the boxes for some more shiny and vintage stuff:

That is the only game used Yaz I own and I pulled it from a box I bought when that product was new.  I also pulled that Yaz manu-patch card back in 2009.  I have good Yaz karma when it comes to these things, I suppose.  That Topps Stars Progression card has quite the trio on it.  I owned a 1960 Yaz rookie years and years ago and it was sold long ago in the big gotta-pay-the-rent purge of the early aughts.  My shiny 2001 Archive Reserve reprint will have to do in its stead.

Some shiny numbered commemorative cards:

Oddly, that Passing the Torch card has no one on the other side.  I thought the whole point of that set was to have players who passed the torch to other players.  Shouldn't Jim Rice or Ted Williams be on the other side of that card?  That 3000 hits club card is both die cut and too thick for the top loader it is in, thus it's crookedness. 

Some more faux-vintage:

I am not 100% sure why these are in top loaders and not in the pages.  Man, I definitely need to clean up my Yaz collection. 

A foursome from the 1999 Fanfest:

The 1999 All Star game was at Fenway and I went to the Fanfest in the Hynes Convention Center.  It was the first one I had ever gone to (but not the last).  You had to buy a certain number of each companies pack and trade the wrappers in for their Yaz card.  As you can see, I obediently did all four.

A few more inserts:

That Fleer one in the upper left should have the subtitle "keep your eye on the ball." Those Score cards on the bottom were some of the earliest retro insert cards.  The one with Musial and Mantle is creatively titled 6-7-8.  If I have to explain that to you, you are reading the wrong blog.

OK, I lied, a couple more inserts and finally some real vintage:

I once owned a beautiful 1971 Topps Yaz.  It was clean, pack fresh, and well centered.  If I believed in such things, I could/would have gotten it graded.  I sold it on ebay relatively recently because I finally abandoned my overwhelming urge to build the '71 set.  There is a much better looking 1974 Topps than the one in the pages.  That 1973 Topps card is Milhouse's favorite.  If I have to explain that to you, we cannot be friends.

One final batch of Yaz vintage cards:

As you can see, my vintage Yaz collection is not as impressive as my adoration of him may have suggested.  Along with the rookie and the 1971, I once owned a 1961, 1962, and 1965.  Alas, they are all gone.  But let's focus on what I have rather than what I don't.  Yastrzemski was a monster in the late 60's, setting hitting marks in an era when no was was hitting.  Therefore, he shows up on a lot of league leader cards.  In fact, he shows up first on the three big ones in the 1968 set due to his aforementioned monster 1967 Triple Crown year.  It took until last year for that to happen again.  My love of World Series cards wouldn't let me get rid of that epic 1968 card (also seen above in Archives reprint form).  And of course, my eternal affection for oddball cards wouldn't let me sell that 1969 Topps decal.  I am still not sure if they are like stickers or rubdowns or tattoos or what.  While they are not super rare, I am not willing to find out.

Giving Thanks.

       We all have a lot to be grateful for here on this Thanksgiving.  Personally, I give great thanks to the fact that I am relatively healthy and happy while living comfortably in a first world country.  I have lots of great friends that enrich my life and a loving and supportive family. Most of all, I am very thankful for the fact that a couple of weeks ago, the Mets bought out Jason Bay's contract so I never have to look at him on my team again.

Of course, I guarantee that he will go to another team and put up a .300/30/100 slash line.  But hey, I give thanks that that is many months in the future.

And to all of you, my faithful and loyal readers - for whom, of course, I am tremendously thankful for - enjoy your turkey and stuffing and try to avoid any horrifying family dysfunction.  As for my plans, I am currently in the airport about to fly off to New Orleans to drink away my holiday and enjoy the Saints game on Sunday. Gobble Gobble!

Complete Set Sunday - 2004 Upper Deck Rivals.

       Fear not, intrepid Starting Nine readers (of which, I believe there are nine of you), I have not abandoned my posting; I was just on a little pleasure trip to my old stomping grounds of Boston.  I went to see some good friends and to see a Sox game.  I would really have liked to have gone to see the 100th anniversary of Fenway on Friday, but alas, I could not get tickets to that game - not without skipping a mortgage payment anyway - so I settled on Saturday afternoon's game.  Red Sox vs. Yankees.  The Greatest Rivalry in Sports® etc., etc.  It was such a beautiful afternoon.  I was with my Sox fan friends.  We had damn good brews at the Boston Beer Works before the game (only poser pink hat fans go to the Cask and Flagon).  By the fifth inning, the Sox were up 9-0 and all was right with the world.  Everything was going so well.  And then...and then it all fell apart and something happened that has shaken my baseball fandom to the core - and remember, I am a Mets fan first and foremost so that is saying something.  The Red Sox coughed up that nine run lead.  And almost once over again.  They gave up seven in the seventh and seven in the eighth.  I was stunned, stymied, dumbfounded, and pissed.  I did something I have not done in 25+ years of going to baseball games.  I left early.  I looked at my buddies and said, "I need beer.  Right now...and they stopped selling them. Let's go." and I left.  I am kind of mad at myself for doing that.  I am also friends with far too many Yankees fans who left all form of nasty messages on my phone and facebook.  Sure, those first six innings were fun, but besides that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?  Yes, the Red Sox shot me in the back of the head.  It was a bad day for baseball.

It is with that backdrop that I present the 2004 Upper Deck Rivals.  

It is a set featuring the Red Sox and the Yankees and it was sold as a complete set in hobby outlets.  

It has 30 cards, which, out of some fit of laziness, I did not scan all of.  I probably skipped some of the Yankees.  I guess I am still mad.

Upper Deck did a bunch of these types of sets in the mid-aughts.  It is kind of a fancier version of the old Fleer boxed sets sold in drugstores and toy shops in the 1980's, but who cares? It has a bunch of classic photos and players and the Rivals section with contemporary positional match ups are well done and pretty awesome.

When I got this set in 2004, a local card shop (one of those overpriced mall-type ones that I don't frequent) was having a signing with Peter Gammons, who has cards highlighting What If? scenarios in the set.

The odd thing is that, at the time, my girlfriend worked directly with Gammons' nephew; I probably could have met him any time I wanted.  But as it turns out, I met him at the mall.  And he was very affable and friendly, we had a brief conversation about music and baseball (and his nephew) and he signed my big ass card.  That was a good day.

I have a few Red Sox sets, a couple from their World Series wins and this one, which was made right before they actually won it all in 2004.  This was at the very pinnacle of Red Sox/Yankees hostilities.  The 2003 ALCS was an all out war (brought to a nasty conclusion by Aaron bleeping Boone).  Then the 2004 ALCS happened.  The Sox came back from down 3-0 in the series to win.  And now, eight years later, they are choking away nine run leads.  Baseball is a funny, brutal game.  As you can tell by my rambling, I am still overly affected by yesterday's debacle.  I will reel it in and head for the big finish.  This set is in the binders because the Red Sox are my baseball mistress.  I don't love them like my wife, but I adore them all the same.  If they keep playing like they did yesterday, there won't be anymore sets for me to add to this one for a long long time.

Complete Set Sunday - 1995 Topps Cyberstats.

       Today I wrap up what became parallel weekend here at Starting Nine with one of my favorite sets of all time.  First, let's jump into the WABAC machine...1995 was an odd time for baseball.  The 1994 strike was damn near armageddon for the sport.  Both sides got themselves in a Mexican standoff over the issue of a salary cap and neither side blinked; we lost the World Series because of it.  Spring of 1995 brought folly to the proceedings when the owners decided to bring in replacement players for spring training.  Once they realized how ridiculous that idea was, they blinked and the sides settled, but nothing was really settled.  Not to get into the boring details, but it is obvious that the only one's who lost the 1994 strike were the fans.  I know folks who still don't care about baseball because of the whole nasty affair and I really can't blame them.

       Topps released their flagship set of cards in 1995 in a rather muted manner.  It wasn't in every toy store and CVS and they say the presses were run at their lowest levels since the mid 60's, so the cards were a little hard to find.  I was in my junior year of college in 1995 and probably at an all time low in terms of excitement about baseball in general and card collecting specifically.  So, due to the combination of youthful shenanigans and ennui over baseball, I don't think I bought a single pack of 1995 cards in 1995.  And it is a shame, because the Topps put out a quality set:

The simple borders and non-offensive but stylish font make for some good looking cards. They used some nice pictures and the area for the photo is nice and big.  Most noticeably, for the first time, Topps used gold foil on the base set, not the parallel set.  Turn the cards over and you see the backs also had some flair to them:

You get two pictures, an action shot and a head shot cleverly stylized into a Diamond Vision scoreboard look.  There were also the usual stats and some good write ups.  It is a shame no one noticed at the time, but the 1995 Topps set was put together very well, I wish they put as much time and creative effort into the contemporary base sets.

So, with gold foil on the front of the base cards, what on earth was Topps to do for a parallel?  I think the world would have continued turning without a parallel set (the base set did just fine without one inserted from 1996-2000), but Topps did something very different and kinda ballsy.  Now, because the mid 90's cards are not as deeply discussed in blog circles as current or vintage stuff, I have not seen many opinions about this parallel set...but I will throw out the notion that what Topps did was one of their most ingenious and daring efforts.

I present the 1995 Topps Cyberstats:

First, let's cover the aesthetics, the shimmering, refractor-like glow these cards have make them very attractive.  Sadly, I don't think my scanner captures the effect perfectly, but believe me, the shiny foil fronts alone would make this a worthy parallel set.  The kicker is the backs:

This is where this set differentiates its self from any set, before or after.  Topps decided to run a computer simulation to complete the unfinished 1994 baseball season and the put the results of that on the backs of these cards...

That's right, this is a parallel set from a parallel universe.


Like I said, I was too busy ignoring baseball and being a capricious youth to notice this set early in the year.  But the 1995 baseball season in Boston (where I was living) was pretty exciting.  The Sox surprisingly won the division and, little by little, they sucked me back into baseball fandom.  It was this team that made the Red Sox my baseball mistress (I am married to the Mets, after all).

Oh, back to the cards, lets look at a few more fronts and then get back to those backs.




Diving into some of these stats...according to Topps, Ken Griffey Jr. would have a monster year: .330 average 55 HR 133 RBI, which seems pretty accurate, given how well he was doing up until then and he would pretty much have two or three years just like that in the next few years.  I have to disagree with the Jeff Bagwell numbers, though.  The players went out on strike on August 12, and Bagwell was hit in the wrist with a pitch on August 10, breaking it.  I am pretty sure he would not have returned until very late in the season, if at all, so his numbers would have stayed right where they were (Bagwell won the 1994 NL MVP unanimously with a .368 average 39 HR and 116 RBI and an incredible .750 slugging - and no, I didn't have to look those numbers up...I am a big Bagwell fan). 


This is the last page of the set.  You can check out the stats for Darryl Strawberry on the original base card (above) and here in the Cyberstats world.  Darryl Strawberry was, as usual, coming back from injury and a drug suspension.  Look at that very Pedro-esque year they had for Pedro.  You might have thought it kind of a long shot then, but Pedro went on to put up those kind of numbers - and a heck of a lot better - over the next 10+ years.  Pedro Martinez makes me as happy as Darryl Strawberry makes me sad.

The set itself covers 396 of the 660 cards in the set, so most major players are covered and a lot of the rookies too.  If you have been paying attention to my odd predilections, I love that this set is 396 cards, because it fits perfectly into 44 pages, but that is certainly not why I kept this set.  When I discovered this set late in the 1995 year, I didn't do much about it, but in 1996, when my card collecting habit regained some steam, I bought as much of the 1995 cards as I could to catch up.  I built most of this set myself from those packs and finished it off at a show in 1996.  This set grew on me exponentially, both because of the spectra light fronts and the weird, bizarro-world stat backs.  I found it such an audacious choice for a parallel set and I poured over the alternative universe Topps created.  I wish they had advertised it more back then; I wish Topps would make such bold choices today in their set making.  I wish I knew more people as obsessed with this set as I am.  The set is in the front of the first book on my set shelf and it will probably always keep that status.

Post Script.  The set was punctuated with an insert set that was only available in the very hard to find 1995 factory set.  The set celebrates the pretend achievements of their alternative 1994.  I only have three of those cards seven cards, but I have the shiny foil Ken Griffey Jr. promo card, which is also pretty rare - and features a much better photo than the base card.

I will hopefully complete this page someday.  I have added the cards I need to my wantlist...if you think you can help, drop me a line.

Aesthetics.

       I was going to call this post "A for Aesthetics" but I want to keep this thing simple (and I would never want to endorse Sue Grafton novels, directly or otherwise).  Everyone seems to be down with the concept of this blog and I appreciate all the well wishes and encouragement.  But I also want to assure you all, there is more to all this than just slapping nine cards in a page and calling it a day.  Each page needs to not only represent the player, set, or concept, but it has to look good doing it.  At least, that is the goal.


Here is a page of Stan Musial modern retro vintage cards:
 
All very different looking cards; some are very busy and modern, some are more staid designs and/or reprints.  All of them live together well on the page.  All the photos make sense where they are placed. 


Here is a page of Wally Joyner that illustrates this concept even better.  Different sets and photos all arranged well:


If he's looking up, he's on the bottom.  If he's looking right, he's on the left, and so on.  To look good is to feel good. Its got a couple of rookie cards and some OG Upper Deck in there too.  So in my binders, at least, Wally Joyner is the equal of Stan Musial, if not greater.


I do like the break up the monotony of page after page of player after player with some themes.  


Nomar is one of my favorite players of all time.  He has an astounding four pages in my retired binder.  I went with an all fielding page here:


I really like to do this with catchers.  As a failed former catcher myself (with the bad joints to prove it), I like to highlight the tools of ignorance, behold the recently retired Jason Varitek.


I do have binders that collect sets as well as players.  I find Allen and Ginter to be both awesome to rip open and collect, yet hard to work with in my nine card structure.


I mean, these '09s look nice, but page after page of similar looking A&G cards gets tiresome, so I tried to break it up with some bat-on-shoulder solidarity in '06...

...and some horizontally-oriented '07s.




I'll do this with players too.  I have two or three pages of Cal Ripken Jr. and since he has a little under a bazllion cards, I was able to cobble together a longways page:



I am certainly the demographic Topps is after with all their old timey sets and players, because I can't get enough of them:
 
Though it is a sad statement that this is the least busy of all the Topps Triple Threads sets.

While I am on the subject, it is soapbox time.  I try not to complain too much about cards since this is my hobby and all, but I cannot ignore Topps and their recent quality slip.  It is not just the monopoly that has led to this sad state, they were well on their way down before that.  I have a fantastic example here.  These are the 2002 Topps 206s:


Great pictures, well colored, the subject pops off the background, high quality stuff, pays homage to the original set, looks great.


And these are the 2009 Topps 206s, a mere 7 years later:
 
Mediocre pictures, horrible photoshop effects, awful over saturated backgrounds, inconsistent and lazy coloring of subjects, looks like a high school art project...and what the hell is going on with that Lou Gehrig?  He had ALS, not Down's Syndrome. Whatever happened in those seven years, design and quality control took a long looooooong step down. 
 
/soapbox


As a palate cleanser, here's one more good example, from the HoF binder; Goose Gossage in all his goosey-ness, lots of teams represented, lots of sets represented, mustache very well represented, the pictures all nicely arranged:



And here...well, here is one of my Hank Aaron pages, it's all over the place...

...it needs a little work, though Night Owl should appreciate the original well-loved 1975 cards from my brother's collection.  

       And to those who asked, I will be working on the wantlists and gotlists sometime this weekend, or next month, I am in no rush, but thanks for inquiring, I am aware they need to be posted.  And once again, thanks to everyone who has come to look at my little blog and especially those who have taken the time to comment.