Quad: David Wright.

       In honor of David Wright signing his seven year $138 million contract, I present to you a perfect quad of his cards:

If I ever get more of his autographs, I could easily make more quads of David.  But as it is, that 2005 Cracker Jack of his is the only certified auto that I own.  The rookie there is his very first card, a 2001 Upper Deck Premier Prospects; it is his only 2001 card.  I have several of his bat and jersey cards, but I chose these two because of their similar photographs.  All in all, this is a great quad of (hopefully *fingers crossed*) a career long Met.

Quad: Reggie Jackson.

       I mentioned my preference of "quads" over "triplets" in a recent post - the triple being a rookie, game used, and autograph card of one player, the quad splitting the game used facet of the triple in to bat and jersey cards.  I said I would/should make it a feature on the blog.  Well, I have said this kind of thing before ("favorites", "Topps sets", etc.) and not followed through.  This time, I decided to mean it, so I rummaged through my boxes of favorite players looking for some quads and immediately found one, and when I say immediately I mean immediately: first row of the first box I looked.  I dove into my hall of fame box and the first player in there is my very first favorite player, Reggie Jackson.

I knew right away I had multiple bat and jersey cards of Mr. October, and I knew I had his rookie card (more on that in a minute).  Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found I had an old school autograph of his too.  I picked the best looking jersey and bat card and made this quad:

While the jersey is just a white square (the scourge of some jersey card pullers), I like the card and the picture on it, plus it is numbered to /50 and has some shiny.  The bat card is an oldie, from the 2001 UD Legends set.  I really like the baseball stitches burned into the bat piece, an aesthetic touch I wish card companies would do more.  The autograph (which as I said, I forgot I even had) is from the 1995 Upper Deck set.  Back then, Reggie was the face of Upper Deck and it came complete with a numbered COA, I don't know if it was an insert or a mail in redemption kind of thing but it is a pretty awesome card.  Last and certainly not least is my very very off condition 1969 Topps Jackson rookie card.

I once owned a very nice looking Reggie rookie card, but as with a lot of my fancy schmancy old school vintage stuff, I had to sell it on eBay for practical purposes, like paying the rent and food.

This was the second one of these I owned, as I once put together a complete 1969 Topps set.  I sold the set but kept this one.  I deemed it expendable as well, though because I owned the third one, the one with the multiple creases and tape.  I am a fan of extreme off condition cards and this one is a thing of beauty.  I mean look at it...

Seriously, look at it...

Look At It...

LOOK AT IT!!!

Someone loved this card.   They played with it, maybe had it in their pocket for safe keeping.  Somehow, it tore, but they took it upon themselves to tape it together because they liked the card that much.  I cannot for the life of me remember where I got this thing, but goddamn, I love this card.  I find poor condition cards like this fit into John Waters definition of camp (to paraphrase): they cannot be created, they merely exist.  I could never ever make a card like this.  It had to happen back in 1969 organically at the hands of a baseball card loving child.  And now, they are out there to be rediscovered and loved again.  Of all the quads I put together and scanned the other day, this one is by far my favorite and this card is the number one reason why.

A Day Late and a Father Short.

     When I decided to start this blog in the dead of winter, I didn't have a job and my social life was a barren wasteland.  Needless to say, I had spare time to spare.  Now I suddenly find myself (mostly) gainfully employed and my social calender has a little more ink splashed upon it and my blogging has suffered for it.  While most people would blame my short attention span for blog abandonment, rest assured, I have not left Starting Nine on the side of the road, nor do I plan to.  I just gotta prioritize my time these days and this poor cardblog has suffered for it.  Oh for the days when I spent all my time in my pajamas waiting for the phone to ring and I had hours to sit and think of something to write about.

Anyway, yesterday was Father's Day, which is usually a rough day emotionally for me.  For the most part, I grew up without a father - and the brief time he was around was not exactly Ozzie and Harriet quality parenting - so having a designated greeting card day allocated to remind me of that fact is not my idea of a good time.  One nice thing we did in my family a while ago is we decided, since my poor mother was the only parent, she got both holidays in celebration....and we still all get her cards and gifts on Father's Day.  And since she somehow kept me and my siblings out of prison and the morgue, it seems the least we can do.

Baseball has a rich tradition of fathers and sons, so it seems like the perfect day to showcase the good the bad and the ugly of baseball families.  First off is the absolute epitome of father/son perfection, the Griffeys.

Ken Griffey Sr. was the first player in major league history who got to play with his son at the same time he was still active.  They upped the ante when, in 1990, they became teammates and got to play together on the Mariners for a year and a half.  Then they put the cherry on top of the feel-good story when they hit back to back homers on September 14, 1990.  To me, that is the alpha and omega of father/son feats in major league history.

Bobby Bonds is probably the best father who is also the second best player in his family.

Bobby Bonds was a player way ahead of his time.  He was a speedy power hitter who struck out a ton.  These kinds of players were all the rage in the 1980's, but Bobby played all through the 1970's, for seemingly every team in the league at one point or another.  He retired in 1981 with 332 homers, 461 steals and 1757 strikeouts.  Then, in 1986, his boy Barry came up with the Pirates.  Now, I was way ahead of the curve in hating Barry Bonds, so the less said about him in my world, the better.  If he had retired in 1999 with his 445 homers, 460 steals, .288 average and tiny head, he would be a first ballot hall of famer.  Instead, he took his jerk factor and multiplied it by 10 by injecting himself with lots of B-12 and ruined a bunch of great records.  Man, all I can say is, fuck Barry Bonds.

On the other end of the jerk spectrum is Pete Rose. 

I was never a Pete Rose guy, but I could understand those who were.  Rose was never the most talented player or greatest athlete, but he played his ass off.  Sadly, his nickname Charlie Hustle now applies more to his gambling and lying about it then to his play on the diamond.  His kid, who was on a 1982 Fleer card with his dad at the age of 12, is also a disgrace even though he worked his ass off.  Even less talented than his father, Pete Rose Jr. played for a decade in the minors and then got himself a cup of coffee with his dad's hometown Reds in 1997.  Sure, it was probably a publicity stunt, but he made it.  He played in the minors for another decade, until he was busted for selling steroids.  So both father and son have been in federal prison.  Classy family.

And then there is Yogi Berra...

...Yogi could never be described by anyone as anything other than loveable.  Everyone loves Yogi Berra.  Being a swell guy does not guarantee having a fine son, unfortunately.  Dale Berra was a fringe player, and there is nothing wrong with that, but he was also a junkie and a dealer, and in the end, there is something tremendously wrong with that.  I wonder if Dale and Pete Jr. had the same parole officer?

As an aside, let's cover my favorite Father's Day moment:

...granted, it was done 11 years before I was born, but Jim Bunning throwing a perfect game on Father's Day is pretty damn sweet, even if it was against my Mets.  Jim Bunning has seven kids, so he knows a thing or two about being a father.

Right now, the best player with the worst kid recently in the majors is probably Phil Niekro.

Phil was the master of the knuckleball and won 318 games in about 1000 years in the majors.  Plus, Niekro looked old and paternal even on his earliest cards.  His kid, Lance knocked around for the Giants for a few years and then tried to reinvent himself as a knuckler as well.  That didn't go so well.  He is currently a free agent and coaching for a college in Florida.

The best "son" in the majors right now is no doubt Prince Fielder, son of the titanic Cecil.

I always had a soft spot in my heart for Cecil Fielder.  He was a big dude who hit the ball a long way.  It took him forever to establish himself in the majors, with a detour to Japan thrown in there as well, and he fell off the cliff just as quickly as he rose to fame.  He was grand and larger than life and played ball like every game was gonna be his last, I always loved Cecil.  Then he showed himself to be a bit less jolly and more of a lunatic when it comes to his relationship with his son.  They are estranged, a nice way of saying Prince wants nothing to do with his dad.  So sad.  Other than the Griffeys, it seems all these father son stories are kind of a bummer in one way or another. 

Post script- Some people believe in the triplet (game used, autograph, rookie card); I like the quad (game used bat, game used jersey, auto, rookie card).  I have a great Quad of the Fielders:

I never did find a jersey card of Cecil to complete his quad, so I have Prince in there to pinch hit.  I also love that the autograph I have from him is from his Japanese days.  That bat card didn't scan well, it is actually quite shiny and the 1986 Donruss rookie of Cecil is a great looking card.  I was never one for the 1986 Donruss design, but the Blue Jays cards look great with that border and you get that great 80's BJ logo not once but twice.  I'll have to scan and bring out some more of my quads to help keep this blog going.