Sunday Night Baseball: 2006 Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Sketches #4 David Ortiz

This week Sunday Night Baseball is once again featuring the Yankees and Red Sox.  For the last decade many of the meetings between the rivals have feature Big Papi at DH. 

2006 Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Sketches #4 David Ortiz

After an injury shortened 2012 David Ortiz is having a terrific season. Going into tonight's game he is batting .325/.406/.586 with 24 dingers and 77 RBIs. This is all at the age of 37.  Ortiz's 425 career Home Runs and 2 World Series rings are going to make him a borderline Hall of Fame candidate at some point - despite spending most of his career as a DH.  If your on Twitter Andy @HighHeatStats occasionally chronicles Ortiz's last 162 game numbers, and they are impressive.

2006 A&G Dick Perez Sketches Insert Set

The Dick Perez sketches were the per pack insert in the A&G debut offering in 2006. The 30 card insert set contained a single player from each Major League team. The Phillies 2006  rep was Bobby Abreu.  Of the 30 players in the set about 18 remain active in 2013 (if you count retirees like Lance Berkman who played in '13 and Johan Santana who is on a roster, but has been DL'd all season.). Of those 18, 6 are currently Yankees (A-Rod, Ichiro, Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano, Vernon Wells, and Travis Hafner).  Two are Red Sox (Ortiz and Jake Peavy). At least 3 were moved at or near this years trade deadline (Wells, Peavy and Soriano).


And finally 1 was recently suspended for being too lazy to get a prescription written by Dr Nick Riviera (Miguel Tejada)  

Other Voices
A recent Cardboard Junkie posting on the 2006 A&G Insert set.

Sources
BaseballCardPedia.com
Baseball-ref.com 
MLBTV
Cardboard Junkie

Bucket or Chuck-It: 2013 Topps Archives

Easy one Chuck-It.

I could finish the review there but I will post some pix and thoughts. The following cards are from a rack pack of cards purchased at a local big box.  $5.99/pack plus local sales Tax (6% in PA) for an 18 card pack.  

My biggest issue is 2013 Topps Archives is largely comprised of 3 designs I am not fond of, and a fourth that I find to be about average. Then there is the issue of Topps Canabalizing their old sets, and finally the whole lottery aspect of opening Archive for the more interesting whacky inserts - I do like the whacky inserts, but they won't tempt me enough to pick up a box. 

I even dislike the wrapper which got favorable reviews from a couple of sources including The Shlabotnik Report which has a fine column on the derivation of the wrapper.

2013 Topps Archives #55 CC Sabathia (1982 Topps)
2013 Topps Archives #44 Chris Davis (1972 Topps)
2013 Topps Archives #101 Andrew McCutchen (1985 Topps)
2013 Topps Archives #186 Brett Lawrie (1990 Topps)

These are the four basic Topps Designs in 2013 Archives.  Right off the bat there are too many from the same era - 1985 and 1990 are pretty firnly in the junk wax era and 1982 is pretty close. And 1990 is my least favorite of the Topps canon.  

Finally, I am in the minority on this one, but 1972 Topps really doesn't do it for me.

Another Chuck-it for the rack is that there were no Phillies in the 18 cards :(

The hockey stick set (1982 Topps) is my favorite of this years four mains. CC is near the top of my list of favorite Yankees, Chris Davis is putting together a 2nd consecutive fine year for the Orioles - Kudos to O's fans for having 3 Orioles leading the early All-Star voting (Davis, Adam Jones, and .... JJ Hardy). Always good to get a McCutchen card - he is one of the good guys in baseball and a fine player.  Brett Lawrie has been on the shelf for a disappointing Jays team and unable to repeat is fine 2012 campaign


4 More low-lights

2013 Topps Archives #48 Ryne Sandberg (1972 Topps)
2013 Topps Archives #214 Fred McGriff SP (1989 Topps)
2013 Topps Archives #134 Wei-Yen Chen (1985 Topps)
2013 Topps Archives #153 David Ortiz (1990 Topps)

Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is one of the hilights of the pack.  The McGriff is a 1:4 Pack short print from the 45 card Fan Favorites hi-number series.  Chen has been on the DL for about a month, but was a nice find for the Orioles in 2012, He was a big help to the club to reach the playoffs.  David Ortiz is just keeps on chugging looks like he may e adding another fine season to his career.

There you have it - 18 cards, no Phillies, 1 short print. this is likely the only pack of 2013 Archives I will likely pick up. Chuck-It

2013 Topps Archives Other Views
Nacho's Grande (Group Break - 3 Hobby Boxes - Multiple Postings)
Arpspmith's Sportscard Obsession (2 Hobby Boxes - McGriff, DeShields, and Orosco Autos)
30 Year Old Cardboard (Two Blasters)
Capewood Collections (Blaster+ 1972 Schmidt, 1990 Chooch, Ryan Howard Relic)
Night Owl Cards (Blaster)
Play at the Plate (Blaster)
Things are Funner Here (Rack Pack w/ 72 Ryan Howard)
Paul's Random Stuff (Mets)

ReWind
Phungo Review of  2012 Topps Archives.  FYI - Despite the 3 Phils I think I passed on getting any future Archives last summer and didn't go for the Hobby Box. Also liked the set selected for 2012 archives much more then 2013.

 
References

Schlabotnik Report
Baseball-cardpedia
MLB Trade Rumors
Baseball-ref.com

ReWind - 2009 World Baseball Classic

Ok I realize that I am the only person that cares about the WBC - just deal with me for a posting.

I do understand there is a great element of baseball light - all the rules for pitch counts and pitching dates.  And there are all the adverse affects for the MLB teams that are sending teams to the WBC. 

But....

I like seeing players w/ different unis and teammates.  I enjoy the spirit of the World Baseball Classic and it is cool to see a baseball event in March that isn't totally meaningless.  I get the meh reaction by most fans, but I would like to see more fans become interested in the event - and I will blather on about it occasionally. 

Here are some Phungo Cards from when Team Phungo checked out the WBC qualifer in San Juan. 

 

2010 Phungo #21 Bernie Williams 

Bernie was retired from MLB for three years when the 2009 WBC rolled around.  He came out of retirement to represent Puerto Rico and he even threw out the first pitch prior to one of the games we attended.

This is one of the things I like about the event - it is an opportunity to bring back some players from the recent past.  As far as I know this hasn't really occurred in 2013 - Johnny Damon represented Thailand in the Fall Qualifiers but that doesn't really count.  Bobby Abreu and Jim Thome would be great guys to send out for the WBC. 

Minor leaguers also can get mixed in as well.  There really isn't a critical need for all the Major League stars to get involved. It only happens once every four years.  If an all-star caliber player can represent his country once in his career it is a great opportunity. 

 2010 Phungo #35 David Ortiz

The WBC does use a DH, but David Ortiz had to bring his glove and play first in 2009.  This is because the Dominican squad was LOADED at shortstop.  I think they had Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, and Miguel Tejada all manning the position.  We ended up seeing the rare game where Big Papi played in the field and Reyes was a DH.  

2010 Faux Phungo Sidney Ponson

I never really mentioned this, but several Phungo Cards end up on the cutting room floor.  Sidney Ponson was one of those cards.  He is to much of a jerk, and really lacks any hipness - I just couldn't give him a card despite having a fairly decent close up.   Card #37 in 2010 was awarded to a combo card of Juan Pierre and Jeff Kent.

I will likely have a few more WBC ramblings over the next couple of weeks - just a warning.

Looking Back

2009 Travelblog San Juane PR and WBC
Roberto Clemente Retired Number at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan

Pull N Junk of the Month - February 2011 - Mostly Catchers Edition

I had intended to do a whole Retail v Hobby comparison of 2011 Topps, but sort of lost my momentum on that one as I (and many others) seemed to be suffering from new release fatigue.

I picked up three packs each of Topps Retail and Topps Hobby this month plus 1 rack pack.  Out of those seven packs I was pretty happy to come up with this pull:

2011 Topps Legends Variation #198 Johnny Bench

Amazingly enough this came out of a Target gravity feeder.

Apparently the Legends Variations are pretty rare, with a 1:80 seed ratio for HTA boxes according to BaseballCardPedia.

The #198 Bench Variation shares #198 with the San Francisco Giants fine young catcher Buster Posey.

(click to enlarge)

My question to you is if you only bought 3 packs at a retail outlet and got a hit, would you:
A) return to the same store and pick up another set of packs
B)go to another retail outlet knowing that the first store was tapped out of hits
C)quit while you were ahead?

2011 Topps Phillies

2011 Topps Carlos Ruiz

Six packs plus a rack pack and I come up with 1 stinkin Phillies card. But we have a Catchers theme posts going so The Ruiz card is appropriate

Junk of the Month

(click to enlarge)

The team cards all have season highlights on the back, unfortunately one of the BoSox Highlights happens to be a Phils low-light when Joe Blanton through a clunker of a game which included giving up a Grand Slam Home Run to Daniel Nava in Nava's first career AB on the first pitch the rookie saw at the major league level.

Honorable mention:

Yet another Catcher themed card - These are CYMTO 2011 to me.  who needs them.   

2010 Pull of the Year
 
I also wanted to take the time to note the 2010 Pull of the Year.  And we have another great pick featuring one more catcher - but he is a very special catcher.      

2009 Goodwin Champions Black Border Mini Gypsy Queen Back #62 Yogi Berra

Thanks all for helping me pick out the 2010 Pull of the Year via a series of Poles - And also Junk of the Year.

2010 was the year of the mini for me - so it is very appropriate that the Pull of the Year was a mini and a 2009 Goodwin, which is one of my favorite sets that I discovered in 2010.

Previous 2011 Pull N Junk Posts
2011 January

2010 Phungo Cards - David Ortiz

2010 Phungo #35 David Ortiz

Hispaniola is the name of the divided island shared by the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

David Ortiz hails from the Dominican as do 492 other gentlemen who have played Major League Baseball. One of those players is Miquel Tejada who has been involved in relief efforts for the disaster stricken country of Haiti. According to Baseball-Reference there are exactly ZERO players of Haitian birth that have reached the Majors.

That is a somewhat unbelievable disparity 493 to zero. The countries are basically in the same area and presumably of similar climates, but their history beyond the 20th century is significantly different.

I am not naive enough to believe that MLB success or even presence equates to social and economic success and importance (All of Europe as yielded virtually no players either). However I don't think that the differences in this case can be ignored. From what I have learned Haiti's recent history has been filled with cycles of political corruption, tyrannical leadership, intellectual exodus, and just plain bad luck. According to Wikipedia The Dominican's per capita income is roughly six times that of Haiti - That would be like the average New Jersey resident making 6 times what a Pennsylvanian makes. For the record according to wikipedia the two states with the largest income disparity in the US are Maryland (70.5K) and Mississippi (37.8K) which is not even double for states that have significantly geographic and environmental differences.

Hopefully Haiti can recover and turn their fortunes around. I would love to see Haiti become another hotbed for Latin American prospects.