TASR: 2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto - Game Dating

This is our second column in our series dedicated to Joey Votto's 2009 All-Star Rookie Cup Card. 

Today we are going to try and Game Date the Photo. For those of you that weren't with us last week you can go here to see the original posting - for purposes of this column here is a reminder of the card:

2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto

Game Dated Card*

I am opening with minor asterisk here by noting I am not positive on this one. The evidence we find in baseball-ref while not conclusive does appear to point to a specific at-bat. That likely plate appearance was in the fourth inning of a Reds game at Shea Stadium on May 10th 2008. 

How did we arrive here?

1) This appears to be Shea Stadium in it's closing season of 2008. Within Getty Images we were unable to find the picture on the card, However there was this series of photos of Votto that were all taken on May 10th    

This doesn't confirm the date but it is similar enough to verify we are dealing with the Mets and Shea Stadium.

2) This is a big one - According to baseball_reference Joey Votto played only 2 games at Shea Stadium. Those two games were on the proposed May 10th date and the following day May 11.

Now that we are down to 2 games we can look at the details. 

3) Now we switch over to retrosheet because their play by play is a tad more descriptive and we find this within the May 10th game:

 

YAHTZEE!!!

It is the only time that "Bunt" is mentioned with Votto in the play by play for either game within retrosheet or baseball_reference. 

That's good enough for me. We got ourselves down to two games and within one those two games we found documentation of a bunt attempt. 

Exceptions: Of course this is not conclusive, Votto could have attempted a bunt in any of his other plate appearances and fouled off the pitch and that would not be recorded by retrosheet or baseball_ref. Regardless we definitely got the card of a potential Hall of Famer down to a single series in May of 2008. 

Bonus Evidence

4) This is all just supplementary evidence that doesn't prove anything but does support the case we made in points 1-3 above

We return to Getty Images and find a photo from the other game (May 11th)

This photo looks a lot different because it's from the opposite camera well. There is another detail of interest. Look at the bat - it's a natural wood stain. Now return to the top and look at Votto's bat when he's bunting. It's black - the 3 photos from May 10 all black bat. 

There is one other photo from May 10 which is from the first base angle and it also shows black bat. 

Now this doesn't mean that Votto didn't have an AB with a black bat May 11 but so far every AB on May 10 is black bat and the only AB on May 11th is natural

Looking Back

In last weeks column we discussed that Joey Votto had 8700 PAs without a sacrifice, well he wasn't sacrificing here either. Votto was leading off the inning so this was not a sacrifice attempt. It was likely a good strategic move, Votto a Left Handed Hitter was leading off facing the tough Southpaw Johan Santana on the mound. Right Handed Slugger Edwin Encarnacion was on deck and in fact did hit a Home Run off Santana. 

Sources and Links

Joey Votto Index

2009 TASR Index

Game Dated Cards Index

baseball_reference

retrosheet

Getty Images

Rich Pilling Photography

TASR: 2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto

Cincinnati Reds Legend and Fan Favorite Joey Votto announced his retirement recently. Amongst active position players he was the longest tenured member of the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup.  That baton has now been passed on to Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen who were both named as outfielders to the TASR team in 2011. Justin Verlander (Class of 2007) remains the elder statesman among all active players. 

2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto

This is not Joey Votto's Rookie card, he was in the 2008 Topps base set, it is his 2nd Topps flagship card. Couple of quick Notes on the card: 

-The memorial patch that we can get a glimpse of is for Reds one time young phenom and announcer Joe Nuxhall.

-Joey Votto is not sacrificing here, well at least not successfully. In 8746 career Plate Appearances Joey Votto did not have one Sacrifice Hit. That is the fifth highest number of PAs for a Zero SH player. Carlos Santana has a good chance of passing Votto by the end of the season. 

2008 Season and ROY

Joey Votto had his first full season in 2008 and it was a very productive one (.297/24/84 3.3 WAR) which was good enough to earn him the Rookie Cup at first base. The nearest competitor was Chris Davis (.285/17/55 1.1 WAR)   

In fact Votto's year was so good he was also in the running for NL Rookie of the Year. He finished 2nd in the voting to Cubs Catcher Geovany Soto (.285/23/86 3.3 WAR). Those numbers are very similar but Soto received 31 of 32 first place votes. He had the edge on Votto for two reasons 1) Playing catcher rather than first base 2) Soto's Cubs won the NL Central finishing 23.5 games in front of the Reds. 

Overall the 2009 Rookie Cup Team ended up being a solid class that included Votto's longtime teammate Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria, Denard Span and Alexei Ramirez. Clearly the best players were now fellow 2023 retiree Longoria and Votto.  Both have very similar offensive numbers with Votto edging out Longoria due to many more walks (1365 vs 730). Of course Longoria played the more challenging position of 3rd Base and has a more significant postseason resume. 

Among the first 52 Rookie Cup Classes 2009 ranks in the top third of the years for which we have tabulated stats (1960-2011). The most prominent key number for the 2009 team is Home Runs, the squads 1475 dingers rank 13th - Votto, Longoria and Bruce combined for 1014.  

Rookie Cup Team: Longest Tenured Actives

With Joey Votto's exit a struggling Anthony Rizzo has become the Rookie Cup's longest tenured first baseman*.  Here is a complete list of longest tenured TASR winners

C	Travis d'Arnaud	2015
1B	Anthony Rizzo	2013
2B	Ian Happ	2018
3B	Nolan Arenado	2014
SS	Jose Iglesias	2014
OF	Jayson Heyward*	2011
OF	Andrew McCutchen	2010
OF	Giancarlo Stanton	2011
LHP	Wade Miley*	2013
RHP	Justin Verlander	2007
RP	Craig Kimbrel	2012
DH	Miguel Sano	2016

*I believe both Justin Heyward and Wade Miley have been released and are possibly retired. The Heyward slot would be succeeded by Mike Trout and Bryce Harper (both 2013, Harper was an OF on the team), 2nd in line for LHP is Carlos Rodon  

Also since Bryce Harper was an outfielder on the Rookie Cup Team he remains so for this exercise, otherwise he would be tied with Rizzo for first base honors. 

Extra Innings

Turns out that Joey Votto Rookie Cup card has so much going on that we will need to expand this into multiple postings. Look for some additional info next week. 

Joey Votto Index

2009 Topps #309 Game Dating

Sources and Links

2009 TASR Index

baseball_reference

Getty Images

1960s Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Tournament - Finals!!!

Our Final features two teams from the Middle 1960s. The challenger is the overall #4 seeded 1966 squad Oliva's Army led by fresh HOF inductee Tony Oliva. They will face #1 seeded team from 1965 captained by Joe Morgan. Both teams enter the final undefeated at 4-0. 

1960s Final Game 1:

Oliva's Army 1965 (4-0)	2 - 8 - 1
Little Joe's 1966 (4-0)	1 - 5 - 0
W: Wally Bunker (3-0)	L: Frank Linzy (2-1)
HR: None

 

Oliva's Army gets the upset in game 1, Wally Bunker moves to (3-0) as he shuts down Little Joe's on 5 hits and a single run. 

Game 2

Oliva's Army 1965 (5-0)	4 - 6 - 0
Little Joe's 1966 (4-1)	5 - 9 - 3
W: Marcelino Lopez (3-0)	L: Bill McCool (2-1)
HR: Joe Morgan 66 2 (2), Bert Campaneris 65 (1)

Little Joe's Even the series behind a pair of Home Runs from the Captain himself. 

Game 3

Oliva's Army 1965 (5-1)	0 - 6 - 3
Little Joe's 1966 (5-1)	1 - 11 - 1
W: Frank Linzy (3-1)	L: Wally Bunker (3-1)
HR: None

For the 2nd time in the final Frank Linzy and Wally Bunker square off in a pitchers battle. Linzy (3-1)  avenges his game 1 loss with a 6-hit shutout. The W gives Little Joe's a 2-1 advantage going into game 4. 

Game 4

Oliva's Army 1965 (5-2)	5 - 7 - 0
Little Joe's 1966 (6-1)	6 - 7 - 0
W: Marcelino Lopez (4-0)	L: Bill McCool (2-2)
HR: Tony Perez 66 2 (3 ,4), Bert Campaneris 65 (2),

 

Little Joe's capture the 1960s Tournament with a 6-5 victory over Oliva's Army.

Tony Perez hits a pair of Home Runs to run his tournament total to 4 and takes home MVP Honors

1966 Topps Tony Perez

Marcelino Lopez goes through the tournament undefeated with 4 victories. 

Final Standings - All-Star Rookie Tournament 1960s

	Final Standings	W	L
1	Little Joe's 1966	7	1
2	Oliva's Army 1965	5	3
3	Charlie's Hustlers 1964	2	3
4	Team Boog 1963	4	4
5	Team Mad Hits 1968	1	2
6	Team Davey J 1967	1	2
7	Team Torre 1962	2	2
8	Bench No Drips 1969	0	2
9	Santos Squad 1961	1	2
10	Team McCovey 1960	0	2

Biggest Surprise 1963 Team Boog seeded 7th finished 4th

Biggest Disappointment 1969 Bench No Drips 5th Seed finished 8th

Stats

	Pitching	W	L	Pct	O/U .500
1960	Jim O'Toole	0	1	.000	-1
	Jim Perry	0	1	.000	-1
1961	Chuck Estrada	1	1	.500	0
	Dick Stigman	0	1	.000	-1
1962	Don Schwall	1	1	.500	0
	Jack Curtis	1	1	.500	0
1963	Al Jackson	3	1	.750	2
	Dean Change	1	3	.250	-2
1964	Ray Culp	1	1	.500	0
	Gary Peters	1	2	.333	-1
1965	Wally Bunker	3	1	.750	2
	Bill McCool	2	2	.500	0
1966	Marcelino Lopez	4	0	1.000	4
	Frank Linzy	3	1	.750	2
1967	Jim Nash	1	1	.500	0
	Woody Fryman)	0	1	.000	-1
1968	Dick Hughes	1	0	1.000	1
	Tom Seaver	0	2	.000	-2
1969	Jerry Koosman	0	1	.000	-1
	Stan Bahnsen	0	1	.000	-1

	Home Runs
Tony Perez 66 2 (3 ,4),	4
Bert Campaneris 65 (2)	2
Joe Morgan 66 2 (2)	2
Manny Jimenenez 63 (2)	2
Rod Carew 68 2 (2)	2
Tom Tresh 63 (1)	2
Jim Gentile 61 (1),	1
Tommy Davis 61 (1)	1
Curt Blefary 66 (1)	1
Dick Allen 65 (1)	1
Ed Charles 63 (1),	1
Floyd Robinson 62 (1),	1
Fred Whitfield 63 (1),	1
George Scott 67 (1)	1
Jimmie Hall 64 (1),	1
Joe Torre 62 (1)	1
Lee May, 68 (1)	1
Mike Brumley 65 (1)	1
Paul Schall 66 (1), )	1
Rico Carty 65 (1)	1
Ron Swoboda 66 (1)	1
Sonny Jackson 67 (1)	1
Tommie Agee 67	1
Tommy Harper 64 (1	1
Tony Conigliaro 65 (1),	1

Whats Next

Now that we have found the best rookie cup team of the 1960s we are going to move to a more recent decade.

We have the 1990s Rookie Cup All-Stars tournament on-deck!

1967 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Team (1968 Topps Set)

This is an Index to our postings related to the 1967 Topps Rookie All-Star Team. The award is for the 1967 season with the cards issued in the 1968 set.

 

 1968 Topps #487 Lee May (Topps All-Star Rookie Cup)

45	TOM SEAVER HOF	Mets	RHP	1968
61	REGGIE SMITH	Red Sox	OF	1968
80	ROD CAREW HOF	Twins	2B	1968
104	DICK DIETZ	Giants	C	1968
126	BOBBY ETHERIDGE	Giants	3B	1968
172	WALT WILLIAMS	White Sox	OF	1968
209	TIM CULLEN	Senators	SS	1968
253	Dick Hughes	Cardinals	RHP	1968
282	Rick Monday	A's	OF	1968
339	Rich Nye	Cubs	LHP	1968
487	LEE MAY	Reds	1B	1968