Hall of Fame Profile - Steve Carlton

I used to have a regular feature I referred to as "Hall of Fame Thursday". I am now going to try and revive the series under the heading of "Hall of Fame Profile". This should give me the freedom to continue the feature while not be tied to a specific day of the week. Once again the HOF profile posts will not be restricted to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Players enshrined in Cooperstown. I will also be featuring a heavy dose of folks in the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. I will occasionally feature the HoF players or people from other popular sports, not so popular sports, other fields, schools and locations. However the main focus will remain Baseball and Philadelphia with the other folks mixed in.

The Phils were in St Louis battling the Cardinals this week (1 up 3 down ) and I thought that largely known as a Philly, but one time Cardinal, Steve Carlton would be a great way to Re-kickoff HOF Profile.


1973 Topps #300 Steve Carlton

1973 Topps is not one of my favorite designs. But I do like this card.

#1 I like it because it is Carlton's first base card as a Phil (There is a 1972 Traded Card)

#2 I like it because for a long time Tim McCarver was known as Steve Carlton's personal catcher. This photo features Carlton with a catcher that may be McCarver. The Photo is likely from 1972, Carlton's first year with the Phils. McCarver was with the Phils in '72, unfortunately for us card photo sleuths McCarver was traded mid-season to the Expos for John Bateman. Of course Bateman would wear number 6 as a Phil. So unless someone can make out weather this is Bateman or McCarver we may never know.


1973 Topps #300 Steve Carlton (b-side)

I feature the flip side of the card here just for the cartoon. The artist has shown a little creativity giving the comic a baseball motif for billiards...although cartoon Lefty is shooting Right-Handed.

For the Collector
I picked up This 1973 Topps Carlton card for $1 at a card show last year. In recent auctions the card has sold as low as $1.81 (shipped) - graded versions of the card topped out a $17.75. The 1965 Topps #477 Steve Carlton Rookie Card (shared with Fritz Ackley) has sold as low as $23.59 - The High end for the graded RC was $218.50.

Autographed Cards
The lowest finished Auction of a Carlton Card was a really yucky 2003 Timeless Treasures that featured him in a White Sox Uni - why bother - which sold for $13.49. A serial numbered (/99) 05 Baseball Heroes card also went for $13.49 (sticker auto). The 1999 Fleer SI On Card Auto went for $15.50 and as with many of the cards in this set, is pretty sharp. 2007 Sweet Spot (#d/25) and faded $19.37. A much sharper auto is the 2005 Sweet Spot Bat Barrell (#d/10) which went for $38.50. And finally on the high end somebody laid out $102.98 for a 2010 Sportskings Steve Carlton Auto Jersey.

Lefty HoF Index
1972 Topps #751 (Traded/First Phillies Card - Post includes Carlton Card Price Guide)
1981 Donruss #481 (70th Birthday Posting)
1981 Topps #202 (Record Breaker Most Strikeouts Lifetime Lefthander)
1982 Topps #1 (Carlton Breaks Bob Gibson's NL K Record)
1982 Fleer #632 (Carlton Battery with Carlton Fisk)
1984 Topps #1 (300th Win, All-Time Ks leader)
1984 Topps #4 (1983 Highlights - Ryan, Carlton, and Perry pass Johnson Career Ks)

Sources 
Baseball-ref
Ebay

1971 Topps Super Tim McCarver

For all those that dislike mr McCarver, I am Sorry about putting Tim McCarver and the word "Super" in the same title. But this post is specifically for Jim over at The Phillies Room, however everyone else is invited to enjoy it as well.

Last week Jim posted Topps 1971 Super Deron Johnson.

As Jim mentioned 71 Topps Super is a smaller set with 63 cards only two of which are Phils. The Deron Johnson posted by Jim and Tim McCarver is the other. As luck would have it, I only have one of the two Phils from 71 Topps Super and it happens to be McCarver:



1971 Topps Super #34 Tim McCarver

The image on the front of the card differs from McCarver's regular issue card from 1971.

1971 Topps #465 Tim McCarver

However the backs are identical except for the card numbers:

1971 Topps Super #34 Tim McCarver (b-side)
1971 Topps #465 Tim McCarver (b-side)

So Between us Jim and I have completed the Phillies 1971 Topps Super Team Set.

Tim McCarver @ Barnes & Noble - Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia PA

Tim McCarver is currently in Philadelphia to cover the Dodgers Phillies Saturday game for Fox. While in town he took some time to pitch his latest book "Diamond Gems" at the center city Barnes & Noble Location. The audience consisted of about 30 baseball fans mostly middle aged perhaps slightly older. It was obvious that there were supporters of not just the Phillies but also the Mets, Bosox, Cardinals, and Yankees.

“Diamond Gems” is book culled from interviews of more than 70 current and former major leaguers on “The Tim McCarver Show”. The subjects are grouped by position and include such greats as Larry Doby, Cal Ripken Jr, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Jim Palmer, Lou Piniella, Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax and many others.

McCarver chose not to read any passages from his book co-authored by Jim Moskovitz and Danny Peary. Instead he read from a forward written by George Will. According to McCarver, Will returned the forward a mere three hours after the request was made. Immediately following this brief reading McCarver monitored about an hour of Q&A. By my estimate 7 of 10 questions were more like statements that the audience wanted McCarver to validate. Regardess of question or statement McCarver attempted to address the subject with some illuminating information. The topics covered included McCarver’s playing days with both the Cardinals and the Phillies, The Cardinals World Series Teams of the 70’s, Free Agency and Curt Flood, Steroid Use, the current Phillies team, Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton, The 2004 ALCS (Bosox comeback v Yanks), The Yankees and Hank Steinbrenner, and issues regarding the state of the game today.

Among the opinions that McCarver was most vociferous about were that Manny Ramirez, also in Philadelphia for the Dodgers series this weekend, has committed the equivalent of “baseball extortion” by not playing to his potential to orchestrate a trade out of Boston. McCarver stated that there is a dearth of good catching in the league and that many Latin players are moved to catcher in order to rush them to the major leagues. He also believes that pitchers do not pitch enough and that team practice needs to be emphasized more, specifically outfield practice. He backed up the later statistically by stating that outfield assists are at their lowest level in decades. He also defended Alex Rodriquez, noting that in a critical situation he would prefer A-Rod to bat over Derek Jeter.

One of the best questions asked of McCarver was regarding a previous book “The Perfect Season: Why 1998 was Baseball’s Greatest Year”. The 1998 season was the year that McGwire broke Roger Maris single season Home-Run Record along with Sammy Sosa. Obviously one would not consider that season perfect anymore. McCarver said that he and the rest of the baseball media are at least partially culpable for ignoring the signs that players were using steroids. He also went on to mention that there are great stories from that season other than steroid inflated Home Run numbers. That was the season the Yankees won a then record 114 games en route to what would be their first of three consecutive World Series championships.

Following the Q&A McCarver signed books and was also gracious enough to autograph memorabilia and have his picture taken with fans. He took the time to talk with each fan personally and made it a point to remember each person and refer to them by name.

It was a fun and entertaining night and if Fox’s “A” team is in your town covering a game I would encourage you to check to see if an area bookseller is hosting a McCarver signing.

Here are the cards that Mr. McCarver was good enough to sign for me.