Separated at birth: Ken Howell and Tracy Morgan
Thumbed through some of my old baseball cards.
June 1, 2010
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13 Comments:
Jan - phenomenal, and perfectly random for June 1st, which is no-man's land in the sports world (unless you are a fan of the Blackhawks, Flyers, Lakers or Celtics). Maybe I should say "my sports world..."
Is that an '86 Topps card? I seem to remember having that entire set when I was a kid.
June 1, 2010 at 4:07 PM
BG - sure enough it's the '86 set. I may start highlighting players from that set as I came across a few "great" cards.
BTW - Ken is currently the bullpen coach with the Dodgers (according to wikipedia) with a career 38-48 W/L record and 3.95 ERA. He was with the '88 Dodgers who won the World Series but appeared in only 4 games that year, pitching 12 innings with a 6.39 ERA. And that's enough you've ever needed to know about Ken Howell.
June 1, 2010 at 7:23 PM
If I remember correctly I think 86 is a rather weak set rookie wise. I can't think of a single one off the top of my head. It is sandwiched between two strong years; there are some quality second year cards as 85 was strong. The 85 set featured Puckett, Clemens, Langston, Hershiser, Saberhagen, Eric Davis, Mark McGwire (although he does not reappear until the 87 set). 87 features Will Clark, Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin, Bo Jackson and Rafael Palmeiro rookies.
June 2, 2010 at 8:15 AM
RTS - you're right, totally a weak set rookie wise but wait until you see the glasses that Tom Hume (P, Reds) was wearing on his card, fantastic.
June 2, 2010 at 9:50 AM
Three questions:
1. RTS, did you have to look all that up, or did you recall all that? If the latter, I'm not sure whether to be impressed or frightened, so I'll go with impressed.
2. Remember when the Mark McGwire "Olympic" card from the '84 Games was the hottest property any 10 year-old could have? I still have that card. Wonder if it's worth more than $.50 anymore.
3. Do kids still actually buy/collect cards these days? Or has the internet killed the business? I mean, if you want stats, background info., game highlights, whatever, all you need is a computer. What's the point of searching through a bunch of cardboard with numbers on the back?
June 2, 2010 at 11:47 AM
Oh, also: I was a big collector of Barry Larkin's cards, and have probably 50 of them, including every one of his rookie cards, at my parents' house. When he makes the Hall of Fame next year, which appears likely, should I sell high? Is there even a market for this stuff these days? I suppose I should just keep them for (Son of Blogger) PMA, but he'll probably just turn around and offload them for a few cases of beer when as a teenager.
June 2, 2010 at 11:51 AM
Yeah, I'm pretty sure collecting baseball cards is something that no one does any more.
I DEFINITELY remember those olympic team cards. I thought I was the mack because I had most of them. I also recall that my most valuable card (when I was 11), was a Don Mattingly rookie...nice.
Does Beckett Baseball Card monthly still get published? That was the highlight of my summer (picking one up and then pricing out all my cards).
June 2, 2010 at 12:10 PM
I once spent the majority of my Summer as a kid pricing out a set of cards for the husband of a friend of my mom (he collected during the '70's). Thousands of cards that I meticulously went through recording the cards, condition, and prices (Larry Bowa, Near Mint, $0.04) hoping to find a few gems that he would then reward me with at the end of my time. Not kidding you it took me a good two months. Suffice it to say, he had dick and kept anything over $.25. Seriously. He also went on to cheat on his wife (my mom's friend); I should have told her he was a cockball.
June 2, 2010 at 12:32 PM
RTS- to second what MCA said, if that knowledge was off the top of your head- I too would be very impressed. I consider myself a devotee and I could not have come up with anything near that.
Most valuable card:(emotionally): 1985 Topps Kirby Puckett-- with a f'in crease down the middle of it from being shut in a draw, (financially): Mattingly, Boggs and Junior's rookie cards- all in nice plastic sleeves, which I reserved for my special players. I also have a Doc Gooden rookie card, which had the possiblility of being my most valuable before Doc found white powder.
Biggest Disappointment: 1986 Greg Jeffries card (the season before his rookie season) that was supposed to pay my way through college one day... didn't quite work out that way.
I think it is sad kids don't buy/trade cards anymore- probably seems pretty boring to kids now (akin to how we viewed marbles growing up), but I had some really good times back in the day trying to figure out how I package my Pete Filson and a player to be named later, for Bret Saberhagen.
June 2, 2010 at 3:09 PM
I used to work at a baseball card store and spent many weekends at baseball card conventions. I never collected myself but there was a time when i could identify every year from 1956 on. So wear it with pride, RTS. It doesn't make you a loser. It makes you a dork, but not a loser.
I think i stopped working around the time of the Billy Ripken "fuck face" card.
June 2, 2010 at 5:16 PM
I can walk the walk and talk the talk. I missed Gooden in the 85 list. Good call.
The gem of my collection is a 75 George Brett rookie. I know I have the Billy Ripken FF card.
June 2, 2010 at 7:52 PM
I can attest, RTS is a quasi-savant when it comes to some of that baseball card stuff.
MCA - thanks for reminding me of the "Big Mac USA baseball card treasure hunt"; it brought back memories of me desperately searching for one, thinking it was the Honus Wagner of our generation and imagining the riches I would one day enjoy once I landed it (which I did, thank you very much.) RTS can correct me if I'm wrong but unsigned I found it for around $40; signed I found it for around $300. Mine is unsigned (boo!) but for those of you scoring at home, Honus last went for $2.8 M, I figure I was 10ish when that card came out, I turn 36 next week (huzzah to me!) that's $1.54/year in appreciation over those 26 years, I hold on to it for another 1.8 million years and I’m giving Old Man Wagner a run for his money. Don't laugh, think about this, the dinosaurs roamed the earth for 180 million years.
(of course, this is all also assuming that Wagner’s card doesn’t appreciate at all during the next 1.8 million years however that is also assuming it doesn’t DEPRECIATE either so it kinda balances out.)
June 2, 2010 at 9:28 PM
Obvioulsy, with players their longterm value can be hurt by legal issues, drug problems and characters issues (that and the lack of interest in baseball cards). However a card that is an obsession of the sci-fi nerd community does not have that risk. I present to you the C-3PO "Goldenrod" card. The original card features C-3Po with what looks like a woody. They re-issued the card with that part omitted. The re-issue is actually rarer, but obviously collectors want the "Goldenrod" card. I have invested my entire 401k in "Goldenrod" cards.
http://botropolis.com/2008/12/c-3po-error-card-they-dont-call-him-goldenrod-for-nothin/
June 3, 2010 at 9:56 AM
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