The EFL in baseball cards… sort of

Cut 4 has a series of articles on the best Topps baseball card from every year since 1950. I have no idea what “Cut 4” means or how it is connected to baseball.  Despite that mystery, it’s a fun read, in seven parts, one for each decade (1950’s, 1960’s, etc.).

The summer I turned 7 I discovered baseball cards at breakfast one morning.    The first one I noticed was printed on the back of a cereal box: Whitey Ford.

I remember thinking “Rats. A Yankee.”  But I cut it out of the back of the box anyway– as I remember, without bothering to finish the cereal inside the box.

I still have it.

Later that summer I also cut out a Pete Rose and a Jerry Lynch.  There may have been others, but those are the only three I still have.  I would not know Jerry Lynch existed if I didn’t have his Post baseball card.

Somewhere along the way I learned about “real” baseball cards — you know, the ones printed by Topps. I bought my first Topps cards in 1964. They came 5 in a pack, cost a nickel, and came with a thin stick of bubble gum.

1966 was my peak baseball card collection year.  My dad took a job in far away Oregon in March.  My parents sold our house in Huntington Beach just before he left, and my mom, my sister and I had to live in a two-bedroom apartment until school was out in June.  I got a room to myself, which allowed me to tuck my transistor radio under my pillow and listen to Vin Scully until the game was over maybe 2 hours after my bed time. I was missing my dad, and my house, and in June we left for Oregon, leaving behind my friends, my grandparents, my cousins, and my Dodgers.

To my horror I discovered no kids in Oregon who cared much about baseball.  None in my neighborhood. None at my church, the Aloha Church of God, which was crawling with boys about my age. None at school that fall.  What kind of a place was this? I wanted to talk baseball cards and the Dodgers and the evil Giants, so I did.  No one was interested.

But I still had a room to myself, and my parents still didn’t seem to be wise to my under-the-pillow radio.  I had learned about the ionosphere skip from my amateur radio-loving dad, so I tuned my transistor to “clear channel” KFI 640 after the sun went down and distant radio stations would fade in. At first it was frustrating. When we arrived, practically on the day of the summer solstice, the Dodgers game would be over before it got dark in Oregon. But later in the summer and through the first month of school, Vin Scully was a major source of consolation.

In the Cut 4 series, Joe Posnanski writes about the cards of the 1970’s. Joe is younger than me.  I didn’t collect any cards in the 1970’s. Here’s a link to an article he wrote this spring about baseball cards, which begins this way:

Every Opening Day, I buy a pack of baseball cards. I usually buy several packs of baseball cards because I have no self-control, but always at least one, and I open it slowly so I can try to feel what I used to feel as a kid.

To be honest, it’s hard to recapture the feeling, in large part because when I was a kid, baseball cards were the most important thing in the entire world and now baseball cards are behind … you know, my kids or whatever. So, no, the feeling isn’t quite the same. But it’s close enough.

I don’t know that baseball cards were ever the most important thing in the entire world to me. But in retrospect 1966 was a traumatic summer.  I treated my trauma with Vin Scully and baseball cards.

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Old Detroit: W, 10 – 3.   (54 PA, .327, .377, .633; 9 ip, 1 er, 1.00 ERA). The Wolverines got a super start from Anthony DeSclafani: 7 ip, 0 er against the Diamondbacks. And they got outstanding hitting from a slew of players.  Things would be even rosier in Old Detroit except DeSclafani is only allocated about 50%, as are some of the hitting stars (Josh Bell, 1.400 OPS Friday; Jose Iglesias, 1.250 OPS).

According to the Cut4 baseball card retrospective, the best card from 2004 is the Felix Hernandez rookie card.   Given the apparent sunset this week of Felix’ career as a starting pitcher — begun so many years ago with the Mariners and the Wolverines — I chose that card for the cover picture for this post, and here it is again:

Current Wolverine Shohei Ohtani’s Topps card is the “best” of 2018, according to Cut4.

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Portland: “L”, 4 – 2. (54 PA, .229, .315, .438; 20.3 ip, 6 er). Pitching was strong for Portland Friday. Shane Bieber led the way with 6.7 innings with no earned runs allowed.  Clay Buchholz courted disaster, but at the key moment he threw a bunt attempt down the right field line.  Four runs scored after that, all deemed unearned because of Buchholz’s own error.  That seems awfully fishy to me… I suppose it’s no worse than the time Manny Machado ran into a triple play so he wouldn’t get charged for a GDP.

I didn’t see any “top card of the year” picks connected to the Rosebuds.  I may have missed something.

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Brookland : L, 7 – 10. (34 PA, .367, .441, .533; 23 ip, 13 er). I barely knew Jose Martinez’ name when I was setting up the expansion draft last winter.  I may have erred in not picking him as the 14th man to put on Cleveland’s protected list.  The Outs snagged him. He put up a 1.800 OPS yesterday (3 for 4 with a double and a walk. That, along with similar performances from Bellinger, K. Davis, and D Murphy led a powerful Out offense.  Had the pitching matched the hitting — or more specifically, had Freddy Peralta not surrendered 7 earned runs in 3 innings — the Outs could have made a move in the standings.

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Canberra: W (-1), L 0; (-6) – (-8). (46 PA, .279, .304, .349; 5 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ip).  Blake Snell pitched 5 perfect innings … and got pulled from the game by the local Tampa Bay manager.  Ryan needs to consider getting that guy fired. Sure, Snell was recently on the DL, but the Kangaroos need to work every angle if they want to sneak back into the EFL pennant race.  Meanwhile, the key offensive players for the K’s were infielders: Ehire Adrianza, Tim Anderson, and Alex Bregman put together a combined 6 for 11, 3 doubles, and a walk: .545, .583, .818.

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Cottage: L, 2 – 6. (39 PA, .194, .256, .333; no pitching).  Middle infielders led the Cheese offense, too:  Xander Bogarts, Yoan Moncada, and Jorge Polanco combined to go 4 for 10 with two doubles, a homer and three walks, for a .400, .538, .900 slash line.

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Pittsburgh: W (-1), L 2; 0 – 13. (40 PA, .184, .225, .237; 10 ip, 11 er, 9.90 ERA).  A truly awful day left the Alleghenys back in 6th place.  It’s a bit of a struggle right now in Pittsburgh.  I do not mean to imply Pittsburgh’s glory days are behind them, but it is true there were several cards in the best cards list which speak to past Pittsburgh’s glory:  1961’s card commemorating Mazeroski’s 1960 World Series-winning homer; an eye-popping card from 1983 featuring Kent Teukulve in a bright yellow uniform, showing off his stick-thin legs and arms; and my favorite (a copy of which I own),  featuring Roberto “Bob” Clemente and his fellow hitting leaders from 1965:

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Flint Hill: W, 4 – 3. (21 PA, .200, .238, .738; 11 ip, 3 er, 2.45 ERA). A thin lineup providing even thinner offense doesn’t promise much of an outcome. But somehow the T’s still squeezed out a win.  Good pitching helped, especially from newly-acquired Kevin Gausman (8 ip, 1 er). And what offense there was came from new acquisitions Niko Goodrum (.333, .333, 1.333) and Adalberto Mondesi (.250, .250, .750).  Mike Trout is on the DL.  To cheer up Tornado fans, here is the best 2016 baseball card.

Just in case this doesn’t cheer Tornado fans all the way up, let’s look at the best 2011 baseball card:

That’s a lot of copyright violation just to make Tornado fans happy. They’d better be giddy by now.

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Kaline: L, 1 – 5.  (35 PA, .194, .257, .226; no pitching.) The Drive have been like a rock in 8th place lately while Tornados and Dragons whoosh around them, first one and then the other being in front and then behind them. Joey Wendle was the bright spot on a dim day: 1 for 3 with a double and a sac fly producing 3 RBI.

They let Bob Costas pick the best cards of the 1950s.  Alas, no Tigers appeared. Instead, of the 10 cards Costas commended,  3 featured Mickey Mantle. Mantle also made one in the 1960’s, a joint appearance with Willie Mays.

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Haviland: L, 3 – 8. (32 PA, .300, .344, .300;  8 ip, 7 er). Pitching let the Dragons down Friday, Ervin Santana doing the most damage with his 5 er in 6 ip. Juan Soto continues to stand out at the plate: 2 for 3 with a walk yesterday.

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Peshastin: W, 4 – 3. (42 PA, .237, .310, .395; 13 ip, 4 er, 2.77 ERA). The Pears benefitted from another big day by Mitch Haniger: two doubles in four at bats. Phil somehow arrived at college a Reds fan, while I was still a Dodgers supporter.  Unfortunately, the Reds were just a little better in the mid-‘7os, thanks in large part to this guy, the subject of the best Topps card in 1970, according to Dave Sims:

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DC: W 0, L (-1); 1 – 1.  (52 PA, .340, .404, .872;  9 ip, 10 er, 10.00 ERA).  Dylan Bundy and newcomer Jordan Lyles both allowed more runs than innings pitched, a total of 10 earned runs in 7.3 innings. It’s too bad, too, because 7 Balks OPSed 1.000 or better led by Ronald Guzman whose 3 homers pushed his OPS to 3.000.