Opening Day...Which one was your First?

 

How old were you when you remembered Opening Day?

            Remembered being excited for Opening Day?

            Wanting to go to games?

            Wanting to watch baseball on TV all of the time?

            Kept up on your favorite players and favorite team’s stats?

            Started building a PC?

            For me that would be when I was eleven.

            In 1985.

            God, 1985 seems long ago and not long ago enough.

            I’d been collecting cards since 1980. Maybe I watched the sport too, but 1980 stretches my memory even further than 1985 does. The first phenom I remember is Fernando Valenzuela and Fernandomania in 1981. But I don’t remember the strike so…memory is funny when you’re under 10 years of age.  I know that I increasingly became intoxicated with baseball then more I collected. But 1985 is the first year I remember being excited for the coming season. Of really wanting to go to games and watching baseball live. 1985 was probably the first year of what I would call my fervent period of collecting: 1985-1988. I was crazy for the sport of baseball, and crazy to collect cards of my Pirates and my other favorite Players.

            This is the first card I remember from 1985.

            I’ve discussed this card on the blog before, but I still get that sense of oddity when I see Mike Easler wearing a Red Sox unform.

            Probably more so than this guy.

            Even as a little kid I knew Dave Parker’s relationship with the Pirates had turned toxic.

            I went to my first Home Opener in 1985. It was my birthday party. Me, my folks, my brother, and a handful of classmates and neighborhood kids got to sit in nosebleed seats at Three Rivers Stadium (total attendance 47, 335), and watch the Pirates beat the eventual NL Champion Saint Louis Cardinals.

            I bought myself this with my birthday money.

            It’s not the same one.

            And I mentioned it in my post on Yearbooks that I did a few months ago.

            I still want to take out that insert page, perforate those cards, and put them in my 1980s Pirates team set binder.

            Getting back to cards, I loved and still love the Topps design from 1985.

            That Ecto-Cooler (look it up younger people) and Orange card back is still one of the more original that Topps produced.

Not that Fleer and Donruss were any kind of slouches either.

That Fleer design I enjoyed as a child. But it has really grown on me, as an adult collector, to the point where I think it’s the best produced set of the three. Donruss…I don’t even remember owning any 1985 Donruss as a kid. It was Topps and Fleer in my neighborhood. I denoted the drug stores by who had them. Thrift Drug for Topps, Revco for Fleer. I wish I’d owned some Donruss back then. If I’m correct, it’s the first base set to use black borders since 1971 Topps. And 1985 was the first year Donruss went to those card backs that most of us collecting during the Junk Wax Era truly remember.

Speaking of remembering…

Do you remember your favorite player the year that baseball became everything to you?

Here’s mine.

I was weened on Willie Stargell and the embers of the 1979 World Series team. But by the time I became an 11-year-old-die-hard-baseball fan…those days were ending. By the end of the 1985 season, three of the last vestiges of the Fam-I-lee, Bill Madlock, John Candelaria and Kent Tekulve, would be traded and gone. Chuck Tanner would be fired. I think that left only Donnie Robinson from that era. The Pirates belonged to younger names like Tony Pena and Johnny Ray. Johnny was my guy. He was the one I rooted for. This left-hander wanted to play second base because of Johnny Ray. When I got back into collecting, I made sure that Johnny Ray’s cards would be in whatever PC I shaped.

It's funny to me now to think about how excited I was for the 1985 Pittsburgh Pirates baseball season.

The team went 57-104 that season.

Management brought in guys like these.

The team was broke and ownership was thinking of selling. Το Τampa. Το Νew Orleans. I distinctly remember this Orwellian nightmare of a commercial in which the pillbox black and gold Pirates hat suddenly morphed into a purple and orange Denver Pirates hat, paid for by an organization trying to prevent the sale. I don’t think I understood what they were talking about. Leave? What do you mean the Pirates are leaving Pittsburgh? Or could?

The baseball drug trials were also going on in Pittsburgh during the 1985 season.

If you weren’t a (mostly) oblivious 11-year-old kid obsessed with baseball and card collection, 1985 could leave a fan in Pittsburgh kind of jaded.

I think collecting kind of blurred all of the bad nonsense happening. I would have to say that 1985 was probably the year I became aware of The Hobby around me. It’s definitely the year I remembered learning about Traded and Update sets. They were, at least for Topps, four seasons old by then (I’m talking the 132-card sets here), but they were a brand spanking new idea to 11-year-old me. The first Traded Set that I ever got was the 1985 Topps Traded set. Probably one of the weaker ones out there in terms of rookie/star power (although Gary Carter and Rickey Henderson are in it).

The set did have this card, though.

And if you were an 11-year-old kid in 1985, Vince Coleman seemed larger than life on the basepaths.

And one last…which one is the TRUE Topps Big Mac rookie card?

Anyway, here’s to Opening Day!

 

Thanks for Reading! Happy Collecting!

 

 

Shohei Ohtani, some WBC and, oh yeah. The Caveman!

 

I didn’t watch the World Baseball Classic.

            Not for any position-taking reason.

            And there…sigh...there are a lot of those out there.

            I didn’t watch the World Baseball Classic because a lot of game times didn’t coincide with the schedule that I keep. Up at 4:45 to write, pass out on the couch by 9:15…usually to old Genesis albums, Radiohead, or Yo La Tengo, after watching Cheers reruns on my phone. And I didn’t watch it because, well, I’m not that interested in it. I never have been. Not being interested in something doesn’t mean I have an opinion on the World Baseball Classic, or that I think it’s pointless. It actually looked like a lot of fun. And the players and the fans seem to be into it both from a fun aspect and from a patriotic aspect. That finale certainly was something.

            This card is really freaking cool.

            Too bad you can only get in in a bundle of six cards.

            And I know, I know, Mike Trout is the face of Major League Baseball, even though he could probably walk through an airport undetected.

            But…can we maybe agree that this guy is the global face of baseball?

            Full disclosure, I like Shohei Ohtani.

            I’m a fan.

            I like Shohei rookie cards.

            I like Shohei base cards.

            I like Shohei on past Topps designs.

            I think this might be my favorite looking Shohei card

            I don't even mind Shohei unlicensed

.

            He’s one of those players who excites me as a baseball fan. It’s probably wrong-headed of me, but at my age it’s hard getting excited about players who are decades younger than me. They don’t seem so immortal. But Shohei kind of does. He can hit! He can pitch! I’ve been watching baseball as a regular fan for over forty years, and I’ve never come across a player like him. Hits for power. Pitches for strength and speed. We had all of those big names in the 1980s: Bonds, Mattingly, Canseco, McGwire, Dawson, Brett, Ryan, Clemens, Gooden, Schmidt…the list goes on and on and on. But not a single one of them batted .273 with 34 home runs while winning 15 games and striking out 219 batters.

            Shohei is special.

            He batted .435 in the WBC

            He had a 1.86 ERA and struck out 11.

            He’s one of the few players, not wearing a Pirates uniform, whose cards I tend to keep around and/or acquire when in the mood.

            I was glad to see Japan win the WBC.

            I have a special place in my heart for Japanese baseball.

            When I was in Japan in 2019, I watched a lot of Japanese baseball in hotel rooms, when I still wasn’t watching a lot of Major League Baseball.

            That changed when I got back to Brooklyn.

            And by late July/early August of 2019…I was collecting again.

            So, draw your conclusions where you will.

            Also, surprisingly, this isn’t a blog post about Shohei Ohtani.

            Not entirely.

            It may surprise some of you, but I don’t watch a whole hell of a lot of Spring Training baseball either. Spring Training games always feel like extended BP and pitching sessions to me. I’ll catch an inning here and there. I caught an inning of a Phillies/Orioles game while enjoying one of the best burgers in my life, in a Bay Ridge bar. And I managed to catch the Pirates about two or so weeks ago, when they were playing…ah, I don’t even remember. The most I do with Spring Training is listen to podcats on baseball, read articles about prospects, and hope against hope that my favorite Pirates don’t get injured and have to miss regular season baseball.

            All apologies to you Altuve fans out there.

            So, what is this blog post about, at least in part….

            …is Don Robinson.

            Yes, that Don Robinson.

            The Caveman.

            Veteran of 15 major league seasons. 109 wins, 106 losses, 57 saves, 3.79 career era…Don Robinson. He played mostly with the Pirates. A little bit with the San Francisco Giants. And one strange 1992 season spent with the Angels and Phillies…that I don’t even remember him playing in. But that would make sense. After, Donnie (that’s what we called him in Pittsburgh) got traded to the Giants for Mackey Sasser (who played a surprising 9 years in the Big Leagues) and 50,000 cash, I kind of forgot about him. Kind of didn’t miss him when he was gone, considering he was past his starting pitching prime, and was pitching mostly in relief.

            Don Robinson was a part of the old Pirates to me.

            The 1979 World Series team that I don’t really remember.

            Part of the downturn in the early 1980s that saw members of that team retire, or get traded somewhere else.

            Donnie pitched mop-up work.

            Donnie blew saves.

            Donnie gave up that effing 500^th home run to Mike Schmidt.

            But…absence makes the heart grow fonder.

            I know some fans don’t enjoy the trickery of Spring Training broadcasts. The mics on players in the outfield. The mics on batters. The guests in the announcer’s booth who talk over the action. I’m of a mixed mind over it all. Kind of like the World Baseball Classic. But during that Pirates Spring Training game, Bob Walk (one of my favorite Pirates pitchers) and Greg Brown brought Don Robinson into the booth for three innings to talk Pirates baseball, circa late 70s to mid/late 1980s.

            And I was glad to see Donnie.

            Glad to hear what The Caveman had to say about his career, his relationships with Chuck Tanner and Jim Leyland; the reverence nearly every Pirate of that era has for Willie Stargell.

            I forgave the blown saves.

            I forgave the mop up work.

            I’d forgiven him giving up that 500^th home run to Mike Schmidt at Three Rivers Stadium.

            At least I think I do.

            Donnie’s appearance in the broadcasting booth was so nostalgic, it had me wondering if I should add his cards to my box of Buccos.

            I have Robinson’s cards in team sets and doubles.

            And he did pitch 10 seasons in Pittsburgh.

            And collecting guys whose cards cost a dime…can be fun.

            One of the things I thought about as Donnie was speaking to Walkie and Brownie (yeah everyone gets a nickname today), was how he could hit the ball as well as pitch it. He’s no Shohei Ohtani, mind you. But The Caveman was the rare pitcher (when pitchers could still hit for themselves) who could ACTUALLY HIT THE BALL. I remember not having that eye-rolling sense of when-are-we-going-to-get-the-DH-like-the-American League-has dread whenever Donnie Robinson came to bat. The man amassed 13 home runs in his major league career. He hit a career high 3 home runs in 1989 for the Giants. As Donnie Robinson talked the old days for three innings, I found myself getting nostalgic for the not-so-distant past of baseball where pitchers (at least in the NL) still hit.

            Which brings me back to Shohei and what a freak he is.

            Pitching every so many days.

            DH-ing when he’s not.

            Or is he that much of a freak?

            I guess in this era of analytics and specialization he is a freak. Analytically it doesn’t seem smart to play Shohei as much as they do. Or healthy, I guess. We certainly didn’t see Donnie Robinson bat on days he didn’t pitch…although I do remember him pinch hitting a time or two. I mean we can say it’s a National League vs American League thing back then…but there was no Shohei’s in the AL back in my day either.

            And there could’ve been.

            So, why wasn’t there?

            The only thing I can think is that you had more position players back then and less pitchers on a roster.

            That said, this meandering blog post was meant to be a celebration of the past.

            And a celebration of what we have now.

            I’m looking forward to seeing what Shohei Ohtani does this season.

            …and I’m hitting those 10-cent bins the next time I’m in Pittsburgh, and getting me some Donnie Robinson cards.

 

***I didn’t get a chance to mention this in my last blog post, and novel writing duties kept me from doing one last week…but I got something really cool in the mall a few weeks ago.

            These!

            Custom made Pirates card from Nick Vossbrink.

            I’ve been a fan of Nick’s custom work for a while, and I enjoy his blog for his takes on collecting. So, it was very cool to have this random act of kindness show up in my mail box.        

            Here’s a closer look.

            I’m rooting for Jack Suwinski in Pittsburgh this year. He was a rare bright spot in another terrible season, in 2022. A kid who came from AA to the Bigs and managed to crank 19 home runs in 326 plate appearances.  He did have a minor 0-26 setback and spent some time in AAA before rejoining the Big League ball club, and he’s not having the best spring either…but I’m pulling for him. This card Nick created is from the 2022 Father’s day game, when Jack hit 3-home runs…with his old man in the stands.

            Here’s the other card.

            Ah, the Willie Stargell. I’ve been tweeting a Topps off an on for them to use this image on one of their Stargell inserts or, more specifically, in Stadium Club. But Nick answered my prayers, so who needs you now Topps.  I truly love this card. It’s a fantastic and original addition to my Willie Stargell PC. 

            Thank you so much, Nick!

            If you don’t know Nick’s work or want to read his takes on collecting, travel, autograph seeking etc, you can find his blog right HERE.

         And here’s to baseball truly being back this coming week!

 Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: TBD: but it's going to be something Opening Day baseball related! 

 

           

           

2021 Topps....the set so nice? I tried to build it twice.

 

So…

            The above picture. About a week ago I posted it on Twitter with the Tweet: The set so nice I think I’ll build it twice. Or…something to that effect. The reason I did that is because I’ve been trying to get like cards from random boxes all together in one box. When I saw how many 2021 Topps Series 1 & 2 base cards I had, my first reaction was, holy shit, that’s a lot of base cards. My second reaction was wondering if I had enough to build a second set.

            Turns out I didn’t.

            But I was close.

            I need 18 cards in total to build a second copy of the 2021 Topps base set. One card from Series 1 (Mitch Keller, a Pirate, no surprise there, as he’s in a few sets of Pirates cards I’ve kept aside), and about 17 other cards from Series Two, most notably the Jazz Chisholm rookie card and, no surprises here again, Ke’Bryan Hayes’ rookie card.

            18 cards for a second set.

            It gets worse.

            Here’s a photo of the doubles that I have left after building the second 2021 Topps base set.

            That’s too many 2021 Topps cards.

            I don’t even like the design that much.

            Honestly, I think 2021 Topps is the closest I’ve seen them get to making a base set that resembles the kind of uninspired work the Panini company does with baseball product. No offense to Panini lovers, but I don’t like what they produce. Even if they had MLB licensing at their disposal, I’d still consider them a far inferior rival. That’s not to say I’m putting 2021 Topps on the level of Panini. I just think it falls into the category or the more generic of Topps base releases.

            And maybe that’s because it was 2021. And the planning, if I’m speculating here, was done mostly in 2020, when there was a global pandemic raging. Design meetings done by Zoom.  I don’t know. Or maybe Topps plans their designs years in advance, and pandemic or no pandemic, we were getting the Panini-ized 2021 Topps base with its small print, no matter what.

            Let’s shift gears here.

            One of the things that I love about base cards is the way they anticipate the new baseball season while paying total homage to the previous baseball season, obviously via the stats on the back of cards, league leader cards, post-season cards, all-star cards and now, sadly, photos of players in City Connect uniforms. But, as I was sifting through and sorting and building 2021 Topps again, I realized, and probably not for the first time, how truly unique this set is.

            Topps 2021 details not only the baseball season that came before it.

            But the pandemic itself.

            I know, I know, you’re all wondering why it took me this long to make connections. It didn’t. I just continue to be fascinated by the idea. Case in point, look at these images.

            In 2021 they run pretty similar.

            A close-up on the batter in the box.

            A close up on a batter swinging.

            The pitcher seemingly alone on the mound and in the stadium.

            You can do the same for batters on base, batters rounding bases, guys in the field, guys in the outfield. They are all close-cropped images that try their best to limit the idea that the truncated 60-game MLB season, in 2020, was played without fans in attendance.

            Obviously, that’s not always the case.

            I swear I wasn’t playing favorites with the Red Sox.

            But you look at the cards. The close-up shots. The ones, and there aren’t many, that actually show the empty seats.

            A card like this.

            Or this.

            And you stop for a second. And think. What’s missing? What’s missing?

            Oh…it’s me.

            And you.

            And you and you and you.

            We’re missing.

            I know we all have those sets from our youth that put us in a time and place. I’ve sure gone on and on about 1987 and being thirteen, and how profound collecting was to me back then. But the images on those cards are indistinct from other years, since the advent of in-action shots on cards. There are players on the field. At the plate. In the dugout. And there are FANS. Actual fans in the stands in all of those cards in all of those previous years.

            Except 2021 Topps base.

            For the most part.

            I mean you have your few dozen photos taken at Spring Training or a doctored photo here and there.

            But most images look like these.

            Some look like this.

            And it’s not as if Topps shied away from the pandemic. One of my favorite cards in the 2021 Topps base set happens to be this one.

            And if you’re taking team photos for team cards.

        

            Spot any masks?

            It was hard to think of where I was just two short years ago, too, when sorting through those doubles. I was still home from work, at least every other day. Which might explain why I bought so many. My library was closed to the public. They had us some into the branch in shifts. I hadn’t seen half my staff in almost a year. I was still unvaccinated when 2021 Topps came out. A week after their release, my wife (thankfully vaccinated…I guess if breast cancer gave us anything, she was able to get vaxed before regular people could) had to fly to Buffalo because her father, my father-in-law, was dying. We didn’t see each other for two weeks other than on FaceTime. I spent a lot of time alone. I opened a lot of those packs.

            I…well, you get the idea.

            And I’m sure a lot of you were in your own situations.

            So…Topps 2021 base. Not my favorite set. But a loaded one in terms of what it means, culturally, personally. It was also a set that anticipated a return of fans to baseball. Remember the capacity rules? The spaced seating. Etc.

            Ah, what a decade to be living in.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: