Pitchers, Paul Skenes, Football cards and my strange fascination with Eddie Murray post-playing career cards

 

 

I don’t collect pitchers.

            Let me be more specific…I don’t collect pitchers who don’t play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And I probably shouldn’t even do that, considering how much their current pitching coach seems to be hell bent on ruining these young kids’ careers.

            I present three examples:

            All three of these young pitchers were supposed to be a part of the Pirates future, now they talk about them like after thoughts.

            I used to collect pitchers. Back when I was a kid. The era of complete game, twenty wins, and the potential to have a Hall of Fame career spanning 300 wins. Call me old fashioned but I’m just not that excited by Clayton Kershaw reaching 200 wins at the age of 35, or Max Scherzer reaching 200 wins at the age of 37. And I understand the era we’re in, and probably staying in. It’s all about heat, velocity and spin, and everything else that makes it even more unnatural for the human arm to pitch.

            Hence Tommy John becoming a household name during the baseball season.

            Especially in Pittsburgh where even our catchers are getting Tommy John.

            See you in 2025 Endy.

            And with hitters working on bat speed, launch angles, etc. I get that pitching has to change so that the game remains competitive.

            That said, major league batting averages hovered at .248 last season…a slight improvement over .243 in 2022.

            But you might be able to explain that away with some of the changes made to the game.

            So, no, I don’t collect pitchers.

            I still can’t help myself though…especially when a guy like this comes along.

            College champion. Drafted number one overall, highest ever signing for a prospect. Most likely (if he can keep himself away from Oscar Marin) will be pitching in Pittsburgh come June.

            It’s hard not to get excited over Paul Skenes…even though I did call him “Walking Tommy John” surgery when he was drafted in July.

            I’m sorry.

            It’s hard not to with pitchers these days.

            But maybe Paul Skenes will have a major career in the Big Leagues.

            And us fans can celebrate his 200^th win…at the age of 38.

 

            I also don’t prospect…okay, unless it’s the Pirates.

           Is it just me…or does Eddie Murray have some of the coolest post-playing cards out there?

            I don’t know if I’m attracted to the orange/black combo or what, but every single time I’m on a site buying cards of guys for my PC, I keep ending up buying Eddie Murray cards.  I mean I liked Eddie Murray when I was a kid. I keep cards of his with my Hall of Famer cards. But I wouldn’t say I was a rabid collector. If they keep making cards like his 2023 Archives I will be.

            Or maybe there's just no such thing as a bad Eddie Murray card.

 

Ah, Football cards. What is there for me to say about football cards. I’ll be honest. I dedicate maybe 10%-15% of the Hobby to Football cards. They’re too expensive in my view. You never get enough base cards of regular players. I don’t know what it is about Panini and football cards, but I don’t need cards of retired players in a base card set: 

Looking at you Score and Donruss.

And the card designs are rather…meh.

They seem to look the same year in and year out.

I don’t see the point in buying football cards other than for the players I like and Steelers team sets.

Even that is lackluster.

You have a card for the back-up QB and the dude you picked up from the Vikings.

And you leave out Cam Heyward?

I’m actually looking forward to the Topps/Fanatics behemoth getting the Football license back in the next year or so. Not because I like monopolies. I don’t. If I had it my way Topps would be competing with other licensed companies for ALL sports.

There I go being old again, I guess.

But I honestly believe that Tops/Fanatics will put out a better Football product. At least with base cards they will. They can’t do any worse than what Panini is doing at this point.

Happy Collecting!