ATBATT's All-Time All-Stars Center Field

Hey everybody,

This post closes out the fielding positions for my blog's take on the '76 Topps subset "The Sporting News All-Time All-Stars".   That final spot is Center Field.

For those of you who have been following this thread of posts, you well know that I've had some tough choices to make in my selections.  This one was just as tough, but in a completely different way.

You see, the type of Dodger fan that I am would ordinarily demand that I choose former Dodger Kenny Landreaux before I choose some dang giant for my All-Star team.

However, the type of baseball fan that I am demands that I choose only the best players for the squad.  So, ignoring the insignia on his cap, but not his abilities, I choose for Center Field, some dang giant...

Believe me, I wanted to choose somebody else.  My first emotional choice was Duke Snider - I think you know why.  My second choice was the card-collecting world's favorite son, Mickey Mantle.  But the more I checked the stats, the more Mays kept separating himself from that crowd. 

I don't have any original cards from Mays' playing days because they're so durn expensive, and of course, I don't really collect cards of giants.  That said, if a card came my way by trade, or if I came across a great card for a great price, like the one above, I would certainly jump on it.

In the same week that we celebrate the legacy of Jackie Robinson, get a gander at this card.  15 years after Jackie broke baseball's color barrier, the N.L. Home Run Leaders card is stacked with African-Americans and one Puerto Riqueno. 

Speaking of Willie and the bat, he retired as a lifetime .302 hitter and third in home runs behind only Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth.

A true 5-tool player that I'll gladly accept on my team anytime, the Say Hey Kid, Willie Mays.

THANKS for reading, everybody!

ATBATT's All-Time All-Stars Right Field

Hey everybody,

when we last visited the All-Timers, we completed the infield and one outfield position. Here's the line up to this point:

C: Johnny Bench
1st: Lou Gerhig
2nd: Jackie Robinson
SS: Ozzie Smith
3rd: Brooks Robinson
LF: Rickey Henderson

This time we get my pick for the best right fielder of all time - with the opportunity to check out a few cool baseball cards.  Not bad for some free Saturday evening entertainment. 

Several of the positions for my all-stars have been difficult choices, and this one was pretty tough as well.  There are several first-ballot players.

I, for one, would usually take Reggie's 563 homers and ability to come up big in the Fall Classic.

While Reggie's a solid choice...what about Roberto Clemente?  He only had 3,000 hits, 12 all-star games, and was regularly bringing fear to N.L. base runners with his cannon for an arm before his life and career were tragically cut short.

Clemente was actually my first choice, but then I remembered this guy...
 

Sure, Hammerin' Hank would be the natural first choice choice for lots of us.  That is, until we remember this next ballplayer, who held down right field before any of 'em.  There's just no way I choose somebody else before I choose this guy.

This is the man that caused the building of the original Yankee Stadium (RIP).  They called it "the house that Ruth built" for good reason.  He led the Yankees to 7 A.L. pennants, 4 World Series championships and rewrote Yankee and baseball record books along the way.

 I once read somewhere that foul poles were invented because the Bambino regularly hit the ball so far the umpires needed help.

Of course I'm gonna pick the guy who practically played with a hot dog in one pocket and a beer in the other, all the while hitting the ball out of the park.  The best part of all, he did it steroid free.

THANKS for reading, everybody.  Time for me to go back to watching the Dodger game. 

ALL-TIME ALL-STARS Left Field (and a WBC aside)

 Hey everybody,

Well, I'll say this much for the World Baseball Classic, it certainly has energized some interesting discussion in the blogo-worlds, and that aint a bad thing.  Some of you may have read my opinion on the rhubarb* between Teams Mexico and Canada on another blog, so I'm not gonna repeat myself here.

However, since this is my humble little blog, I am gonna opinionate about another angle of the WBC debate; that is, whether or not the whole thing deserves to exist.  I read somewhere where a couple of bloggers (whose opinions I respect) think the WBC is simply a huge waste of time and energy that should disappear, pronto.  No. Way.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say those who think the WBC is such a waste of time haven't seen any of the great baseball that's been played in this tourney.  One couldn't have watched Venezuala vs. Dominica and said it's all worthless.  Rosenort over at Condition Sensitive mentioned these games have had playoff intensity, and I've gotta agree with that.   There's been playoff intensity galore with cool nationalism thrown in to boot.

IMO this is the best WBC tourney of them all.  Each time around the baseball has progressively gotten better.  I even saw the Chinese infield crank out some pretty smooth bang-bang plays that Davey Johnson's Chinese team couldn't even dream about.  I, for one, cant wait for the next round to begin.  I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow so I could stay in and watch some of these promising games.

Gimme Dominica vs. Venezuela or Japan vs. Korea over any of the B.S. inter-league crap that Selig and MLB are gonna force down our throats on a nearly daily basis this season. Did anyone notice this latest development in all of our team's schedules?  But then, that's a debate for another day.

Now onto cards and ATBATT's selection to play All-Star left field...

You know Rickey finds a way onto every team ever. Why not onto this team? 

I've just gotta include the best leadoff hitter of all-time on my All-Time All-Stars list.  Can you just see Rickey leading off with the rest of the ATBATT team to follow?  Whew!  Just imagine trying to focus on pitching to Lou Gerhig with Rickey threatening to take second on every pitch. 

 

                         Rickey held the all-time walks record (2,190) before cheater Bonds stole it.  

The mini-set below is from a cool insert set I bought as a whole at Frank & Sons back in the day.  The dealer had this binder page ready to go with all the pieces - for just 2 bucks!  SOLD !   (ATTBATT trivia: who's that Orioles lurker? Hint: I dunno.) 

Once on base, Rickey's gonna steal and you can't stop him. He's got the all-time most stolen bases (1,406).  He stole 100 or more bases 3 times. 

                             Rickey batted leadoff for 2 World Series champions,  Oakland and Toronto. 

 Did somebody say Rickey played for a few teams along the way?  He was an all-star 10 times.

 He holds the record for most leadoff home runs, won 3 Silver Slugger Awards and was AL MVP.

 It was once said of Rickey, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers". 

 THANKS for reading everybody ! 

 

* ATBATT Trivia Time: Did you know the term "rhubarb" was first coined by a Brooklyn bartender to characterize a dust-up between a Dodgers and a Giants fan?  Heh. 

ATBATT All-Time All-Stars Third Base

Hey everybody,

This post rounds out the infield for ATBATT's All-Star team.  Thanks to those of you who have followed this series.  It's been fun choosing the players and of course, it's a different way for me to show off some of my cards.

Here's an update of the previous position players I chose:

1. Catcher: Johnny Bench

2. First Base: Lou Gerhrig

3. Second Base: Jackie Robinson

4. Shortstop: Ozzie Smith

...and now..Third Base...

From a team full of legendary players, comes the Human Vacuum known as Brooks Robinson.  This was another tough decision to make, since I'm a Mike Schmidt fan.  Lots of times I'll take the side of the argument that Schmidt was the best third baseman ever, but in making this choice, I again went with the infielder who has superior defensive abilities over a big bat.  Heck, there's enough bombers on my all-stars that home runs should not be a worry.

 While Schmidt hit almost twice as many homers as Robinson, I give the responsibility of patrolling the hot corner to Brooks.  He holds the record for most games played by a third basemen (2,870), and he won 16 CONSECUTIVE Gold Gloves, finishing with the highest fielding percentage of all-time .971.

Robinson was no slouch with the bat, with 268 homers and 1,367 RBI's to his name.

Brooks also knows how to come up big in the postseason.  He played his position like few ever have in the 1970 World Series.  Orioles fans probably still talk about it in Baltimore's oldest bars.

Welcome to ATBATT's All-Stars, Brooksie.

THANKS for reading, everybody.

ATBATT'S All-Time All Stars

Hey everybody,

Now that good ol' Potch helped me to finish collecting the 76 Topps subset "The Sporting News All-Time All-Stars", I've been inspired to name my blog's set of All-Timers.

ATBATT's All-Stars will differ from the Sporting News' in a few substantial ways.  First and foremost, S.N. chose their players in 1975 (for inclusion in the 76 release), and we now have more than 35 additional years of great players to choose from for the roster.  

Just like The Sporting News, I will be selecting one player to represent each of the infield and outfield positions, one backstop and two pitchers; one right handed and one southpaw. Unlike S.N., I'm also going to include an All-Time manager.  Furthermore, since we're dealing with today's game, I'm also going to add two new players - a middle reliever and a closer.

Sorry, American Leaguers, I'm not including a D.H..  Primarily because the old-school, purist National Leaguer in me still views the DH as a baseball abomination.  Pitchers should have to face the high heat, and batters should earn their ups, dag nabbit!

Where S.N. probably had a team of analysts studying stats from every available baseball almanac, I'm choosing my All-Stars less on pure stats analysis and more on their stat-us in baseball lore and legend.  The final criteria will be the player's status in the cardboard collecting universe in general, and my collection in particular. 



                 ALL TRADE BAIT ALL THE TIME'S
               ALL-TIME ALL-STARS...

First up will be Catcher.  Presenting the best catcher to play the game, and Cardboard Hero,

Starting off with a card paying homage to the Sporting News.  Johnny B. was ROY in 68 - the first catcher to ever win the honor.  Bench also pioneered the one-handed catching technique.

He anchored the Big Red Machine, which constantly battled the Dodgers for the N.L. West title.

My favorite Johnny Bench card.

10 Gold Gloves and 14-time all-star.

Kicking ass in the Fall Classic earns triple points in my book any day.  Bench was the WS MVP.

389 career home runs.

The first of ATBATT's All-Stars - Bad ass Johnny Bench.

THANKS for reading!

Next post: Around the horn. 

Set Potched - Wheelered - Dealered - NAILED !

Hey everybody,

This is the reason I started ATBATT and this is the reason our hobby and it's participants are AWESOME!

I've been chasing a pretty dang cool vintage subset - the 1976 edition of The Sporting News' All-Time All-Stars - for quite some time.   However, one little card had been standing between me and completion.  Sure, I could have found one on the bay (a quick search shows I can snatch one up for $5 to $10), but clicking "Buy now" just isn't the kind of fun that I got involved in our hobby to have.

I think you know what I mean.  We've all done it. Checking around the local card shows, diving into boxes hoping to make that GREAT FIND.  You know the feeling...blissfully sifting through cards, occasionally stopping to ooh and ahh over something you hadn't seen before, or slowing to internally smile and say to yourself, "Heh, I've got that one."

When suddenly...THERE IT IS !  The card you need, or almost as exciting,  the card you didn't know you needed until you saw it.  Man, that's the juice right there!

That didn't happen for me this time.  But what did happen was equally as good, perhaps even better.  You know the story...some guy halfway around the country who loves cardboard just as much as you do realized he has the card you need, or he sees it himself at a card show a thousand miles away from you, and he grabs it in order to help you out in your card quest, because he's cool like that.

Enter Cool Like That Potch, from Potch Wheeler And The Cardboard Heroes.    Naturally, the guy from the cardboard heroes site noticed I needed one cardboard hero myself, and he sent it out to me. YAHOOO !!!    Enough intro already.  Here's the card...

The previously elusive Mr. Hornsby with his mitt stuffed into his back pocket.

Here's his buddies, the rest of the set.  altogether these guys make up an awesome team.  We have the infield, outfield and 2 pitchers, one a righty, and one a southpaw. 

Mission Accomplished, Set Complete 

Ordinarily that one card would have been enough, but Potch bein' Potch tossed in a coupla piles (and I mean PILES) of other baseball heroes of the Dodger Blue variety.  Here's just a few of the highlights...

A new Piazza!  Coooool!   How about that mug?  I think he gave a face like this to Clemens when that punk tossed a piece of bat at him in the WS.  

Remember when Dee Gordon's 2011 Topps issue personified "Dodger double play"?  I now present Eric Young's bid for that title.

A new Bulldog card.  Suddenly yellow on a card works. 

One of my all-time favorite Dodger shortstops.  The more things change, the more they remain the same...infielders still love to keep gloves in thier back pockets.

 Potch tossed in a great bunch of Dodgers form the 80's and 90's.  Although I liked the stars as much as anybody, I also liked to cheer for some of the lesser known guys and the utility players.  Here's a few of my past favorites...

Of course, in receiving as many cards as Potch sent, there's going to be one or two guys who I forgot were actually Dodgers.  For example...

Raw Sewage?

Jokes aside, what a great trade.  I got lots of cards from my favorite team, and of course, the clincher...the final card I needed, courtesy of my newest Cardboard Hero, Potch.

THANKS for a great trade, Potch, and THANKS for reading everybody!

BTW: If you see this, Night Owl, I am happy to request the removal of my quest from the One Card Challenge at your blog.   Everybody else, I encourage you to stop by that section of Night Owl's blog and help a fellow collector in finding that one last card.