Social Distancing Diary with Baseball Cards: Mantle, the Babe, and Giants

Aloha, everybody, 

In this episode of Social Distancing with Baseball Cards, we check out some tribute and vintage Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the Babe and more.

Enjoy and aloha! 

It's A Sleepy Saturday - So Let's Rip Some Gypsy Queen

Aloha, everybody, 

There's not much going on this afternoon as I sit and wait for the Dodgers - Rockies game to start, so let's rip open these packs of Gypsy Queen that I picked up yesterday. 

They're the first of the 2016 GQ crop, so I'm hoping for some lucky pulls...

 Obvious nice ones to my eye were a couple of minis...

 

Booooooooooo!!!!

Here's a purple framed, numbered 164/250...
 

Power Alley insert, Chipper Jones...
 

Everything else looked like a base card. GQ is all new to me, so I have no idea of I caught anything short printed, so check your GQ cards when I send some out to you, as something precious may have missed my eye. 

There was nothing for my collection, so I figured I'd bust open some Topps 2016 as well. I opened two packs and pulled a couple from the Amazing Milestones...

 And finally, a Dodger...

Like the sign says, it's all trade bait, so just let me know if you want any of these. 
Aloha!

Once More Around The Sun For Us!

Aloha, everybody, 

It's raining here in LA, but today is my birthday...so... Yahoooooo!!! 

There's no deep message or carefully constructed theme behind today's words and cards. Let's just have a simple party showing a few cardboard heroes in celebration mode. 

Of course, the Dodgers shall lead off. Here come a couple of big time World Series MVP pitchers, Mr. Podres and Mr. Koufax...

That's Sandy celebrating a 1963 World Series win. BTW - Koufax (2-0) and Podres (1-0) pitched back to back wins as the Dodgers swept the Yankees. 

I first thought about showing Kirk Gibson celebrating as he rounded the bases after his big home run in the 1988 World Series, but I found this card of the guy who hit twice as many as Gibby, and just as many as the Bash Brothers hit in that series...

 Gibson's 9th inning heroics would have come up short if not for this Game One home run from Mickey Hatcher in the bottom of the first inning. 

How about a little bit more Dodgers happiness...

Next up is a happy gallop from another one of my all-time favorite World Series homers...

I chose this Winfield card because he looks like he's rocking a home run celebration smile on his 1984 Topps card.

Of course somebody who was not shy about on-field celebrations was this man...
 

The pitcher usually bats last, so we'll close today with another of my favorite pitchers, whom I am happy to share my birthday with...

Happy Birthday to the man they called The Express.

I coulda went with that birthday song from the Beatles where they say it's your birthday, but I don't like the Beatles, sooo...let's run with a funky little tune from my old new wave days...

 

Aloha! 

It's The Baseball Bengals!

Aloha, everybody,

How about those Bengals? They managed to snatch defeat from the hands of victory because a couple of players let their emotions get the best of them. 

Baseball players can become emotional as well. Some wear their emotions on their sleeves, causing meltdowns, eruptions and confrontations that everyone can see, affecting the outcomes of games, and sometimes, their careers and reputations. 

Today's post isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of these players. It's limited by my memory, my artistic license with the definition of a Baseball Bengal, and of course, by the cards in my collection. 

First up is the original Baseball Bengal. In yesterday's AFC playoff game, Bengal Vontaze Burflict laid out the Steeler's Mike Brown with a vicious head shot. The Georgia Peach earned a reputation for physically punishing opponents as well. 

Cobb was rumored to sharpen his spikes and use them as weapons against opposing players, and he didn't have any qualms about going into the stands to mix it up against the fans. 

Good ol' Billy Martin didn't mind a good dust up himself. He had numerous fights on and off the field, and he was supposedly traded away from the Yankees as a result of a drunken barroom brawl. 

As a manger, he regularly displayed his emotions for all to see, once engaging in a dugout shoving match with Reggie Jackson after yanking Reggie from the field in the middle of an inning. His numerous firings and re-hirings as Yankees manager became a running punch line for comedians. 

Brett wasn't exactly a hothead, but he does qualify as a Bengal because of his famous eruption after the umpires erased one of his home runs because they determined he had too much pine tar on his bat. 

Joss pitched two no-hitters and one perfect game. There's really nothing that points to him as an emotional powderkeg, but with a nickname like "the human hairpin", and that ever-lovin' mug that just seethes with, "Go'wan, I dare ya!", I figured I'd give him an honorary membership.

The next two players had one memorable clash that left impressions on both of their careers...

Robin Ventura made the mistake of charging the mound and challenging Ryan.  It was a young, star third baseman against a 46-year old. The Express promptly headlocked Ventura and mercilessly pummeled him. 

Andre Ethier has a well-earned reputation of letting his emotions get the best of him. A couple of seasons back, a photo went viral of Ethier shooting double middle fingers to the press, and he regularly overreacts when he feels pitchers are throwing at him, or umpires are cheating him on the strike zone.

Most recently, he went on a dugout shouting tirade against his manager Don Mattingly, in the middle of a playoff game against the Mets. 

However, no Dodger was a bigger Baseball Bengal than Milton Bradley. I know I have Bradley's Dodger cards around here somewhere, but I can't find anything quickly, so this will have to do...

Here's Milton in one of his numerous meltdowns; this time he's emptying a bag of baseballs on the field. Unfortunately for Bradley, he was such a Bengal that he had these outbursts with every team he played for, and he eventually wore out his MLB welcome. 

Finally, we have a Dodger who went Bengal at Wrigley Field, back in 2000.

 The confines may be friendly, but not all Cubs fans are. Someone snatched Kreuter's cap off of his head, which led him to blow his other top, and go into the stands. Numerous other Dodgers went Bengal as well, causing a near-riot. 

 I watched this game on TV, but I couldn't find any video of it. If you didn't see the game, you can imagine what a mess it was. In the end, 19 Dodgers were suspended - and Kreuter never did get his hat back. 

In honor of the Baseball Bengals, the Clash will take us out with White Riot! 

Aloha!

Binder Page Heroes - Nolan Ryan

Aloha readers and trade partners,

I was recently privileged to be profiled by Nachos Grande in his most excellent series Better Know A Blogger. In the profile I mentioned the favorite articles in my collection to be my main baseball card binders - one for the Dodgers and one for players from all the other teams. 

The cards in those binders are my current favorites, which means they are updated and reorganized whenever new favorites join my collection. 

Answering that profile question reminded me of a series that's been dormant here on ATBATT for a while now, Binder Page Heroes. In the series I show off a random binder page and the cards currently residing there. 

I figure it's time to revisit that series, so let's begin with my Nolan Ryan page. 

Leading off is a miiiiiiinnnnnnnnniiiiii Express...

When I restarted my collecting back around 1994, Ryan was one of the first players that I collected. His legend was still pretty fresh to baseball fans, and we share the same birthday, which I felt connected us somehow...
 

 I've gotta give Ryan extra credit for pitching so well in such an ugly uniform. 

Gotta love the old (now gone) Houston Astrodome in the logo. My only personal memory of the Astrodome is driving past it once and marveling at it from the freeway.

 Seven no-hitters. Simply amazing. 

  
As you can see, I'm a sucker for these "No hitter" tribute cards. 

 And now, a Ryan card with a lurking Dodger Stadium...

 Some folks liked to take Ryan down a notch and say it's inevitable that he's attained all those no-hitter and strike out stats "just because he pitched forever".  

Well, you don't get to pitch forever if you're not any good. 

Remember when pretty much everyone's mitts were made by Rawlings?

Finally, a card where Ryan shares the spotlight with another couple of pitching legends...

Aloha!

Grand Salami Of Trade Bait - Texas Rangers

Hey ZZ Top fans, I've got a few more here from that little ol' state of Texas...