In light of Major League Baseball teams not actually doing anything to warrant legitimate content creation in January 2018, it’s probably not a good idea to give them any more of our hard earned money… Read more »
Collecting
When you’re a kid and you watch a sport, you can develop strong feelings about particular players. Sometimes these feelings can be positive, bordering on the obsessive. Others, almost in the realm of loathing. Often,… Read more »
I love sports cards. Specifically, hockey and baseball cards. I started my collection in the mid 80s as a 7-year-old, when I taped my cards into photo albums, putting my heroes on display for me… Read more »
I love caps. I love flat-billed caps, loud caps, classic caps, oddly colored caps, throwback caps, caps that teams only wore one time, commemorative caps, snapbacks, strapbacks, fitteds, any. I love ’em. So when I saw via the… Read more »
In the final part of our ’94 retrospective, we look at two things from that year that probably have little value in 2016: baseball cards, and Major League II. Also included is a brief anecdote… Read more »
In the gaming portion of our revisit to 1994, we talk about the original 16-bit Griffey title, and break down the references used for the game’s fake player names. Then we take a brief look… Read more »
Banished to the Pen turns the clock back to 1988, as we take a look at some classic baseball video games and collectibles.
When I turned age ten, my parents gifted me a subscription to Beckett Baseball Card Monthly for my birthday. This was big if you collected baseball cards; a Beckett magazine gave you credibility, it signaled to everyone that you weren’t… Read more »
Athletes should not be role models. Parents say it, teachers say it, writers say it, Charles Barkley says it. There are of course, dissenting voices who can (and should) bring up people like Roberto Clemente…. Read more »
Over at JABO (Just a Bit Outside), Rob Neyer shared the stores of his bobblehead collection. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am slightly more obsessed with figurines that sit on my shelves than Mr. Neyer. I… Read more »
A nice thing about baseball cards is that they strive for conformity and are mostly the same size. Upwards of 500,000 commons won’t even take up much space in a closet if you have them… Read more »
Baseball has a tradition of family connections, brothers, cousins, fathers, and sons. Bobby and Barry Bonds. Ken Griffey Senior and Junior. Tito Francona and Terry Francona. Baseball family trees are part genetic and part network… Read more »
Earlier this week on Episode 3 of the Banished to the Pen Podcast, I told host Ryan Sullivan that I probably hadn’t purchased a pack of baseball cards since 1994 (I looked back on some of… Read more »
When I was collecting cards, issues of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly had a page listing the address for each team’s stadium. It was easy to not pay this page much mind, but I saw it… Read more »
The 17-year-old lefty was clocked at 92 miles per hour and he threw five no-hitters for his Blanchard High School team in Oklahoma. Nolan Ryan threw seven no-nos during his major league career. Obviously high school isn’t MLB, but that’s still a pretty nice stat to have at the disposal of the guys sitting around the draft board looking at your name. At this point in the story, when the name of a legendary Hall of Famer has been dropped, what could go wrong?
This week’s featured autograph is a 1991 Topps Stadium Club Jimmy Key. This is absolutely one of my favorite sets to get autographed. I have completed about 16% of this set for my personal collection,… Read more »
In Part 3 of the Time Capsule: Cards From the ‘80s & ‘90s series we were introduced to Randy McCament’s 1990 Upper Deck baseball card and marveled how wonderful it was when the card manufacturer didn’t seem to care whether their subject knew his picture was being taken.
I will not be attending the 1990 Spring Training Camp of the team of my choice.
“The best cards are often when the manufacturer didn’t seem to care whether the player knew his picture was being taken or not. This seemed to afflict the more average players than your all-stars. Honestly, I could make an entire 700-card series of these. “
“Going through old cards you’ll find some just have a knack of jumping out at you for various reasons. ’91 Score had a series of cards called ‘Master Blasters’ which were designated for the sluggers of the day and ‘K-Men’ which, well you get the idea. They were hideous.”
“When it comes to prospects, rookies, and future stars – those special player cards that appear in every so often in a pack of baseball cards – it’s important to remember that there are, at least, two separate but important groups: those who build major league careers and those who fall short.”
“The Saturday after Thanksgiving I was asked to retrieve the Christmas decorations from storage. To do this I had to maneuver several boxes out of the way, one of which I knew contained my old baseball cards. I also knew if I opened that box, I would fall into a bottomless chasm of Diamond Kings, commons, and ‘Jesse Barfield? I had forgotten about Jesse Barfield!’ moments. Naturally, I dove in.”
“This brings us to this week’s featured autograph, a 1961 Topps Cal McLish. The card is badly centered, and for some reason McLish is squinting mightily. A Facebook user on my autographs page speculated that perhaps he just saw Marilyn Monroe. Not too likely, but it’s a theory.”
