Major League Baseball Enacts New Rules

MLB has enacted expanded instant replay reviews, the no collisions at home-plate rule, and tried to make things safer for pitchers.  All for getting it right so I love the use of extended replay...and hate it.  This is tough.  Baseball games already last around three hours.  Having to sit through replay reviews seems like a tough pill to swallow.  Where as most folks watch one to two NFL games a week, MLB teams play 5-6 times a week.  While the game itself is fine the speed is something that can be a pain.  I like many can get distracted very easily.  I know this isn't everyone but it something all sports have been fighting for years now.  If viewers aren't engaged they can just as easily flip the channel, pick up their laptop, play on their phone or go to whatever other device that can catch their attention.  I'm not saying I won't like this.  If done right and these calls dwon't drag on too long and this will be a great thing for the sport.  I honestly think umpires will appreciate it as well.  This will reduce the amount of bad calls left out on the field.  Again I'll have a wait and see attitude for now while hoping they can work out any kinks quickly and instant replay will settle into the background as just another part of the game.

The home-plate collision rule is a tough one.  We all love the play.  There is little more exciting.  That said it has always confused me.  Catchers can't block the plate without the ball, but do, and players just can't steam roll defenders, but do.  Always was something that had me scratching my head.  I think they've done about as good a job as possible of putting something in place to help minimize the injuries in plays at home-plate.  But though I never want anyone to get hurt I will miss those massive collisions at home. 

There were also some restrictions lifted on the protective headgear that pitchers can wear.  Some have already been in place but not surprisingly pitchers prefer comfort over safety.  I get it.  I've never had balls whizzing around my head at 100 miles per hour but playing sports in general I've always chosen comfort over anything else.  I think this will boil down to someone coming up with something that will not only be comfortable but safe.  Doesn't look like it is out there yet but someday a company will figure it out. 

Dissecting The 2013 Game 3 World Series Obstruction Call

Jayson Stark posted a great article on ESPN.com going through the details with all the key players of the game three obstruction call that gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 2-1 series lead in the 2013 World Series.  The play, so unique, took on a life of it's own due to the grand stage, the fact that it ended the game and the fact that the umpires handed it so well. 

I watched it live in my buddies man cave.  He a Cardinals fan and me a Red Sox fan.  It was a great game that came down to the 9th inning.  What more could you ask for?  I was the guy who jumped up and yelled "what" at the screen after the play unfolded.  Not understanding what had happened in the immediate aftermath.  My friend understood quicker than me but I'm not sure I wanted to understand.  As he and the announcers explained it the reality set in.  Ugh.  After watching Yadier Molina thrown out at home on the play, the throw from home to third go awry and what seemed like a sure double play ending to a whacky play I had been so excited...and then it went downhill from there.  The ruling, the confusion, the ongoing explanations, the interviews...  As I drove the 60 miles back to my home I listened to the local sports radio station again going over and over that last play.  It didn't help my mood.  Losing is tough enough, much less when it seemed like the baseball gods had suddenly decided your team was destined to lose the Series.

It was the right call but it didn't make it easy to stomach.  It just seemed so random.  Something out of the player's control.  The fact the Sox won the Series in six games took most of the sting out of that play.  Still, it is one I'll never forget.  It was already a great night sharing good natured ribbing with my buddy all night but to be able to see that game, that play, that ending, in that setting was something I'll never forget.  The fact that he had a 1,000 inch TV was also a big plus.  He is also a smart fan and didn't rub it in (I only did that a little bit after the Red Sox won it all).  Take a look at the article Jayson Stark wrote.  It is a great recounting of all the action with tons of details added.    Even non-Red Sox and Cardinals fans should enjoy. 

Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout Get Big Deals

Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout both signed big deals this week.  They are both in the upper echelon of players in baseball today but are at different points in their career and were paid much differently.  Cabrera got a 10 year $292 million dollar deal while Mike Trout signed a six-year $144.5 million dollar deal.  Cabrera is 30 years-old while Trout is a 22 year-old. 

Cabrera is by almost any standard the best hitter in baseball and has been for some time.  This doesn't mean his contract hasn't made some shake their head.  He will be 40 when the contract ends and the contract is drawing comparisons to the deal Albert Pujols received from the Angels at age 31.  Puljols had an off year his first year with the Angels and was then only able to play 99 games last year due to injury while batting a career low .258.  No matter what the comparisons may be these are two different players.  While Pujols had been a relatively healthy player it was known he had some health issues specifically some feet problems when he left St. Louis.  Cabrera has also been healthy but doesn't seem to have any issues right now that makes me particularly worried about his health.  My thought is that this is a good deal.  He was two years away from free agency but locking him up now takes away all that drama.  In two years he might have commanded more than $30 million a year and maybe they lose him to another team.  Even as good as he is I doubt this deal looks good past year five - at best.  But there is no reason to believe he can't be productive even after that.  The rest of the money is just to ensure he is a Tiger for the remainder of his career.  Maybe his numbers dip with Prince Fielder no longer behind him in the lineup but he was a stud long before Fielder came along.  I like the move and hope it works out for both sides. 

Mike Trout has been a great young player who has lived up to the hype.  The Angels are as much paying him for his future production as they are what he has done the last three years when he made the minimum each year.  This also sets both parties up for the future when his contract runs out.  Trout will be in his prime when the contract ends and assuming he is playing well will be ready for a huge payday.  He'll be 29 and will be able to get a long term monster deal that will set him up for life.  Again I'm assuming he continues to put up good numbers.  The Angels if they want, and can afford to pay him at that time have the franchise player locked up for what may be the rest of his career.  If they don't want to keep him at that time they can walk away.  Trout is truly one of the most dynamic players we've seen in a long time.  This deal seems very fair to both sides and ensure the Angels have one of the game's current studs locked up for at least six years. 

Yannick Noah Cheers for His Son Joakim During In Game Interview - A Great Moment

During the March 9th Heat-Bulls game, Jannick Noah was interviewed by ESPN's Lisa Salters.  I watched this game live and it was a great moment.  As she tried to interview the elder Noah you see him react to Joakim's play on the court and it is an awesome scene.  He can't contain himself as Joakim does well on defense and then on offense.  If you haven't seen it you have to check it out.  Here is the YouTube video,  Seeing it live made it that much better.  I love seeing pure emotion like that and it doesn't get any better than a dad cheering for his son. 

1991-1992 Upper Deck Basketball Cards

I'm pretty sure Larry Bird kicked Chuck Person's butt on this day...

This is the final box I have to open from card show I attended earlier this month.  If you read my last post you know I'm a fan of the early Upper Deck offerings.  This was their initial entry into the basketball card arena and they didn't disappoint.  As with the other sports Upper Deck kept the design simple, had good photography, and provided a better card stock than what we were used to.  I became a fan of the NBA in the late 70's early eighties and the NBA was the #1 sport for me during this timeframe.  Chicago was the dominant team of the era but there were so many others during this timeframe, some on the rise, some on the decline - Boston, Detroit, Portland, Utah, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix to just name a few.  Many of my favorite players were in their prime or still very relevant - Dominique, Buck Williams, Eddie Johnson, David Robinson, Larry Smith, Trent Tucker - I could go on and on.  Again I was a huge NBA fan and this box of cards brought back so many great memories. 



This was a standard Upper Deck box - 36 packs with 12 cards per pack for a total of 432.  The fronts had a white border.  Inside that border to the right was basketball hardwood strip going from top to bottom.  Another hardwood strip ran across the bottom of the card.  Where those two intersected you'd have the team logo against a silver background.  The Upper Deck logo is in the upper right of the card while the player name is at the bottom left with their position to the right next to the team logo.  The team names runs vertically on the right of the card.  Again a simple design with plenty of room for photos.  And the photos were great.  Lots of action shots that caught players in action.  Many I've included here are perfect examples. 

The back of the cards have a hardwood

strip to the left of the card with the players name and position.  The card number is at the top left inside the outline of a basketball backboard.  An Upper Deck hologram triangle is next to that. I can't read it but I think legal stuff is under that. Below that is the player's height, weight, birthdate and college.  I would have liked to have seen hometown and where the player was drafted.  Maybe even hometown.  The player's stats from the last six years are under the hardwood strip.  I prefer the player's stats from their entire career but I'll give them a pass since they have the large photos.  The stats include yr, club, games played, fg%, ft%, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, points and points per game average.  Three point percentage is missing but you didn't start to see this on cards till later years.  And again with the totals.  The NBA hasn't looked at stats in terms of totals since the 60's?  Why were we still seeing totals as opposed to per game averages on cards in the 90's?  Ugh.  More of an overall gripe as opposed to a knock against this set.  A large picture on the runs from top to bottom on the right of the card.  Again some great photos here.  Many are as good as those on the front.  The NBA logo is in the bottom right of the photo.  I like the backs.  Again a few complaints about the stats but the great photos more than make up for it. 

Kevin McHale in all his gangly greatness.

The only insert I received were two Michael Jordan holograms though there were the same card (AW4).  Subsets within the base set include "Vs" cards with the likes of Bird vs Person and Magic vs Jordan among others.  The first 14 cards were rookies from the draft.  All-star cards had actual pictures of players from the all-star game with a write-up filling the back of the card.  I really like having photos from the game itself.  The checklists for each team has art from one of the team's key players on the front.  I always enjoy the art on these cards.  There was a good amount of the big stars but I will say if you are trying to build a set there could be issue.  Anyone looking for Robert Parrish contact me.  I have five.  A checklist of the set can be found here.  A video blogger also posted a video of him breaking open a box.

Ron Harper thought this was a shoot for GQ.

This box cost me only $6 but it was worth much more to me.  I have no clue what I'll do with all these cards but I'd do it all over again.  Looking back I probably would have purchased every box the dealer had.  I'll definitely plan on attending the next show in the hopes of finding the same dealer there.  Opening these boxes were great.  I haven't had this much fun in quite some time. 

 

1991 Upper Deck Football Box Break

This is the third of four boxes of cards I picked up earlier this month at a local card show.  I'm a big fan of the early Upper Deck offerings so I was definitely looking forward to this box.  To the left were three of my favorites.  Bob Golic just screams football player in this photo, Cortez Kennedy introduces himself to a Patriots running back, and Jim Harbaugh is on the business end of a Leon Seals hit.  Great photos which is something I saw throughout this break. 

To the box itself.  The box only cost me five dollars so this was definitely a win!  There were 36 packs in the box with 12 cards per pack for a total of 432 cards.  I received two of the Joe Namath Football Heroes set.  Nice cards and at that time retired players were not common in sets so this was a big deal.  The other insert I received was a Marion Butts hologram game breaker card.  The cards were both low and high series cards though the box was labeled "High Numbers".  With both high and low series cards you'd see things such as me pulling the Alvin Harper Star Rookie card (#24) and the Alvin Harper Rookie Force (#634) cards.  The first had Harper in his Tennessee Volunteers uniform and the second had him in his Cowboys uniform.  I liked getting the different cards of the same player in that manner.  My favorite pull of high-low series instances was getting Roger Craig in his 49ers (low) and then his Raiders (high) uniform.  Nice job by Upper Deck.  Team checklists have art of one of the team's players on the front.  I really liked this about Upper Deck who did this throughout their cards in the various sports.  I also mentioned the different rookie cards.  There was also Team MVP cards of the team's "MVP".  As with the rookie cards the logo (MVP, Rookie Force, etc) takes the place of the "football" in the lower right corner which keeps it from interfering with the photo. 

Howie Long With Kansas City Royal Great George Brett

The cards themselves come in both portrait and landscape views.  The Upper Deck logo with the year of the set are in the upper left hand corner.  A secondary team colored border runs down the left of and bottom of the card with a second team color also running below that at the bottom.  The two lines at the bottom end up curving into a football shape at the bottom right of the card with the team logo in the middle.  I like this.  It is a subtle thing but looks great on the card.  The player's name is in the bottom left in the second border color and the player's position is just to the left of the "football" again in the second colored border on the bottom.  Overall a good looking card with lots of room for the photo which is the main focus of the fronts of these cards.

Jim Everett is point at a guy who called him Chris...oh that was Jim Rome...

The back of the cards are done in landscape though the card number, Upper Deck logo, Team NFL logo, NFLPA logo, and player's position and number are positioned in portrait. 

At the top is a blue bordered area with the player's name in red, team, Ht., Wt. College, birthdate and where born.  To the right of that information is the player's stats for the last five seasons.  Standard stats which are fine but you don't get the games played for each season.  Important when putting stat totals in perspective.  That is my only complaint there.  At the bottom is a color photo different from the one on the front of the card.  They range from action shots, to standing, sitting or even the random photos as depicted above on the Vance Johnson card.  The photos are the same quality as the front which makes the back really pop.

I was definitely that guy who loved Upper Deck when it came out in the 90's.  The better card stock, great photos, white backgrounds and really different card designs made them a hit with me and of course many others.  They were definitely the golden boys for a time.  So picking this box up at such a great price was a no brainer.  The cards themselves definitely have a fond place in my collecting memory. The fun of opening all those packs and reliving those memories from 20 plus years ago was great. 

2014 Topps Heritage

Walked into our Wal-Mart this morning and they had some new cards to include the 2014 Topps Heritage rack packs containing 20 cards.  I've never been a huge fan of the heritage cards. This goes against my motto "love the retro" but the 2014 cards didn't do anything to change my mind.  Don't get me wrong.  I think Topps did a good job recreating the 1965 look.  It just isn't for me.  The one card I did like was the Jose Altuve card.  The orange uni with the blue had looked sharp and I didn't mind the dugout shot.  The Latos card was funny if nothing else.  I also liked the alternate white Mets had Matt Harvey is wearing. 

 

I think Latos just told someone to pull his finger...

While I often enjoy the older style cards I do not like the older style non-action type photos.  These are just too boring.  Maybe that isn't fair to these sets but it is something that is important to me.  The photos of the cards I pulled are all head shots from games or standing poses that look to have come from spring training.  I'll put it this way.  I won't give a card with a head shot of Ben Revere a second look but a Ben Revere diving catch is another thing.  From the reading I've done on the set there are some action shots but they are rare.  Again the overall design is fine as are the stats you find on the backs of the cards.  

 

Maybe the cards in this specific pack didn't help.  Johan Santana was the big star and there were no inserts.  Kind of a bust.  I did receive two rookie stars cards but that was it.  Looking at the checklists it does look like there is quite a bit more this set has to offer.  Beckett also has a nice write-up on the set detailing some of the highlights if you'd like to find out some more detail.  Anyone who likes the retro looking cards should pick these up.  As for me I won't buy anymore.  Again it isn't for a lack of effort on Topps' part.  The lack of action shots just doesn't do it for me.