On the third day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me:
Three 80's Baseball Sports Looks
Too Many Entries
and a Cameo That Will Go Down in History
That's right, ladies. Ol' TR fell back down the rabbit hole with his baseball card fetish infatuation hobby. In a casual conversation with a friend recently, I heard with some details that the values of cards have gone way up recently.That means my collection is officially "classic" and now sorta valuable.
In the early pandemic days, I unearthed my collection from my attic and gave it a half-ass set-up in my man cave, vowing to dive in at some point. After my buddy's comments wormholed their way into my ear this weekend, I went through everything, including my ten stuffed binders and each of my 3,000 "common" cards. These were cards that had no value at the time. But some were players like Sosa, Fielder, Vizquel, O'Neill, Maddux and Sosa, so it was worth the effort (at least to me; wife was far less excited about all of this).
In a nutshell, I am feeling pretty good about my childhood obsession right about now. Card values seem sorta high! And I have some good ones! Values remain opaque, with high variance on different web sites, so I am conveniently locking into the highest estimates I see. So I'll believe my three Bo Jackson 1987 Topps rookies are worth $140 each. I'll believe my Juan Gonzalez rookie "error" card (they flipped the negative and made him a lefty!) is $100. I'll buy into the equally high values for other cards I did not remember owning. This is all gravy on top of the valuable cards I know I own.
So it's good to be a baller on paper. And the word baller brings us to the meaning of the post. As I mentioned, part of this project was reviewing all of my "common" cards to look for diamonds in the rough. In addition to the gems, I found a ton of laugher cards. Joe Niekro, the Iorg brothers, Steve Balboni, Ozzie Guillen, Rick Reuschel, Lenn Sakata, Doyle Alexander, manager cards, etc. Names that hadn't been in my head for 20+ years.
What struck me was how much these cards showed that baseball players are rarely confused with the world's greatest athletes. I was amazed by: i) the prevalence of staches, ii) the dated glasses/shades that in no way seemed appropriate for high-level sports, iii) the combination of the two at the same time, and iv) the beer bellies, among other items. So without further ado, here are some cards I own that capture the magic from the Booger Sugar era of the MLB. We'll start with a real baller.
1) The Jay Baller look
Our hardcore readers will remember Jay Baller from this post many years ago. And yeah, um, we're recycling this pic. You know why. Look at him! The chest hair, the head hair, the chains, the stache, the smell of Marlboro Reds and stale Budweiser, the look that says "I don't know what a sit-up is, but I blow rails off a stripper's chest." It's all great. You could look like this and not stand out in the 80's. You could actually get laid. The dude's last name is his lifestyle. God bless the real-life inspiration for Kenny Powers. He used to snort snowflakes by the O-Z.
Bonus Jay Baller look pic: Don Aase. To be clear, Don Aase does NOT look like a baller. I'm just including this b/c this is a picture of an apparent professional athlete. Amazing.
2) No need for rec specs, I'll just wear my regular glasses when I play
Hard to believe that in the era of Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his sports-specific goggles, these guys said "Nah. I'm good with my regular glasses. It's not like guys are throwing hard balls 95 mph near my face." I had plenty of options for this. I just chose these guys because they were the first I came across, and because lazy.
3) Oscar Gamble
Oscar Gamble makes me smile. Never did much with the Yankees, but the dude could grow some hair. Happy to own this card, although it's as worthless as the '82 Yankees were.
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25 comments:
Some solid looks represented here. My uncle gave my brother his collection of childhood cards a few decades ago. I remember it including a rookie Roger Maris card, a couple of Willie Mays, and lots more. I suspect there could be some valuables in the collection.
Love this post, as I love all the TR baseball card posts.
I must object, though: Oscar Gamble wasn't just a fun Yankee to look at. His OPS+ in 7 seasons in NY was a very good 141, he had way more BB's than K's, and his AB/HR there was a ridiculous 16.7. He couldn't field worth a lick and he couldn't hit lefties at all, but the dude could hit righty pitching like a madman. With that sick 'fro.
I know most of this from playing Strat-o-matic, dorkily enough.
i would love to know if you have any brian allard cards. journeyman pitcher for the rangers and mariners, maybe pitched over parts of four seasons. won a world series ring as pitching coach for the 1991 twins. had an excellent perm in the early 80s. and now works for me. has some great stories.
I'm in the market for a Billy Ripken fuckface bat edition.
I definitely got my money's worth here today. Excellent work.
Breakdancing Will Now Be an Event at Olympic Games Starting in 2024
Well, there's a headline.
I can try to remember the name Brian Allard when I dive into the rabbit hole again. My sweet spot in terms of volume of cards owned is 1987-1990.
There are so many ridiculous photos/physiques. May need to put up some more highlights in the weeks ahead. Ain't got nothing else to do this winter.
Unrelated, but worth giving a shout-out to Bob Dylan, who sold his catalog for $300 MM. I bet he will resume touring this summer. He seems to want to spend the rest of his days like a vagabond bluesman, going from town to town.
You should sell your baseball card collection for $300MM and go from town to town drinking whiskey and chasing women like a vagabond fratguy.
That is a phenomenal haul for Bob. Someone paid that amount to be the ones collecting on the money his songs will make in the future. I imagine it simplifies estate planning. Just give your kids stacks of cash and not make them worry about their share of 'Blowin in the Wind'.
Both PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir walked off pitch during Champions League match after asst. ref allegedly said the "n" word to identify one of IB's coaches.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9032101/PSG-Istanbul-Basaksehir-players-WALK-Champions-League-clash.html
I think of Dylan's "Idiot Wind" quite a bit when I see Trump: "Idiot wind. Blowing every time you move your teeth. You're an idiot, babe. It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe."
Now that sociopathic capitalists own his library, we can expect his tunes to pop in commercials all over the place. And part of me wonders if Jakob Dylan did a "yes" under his breath and pumped his fist when he heard that sale news (assuming he's in the will).
that psg/basakehir thing is bonkers.
sally jenkins puts dan snyder on a spit and roasts him in this morning’s wapo.
Oof. That may leave a mark for a few hours, but will soon be back to regular programming.
indeed, but it was fun to read
"[A] crapulent mini-Caligula" is a great line.
Not sure if Gheorghmas runs on a Gregorian calendar, but we're due for Day 4 soon, right?
wow-- what a post, that takes me back to when i loved baseball. the '82 yankees had some gems. i loved oscar gamble and willie randolph and rick cerone and nettles and winfield.
back then my dad would often get mistaken for lou pinella. i will try to find pics of them both in that era.
Lou Piniella lived in Tuxedo Park, NY in the late 70's, as did my grandparents. The Yanks used to spring train in Fort Lauderdale. My grandmother was down there one spring circa '77 or '78, when I used to root for the Yankees (and be physically assaulted by my uncles and verbally abused by my grandfather for it). She wanted to get me some autographs, so she climbed up onto the dugout as the players were coming into the dugout and yelled at Piniella, "TUXEDO PARK!" He laughed at her. And then took her checkbook deposit slips (all she had on her) and got autographs from most of the team. Reggie, Bucky, Nettles, all the guys. Including Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner. It was insane, and she reminded me of the story until she left us a few years back.
day 4 is rolling out tomorrow, looking for america’s greatest diners, drive-ins, and dives
ORF Rock is ON THE AIR
tribe/uva hoops rescheduled for sunday, 12/13. nice. it'll be good to get back on the...oh, uva shutting down due to covid-19 positives? fun season while it lasted.
Watched every inning of every Yankee game that I could back in those years. Love the gramma Lester dugout story. Played 3rd base bc of Nettles, had a Randolph poster in my bedroom, and Bucky was my first autograph. My dad took my sister and I, my best bud Pat Flanagan who has been mentioned here before, an uncle and cousin to Fenway back in '78. My dad knew where they were staying so he hauled us over to their hotel. Sure enough, within minutes as we head up an escalator, my uncle points out Dent who is heading down. Blue jeans, cowboy hat, swagger. We get up to the top and make the u-turn down and catch him for a bit. Cordial and cool. Made my wkd.
Should add the next morning we went back. We were there for a 2-game series. We see #44 eating breakfast which was like seeing Jesus Christ. In a hotel restaurant on the other side of the glass, viewable to all. The host observes us observing and before we can bother him (not that we were going to) he asked us to beat feet. Fuck that guy. That night, Reggie hit a hr ball that landed 2 rows directly in front of me. If we had met, I always believed he would have hit it to me cuz kids are stupid.
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