Topps 2012 Chris Davis

I'm not really sure that if I tried to explain the Orioles 9-6 17 inning win over the Red Sox today that I could do it justice. Suffice it to say that DH Chris Davis pitched two innings in relief and got the win. This after an 0-8 day at the plate.

Oh, the Red Sox had the winning run cut down at home in the bottom of the 16th. And JJ Hardy hit two homers. The Orioles 20 plus scoreless streak by the bullpen ended when Troy Patton gave up a run but they've been awfully good.

I had misgivings about putting out the $$ for MLB.TV this season. Today made the whole thing worthwhile.

My First Foul Ball

Friday night my wife and I attended the Astros-Cardinals game at Minute Maid Park. We had nice seats down the third base side low in Section 107 which is about where the stands curve to meet the foul line. We were on the aisle on the home plate side of the section. Prime foul ball territory no doubt. When we sat down I told my wife to be sure to be paying attention, we were in the line of fire.

Sure enough Astros' catcher Chris Snyder ripped the second pitch of the bottom of the second inning. And I do mean 'ripped'. I know because I saw the replay later that night, and therein lies the problem. When he hit the ball I was texting my son. I never saw it coming. My wife said she saw Snyder swing but couldn't follow the ball. Luckily (and I'm not even sure of the physics involved here) instead of killing someone in the vicinity the ball clipped the edge of the aisle seat in front of me, inches from my knee. It ricocheted off my wife's ankle rattled around under our seats and came to rest between our feet. How it passed over (or through!) the folks to our right yet hit so low on the side of that seat I'll never know. I had no idea what was coming or, when it hit, what was happening. It happened just that fast.

Didn't take long for my wife's ankle to swell a bit so we got her looked at by a medical tech called by an usher supervisor. All that was required was a bag of ice and we enjoyed the rest of the game. She had a nice bump and bruise by the next morning.

The Astros ended up winning the game so the 60% or so of the crowd that was rooting for them was happy. I   used the MLB-TV replays to get a couple of screen caps of the whole thing. Not gonna post them because my wife hates the pics.::shrug:: 

The Houston crew showed our section as we settled back down. The Cardinal broadcast stayed with Snyder. Looked to me like he took a glance to see if he'd killed anyone. Chris, if you're reading this, we're fine but next time try not to knock out any fellow Houston alumni. 

I gave the ball to a kid behind us. I've been to a lot of games but that was the first time I've gotten a batted ball. I had a few tossed to me as a kid and had a Willie McCovey foul hit an armrest in front of me in the Astrodome and whistle past my head.

Obviously that's a 2011 Topps Chris Snyder card up there. It's the only one I have of him. Don't know if there is one of him as an Astro.

Let's Go Rangers!!!

Here's the Topps 57-58 Camille Henry I picked up recently from eBay. There are some cool vintage hockey cards that came be had cheaply on there. Henry was a long time Ranger star who last played for them in 1967/68. I saw some games that season but he wasn't there for the full year so I don't know if I ever saw him play in person.

That season's hockey release isn't all that much different from the '58 baseball set.

T-205 John McGraw

John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 years winning 4424 games, 10 pennants and 3 World Championships.

But before that he managed the Baltimore Orioles. Two different versions, btw. The NL Orioles in 1899 and the AL Orioles in 1901/02. He got canned by the O's in that 1902 season. He began his run as dictator skipper on Coogan's Bluff that same year. I'd call that landing on your feet.

This is my J. J. McGraw T-205 Gold Border. When I bought it it was in a graded case. I think it was graded Poor. That was a long time ago at a National in Arlington in a former life and slabbed/graded cards were just becoming a big deal. I broke it out of the case because I believe cards should be allowed to breath.

Obak David Clyde

This is one ugly card. Another sticker autograph, too. Oh well. 

My brothers and sister went to high school with David Clyde at Westchester High in Houston (I was a couple years ahead of him). My dad and I would go watch him pitch at the high school field and the crowd filled the stands and would ring the field watching through the fence. 

Clyde was unbelievable. It was like watching a grown man mow down little leaguers. He had perfect form, looked like Sandy Koufax out there. Opposing players were lucky to foul a ball off at times. Then in 1973 he graduated and went straight to the Rangers to help Bob Short prop up his franchise. I listened to his first game along with a group of friends while we played a city league softball game.

David Clyde won that game but time showed he wasn't ready and he certainly would have benefited from some time in the minors and a chance to mature as a pro. But Short believed Clyde was the team's 'savior' and kept him in the bigs. The rest is well known. David Clyde fought demons and ended up a happier man when he finally retired and went into the lumber business north of Houston.

BTW... I also saw him play football for Westchester. He was a kicker and I'll never forget him kicking a field goal of better than 50 yards into the wind in a rainstorm. That kick was about as impressive as any ballgame I saw him pitch.

Ryan Callahan, NYR

NOTE: This post went up on my '59 Topps blog accidentally earlier today. I've been trying to post from my iPad and not all the kinks are ironed out yet, obviously.

Mighty tired today. Stayed up late watching my Rangers beat the Caps in triple OT. When you have four hours invested in a game you can't just turn it off now can you?

I don't have a lot of hockey cards, at least not in comparison to football and baseball. And just a few of those are of current players. But I thought these were pretty nice. When I got back into the collecting hobby I was surprised to see that Panini was doing cards. When I had dropped out they were in the sticker business.

Ryan Callahan is a terrific hockey player, btw. Just so you know.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad (or not!)

2009 Upper Deck Matt Kemp Future Foundations

I have cards in a shoe box (yes, I still keep cards in a shoe box, sue me) that just seemed to appear. I have know idea where they came from. This is one of them. I suspect it was a box break or a card 'draft' that I participated in in the last couple of years.

Anyway in my attempt to become more knowledgeable about the current game I've heard and read a lot about Matt Kemp. Some writers say he's the best player in baseball. I've read a couple of times that he should have won last year's MVP award.

Anyway I'm still new enough to the modern card world that autograph cards are kind of exciting. Even ones that have the autograph on a crookedly applied sticker. So having a card of Matt Kemp with a autograph is pretty cool.

I guess what prompted me to scan and post this is the fact that I've been hearing a lot of Vin Scully lately. Between Sirius radio and MLB.tv I've caught a bunch of games and once the Orioles are done for the night I gravitate to the Dodger broadcast just to hear him. You can tell he's getting up in years but he's still just a pleasure to listen to.

He says a lot of nice things about Matt Kemp, by the way.