Non-Team PC Players

This article was inspired by a tweet from a friend of mine @BigShep79 on Twitter. He posed the question “Who is the one player (not on your team) you’d want to or do PC?” The one player that immediately came to my mind is Tony Gwynn. He was my favorite non-A’s player growing up and, in fact, he still is my favorite non-A’s player.

In a way I do have a small PC of Gwynn. About 10 years ago I started to pull aside all of my Tony Gwynn cards. They currently sit in one of my boxes with some of my A’s collection. If I were to guess I would say there is probably about 50-75 cards in that stack. Most are base junk-wax cards, nothing too special. One of the more “interesting” cards I can remember is from the bottom of a 1988 Topps wax box. I haven’t bought too many more Gwynn cards since doing this, but I’ve been thinking about it more lately.

In thinking about this non-team PC concept, I wanted to take it a step farther. I am going to select a position player and a pitcher from three different “eras” for whom I would start a hypothetical PC. The three “eras” are: current, childhood and vintage.

Current players:
Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies
Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals

Childhood players:
Tony Gwynn, San Diego Padres
Randy Johnson, Seattle Mariners

Vintage players:
Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirates
Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers

Honorable Mentions:
Trevor Hoffman, San Diego Padres – not really a childhood guy, more like an adult era player (for me). He was my favorite closer not named Eckersley during the 1990s.

Ernie Broglio, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs – he was the Cubs return in the infamous Brock for Broglio trade. How did that work out for you Cubs? He is also a local (Northern CA) guy.

Red Schoendienst, St. Louis Cardinals – I have been told that I look like his doppelganger.

Dave Kingman, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics – technically he did play for my team from 1984-86, so he’s not a true non-team player. I have recently decided to start a PC of him. Kingman was one of my first “favorite players” and that is why I wanted to mention him here.

There are plenty other players I could list, but these are some of the ones that immediately came to mind.

What’s really interesting about this question is the diversity of the answers received thus far. One would think that guys like Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Derek Jeter, Kris Bryant would have dominated the responses. Instead the players are as diverse as the collectors. Of 14 collectors who have responded, at the time of this writing, only two players have been doubled up: Tony Gwynn and Mike Trout. The list contains 14 other players including: Roberto Clemente, Wil Myers, Ryne Sandberg, Nolan Arenado, Bo Jackson and Julio Franco.

It will be interesting to see where this list goes. Another facet that would be worth looking at is why? For most collectors when it comes to PC players the reasoning is more that just, “I like that player.” There is something specific about that player that really drew the collector to them.

As stated at the beginning of the article, if I were to only select one my non-team PC player would be Tony Gwynn. Why Tony Gwynn? He was the absolute best hitter in my childhood/young adult life. Every time I saw him play, he would rack up a couple hits per game. I don’t think I ever saw him strike out in any of the games I watched. He was fun to watch. I remember watching the game in August of 1999 when Gwynn slapped a single to right-center for his 3000th career hit. There was just something special about watching Tony Gwynn.

Feel free to comment below or on Twitter about your non-team PC selection. Let me know why! I would like to follow up on this article with other collector’s thoughts.

You can find me on Twitter: @bicemusic

 

Lineup Card: Stockton Ports vs. Modesto Nuts – July 28, 2017

I have always wanted to get a lineup card. I have seen people at Banner Island Ballpark with ones from previous games getting them autographed. I have never been lucky enough to get one from a coach or manager. Towards the end of the season I was at a Modesto Nuts game and in the team store they were selling game-used lineup cards. They were $25 and the proceeds went to the charity fund. I thought it was a decent price, but I didn’t think much about buying one until I noticed one detail: they were autographed by the Nuts players. This was a deal I couldn’t pass up.

I looked through the cards to find ones where they played Stockton. I found a couple and settled on the one from Friday, July 28th. I wasn’t at that game, but it turns out that I was at the game the next day. I went with this card for 2 reasons. The first is that Sheldon Neuse, Oakland’s No. 13 prospect, went 3 for 5 and hit his first 2 home runs in the Athletics organization. Neuse had come over from the Washington Nationals with Blake Treinen and Jesus Luzardo in the Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson trade on July 16th. The other reason is that Seattle’s No. 1 prospect, Kyle Lewis, is on the lineup card (on the bench) and he autographed it.

As you can see, I have since framed the lineup card with some autographed cards of some players on the Ports. I don’t think I am going to get the Ports players to sign the lineup card. At this point it will be too difficult. Many of them will likely not be on the team next year.

 

TTM Success 12/24/2014: Danny Tartabull

On Christmas Eve I received another good success. This time I received 5 cards autographed by Danny Tartabull. Danny was a 14-year Major-League veteran who was selected for the 1991 All-Star game as a member of the Kansas City Royals. In 1995, Danny was traded to the Oakland Athletics. He played in only 24 games for the Athletics. Danny retired after the 1997 season. He holds a career batting average of .273 and totaled 262 home runs.

Danny signed 5 cards for me: 1987 Fleer, 1987 Fleer Update, 1988 Topps, 1996 Fleer, 1996 Topps Stadium Club

TTM Autographs of Danny Tartabull

I received this success in 20 days. Thank you Danny!

Baseball Season is in Full Swing

The beginning of April brings the beginning of the baseball season. The season actually started, in full, on March 31st, but that’s close enough. The Oakland Athletics dropped the season opener by a score of 2-0 to the Cleveland Indians. The 2 runs came in the top of the 9th inning off the new closer Jim Johnson.

So far in this young season the Athletics have had 2 games postponed. 1 due to rain and the other due to unplayable infield conditions. The rain out was made up the next day as a part of a split double header. No make up date for the second postponement has been announced at this time. It has been quite an interesting first week for the green and gold.

The first week wraps up tomorrow as the Athletics take on the Seattle Mariners. Sonny Gray (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will face off against Erasmo Ramirez (1-0, 2.57 ERA). Sony was the Opening Night starter and pitched 6 strong innings striking out 7 receiving a no decision.

TTM Success 02/01/2014: Dave Beard

On Saturday, February 1st I received my latest Oakland Athletics TTM success.  I received 5 autographed cards from former pitcher Dave Beard. Dave spent 4 years in the Athletics organization from 1980-83.  He was drafted in the 6th round by the Athletics in the 1977 Amateur Draft.  He made his first Major League appearance July 16, 1980, pitching the 9th inning of a loss to the Detroit Tigers. After the 1983 season the Athletics packaged Dave with Bob Kearney in a deal with the Seattle Mariners for Darrel Akerfelds and Bill Caudill.

Dave autographed 5 cards for me: 1982 Fleer, 1984 Fleer, 1983 Donruss, 1981 Topps & 1983 Topps.

TTM Autographs of Dave Beard

Athletics finish season with rout of Mariners

The Oakland Athletics wrapped up the regular season on Sunday with a decisive 9-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.  The Athletics finish the season with a record of 96-66.

Sonny Gray took the hill and pitched 5 strong innings giving up only 3 hits while striking out 8.  Sonny wraps up his first year with a record of 5-3, 67 strikeouts in 64 innings and a 2.67 ERA.

The offense was led by Seth Smith who was 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and an RBI.  Daric Barton also drove in a couple for runs on a single in the Top of the 5th inning.

The Athletics will have 4 days off before the start of the Postseason.  They will set their sights on the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS starting on Friday, October 4th.  All signs point to Bartolo Colon (18-6, 2.65 ERA) as the Game 1 starter.  This will be the 2nd year in a row that the Athletics will face the Tigers in the ALDS.

The Ichiro Debate

On Wednesday night Ichiro Suzuki of the New York Yankees collected his 4000th professional hit.  The key word here is: professional.  In no way am I saying MLB hits, I am talking professional hits.  Career pro hit number 4000 was MLB hit number 2722, good for 59th all-time.

Ichiro has become the epitome of the professional hitter since he joined the MLB in 2001.  Prior to joining the MLB Ichiro spent 1992-2000 in the Japanese League.  In the Japanese League Ichiro collected 1278 hits.  From 1994-2000 he had an average of 177 hits per year.  During his tenure in the MLB his average hits per year have increased to 217 (through 2012).  Even though his hits total per season have tailed off in the last 2 years he is still one of the most consistent hitters in the league.

With regards to the total 4000, some will say that his time in the Japanese League does not count, it’s no better than the AAA level in America.  To that I say get over yourself.  The Japanese League does count.  It is the highest level of professional baseball in Japan.  Ichiro has flourished in the MLB as his 2722 hits will attest.  

I am not an Ichiro fan.  I do not like the Mariners or the Yankees, the 2 MLB teams he has played for.  I do have respect for what he has done and I respect him as a player.  Ichiro will reach the Hall of Fame when he does retire.  It is not the 4000 professional hits that will get him there.  It will be his MLB stats and the way in which he plays the game that will get him there.

I know this blog is about the Oakland Athletics and their farm system, but this blog is really about baseball.  There may be some off-topic posts from time to time.  This was a topic too important not to cover.