quien es mas macho?

within the 1992 topps stadium club set, there exists both this todd benzinger card

and this goose gossage card

the balance of mustache power is maintained - as weak as benzinger's is, the goose's is strong.  el ganso es mas macho!

going oppo

here's the 9th installment in the countdown to spring training.  i'm using the 1979 post raisin bran steve garvey's baseball tips cards as a weekly windown to baseball.  this week, the garv waxes poetic about one of his favorite pastimes - hitting to the opposite field.

the cartoon sketch doesn't seem to match the text - that front foot looks like it is pointed directly up the middle.  anyway, i took a look through some of my collection to see if i could find examples of guys hitting to the opposite field.  i found tom candiotti possibly doing it on his 1995 ud collector's choice card

although he might have just swung late.  todd benzinger looks to be flailing at the outside pitch on his 1992 topps traded card

but john lindsey seems to have the 'inside-out' part of the swing down on his 2011 bowman card

here's a nice example of moving the runner over by going the opposite way, assuming the batter was right-handed.  it's bobby higginson's 2003 topps card

in which he is advancing to third base on a grounder to the second baseman.  i really like this card - it reminds me a bit of the 1995 topps raul mondesi card which is one of my all-time faves.

speaking of mondesi, the back of his 1996 pinnacle zenith card gives us a lesson in the opposite of going the opposite way

only 10% of mondy's hits in 1995 were to right field, and none of his home runs went that direction.  contrast that with mike piazza

who hit about one-third of his base hits to right, including the same number of home runs that he pulled to left.  that's some opposite field prowess right there.

i'll finish up with a 2012 topps gypsy queen matt kemp mini, upon which the bison is tracking a ball that he has just sent to the opposite field

only about 3 weeks left until spring training starts!

before there was the beard, there was...

...the mustache!

speaking of the beard, it looks like it's back and paying dividends already!

tribe cards clearing house event - twins and dodgers edition

better late than never, here are some highlights of the cards david sent as part of his new year's clearing house event:

1991 topps jose gonzalez it's really billy bean. not beane. topps had a few of these types of corrected errors in 1991. curious.

1991 topps stadium club jose gonzalezhere's what jose really looks like.

2006 fleer ultra cesar izturisusually these pac bell/chevron cars shots are reserved for oh my omar!

1998 leaf eddie murraya final tribute! ed-die finished his career in 1997 with a second go around as a dodger. final stats: 3255 hits, 504 homeruns, 1917 rbi, 0 interviews.

1988 score bob welchsent to the a's, as this border coloring seems to suggest

1992 leaf todd benzingerintense!

1992 pinnacle orel hershiserthis is what happens when the manufacturers make 137 cards of one player in a 2 or 3 year span. there are only so many baseball poses to be had...

these next two are awesome.

1996 upper deck roberto kellycelebrating his vagabond ways - from the expos to the dodgers to the twins. technically, this is a twins card, but so what. it's a dodger sandwich.

1997 upper deck chad curtis

again, a dodger sandwich on what is really an indians card. not bad from an indians fan.

thanks david!