Upgraded To The Gift Shop Window

I bought a Ben Sheets autograph last week.  

 

This is from the per-pack-autograph product, Upper Deck Ultimate Signatures. 

I have long dabbled in Ben Sheets cards, but rarely post them.  

Last year, I posted a rant about how Ben Sheets name does not appear anywhere at the USA Baseball facility, which is five minutes from my house and I drive past it everyday driving to work. If you don't want to read the rant, Sheets single-handedly won the Gold Medal Game at the 2000 Olympics, but somehow is not recognized anywhere by USA Baseball. Other players who did not win an Olympic Gold Medal Game with an incredible pitching performance are recognized at the USA Baseball facility.  

Well, I recently had the chance to attend a game to watch the College National Team.  

There is actually a pretty significant expansion project taking place at the facility, which includes a new training building. 

Most importantly, there have also been changes to the gift shop, which now features a timeline of important events and accomplishments of the USA Baseball program. 

Look at that. Win a Gold Medal, appear on the gift shop window.  

A Rant About Ben Sheets

The Olympics are starting this weekend, I doubt that I will watch very much. Maybe not at all. At one point in my life, I loved watching the Olympics. Over the past decade, I have watched less and less of the events. My loss of interest stems from the continued use of professional athletes in the games and the overly dramatic telecasts. I just want to see people swimming fast, not everyone has to have a backstory. 

"Ryan Held was a well-off middle class kid from Springfield, Illinois. He got a scholarship offer to attend NC State where he met his future wife. They don't agree about their pizza toppings. Mike Tirico has more about what this couple does when they order pizza....."  

Changing topics. I am going to write about Ben Sheets for a few minutes. 

Yes, the Brewers pitcher.  

The topic might seem really odd for my blog, but I promise you it's a relevant current topic with the start of the Olympics.

If you do not remember Ben Sheets, or do not know who he is, he pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers in the early 2000s. He was a good pitcher on a lot of not-so-great Brewers teams. Above-average pitcher, innings-eater who won his fair share of games while striking out a bunch of people. Sheets had a bunch of arm injuries late in his career and ended up pitching briefly for the A's and Braves for one season each. 

I care deeply about Ben Sheets and have a pretty healthy collection of his cards. I have never really written about him in this space. I guess if you really, really pay attention on Twitter, you might have seen me harangue some USA Baseball types about him. 

Yes, there will be baseball cards in this rant about Ben Sheets.  

Ben Sheets has several USA Baseball cards. 

Have you ever seen one?  

Unfortunately, there have not been any made since 2013 when Panini included him in a few different products. It's criminal that he's not in every USA Baseball card product. The fact that Ben Sheets has not had an Olympic related card in almost a decade goes to show how little card companies research the players on checklists. 

Some of you already know all about Ben Sheets and the Olympics. Here is another card. Keep reading anyway for the rant part of the post. 

Ben Sheets was in the 2000 Summer Olympics on the USA Baseball team. The roster was made up of Minor League players. A few were serious prospects, but the majority of the team consisted of older players who had lingered in the upper levels of the Minors. Ernie Young was one of the players. Go look him up.

The team was managed by Tommy Lasorda. After losing out on the Gold Medal at the previous two Olympic games, the expectations for this team were really low. Sheets was selected for the team. At the time, Sheets was a high-end prospect in the Brewers system. He was a great college player at the University of Louisiana-Monroe and was drafted in the first round by the Brewers in 1999.

Sheets essentially jumped from college to the Majors in a season. There are not many Minor League cards of him. This is the only one in my collection. I know there are others out there, just have never tracked them down.  

The Cuban National Team was the clear favorite to win the Gold Medal in baseball at the 2000 Olympics.  They had a roster full of professional players. Yes, the USA Baseball team players were technically professional players, but the Cuban team was filled with players who would have likely been in the Majors had Cuba not been closed off at that time.  

The two teams played in the preliminary round-robin and the Cubans beat the US team 6-1. Apparently the game was more lop-sided than the score indicates. However, the US team reached the medal round. After squeaking past a tough semi-final game against South Korea. the squad made the Gold Medal game against Cuba. A Cuban Gold Medal was all but a forgone conclusion. The team had won 21 straight Olympic baseball games entering 2000, including the Gold Medal games in both the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta games.  

Enter Ben Sheets.  

Sheets was a Double-A pitcher throwing against a Major League roster. All Sheets did was pitch a complete game, three-hit shoutout. No Cuban baserunner ever got past second base. It was a great performance. In the modern world of the Olympic Games with professional athletes taking over, this is as close as we are likely going to come to having another great upset in a team sport. 

At the time of this game, Sheets was very popular and got a few baseball cards out of this pitching performance.  Upper Deck included him in several different end-of-year products.  

There are also several 2001 Topps cards that show him wearing a "United States" jersey, but those pictures are actually from the 2000 All-Star Futures Game. The format of the Futures Game has always been the American players versus the International players. For the 2000 game, the US team wore these very Olympic looking uniforms.  

Further, Topps did not have a license to produce USA Baseball cards in the early 2000s. That production license was held by Upper Deck. I am sure that it was not an accident that Topps used this photo.  

Also, while it is not clear on the Topps Finest card above, Sheets is wearing a Milwaukee Brewers hat in the picture. Doubtful that you'd be allowed to wear that in the Olympics. There were plenty of other prospects in these sets who also appeared at the Futures Game, but managed to be photographed in their regular uniforms.  

Paging Barry Zito.  

So we are to the rant part of the post. (Deep breath)

Sheets performance against a heavily-favorite Cuban baseball team in the 2000 Gold Medal game was the best performance by a member of a US Olympic team sport in modern history outside of the 1980 hockey game against the Soviet Union. Although, the "Miracle on Ice" game was actually in the semi-finals, not the Gold Medal game. I am also excluding sports where competitors can win individual events and medals.

THIS WAS A GREAT PERFORMANCE.  

No matter though, nobody is paying attention to Ben Sheets. He's an average Major League pitcher. Ben is retired and has probably returned to Louisiana where he sitting around doing who knows what. 

You know what Ben Sheets hasn't done since he won a Gold Medal? Well, he has barely been acknowledged or recognized for a great performance during an Olympic Gold Medal Game.  

Do you know what USA Hockey has done to recognize the members of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team?

+The team and all of its members are in the US Hockey Hall of Fame.

+The team lit the Olympic flame at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City

+The rights to the story were sold to Disney and made into a movie. 

Those were the three items I found by Google Searching the team, reading just the little snippet on the first link, and not actually clicking on it to read any further detail.  

Ben Sheets? 

Surely he has some sort of recognition somewhere by USA Baseball. Somewhere there is a plaque or a spot for him in a Hall of Fame or his number is retired? The answer to those questions:

No, there is not a plaque. I have looked for one at the USA Baseball facility. It's not there.

Yes, there is a USA Olympic Hall of Fame, but Sheets has not been inducted. 

Yes, USA Baseball has retired jersey numbers, but not Sheets. These are the retired numbers at USA Baseball. All of them have a plaque in the stadium. 

Before I start yelling, I am fine with Stephen Reich having his number retired. This is not about Stephen Reich. 

Now for the yelling part of the rant.  

MARK MCGWIRE HAS HIS NUMBER RETIRED!!! 

MARK FLIPPING MCGWIRE.

He was not even the best first baseman on the 1984 Olympic team.  

Why is Will Clark's number not retired? He out hit McGwire by almost 40 points with 10 more home runs and nearly 20 more RBIs. Look at Bobby Witt. He had an ERA under 1. I'd say Scott Bankhead, but he went to UNC. Plus, Bobby Witt was signing autographs at USA Baseball once and eye-rolled me for mentioning that he played for the Cardinals.  

He was old and not very good.  Still gave me the autograph though.  

Let me continue besmirching Mark McGwire as an Olympian.  

Baseball was a demonstration sport in the 1984 Olympics, these guys were not even playing for a Gold Medal. Further, if they had been playing for a Gold Medal, they lost to Japan in what would have been the Gold Medal Game. 

You know who did win a Gold Medal in the Olympics and pitched his ass off in the Gold Medal Game? 

Ben Sheets.  

I think Ben Sheets is in the first row, closest to the camera. He's not holding his flowers.  

Can Ben Sheets have his number retired?  

I have tweeted at USA Baseball. They have ignored me.  

Can Ben Sheets get a USA Baseball baseball card?

It's been nearly a decade since he's appeared in one of their sets. Kris Bryant has more than 80 USA Baseball cards during that time. Kris Bryant also has 0 Olympic Gold Medals. Two years ago, Roger Clemens got a USA Baseball card. He appeared in zero Olympic Games and has 0 Gold Medals. 

During the next week, if you are watching the Olympics, take a few minutes to mute Kenny Albert's backstory about the hard-knock life hockey players who went to Harvard, and look into Ben Sheet's 2000 Olympic performance. 

Stadium. Stadium Club.

Stadium. 

I spent my Saturday afternoon watching the Durham Bulls and Norfolk Tides.  It had been a few weeks since I last attended a baseball game in-person.  The Bulls are in first place at the moment and had a chance to clinch their division this weekend, which is still possible.  The weather was a little warm, but still a nice day to take in a baseball game.  

I also got to check out Orioles catching prospect Adley Rutschman, who is the top overall prospect in all of baseball.  I saw him a few years back while he was playing at Oregon State and appeared for the USA Baseball team during the summer.  

A few pictures of Adley warming up before the game.  

Adley spent most of the time working with some Orioles coach who is wearing the black and orange wind breaker in this picture.  He needs a little bit of work on defense.  

He didn't get a hit during the game.  

The Bulls ended up losing the game 3-1.  Their lone run came on a home run by Alika Williams who was called up to the team from A Ball before the game.   Pretty good shot.  

2020 @RaysBaseball CBA pick Alika Williams clears the Blue Monster in his Triple-A debut for the @DurhamBulls. pic.twitter.com/IhmuXAN0YK

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 12, 2021

Stadium Club. 

Beyond going to the game, I also picked up three Stadium Club autographs earlier in the week.  They have been sitting on my desk for the past few days.  Really not that bad considering there a couple that have been there for multiple weeks.  These were easy to scan and post, so that's what won out today.  

First up is Ryan Jeffers.  

I saw Jeffers earlier this summer at a Tigers game.  He's from Raleigh and went to UNC-Wilmington for college.  I never saw him play in college, nor in the Minors.  I just know several local people who follow his career, seems like he might be a solid player.  The card was also really inexpensive.  

Next.  

I try to avoid Brewers cards, but Devin Williams is pretty awesome.  He's also from St. Louis.  It would be more fun to watch him if he was on the Cardinals, but they probably would have found a way to mess him up.  

Last card, which has a scratched up top-loader.  

Easily my favorite card out of the group.  I just wish it was a Cardinals card.  Topps has made a bunch of different Scott Rolen cards this year, but it feels like almost all of them are Phillies cards. 

Slightly Let Down.

I was really excited earlier this year when Topps announced that they were putting out a set that was created with the owner of the Super 70s Sports Twitter account.  The Twitter account is sort of a cross between sports and pop culture with a heavy 1970s lean.  Sure, there is a little bit of 1960s and 1980s cross over in there from time to time, but the account generally does a good job of staying in its lane.  

For example........

Brilliant.  

I was hoping the set would be the Topps equivalent of the 2001 Upper Deck 1970s set.  If you collected cards at the time that set was released, you know that's a high bar to meet.  There were some really strong inserts, great names from the decade, and a solid autograph checklist.  I thought Topps was up for the challenge of matching cards like this one from the Upper Deck set.....

 

It took awhile for the box to show up, but last week it appeared in my mailbox.  I was excited to open the pack of cards.  It's one of the few current 2020 products that I have opened this year.  

The packaging inside the box was pretty nice.   

Now that I mentioned the Twitter account and the packaging, I am roughly 50% of the way through the highlights for this product.  The set has one major flaw.  Maybe I am being picky, but I am going to go ahead and borrow a meme from Mad Man and one of my current favorite sayings at work.  

Works great in 2020, usually more than once in a week.  

So, here is the problem.  Ohtani has nothing to do with the 1970s.  He wasn't even born in the 1970s.  Sandy Koufax did not pitch in the 1970s.  In fact, he retired in the middle of the 1960s.  It's not even like he pitched in the late 1960s.  I am not scanning on my cards from the box, they are on my Twitter if you really need to see them, but there were a lot of other non-1970s players.  

Not to keep harkening back the Upper Deck 1970s set either, but that product only had players from the 1970s, which is what made it a really great product.  I'd like to think there is still a market for that type of product 20 years later.  Has Topps looked around at who collects baseball cards nowadays?  There are a lot of people who would eat up a set filled with players from the 1970s.  

Here is the sad part.  

The 1970s cards that are in the set are really well done.  It's not like I am expecting a set of Hall of Famers.  J.R. Richard and Dave Kingman are definitely more in line with what I thought would be in pack of cards.  These are great cards.  The 1970s themed insert cards are even better.  I pulled three insert cards, one of which was an autograph, out of my box of 1970s Topps.

This card is a gem with Rich "Goose" Gossage wearing shorts for the White Sox.  

Lou Brock wearing sunglasses.  Yes, absolutely great 1970s card. 

This Gorman Thomas card is also awesome.  The mustache is magnificent, as is the long hair cover up his ears and the long side burns.  

I understand that I am being a little hard here.  There are truly some really great 1970s cards in this product.  If had to go back and keep my $20 and not order this box, I probably would have still picked up a few singles on Ebay or COMC at some point.  It's not a total disappointment, I just feel slightly let down.  

and I am done.

I do not care about Gary Vee. 

I bought a blaster of Ginter a few weeks back and pulled a Corbin Burnes printing plate. 

I am not sure if I have ever pulled a printing plate out of a pack of retail cards.  Pretty cool. 

I got two copies of the Blake Snell autograph.  The regular one. 

Last week I found two Cardinals autographs that I was interested in adding.  The first was a copy of the Tyler O'Neill autograph.  Interested in seeing him play a bit more.  The Cardinals lack offense, O'Neill seems like he can hit for power.  I have not done much with his cards recently. 

He has other autographs and nice cards floating around, but I am going to pass on them all for right now.  Just one.  

This is one I have had on my list since the checklist for Ginter first came out.....

Ankiel autographs always seem to be expensive when they first come out, but they eventually settle down at some point.  After waiting a few weeks, I was finally able to add this card at a price I was comfortable with paying.  Topps did a great job of being neutral on pitcher/outfielder Rick Ankiel. 

and that's it for Ginter, I am done. 

Unless one of the serial numbered Snell autographs ends up selling cheap. 

This Set Has Dragged On Long Enough.....

The last of the 1986 Topps Glossy Mail-In set.  There have been two other posts for this set, which is my favorite out of all the Mail-In sets from the 1980s.  It's Cardinals heavy and I have already gushed over the team's left fielder enough in other posts this month.  Last few groups of cards.

Picking out one player from each group to share something, or some thoughts about....... 

Ernie Riles - He was a prospect in this set, ended up spending roughly a decade in the Majors as a utility infielder.  I best remember him on the late 1980s Giants teams with Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell.  Obviously not that level of player, but he contributed to the team.  I like the old Brewers powder blue uniform and MB glove logo hat.  Very nice card. 

Dave Stieb- Since Jack Morris is in the Hall of Fame, we should also go ahead and put Dave Stieb in there too.  He never pitched in the deciding game of a World Series, but he was one of the better pitchers of the 1980s and some of his career numbers are better than what is on Jack Morris's resume.

In the three season prior to 1986, Dave Stieb had a WAR of 21.6 and Nolan Ryan, same three years, had a WAR of 6.5.  I mean Nolan Ryan struck out a bunch of people though, so that's what is important. 

George Bell (Jorge) Begin rant....

There are bad trades in baseball.  It has been a long held belief that the White Sox trading Sammy Sosa was somehow a terrible idea.  Do people not remember how good Jorge Bell was during his career?  He won the American League MVP Award in 1987, but you'd swear the guy was the biggest bum in the world based on the way people talk about the fact that he was traded for Sammy Sosa.  He hit 47 home runs in a season during the 1980s.  The year before the Cubs traded Bell, he hit 25 home runs, 27 doubles, and drove in 86 runs.  Sure, he fell off after he joined the White Sox, but let's stop talking badly about George. 

End rant. 

Browning.  Should I post the video of him on the Wrigley rooftop again? 

I will do a picture instead.  He also once pitched a perfect game.  

This is a really tough group to decide between.  We have a former football player, a Cardinals player wearing the wrong numbered jersey, and a former Durham Bull.  

Since there has been a lot of talk about college football players, and whether they should choose to play baseball or football, lets go with.....

Phil Bradley- He played both baseball and football at the University of Missouri.  As a baseball player he helped the team win the Big 8 (I miss that conference) Conference Championship in 1980 and they made the NCAA Tournament in both 1980 and 1981.  However, Bradley was much better known as a football player, he did not win the Heisman, but he was the Big 8 Offensive Player of the Year three years in a row.  While football has changed a lot in the last 40 years, and the Big 12 has a reputation for not playing defense, many of Bradley's numbers have held up over time.  He is still in the top 10 all-time in passing yards and top 5 in total yards in conference history.  Bradley mainly played with the Mariners, but bounced around at the end of his career.  He made almost 6 million dollars in 1980s money (that's a lot).  

Tony Gwynn- I guess Jeff Reardon is the least known player in this group, but it's hard to pass up a chance to talk about Tony Gwynn.  The Padres were not the best team in the mid 1980s, but I always think about those years as being some of the best of Tony Gwynn's career.  He could always hit and won several batting titles in the 1980s, a few more towards the end of his career, ending with eight overall.  The thing I liked best about the mid to late 1980s Tony Gwynn was the fact that he stole bases.  He stole 33 in 1984 while winning his first batting title, but went over 50 in 1987 and 40 in 1989.  Gwynn was not exactly the picture of fitness, but he has more than 300 career stolen bases.  I liked fast Tony Gwynn. 

Let's go Darrell Evans.  I used to not like getting his cards as a kid.  He was old.  I saw him play a game towards the end of his career with the Braves.  He was the worst player on the field.  Seriously, the elementary school/middle school version of me was wrong about Darrell.  Not a Hall of Famer, but a good player.  Darrell Evans hit 400 home runs, also walked more than he struck out.  

Fin.  

Brewers' Best

Last night I wrote about a Durham Bulls player.  That happens often in this blog space.  Sometimes, I feel like I really neglect the rest of the great baseball that is played in my little corner of the world.  There is not a Major League baseball team in the state of North Carolina, but within an hour of my house I can get to:  

• Five Different Minor League parks: Durham, Zebulon (Carolina Mudcats), Fayetteville, Burlington, and Greensboro.  Kinston is just over an hour.   
• Three ACC baseball teams that are frequently ranked in the top 25: UNC, NC State, and Duke 
• The ACC Baseball Tournament is frequently held in Durham 
• The USA Baseball program is 10 minutes from my front door

I have often thought about finding more time and space to write about these teams and players.  I will be a little proactive about the matter and write about a former Carolina Mudcat tonight.  The team plays about forty minutes away from my house headed towards the coast from Raleigh.  In the decade plus that I have lived in North Carolina, the team has cycled through a few different affiliations.  The past two years, the Mudcats have been the Milwaukee Brewers team in the Carolina League.  

Last year the Mudcats best player was Keston Hiura.  I'd argue that he's also the Brewers' best prospect.  The second baseman was a first round draft pick out of UC Irvine back in 2017.  While he was there he played for the College National team as a part of the USA Baseball program, so I had seen him before he was in the Minors.  

Very good player.  

Hiura passing through town twice has sort of outweighed the fact that he is on the Brewers.  Easily one of the best prospects to pass through the area in the past few years.  

He's a top 50 prospect and you can buy his autographs for between $5 and $10.  Keston Hiura has actually hit while he has been in the Minors too.  Some of his autographs are actually quite pricy, but if you're like me, you just want to own an autograph of a good player, there is nothing wrong with finding something like this Bowman Tek card.  

The design on Bowman Tek cards this year is a lot better than Topps Tek in my opinion.  There is still something goofy behind the player picture, but it's geometric and fits into the overall appearance of the card well.  The diagonal name plate looks pretty nice too.  

Set Project Update Take #2: 1983 Kelloggs

Two more weeks to finish off this set.  I know my last update was just a few days ago, but I am actually putting together a set in a timely fashion.  It has rarely happened in this space.  The cards are not very hard to find, nor are they very expensive.  When I made my post at the end of last week I was still roughly 40 cards short from completing the set.  I had already worked out two trades and have a COMC order coming through in the next day which will drastically cut down on the 40 cards needed.

First up.

Ran into a trading partner, who is a huge Angels fan, who sent me three Angels cards that were on my list.  Return package will be along shortly, but I am always happy when other collectors are generous with help on projects.  One of the great things about collecting baseball cards.

I picked up seven other cards from my checklist from another trade.  I got a few of the Kelloggs cards that I needed and they got a little bit of help with an older Topps Heritage set.

I was actually surprised when I started out on this project that I did not already have the Neil Allen and Quisenberry cards.  Both players were Cardinals at one point during their careers, and on most of these 1980s sets that I have started to work on, those are the cards that I usually already have in my collection.  Plus, Neil Allen coached with the Durham Bulls for a long time.  

Updated Checklist:

2 Rollie Fingers 

4 George Brett 

6 Pete Rose 

7 Fernando Valenzuela 

8 Rickey Henderson 

9 Carl Yastrzemski 

10 Rich Gossage 

11 Eddie Murray 

13 Jim Rice 

14 Robin Yount 

15 Dave Winfield  

17 Garry Templeton 

19 Pete Vuckovich 

26 Andre Thornton 

27 Leon Durham 

31 Nolan Ryan 

33 Len Barker 

35 Jack Morris 

39 Jim Palmer 

40 Lance Parrish 

41 Floyd Bannister 

42 Larry Gura 

44 Toby Harrah 

45 Steve Carlton 

46 Greg Minton 

52 Dale Murphy 

53 Kent Hrbek 

54 Bob Horner 

55 Gary Carter 

56 Carlton Fisk 

57 Dave Concepcion 

58 Mike Schmidt 

59 Bill Buckner