Friday Five: Five Coolest Baseball Games I Have Seen In Person

It's been a long time since I have made one of these Friday Five posts.  I should make this a regular thing again.  I know there were several regular readers who used to really like these, so to reward your patience I am going to double the normal five and go with ten for this week.  Really, I came up with five games, then had an honorable mention or two.  That quickly ballooned into another five games.  The Friday Ten just sounds terrible though.  Here's the list.


10.  July 22, 1986 San Francisco Giants vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

A lot of Cardinals fans will tell you that the Gold Standard for baseball brawls was the Cardinals and Reds from 2010 with Brandon Phillips and Yadier Molina.  Maybe an older fan will tell you it's the time Will Clark tried to take out Jose Oquendo and it ended up in a huge fight between the two and Ozzie Smith.  They're all wrong.   I went to a baseball game once for my mother's birthday and this happened.....

The video quality is not great, but this whole thing was basically set off by Whitey Herzog and Roger Craig, the two managers of the teams.  You know it's good when the St. Louis Police get involved, Mike Heath has to restrain Vince Coleman by carrying him off the field, and fans throwing beer at Chris Brown.  It appears that Tito Landrum might have been some sort of peace maker throughout.

9. April 14, 2006 Toledo Mud Hens vs. Durham Bulls 

My first Opening Day in Durham had a pretty memorable finish.  The Bulls were losing for the entire game including a 4-1 deficit entering the ninth inning.  Good old Lee Gardner pitched the ninth inning for the Mud Hens, but walked Shawn Riggans, Brent Butler, and Darnell McDonald to load the bases for the Devil Rays top infield prospect B.J. Upton.  As I remember it, there was not much doubt that the ball was over the fence.  A great way to start off my first full season of Durham Bulls baseball.  Here is the box score.

I don't remember Ryan Ludwick being on the Mud Hens that season.  See, these posts are already doing me some good.  I saw a Cardinals player and I don't even remember it.  

7.  July 16, 2006 Columbus Clipper vs. Durham Bulls 

This was the first no-hitter that I ever attended, but I did not stay for the whole game.  This is what happens when you go out to a game with a bunch of people that you work with and they say, "let's walk across the street and eat garlic fries and drink beer".  The garlic fries at the restaurant across the street from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park are excellent, but I deeply regret my decision.  Hammel ended up pitching into the ninth inning, but was at 125 pitches when manager John Tamargo pulled him out the game.  I didn't see it.  

Requisite picture of Jason Hammel pitching in Triple A.  

In the end Juan Salas came in and got the last two outs of the game.  The Clippers actually ended up scoring a run at the end of the game because Wes Bankston and Delmon Young committed errors on the same play, a ball hit by Carlos Pena, which was followed up by a wild pitch by Salas.  Always had this terrible feeling that I would not see another no-hitter ever and that this was the dumbest time to ever leave a game early...it worked out okay though. Read on.

6. October 5, 1985 Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

I moved to St. Louis at some point in the summer of 1984.  I know I went to a baseball game or two that summer and I know I went to a few during the 1985 season too.  The best game out of my first two years living in St. Louis was the second to last game of the year between the Cardinals and Cubs.    The Cardinals and Mets were in a heated pennant race, with no wild cards at that time, which meant you had to win your division.  This was the game where the Cardinals clinched the National League East by beating the Cubs 7-1.

Ozzie made this great play, Cesar Cedeno hit a home run, and John Tudor pitched great.  Definitely one of my better memories watching baseball as a kid in St. Louis.  

5. (tie)  September 5, 1998 Cincinnati Reds vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

I went to this game for a friend's birthday.  Drove home from college and watched the game.  It was McGwire and it was 1998.   I was actually sitting in left field for this game, but I was over about three sections towards center field and up about twenty rows from where the ball landed.  

The whole home run chase thing has lost some of its luster over time due to the steroid stuff, Bonds breaking the record again a few years later, etc.  It was something that was really important to baseball in St. Louis at the time it happened though.  If you could ask the 21 year old version of me about this game when it happened, or maybe a month after, it would have been higher than 5.  Same with the next one.  

5. (tie) September 7, 1998 Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

Same kind of stuff as the previous moment.  I thought this one was a little bit better, still going with a tie though, since it came against the Cubs.  Sosa was there and the Cubs were high fiving McGwire running around the bases.  Something always great about a Cubs and Cardinals game.  This one was the best I have seen of that rivalry.  

4. July 1, 2015 USA Baseball National College Team vs. Cuban National Baseball Team 

This was the second no-hitter I watched in the span of a year and the third one overall.  If you keep reading I promise you there is another one.  The summer time version of the USA Baseball National Team is made up of college players.  In this case the no-hitter was thrown by three pitchers from the SEC: Tanner Houck from Missouri, A.J. Puk from Florida, and Ryan Hendrix from Texas A&M.  All three are now in the Minors.  The final out....

This was a cool game to watch because it was a bunch of college kids taking on Cuban players who are in a professional league back home.  If you have never been to a USA Baseball game in Cary, NC the crowd tends to have more scouts than fans.  It's why there isn't a ton of noise at the end of the game when Hendrix gets the final out.  The one ding against this game is the fact that two of the Cuban players, both started the game, defected after the game.  Don't get me wrong, the three pitchers are great, but I have often wondered how much the Cubans were into the game.  

3.  April 26, 2014 Scranton Railriders vs. Durham Bulls 

The second no-hitter I saw, but the first one that I watched in its entirety.  I went to this game because my brother was in town for something work related.  We sat behind the Scranton dugout and watched Luis Sojo coach third base for the Yankees Triple A team.  I think I first noticed that Montgomery had a no-hitter going sometime in the fifth.  

Montgomery pitched into the ninth inning, but was pulled out of the game by the Rays.  Brad Boxberger finished the no-hitter off with a ground out and a strikeout.  Montgomery actually just missed a perfect game, walking just one batter, which happened to be former Bulls player Russ Canzler.  

2. September 27, 1998 Montreal Expos vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

A younger version of me would have put this at number one all day long.  I still love Mark McGwire as a player, still love what the home run race in 1998 did for baseball, and still remember the excitement this generated.  As previously stated though, it's luster has been somewhat diminished.  

Still a pretty awesome moment to witness.  I consider myself a pretty fortunate to have seen as many baseball games as I have in my life, not many people have seen something like this before.  

1.  September 15, 1991 New York Mets vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

I went to tons of Cardinals games while I was in high school with my father on Sunday afternoons.  The Cardinals were not good for most of my teen years, but they had a few good players and a few bright spots along the way.  Probably the best player on those teams was center fielder Ray Lankford. He's really an under appreciated player in the history of the team who is in the all-time top 10 in dozens of offensive categories.  Yet, he's not in the team's Hall of Fame likely because he's the only player on those top 10 lists who spent the majority of his career playing on bad teams.  Ted Simmons might fit that too. 

The best moment I had watching Lankford came early in his career against the Mets when he hit for the cycle.  It was a great moment at the time, but I think it has become a little bit better with time just for the fact that I am pretty doubtful I will see another player hit for a cycle again.  It could happen, but the odds are heavily against it.  

Here is the box score from Baseball-Reference.  

While I am really into collecting Ray Lankford cards, I also have several non-baseball card items of his too.  Probably my favorite item is my scorecard from that game.  I wrote in pencil, so I try not to take it out to often.  

While this is my best baseball moment, I am always open to further suggestions if someone wanted to hit four home runs in a game I attend, or pitch a perfect game.  I will have to revisit this post in a few years and see if it has changed at all.  

Four Rays From Twitter

I had the chance to pick up a couple of great looking Rays cards last weekend from a collector on Twitter.  I started out looking at a card and ended up taking home several.  Here's a look at the cards.....

This is the card that started the whole transaction.  I already own a copy of this card, but Mike Montgomery is kind of a favorite, I did see him throw that no-hitter last year, so I had to inquire.  The price was right so I pulled the trigger.  However, while I was there I spotted another Rays card of catching prospect Nick Ciuffo.

The Rays took Ciuffo in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft, but I have not done a lot with his cards.  I believe he has some autographs in one of the Bowman products, but this looked really nice, so this seemed like a good card to pick up.  So, there are two cards.  I figured after landing two Rays cards I should go back and got one more that I had tried to trade for/buy a month or two ago, but could not close the deal......

This is obviously a really cool card.  I have seen the metal framed autographs that Topps put out last year, they are similar to the gold framed Gold Label inserts they put in Topps Series 2 last year, but I did not own one of these signatures.  Cobb is a former Durham Bull and I love the look of the silver signature on the black background.  Throw in the fact that there are only 15 copies and this card is a great add to my collection.  The collector who sold me these cards also threw in a really nice card to make this an even better mail day.....

This is from last year's Topps Chrome set and is the Cracked Ice parallel of Alex Cobb.  Again, I have seen one of these, but I do not actually own one.  Cool looking parallel card if you ask me and serial numbered out of just ten copies on the back of the card.

#MyCardMonday Part 1

More than one #MyCardMonday ?  That's what happens when I have a day off of work.  I am going to have all kinds of good posts this week.  Tons of them.  I am going to start off with a Royals card.  I do not do a lot of Royals cards and I must say that I have not met too many Royals fans during my card collecting journey.  I also spent most of my life living on the wrong side of Missouri.  So, here's a Royals card......

I am a pretty big fan of this guy and am hoping he gets a shot at pitching in Tampa next year.  Although I have a feeling I will see him start off in Durham.  Not going to complain.  

Platinum Rays Autographs

I am doing a few posts the next couple days to catch up for last week.  It was just one of those weeks where things kept popping up and my day job kept me really busy.  I really wanted to put up a post about the 1991 Topps set, but am still working on it.  Probably this afternoon.  Plenty of cards to share, so here are two new cards to my collection:

Bowman Platinum was recently released by Topps.  I have opened wax of this product before and not always faired too well.  This year I avoided opening any packs of Platinum and settled for trading and buying single autographs, relics, and cool cards from the set.  The Cardinals and Rays autographs, which are always my first targets, have a few autographs in the product.  The Cardinals autographs in the set include Oscar Taveras and Stephen Piscotty, while the Rays autographs include Will Myers, Mike Montgomery, and Curt Casali.

Montgomery came over to the Rays in the James Shields and Will Myers trade.  He's been in Durham the past years and has yet to make an appearance at the Major League level for the Rays.  The left-handed starting pitcher made the International League All-Star team this year and is having a nice year for the Durham Bulls.  His last two months have been a little bit shaky, but I still think he will make a contribution to the Rays next year.  I'm not sure he starts, but he's in Tampa next year.  

I also picked up a copy of the Curt Casali autograph.  Casali played his college baseball at Vanderbilt and has spent a large chunk of this season in Durham.  He has also been called up to the Rays where he is hitting .186.  Not a great mark, but the Rays have been a little bit thin at catcher recently.  Not sure if his is ever a starter, but is decent defensively and has some good pop in his bat.  

Ramblings on a Computer....

I try to make regular posts on my blog.  I feel like I am pretty reliable with posting something here almost everyday, but this month has been sort of a black cloud.  It started a few weeks back when my trusty IMac started to fritz out.  I had bought my IMac back in 2009 while I was in grad school at NC State.  I was definitely nervous to buy a Mac.  They are more expensive than IBM compatibles and I was not totally familiar with them entering school.  Five years later I can say that I sold on Macs.  I shopped other computers, but I would not buy anything else at this point.

While I was waiting on my new IMac I still had my work computer that I could have used for blogging, but sometimes when you spend your time working with nine and ten year olds things happen to computers.  Last week the power source on my work computer came loose making it impossible to charge.  It was kind of like I had a black cloud following me around.

My IMac finally arrived and it took a day or so to set up and pull files off of my cloud.  My printer/scanner from my previous computer died.  Don't buy a HP.  At long last, I have a computer.  Just in time to type report cards, finish my end of year summative review, and maybe sit down and catch up on baseball cards.

I understand that people still came and read my blog during the past week, despite the fact that the posts I made were typed on a phone and the pictures were snapped with an IPhone or IPad, not scanned.  There were more than a few cards I wish I could go back and scan, but I do not have that much time this week.  Instead, these were my three favorite pick ups of the past week with nice scans.  All belong to Durham Bulls pitcher Mike Montgomery.....

I was so incredibly happy to be able to complete the "rainbow" of Montgomery cards out of the 2014 Pro Debut set, but was not really big on my IPhone photo which squeezed all three cards into one picture.  It will take me a week or two to catch up with all of the cards, but I am excited to be back to blogging and very thankful for the new computer.

Durham Bulls Rainbow

The Topps Pro Debut set dropped last week. My goal with this set is always simple: find all the Durham Bulls cards that I can get my hands on. Usually I am most interested in autographs and patch cards. The past two years Topps has put a manufactured patch card of the Bulls in the set, so I started out by looking for this year's version.  This year's edition features left handed pitching prospect Mike Montgomery, who came to the Rays organization from the Royals in the Wil Myers/James Shields trade.  I was able to find the regular version of the card pretty easily. 

The regular version of this card is serial numbered to 99, similar to last year, which made this card a little bit tougher to find, but not too bad. 

While I was looking I noticed that there were two other versions of the Montgomery card floating around on EBay. I am not super big into the whole concept of rainbows, picking up all the colored parallels of a card, but this seemed like a pretty simple one to put together. I decided to go for it. First up the gold version: 

This was the toughest of the three cards to pick up. Other people were interested in the card, there were multiple bids, which means sitting and watching the clock on an auction. I never the feeling of losing at the last second, but I managed to eek this one out. The gold version has just 5 copies. 

Which left just the printing plate. I was dreading the end of this auction, given the fact that the gold version was tough, I imagined that the plate would be even tougher.  Surprisingly, no. 

This card cost me just a little bit more than the regular card ended up costing me.  I was really nervous watching the end of this auction and was prepared to swoop in with something slightly ridiculous to save my Durham Bulls rainbow, but there was no need. 

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Mike Montgomery

I have been excited to put up my Mike Montgomery post on my Collecting the Durham Bulls thread for a weeks now since I saw him throw a no-hitter.  I had thought about jumping the gun a little bit, switching around the order I had scheduled my posts to appear, but stuck with my original schedule after taking a few deep breaths. 

On the Field 

The Bulls picked up Mike Montgomery from the Kansas City Royals in the James Shields/Wil Myers trade.  I love James Shields, but this trade is the gift that just keeps giving.  Myers won the Rookie of the Year Award last year, Odorizzi looks like a solid Major League starter, and now Montgomery is starting to put it together for the Durham Bulls.  By the way, there was a fourth player in the trade too, Patrick Leonard, who has a .947 OPS in the Florida State League.  Montgomery is now in his second season with the Bulls and is still a pretty good prospect for the Rays at 24 years old. 

Last season the left-handed starter had his struggles at times in his first season in the International League and first full season in Triple-A.  He did spend half of a season in the Pacific Coast League with the Omaha Storm Chasers.  The knock on Montgomery has always been that there are too many base runners and too few bats being missed for him to be a serious Major League pitcher.  It's actually why he's having a good season this year.  Let's take a look. 

In Montgomery's first go around in AAA in the Royals system you can see where he had a low K's per 9 and his walks per 9 ratio was high compared to his strikeout ratio.  Add in a high hits per 9 and you have a recipe for trouble.  Montgomery ended the 2012 season with 90 innings at the AAA level and an ERA of 5.69.  Montgomery has since improved in his two years in Durham.

Looking back at his numbers in Omaha, his 2013 line in Durham generally improved.  His strikeouts dropped slightly, but so did his walks and his hits.  His ERA improved to 4.72 in 108 innings pitched, but there was still room for more improvement.  I'm not sure what the Rays did during Spring Training to work on producing more strikeouts with Montgomery, but it has been awesome to watch.  His walks per 9 and his hits per 9 have continued to trend downward, while his K's per 9 have almost jumped 2 per 9.  Really good improvement.


Cardboard
Montgomery has a good selection of cardboard floating around out there.  He's had several cards in different Bowman and Topps Minor League products.  His cards are generally very affordable and should be an easy find in the cheapy bin at your local card shop.  If you are going to frequent Ebay or COMC to find a copy of some Montgomery cardboard I would guess that most of his base cards will cost you a dollar or less.  If you are really looking for one or two nice Montgomery cards for your collection I would suggest chasing down one of his autographs.  He has several. 

My favorite is his 2012 Topps Heritage Minor League autographed card. Yes, he's in a Storm Chasers jersey, but I love the look of the card.  Maybe minus the silver autograph sticker.  I am actually guessing that the silver autograph sticker is a leftover from his 2010 Bowman autograph signing, which also used a silver autograph sticker.  The vast majority of the autographs in this set are on clear stickers, but style wise you can never go wrong with adding Topps Heritage cards to your collection.  This card tops out around $5, but with patience can be found for $0.99 plus shipping on Ebay. 

If you are looking to just simply add a Montgomery autograph I would try to track down a copy of his Topps Pro Debut signature from 2010.  The card is not the most attractive, but is very inexpensive, often settling on Ebay for $2 to $3.  He does have a few non-licensed autographs from 2008 with TriStar, Playoff, and Donruss Elite, but this card looks much better.  The Donruss Elite isn't bad since it shows the back of his jersey and you cannot tell it's a non-licensed card. 

As mentioned before, Montgomery does have a 2008 Bowman autograph which is both a true rookie card and a certified autograph issue, but I do not have a copy of the card.  Hard to fathom, but it's true.  The card has almost always been a consistent seller around $10.  I am not saying that Montgomery is not worth $10, but I just have not put a ton of effort into finding a copy of the card.  Someday I will get there. 

No Hitter!

I have been to a lot of baseball games in my life and there are a few things that you rarely get to witness as a fan.  When I first moved to North Carolina I attend a Durham Bulls game where Jason Hammel was throwing a no-hitter, but I was at the game with a group of people from work and we left early.  Bummer, but I still saw a good chunk of the game.  Yesterday was a great day for a game, and with my brother in town for work, I decided to attend yesterday's Bulls game against the Yankees Triple A team the Scranton Rail Riders. 

 

The Bulls had Mike Montgomery pitching who came to the Rays organization in the James Shields/Wil Myers trade.  I have seen him pitch several times before, but when the game started I was initially more excited to see Hak Ju Lee.  The Korean shortstop was one of my favorite Bulls last season, but had a season ending knee injury and missed most of last year.  He returned to the team this week.  

 

I had really nice seats for the game behind the visitors dugout and did manage to snap a picture of Montgomery warming up in the top of the first.  He walked former Bull Russ Canzler to lead off the second inning, but was spotless the rest of the way.  I think I noticed the no-hitter sometime around the fifth inning.  In the eighth inning the pitch count on Montgomery was getting close to 100 and the Bulls warmed up two pitchers in the bullpen.  At the end of the eighth one sat down and Brad Boxberger continued to stretch and throw in the bullpen.  Montgomery came out to start the ninth.  

 This is Montgomery warming up for the ninth inning.  He pitched to one batter in the ninth and was then pulled for Boxberger who finished off the no no with a ground out to second and a strike out.  Baseball America posted a compilation of video clips from the game.  The first out in the ninth, Montgomery's last, takes place around the 3:00 mark and the last 45 seconds is Boxberger's last two outs.  

I had to get a scoreboard shot at the end with the zeroes going across.  Awesome game to watch.  

The Whole Kitchen Sink Highlights Part 1

What do you do with all the little cards that you pick up?  I am not really big into the photo albums and I do not have enough time or posts within the framework of my week to post all of the cards that I trade for or buy on the cheap.  The other day I was working on a trade for a 2011 Bowman Adron Chambers autograph.  I needed the card for my Cardinals autograph collection since Chambers was apart of the 2011 World Series champions.  I looked for the card when the 2011 Bowman set was first released, but left the card alone when it drifted north of $5.  Chambers is basically a minor league player and there is only so much that I am willing to spend on this card.  Fortunately, I was able to pick up the card and give up a pair of mid 90s inserts.

2011 Bowman Adron Chambers Autograph 

A few days ago my trade partner asked me why I had not made a post about the Adron Chambers card.  Honestly, I do not have the time to post all of the cards that I trade for in a given week.  Extremely happy to own the card and I do not regret the trade for a second, but time is one of the biggest limitation to my blog.  I am not much into the photo album or posting every card into the photo albums on my Twitter and Facebook pages.  Sometimes, I will snap a picture and Tweet out a few things that I pick up, but not many.  So, here's what I am going to do:  Once a month I am going to make a post showing the best of the rest.  It still will probably not show everything that walks into my front door, but it's a start.  I am thinking a the 5 best will make my monthly Whole Kitchen Sink Highlights.  Adron Chambers will be a bonus.  So, this is the premier edition:

1.  2012 Topps Pro Debut Gold Hak Ju Lee Jersey

2.  2010 Topps Pro Debut Mike Montgomery Autograph

3.  2009 UD Signature Stars Alexei Ramirez Autograph

4. 2012 Bowman Kez Carter Autograph

5. 2011 Bowman Chrome Brock Holt Autograph

2012 Topps Heritage Minor League Mike Montgomery Autograph

2012 Topps Heritage Minor League Mike Montgomery Autograph 

The Durham Bulls are a month into the season and I think that I might have traded and bought more Bulls cards during that time then all of last year.  During the 2012 season the Bulls had an off year and finished outside of the International League playoffs.  Further, the team lacked the quality prospects to the Bulls fans have been spoiled with during the past decade of serving as the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.  Sure there were other seasons that the team missed the playoffs, but there was always some wonderful talent on the field somewhere.  Last season, not so much.

This summer the Bulls are more than making up for a one year absence from the playoffs and a lack of quality players last season.  Currently the Bulls are sitting at 18-9 and are in the lead of the Southern Division in the International League.  The team is loaded with stars too.  Recently I was able to pick up cards of Wil Myers, Hak Ju Lee, and Jake Odorizzi.  Luckily for fans of the team those three players are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent.

Today, I added a nice autograph from last year's Topps Heritage Minor League set of left-handed starting pitcher Mike Montgomery.  The Rays traded for Montgomery this past off-season in part of the James Shields, Wil Myers, and Jake Odorizzi deal.  Montgomery is the lesser of the three prospects the Rays picked up in the trade, but he's still been a Baseball America Top 50 Prospect three times during his minor league career.