30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, December 12, 2020

TWiB: 60's Legends, Baseball Trivia, and a few Favorites


It's human nature to have regrets.  One of my biggest regrets is not holding onto the Apple IIe computer my dad purchased for the family back in the early 80's.  My friends and I would play all kinds of different games for hours in his office and I would even mess around with some basic programming.  That memory totally slipped my mind until two days ago.

On Thursday and Friday, my students participated in Hour of Code which essential gave them a chance to play around coding through a variety of self-guided activities.  If you want to check it out for yourself... click here.

I had a lot of fun building a
simple shooter game and watching all of the cool things my students produced in a little over an hour.  It was definitely the highlight of my week... outside of the arrival of my COMC package.

But that's a post for another day.  It's Saturday... which means another This Week in Blogging:


#1Sayonara Salute

Dick Allen was one of the most feared hitters of his era and one of the greatest baseball players waiting to be admitted into Cooperstown.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Autographs #NNO

On Monday I read the news about him passing away at the age of 78A few bloggers who took the time to write tributes for him:






If I missed any, please leave the link down below and I'll add them to this post.

1964 Topps #243

I personally didn't follow his career while he was playing, although there's a chance I got to see him play in his final MLB season with the Oakland A's back in 1977.

2001 Topps American Pie Timeless Classics #BBTC-41

That being said... I am happy to say that I do own a few of his cards including this trifectaRest in peace Mr. Allen.


#2Not on your Favorite Team?  No Problem

On Monday, Chris The Collector showed off his some of the cards in his Dan Marino collection and asked his readers "Who's your favorite player that never played for your favorite team?".  I responded with Marino, Ed Reed, and Ray Lewis, but here are a few more guys from other sports:

2008 Topps Chrome Refractor #83

1975 Topps #185

I collect a few guys who have never played for the A's or Padres... but Ichiro and Steve Carlton would be my favorites. 

1998-99 Topps Chrome Preview #77

I don't really follow basketball anymore, but back in the 80's, 90's, and 2000's... I was a big Los Angeles Lakers fan.  And like many other guys who enjoyed watching NBA highlights, I was a fan of MJ.

2000-01 UD Legends Legendary Game Jersey #J-JS

There are a few hockey players from the 90's that I enjoyed rooting for... even though they never played for my beloved San Jose SharksJoe Sakic is at the top of that list.


#3Oldest Rose

Daniel over at It's like having my own Card Shop showed off a pair of vintage Pete Rose cards on his blog earlier in the week and asked his readers about their oldest Rose card.  As I suspected... here's my response:

1968 Topps Game #68

I was actually disappointed that I didn't have any other cards of Charlie Hustle from the 60's.  I might end up doing something about that.


#4Baseball Trivia

Matt over at Diamond Jesters sure has a way with words.  His haikus routinely reveal interesting pieces of baseball trivia.  This week he wrote about Bob Ojeda and how he won the longest pro baseball game.

1984 Topps Traded #108T

I love this kind of stuff, so I dug a little deeper and discovered that Tom Seaver holds the honor of winning the longest (in terms of time) game in MLB history.  Back on May 8th, 1984 the Chicago White Sox hosted the Milwaukee Brewers.  The game was suspended in the top of the 18th and completed the following day when Harold Baines hit a walk-off home run.  The total time was 8 hours and 6 minutes.

1984 O-Pee-Chee #261

According to this blog, this was Seaver's first relief appearance since 1976.   The coolest part about this win was that Seaver started the next game (later that evening) and won that one tooTwo wins in one day.  Can't imagine that happens too often.


#5Mr. October

1994 UD Denny's Holograms #NNO

It's December... which means it's that time of the year for Thorzul (at Death Stare Cards) to show off his Card-vent Calendar.  On Wednesday, he shared a cool Reggie Jackson card that reminded me why he's called Mr. October.


Reggie won five World Series rings in seven years.  And GCRL also pointed out that he won six pennants over the course of ten years.


***Reggie missed the 1972 World Series due to injuryThanks for the heads up sg488.

By the way... I wrote a post on this rare Denny's hologram back in April of 2016Last month, I received an anonymous comment providing some new information about the card.  It's kind of cool to find out that people stumble across and read old blog posts.  It's even cooler when they leave a commentThank you Mr. or Mrs. Unknown.


#6More Baseball Trivia

If you enjoy looking at baseball cards from the 70's and learning some interesting facts... then you should check out The Shlabotnik Report.  This week he wrote about some guys with the last name beginning with the letter "F" and included an interesting fact about Tim Foli.  He was involved in three triple plays during his career.

1968 Topps #20

Well... me being the curious being that I am... started researching to see who holds the record.  I came up short, but I did discover that Brooks Robinson holds the record for hitting into triple plays with four.


#7The Say Hey Kid

The Diamond King showed off five of his favorite Willie Mays cards last night and asked his readers what their favorite Mays card is.  The goal is to eventually write a post revealing my top five and answering his question.

In the meantime... I figured I'd share a pair of cool collectibles made of metal:

1987 Topps Bronze Premiums

From 1983 to 1991, Topps would give miniature (1.25" x 1.75") bronze cards to card dealers who purchased cases of their Traded sets.  In 1987, Topps used Willie's 1953 Topps card as their rewardInterested in seeing the other eight bronze premiums?  Click here.

1995 Topps Legends of the 60's Medallions #1

In 1995, Topps offered their Stadium Club members the opportunity to purchase these heavy bronze medallions for $39.95Each month a new card was offered and Willie was the first card in the seriesInterested in seeing the other eleven cards in the set?  Click here.

Well that's it for today.  Another This Week in Blogging post... and another week closer to my two week vacation.

Oh and in case you were curious about how long it takes me to write a post like this... this one came in right under the three hour markYikes.  I spend way too much time writing.

Here are a few questions for you to ponder while I count down the minutes to Christmas Break:

Is there anything from your childhood you regret giving away or throwing out?

Have you ever played around with coding?

Do you have a favorite Dick Allen memory?

Do you have a favorite Reggie Jackson memory?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Until then... happy Saturday and sayonara!

25 comments:

  1. I actually went to a computer camp in the summer of 1989, and I may have used an Apple IIe or something similar. I was really fascinated with computers as a kid but my mom was a single parent, self-employed, and couldn't afford a PC until like 1995. By then I lost interest in coding and programming :/

    That Pete Rose is so clean! I know a lot of those '68 Game cards have centering issues, but not that one. Your Dick Allen trifecta is very impressive. I was looking at the BBWAA HOF ballot this year and realized that I don't want any of those guys to get into Cooperstown. At least until Dick, Dewey, and Sweet Lou get their due.

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  2. I really love those bronze Willies! I never see those out in the wild, but if I do, I would be tempted, especially the 64 one.

    Is there anything from your childhood you regret giving away or throwing out? Not too much, but my most remembered Christmas present was a 3 inch thick book by Bill James purporting to have all the baseball statistics since 1901. My mom and dad thought I was weird for even wanting it. Wish I still had it!

    Have you ever played around with coding? I have a Computer Science Education degree. Don't use it a lot, but I still code from time to time. I once made my own March Madness online tracker that allowed people to run their own bracket challenges. But ESPN and others have cornered that market now.

    Do you have a favorite Dick Allen memory? I really don't. Just one of those players I never made a connection to. Still sad he's gone.

    Do you have a favorite Reggie Jackson memory? Again, not really. I remember reading about his monster All Stat game home run in Detroit and thinking that was cool. And recently I watched that All Star game for the first time and got to see it in context. Pretty impressive.

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  3. Nice rundown! Biggest regret I have is that I (or my mom) got rid of all my toys - GI Joes, Ghsotbusters, Micro Machines, etc. I often wish I still had those.

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  4. 1. A Diecast Millennium Falcon
    2. No
    3, Just that he was the best thing to come out of Wampum, Pa
    4. When he said that Mickey Rivers could not spell I.Q. even if you spotted him the I.

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  5. No.
    No.
    No.
    No.

    I enjoyed the read though.

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  6. Just for clarity Reggie missed the 72 WS do an injury,so that's 5 in 9 or 10 years he played in. 1.1972 A's yearbook with Rollie Fingers and Catfish Hunter autos I got in person at the A,s game,my dad thru them out.2.No 3.Great player 4.1977 World Series game 6.

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    1. Yeah my comment was 6 pennants in 10 years. I also think of 1977 game 6 when I think of reggie.

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    2. gcrl - oops. i'll update that too. looks like i should have spent a few extra minutes double checking my sources ;D

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  7. 1. Probably. Don't remember what it was. I don't waste time stewing about stuff like that.
    2. God no. The two years of college I spent majoring in computer science is one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
    3. He was before my baseball-watching time.
    4. When Bob Welch struck him out in Game 2 of the 1978 World Series.

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  8. I look forward to the weekly update. It gives me some great things to read. I didn't study computer science (ever) in school, but I've been teaching it for a long time. The Hour of Code is even fun for the high school kids that I teach.

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  9. 1. My cassette/CD player from high school.

    2. Yes. I ran the STEAM club at my school for a few years. We coded all sorts of stuff. Started off by using the Wonder robots. Kids had a good time using them.

    3. Before my time

    4. Reggie played when I was a kid, but with no Interleague games I never got to see him play in-person.

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  10. Original NES along with bunch of games given to my older brother. He somehow lost it or toss it out

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  11. I wish that I still had all of my childhood stuff. No for each of the remaining questions.

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  12. Will get to your questions but first, we had a Dick Allen post over at SABR.
    https://sabrbaseballcards.blog/2020/12/10/dick-allen-a-chicagoan-remembers/

    Also the Seaver trivia reminded me of this fantastic signed ticket stub by Fisk (scroll down).
    https://www.carltonfisk.com/ticketDetail.php?ID=1468&year=1984

    Oh and those bronze Willies make me want chocolate now.

    To the questions.

    1. Honestly no. I'm sure there's some stuff I've regretted momentarily but nothing that's bothering me today.

    2. Yes. LOGO in elementary school. Screwed around with Hypercard and Basic in Jr High. Took some CS a college. Know enough now to be able to help my kids in Scratch and walk people through debugging in pseudo code.

    3. I only knew him by reputation. And by the time that happened it was the "racists gave him a bad reputation but he was actually a stud" reputation which I learned.

    4. Only caught the end of Reggie though it was clear that he still had "it" in the sense that you couldn't take your eyes off him. Anyway I have to answer Naked Gun here.

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  13. Holy crap, you had an Apple IIe??! Sweet. A great week in blogging for sure, great rundown. I used to code a lot in high school and college. Haven’t done it recently though.

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  14. What a great group of cards. I love the Mays! I have the Strawberry version. As for your questions: I got back into baseball card probably within a year of getting rid of a few big boxes of my old, original commons. So I kind of regret that. Be well.

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  15. Never knew about those bronze cards and medallions - very cool!
    Jackson question: I remember when he hit a HR in the All Star game in Detroit and the ball hit the top of the light tower! 1972 me thinks. Peace!

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  16. chris - oh man, i would have loved to have gone to computer camp. sounds fun. i didn't even notice the centering on the rose, but yeah... it's pretty clean. pretty sure that's the copy that is part of my set.

    the diamond king - whoa. a march madness tracker? that's some serious coding skills. you should be able to grab the 64t bronze mays for $5 to $10. i don't think i've ever come across them in person, but they're on ebay and comc. i wonder if you can find that bill james book at like powell's or something

    the lost collector - yeah... i'd love to have some of my old toys too. i had some gi joes.

    john bateman - lol. hadn't heard that mickey rivers thing, but that's funny.

    elliptical man - thanks. it was fun writing it

    sg488 - thanks. i'll update the post as soon as i'm finished commenting. oh man, that yearbook sounds awesome. hope it survived and is floating around out there in some a's fan's collection.

    night owl - i wish i had it in me to not want things from my past... but then again... most of my card purchases are me chasing my childhood. i almost went down the computer science path, but glad i decided against it.

    runforekelloggs - it was cool to see some of my kids really get into it. it was neat to see some of their creations

    the snorting bull - nice call on the cassette/cd player. i would love to have my old walkman and/or watchman. that club sounds cool. i'm sure when we get back into the classrooms, someone will start up some form of coding club. i know we started offering it as an elective last year and it's very popular

    rebel coyote - my brother and i were just talking about the genesis i gave him back in the 90's and all of the games i gave him. he tossed it out too.

    johnnys trading spot - yeah, there are a lot of things i wish i still had from my childhood. a lot of my card purchases are cards i used to own when i was a kid

    nick vossbrink - i'll definitely add it to the list. thanks for sharing the link. that ticket stub is awesome. he should get seaver to sign it too. and that's right... "i must kill the queen" reggie.

    sumomenkoman - loved that computer. it's one of the recurring topics my father and i talk about every so often.

    peter k steinberg - i'm sure it'd be fun to dig through that box of cards. as for the strawberry... i remember wanting that card (medallion) as a kid.

    cincicuse bill - i remember reading about that on a blog and looking it up on youtube.

    gtt - me too! gives me some blogging fodder.

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  17. The cards are absolutely wonderful - but my comment is that, my grade 5 son was introduced to code.org at school as part of the new curriculum, and he absolutely loves it. Nice to see him show some interest in learning something (and having fun with it too).

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  18. So much to respond to...

    My oldest Pete Rose card is that same card, but I did pick up a 1969 Topps Pete Rose in 2019

    That 1984 OPC Seaver card makes me sad. It was bad enough the Mets lost Seaver once, but that second time was just unnecessary.

    My notes tell me that Brooks Robinson was involved in two triple plays in 1973

    And now, the questions:

    1) I wish I kept my Wacky Packs in their original state rather than sticking them on my looseleaf binder
    2) I've got a B.S. in Computer Science and 30-something years of experience in IT... so yeah, I've done a bit of coding. :-D :-D :-D
    3) I remember Dick Allen as a active player, but I don't have any specific memories. I've always disliked Reggie, so I'll recuse myself from that discussion. :-)

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  19. Went to college as a computer science major. Hated it - it was a fairly new program and they ended up teaching me computer languages that were rarely used. Throw in way too many late nights debugging code that wouldn't work because somewhere in hundreds of lines of code there was a single error, and let's just say I don't program for a living.

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  20. (1) Some of my Transformers. (Although they were lost in a move from one house to another -- I didn't throw them out.)
    (2) Does HTML count as coding?
    (3) No.
    (4) Aside from those mammoth homers off consecutive pitches in the 1977 postseason, I'd say his appearance in The Naked Gun film. Hah.

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  21. Three-hour posts have been the norm for me as of late, so I can sympathize. I'm still hoping to master the art of the short post at some point, but until then, long and rambly will have to do.

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  22. craziejoe - that's cool to hear about your son. according to one of my students who talked to me about coding... there are a lot of cool things you can do with it. his goal was to use it to get into the video game industry

    shlabotnik report - sounds like you and my father would get along. he was really, really into computers. he's the one who tried to get me into programming.

    matt - lol. lot's of big words that just flew over my head. definitely glad i decided to go into education instead of engineering or computer science

    gregory - i wish i kept my transformers too. if you're asking me... i'd say html is a form of coding. but i don't really know. i just teach.

    jon - i really need to master the art of writing the short post at some point. i haven't set blogger goals in a few years, but maybe that be something i focus on in 2021.

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