Old vs New, Nitty Gritty Style!

Well the Nuclear Bombshells won!!! The ladies kicked Sarasota Roller Girls butt for their first win of the season. My voice is still recovering. I take my last final tomorrow and then I might be able to blog on some sort of schedule… This is a feature I have planned for my other blog, The Nitty Gritty, but I wanted to introduce it here since this blog gets a little bit more traffic. I will be taking cards from the 50’s and 60’s and showing their Topps Heritage modern day counterparts. We will simply call it “Old vs. New”. Today’s Nitty Gritty Old vs. New is 1960 Topps card #108 of Kansas City Athletics catcher Pete Daley. He is going head to head against card #108 from 2009 Topps Heritage of Kansas City Royals catcher John Buck.
Topps did their research and made a great pick for this pairing. Both players are catchers from Kansas City. Both were at the 6 year point in their career. Both had career batting averages around .235 and both weren’t long for Kansas City when the cards came out.
Pete Daley, shown in a Boston Red Sox cap, played with the Sox for 5 years backing up Sammy White. He played for the Ted Williams led Boston teams that never could catch the Yankees. After the 1959 season he was traded man for man to the Athletics for relief pitcher Tom Sturdivant. The following season he was grabbed by Washington in the expansion draft and retired after that season. His final number line is .239/18/120. During his one year in KC he hit .263 with 5 homers and 25 RBI in 73 games.
John Buck hit 3 homers on April 29th against the Athletics of Oakland. That power show came from Buck in a Blue Jays uniform. He too left KC the year after this card was printed. Buck has had a seven year career like Daley and his career line is .236/75/273. He has power, always has, but has the low batting average and frequent slumps to go along with it.
All in all Topps matched these two players well. The edge goes to 1960 though. Even though he is the wrong uniform, it wins because of the catching pose on the side. Plus vintage nearly always wins. Oh and cartoons ALWAYS rock!
I hope y’all enjoy this format. In the future there might not be so many words, just the two cards side by side. You can be the judge. Go Rays! Troll out!

Long Overdue Appreciation and Awesomeness in my Mailbox!!!

Greetings and good morning Trollites! To make up for taking the weekend off I have been treated to 5 straight 18 shifts at work. I am almost halfway through day 2. I am dying. It makes it worse that I am missing spring training baseball. I am an optimist though and I am really just happy to have a job and I am thankful for a great weekend and this is well worth it. The Bombers (Bombshells actually) dropped the home opener, (photo by Keith Wolfe) but we drew a record crowd and the new gals skated great, so we are on the right track. Esther Gin N Juice took home the Star Trophy as best jammer, it was her 3rd. Yep, I am a proud hubby! I also got invited to host a Saturday afternoon radio show. You think I write alot... The BOMBERS have their official home opener on March 7th.
I emptied the post office box yesterday and got more great stuff, THANKS TO ALL!!! I am literally about 60 packages behind in my trade posts. Some might not make it, which stinks, but I will do my best to get them all their proper thanks. I actually have 7 more bippings to post and I due intend on giving them their proper due. One of them came in December I think and he got me GOOD, but he also sent some amazing cards. I need to get that one up. I hope the powers that be will excuse the BIP postings based on my laziness… Anyway, speaking of packages that I got in December, this one came to me from Adam E of the Thoughts and Sox Blog in early December, soon after the first group break went underway. He has since delivered the goods three more times and I think we have another trade happening soon. I recently ran into some Sox related relics from 2010 Topps that I think he will like. ANYWAY… This post is months overdue. I wish I had taken a picture of the box, it was huge. I think it was a box for an electrical motor, but the package was really light weight. I was very thrown off. When I opened it, the motor box contained about 100 bubble mailers. AWESOME!!! I have already run out of them, but they did take care of the first group break and a few other trades. I just bought some more (at $.69 a pop) so I can finish paying my debts. Along with all of the envelopes, there were some cards in the giant motor box. Let’s start with a refractor. This one came from 2009 Heritage. It was coincidentally the first card out of the first pack of 2009 Heritage that I bought this year. I still contend that Vladdy looks just like Rick James on this card.
From the set that ’09 Heritage borrowed its design he also sent 3 gems from 1960 Topps including 2 Senators and a Philadelphia Athletic. I won’t show too much of these now cuz I hope to post them as Cards of the Day sometime down the road. He also hooked it up with a 2009 Allen and Ginter Scott Kazmir that helped me get closer to finishing the team set (I still need a Navi SP to finish) and some ’09 Rays O-Pee-Chee cards as well. There was a smattering of random Rays cards that I needed, but haven’t had time to catalog yet including this Chad Gaudin Ticket to Stardom, uh, I mean Fleer Authentix. Did I mention this package also included like 70 dollars worth of mailers, plus vintage, plus needs list cards? Adam E hooked it up! I haven’t shown the true gem of the package though-actually I did at the top of the post, but I haven't mentioned it til now... It comes from Upper Deck Masterpieces, a groovy relic of Akinori Iwamura, Captured on Canvas. Thanks so much for all of this great stuff Adam! I will have a package for you before the first pitch of 2010, I promise!!! By the by, the 1939 Buddy Hassett at the top of this post is a flashback to the previous awesome trade I did with T and S. If you have any Red Sox or boxing cards you want to deal, or you just wanna drool over his, check out Thoughts and Sox immediately! Cuz (yep, she is back) Shannon Stewart said so! Go Rays! Troll out.

Aramis versus Chili, One Named Wonders Face Off!

Now, I am pretty confident that I am not the first blogger to scratch my head over Aramis (Ramirez’) 2009 Heritage card, but I haven’t read anything about it yet. Perhaps it is old news, but to this blogger, it opens a can of worms. I don’t have the entire set put together yet, but this is the 2nd card I have pulled with the player’s first name listed. The only other was Ichiro (Suzuki) and I have grown somewhat accustomed to him being a one-name wonder. I actually pulled the card a week ago and I have googled it and checked e-bay listing for the card. I have not read anyone saying anything about Aramis being Aramis.
It actually made me think first of Chili (Davis). So expect a really long blog and expect to read more stats than you would prefer on the Jamaican Sensation.
The reason why I thought of Chili was that around 1986 or ’87 he started wearing his first name, no his first name was Charles. He listed his nickname, Chili on the back of his San Francisco Giants jersey. Sports Illustrated wrote a story about the proliferation of Davis’ (Davi?) in the big leagues. In fact, looking back, there were no less than 14 Davi listed on 40 man rosters in the bigs in 1987. There were some big names like Chili, Eric, Alvin, Storm and Glenn. There were also lesser known Davi like Trench, Joel, Ron and Butch. It has always been said that being a good catcher in the minors is the fastest way to the big leagues, in 1987, being the son of a parent named Davis was.
I haven’t read the SI story in over 20 years and I was a pre-teen at the time, so I recall very little of it. The story was basically that were a lot of guys in the league whose last name was Davis. Of those guys, one of them didn’t have Davis on the back of their jersey. That guy was Charles “Chili” Davis. I thought it was kind of cool. I stayed up late to watch Giants games and sifted through my cards looking for Chilis (I did notice first and last name on all of my cards). My little league coach lectured us on this. He said that was the worst form of showboating. He told us that Chili was a horrible role-model and we should stick to emulating players like Jody Davis or Glenn Davis or any Davis that wore their name, initial optional on the back of their shirt. Those guys seemed like safe Davis’ to me. I liked Chili. I think that was around the time I took up switch hitting, too.
Back to 2009 and the era of Aramis. There are 10 players in the league whose last name is Ramirez. One of them is suspended, so that leaves 9 active players. Aramis has 6 letters in it, as does Hanley. Hanley and Aramis are both from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Hanley’s ’09 Heritage card shows his first and last name. Hmm.
Gonzalez is actually the most popular name in the majors. There are 10 Gonzalez’ and none of them are serving suspensions for taking fertility drugs or lady pills. Gonzalez has one more letter in it than Ramirez, yet the good folks at Topps were somehow able to cram all the letters of the first and last names of Adrian, Carlos, Gio and Mike Gonzalez on the fronts of their cards. Hell, Jonathan Papelbon and Edwin Encarnacion both have first and last names (for a triple word score total of 16 tiles each), I am sure if I open more packs I will find more dramatic examples.
So why is Aramis joining Ichiro as a one-named wonder? He isn’t the most successful Ramirez. Manny used to hold that title, but I think Hanley has a firm grip on it now. Although I don’t possess one, it seems that all the chrome and refractor versions of this card have his full name on it. His other cards for other product in 2009 have his full name. The card sells on e-bay for next to nothing, so it’s not an error. I just need to know why???? It’s killing me really. I don’t mean to hate on Aramis either, that’s not fair. I do not think he deserves to be known by one name, but I don’t think Zack, Derek, Albert, Carlos or anyone deserve that either. I live within walking distance to Pirate City and I remember Aramis (Ramirez) as he was coming up with the Bucs. He was amazing!!! I instantly became a fan. He was a young and naïve and skinny little teenager the first time I met him, and it was neat watching him grow into a ballplayer, get comfortable with this country, with baseball, with being famous. He was definitely come a long way, but has he come long enough to drop his last name? This blogger says no! Seriously, I really do need to know the reason behind this. I thought it may have been done in an effort to be authentic in the duplication of the cards counterpart in the 1960 set. I dug into the archives and found the original card #95. It is Frank Thomas, 3rd baseman/outfielder for the Chicago Cubs, with both of his names listed on the cards front. So, is it ego, adoration, idolization, oversight or error? Will this be a reoccurring trend featuring different players each year? Should I prepare to add cards for Ben, Jason, Carl and Evan to my Rays collection? Also, are players asked their preference by card companies? Does Aramis have enough pull to change his name? Please, someone, help a blogger out, I have a very limited amount of hair to be pulling…
Okay, rewind back to 1987, the year of the Davis. It really wasn’t. In fact, the Davi won in quantity only, not quality. Eric was the lone Davis who made the All Star team (and went 0-2). None of the Davi made any noise, other than Eric, in post season awards either. Perhaps that was the beginning of the end for that surname. In 2009, there are only 3 Davi hanging on in the big leagues. The declining Doug, the disappointing Rajai and the powerful but Mendoza line hovering Chris. That’s a big drop-off in quality and quantity both.
For those interested or obsessed the league leaders in the name department are:
In first place, with 10 players each, are Ramirez and Gonzalez. In second place we have a 4-way tie with Hernandez, Johnson, Rodriguez and Young each boasting 7 players. There are 6 Cabreras in the majors. Four different sir names claim five representatives; they are Anderson, Jones, Pena and Wilson. Rivera, Green, Chavez, Hill, Jackson, Lopez, Miller, Reyes, Sanchez and Smith each claim 4 reps. There are 12 different last names that have 3 players sharing them in the bigs. They are Davis, Castillo, Blanco, Burke, Cruz, Guzman, Lewis, Murphy, McDonald, Wells, Wood and Wright. There are a lot of 2 name reps, many are actually brothers. My favorite being the Uptons, but there are many.
Baseball is in many cases a microcosm of life, but the last name thing doesn’t totally add up. The most popular name in the United States is Smith. There are 4 Smiths in MLB. Second is Johnson, there are 7 Johnsons (run with this one guys) in the bigs. 3rd is Williams. Although this has been a historically good name for a ballplayer to have, since Woody Williams was released, there are no Williams in MLB. The 4th most popular name in the U.S. is Jones, and there are 5 Joneses to keep up with. The 5th name on the list is Brown, there are no Brown’s. Emil had been the last Brown hanging, but the Mets released him yesterday. Incidentally, Emil is the most popular first name in Finland.
So, where does Ramirez rank in terms of popularity in the U.S.? It makes the top 100, coming in at 70th most common with roughly 261,000 Ramiri in the States. As a first name, Aramis does not list in the Top-100.
So now, how does Aramis compare with Chili?
First, there were a few stats regarding Chili that surprised me. First, he is 4th ALL TIME in home runs for switch hitters. Only Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray and Chipper Jones have more. Second, he is 17th on the All Time list in intentional walks with 188. Those 2 stood out and seemed Hall Of Very Good to me. His final line is .274, 350 homers and 1372 RBIs. Not too shabby for the first Jamaican player in the major leagues. Add 3 World Series rings to that resume and it sounds even better.
Comparing Chili and Aramis career wise doesn’t work because, even though he is out for 6-8 weeks with a dislocated shoulder, Aramis has a lot more baseball to play. You can take their career 162 game average and see the similarities. Runs: Chili 82, Aramis 84. Hits: Chili 158, Aramis 172. Triples: Both=2. Home runs: Chili 23, Aramis 30. RBI: Chili 91, Aramis 108. Walks: Chili 79, Aramis 48. Strikeout: Chili 113, Aramis 92. Batting Average: Chili .274, Aramis .285. OBP: Chili .360, Aramis .342. SLG: Chili .451, Aramis .503. GIDP: Chili 15, Aramis 17.
They are pretty close in their postseason stats with Chili’s quick line at .210, 3, 14 and Aramis at .194, 4, 10. The difference being that Chili’s numbers came more in the World Series and he has 3 rings and Aramis’ come from the division series, mainly. Oh, and they both were among the worst rated at their positions in fielding and range, until Chili became a full-time DH.
Either way, they have shared a lot of parallels in their careers, and were both fun players to watch and to collect, but I don’t think either deserves to be known by their first name exclusively.