Blue and White Monday: Roger Clemens, Hall or Nothing

Sometimes you just never know when you'll stumble across a post topic.  While listening to the Pirates post game show today, the commentators (one is Kent Tekulve, a name you may remember from the late 70's/early 80's Pirate teams) brought up the subject of Miguel Cabrera and whether he is a lock for the Hall of Fame.

I thought it might be a little early for that kind of talk when it came to Miggy, but the discussion triggered my memory of a card I had received in the mail a while back. 

The parallel is kind of uncanny.  This card from the eX 2000 release in 1997, Roger's 14th season in the majors.  Miguel is currently in his 11th season, so the comparison is close.  The back of this card states that Roger would eclipse the 200 win mark in 1997 (his 8th win did that), and that he would reach 3000 K's in 2008 (which he did as well).

Cabrera needs another 123 hits this season to hit the 2000 mark (has a good shot at that if he stays healthy), and at age 30 he already has almost 400 doubles (needs 1 more) and 350 HRs (needs 15).  If he plays another 8-10 seasons, his numbers could reach marks that we haven't even talked about in quite some time (3500 hits?--700 doubles?--650 HRs?)

Now, even though the numbers that Clemens had were quite good, it would have been still a little presumptuous for anyone to say he was a Hall of Famer.   I'm sure that nobody could have predicted him pitching another 11 seasons in MLB while winning another 150 games. 

I think it's going to be interesting to see how the voting plays out over the next few years for the players such as Clemens, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro and Bonds.  37.6% of the vote with the incredible numbers that Clemens put up during his 24 year career have obviously been tainted by the allegations of steroid use.   It also makes me wonder if all these players on "team alleged steroids" that are eligible for the Hall have affected the voting on other players, such as Biggio, Raines, Trammell, etc.  I know that it shouldn't, but you gotta believe that there are going to be some writers that are just going to say screw it, and send in empty ballots in disgust.

I'm curious to see if the end result for Clemens' winds up being "or Nothing".  The Rocket has 14 more tries.  I hope I'm still breathing to see the outcome.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Random Jay Monday: 92 Fleer Ultra Roberto Alomar

It's hard to imagine that Robbie played for 7 teams during his 17 year major league career, but look up his stats and you'll see that San Diego, Toronto, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York Mets, Arizona and the White Sox all had their turns with the Hall of Famer. 

There are two events that are burned in my memory when it comes to Robbie.  December 5, 1990, the day that the single most important trade made in Blue Jays history was completed, when Alomar was acquired with Joe Carter from the Padres.  You don't really see a 2 for 2 swap of big name players like that anymore.  (McGriff and Fernandez went to the west coast)

The other memory that still clouds my mind when it comes to Robbie was the spitting incident with umpire John Hirschbeck.  That incident is still the reason many believe that Alomar didn't get into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot (he missed by 8 votes). 

Even though he spent only 5 seasons in Toronto, Roberto became the first Jay to earn the distinction of having his number retired, ahead of such Blue Jay greats as Dave Stieb, George Bell and Tony Fernandez.

I guess when you have 5 seasons where you average .307, win 5 Gold Gloves, appear in 5 all star games, finish 6th in MVP voting three straight seasons, steal 206 bases, and win 2 World Series, I guess you're going to get pushed to the head of the class.

I can only hope that Alomar isn't the last Blue Jays player that I'll see inducted into the Hall of Fame in my lifetime.  The only other player currently in the game that has a shot in my opinion is Roy Halladay, but I fear that if he spends an extended period of time in Philadelphia, he'll be elected wearing the Phillies cap.

Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading, Robert

More fun with cards...1998 Upper Deck

All right gang, Tuesday evening is here and it's time to have a little bit more fun with some cards.

I dug around the older stuff, and blew the dust off of some 1998 Upper Deck cards.   Take a trip down memory lane with me...if you're old enough!

Speaking of old & having memories, do you remember these two guys together as Cardinals, because I sure don't!!

40 years of experience in these 2 pictures

Or do any of you remember this guy as a Cincinnati Red?

 

I may not be able to remember Pendleton as a Red, but this next guy will forever be a Red....congrats again Barry on the HOF election!!

HOF class of 2011

One more stretch of your brains, especially for the older folk.  Remember when you went to bed at night and the TV stations went off the air and showed a test pattern?  This next card reminded me of one of those old test patterns.

Thank you for watching, and good night

OK, here's one for those who have had one too many and may be seeing multiple images right now...

 

Or how about Heathcliff Slocumb trying to impress all the women at the game by showing his chest...

For those hot days when air conditioning  just isn't cutting it.

OK...now, here is my vote for ugliest uniform of the 90's...if you're nauseous right now you may wanna turn away.

Wonder how much these game used uniforms sold for...

I've been lucky finding play at the plate cards lately...so here's another one for Brian

looks like Powell is dead to rights

I think that there should be at least one card in each set each year of a player signing an autograph for a fan.  I have always enjoyed these cards...

We all now that Vlad the great has been a tremendous hitter over his career.   With the looks on the faces of these two pitchers, I'm pretty sure that they were the exact opposite.  Reynoso's porn stache is classic.

Julian, see the ball, bunt the ball

Sometimes, when you run out of topics to write about like I have....it's easier just to look at a bunch of cards and have some fun with them. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

The world's dumbest parallel is kind of fitting today

Good evening to you all, hope that you came out of Monday unscathed.

This post is going to be short and sweet, because everyone else has said it all today.

Here is a scan of the dumbest idea that Topps ever had for a parallel (IMO).

 

The card above is a '98 Topps Minted in Cooperstown parallel.  How Topps ever came up with this idea is beyond me.  

But today, it's relevant, even for a quickie post like this.

2002 Upper Deck # 714

Congratulations to Barry Larkin on earning enough votes for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame!!  

You've earned it for sure Barry.

Thank you for reading, Robert