Weeks 16 & 17

Hey All,

Welcome back to the blog after the commissioner took his All-Star Break. Let's take a look at all the action in the Longball League.

Roster Moves

7/22/2013
The Invisible Hands picked Y. Darvish- TEX back up after an injury and dropped J. Verlander- DET.

7/23/2013
The Tax Dodgers picked Y. Darvish- TEX back up after injury and dropped J. Verlander- DET.
The San Pedro Sea Monkeys dropped Jason Grilli-PIT due to injury and picked up C. Kimbrel-ATL

Who's Hot/Who's Not

Hitters
Hot: Cleveland's Michael Born had two HR, 10 RBI week.

Not: Albert Pujols, like the Angels, is not hot.  His foot injury means that we'll see Albert again in 2014..

Pitchers
Hot: The Marlins' Jose Fernandez won both his starts this week while fanning 21 batters along the way.

Not: Jason Hammel went 0-2 for Baltimore while walking 9 batters in those games. I guess that's why is WHIP is 2.21 for the week.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. This is the first time since 1965 that no former living player will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Wow, that is sad.

2. Manny Machado of the Orioles is on pace for over 220 hits this season.  There are only three other active major leaguers to record 220+ hits in a season.  They are Ichiro, Michael Young, and Juan Pierre.

3. Don Larsen could have been Bill Bevens.  Huh?  It's well known that Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history, but the first no-hitter cold have been thrown by the Yankees Bill Bevens in 1947.  With two out in the ninth, Brooklyn's Cookie Lavagetto doubled off Bevens that not only broke up the no-hitter, but won the game for the Dodgers.  Bevens went from the top to the bottom in one pitch.

Cool Baseball Card set of the Week: 1969 Topps

The 1969 topps set is the last set of the 1960s and it completes an awesome decade of card production for Topps.  All the sets from 1960-69 are great.  The 1969 set features the awesome quirkiness and great players that make the set a collectors' favorite.  As far as rookies go, the top rookie in the set is Reggie Jackson. Here's how he looks on card #260

The there's the sophomore class in the majors withe second cards of Nolan Ryan #533 and Johnny Bench #95.

               

Then there's the final card of Mickey Mantle #500.

Funny how you can chart the grand passage of time through baseball cards.  Oh, and the quirkiness of this set comes into play with this last Mantle card.  There were many errors and variations in this set.  The major one is that a handful of the cards hand name color variations.  Most of the Mantle cards have  The Mick's last name printed in Yellow.  A scant number have his last name printed in white. Ungraded the regular "Yellow Letter" Mantle can go for around 300 dollars.  The "White Letter" version usually goes for around 2,000 dollars.  Graded ones in a an 8 or 9 have gone for astronomical cash.

Until next week folks remember that if Nelson Cruz gets nailed for PEDs, Manny Ramirez may be called up by the Rangers.

-The Commissioner

Week 15

Hey All,

The Commissioner is back form a great trip Chicago where he crossed US Cellular Field and Wrigley Field off his bucket list. Now, it's time to check out the workings of the Longball League as we head into the All-Star Break.

Roster Moves

7/8/2013
The San Pedro Sea Monkeys dropped A. Soriano WAS and picked up J. Grilli PIT

7/10/2013
The AngelSox and the Tax Dodgers both dropped Y. Darvish TEX and picked up J. Verlander DET

7/11/2013
The Invisible Hands dropped Y. Darvish TEX and picked F. Hernandez SEA

Who's Hot/Who's Not

Hitters
Hot: Texas slugger Adrian Beltre hit .407 for the week with 3 HRs, 8 RBI and didn't strike out in 30 plate appearances.

Not: Oswaldo Acia of the Twins hit .045 for the week with 12 strikeouts and didn't walk once.

Pitchers
Hot: Tim Lincecum threw a no-hitter. 'nuf ced.

Not: Joe Blanton went 0-2 with an ERA of 10.00 and gave up five home runs for the Angels this week.


This Week's Five Cool Things- Wrigley Field and US Cellular Field

1. Watching the lineup for bleacher seats at Wrigley was very cool. I believe the bleachers at Wrigley are the last General Admission seats left in the Major Leagues. The cool part wasn't the people in line, it was watching the people holding spots in line for others who where making runs 40 feet across the street to Murphy's Bleachers for brats and drinks from their walk-up window.

2. Hey, you gotta love a bar with a batting cage!  Sluggers, and several other Wrigley hangouts have batting cages.  That's just pretty awesome.

3. I know one has been approved for the next season, so I'm glad I saw Wrigley Field before a vision board is put in.

4. People say US Cellular isn't that great of a yard, but hey it is 1,000 times better than the Oakland Coliseum.

5. It was great to see baseball tailgating at US Cellular Field.  White Sox fans have it down pretty good.

Cool Baseball Card of the Week: 1961 Post Cereal #4- Mickey Mantle

The Post Cereal baseball card sets of the 1960s are hailed by many collectors as the greatest food company issued sets of all-time.  The 1961 set consisted of 200 cards.  However, with variations from different print runs the set numbers about 350 cards. It's a fun to build if you want o get a vintage set for an inexpensive price.  A regular 1960 Topps set goes for about 5,000 dollars in NM-MT condition, while a high grade Post Set can be built for about 2,000 dollars.  Oh, yeah this card of Mickey Mantle is pretty cool too.


Until next time folks, remember that the Longball League season is almost 2/3 over.

-The Commissioner

Week 14

Hey All,

While Buster Posey batted out of order, this column is always in order. Here's what's up in the Longball League this week.

Roster Moves
6/30/2013
Taylor Run Red Foxes drop Adam Laroche-WAS and Re-Ad Bryce Harper -WAS

Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week

Hitters
Hot: Robinson Cano hit .400 with 4 HR and 11 RBIs for the Yankees this week.

Not: Albert Pujols had hit no HRs and drove in just two runs for the Angels.

Pitchers
Hot: Oakland's Grant Balfour earned 4 saves with a an ERA of 0.00 this week.

Not: Seattle's Jeremy Bonderman gave up 10 earned runs and lost two game with an ERA of 10.80 and a WHIP of 2.40.

Cool Baseball card of the Week: 1963 Topps #473 Mets Team

The 1962 New York Mets set the record for worst modern day season by team when they went a staggering 40-120 in their expansion season. How bad was this record they finished 60.5 games behind the Giants who won a three game playoff over the Dodgers to claim the NL pennant.  The Mets awful season is recorded in great detail on he back of their 1963 Team Card.  Back then, Topps was always doing different things on the backs of team cards.  It just so happens that 1963 was the year they decided to breakdown each team's 1962 campaign on the back of their team cards.  So here for your viewing pleasure folks, is the breakdown on back of this card about how that 40-120 record was achieved.    Hey look! The Mets went 9-9 against the Cubs.  That's almost 25% of their victories.  Also, it's unusual to see a starting staff that all lot between 17 and 24 games each.  Oh, those hapless Mets.

Until next week folks, remember that you have to check that dugout lineup card before you step up to the plate.

-The Commissioner

Week 13

Hey All,

July is here!!!!!!!  Time for fireworks and July 4th baseball!!!!  Here's what's going on in the Longball League.

Roster Moves
The Tax Dodgers used a roster move to drop Justin Verlander-DET and pick up Yu Darvish-TEX.

Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week

Hitters
Hot: Chris Davis.  Do I need to say more?

Not: Philadelphia's Ryan Howard went hitless in 18 At-Bats with 11 strikeouts this week.

Pitchers
Hot: Aaron Crow of Kansas City won two games this week with an ERA of 0.00 in 13 innings pitched.

Not: Astros hurler Lucas Harrell went 0-2 this week allowing eight earned runs and walking six in 10 1/3 innings pitched.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. Moving for a discount.  When MLB realigned for the 2013 season, somebody had to jump to the AL so that there would be 15 teams each in the AL and NL. The Houston Astros jumped at the chance..  Why?  When the Astros went up for sale, MLB gave prospective new owner Jim Crane a 70 million dollar discount. He agreed, bought the team for less and now the Astros are in the AL West.

2. Talk about a long days journey into night; Thw White Sox lost both games of a twi-night double header to the Indians on Thursday that lasted over eight hours. The Sox lost the first game, 19-10 and lasted 4:02. The second game went 3:51 with a :25 rain delay which the Sox lost 9-8.

3. Michael Cuddyer has a 27-game hitting streak going.  That's not really trivial and he's almost half way to Joltin' Joe.  I better watch some Rockies games this week.

Cool Baseball Cards of the Week: 1971 Topps #554 Lowell Palmer, and 1979 Topps #516 Champ Summers.

This week, I salute the common card.  The common card in the collecting world is a card of a player not regarded as a star player.  Common cards are the backbone of all big sets.  The one thing to remember about the common card is that each card is of someone who made it to the big leagues. Here's a look at a couple of cool common cards.

Lowell Palmer amassed a forgettable 5-18 record in parts of five seasons in the bigs. However, this card with him sporting those cool shades will live on forever.

If I was going to create a fictional baseball player, Champ Summers would be an awesome name.  His real name is John Junior Summers, but hey, when you see the name Champ Summers, that just screams baseball player.  Champ played in parts of 11 seasons for six different teams with 54 HRs and 218 RBIs.

Until next week folks remember there is only two months left of the Longball League regular season.

-The Commissioner