Goodbye Captain Hook

It took me a while to get over it.

OK, I really never got over it, but I let it go.

When Tigers manager Sparky Anderson took the field for the first time I was not happy, not at all.

Now, I was glad he was the Tigers skipper, heck, it was fantastic.

What I didn't like was his uniform.

I was simply upset, and in fact, I might have started to cry.

Sparky Anderson was wearing #11...wait, what. no, it couldn't be, #11?

Hey, that's Bill Freehan's number I cried out...how dare the Tigers disgrace my boyhood hero's number like that...#11 belonged to the best catcher the Tigers ever had, not a guy in his first game.


OK, I know that was a minor flaw in my character, but hey, I had been personally hurt, so I thought, by the Tigers  injustice towards my hero.


Sparky Anderson passed away today, and to say I was sad would be a tremendous disservice to one of the greatest baseball men ever.


Sparky was a true baseball man, a man who loved the game more and more every single day.


The Tigers should honor Sparky in some way, and I think that way should be to retire #11, do it next year, Freehan turns 69 this month, and honor both those great men at Comerica Park.


#11 was a special number, and I think the Tigers have been slow in doing things like this.


Sparky is in the Hall of Fame, and the Tigers need to do the right thing.


May Sparky rest in peace.

Topps 60th

I clicked on a link today to pick The 60 greatest Topps Cards ever

Wow, I though, how cool will this be, so I went to the site, and started scrolling through some of the most famous cards in Topps history.

Topps has what they consider the 100 greatest cards they've produced, and are asking collectors to pick the top 60 of All-Time to help them promote their 60th Anniversary next year.

Now, it's a great idea, and I voted for my Top 10 cards, but I was not happy about all the selections to choose from.

To start,their is not one, not one, card from any Detroit Tiger player, not one. 

Now, I didn;t expect the '63 Bill Freehan RC, or a '91 Cecil Fielder, but...

...I thought for sure that the 1954 Al Kaline RC would be there for me to select, or the 1978 RC that has Alan Trammell and Paul Molitor on the same card, but no.

There are, however...

16 different Mickey Mantle cards, and 24 different Yankee cards total.

13 different Brookyln Dodger cards

Topps is to be congratulated on a great promotion, but the cards selection is way to slanted to the Yankees and Dodgers. 

So, I voted for 10 of the 100 cards featured, including the '52 Mantle, which has to be in anyone's top 1o, and for the '85 McGwire USA Card, just to name a couple.

As I mentioned before,I would have like the guys at Topps to have a much better selection of cards, there's just way to many Mantle cards.

Here's easily the worst choice that Topps made...

 

A 1985 Topps Doc Gooden Record Breaker, that's what they consider one of their best 100 cards of All-Time?

Here's another choice from Topps 100 cards...yes, a 1990 Sammy Sosa card.

Topps will take the top 60 cards and insert them into packs of 2011 Baseball packs.