Top 5 Carlos Peña Impersonators

I have a soft spot in my heart for Carlos Peña, who turns 35 today. Houston's slugging first baseman doesn't club them into the seats at the same pace he used to, but his 5 years in Tampa Bay were so good, he comfortably holds the Rays franchise HR record at 163.

Peña's similarity scores from B-R.com turn up more of the same, big first basemen and designated hitters who regularly posted 120 OPS+ thanks to their power stroke. His top five cover a nice range of years and players, where "nice range" means "after the DH's installation in 1973."

1. Gorman Thomas (1984 Donruss Champions #5)

If that uniform looks odd, it's because the Brewers traded Gorman, a fan favorite, to Cleveland in mid-1983. I happened to attend one of his "Milwaukee return games" on June 26 (box score), the first time I can remember home fans cheering when a visiting player homered. (Thomas went deep off reliever Tom Tellmann in the 8th.)

2. Tony Scott (1998 Pinnacle Performers Swing For The Fences #5)

Soon after my move to Boston, the Red Sox signed Tony Clark to a $5M contract, fresh off his 2001 All-Star season in Detroit. Clark posted a 47 OPS+ and everyone hated him, hated the team, and hated the owners. He followed with a handful of decent years elsewhere, so I assume Tony never felt comfortable with the town, his teammates, or contract.

3. Jason Thompson (1985 Fleer, what a color combo)

Thompson made 3 All-Star games and struck out nowhere near the totals posted by free-swinging power guys today. Given his 120 career OPS+, I'm surprised he didn't get more opportunities after age 30. Montreal cut ties with Jason after two bad months in 1986 and that was it for his career.

4. John Mayberry, Sr. (1978 Topps #550)

Houston drafted Mayberry with high expectations, but he never hit well in spot-duty and they unloaded him to Kansas City for Lance Clemons and Jim York, two pitchers who combined to win 9 games for the Astros. Six years, two All-Star appearances, and 143 HRs later, it's fair to say the Royals got the better end of that trade (career stats).

5. Jesse Barfield (1989 Score NatWest Banks Yankees #5)

This is one of the first cards to show Jesse Barfield as a Yankee, after Toronto swapped him early in 1989 for a youthful Al Leiter. Jesse could still reach the seats in New York, but without the consistency shown earlier in Toronto. Like Jason Thompson, Barfield was finished by his early 30s, but might've stuck around longer with the surfeit of teams playing today.

1980 TCMA Batavia Trojans Baseball #5, Mike Kolodny

Mike Kolodny, you look like every guy I hung out with in the bowling alley parking lot on weekends. Can I bum a sip of New Coke? How about a quarter for some Ironman Stewart's Off Road Racing? You're a true friend, Mike Kolodny.

It's easy to poke sophomoric fun at TROJANS, but trying out team names is the sacred duty of minor leagues franchises, be they great, goofy, or groan-worthy. Toledo has its Mud Hens; Vermont its Lake Monsters; Albuquerque its Isotopes. Franchise affiliates that matched MLB names top-to-bottom would feel trite and unmoored from local fan bases, so here's to keeping names individual and interesting. (Batavia currently plays as the Muckdogs and their 2013 season kicks off this week. Good seats still available!)

Without any "previous year" stats to distract me, today's the first time I've really noticed TCMA's address in that tagline and P.O. Box #2 is a pretty low number. So where were 1980 collectors actually writing for those free lists of photo fact cards?

Amawalk (the NY town) is near Connecticut's western border and this rambling white house is their post office, where founder Mike Aronstein or another TCMA employee would collect your letters from box #2 and send back their mail order catalog. If you count both major and minor leagues, TCMA  printed 61 sets that year alone!

30 Batavia Trojans appear in today's set, future big leaguers in bold.

1. Angelo Gilbert
2. Terry Norman
3. Mark Baius
4. Todd Richards
5. Mike Kolodny
6. Kirk Jones
7. Tom Blackmon
8. Tom Burns
9. Monty Holland
10. Mike Schwarber
11. Orestes Moldes
12. Chuck Hollowell
13. Tom Stiboro
14. Brian Meyer
15. Rick Elkin
16. Luis Duarte
17. Chuck Melito
18. Darold Ellison
19. Kevin Malone
20. Andy Alvis
21. Kelly Gruber
22. Rick Colzie, Manager
23. Justo Saavedra
24. Matt Minium
25. Dave Gallagher
26. Pat Grady
27. Chris Rehbaum
28. Jeff Moronko
29. Nelson Ruiz
30. Mark Wright

This set's biggest name is future 2-time All-Star Kelly Gruber, who hit a high peak in 1990 by capturing the AL's 3B Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards for Toronto. Unfortunately, Kelly lost the second half of his career to a degenerative neck injury, ultimately retiring after a 1997 comeback attempt in AAA.

BATAVIA TRIVIA: in 1986, Batavia set the obscure short-season record of eight future Major Leaguers on one roster, fielding Jim Bruske, Tommy Hinzo, Tom Lampkin, Troy Neel, Bruce Egloff, Jeff Shaw, Joe Skalski, and Kevin Wickander. (Of those, Lampkin and Shaw saw the longest MLB careers, logging more than a decade each.)

Value: This #5 cost $2 at MinorLeagueSingles.com. I've seen eBay sellers asking as much as $55 for the full set, but that's out of character for a team thin on future MLB stars.

Fakes / reprints: TCMA reprinted several 1980 team sets for "collectors kits" later that decade. Those cards come with black ink backs, while originals have today's blue ink.

1980 TCMA Memphis Chicks Baseball #5, Greg Bargar

In the spirit of SBNation's recent additions to their Baseball Name Hall of Fame (class of 2013), I further recognize the cultural context of guys like Greg Bargar, complete with camelback hat and "aspiring wrestler" mustache. You know, for the Chicks. (Montreal's AA affiliate Memphis Chicks.)

While a fan of minor league baseball and interesting names, I'm of two minds on this team. A squad intentionally named the "Chicks" already borders on gaudy, but did you know they played in Tim McCarver Stadium, so named in 1968 for the Memphis native, then a pretty-good catcher, now (in)famous as Fox's tenured professor of broadcasting? A park that combined AstroTurf infield and outfield grass? There's your purported Memphis Chicks. I submit this team might not have actually existed outside the mind and pen of George Plimpton.

Wikipedia claims Tim McCarver Stadium was demolished in 2006. I propose it collapsed beneath the weight of self-aware expectation. (Will this wandering anecdote about the folly of designated hitters ever end? No...? *girder rending noise*.)

Greg's teammates from that 1980 Arizona team included future manager Terry Francona, durable lefty Craig Lefferts, and Casey Candaele, son of former AAGPBL outfielder Helen Callaghan. Casey and Helen are the only mother/son combo in pro baseball history, which is pretty cool. (To complete today's team name circle, AAGPBL's own "Chicks" debuted in Milwaukee and later moved to Grand Rapids.)

TCMA's 1980 Chicks team includes several Hall of Fame names in their own right; my sentimental favorite is #19. (Future big leaguers marked in bold.)

1. Steve Lovins
2. Charlie Lea
3. Anthony Johnson
4. Tom Gorman
5. Greg Bargar
6. Joe Abone
7. Larry Goldetsky, Coach
8. Larry Bearnarth, Manager
9. Mike Gates
10. Glen Franklin
11. Ray Crowley
12. Leonel Carrion
13. Terry Francona
14. Kevin Mendon
15. Brad Mills
16. Tony Phillips
17. Pat Rooney
18. Dennis Sherow
19. Tommy Joe Shimp
20. Bryn Smith
21. Chris Smith
22. Doug Simunic
23. Bob Tenenini
24. Grayling Tobias
25. Tom Wieghaus
26. Rick Williams
27. Steve Winfield
28. Frank Wren
29. Bud Yanus
30. Audie Thor, Trainer

Value: Non-star 1980 TCMA singles cost a dollar or two. Most team sets are under $20, but the title-winning success of Terry Francona might push this one close to that.

Fakes / reprints: TCMA reprinted several minor league sets for "collector's kits" later in the 1980s. Those reprints have black backs, while originals have blue.

1980 TCMA Glens Falls White Sox Baseball (Color) #5, Mark Esser

Red borders and blocky white text must mean TCMA's back in town! Today's set marks an encore performance for Chicago's AA team in Glens Falls, a franchise that started 1980 with a black-and-white set, whose #5 was shadowy Mark Platel. I assume that offering proved popular enough to merit this mid-season bump to full color.

I see you there, Budweiser

1980 was also a busy year for Esser, who'd started 1979 with Chicago's White Sox after doing great things against single-A hitters in 1978. He lasted less than a month on the South Side, pitching 1.2 innings, garnering a 16.20 ERA, and striking out one batter (Dave Roberts) before being sent  down to the AAA Iowa Oaks, where he was managed by young (34 year-old) manager Tony LaRussa.

LaRussa built his strategic reputation on revitalizing pitchers in Oakland and St. Louis, but Tony didn't do much for Mark, who unfortunately never made it back to the bigs. Based on 1979's stats in Iowa, I suspect a minor but lingering injury that didn't improve until the off-season.

Esser broke 1980 spring training with single-A Appleton, probably a kick in the gut when you'd started on a major league roster the previous year. Mark once again blew away low-minors competition, going 4-0 in 5 starts, then jumped to both AA Glens Falls (today's card) and AAA Iowa with mixed results. He spent 1981 in denouement, then pitched a final year with Glens Falls before retiring (career stats).

TCMA printed 30 cards for this color set, adding #20 "Sox Infield" to the black-and-white version's 29 player checklist. Players in bold reached the majors.

1. Ron Perry
2. Len Bradley
3. Mark Teutsch
4. Randy Johnson
5. Mark Esser
6. Andy Pasillas
7. Kevin Hickey
8. Rick Seilheimer
9. Mark Platel
10. Julio Perez
11. Vince Bienek
12. Fran Mullins
13. Rick Wieters
14. Dom Fucci
15. Randy Evans
16. Steve Pastrovich
17. Luis Rois
18. Reggie Patterson
19. Ted Barnicle
20. Sox Infield
21. Mike Pazik, Manager
22. Abner Haines, Trainer
23. Bob Bolster, Clubhouse Manager
24. Duane Shaffer, Coach
25. Orlando Cepeda, Instructor
26. Lorenzo Gray
27. Ray Torres
28. Tom Johnson
29. Batboys
30. A.J. Hill

Find scans of most of the set on Auctiva, an image hosting site. Wish I could go back in time and tell those photographers to stop taking players photos at noon.

Value: 1980 TCMA cards remain easy to find, so $1-2 for non-star singles is reasonable and team sets run $10-15.

Fakes / reprints: TCMA reprinted several team sets for "collector's kits" in the late 1980s. Reprints come with black ink backs and originals have blue ink.

1889 Philadelphia "Stars of the Diamond" Baseball #5, L.M. (Lave) Cross

Before MLB.tv, before designated hitters, before talk radio, before the 20th century, there was still baseball. "Founding era" baseball. Well-dressed gentlemen who played dirty. Outlaw leagues that ignored each others' signed contracts. Cheating, drinking, and megalomania. Yellow journalism baseball. For all our ragging on today's public sports obsession, at least there are hundreds of other channels to watch. 19th century fans flocked to baseball in part because it put the ne'er-do-wells into a public arena with nominal rules and umpires to enforce them.

In their collective infancy, 19th century pro teams rose and fell on the strength of individual stars, who blossomed for a few glorious years, only to destroy their bodies or reputations with intemperate living and fall back to earth amidst media scandal. (21st century satirist-writers like @OldHossRadbourn base their commentary on the era's expected insouciance of body, mind, and liver.)

Printed in what I consider the most significant city of baseball's first century--no offense, New York--these page-sized "cards" came with midsummer issues of The Stage, a Philadelphia weekly newspaper. 19th century photography worked best in formal studios, so Mr. Cross and many in The Stage's 14-player set look like college lettermen plucked from a turn of the century yearbook. Look at that natty suit, polished hair, perfect tie knot, and buttonhole chain. Excelsior!

Actual size, 9.5" x 12.5"

Lave Cross largely avoided his contemporaries' flameouts and racy headlines, but  The Stage would've covered him often as a 14-year pro in their fair city, suiting up for different local teams: the Philadelphia Athletics across three leagues (American Association, Players League, American League) and later the Philadelphia Phillies, which play then as now in the National League (career stats).

A Wisconsin native and son of Czech immigrants, he received the moniker Lafayette Napoleon Cross to approximate and replace his birth name Vratislav Kriz, with the nickname "Lave" striking a middle ground between Lafayette and Vratislav. (I assume The Stage either got "L. M." wrong or he was known publicly with a different middle name and initial.)

This "Stars of the Diamond" text fills in some Cross family backstory, including a prominent mention of recently deceased brother Amos (d. 1888), who shared backstop duties with Lave for the 1887 Louisville Colonels. According to SABR research, oldest brother Joe Cross also played a single game for Louisville that year as a positional fill-in from a Cleveland semi-pro team. They're not quite three Alou brothers in the same outfield, but that many siblings on one team still stands out in baseball history.

We can infer The Stage's "Kelly's at the Bat" poem adapted "Casey at the Bat," but tailored to fit 19th century star King Kelly, then of Boston's Beaneaters. Stage performances of "Casey" debuted in 1888 and proved immediately successful, inspiring paeans and variations of all sorts in the 120+ years since, including this stamp in the Post Office's "Folk Heroes" series.

Value: Old Cardboard estimates VG singles at $185, but pricing will vary given the set's extreme scarcity. Most modern transactions come via auction, so "real" value changes by whim of the bidders. The text supplements are also significant as original sources for stories of 19th century baseball, so collectors also compete with historians.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace, perhaps due to the set's obscurity.

1993 Stadium Club Baseball #5, Tony Phillips

Happy 54th birthday to Tony Phillips, a guy who exceeded the common definitions of "journeyman" and "utility player." He suited up for six franchises over 18 years, played every non-battery position, and posted a 109 career OPS+, drawing 100+ walks five times.

Stealing a page from Satchel Paige's playbook, Tony prolonged his career with independent teams Yuma Scorpions (2011) and Edinburg Roadrunners (2012), then tried out for this year's York Revolution. Unlike former big-leaguer Brett Tomko, Tony didn't make their 2013 roster.

I like the photo on this card's front exactly as much as I dislike the card's cluttered, mis-mash back. The fuzzy glove hand obscures almost everything else and Stadium Club would've been better served choosing a rookie card OR batting pose and not both.

It's interesting that Topps called Tony "3B-2B," given this breakdown of where he played in 1992.

• 2B: 57 games
• RF: 35
• DH: 34
• CF: 24
• 3B: 20
• LF: 14
• SS: 1

Given all that, I'd go with "2B-OF." Tony's fielding versatility reminds me of Pete Rose, as Charlie Hustle logged 500+ games at 5 positions. It's almost certainly why Phillips never made an All-Star team in 2 decades of good play.

Value: Tony's star never rose high enough in the sky to break $1, but I bet he enjoyed the 1989 World Series win.

Baseball, the Marathon, and Some Cards

Finally stepping off this week's emotional roller coaster, as everyone here in Boston went from great Patriots Day expectations to the Boston Marathon bombing, the factory explosion outside Waco, the Senate vote on background checks, multiple earthquakes in Asia, and back to Watertown's meticulous manhunt. Locals mused that Friday night would see the greatest bar tab in city history as a release from sequestering themselves indoors all day. Most people expressed relief over joy; it's nerve-wracking keeping yourself "alert" for 24+ hours.

Baseball self-consciously took a lower profile after Monday, given its hand-in-glove relationship with the marathon. My favorite part of every Patriots Day is the mid-morning Fenway game, timed to end so 30,000+ energized fans can spill out into nearby Kenmore Square and join the confluence of humanity motivating runners to gut out the marathon's last agonizing miles. Boston's horsehide-and-sneaker combo is a sweet spot for the city and when I think about Patriots Days past and future, the link feels (and should remain) inseparable. I pulled some of my favorite Red Sox cards with that connection in mind.

1938 Goudey #282, Bobby Doerr

Bobby Doerr is Boston's oldest living HOFer and held a ton of offensive team records that it took Ted Williams to break. And is there a more enjoyable set than the big-head 1938 Goudeys, complete with tiny cartoons and baby blue uniforms? (Hidden cartoon pun: prior to reaching Boston, Doerr "starred" for the eponymous Hollywood Stars.)

1938 Boston Marathon: 1936 winner and then-leader Ellison "Tarzan" Brown surprises fans by taking a cooling swim in Lake Cochituate mid-race, ceding his chance at victory. Brown returned to win in 1939 and became the first Boston runner to break 2:30.

1987 Fleer Word Series subset, Spike Owen and Dave Henderson

Both guys on this card started 1986 with Seattle, far from World Series prospects, but a mid-August trade made them teammates with the same Roger Clemens who'd struck out 20 Mariners in April. Spike contributed a .875 postseason OPS and Henderson homered twice in the World Series, including a long blast off Dwight Gooden.

Boston's Bruce Hurst went 3-0 that postseason, including a complete game 5 win over Gooden, who lost twice in the series. Hurst continued to pitch well for years, but if Boston wins that series, Bruce would still be on billboards around town.

1987 Boston Marathon: Two-time Japanese Olympian Toshihiko Seko wins his second Boston title, following 1986 wins in London and Chicago. As he put it, "The marathon is my only girlfriend. I give her everything I have."

1984 Donruss Champions #14, Ted Williams

Donruss printed several postcard-sized sets in the 80s, adding hand-painted legends like Williams to this 60-card collection of Champions (active players) and Grand Champions (retired players). I enjoyed the new-and-old variety as a young collector and still own all of them (set checklist).

1984 Boston Marathon: Briton (and Olympian) Geoff Smith wins his first of back-to-back races, the last Boston Marathons to offer no prize money. Adding a financial incentive quickly inflated the pool of elite competitors, which also increased the race's international prestige.

Bill Lee, in formal attire

Baseball spent the 1970s being as eccentric as Spaceman Lee. They belonged together.

1970s Boston Marathon: Bill Rodgers wins four times, twice setting a course record. 1982 marked the last time a Commonwealth resident (Alberto Salazar) won Boston and 1983 was the last time an American (Greg Meyer) did so. In 1975, Boston became the first major race to add a wheelchair division.

1967 Topps #604, Boston team card

Boston's 1967 pennant-winners, decked out in red, red, and more red. This is tough card to get, thanks it being a scarce Topps high number, the year of Yaz's Triple Crown, and dear to both team and World Series collectors.

1967 Boston Marathon: Kathrine Switzer famously runs the marathon, at one point evading race officials desperate to chase her (or any woman) off the course. Women are first officially "welcomed" by the BAA to register and run in 1972. (Join Benoit won Boston in 1983, prior to taking Gold in the inaugural Women's Marathon at the LA Olympics in 1984.)

Thanks to everyone outside Boston for this week's shows of support and solidarity. Here's hoping the marathon and baseball remain linked now and forever.

2004 Upper Deck First Pitch Baseball #5, Miguel Cabrera

Born today, 2012 AL Triple Crown Winner, career 151 OPS+ hitter, and occasional glove man Miguel Cabrera.

Miguel split 2003 between third base and left field, so I assume this photo shows him as an outfielder, fielding something hit low in front of him.

So many players get labeled as "Star Rookies" and so few deliver on those projections, year in and year out, but Miguel sits atop that group for the last ten years. (2013 marks the start of just his 11th season; it feels to me like he's been pounding the ball forever.)

Upper Deck published this 300-card set to coincide with Opening Day, in part to get young guys like Cabrera shown in "real" uniforms as quickly as possible (set checklist).

This card text actually undersells Cabrera, who certainly "bulked up physically" and can hit darn near everything within reach. "FUTURE TRIPLE CROWN WINNER" might've been tough to predict, though.

Want a major flashback? Check out Florida's 2004 Opening Day roster, which still featured "original Marlin" Jeff Conine and future Red Sox title winners Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. Yeah, I'm old now.

Value: Awesome hitter or not, this #5 costs just $1 on COMC.com and other stars run about the same.

1967 Post Cereal Great Moments in Sports #5, Baseball (Batting)

I recently wrapped up a job of 13 years, so have had less time to focus on the collection and blogging of late. Hope today's hard-to-find type card from Canada is worth the wait!

This 4"x4" pose of an unknown hitter poised to swing started as a larger punch-out card packaged in Canadian cereal boxes. Kids then separated the background, batter, and umpire/catcher into pieces with numbered tabs and matching slots. Combine everything correctly--via instructions in English or French--and you have a tiny diorama, similar to one scene from a pop-up book.

This card's previous owner taped its corners to avoid losing the base, with the side effect that it's difficult to stand up as Post intended. My video should illustrate how it'd look if you could set it freestanding on a table.

The bilingual back gives a functional account of the batter's task, to evaluate and swing at incoming pitches. I assume it's just as dry in French.

Note the small triangular cut near the bottom middle--that's a fold-out support panel that helps it stand upright when assembled, like a leg on a picture frame.

To my knowledge, this set's uncatalogued by the typical baseball collector guides, so it's not easy to discover why Post produced this unusual set design. 12 panels comprise the whole set and baseball appears just once. Good thing for me it was #5!

1. Hockey (shooting)
2. Hockey (passing)
3. Football (passing)
4. Football (kicking)
5. Baseball (batting)
6. Skating (pairs special)
7. Basketball (lay up shot)
8. Auto Racing (finish)
9. Track (the finish) [Roger Bannister]
10. Sailing (old and new)
11. Horses (jumping)
12. Soccer (goal shot)

Value: I paid $25 on eBay for this #5. They're so rare I'm not sure if that's fair or not, but Roger Bannister's fame should make its track card most valuable to collectors at large.

Fakes / reprints: It'd be tough to fake all that die-cutting and not worth doing for a card with no real players.

1991 Fleer Ultra #5, 1993 Fleer #5, 1998 Donruss Baseball #5, Tom Glavine

Happy 47th birthday to Braves legend Tom Glavine, 2-time Cy Young winner and future Hall of Famer!

I owned this 1991 Ultra #5, a glossier set Fleer produced to compete with Upper Deck's surge of photo-driven market success. Designers put no less than four different poses of Tom onto this one card, showing off several stages of his delivery and multiple uniform combos. Too bad the orange background gradient makes it look so dated!

Fleer upped their game in 1993 with a dedicated Glavine highlights subset (including this #5) and he rewarded collectors with a 3rd-straight 20-win season (career stats).

It feels weird in retrospect for a 27 year-old guy with barely 60 career wins to receive a dedicated subset, but Atlanta rode high during that Ted Turner era of Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, and TBS. The junk wax era meant tons of product, so stars served double or triple shifts on cardboard.

An icon of durability, Glavine started at least 32 games 12 straight years from 1996 (age 30) to 2007 (age 41). Tom won 20 games for the 4th time in 1998, edging out Trevor Hoffman (53 saves) and Kevin Brown (18-7) for his second Cy Young.

Donruss matched Atlanta's team colors well, thanks to the team's taste for red, white, and blue. So glad it wasn't teal and tangerine.

At the 11 year mark in 1997, half Glavine's career, he'd won 153 games. Over the last 11, he won 152 more. EERIE CONSISTENCY.

Value: Cooperstown plaque or no Cooperstown plaque, most Glavine cards come cheap thanks to ready availability. All of these should cost less than $1 online or at shows.