It's The Little Things

Baseball is all about the little things. A Saturday afternoon game on Network TV so that I can watch my team halfway across the country. A 5'9 rookie turning a slow roller into a gorgeous double play with skill unlike anyone in Detroit has seen since the days of Tram & Lou. A short left field with a huge wall that turns a routine fly ball into a leaping catch at the wall. The cumulative effect of bad pitches and bad decisions and bad luck leaving Tigers fans dejected and angry, and Red Sox fan euphoric, even though they know in their heart of hearts that David Ortiz's bat speed has slowed to the point where he needs to be sitting on a pitch to drive it. Baseball's greatness is contained within the little things.

So too with collecting, although I mean it much more literally. I've received a lot of good mail recently, but nothing quite makes me smile like the little things. I'll start things off with a bang:

2008 Allen & Ginter #373 Justin Verlander Mini

2008 Allen & Ginter #387 Miguel Cabrera Mini

It took being shipped from Taiwan, but they're here. Two of the three Tigers "extended minis" from 2008 Allen & Ginter. As I find myself more and more drawn towards mini cards, the extended set was something that I just couldn't ignore. It makes me kind of wish that all cards were mini cards...

Like, what if all those cards you had from the 80s, looked like this:

1989 Topps Mini Leaders #53 Gary Pettis

1987 Topps Mini Leaders #53 Kirk Gibson

Seriously, how much better would that have been. Or the early 90s, when Upper Deck blew us all out of the water with holograms and such? Why weren't we captivated by these:

1991 Topps Cracker Jack #26 Alan Trammell

I had totally forgotten that there used to be cards in Cracker Jacks. They are so small. You can fit 4 to one regular sized card. In fact, I'm a little disappointed that nobody has come up with a 36-sleeve card holding page. I would totally get one. Unfortunately, because the scale is still basically the same as a regular card, it's hard to tell just how small it is. Here's some help:



That's the cracker jack on the far right with an 80s era Topps mini next to it. A full size card is the Gibson in the middle, next to what I can only describe as the Biggest Donruss Card I've ever seen. Of Sparky Anderson. Probably explaining how important the little things are in baseball.

The A&G minis come courtesy of my diligent eBay bargain hunting. The Pettis comes from Rhubarb Runner and the rest come from Cards on Cards, who provided me with a package rich with 80s and 90s goodness including minis galore and a bunch of other cards that I didn't have. Thanks so much to both of you!

Card Cameos: 1991 Topps Fisk, Fielder & Bergman

Inspired by Night Owl's inclusion of this card in his Cardboard Appreciation Semifinal, and his original post on the card, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to start a new feature on the blog. Card Cameos. I'm sure you're familiar with the concept. A card of player X happens to feature, by virtue of action photography or someone in the background or what have you, another, uncredited player. The catch is this: The non-named card player must be identifiable by virtue of 1) Name/Number on the back of the jersey or 2) Face. That mean's severed legs, backs of helmets or detached arms of a player do not count as a cameo. At least not to me.

Oh, and one other thing. I will only be looking at Cameos of Detroit Tigers, as if that wasn't something that you would have guessed in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, as a gift back to the baseball card community as a whole, I will highlight the cameos of non-Tigers that appear on Tigers cards, but we'll just have to see about that.

So, if we're starting a new feature, why not kick it off with a bang?



Bang.

Does he score? Isn't that the question on everybody's mind? Here in this 1991 Topps #170 (a card which a random Bleacher Report post lists as the best card of the set and of which GCRL is a big fan) We see one thing: Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk preparing himself for a play at the plate with Cecil Fielder.

Easy. Cameo 1: Cecil Fielder

Oh, but there is so much more. The Tiger in the on-deck circle is screaming at Cecil to slide. Now, at first glance, I thought that this was none other than former Catcher Mike Heath. However, comments on Night Owl's post suggest that it is Dave Bergman. "Hmm..." I thought, "Where's the Stache?" A closer review at the image blown up, indicates that it could be Bergman--perhaps his whiskers are caught up in the out-of-register grain of the photograph.

So let's go a step further.

I'm going to assume that photographs for the 1991 set were taken in 1990. Seeing as how this game takes place in Chicago, perhaps we should harken back to that season. A quick glance shows the two Tigers/White Sox series that take place in Chicago:

May 18-20
July 2-4

Boy, how awesome was the balanced schedule back then? I wish they would make things a little less unbalanced these days, but I digress...

Ok, two series to choose from. Looking at the pictures again, I'm seeing long sleeves all around. Is everyone ok assuming that's not in the middle of July? Ok good. Box Score Time.

On May 18th Cecil Fielder went 3 for 3 with a run and 2 RBI. Is this it? Nope. Cecil's solo home run (15!) accounted for his only run.

On May 19th Cecil was 2 for 4 and scored two runs. No Home Runs here--this could be the game.

On May 20th Cecil was 2-4 again, with another Home Run accounting for his sole run and rbi.

(Aside: good lord did Fielder have an incredible series. By the end of it he was batting .326 with 16 home runs and had an OPS of 1.170!)

Ok, back to the May 19th game. Game time temperature is 68 degrees, which seems a little high for long sleeves, but given the night game and the propensity for the midwest to cool down when the sun is down in May, I think we can accept the plausibility of this being the game, in principle. We need to see if there was a scenario in place in which Cecil Fielder would have scored, in a situation that may have warranted a play at the plate, and confirm or deny that Dave Bergman could have been on deck. Cecil was only on base twice in the game. Let's go to the play-by-play:

Cecil Fielder singled to Right Field to lead off the second inning. After a Larry Sheets flyout, Catcher Matt Nokes (which means that Mike Heath wasn't in the game then!) is hit by a pitch. Fielder to second, aka "scoring position." I put this in quotes, because Cecil was not particularly fleet of foot, so a base hit that might score your average player could turn into a play at the plate if, say...Gary Ward singles to Center Field. Which he did. Rounding Third, Fielder keys in on the on-deck batter--Dave Bergman--and as the throw comes in from the outfield Fielder slides and is...

Safe. 1-0 Tigers.

Fielder is again driven in by Ward in the 6th, but was on third base with the bases loaded after a double and two walks. Ward's single scores two runs, the first of which was Fielder, meaning that he would have easily trotted home on that play, making for a much less interesting baseball card.