Heart and Hustle

 Have you ever heard of the Heart and Hustle Award? 

This award, given to the player who demonstrates a passion for the game and embodies values, spirit and tradition of the game of baseball, was instituted by the Major League Baseball Alumni Association in 2005. The MLBPAA creates 30 committees made up of former players with connections to each team. Those committees nominate one player based on their passion, work ethic and desire both on and off the field. At the end of the season, fans (I've never voted!), alumni and current players vote. 

I can honestly say that I'd never heard of this award until one of my favorite World Series Champion Texas Rangers (It never gets old saying that!), Marcus Semien, won the award for the 2023 season. 

At a time when athletes seem to be focused on "me" instead of team, it's nice to have players recognized who go about playing the game the right way. Semien did it the right way. He set an MLB record of 835 plate appearances in 2023. He hit .276 in the regular season with 40 doubles, 29 home runs and 100 RBIs. In the playoffs, he started off cold, but heated up to have 2 doubles, a triple and 2 home runs driving in 10 RBIs. Semien started all 179 games at second base. There's no doubt that Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia carried the biggest offensive load this year, but Marcus Semien was the steadying force for this team.

Here are the previous winners and their cards:

                2022                                                         2021

        Paul Goldschmidt                                      Ozzie Albies

     

***2020 was lost due to COVID.*** 

                       2019                                             2018

                Howie Kendrick                             Mookie Betts

    

                         2017                                              2016

                 Brett Gardner                               Todd Frazier             

    

 

                           2015                                            2014

                     Anthony Rizzo                           Josh Harrison

    

                2013                                                       2012

            Dustin Pedroia                                        Mike Trout

    

                            2011                                            2010

                    Torii Hunter                                 Roy Halladay

    

                       2009                                                         2008

                   Albert Pujols                                    Grady Sizemore 

    

                              2007                                         2006

                      Craig Biggio                              Craig Biggio

    

2005

David Eckstein

  

Tenacious, relentless effort, energetic, playing with passion and a phenomenal teammate are just some of the words used to describe these players. Other words that describe these players are All-Star, Silver Slugger winner, MVP and World Series Champion. All great words to describe these players, but there's more. 

Each of these players is well known for giving back to their communities and beyond. Supporting their team charities, creating their own foundations that support cancer patients and their families, surviving members of military families, numerous youth organizations, baseball clinics, etc...the list goes on. 

I know that every time I see a story about my Rangers in the community giving back, I see Marcus Semien there. These are the guys that live by example. The ones that you want you kids to emulate. These are the heroes of the game. 

Since I've found out about this award I've decided that I'm going to collect the Topps card for each winner in the year they won. That's one of the best thing about collecting; you get to collect what you want! All I have to do now is find a place to display them.

Peace, 

Michael 

Isaiah 40:31

My least favorite sets from the 1980s

Still reveling in my Texas Rangers FINALLY winning a World Series! Such a long time in coming, that its really hard to move on from it. Can't tell you the number of times that I've watched replays on YouTube. 

However, that is for another post. This one is about my 3 least favorite sets from the 1980s. 

 I'm not a negative person. I'm definitely a "the glass is half full" kind of person. I get that from my faith in God and my parents. I tell you that so you know that this post about my least favorite sets from the 1980s is not supposed to be a big negative thing. I mean, it's baseball cards, so how can that be bad, right? 

Once again, this is not going to be a deep dive into the sets. As a matter of fact, I'm going to include all three of the sets in this one post. These aren't in any order, just my least favorites from the decade. The biggest thing for me on these sets has absolutely nothing to do with the number of rookie cards or the over abundance of cards printed. These are just my least favorite designs of the cards from the '80s. 

Leading off the list of my least favorite Topps sets from the '80s is the 1981 set. 

1981 is the year I got into card collecting. I opened a ton Topps, Fleer and Donruss packs that year. A failed attempt at making a quick buck on Fleer error cards, a whole bunch of Donruss packs (I cannot for the life of me remember why!) and lots of Topps, chasing the Fernando Valenzuela and Tim Raines rookie cards. 

   

There are 726 cards in the set with 79 of those rookies. The other sought after rookie cards from the set are the Hall of Famer Harold Baines and Kirk Gibson. 

    

Back in '81, I didn't mind the design of the card, but the more time that has passed, the hat on the left bottom corner just doesn't work for me anymore. I don't think I'm a fan of all of the information on the front being at the bottom of the card either. I do like the way Topps chose to designate the All-Stars and there are some really good close up pictures of the players.  

    

This isn't a terrible set, just not one of my favorites. Could be part of the reason I still haven't completed the set yet.

Next up on the least favorite Topps set from the 1980s is the 1982 set.

The 1982 set was the first set that expanded to 792 cards. There are 62 rookie cards with 26 of those being the Future Stars team cards shared by three players. The most famous and sought after being card #21, Orioles Future Stars with Cal Ripken Jr. 

Who doesn't love Cal Ripken? Okay, I'm sure there's people out there that don't, but I sure don't know any. That card is almost the reason, all by itself, to not have the '82 set on my least favorite sets, but I'm sorry, I just don't like the double hockey stick design of the cards. I definitely didn't coin that phrase, but once I heard it, it fit. I think Topps was trying to be modern and in the '80s I guess that would qualify, but it doesn't work for me. 

    

There are some decent action shots in the set and I kind of like the facsimile autographs on the cards, but I keep finding myself drawn to strange colored hockey sticks on the side. Plus, I think the Topps logo on the front is kind of big.

The last of the least favorite Topps sets from the '80s falls to the 1987 set.

The '87 set is made up of 792 cards and is probably the most over-produced set out there, but that's got nothing to do with why it is one of my least favorites sets. It's all got to do with the wood grain border. 

     

This is 25 years after the 1962 set that had the wood grain borders. Like that set, the borders vary a bit in color and I guess its my OCD kicking in, but it drives me nuts! I do know this, it is real easy to identify the '62 and the '87 sets. That being said, There are some nice cards in the set.

    

 The Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin and Rafael Palmeiro rookie cards are from this set. My first born son was born in 1987 and I decided before the cards even came out that I would collect him a set from his birth year. I was really disappointed in the wood grain design, but I still bought them and  have that complete set for him. I don't have one for myself though, so I've got to finish that one. 

That's it for my least favorite sets from the 1980s. Like I said before, this can't be a big negative post because, its baseball cards and how can baseball cards be negative? Leave me a comment and let me know what your least favorite sets from the 1980s are!

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

The 1980s Part 3

 Well, it's taken a lot longer to get this post out than I thought. I was distracted for the last couple of weeks by the WORLD SERIES CHAMPION TEXAS RANGERS!

I became a fan of the Rangers way back in 1972 when the Washington Senators moved to Texas, so this was a long time in coming. I will have another post about my Rangers soon(See Night Owl Cards, I'm learning!).

Let's get back to the '80s. This is the third of three installments about my 3 favorite sets from the '80s. The fourth installment will be about my 3 least favorite sets. 

Once again, this won't be a deep dive into the sets, but will hopefully, be a little informational and a little bit of  opinion. The 3 favorites are not ranked in any order, just like my 3 least favorites won't be either. I'm also sticking to Topps base sets. It's not like that's all I collected back then. I have tons of  Fleer and Donruss cards that I collected in the '80s, but my focus these days is on Topps so that's what I'm sticking to.

My third favorite Topps set of the 1980s is the 1988 Topps set. 

     

This 792 card set was released as one series at the height of Junk Wax Era. I really don't like the name Junk Wax Era, I wish there was a better way to describe it. The Overproduction Era? Anyway, the '88 Topps have a white border with the team name in block letters set behind the larger player photos. The player's names in block letters are on a diagonal strip in the right bottom corner of the card. The backs of the cards are orange with player stats. There are 80 rookie cards in this set (81 if you count the Leiter corrected card) led by Tom Glavine. 

I really like the simple design and larger player pictures. The team and player names are easy to read. The older I get and the worse my eyes get make that kind of important! 

There are four subsets in the '88 release; Record Breakers, Future Stars, Turn back the clock and All-Stars.

   

    

I really like the cut-out picture with red background. I think that it really focuses on the players. 

        

There are five Future Stars in the set. I'm not in love with this subset, but I don't not like it either. I do like the fact that Future Stars on the card is easy to spot. 

     

Card numbers 661-665 are the Turn back the clock subset. I think these are pretty cool cards. I do think they could have chosen a better player than Ron Blomberg. No disrespect to Mr. Blomberg, he was a Major Leaguer, but there are a lot of other players that would have been better.

     

Card numbers 386-407 are the All-Star cards. I like the close-up design of the cards. I think Topps could have chosen a better color than the yellow, but it's still a nice looking card. I really like how it looks when when all of the subset is together. 

Here are a few more cards from the set.

     

I always like manager cards. Okay, not always, but I'm starting to like them more and more the older I get. 

     

I think the way the team cards are cropped is pretty cool. Not something you normally see on cards. It's different and I like the pictures with players highlighted.

     

    

Overall, for a set that was massed produced and mostly ignored by card collectors this really isn't a bad looking set. 

Very soon (I keep saying that, but it never really is very soon!), I will have out my least favorite sets from the 1980s. Let me know in the comments what you think about the 1988 Topps set.

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

 

2nd trip to Albuquerque and a new card store

 This was my second trip to Albuquerque, NM in the past 2 months. Last time I was able to visit a couple of local card stores and wasn't overly impressed or dissatisfied either. This trip I only got in one more card store of the 5 or 6 that I've seen in town. 

Last time, I intentionally did not mention the card store names. This time, however, I want to tell you about my visit to New Mexico Sports Cards. 

New Mexico Sports Cards is a very neat and organized store. It's not real big, but has plenty of room. They've got $1.00 and $5.00 boxes and lower priced slabs for collectors to peruse. The cases are organized by sport and have both graded and ungraded cards. Yep, that's right, a typical local card store. The big difference for me was the guy working counter. 

Now, I must admit that I didn't get his name but, I do know that he was the owner.  According to the business card I got, it was either Jeff or Tyler. 

Jeff or Tyler, which ever one it was, was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and a pleasure to talk to. There weren't a ton of vintage cards in the store, but what was there, was in nice condition and reasonably priced. He said that there just didn't seem to be a lot of vintage cards in the area. I was able to pick up a couple of cards that I've been looking for at a really good price. 

That is my first real Willie Mays card! I've got all kinds of reprints and inserts throughout the years, but this is my first real one. 

Ozzie Smith has been one of my favorite ball players since I was watching This Week in Baseball on Saturdays when I was kid. The Wizard was on almost every week with some kind of spectacular play. I've been looking for his rookie card for awhile and I finally got one. I know it's off centered and one of the corners is a little rounded, but the price was right and I pulled the trigger. 

The wife and youngest son was with me, so I didn't have a lot of time to go through the dollar boxes, but I did pull out a couple of Torkelson rookies that the owner threw in with the other cards. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to New Mexico Sports Cards. If you're ever in the Albuquerque area, drop by and check them out. 

That's all for now. Hope to get part 3 of the 1980s up real soon. 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31