Reuschel Brothers

It's 1975. 

And here you are, pitching at Triple-A Wichita, pushing hard to get to the big leagues. Your little brother Rick made it to The Show a couple of years ago, and is pitching pretty well for your hometown Chicago Cubs. He's put out lots of good energy into the baseball world for you lately, and combined with all your hard work, it finally brings you the news you've been waiting for. The Cubs are calling you up. You'll be sharing a big-league locker room with your brother! 

As exciting as that is for your family, it gets more memorable on the afternoon of August 21st at Wrigley Field, where your Cubs are hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Rick starts the game off well. In fact, through five innings he hasn't allowed any runs, and only 3 hits. That's when the call comes in: 

Get on the warm-up mound in foul territory and start throwing. 

How cool. Your brother is getting ready for the 6th inning on the main mound, while you're warming up about 200 feet away! With a mixture of adrenaline, joy, and nerves, you say to yourself, Try and stop us. 

The top of the 6th starts and ends quickly, with little bro allowing nothing more than a single across 4 batters. But at that point one of his pitching fingers is showing the signs of a blister, and in the 7th he goes back out on the mound and immediately gives up a single to Steve Garvey. After that, he does manage to induce a ground ball from Willie Crawford, forcing Garvey out at second base. But that looks like it.

A mound visit is underway. 

You watch your manager take the ball from Rick. And now they're pointing over to you. 

You're going to relieve little bro. And as much as you don't want to think about it, a shutout is on the line! 

Thankfully, you finish the rest of the 7th unscathed, and in the 8th you retire Bill Buckner, Davey Lopes, and John Hale without a whole lot of trouble. 

Shutout still intact. 

Back in the dugout, you don't have much time to be nervous. You watch as your team goes down, 1-2-3, in the bottom of the 8th. The top of the 9th is here. 

You get out there and immediately give up a line-drive single to that darned Steve Garvey. But it's just a single. You muster up some courage and get Willie Crawford to fly out to José Cardenal in left field. 

One away. 

Next up is Ron Cey. You induce a grounder to third baseman Bill Madlock. Could this be it?? 

Madlock throws to Manny Trillo at second base to force Steve Garvey out, but Garvey breaks up the double play. Argh! So close! 

But still, it's two away. You're down to the last out. 

Steve Yeager comes up. You check the signs, rear back, and throw one. Yeager connects. The ball flies up into right field, but you realize soon enough that it's going to stay in the park. Jerry Morales gets under it, puts his glove hand up, and squeezes the ball. 

Game over. 

You and little bro combined not only for a win, but for a shutout! And what's more, you're the first pair of brothers to do this in MLB history! What a moment for Rick and Paul Reuschel. 

Here they are, just a few years later:

And here are some numbers:

 

 

CAREER TOTALS

 

	RICK (19 seasons)	PAUL (5 seasons)
WINS	214	16
LOSSES	191	16
ERA	3.37	4.51
STRIKEOUTS	2015	188
WALKS	935	132
SHUTOUTS	26	0
COMPLETE GAMES	1002	1
INNINGS PITCHED	3548.1	393.0

 

 

 

BEST SEASON (career highs in bold)

 

	RICK (1977, CHC)	PAUL (1977, CHC)
WINS	20	5
LOSSES	10	6
ERA	2.79	4.37
STRIKEOUTS	166	62
WALKS	74	40
SHUTOUTS	4	0
COMPLETE GAMES	8	0
INNINGS PITCHED	252.0	107.0

 

Paul pitched in the big leagues for 5 seasons, mostly in middle relief. Over those years, he suited up for the Cubs and Indians. In 1977 he had a very solid season for the Cubs, appearing in 69 games, which placed him in the top 10 for the National League.

Rick was a three-time All Star and two-time Gold Glove winner. For comparison's sake, he had very similar career numbers to Joe Niekro. Over the course of his 19-year career, Reuschel pitched for the Cubs, Yankees, Pirates, and Giants. In 1977 he led the entire majors in WAR with 9.5, and he finished third in Cy Young voting behind Steve Carlton and Tommy John. He was a pretty decent hitter, as well. (1115 AB, 82 R, 187 H, 35 2B, 4 3B, 4 HR, 79 RBI, 3 SB, .168/.202/.217, 135 sacrifice hits)

 

So let's hear it for the Reuschel brothers. Two big dudes from Illinois who got to pitch for their hometown team together, and set a pretty special record in the process! 

Read a Book, Buy Some Cards

Throughout the years, I've occasionally read a book about sports—be it a biography of a specific player, story about a legendary sporting event, or summary of a certain time period in the game.

This past year, one of those books documented an entire league. The title?

The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association

If you're not much of a hockey fan, you'll get a micro-summary from the title alone. The WHA was a professional hockey league that existed for only a few short and unstable years in the 1970s, but still made quite a bit of noise and provided the NHL with some angst.

The "rebel league" managed to poach some big-time NHLers (like Bobby Hull), and also controversially signed quite a few teenage phenoms (like Wayne Gretzky). Their teams started up, dissolved, merged, moved cities, and caused all sorts of legal knots and other general ruckus. It seems like the only stable thing about the league was its instability.

But were there some bright spots?

Oh, absolutely.

The team names were fantastic. Houston Aeros. Minnesota Fighting Saints. Cleveland Crusaders. Cincinnati Stingers.

And the stories? Memorable. 

For a time, the Aeros had brothers Mark and Marty Howe in their lineup—as well as their father, Gordie!

And the Winnipeg Jets found a couple of Swedish stars to play with their big man, Bobby Hull.

Ulf Nilsson (center) and Anders Hedberg (right wing) were those Swedes, and together with Hull formed what was known as the "Hot Line".

Now, before I started reading the book, I knew the names Nilsson and Hedberg from the few years they spent in the NHL during the 1980s. But I didn't know they put in so much WHA time before that. I also didn't know how incredibly talented they were, or how dominant the Hot Line was in the mid-to late-1970s.

 

There they are on their 1976-77 O-Pee-Chee WHA cards. Pretty snazzy, don't you think?

So let's talk about just how good those three guys actually were. We'll take 1974-75, their very first WHA season together as a forward line.

Hull led the league in goals (77) and power-play goals (27). Hedberg was nominated Rookie of the Year, based on the merit of his 53 goals and 47 assists. Nilsson had a fantastic year as well, putting up 26 goals and 94 assists. And the heat would continue over the next few seasons, when the two Swedes really came into their own. Hedberg led the league in goals for the 1976-77 season (70), while Nilsson led in assists (85). Ultimately, the Jets would win the Avco Cup in 1975-76 and 1977-78, thanks in large part to the Hot Line. 

They were so hot, in fact, that some folks in the hockey world were wondering how the WHA team would do against the NHL's equivalent at the time: the Montreal Canadiens.

Montreal won the Stanley cup six times in the 1970s, and one of their forward lines also had an appropriate nickname: The Dynasty Line.

Here they are on their 1976-77 Topps cards.

 

 

That season, Shutt led the league in goals (60), Lafleur led the league in assists (80) and points (136), and Lemaire was a point-per-game player who balanced out the line by providing solid defensive play. 

Well, the discussion on how the two lines (and two teams) would fare against each other in a game kept on going until after the finish of the 1977-78 season. That's when the WHA actually proposed the idea!

The NHL declined, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest that it would have been a great match. To provide one example, the book mentions how the Canadiens and Jets both faced off against those unstoppable Russian Red Army teams of the era. In 1975, the Canadiens managed a 3-3 tie. In 1978, the Jets defeated the Soviets by a score of 5-3. The Hot Line provided all the offense, and at the same time completely shut down the top Soviet forward line. 

That story—and most of the book—impressed me enough to purchase those three WHA cards you see above. If you're a fan of hockey, and hockey history, I recommend giving The Rebel League a read.

And that leads me to a question for you readers and collectors:

Have you ever read a sports book that inspired you to make a card purchase?

If so, share in the comment section.

Thanks for reading!

100th Custom Card Giveaway Results

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated the printing of my 100th custom card, and gave all you kind readers and collectors a chance to enter a duck race for a prize. The first six finishers of the race would win a copy of that 100th custom, featuring good ol' George Costanza.

I was happy to see that 12 people entered the giveaway within the entry period. That's a good flock of ducks!

Here's a list of the competitors, and a link to their blogs or other trading card–related social media sites if they have any:

Jay Wigley

Mark (The Chronicles of Fuji)

Greg (Night Owl Cards)

Mr. Nachos (Nachos Grande)

Mr. Crocodile (Crocodile Sports Cards)

Gavin (Baseball Card Breakdown)

Rod (Padrographs)

RJ Sahl (TCDB: rjsahl)

Matt (Cards Over Coffee)

Derek (TCDB: CollectorTBNL)

Golf Coach

POISON75 (S.R. '75 Cards)

Twelve competitors. Six prizes. That means you have a 50% chance of winning one of them!

If you haven't seen the duck race in action, or don't remember it from last time, here's how it works: 

Each entrant is represented by an animated rubber duck that is sitting at the starting line on an animated river. The starting gun fires, and all the ducks begin floating randomly along the river as the screen scrolls horizontally. Eventually the finish line appears, and the first duck to cross the line wins. 

 

Yesterday I ran the script and recorded the action. Want to see how it all turned out? 

 

Play the video, find your duck, and here we go. (You'll see a list of the top 6 finishers at the end of the video.)

Wow! Gavin, what kind of motor did you have in that duck? Crocodile, RJ Sahl, and Padrographs all had nice bursts of speed at the end there, too.

Anyhow, as shown at the very end of the video, here are the top 6 ducks:

(1) Baseball Card Breakdown

(2) Crocodile Sports Cards

(3) CollectorTBNL

(4) RJ Sahl

(5) Padrographs

(6) Golf Coach

Congratulations! All six of you will receive a copy of the George Costanza card. If you've never sent me your mailing address, or if it's changed recently, please do send it to me. You can find my contact information on the blog here, or you can message me through TCDB here.

Thanks again to all of you for participating. Hope you enjoyed the race!

A Smorgasbord! 1988 Chef Boyardee

From the 1970s through the 1990s, it seemed like you could find your favorite baseball stars on food product packaging everywhere you looked: supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, and beyond. This past year, in an effort to capture a little more nostalgia, I set a goal to expand my own collection of these "food-issue" cards. In this series I'll show the specific examples I've acquired, and share a little bit of history about the food or beverage sponsor as well. 

Previous entries can be found here.

 

 

 

School is back in session. 

The first few weeks are always overwhelming—not only for you, but also for mom and dad. They do a lot to get you ready every morning. Then once you're out the door, they work even harder. And sometimes they work late. It's a marvel that mom gets a nice, home-cooked meal together as much as she does.

But on the occasions when she can't, you do get something out of it.

Chef Boyardee!

You know it's not the best for you, but it tastes good, and you consider it a silver lining to the hectic nature of the week. And tonight, the cloud is lined with even more silver: There's a baseball card offer on the back of the can!

You read the details more closely.

If you send in 10 proofs of purchase from Chef Boyardee products, plus $1.50 for postage, the company will send you a sheet of 24 baseball cards featuring all the stars of the day. 

 

You stop and think. The $1.50 for shipping isn't a big deal. You can earn that. But then you need 10 proofs of purchase from Chef Boyardee products. Ten?? Wow.

You don't want to wish busy days on mom and dad, but man, do you ever want those cards. So for the next month you pick your spots to ask for a can of Boyardee wisely, mention the card set, and exhibit as much patience as you can. You even convince a couple of your friends to clip proofs of purchase from the Boyardee cans at their homes and bring them to you, in exchange for a couple of baseball cards from your collection.

And finally, you have enough proofs of purchase and the $1.50. Everything goes into an envelope, and you wait.

Fast-forward to mid-November, and your package arrives. You tear it open excitedly, toss aside some filler paper, pull the panel of cards out, and . . .

. . . you're less than thrilled. 

All you see are the heads and shoulders of each player (sometimes just the heads!), and the logos have been removed from their caps. On top of that, some of the photographs are a little dark. Others are grainy. Maybe you notice all of those negatives a little bit more because the 24 players are right next to each other on one big panel. So you make a decision.

You're going to separate the cards, using the perforations provided.

After you carefully do that, you stack the cards up and flip through them. Still not great, but it does feel a little better somehow. You decide to keep a few, like the Mattingly and the Ozzie Smith. But some of the others? You wouldn't mind trading them. And you already might have a taker at school.

Your trade negotiation the next day is fruitful. Here are the two cards you'll be offering up:

It's trade time. You take a look at the stats on the back once more before handing the cards over.

Not bad. The text feels a little smaller and more sparse than the standard Topps card, though. It's just one more reason why you don't mind trading them away. That's especially true because you pick up these sweet cards in return:

 

Yeah, they've still got the airbrushed caps, but at least you see more of the uniforms, and the photo quality is better. On top of that, the card design is more fun, front and back. 

 

 

  

Besides, how many of your classmates have True Value cards in their collection? Feels like a fair trade.

You put them safely in the small zippered pocket of your backpack, and head home. The weather is pretty mild, and you haven't been on the baseball diamond lately. Your schedule for the rest of the day?

• Get home
• Put Madlock and Gibson in shoe box
• Do homework 
• Show homework to mom
• Ask if you can go to the baseball field before dinner
• If yes, get changed and go
• Be back before sundown

You only have about an hour before it gets dark, but it'll be worth it.

As for the Chef Boyardee brand, did you know that the guy on the logo was an actual chef? 

 

 

The company was founded in 1928 by an Italian immigrant named Hector Boiardi and his brothers. (The Americanized "Boyardee" was created to make pronunciation a little easier for customers.) 

 

Mr. Boiardi owned a restaurant back then, and he'd been jarring his delicious spaghetti sauce in re-used milk bottles. Eventually, demand for his food inspired him to create a packaged meal kit. Along with the sauce, it included dried spaghetti and Parmesan cheese. The kit helped countless families sustain themselves during the Great Depression. As if that weren't enough, the company supplied rations to the US Army during World War II.

 

I only knew the Boyardee brand for its fun ravioli and meatball/pasta products from the 1980s. But now I certainly have a greater appreciation for the man and the company.

 

How about you readers? Ever have a Chef Boyardee product when you were a kid? 

 

Do you have any of the baseball cards from this set in your collection?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.

100th Custom Card (Plus a Giveaway)

If you're a blogger, artist, or any type of creative person, then you'll know about "the itch". 

 

That is, the creative itch. It's the need to tinker. To doodle. To goof around. To create something.

 

You can have so much fun with the process that time keeps going by without much notice. You finish one blog post or one project, and keep moving forward with the next one, and the one after that. If you add in all your other daily tasks and obligations, it's very easy to forget to look back on the catalog of stuff you've created over time.

Well, back in 2019 at Nine Pockets Headquarters, I created my very first custom card. It featured George Costanza on the 1956 Topps design, barreling into Bette Midler at home plate. (Clean play.)

 

Remarkably, it's now six years later. And after all that time I'm still having lots of fun coming up with new ideas for custom cards and seeing them through to fruition—and printing! It's always cool to have something that you've created in a tangible, physical form.

 

So, to mark the six-year milestone, I decided it was time to take a step back and look through all of my designs. The best way to do that? 

Set up a binder, of course.

 

 

 

It contains one copy of each card I've designed, including the commissioned projects I've done for fellow bloggers and trading card enthusiasts. It's fun to flip through the pages and reflect on how the ideas and designs have changed over the years—not to mention all the work that's been put in.

 

Being a collector myself, the next natural step was to count up the cards in the binder. I knew the total would be fairly close to 100, but I wondered just how close it would be.

 

To my surprise, I'd already surpassed it! 

 

If you include checklist cards and the commissioned cards, the number is 144. (Add some digital-only cards, and it's a bit higher.) Even if you remove those from the equation, the total still reaches over 100.

 

Fist pump.

But as exciting as the milestone is, I can't ignore the fact that I missed the chance to celebrate it in real time. So let's fix that.

 

First thing to do: 

Try to figure out which specific card design was the 100th.

For a while, I couldn't decide whether I should go with the 100th card I finished designing, or the 100th card that I actually printed out. Each of those options would produce a different result.

 

Eventually I figured I'd go with the 100th card that was printed. But looking through my order history reminded me that I always try to have a few different cards printed at the same time, to save on costs. I was able to narrow it down to one small batch of cards, but there's no way to know which card in that batch was the exact 100th to be printed and cut. (D'oh!)

 

In any case, here's the small batch:

 

And although there's no way of knowing which of these four cards was the actual 100th to roll off the printing presses, I decided to designate this one with the honor:

Choosing Mr. Costanza is fitting in a "full circle" kind of way. As I mentioned earlier, the very first custom I created also featured Georgie Boy. 

Second thing to do: 

How about holding a giveaway to help celebrate?

The first idea to cross my mind was to give away one copy of each custom card I've ever designed. And as fun as that would be, it's just waaay too big for my britches. I don't have nearly enough of a following to give away that many cards. Not even close. So, let's do this instead: 

 

We'll celebrate six years of designs by giving away one of the Costanza cards shown above to six different participants. 

The duck races that I've held for a couple of previous Nine Pockets giveaways seem to go over pretty well with readers, so I think I'll do that again. But this time, the top six finishers will be the six winners.

To enter the giveaway, just add a comment to this post. That's all you have to do. I'll keep the entry period open through next Sunday, September 21st. Then I'll close it out and get those ducks ready to race.

 

With this milestone now officially in the process of being celebrated, I'll turn it over to all of you creative folks out there:  

 

Have you hit any milestones lately, be it through blogging, creative work, card collecting, or anything else?

 

Share some good ones in the comment section. And here's to more milestones for all of us!

PS: Feel free to share this giveaway with some other trading card bloggers and collectors out there. I want to make sure we have at least six participants.

Trading Card Detective: Al T's Top Hand Bat

Here's a 1987 Fleer card featuring a rather unenthused and weary-looking Mike Fischlin. 

 

1987 Fleer #98, Mike Fischlin

Maybe he just finished a vigorous training session. (We'll give him the benefit of the doubt.)

After all, have a close look at the bat he's holding. It's painted blue, and looks like it could almost be aluminum. And what's with the text? 

 

 

It appears to be labeled "Al T's Top H..."

Well, I've done some research. The full name of this product is Al T's Top Hand Bat.

What is Al T's Top Hand Bat? 

A hollow aluminum bat with a sliding weight top hand, developed by Al Tetreault of the Switch Hitter Baseball School.

I found a different model for sale online. Look here:

So you see? Mr. Fischlin could have indeed just finished a session with some sort of training aid.

They're prevalent in sports—and have been for a very long time. Some of them work well. Others are much more gimmicky, and are likely to make you even more frustrated than you were before. Because of that, some athletes are reluctant to try them, opting instead to stick with tried and true drills and some good ol' self motivation.

 

To quote Roy McAvoy from the film Tin Cup: training aids are "paraphernalia for lost and desperate souls." 

But I suppose when you're trying to stick around in the major leagues, you'll try whatever gadget or training device will help keep your batting average above the Mendoza line.

 

So could Mr. Fischlin have been a proponent of Al T's Top Hand Bat, or have been sponsored by it? And if so, did he consciously make sure to get the logo into the photo as a way to endorse the product?

It wouldn't be out of the question. Plenty of players make sure to show equipment trademarks or logos when they pose for baseball cards. And Fischlin is from California, where the Top Hand Bat company was located.

 

Regardless, by the time the 1987 Fleer card shown above was released, Mike Fischlin had signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves, and his career had all but come to a close.

He did stick around the majors for 10 years, however, playing partial seasons at shortstop, second base, and third base. He suited up for the Astros, Indians, Yankees, and Braves.

Here are his career totals:

941 AB, 109 R, 207 H, 29 2B, 6 3B, 3 HR, 68 RBI, 24 SB, .220/.291/.273

Fischlin's best season was 1982 in Cleveland, where he set career highs in games played (112), runs (34), hits (74), doubles (12), batting average (.268) on-base percentage (.351), and slugging percentage (.319)

More than respectable. Perhaps the Top Hand Bat played a small part in his success.

Now a question for you readers and athletes out there: 

Have you ever tried a training aid or gadget specific to the sport you played? Did it help?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Hunter Brothers

How do you like this run for the Hunter clan? 

 

Oct 10, 1979: Dave Hunter plays in his first NHL game. Scores a goal.

 

Oct 9, 1980: Dale Hunter plays in his first NHL game. Logs two assists.

 

October 8, 1981: Mark Hunter plays in his first NHL game. Scores a goal.

 

 

Yep, that's right. For three straight seasons, a new Hunter brother appeared in the NHL, and each one produced immediately. 

Their draft positions weren't too shabby, either. 

Dave: First-round pick (17th overall) by the Montreal Canadiens in 1978

Dale: Second-round pick (41st overall) by the Québec Nordiques in 1979

Mark: First-round pick (7th overall) by the Montreal Canadiens in 1981

Mom and dad must have been celebrating all the time back at the homestead in Ontario!

 

And when Edmonton took Dave from Montreal in the 1979 Expansion Draft, it was a Hunter brother takeover of Canadian teams! 

Here they are just a few years later:

1983-84 Vachon #29 Dave Hunter, #46 Mark Hunter, and #66 Dale Hunter

They might have been overshadowed around this time period by the Sutter brothers and the Stastny brothers. But make no mistake—the Hunter brothers were a force. All three were workmanlike. Tough. They could beat you down and score some points before you lifted yourself up off the ice.

Just look at the PIM totals for all three brothers, for example.

 

 

CAREER TOTALS

	DAVE (10 seasons)	DALE (19 seasons)	MARK (12 seasons)
GAMES PLAYED	746	1407	628
GOALS	133	323	213
ASSISTS	190	697	171
POINTS	323	1020	384
PENALTY MINUTES	918	3565	1426
GAME-WINNING GOALS	15	42	19

 

 

BEST INDIVIDUAL SEASON
(Career highs in bold)

	DAVE (1983-84, Edmonton)	DALE (1983-84, Québec)	MARK (1985-86, St. Louis)
GAMES PLAYED	80	77	78
GOALS	22	24	44
ASSISTS	26	55	30
POINTS	48	79	74
PENALTY MINUTES	90	232	171
GAME-WINNING GOALS	3	2	3

 

 

It's pretty impressive that Mark had the most points and most penalty minutes of his career in the same season. It's tougher to put up points when you spend 171 minutes in the box!

Let's cover a little more ground now.

Dave Hunter (LW) played in the NHL from 1979-80 through 1988-89. He was a three-time cup winner with the Oilers, largely overshadowed by the likes of Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, et al. He also suited up for Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.

Dale Hunter (C) played in the NHL from 1980-81 through 1998-99. He received Selke Trophy votes (best defensive forward) quite a few times through his career. However, the cheap shot he put on Pierre Turgeon in the 1992-93 playoffs still upsets a lot of hockey fans—especially on Long Island—and remains a dark mark on Hunter's career. Dale is the all-time leader in career playoff penalty minutes with 731, and sits in second place in career penalty minutes with 3,565. He also played in 186 career playoff games, which, at the time of this writing, places him at #31 all time. And here's a unique distinction: Dale Hunter is the only player in NHL history with 1,000 career points and 3,000 career penalty minutes.

Mark Hunter (RW) played in the NHL from 1981-82 through 1992-93. He was an all-star in 1985-86 with St. Louis, and won the Stanley Cup with Calgary in 1988-89. Overall, he played for Montreal, St. Louis, Calgary, and Hartford. 

 

So why did I add the LW, C, and RW designations for each brother?

Well, I think it's pretty cool that you had a complete forward line of Hunter Brothers.

Do you know what other group of brothers made up a complete forward line in the 1980s? The Stastnys!

How remarkable would it have been if all three Hunter brothers played for Montreal at some point in the early '80s, and faced off against the Stastny brothers with the Nordiques during the season? Or in the playoffs?

 

Or what if Dave and Mark had been traded to Québec to join Dale? The Nordiques could have had one full forward line of Stastny brothers, and the next full forward line of Hunter brothers. That's half of the forwards on the team!

I guess either scenario would have been pretty rough on the play-by-play guy.

Regardless, it's fun to think about. So here's to the Hunter brothers. Three solid hockey men. Three solid careers, to boot.