More Sportscaster Cards, Just In Time for The Masters

A view of the green at hole #12, Augusta National.

Masters week starts tomorrow. 

Whether you enjoy playing golf, collecting golf cards or memorabilia, or just watching the pros on television, it's a fun time. 

The Masters tournament is the first major of the year, so it's the first chance you'll have to watch your favorite players contending for a big prize. And as always, they'll do it at Augusta National, one of the most beautiful, iconic, and perfectly manicured golf courses on the planet. The sights and sounds might even motivate you to hit some golf balls yourself.

With that little push to get you out there and swinging a golf club complete, I will remind myself that this is a trading card blog, and that I should feature the cards I set out to feature.

 

 

1977-79 Sportscaster #35-10 Ben Hogan and #45-16 Gary Player

 

You're looking at two absolute legends of the game, captured on cardboard by the popular Sportscaster brand of the 1970s.

Both men were Masters champions—Hogan in 1951 and 1953, and Player in 1961, 1974, and 1978.

Mr. Hogan's swing, in particular, was rock-solid. The instructional book he published in 1957, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, contains a wealth of information that's still applicable today. (I keep a copy in my golf library.)

These two cards add some serious clout to my Sportscaster golf card collection. They'll join Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus. Quite the sextet.

And cards like these prove to be a great reminder of how much the game has changed, especially when it comes to equipment. Golf clubs back in Mr. Hogan and Mr. Player's time were so much less forgiving than today's clubs. The drivers were small, and made of wood. Their sweet spots were tiny—maybe just a nickel-sized circle, right in the middle of the clubface. The irons were even smaller and thinner, and boy, oh boy, did you ever have to catch the middle of the face. Otherwise, clang! Those nasty vibrations would rattle your hands. 

Ultimately, you just had to nail it every time. And the pros back then managed to do it just fine. 

 

It's reminded me that when I was much younger, I had a few old irons and a wooden driver that I'd try to hit every once in a while. And from what I remember, as unforgiving as they were, when you did hit the sweet spot . . .  man, what a sensation.

The whole thing made me want to see how I'd fare with a wooden driver now that I've gotten back into golf. So that's what I did. Just check this beauty out: 

 

It's a Sam Snead "Blue Ridge" driver, made by the Wilson company in the early 1960s. Today's price? Less than that of a blaster box. Can't beat it.

I had so much fun hitting some balls with it that I took things a step further: How exactly would it compare to my modern driver?

There it is, on the right: The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Mini (2024). You're looking at 60 years of technology, research, and development in that photo!

 

The size difference is more noticeable when viewed from the top.

 

 

Yep. Those are both drivers. And this might be hard to believe, but the one on the left is what's known as a mini driver. Yeah, that's right. Normal-sized drivers these days are even bigger than that.

Anyhow, there's a golf retail store about 30 minutes away from my home that has a few simulators in the back. These simulators allow you to hit golf balls into a screen, and then they churn out a bunch of data points for your benefit and analysis. You can book an hour in these simulators in advance, which comes in handy when the weather is poor, or when you're trying to chart some yardages with each of your clubs. Or in this case, if you want to compare two clubs: The Sam Snead Blue Ridge and the Callaway Paradym AI Smoke Mini.

For my purposes, I didn't really feel the need to go too far into the data. I only focused on carry distance, total distance, and a couple of other numbers.

I hit 10 balls with each driver, and averaged out the results. Here they are:

Driver Model	Ball Speed (mph)	Launch Angle (°)	Carry Distance (yds)	Total Distance (yds)
Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge	132.0	11.2	203.1	229.2
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Mini	141.1	10.3	225.9	251.5

Interesting. After 60 years of golf club design, plus all I've read and heard about modern golf technology, I really thought there would be more of a statistical difference between the two clubs. And don't get me wrong, I'll take that 22-yard average increase in distance that the modern driver provides all day, every day. But the wooden driver isn't really so archaic, is it?

Now, I did make some bad swings with each club during the test, and I removed those from the data. That does add to the story. The results of the bad swings with the wooden driver were worse than the results of the bad swings with the modern driver. (Total distance suffered more.) So that's important to note.

But overall, I enjoyed swinging the Blue Ridge driver. The steel shaft and solid wooden head made for a noticeably heavier feel, and changed the balance quite a bit. All of this suits my swing type, which has more of a smooth and classic tempo, as opposed to the super-torqued, "explosive" swings you see some players making these days.

But let's be honest. I'm not about to put the wooden driver in my bag. Just look at my best drive with each club:

Driver Model	Ball Speed (mph)	Launch Angle (°)	Carry Distance (yds)	Total Distance (yds)
Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge	133	11.7	211	239
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Mini	145	8.3	230	255

I would have loved to see the difference in clubhead speed between the two drivers as well, but unfortunately that feature wasn’t working on the simulator I was using. Neither was spin rate, which would have been another informative data point.

Ultimately, this was a great little exercise. And it's intrigued me enough to go back to the simulator with my modern driver, because the numbers indicate that I can coax more distance out of it. (My launch angle is a little on the low side, for example.)

For now, I'm going to enjoy all the golf action from Augusta National.

How about you readers and collectors? Any golf fans out there? Are you going to watch The Masters at all? Going to hit some golf balls this year?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Cruz Brothers

It's the early spring of 1973. 

 

You think back to six years ago, when at the age of 19 you started a solid climb through baseball's minor leagues—from Single-A Modesto to Double-A Arkansas to Triple-A Tulsa. Now you're about to start your third season in the big leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals. 

 

You've also got two younger brothers, and they've been trying to take the same route through the Cardinals' organization.

 

Tommy, the next youngest, has been bouncing up and down from Single-A to Triple-A and back again.

 

And Héctor, the youngest of the three, has been catching up.

 

What a treat that the Cardinals have shown such faith in all three of you! Not only has it made it easier to keep in touch, but it's also helped you work with each other and spur each other on.

 

Now it's time for spring training. You've been focusing on your skills, and preparing for your upcoming season in the bigs. But the Cardinals have just made two announcements that cause you to temporarily lose your focus:

 

(1) They're calling up Tommy for some spring training games with the big club. 

(2) They're calling up Héctor for some spring training games with the big club.  

 

All three of you will be reunited! 

 

 

From left to right: Tommy, Héctor, and José Cruz

And on March 23, 1973, something even more amazing happens. Coach says the three of you will be starting today's game against the New York Mets.

 

Three Cruz brothers, all in the lineup, playing the outfield together! You walk over to the batting order. Manager Red Schoendienst has done the family another solid. You've got the first three spots in the order!

 

Well, you don't need any more motivation or inspiration. The three of you hit well, putting up 3 runs and 3 RBI in a 9–2 win. You've scored more runs than the entire Mets team! 

 

After the game, Schoendienst speaks to the media, saying, "...they're good ballplayers. I guess I batted them at the top for the effect. They have six older brothers back home and, if they come to town, I'll play them, too."

 

What a moment for the Cruz family. 

 

After that magical spring training, plenty of folks must have been excited at the prospect of seeing all three brothers playing full time for the Cardinals. 

 

However, baseball doesn't always give you the straight and simple road.

 

Here are the brothers on cardboard, just a few years later: 

 

 

1977 Topps #42 Jose Cruz, 1977 Topps #624 Hector Cruz, and 1978 TCMA #0109 Tommy Cruz

 

Héctor got some more work done in AAA from 1973 to 1974, and by 1975 he did make it to the show with the Cardinals. In 1976, his first full season in the big leagues, he would finish 3rd in N.L. Rookie of the Year voting.  

 

After 1973, Tommy went back down to AA and AAA and toiled for the next few seasons trying to crack a major league lineup, receiving just a brief cup of coffee with St. Louis in 1973 and the White Sox in 1977. 

 

And in 1975, José would go from St. Louis to Houston, where he put up solid numbers from the start and quickly became a fan favorite. Within a couple of years he became a perennial .300 hitter, good for around 30 doubles, 80 RBI, and 60 stolen bases a year.

  

By 1979, José was on the verge of some All-Star nominations and Silver Slugger awards, while Héctor had gone from the Cardinals to the Cubs to the Giants, putting up serviceable but not stunning numbers at the plate and in the field. 

 

And Tommy?

 

Well, he was still toiling in the minors. He posted good numbers, batting over .300 numerous times with some decent power, but it still wasn't enough to crack a major league lineup. Then, after the 1979 season, an opportunity came along from some distant shores.

 

Japan. 

 

And Tommy decided to go for it. The professional league in Japan was pretty darn good, after all, and the team he'd be playing for, the Nippon-Ham Fighters, had been showing some spunk lately. 

 

But you've got to wonder how Héctor and José felt when Tommy told them he accepted an offer to play overseas. It would have been tricky to follow Tommy's career, at least day to day or week to week. Were the brothers making long-distance phone calls? I mean, how did a ballplayer in America get sports news from Japan back in the early 1980s? There was no internet. And although satellite TV existed, I wonder how many NPB games would have been transmitted to the US. As for Japanese newspapers, it's possible that some big-city libraries in the US carried them. But even if they did, who would translate the articles and box scores?

 

Regardless, I'm sure all three brothers did what they could to keep in touch and cheer each other on.

Here are some stats for all three Cruz brothers. 

 

 

CAREER TOTALS

 

	JOSÉ (19 seasons MLB)	TOMMY (6 seasons NPB)	HÉCTOR (9 seasons MLB)
GAMES PLAYED	2353	712	624
AT-BATS	7917	2780	1607
RUNS	1036	345	186
HITS	2251	863	361
DOUBLES	391	155	71
TRIPLES	94	11	9
HOME RUNS	165	120	39
RBI	1077	466	200
STOLEN BASES	317	9	7
WALKS	898	178	176
STRIKEOUTS	1031	220	317
BATTING AVERAGE	.284	.310	.225
OBP	.354	.351	.301
SLG	.420	.504	.353

 

 

 

BEST SEASON (career highs in bold)

 

	JOSÉ (1983, HOU)	TOMMY (1984, Nippon-Ham Fighters)	HÉCTOR (1976, STL)
GAMES PLAYED	160	124	151
AT-BATS	594	489	526
RUNS	85	66	54
HITS	189	170	120
DOUBLES	28	36	17
TRIPLES	8	2	1
HOME RUNS	14	29	13
RBI	92	96	71
STOLEN BASES	30	0	1
WALKS	65	33	42
STRIKEOUTS	86	37	119
BATTING AVERAGE	.318	.348	.228
OBP	.385	.385	.286
SLG	.463	.607	.338

 

 

José played the outfield, and was a 2x All-Star and 2x Silver Slugger. Along with the year I chose for his best season in the table above (1983), the few seasons that surrounded it were essentially just as good. He finished in the top-10 in batting average in 1978, 1983, and 1984, and led the N.L. in hits in 1983 (189). Over his career, José played for the Cardinals, Astros, and very briefly for the Yankees. His son, José Cruz, Jr., had a very good professional career as well. (Over 1,000 hits, 200 doubles, 200 home runs, and 600 RBI.)

Héctor mostly played the outfield, along with some third base. He suited up for the Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, and Reds. Interestingly, he also played one year of Japan ball in 1983, with the Yomiuri Giants. Tommy had already been over there for a few years at that point. You'd have to think that he spent some time showing Héctor around!

Tommy was also an outfielder. He played a few games for the Cardinals and White Sox, then played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters in the NPB from 1980 through 1985. The Fighters won the Pacific League pennant in 1981, and Tommy must have played a good part in that. (Regular season: 116 games, 138 hits, 30 doubles, 2 triples, 18 home runs, 75 RBI, and a .297/.343/.486 slash line.) 

 

 

So here's to the Cruz brothers. Three pretty solid players (endorsed by Red Schoendienst!), and one magical spring training memory.

 

Little League Trophy (Or, the Golden Days)

The Favorites Box post from last week featuring Mike Pagliarulo's 1985 Topps rookie card really got the Little League nostalgia going for me—so much so that I was motivated to go into the garage to look for something that I'd been meaning to look for since last year.

I had a good idea where it was, and thankfully, after just a couple of minutes, I located it and brought it inside. Here it is:

You're looking at a baseball trophy from my Little League days. It was dusty and dirty, and the metal was pitted here and there, but a little bit of elbow grease took care of most of it. I really should have taken better care of this little guy over the years, but that's fine. There's no way it's going back in the garage now, especially because it's the only trophy I still have from those days.

The engraved plate on the front declares that our team was the runner-up. We certainly didn't have playoffs back in those early years, so I'm guessing the runner-up designation meant that our team had the second best win-loss record in the league that season. As for my other Little League years, I suppose our team finished too low in the standings to receive a trophy. Or, if our team did finish high in the standings, the trophies have since been lost to time.

What's important is that I still have quite a few memories and stories from those golden days, like turning an unassisted triple play. Or the example of what my first baseball glove looked like. 

I also have a physical, tangible memento in one of the game balls that I received for a job well done out there on the field. And now there's this trophy. I've got to find a good place to store it—perhaps on a shelf in the closet of my home office, which has partially become a card closet.

While I figure that out, there's one more memento I can share. Have a look at this:

 

 

 

There's so much 1980s goodness in this photo. It's the scruffy grass and chewed-up dirt around home plate. The small, simple chain-link backstop. The kid watching from behind that backstop wearing jean shorts and tube socks. The parents chilling out on folding lawn chairs they brought from home. The yellow school buses in the background. It's all glorious.

As for the little guy wearing #24 for the Cardinals and standing at home plate? That's me. (We're playing the Orioles there. Check out the orange jersey the catcher is wearing.) It was my very first year of Little League, so I'm probably around 6 or 7 years old in the photo. I'm sure of that because the following year we all started wearing baseball pants and stirrup socks. 

If my dad were looking over my shoulder as I typed all this, he'd be proudly insisting that I tell you how I hit a triple in my very first Little League at-bat. Or that a few years later, I pitched an inning in our Little League all-star game and struck out the side. (Those are his go-to moves whenever the topic of baseball comes up.) Dads are great for bringing back those experiences. They were on the sidelines, observing things from their adult perspective, while we were in there, playing and having fun. 

And if you're a fellow blogger, you know that blogs are also good for recording and preserving these kinds of things. I've done a bit of that over the years here on the Nine Pockets blog, to the extent that I added a Personal Nostalgia tab to the navigation bar at the top.

Ultimately, I'm grateful for the Little League mementos I have—as few as they may be—and for all the vivid experiences they help to bring back.

How about you readers? If you played any sports when you were a kid, do you have any stories, photos, or objects from that time? 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading! 

From the Favorites Box: Mike Pagliarulo, 1985 Topps #638

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.

You know that scent in the air in these early days of spring? That little bit of green grass coming to life? That faint touch of rain? 

When I was a kid, it would always start a few butterflies going in the stomach.

Why?

Little League season was coming. And I wanted to do my absolute best—for my parents, for my teammates, and for our coaches, who pushed us to be excellent and expected us to work hard.

I was also collecting plenty of baseball cards back then, and this particular one brings back a lot of good memories.

 

Growing up a baseball-loving kid in 1980s New York, "Pags" was a favorite of mine. Game in and game out, he put forth the effort that New Yorkers wanted to see. He was just a classic hard worker. A classic player. 

And if you want an example of a classic baseball card, that's it. The pose, the batting gloves, Yankee Stadium as a backdrop, the Yankees logo with the bat and top-hat. 

I still remember the baseball card shop I bought this card from. On the ride back, just a block or so from home, I saw one of my friends riding his bike. My mom pulled the car over, and we said hello. My friend saw the binder that I was holding, and excitedly asked what cards were inside. The hobby was booming, and a lot of the neighborhood kids were collecting their favorite local players and watching them on TV.

Back then, Yankee games were televised on WPIX channel 11. (What a treat to have so many games available on basic cable!) 

Another treat was listening to Phil Rizzuto call the games. I can almost hear him now.

"Holy cow, Pagliarulo got a hold of that one! That ball is . . . outta here!" 

As Pags rounded third base, Scooter would continue.

"And you know what we say every time a Yankee hits a home run. Mike Pagliarulo, this Bud's for you!" 

 

You can hear an example of the call for yourself after Mr. Pagliarulo's second home run of the game here: 

 

 

 

In 1987, around the time I bought the card shown above, Pags was busy having his best season yet. He'd finish with 122 hits, 26 doubles, 3 triples, 32 home runs, and 87 RBI, with a slash line of .234/.305/.479. I was pitching and playing third base on my Little League team, and whenever I played third, I tried to work just as hard as he did.

His numbers declined over the next couple of years, partly due to elbow issues, and in 1989 he was traded to the Padres. A couple of years after that he signed as a free agent with the Twins. All the while, I was rooting for him and following him in the box scores. And I'm glad I did, because it was in Minnesota that Pags found his game a little bit, and had a career moment. 

The Twins would go on to win that ALCS, and couple of weeks later they'd defeat the Braves in an exciting 7-game World Series. Notably, Pags went 3-for-3 with a home run in Game 4—against John Smoltz! That's another pretty cool feather in his cap. He finished up his MLB career with short stints in Baltimore and Texas, and also played one year in Japan with the Seibu Lions.

The card at the top of this post brings all that stuff back to me. And to this day, I still get a few butterflies in the stomach on these first spring days.

For the fact that one simple baseball card of a childhood sports hero can do all of that, 1985 Topps #638 has a spot in my box of favorite cards.