Niekro Brothers

Imagine this situation:

 

You're an aspiring young pitcher from Ohio who makes it to the big leagues in 1964. You don't get many starts those first couple of years, but by 1967 two pretty cool things happen: You get a whole lot of starts for the Atlanta Braves and pitch rather well (11 W, 9 L, 1.87 ERA), and your little brother Joe, also a pitcher, makes it to the majors with the Chicago Cubs.

The boosts you get from those events really set you off. Over the next 10 years you pitch to a winning record almost every season, and gain the nickname "Knucksie" around the baseball world for the baffling knuckleball you've developed.

During that same time period, however, little brother Joe struggles a bit. He bounces from Chicago to San Diego to Detroit, and just can't seem to get it going. He doesn't start a whole lot of games, and doesn't turn many heads despite a good fastball and slider.

Then, after three teams in six seasons he's on the move again. In 1973 he's claimed off waivers by...

...the Atlanta Braves.

You'd be together on a major league roster!

And during this time, little brother Joe would start working the knuckleball into his repertoire, too. (Your dad taught the pitch to both of you back home in Ohio.) It didn't quite pay off during his stay in Atlanta, but soon he'd be heading over to Houston, and that knuckleball would start to pay dividends.

 

Here are the two brothers around that time, captured on some good looking-cardboard.

 

 

1976 Topps #273 Joe Niekro and #435 Phil Niekro

 

 

In 1979, a few short years after those cards were released, you and little bro would have career years. In fact, you'd find yourselves in a race to see who would win 20 games first.

 

With Houston, little brother Joe would streak out to a record of 13–3 by the first week of July, while you'd be middling at 11–10 with Atlanta. Joe would stay relatively hot into September, hitting the 20-win mark on the 22nd against Cincinnati, giving him a record of 20–10. You, on the other hand, would stay in that middling state, trading wins and losses pretty regularly and reaching a record of 19–20 on the same day with a win against San Francisco.

Your team still had another 10 games to go before the season ended, and you'd have your first shot at 20 wins on September 26th, a home game. And guess what?

 

The game was against the Houston Astros.

 

And guess what else?

 

Little brother Joe was their scheduled starter! 

 

It would be Niekro vs. Niekro. Would you and your team beat up on little bro, giving you 20 wins? Or would little brother hit 21 wins and leave you at 19, with only one more start in the season to hit 20?

 

You pitch well to start the game, allowing only 2 hits over the first 4 innings. The Astros take one off you in the 5th inning to make it a 4-1 score (Joe only lasted 2.1 innings, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits), but in the bottom of the same inning your guys put up 3 runs of their own, and then add another 2 runs in the 6th to make the score 9-1. With the comfortable lead, you keep pitching well. You allow 1 more run in the 8th to make it 9-2, and then 2 runs in the 9th with 2 outs, but then you close the deal for the complete game victory. The final score is 9-4, and you have win number 20!

 

I wonder if both brothers had a little moment to celebrate after the game.

 

Here are career totals for both brothers.

 

 

CAREER TOTALS

 

	JOE (22 seasons)	PHIL (24 seasons)
WINS	221	318
LOSSES	204	274
ERA	3.59	3.35
STRIKEOUTS	1747	3342
WALKS	1262	1809
SHUTOUTS	29	45
COMPLETE GAMES	107	245
INNINGS PITCHED	3584.1	5404.0

 

 

Phil was a 5x all-star and 5x Gold Glove Award winner, was the ERA leader in 1967 with a 1.87, and racked up 3,000+ career strikeouts. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. He took the mound for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Yankees, Indians, and Blue Jays.

 

Joe was a 1x all-star and was a World Series champion with Minnesota in 1987. He pitched for the Cubs, Padres, Tigers, Braves, Astros, Yankees, and Twins.

 

Also of note, both brothers held their own at the plate. Have a look at these numbers:

 

Phil: 1537 AB, 260 H, 42 2B, 1 3B, 7 HR, 109 RBI, .169/.183/.211

 

Joe: 865 AB, 132 H, 21 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 72 RBI, .156/.188/.188

 

 

So here's to the knuckleballing Niekros. Lots of wins, strikeouts, wild pitches, passed balls, and a great 20-win season for both of them in 1979.

From the Favorites Box: Steve Carlton, 1975 Topps #185

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

Here's Steve Carlton, frozen at an important moment in his delivery:

 

 

 

There's some interesting science going on here, and it's all about energy.

 

When a pitcher stands on the mound, holding the baseball, waiting for the catcher's signs, that's all potential energy. There's no action happening, but everyone knows what's to come. The batter waits. The fielders wait. Everyone in the entire stadium waits. It's all up to the pitcher to start his wind-up.

 

Once that wind-up starts, the potential energy builds and reaches a maximum. In another instant, potential changes to kinetic as the baseball in his hand is flung at high velocity toward the catcher's open mitt. And if the batter makes contact, you've got motion all over the baseball diamond: Fielders running to catch the ball, get to a base, or back up a throw; runners hustling around the bases; umpires moving to get the best vantage point of the play. Even in the crowd, fans might stand up and cheer. These changes of energy from potential to kinetic happen a couple hundred times per game, and it's part of what makes baseball so exciting. Again and again, you have these little capsules of anticipation and then action.

So look at Mr. Carlton up there again. Up to this very moment he's been busy building up energy and tension in his body. Now he's about to lean toward home plate, uncoil those hips and shoulders, and whip his left arm through, sending the baseball hurtling toward home plate. 

And even though the image shows one frozen moment, you can see by his positioning that Carlton's delivery was pretty smooth. As many of you know, it was smooth enough to earn the man legendary status. I mean come on, the guy was such a dominant left-handed pitcher in his era that everyone just called him "Lefty".

 

I probably don't need to list many stats and accolades, but here are a few anyway:

 

300+ wins, 4,000+ strikeouts, 10x all star, 4x Cy Young winner, Triple Crown winner, Gold Glove award, 2x World Series winner, Hall of Famer. 

His first Cy Young season (1972) was almost too good to believe:

27 wins, 1.97 ERA, 30 complete games, 8 shutouts, 310 strikeouts

But today, it all goes back to that scene on the pitcher's mound. And for capturing the special moment when all that potential energy is realized, 1975 Topps #185 has a spot in my box of favorites.

Cosmo's Custom Card

Time for another custom look-alike card. 

 

If you've read the title of this blog post and you're a fan of a certain outrageously popular sitcom from the 1990s, you might already know what's coming. But there's a reason for the absence of my usual secretiveness: I don't think the baseball player on the original card bears very much resemblance to the look-alike. It's just that I had the sitcom on my mind.

 

Let's show the original card anyway.

 

1973 Topps #34, Pat Dobson

 

If you have a look at Mr. Dobson, his wild hair escaping from under that baseball cap, and his furrowed brow that's part-indifferent and part-pensive, you might see a resemblance to that Cosmo fella who's mentioned in the title. If you're still not there, just picture him popping in to a neighbor's apartment in a sudden and excitable way, with the front door flinging open and everything.

Alright. Here's the custom card:

 

 

 

It's Kramer from Seinfeld!

 

Check out the palm trees in the background. Maybe he's at a spring training facility in Del Boca Vista.

 

Inspiration for this card came about for two reasons: (1) I still watch the show from time to time, and (2) when I held the giveaway for the print versions of my custom cards last year, the George Costanza card was a popular choice among participants. In fact, a few readers mentioned that they'd have interest in cards featuring other characters from the show. So here we are.

As for the design elements, you'll notice I switched the position of pitcher to that of "neighbor", complete with a little Kramer silhouette. Devoted fans of the show might also notice that Kramer's face is not from a photograph, but from the famous painting of Kramer that appeared on a particular episode of Seinfeld. I had to do quite a bit of adjusting for color, contrast, and such, but I'm happy with the result.

It's almost a shame that Kramer's trademark hair is covered up by that baseball cap, but at very least I gave him a couple of those classic "hair wings" that you'd often see emerging from the sides of ballplayers' caps back in the '70s and '80s.

As for the man on the original card?

Pat Dobson had an 11-year MLB career, pitching for the Tigers, Padres, Orioles, Braves, Yankees, and Indians.

 

In 1968, just his second year in the majors, he helped the Tigers win their World Series title against the Cardinals, pitching a few innings of relief work across three games in the finals.

 

Here are some career numbers: 122 W, 129 L, 3.54 ERA, 19 saves, 1301 strikeouts, 665 walks, 2120.1 innings pitched, 74 complete games, 14 shutouts.

Dobson's best season was likely 1971, when he went 20-8 with a 2.90 ERA, 18 complete games, 4 shutouts, 187 strikeouts, and 282.1 innings pitched. He even received a few points during MVP voting at season's end.

He had a pretty good season the following year as well, earning a trip to the All-Star game as a reward.

 

As for Cosmo Kramer, maybe I'll just let these highlights do the talking.

BONUS CARD

The 1973 Topps set provided us with a number of subsets: League Leaders, Team Checklists, Playoff and World Series cards, Boyhood Photos of the Stars, All-Time Leaders, Rookie Combos, and the rather interesting Manager cards, which featured the manager front-and-center along with a few minuscule photos of his coaching staff along the side. Because Seinfeld takes place in New York, and the Yankees were featured prominently on the show, here's the Yankees manager card from the original set:

 

 

I thought I'd create a version based on Seinfeld.

 

I placed Jerry as the manager—it's his show after all—and then added George, Elaine, Kramer, and Newman as the four coaches. Then I changed "coaches" to "characters" on the top right. Note that I also changed the "manager" title on the bottom to "comedian", complete with an actual silhouette of Jerry Seinfeld.

 

As for the other characters? On the original cards, the photos of the coaches are so washed out that I decided to give that part of the card a little upgrade. You'll note that the faces of the four Seinfeld characters are easier to discern.

And there you have it. Another two Seinfeld-themed custom cards to go along with George Costanza's card from a couple of years back.

Hope you like the way they turned out. Thanks for reading, as always!

Fun with words: Portland Trail Blazers

I've been an editor for my entire professional career. As such, I'm always learning about the English language. Sometimes it's a "shop talk" thing, like finding some new information in a style guide about the way to properly use a hyphen or en dash. Other times it's more entertaining, like discovering the etymology of a word or the origins of a particular idiom or colloquialism.

Recently on a website called grammarist.com, I came across one of these origin stories that made me immediately think of a sports team (and therefore trading cards).

The idiom is "blaze a trail".

Are you thinking what I was thinking?

 

 

 

 

Yep, the Portland Trail Blazers. 

 

The logo above is the one that was used from the team's inception in 1970 all the way through 1990. I like it a lot.

But back to the phrase in discussion here:

I was familiar with the idiomatic meaning of "blaze a trail": To be the first person to do something, to be the maverick who does something in a new way that others will no doubt follow.

But what I didn't know was that there's a literal meaning as well. (It has nothing to do with fire.)

Here's what the article from Grammarist says:

 

"The expression blaze a trail can also be used literally to mean to mark a trail by cutting notches in trees, tying flags to branches, etc. The idea is that one is making a new path for others to follow.”

 

And with all the forest land in Oregon, you can see just how fitting the team name "Trail Blazers" really is. Nice work there.

 

Because this is a trading card blog, I thought I should feature a card or two featuring some well-known Blazers. However, I don't collect basketball cards, and I don't think I've watched a basketball game since the 1990s.

But there are some great-looking vintage basketball designs out there, so I decided to browse around and perhaps purchase a card for my collection.

 

Here's one that I'm thinking about:

1975-76 Topps #165, Geoff Petrie

I like the diagonal neon stripes at the top right, as well as the font choice for the word "Blazers". More importantly, you get a full-length shot of a player on the court during game action, dribbling a basketball, wearing those classic tube socks. You also get a good look at the "Portland" text on the front of the jersey.

On top of that, Geoff Petrie was a very good player. He was the first-ever draft pick of the Trail Blazers, and was named rookie of the year in 1970-71. A knee injury limited his career to just six seasons, but he was an all-star twice in that time.

And here's an interesting tidbit: It seems like Petrie was the first NBA player to switch from the long-standing and popular Converse brand of sneakers to a sponsorship with a relative newcomer called Nike. Pretty cool piece of history there, as the Nike company was founded in Oregon.

 

So there's a little fun with words.

 

Any other suggestions for a vintage Trail Blazers card to pick up for my collection? Share the year, player, and card number in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

A Commissioned Custom Card (and a Giveaway)

Since I began printing out my custom card designs last year, I've received a few emails from collectors asking if I'd consider designing and printing a custom card just for them. It's a flattering experience, and most of the time I've taken on the project, even if the subject matter isn't super-exciting to me personally.

 

I haven't mentioned these commissions here on the blog to this point, but recently I completed a project that I was especially pleased with.

 

The client asked if I'd create a card of Nancy Wilson, guitarist and vocalist from the rock band Heart, and suggested the 1967 Topps design. That worked for me, as I'd already created a 1967 Topps template when I worked on the El Mariachi and Carolina project, so I set out to find a photo of Nancy Wilson that was just right.

It didn't take long to find one, and I whipped up the card front pretty quickly.

 

 

As for the back, the client asked if I'd consider creating one that resembled the original '67s, which included two cartoons along with the standard batting record. I said I'd give it a try. After some thought and research, I found two cartoons from the original set that worked pretty well for a rock band, modified the accompanying text, and figured out a substitute for the batting stat section.

 

 

 

I like how the stats on the back turned out. Not only do they offer collectors a good look at Heart's discography and greatest hits, but they also provide a similar enough look to the stat lines that appear on a standard baseball card.

 

In fact, I was so happy with the result that I thought it would only be right to create a card for Nancy's sister, Ann, who is the lead singer in the band.

 

 

 

And here's Ann's card back. I used two different cartoons, and also created a separate write-up and stats.

  

 

 

 

Once I finished both designs, I sent the proofs out to the client. He enjoyed the finished product just as much as I did, and gladly purchased a few for his collection, which made me very happy. 

 

But that's not the end of the story. Recently he sent me an email to let me know that he did something special with a couple of the cards. Have a look at what he posted on his social media account:

 

 

 

He sent off the cards for autographs!

 

As far as I know, this is the first time one of my custom cards has been autographed by the person featured on the front. It's pretty cool to think that the legendary Ann and Nancy Wilson actually held my cards in their hands and signed them. Hopefully they enjoyed the designs.

 

But that's still not the end of the story. I've got some extra copies of these cards, so as usual, I'm going to offer up a few here as a little giveaway.

 

Just be one of the first three readers to list your favorite Heart song in the comment section, and I'll send you a copy of both cards. (Not autographed, of course.)

 

If you're one of the claimants and I don't already have your mailing address from a previous giveaway, here's how to reach me:

 

My email address is available on my blogger profile page. 

You can also message me on TCDB.

  

Even if you miss out on the giveaway, let everyone know in the comment section if you're a fan of the band, and if you've got a favorite song or two.

 

I look forward to your answers!