Baseball in French, Lesson 9: Le Ballon

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 9. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is le ballon

 

In English, that translates to "the balloon". What's the baseball translation?

Fly ball.

Here are three Expos who certainly hit their share of ballons—many of which went far enough to float right over the outfield fence. 

 

Of all the French baseball terminology we've covered in this series so far, I think ballon could be the most questionable. I mean, I suppose a high, soft fly ball that an outfielder can settle under might resemble a balloon floating up into the sky. And if we've learned anything from other romantic French baseball terms like "butterfly ball" for knuckleball or "the arrow" for line drive, then sure, a balloon would be similarly romantic. So it works

And I also suppose that it would be a derogatory way for the hitter to refer to it.

Argh! Stupid balloon. Didn't even hit it far enough into the outfield to let the runners tag up.

 

Anyhow, let's look at some stats for those three big balloon hitters above.

Vladimir Guerrero began his career with the Expos in 1996. In his 8 seasons there, he put up 1215 hits, 226 doubles, 34 triples, 234 home runs, 702 RBI, and 641 runs scored, with a robust .323/.390/.588 slash line. You can add 123 stolen bases on top of that. He was an All-Star and Silver Slugger while with Montreal.

 

Andres Galarraga began his career with the Expos in 1985. In his 7 seasons there, he put up 906 hits, 180 doubles, 14 triples, 115 home runs, 473 RBI, and 424 runs scored, with a .269/.328/.432 slash line. He was an All-Star, Gold Glover, and Silver Slugger while with Montreal. In 1988 he led the N.L. in hits (184) and doubles (42).

 

Larry Walker began his career with the Expos in 1989. In his 6 seasons there, he put up 666 hits, 147 doubles, 16 triples, 99 home runs, 384 RBI, and 368 runs scored, with a .281/.357/.483 slash line. Like Andres Galarraga, Walker was an All-Star, Gold Glover, and Silver Slugger while with Montreal. In 1994, his final year with the Expos, he led the N.L. in doubles with 44.

That's-a-lotta balloons.

Still, I'm going to stick with "fly ball"—or one of the many other colorful terms we've got here in the States. Can of corn, Texas-leaguer, bloop, looper, loud out, moonshot.

So what do you readers say? Balloon, or no balloon?

Baseball in French, Lesson 11: Le Marbre

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 11. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is le marbre.

 

In English, that translates to "the marble". (As in the metamorphic rock that is often found in fancy classical sculptures. And countertops.) 

 

What's the baseball translation?

Home plate.

I suppose it's similar to some English-language terms for home plate, like dish or platter. (Are there such things as marble dishes and platters?) Regardless, it makes me think of catchers. They spend plenty of time right behind the marble, after all. And when it comes to Expos catchers in particular, there's one guy that comes to mind above all others.

 

Here he is on his 1981 O-Pee-Chee card.

 

 

 

It's "The Kid", Gary Carter, sporting those great powder blue uniforms underneath all that gear, getting ready to protect home plate. 

 

And imagine that home plate were an actual slab of high-quality marble. A catcher would definitely want to protect that marble from the other team trying to cross it and score a run. So maybe that's the French line of thinking.

As for Carter, there are plenty of reasons why he's the right choice.

The Hall-of-Famer was an 11x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove award winner, 5x Silver Slugger award winner, and a 2x All-Star MVP—not to mention one of the prime players on that 1986 Mets team that won the World Series.

Mr. Carter played the first 11 of his 19 MLB seasons with Les Expos, and finished up his career with one more season back in Montreal. His totals with the team: 1,427 hits, 274 doubles, 24 triples, 220 home runs, 823 RBI, 707 runs scored, and a slash line of .269/.342/.454.

Behind the marble for his career, he posted a .991 fielding percentage, and threw out 810 would-be base stealers (23rd on the all-time list as of this writing). He led the National League in caught-stealing totals in 1979 (66), 1982 (70), and 1983 (75). He led the National League in caught-stealing percentage in 1976 (50.0%), 1981 (46.8%), and 1983 (46.6%). Currently, he's 7th on the all-time list for catcher putouts with 11,785. And he was the first catcher ever to record 10,000 putouts.

Yep, that's a guy you wouldn't mind taking care of the priceless little slab of marble between the batters' boxes at your home stadium.

What other catchers would you put on the list? And what do you think about the French-language term for home plate?

Leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 7: La Victoire Protégée

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 7. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is la victoire protégée.

 

In English, that translates to "protected victory". What's the baseball translation?

Save.

Here's Jeff Reardon, master of protecting victories, on his 1983 O-Pee-Chee card. 

 

 

 

 

The term has even more of an effect when you pair it with the previous lesson's French term for blown save: le sabotage. 

 

Instead of being sabotaged by the opposing hitter, the pitcher protects the victory. Pretty cool.

Now there's nothing wrong with the English-language term, "save". It's direct. To the point. If you're the relief pitcher, you've saved the game for your team. But taken together with the opposite outcome, "blown save", it's just not very exciting.

Additionally, with "blown save" you're kind of blaming your pitcher all the time (i.e., he blew it), even if he was dotting the corners and the other team happened to do an even better job making contact and getting hits. The French version, le sabotage, puts the negative on the opposing hitter. He sabotaged your attempt to seal the victory for your team. That description keeps you in noble stead. There's something nice about that, I suppose. It's more respectful. (Even if you threw a meatball right over the middle of the plate.)

 

As for Mr. Reardon, he protected a victory for his team 367 times across his 16-year career, which lands him at 12th on the all-time list as of this writing. He amassed 877 strikeouts over that time, which doesn't sound like much, but is actually not too shabby for a guy who was a reliever from the start. While with Montreal in 1985, he led the majors in saves with 41. He's a 4x All-Star and won the World Series with Minnesota in 1987, picking up 2 saves in the ALCS and one more in the World Series. Three very important protected victories there.

What do you readers think? Do you go with the more noble, medieval "sabotage" and "protected victory", or is the straightforward "save" and "blown save" good enough for you?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 1: La Balle Papillon

Here's a fun little baseball card I came across recently that was issued in 1986 by Leaf, the Canadian counterpart to Donruss.

 

 

It hearkens back to fun times for collectors, and for Phil and Joe Niekro, who for a brief period found themselves both playing for the New York Yankees.

 

The caption on the bottom of the card refers to the Niekros as "knuckle brothers" — fitting as they both threw the knuckleball. But have a look at the French heading on the back of the card.

 

Frères Balles Papillon is the French translation of "knuckle brothers". Do you know how those French words translate back to English? 

Butterfly Ball Brothers

That's right. The French term for a knuckleball is balle papillon (butterfly ball).

Just think of the way a butterfly travels through the air, and then think of the way a knuckleball travels toward home plate.

 

Those French folks, I tell you what. They've got a romance for language.

 

And don't get me wrong, our own terminology of baseball is far from literal and dry. Relief pitchers are housed in the bullpen. A lazy fly ball is a can of corn. A home run is a dinger, a tater, a round-tripper. A pitch that's high and tight is chin music. A swing and a miss is a whiff. A ball hit hard on a line is a frozen rope.

But after I discovered la balle papillon, I did some research to see what other French baseball terminology existed. Turns out they've got a lot good ones, too. I started to wonder if many American baseball fans were aware of them. If not, that would certainly be reason for me to share.

 

Instead of listing them all here, however, I've decided to make it a series of blog posts. Each post will cover one French baseball term that I think many of you readers and collectors would find interesting, or entertaining, or clever.

And because this is a trading card blog, I'm going to try to add at least one French-inspired baseball card to each post—most likely an Expos player. And most likely an O-Pee-Chee card. Because that only makes sense.

I'll spread out the posts over this coming year, so stay tuned. Or reste à syntonisez.

Baseball in French, Lesson 10: La Balle Tombante

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 10. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is la balle tombante.

 

In English, that translates to "the falling ball" or "the drooping ball". What's the baseball translation?

Sinker.

Here's pitcher Steve Rogers on his 1981 O-Pee-Chee poster (one per wax pack), perhaps receiving the sign for a sinker from an imaginary catcher.

The classic Expos uniform. The inspired pose. The mustache. The poster design. Pretty high coolness factor all around.

 

And Steve Rogers was a pretty cool customer out there on the mound. The sinkerballer with a good slider to boot pitched his entire career for the Expos, and in 1982—a year after the poster above was released—he led the majors in ERA (2.40). It was one of his best seasons overall, as he went 19–8 with 14 complete games, 4 shutouts, and 179 strikeouts. He finished second to Steve Carlton in the N.L. Cy Young race, and made the All-Star team. (The All-Star game was in Montreal that year. Rogers got the start and was the winning pitcher.)

 

Unfortunately, Rogers didn't get much playoff action with those late-70s and early-80s Montreal teams. In 1981, however, he did go 2-0 in the NLDS against Philly, starting two games, with a 0.51 ERA and 17.2 innings pitched. Then he went 1-1 against Los Angeles in the NLCS, starting one of those two games, with a 1.80 ERA in 10 innings pitched.

But overall, the guy had a super-solid 13-year career with 5 All-Star appearances. And a pretty good "falling ball".

What do you think of the French terminology?

 

Jeffrey Leonard at the plate. Here's Rogers to the wind-up. The pitch . . . 

 

. . . and Leonard swings right over the falling ball!

 

Yeah. I like the English version better this time, for sure. 

 

Share your thoughts in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 6: Le Sabotage

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 6. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is le sabotage.

 

You won't be surprised that in English, it translates to "sabotage". What's the baseball translation?

Blown save.

Here's Tim Wallach of the Expos, sizing up a pitcher on his 1984 O-Pee-Chee card. 

 

 

I feel like playing in the shadow of all those other fantastic Expos of the era like Raines, Carter, Dawson, and Reardon places Wallach in the "underrated/underappreciated" category. The guy amassed over 2,000 hits in his career, was a 3x Gold Glover and 2x Silver Slugger at third base, and was an all-star five times from 1984 through 1990. He had a monster year in 1987, setting career highs in hits (177), doubles (42, led majors), RBI (123), runs scored (89), slugging percentage (.514), and stolen bases (9). I'd bet he sabotaged the save attempts of a few opposing relief pitchers along the way.

And I like the French terminology here. The word "sabotage" adds some intrigue and suspense and drama into the story.

 

Now here's Tim Wallach to the plate. Expos down to the Reds by one run in the bottom of the ninth. Two outs, Hubie Brooks on second. The pitch... base hit into right field! Brooks is going to round third and head for home... here's the throw... not in time! And Wallach has sabotaged the Reds!

 

As a hitter, would you walk up to the plate in a similar situation with a little bit of extra mojo if you knew you had the chance to sabotage the game for the other team? 

 

I think I would.

 

Leave your thoughts below, and thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 13: La Balle Tire-Bouchon

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 13. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is La balle tire-bouchon.

 

In English, that translates to "the corkscrew ball". Or, as we better know it, "the screwball".

There's a certain Montreal Expo who wasn't exactly known as a screwball pitcher, but had a change-up that acted like one, falling away from left-handed batters. Here he is on his 1994 O-Pee-Chee card. 

 

Martinez only spent 4 seasons with Montreal, from age 22 through 25, but that's when he started to show glimpses of the brilliant pitcher he'd become. In 1997, his final season in Montreal, he'd go 17–8 with a minuscule 1.90 ERA (led majors), 13 complete games (led majors), 4 shutouts, and 305 strikeouts to 67 walks. He won his first of 3 Cy Young awards that year.

His grand totals with les Expos:

55 W, 33 L, 3.06 ERA, 20 CG, 8 SHO, 248 BB, 843 SO, 797.1 IP

Then he was off to Boston, and you already know the dominance he displayed there. More Cy Young Awards, All-Star teams, a Triple Crown, a World Series championship. Total stud. I'm glad I found a way to get him into these French lessons.

And speaking of these lessons, I think I'm going to make this the final one in the series, which is fitting with "corkscrew". In other words, if you've stuck with the entire series—all 13 posts—consider congratulating yourself in the only way a French baseball player would: by taking out that corkscrew, opening a bottle of wine, and enjoying a glass. (Beer is fine, too.)

Thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 12: La Feinte Illégale

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 12. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is la feinte illégale.

 

In English, that translates to "the illegal pretense" or "the illegal maneuver". What's the baseball translation?

Balk.

 

Here's pitcher Bryn Smith on his 1986 Provigo card, trying to avoid any illegal pretenses. 

 

 

 

Personally, the term is a bit too stuffy and technical to me. Seems like it would be more fitting to a sport like football. (Illegal pretense, number 28 defense . . . five yard penalty, repeat first down.) "Balk" is just so much more simple and effective. And it's so strongly linked to baseball.

 

French or English terminology aside, let's link it to Mr. Bryn Smith. He had 16 career balks, including 5 in 1988 alone. 15 of those balks occurred while he was pitching with Montreal. So he was a natural fit for this blog post.

The guy was a pretty good pitcher, though. Across his 13-year career he had a record of 108–94, with a 3.53 ERA, 1028 strikeouts, and 432 walks.

His best season may have been 1985 with Montreal. He put up an 18-5 record with a 2.91 ERA, 2 shutouts, and 127 strikeouts to only 41 walks. He also hit a home run that year. (One of three in his career—not too shabby.)

 

But man oh man, all those illegal pretenses. I wonder why so many. Maybe Bryn was just a little fidgety on the mound.

What do you readers think about la feinte illégale? Do you like "balk" much better, just like I do?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 8: Le Blanchissage

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 8. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is le blanchissage.

 

In English, that translates to "laundry" or "washing". What's the baseball translation?

Shutout.

Here's a trio of Expos pitchers who posted quite a few shutouts.

 

More specifically:

 

Steve Rogers: 37 shutouts as an Expo.

Bill Stoneman: 15 shutouts as an Expo, including 2 no-hitters.

Dennis Martinez: 13 shutouts as an Expo, including a perfect game.

 

 

Way to go, fellas! That's an impressive number of shutouts. 

 

Or, an impressive number of loads of laundry??

 

The French terminology confuses me. Does it mean the pitcher washed the other team out? Put them through the ringer? Hung them out to dry?

 

I can picture a broadcaster making that call after the final out.

 

And Steve Rogers has hung Atlanta out to dry today, folks! 

 

Or maybe 

 

Bill Stoneman has washed the Phillies out!

 

Or maybe 

 

Denny Martinez has just pitched a complete game shutout. Laundry time!

 

 

But this might be a better explanation: At some point while putting the post together, I discovered that in soccer, when a goalie shuts out his opponent, it's customarily called a "clean sheet". (i.e., a clean scoresheet—no goals were marked down.) So maybe le blanchissage is a creative extension of the clean sheet?

I don't know. I tend to think that a true "clean sheet" for a pitcher would be a no-hitter. Or a perfect game. But maybe that's asking too much.

In any case, it's an interesting phrase. And it adds to the lexicon. You know, terms like "he blanks the opponent" or "he puts up a goose egg", or something like that.

So I like it. I also like the laundry connection to the phrase "hanging a team out to dry".

How about you readers and baseball fans? Does le blanchissage work for you?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.

Baseball in French, Lesson 4: La Balle Glissante

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 4. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is la balle glissante.

 

In English, that translates to "slippery ball". What's the baseball translation?

Slider.

 

Here's a guy who had a pretty mean slider, sporting the Expos colors on his 1989 O-Pee-Chee rookie card. 

 

 

 

Johnson didn't have much command of his pitches back in those very early days, but by the close of his career he'd collected more than 300 wins and nearly 5,000 strikeouts. Let's just say he figured it out.

 

As for the baseball terminology, I think slippery ball is pretty accurate and descriptive. The pitch does tend to slip away from the strike zone. It's kind of a silly term too, which isn't a bad thing. But if I were a French-language baseball commentator, I think I'd get tired of saying "slippery ball" after a while. Besides, the term can evoke more of a spitball than a slider, don't you think?

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!

Baseball in French, Lesson 5: l'Amorti

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 5. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is l'amorti.

 

In English, that translates to "the cushioning". What's the baseball translation?

Bunt.

Here are three Expos fan favorites, showing off their "cushioning" skills.

All three guys had speed, and all three could lay 'em down. Unfortunately I don't think Major League Baseball keeps track of bunt singles separately from regular singles, so I couldn't tell you how many each guy totaled for his career. But I can tell you how many career sacrifice bunts each had:

 

Raines: 39

Grissom: 38

DeShields: 57

 

 

As for the French terminology, I suppose I could get to enjoy it:

 

And here's the pitch. DeShields cushions it up the third-base line and sprints out of the box. . . the throw to first. . . not in time!

I'm just so accustomed to "bunt" being the word for it that anything else seems a bit odd. But when you think about it, "cushion" is a pretty good description of what's going on. I guess it's similar to an American broadcaster saying "pushes it up the line", or "taps it down the line".

What are your thoughts on l'amorti?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.

Baseball in French, Lesson 3: Le Frappeur D'Urgence

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 3. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is le frappeur d'urgence.

 

In English, that translates to "emergency hitter". What's the baseball translation?

Pinch hitter.

Here's one of the best pinch-hitters of all time, proudly wearing the Expos colors on his 1971 O-Pee-Chee card.

 

 

 

Staub, popularly known in Montreal as Le Grande Orange for his ginger hair, put up exactly 100 pinch hits over his career, which at the time of this writing puts him at 19th on the all-time list. He's tied for the most pinch-hit RBI in a season (25) with Joe Cronin and Jerry Lynch.

 

As for the baseball terminology, I think this is a case where I like the English version better. Your team is in a pinch, and you need to bring a hitter off your bench to help you out. Hence, pinch hitter. Easy. Effective.

 

"Emergency hitter" is just a little too dramatic for me. It's not like you're in a Bugs Bunny cartoon where all your teammates are getting trounced so badly that they're being carried off the field on stretchers, and you've got to find someone from the crowd to go bat for the team.

How about you? Do you prefer pinch hitter or emergency hitter? Leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!

En vedette tout l'été chez . . .

With all the Expos talk around the baseball world lately, I thought it would be a good time to share some cards I picked up a few months ago as part of a trade with a Canadian collector:

Provigo was (and still is) a Canadian grocery retailer. As you can see by the French-language website—with English as a secondary option—they're based in the province of Québec.

The card design is nice and simple. I like the contrasting bright yellow stripe on the bottom that includes the player name and number. (And who are we kidding, the Expos logo and uniform would look good on just about any design.)

As far as I could find, 1986 was the only year that Provigo teamed up with the Expos and MLB to make a team set. There are 28 cards in all, not including the coupons and advertisements you'll see coming up. Provigo also put out a set of 25 stickers for the Montreal Canadiens and Québec Nordiques during the 1985-86 hockey season.

Here's an example of the card back:

Just like O-Pee-Chee cards, the bio and blurb on the Provigo cards are printed in French and English. 

I wasn't aware that Hubie Brooks called Irvington, NY his home. That's not too far from where I live now, and must have been where he lived when he played for the New York Mets (1980 through 1984). 

Irvington is a quiet little town that runs right along the Hudson River, named after New York writer Washington Irving. Seems like it would have been a bit of a drive to get to Shea Stadium in Queens, but if Mr. Brooks enjoyed the quiet, peaceful life, he made a good choice.

Let's get to the other cards I picked up in the trade:

Here's an offer for a card-collector's album—only $1.99 CAD plus tax!

Note the perforation marks along the right side, suggesting that these special-offer cards may have been an insert in some sort of flyer or coupon book.

Next up, it's Youppi! the mascot, helping to advertise the Ultramar and Gulf companies. More specifically, it says that Youppi! himself will be featured all summer at Ultramar and Gulf locations. That's a lot of Youppis!

Speaking of a lot of Youppis, is that a red Youppi! and a yellow Youppi! at the bottom left of this Hostess coupon?? 

No. After conducting some research, all three of those guys are mascots for Hostess potato chips. They're called "The Munchies".

 
Youppi! himself did get a card, though. He's pictured in his familiar spot on top of the dugout. This time he's playing the saxophone. Looks like a natural.

And here's Youppi's bio and blurb. I think it's a great write-up. 

If you're wondering what he's up to these days, Youppi! is the official mascot of the Montreal Canadiens. He made the transition from baseball to hockey back in 2005.

When you think about the Expos, it's hard not to smile. Back in the 1980s and 1990s they had some talented teams and were fun to watch. (Think Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Gary Carter, Steve Rogers, Jeff Reardon, Andres Galarraga, Tim Wallach, Moises Alou, Larry Walker, Vladimir Guerrero, Marquis Grissom, Pedro Martinez.)

These cards provide a great reminder of that, and I'm happy I have a few of them in my collection now. 

It sure would be fun to see Major League baseball in Montreal again. I wonder if Youppi! is out there having a catch somewhere right now and getting his baseball routine warmed up, just in case.

Baseball in French, Lesson 2: La Flèche

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 2. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

 

Today's term is la flèche.

 

In English, that translates to "the arrow". What's the baseball translation?

Line drive.

As in the following broadcaster expression:

Here's the pitch... and Dawson shoots an arrow into left field for a base hit!

 

I think it's simple enough to picture an archer loosing an arrow with purpose toward its target a couple hundred feet away, and how that action would resemble a line drive. Considering Dawson amassed 1735 singles, 503 doubles, 98 triples, and 438 home runs over his career, you can be sure he slung a bunch of arrows himself.

 

In the English language, we've got numerous terms for a line drive: dart, seed, pea, bullet, rocket shot, liner, laser, frozen rope, etc.

Arrow is a little more French and elegant, isn't it?

What do you readers think? Good terminology? Or do you prefer some of the English-language versions?

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Lesson 3 a few Sundays from now.

Relief Hitters

One of the vocabulary words we discussed during the Baseball in French series here on the blog was frappeur d'urgence, which roughly translates to "emergency hitter". Or, as we better know it here in the States, "pinch hitter". 

 

Our good buddy Chris the Collector left a thought-provoking comment on that post, suggesting that the term "relief hitter" would also make a fair bit of sense. After all, we have relief pitchers, right?

Well, it got me thinking. Relief pitchers are players unto themselves. They take up a roster spot. They're specifically trained to come into the game at some point after it begins, in order to relieve a pitcher who might be struggling.

 

What if teams carried a player specifically for "relief-hitting", too? In other words, this player would take up his own roster spot, never starting a game, signed solely for his relief-hitting skills. Late in the game, when your team really needed a hit, he'd always be ready with bat in hand.

 

Imagine how clutch that guy would have to be? It's a fun thought.

Now like me, I'm sure many of you readers have already started to think that this would never happen. No team would burn a roster spot for a player who would just ride the pine every game until [maybe] the team needed him to step up to the plate to get a hit. Once. Not to mention how difficult it is for a player to do that when he's been sitting around, tight and cold, for a couple of hours. 

 

But wait a minute. Before dismissing the idea entirely, maybe we should think about all the other kooky rules that have been implemented over the past few years. There's a pitch clock. Bases are larger. The team up at bat in extra innings gets a ghost runner on second base. There's a DH in both leagues. Robo-umpires are around the corner. Eventually it's going to become blernsball, anyway.  

 

 

 

 

So why can't relief hitters be a thing?

 

To make it more appealing to the powers that be, maybe we should change the criteria a little bit.

 

Let's say that the relief hitter can be brought into the game no earlier than the 7th inning. The twist is that he's permitted to lead off every inning after that—8th, 9th, and extras if applicable. And he doesn't have to play a fielding position. I'm getting some ideas here. Time to make a list.

Relief Hitter Rules:

• Can enter the game no earlier than 7th inning.

• Must be lead-off batter in every inning after that. (Taking away the at-bat from the hitter in the lineup who would have led off.)
  

• Does not play fielding position during defensive half of inning.

• Must remain in game for at least two innings, unless first at-bat is in 9th inning.

• Must run the bases if he gets on base.

• Can be used as a relief hitter in maximum of two consecutive games. Then must be made unavailable the following game.

• Each team can carry only one relief hitter on its roster.
  

 

That last rule means there's 30 MLB roster spots for those relief hitters to claim. So, who would be good candidates? 

 

Wade Boggs could find the holes, that's for sure. So could Tony Gwynn, who was especially proficient at hitting with two strikes in the count. Ichiro could get on base with line-drives, grounders, infield singles, or bunts at any time. Derek Jeter was pretty good in the clutch. Pete Rose could probably muster up a hit whenever the team really needed one, and he's a switch-hitter, which is a definite asset. Ted Williams and his .400 average would be something. (He'd have a serious intimidation factor on his side too, because he hit for power. Plus, he's got the best on-base percentage in MLB history.) Rod Carew, Edgar Martinez, and Rickey Henderson would be other solid choices. 

 

The problem is, of course, that you'd want all of those folks in your starting lineup. Not as relief hitters.

 

But let's imagine they're winding down their careers, and almost ready to retire. If you were to play them as relief hitters for only the last two or three innings of certain games, it might allow them to stay in the big leagues for an extra couple of years.

 

If the idea were to catch on, I wonder if baseball developmental schools would eventually start looking for young hitters with less power but superior bat control, and start training those guys to be super-good at hitting singles and drawing walks. On the right team, deployed in the right way, they could end up playing up to 90-ish games per season and getting at least an at-bat or two per game, which isn't so bad. 

 

You never know.

In the meantime, because this is a blog about trading cards, here are my top three choices for a relief hitter, featured in cardboard form:

The position designation on the card could be changed to "Relief Hitter", or even "RH".

 

So what do you think? Is it too kooky of an idea to even consider? 

 

Even if that's the case, which player(s) nearing retirement, current or past, would be your choice for relief hitter? 

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Embracing the Best and Worst of the Junk Wax Era: Hockey Card Edition

A couple of months ago, I was inspired by Nick (of the Dime Boxes) and Night Owl to post a list of what I considered the best and worst sets of the junk wax era for baseball. I was a young collector back in the junk wax days, and certainly opened my share of baseball packs during that time. But there was also another sport I collected: 

 

Hockey. 

 

So I thought I'd create a similar best and worst list for the coolest sport on ice.

Interestingly, the junk wax era for hockey cards didn't follow quite the same timeline. In the second half of the 1980s, when baseball junk wax was booming, you still only had two choices for hockey cards: Topps and O-Pee-Chee. But that all changed during the 1990-91 season, as FIVE new brands emerged on the scene (Pro Set, Score, Bowman, OPC Premier, and Upper Deck). It was a wild time to be a collector, that's for sure.

For the sake of this post, I think I'll set the junk wax hockey years as 1990-91 through 1994-95. After that, a whole bunch of premium brands came around, with all sorts of inserts and parallels and rare cards. I'd say that effectively ended the era.

So let's start with my selections for the five worst junk wax sets, in no particular order.

 

 

 

1991-92 Pro Set

The 1991-92 Pro Set design was never going to be as rambunctious as the inaugural version the year before (we'll get to that one later). However, I think the company might have gone too far in the opposite direction this time, and fallen flat. The loud colors and stripes of the 1990-91 set were replaced with. . . almost nothing. Just a full-bleed image and a little black tab across the bottom for the player name (not even a position!). Even some of the subsets in this set were boring. You could only tell one from another by a little half-circle banner over the team logo that indicated what subset card you were looking at. In addition, the photography was not great at times, with images that were a bit blurry, or that were strangely cropped. The black tab can kind of get in the way of the action on the card, too, as evidenced by Dale Hunter on the face-off and Chris Winnes taking a slap shot up there. Maybe the design team at Pro Set was still exhausted from the previous year.

 

 

 

 

1991-92 Score

 

Yeesh. Score was really trying to cash in on excitable collectors during the 1991-92 season. They produced three variations of the same set, each with a different color for the borders. Card backs were written in English, in French, or both. The adolescent version of me sure did get swept up in it, buying plenty of packs of the American (purple border) and Canadian English (red or light blue border with purple interior) versions. I might have bought packs of the Canadian Bilingual version too (red or light blue border with green interior), but I don't remember seeing packs in card shops or at card shows very often in my region of the US. It's true that there were a few exciting insert cards available in each set that featured Bobby Orr—including an autographed version. And occasionally a player's photo did differ from one version of the set to the next. But that certainly doesn't rescue 1991-92 Score from my bottom 5.

 

1993-94 Topps Premier

 

Back in 1990-91, O-Pee-Chee released their first premium set, called "Premier". It went over pretty well with collectors, and for the next two seasons, O-Pee-Chee continued with the brand. Then in 1993-94, Topps decided to jump in with "Topps Premier". It was the same exact set as the O-Pee-Chee version, other than the lack of French text on the card backs. I think I'd learned my lesson from Score a couple of years prior, and didn't fall for the Topps Premier hoopla—even with the allure of the special Black Gold inserts, which were admittedly pretty cool. 1993-94 Topps Premier was also one of the early hockey sets that suffered from "bricking" due to the ultra-varnish coating, which was another strike against it. Adding to the negatives, it was a time in the hobby when close-cropped player photos were in style, across many sets. Too close. I mean, look at how cramped those three guys are.

 

1993-94 Fleer Power Play

 

The irregular size and shape of these cards was eye catching, that's for sure. But I also think that a lot of folks bought one or two packs for the novelty of it, and then just never bought more. If that wasn't enough of a deterrent for collectors, the large set size (520 cards) probably did the trick. Even though it turned out that the cards measured the same as the vintage "tall boy", I didn't know many collectors who were willing to buy all the unique storage supplies necessary to complete and display the set, or even finish a team set. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Power Play did not return the next season. The thing is, Fleer didn't do such a bad job with the photography, oftentimes setting part of the player outside of the frame for that 3D effect. This works well on the taller template—especially in the digital image. As for how they looked on the actual cards in hand? I'm not so sure. Maybe the images would have worked better in some other form. Just imagine those three cards above as banners hanging throughout the concourse of an NHL arena, for example.

 

 

1994-95 Upper Deck Be a Player

 

I think 1994-95 Upper Deck Be a Player can be argued as a best set AND a worst set. It's a potential worst set because of the photography. It's a potential best set because it was the first one outrageous enough to put an autographed card into every pack. The list of autographs was an astounding 178 cards deep, and it contained many of the big names of the time: Brodeur, Selanne, Bourque, Leetch, LaFontaine, Shanahan, Gretzky, Yzerman, Kariya, Yashin, Lidstrom. 

 

The big negative, though, is for that photography. There are players standing outside in the cold, wearing ski jackets. There are players on the golf course, wearing polo shirts and khaki shorts. There are players wearing NHLPA jerseys instead of their team's jersey. (There was a lockout during part of the '94-95 NHL season.) Ultimately, even though this inaugural edition of Be A Player really changed the game with the one-autograph-per-pack thing, I still have to put it in the bottom 5.

 

 

Now let's get to the top 5, also in no particular order.

 

 

 

 

1991-92 Upper Deck

 

If the inaugural Upper Deck hockey release came out with a bang, their follow-up set in 1991-92 was even louder—and in a good way. The designers really upped their game. You've got some fantastic subsets like the Canada Cup and All-Rookie Team, plus much better quality on the hologram inserts. In addition, there are lots of great rookie cards to be found (Teemu Selanne, Nicklas Lidstrom, Peter Forsberg, John Leclair, Alexei Yashin, Alexei Kovalev, and Keith Tkachuk to name a few). This is probably the Upper Deck set I collected the most back then, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I still remember walking to the local card show with my friend on the first Friday of each month, going back to my house with packs and packs of 1991-92 Upper Deck, and playing NHL Hockey on Sega Genesis while we flipped through the cards.

 

 

 

 

1990-91 Pro Set

Despite the many errors in this set (and many stripes of many colors), I've got to put this set in my top 5. It's large and colorful—perfect for young collectors—and both Series I and Series II have some great rookies. On top of the standard subsets like All-Stars, Draft Picks, and Award Winners, you've also got some fun subsets like Head Coaches, Career Leaders, and even Referees! Oh, and collectors had the rare chance to pull a Stanley Cup hologram card. The photos in this set weren't always the best, but they also showed some decent action and weren't cropped so tightly or oddly as some other sets of the hockey junk wax era. That's nice.

 

 

 

 

1990-91 OPC Premier

 

I remember packs of 1990-91 OPC Premier being tough to find back then. But if you did find them, you had a good chance at putting the complete set together—it's only 132 cards deep. There are certainly some big-name rookies (Jagr, Modano, Fedorov, Roenick, Bondra, Mogilny, Nolan, Sundin), and a decent design that helps to make it memorable. The photography can sometimes be plain, and I'm not sure this set would have been in my top-5 back in the early 90s, but history has shown that it holds up, and the big rookie cards are still prized among collectors.

 

1990-91 Score

Score made a splash with their inaugural hockey set. Part of the buzz was generated from their exclusive rights to Eric Lindros. He appeared on the final card in the set, and if you purchased a factory set, you received 5 "bonus" Lindros cards that featured him in various photoshoot-style hockey poses. Here in 2024 it might be hard to understand how big of a deal this was, but Lindros was the hottest name in the sport back then, and hockey card companies all wanted a piece of the big power forward. Lindros aside, Score did very well with their first design. There were hardly any errors, especially when compared with some of the other brands. The "hockey rink" design—featuring a blue line, red line, and blue line across the borders—was pretty cool. In addition, there were some fun subsets like "Blaster", "Sniper", "Magician", "Stopper", and "Speedster". Baby-faced Jaromir Jagr and Martin Brodeur rookie cards add to the good grade here.

 

1990-91 Upper Deck

Upper Deck took their baseball card success from 1989 and rolled it right into hockey for the next season. Their photography was unmatched, and gave hockey card collectors the best look they'd ever had into what the sport was all about. (Flip through the set and you'll see that Theo Fleury and John Tonelli up there represent just two of many fantastic, descriptive images.) The tamper-proof foil packs and anti-counterfeiting holograms on the card backs were cutting edge. The rookie cards were highly sought after. And on top of all that, the Young Guns series was created that very first year. It's still going strong to this day, which is truly impressive.

 

So that's my bottom-5 and top-5 hockey sets from the junk wax era. If any of you readers collected hockey cards back then, share some of your rankings in the comment section—or create your own blog post!

Thanks for reading, as always.