In light of last week’s Hall of Fame balloting, here’s Pedro Martinez’ 1999 APBA card. Between 1997-2003, P.J. Martinez had a string of seven outstanding years (with the possible exception of his injury-plagued 2001 season). In that time, he went 118-36 with a 2.20 ERA and struck out 1761 batters…
Some news of interest came via the APBA Newsletter in this first week of the year. Of biggest importance, the 2014 baseball cards are shipping. I know a lot of you have already gotten them. For those who haven’t, the APBA Company says to watch your credit card account. They…
Yesterday, I posted a 1987 catcher for Terrible Tuesday. Today, how about another one from the same year for Weird Wednesday? This time, it’s Ron Karkovice, who played all twelve seasons of his career with the Chicago White Sox. In 1987, Karko actually batted lower than yesterday’s Joel Skinner with…
I always like to hear about leagues that remember their history. The Mid-West Baseball League is doing just that. Stray Corrado contacted me to announce the MWBL Hall of Fame Class of 2015. In 2015, the league inducted players Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. Joining those three is…
Joel Skinner, son of former Pirate All-Star Bob Skinner from the 1960s, never hit a whole a lot in his nine years in the majors. Overall, he had a career .228 batting average with 17 homers. In 1987 though, his prowess with the bat was at a low. For the…
From Pastor Rich’s collection, this is Luke Appling’s 1936 APBA card. Appling hit over .300 nine times in a row (1933-1941) and with one year break, he did six times in row after that (1943, 1945-1949 and give him some credit for serving his country in 1944, too). In fact,…
For a while now, I have been trying to find someone to write about APBA Hockey. Enter Robert Mosher, fellow Boys of Summer APBA League manager. He picked up the game and playing regularly. Once I saw him posting about it on Facebook, I asked him if he was willing…
Because I totally forgot to do Monster Monday, you’re getting a double dose of Weird Card Wednesday this week. Tom Zuppa thought it strange that a card would have three 6s for their extra base numbers. But what if that player’s platoon mate also had the same power numbers? That…
You know how holiday schedules get the best of you? You’re off work for a while and sort of forget what day of the week it is? Yeah, that’s what happened with me and the Monster Card Monday yesterday. Sorry, folks. But I’m back on track with Terrible Card Tuesday…
Nick Tegeler: Master negotiator Things are a little bittersweet in the Thunderchickens’ dugout today. Last night, I made a huge deal in the Illowa APBA League. Overall, I’m feeling okay with it. It had to be done. However, it meant trading a franchise player and a player who epitomized the…