Boston. April 6, 1973. The Red Sox’s Luis Tiant walks Ron Blomberg, the first designated hitter in Major League history, and a new baseball era officially commenced. As far back as the early twentieth century the idea for a designated hitter had supporters, like Hall of Famer Connie Mack. With…
Last week, reader Mark asked if The APBA Blog could post Eric Davis’ 1986 card. As it turned out, Davis’ 1986 card was in the queue for Monster Monday. As I was searching for Kirby Puckett’s card for his post, I ran across Davis’ and it was too good to…
Episode 28 of Double Take: An APBA Gaming Podcast features a discussion about APBA Golf and the 2020 TGA Tour Championship, plus a conversation with secondary APBA card seller Jeff Emerson of TeamSets4u. Emerson’s company sells individual APBA baseball squads and is a great place to find that particular tournament or nostalgic…
With a heavy heart, Rob Spatz came to the conclusion that the Chicagoland APBA Baseball tournament was not going to happen. Scheduled for August, there was no guarantee that the 48 participants could attend safely given the COVID-19 virus. I know this was the right move but it was a…
The life and career of Don Newcombe are ones of “what ifs.” What if Newcombe would have been in a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform in 1952 and 1953 instead of a military uniform? What if Don Newcombe would have received substance abuse help to control his alcoholism? What if Newcombe could…
Lately, I’ve been trying to expand my APBA horizons. I recently purchased the basic football game and the golf game, and I hope to bring my ventures in these games to The APBA Blog. I’m excited to delve into the golf game when it arrives. In the meantime, I joined…
Double Take Podcast’s second APBA 101 video features a comparison of a deadball era card, 1908 Sam Crawford, with a modern card, 1979 Dave Kingman. The topic was inspired by a comment from Daniel Diehm on the APBA Blog. Thank you! The below video was originally posted to the Double…
Roger Craig brought “the pitch” into the 1980s and changed the game. A variation of the fork ball, the split-finger fastball Craig taught became the pitch of the decade. It altered the careers of pitchers like Dan Petry, Jack Morris, Mike Scott, and Ron Darling. In Scott’s case, he was…
Last week, I posted a fun Andre Dawson card from the strike-shortened 1981 season. There was discussion that many monster cards (and a few weird ones) come from shortened seasons. Well, in 1994 there was another baseball strike in which the last 50 games or so were not played. As…
In episode 27 of Double Take: An APBA Gaming Podcast Kevin and I interview APBA Games CEO John Herson! We discuss sales, upcoming baseball and football products, APBA GO, BBW 5.75, and the future of the company. You can listen now on your favorite podcast app or below. Double Take: An APBA Gaming…