My Rickey Henderson Player Collection Is Complete!!!

With the acquisition of this card, my player collection of Rickey Henderson is finally complete!!

This is perfect timing too as I expect to see a big spike in Rickey’s popularity now that he is just days away from being enshrined into Baseball’s Hall of Fame!!!

This collection has been a blast to go after and I have really enjoyed putting this special set together as Rickey’s cards, especially the ones from the 1980′s, really capture him and his incredible baseball skills perfectly.  Of all of the player collections I have completed to date, Dave Winfield and Andre Dawson being the others, I would have to say that the pictures used on Henderson’s cards are much more representative of the type of player he was compared to the others.

Stay tuned because next week I will unveil a new card evry day during my ‘Rickey Henderson Fab 5′ series which highlights what I believe are the best 5 cards in my collection of Rickey!!

Shutting Down ‘The Maybin-Meter’

It comes with a heavy heart that I have decided to shut down the ‘Maybin-Meter’.  With what was once a fun way to track Cameron Maybin’s journey through his first full baseball season as a major league player, it has become a lot less enjoyable since his demotion to AAA ball.  While I still check the Zephyrs’ box score on a daily basis to see how Cam is doing, it has become very hard to get stories and pictures to enjoy and pass along to you.

Cameron has really turned it on as of late and has raised his batting average well over 100 points in the last 8 weeks.  His skills are being sharpened and he has become quite a valuable piece of the team for the Zephyrs.  And while all of this is happening, it just isn’s as exciting to witness from afar when there is no video of his play and very few pictures.

I wish Cameron Maybin the best of luck and I hope to see him again soon in a Marlins uniform.  It would be wonderful if he could help the team this year, but with no glaring need for a center fielder at the current moment I think seeing him again in South Florida may have to wait until next Spring.

Best of luck Cam.  This fan wished you a bright, bright future!!!

But don’t fret, I am just making more time for some new ideas for ’30-YOC’ that I want to share with you.  Like Maybin, I too am sharpening my skills and hope to debut these new ideas with a BANG!!!

Celebrity First Pitch – Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, makes quick work of his chance to throw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field.  But it does look like he fired up a pretty good one though…

Pearl Jam still remains a favorite of mine, and I listen to their older music quite often.  My favorite song?  Corduroy!!!

The ’30-YOC’ Bookstore Is Closed For The Summer!!!

For those of you that enjoyed one of my newest features on this blog titled ‘Now That’s A Book I’d Read’, I wanted to let you know that our printing press has been overworked a bit and will require a little maintenance to get back into working order.

I am estimating that we will be able to get back on track in a few short months and am expecting another of handful of releases by ’30-YOC’ in the fall.

In the meantime, here is a list of the ‘First Editions’ that have been published for your enjoyment.  Please feel free to peruse the books as you wish!!!

Book #1 – ‘The 4th Wheel’

Book #2 – ‘Both Sides Of The Fence’

Book #3 – ‘Class Of ’86′

Book #4 – ‘Tales From The Trainer’s Table’

Book #5 – ‘Rule #1: Mascots Cannot Talk’

Book #6 – ‘My Windy City’

Thank you for reading.  See you soon!!!

Cameron Maybin & Andrew Miller – Teammates Again!!!

Together again.  Too bad it’s not in South Florida!!

I hold a special place in my heart for both Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller.  While neither have had much of an impact while in the majors yet, to the true Marlins fans out there these guys mean quite a bit.  I’ve been tracking both of their careers and cheering for them to do well ever since ‘The Fish’ traded away Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis for them what seems like eons ago.

While both guys have shown flashes of possible greatness, they have also shown us that they have quite a ways to go to be real contributors to the team each and every time they take the field.  Prior to the start of the 2009 baseball season, Maybin has being tabbed as a favorite for the Rookie of the Year award.  And Miller had earned a starting spot in a pitching rotation that was the envy of the sport.

Well, now that Andrew Miller has been sent down to AAA ball in New Orleans, he and Cameron Maybin are teammates again.  Hopefully they will enjoy one anthers company as they both work hard to get another shot on the ‘big club’ sometime this season.  Until that happens, I will continue to root them on from afar.

I still have my fingers crossed that the Cabrera trade was not the most one-sided trade in Marlins’ history!!!

GO FISH!!!!

1983 Topps Rickey Henderson & Tim Raines League Leader Card

1983 Topps Rickey Henderson & Tim Raines League Leader Card

What better way to feature two of the game’s greatest base runners than to highlight their base stealing abilities in a baseball card. 

Below is a card from the 1983 Topps set featuring Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines.  The card celebrates their ability to lead the league in steals during the 1982 baseball season.  In ’82 Henderson finished the year with an incredible 130 stolen bases while Raines gathered up 78 swipes of his own.

I love cards like these, and there were very few players in the 1980′s that you would find on a card commemorating the player’s with the best base stealing skills!!

Celebrity First Pitch – Annika Sorenstam

Easily the greatest female golfer of this generation, Annika Sorenstam took some time out of her schedule to throw out the first pitch at a recent New York Mets baseball game.

Sorenstam is one of the most highly decorated professional athletes in the last 20 years.  Boasting 90 wins as a pro, with 72 while playing on the LPGA tour, Sorenstam has solidified herself as one of golf’s greatest players.  And she went out on top too!!!  She retired from the game in 2008 at the age of 38.  While it was clear that she could still compete at a very high level, Annika, armed with 10 ‘Major’ championships, chose to walk away while on top of the sport!!

Did You Know…

 Only one no-hitter has ever been pitched on Opening Day:  A 1-0 win by Cleveland’s Bob Feller against the Chicago White Sox on April 16, 1940. 

 

**factoid courtesy of ‘Armchair Reader – Grand Slam Baseball’

My take – Truly an amazing accomplishment by one of the game’s greatest pitchers and personalities.  Feller’s record will stand for quite some time!!

Happy Birthday Nomar Garciaparra!!!

Nomar Garciaparra turns 36 years old today!!

I have been racking my brain for the last few days trying to remember a rookie that has impressed me as much as Nomar Garciaparra did during his rookie campaign in 1997.  And to be honest, if it wasn’t for Jerome Walton’s amazing year in 1989, I would say that Nomar’s rookie year is the most impressive one I have ever been witness to.

In the ’97 season, Nomar took the baseball world by storm.  He collected 209 hits while ending the year with a .306 average.  He belted 30 home runs, collected 98 RBI, and scored 122 times.  He was also able to amass 44 doubles, steal 22 bases, and amazingly show enough patience as a hot-hitting rookie to strike out just 92 times.  That season was certainly Nomar’s most highly decorated one too.  He was an American League All-star and he won the Silver Slugger award, finished in 8th place for the MVP, and was the league’s Rookie Of The Year award winner.

The sky was the limit for Nomar and over the next 6 seaons, he finished in the Top 7 for the MVP award five times. 

For his birthday, I would like to give Nomar one more chance in a Red Sox uniform.  I’d love to see a player with his spirit compete in the playoffs and battle against the league’s best teams.  Something tells me that he would do just fine!!!

Happy Birthday Nomar!!!

My Email To Peter Gammons

Jersey retirement has been on my mind constantly over the last two months.  I started to think about it quite often once the Cubs retired the #31 of Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux.  But my fascination with one of baseball’s greatest honors did not start there.  During the infancy stages of this blog I wrote an entry about why I think the Chicago Cubs should retire #17 which was worn by Mark Grace.  And during ‘Andre Dawson Day’, I blogged about his Expos jersey that had been retired and is now unfortunately meaningless.  Just this past week, the Atlanta Braves retired Greg Maddux’s jersey and the Oakland A’s are making plans to retire Rickey Henderson’s jersey in just a few short weeks.

So that has all led me up to this.  Last month Wade Boggs celebrated his birthday and the ‘gift’ he received from ’30-YOC’ was to finally get his jersey retired by the Boston Red Sox.  To be quite honest, I was shocked that this had not already occurred and it has been on my mind ever since.

I set out to get answers and below is my email to baseball’s ‘Answer Man’ Peter Gammons.  If I hear back from him, I will be sure to publish the results for you here.

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Have a burning baseball question? Ask Peter Gammons. ESPN’s baseball guru answers users’ questions through this mailbox. His answers are posted on his Web site and on other related ESPN.com pages. Use the form below to ask a question — keep it short and clean, and check back to see if it’s answered! Your question:

 Hi Peter- Can you provide any insight as to why the Red Sox have not retired Wade Boggs’ jersey? Thank you.