Happy Birthday Carlton Fisk!!!

Happy Birthday Carlton Fisk!!!

Carlton Fisk turns 66 years old today.

Carlton Fisk was an 11-time all star catcher that held together some of baseball’s most diverse pitching staffs for 24 major league seasons.  A 7-time candidate for baseball’s MVP award, Fisk was the centerpiece for both the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox for a quarter century.

With 376 career home runs and 1,330 RBI, Fisk was a solid contirbutor to his team’s offense.  Throughout his entire career, Fisk was used as a DH, infieleder, and outfielder just to kepe his potent bat in the line-up.

Happy Birthday Mr. Fisk!!!

Carlton Fisk 1982 Topps ‘In Action’

Carlton Fisk 1982 Topps ‘In Action’

If your buddy here at ’30-YOC’ could offer up awards for best image used on a baseball card, one of the nominees in that category would certainly be this card.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the 1982 Topps ‘In Action’ baseball card of Carlton Fisk:

 

WINNER!!!!

Carlton Fisk 1990 Donruss “Baseball’s Best”

Carlton Fisk 1990 Donruss “Baseball’s Best”

It’s always fun to get a baseball card that shows a player doing something that you may not think of when you recall the player from his time in the big leagues.

This card of Carlton Fisk from the 1990 Donruss ‘Baseball’s Best’ set is one of those cards.

The reason???   Well, just have a look:

 

Yep, that is Fisk sprinting around the base paths in his home White Sox uniform.  And while we don’t know if he is stealing a base or going from first to third on a single, he is definitely chugging along at a good rate.

And I have to say, he looks really slim and trim in this picture as well.

Go Get ‘Em Fiskie!!!

Carlton Fisk 1990 Donruss MVP – Bonus Card!

Carlton Fisk 1990 Donruss MVP – Bonus Card!

For as much as I like the thought of a baseball card subset that names and celebrates the MVP of each team, the execution of the product needs to be able to support the theme.

In the late 1980’s, Donruss started issuing these in-set subsets in the packs for their base set.  The design of the card was the same as the base design, but the background of the cards was changed and updated with an MVP printed graphic.

The end result?  Fair.  Some looked great, some looked fine, and some looked poor.

This is the Carlton Fisk card from the 1990 set.

 

For me, I like the cards and I love the theme.  I just wish that the card showed action images instead of posed portraits – show me one characteristic of what made this player the choice as the team’s MVP.

Carlton Fisk 1988 Score

Carlton Fisk 1988 Score

Without a doubt, the 1988 Score baseball card set is one of my favorite issues from the 1980’s.  The set boasts great color and great action.  And for a debut set, Score’s first release was a huge improvement over the 1981 Fleer and Donruss releases from earlier in the decade.

The set’s main graphic elements was the brightly colored borders and the Yellow stars that appear to the left of the player’s name.  That’s it – pretty plain and pretty simple.

But, sometimes, that is all you need.  And in the case of the 1988 Score baseball card set, it works!!

Here is the Carlton Fisk card from the set:

 

I like it.  The Gold border color coupled with the Yellow and White text and graphics look nice together.

Maybe I wish that Score chose a better image of Fisk for the card, but I am OK with this one.  But, I would like to be able to identify the park he was playing in.  The Grey road uniform tells me that he is on the road, but that’s as far as I am getting with this one…

Carlton Fisk 1990 Bowman

Carlton Fisk 1990 Bowman

Man, I am really having a ‘tough go’ with my Carlton Fisk collection as of late.

As I continue to chip away at my checklist in an effort to complete this set, I keep bringing in awful looking baseball cards.

Between the 1981 Donruss and 1982 Topps cards, I have had enough and am ready for a change.  I’m ready for a card to excite me.

Sadly, with the 1990 Bowman card, that is just not going to happen…

 

NEXT!

Carlton Fisk 1982 Topps – YUCK!!!

Carlton Fisk 1982 Topps

I’ll get through this one as quickly as I can.

Not only is the photographer that shot this picture way to close to the player, but he/she is either 4 feet tall or sitting on a chair.

What a horrible angle…

You’ve been warned!!!

 

NEXT.

 

Carlton Fisk 1981 Donruss – PASS!

Carlton Fisk 1981 Donruss

I’ll give Donruss a pass on this card since it is from their debut set and we really don’t know how much time they had to truly put it all together.

But, in general, cards like this just do nothing for me.  I am not a big fan of posed portraits on my baseball cards.  And I especially don’t care for them when there are probably hoards of images available with great action of the same player.  If it is a rookie card, I will take it as the available images may be limited.  And if it is a card showing off a new player in a new uniform, I am OK with that too.

Just not here…

 

Like I said earlier, I will give Donruss a pass on this one since it was from their inaugural 1981 set.

But, the card still gets a ‘Pass’ from me…

Carlton Fisk 1988 Topps

Carlton Fisk 1988 Topps

This is the second card of Carlton Fisk that I have featured in recent weeks that shows Fisk looking like he is in a fair amount of pain while swinging the bat.

In this one, it appears that he has fouled off a pitch based on the direction his head and body have turned.  And it looks like it hurts too.

Check it out:

 

As for the card, I really like the Green ‘White Sox’ banner that fills the top part of the card.  It is a nice complement to the Yellow and Green background of the old Comiskey Park.

And ‘Pudge’ looks pretty slim and trim in this one as well.

Carlton Fisk 1985 Topps ‘Record Breaker’

Carlton Fisk 1985 Topps ‘Record Breaker’

The 1985 Topps baseball card set was the first set that I put together as a kid.  My dad, a collector as a child as well, taught me how the set was constructed and gave me a few ideas on how to accomplish the goal of building the set.

As a 9-year old kid, I took the challenge very seriously.  And in the process, I learned quite a bit about the players in the set.

One of my favorite parts of the ’85 set was the Record Breakers.  And this may be why I have such an affinity for in-set subsets.  The ’85 Record Breakers are numbered to start the set.  And in that group is a pretty solid group of players – Pete Rose, Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Joe Morgan, Bruce Sutter, Steve Garvey, and more.

And oh yeah, this guy too – Carlton Fisk!!!

 

The card pays homage to Fisk catching the longest game by a catcher in major league history.  For the record, the game was 25 innings long, and Fisk caught the entire thing!!!  I’m not 100% certain that this record still holds up 30 years later, but my knees ache a bit just thinking about it….

A great card for my Fisk PC!!!