1957 Parkhurst hockey card of Frank Mahovlich, a center (or “centre” if you’re Canadian) for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mahovlich is a hall of famer who played for both Canadian original six teams, the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, helping win Stanley Cups in both cities. “The Big M” played on a total of 6 Cup-winning teams, and, at the end of his career, played in the WHA with the Birmingham Bulls, playing on a line that included Dave Hanson, one of the Hanson Brothers from the movie Slap Shot.
Top: Dez Bryant (left), Nate Allen.
Bottom: Jason Pierre-Paul.
The NFC East figures to be one of pro football’s most competitive divisions in 2010. Donovan McNabb going from the Eagles to the Redskins will only enhance that competition. So which rookies will have an impact on altering the balance of power in what should be a hotly contested division race? Easily the most hyped rookie in the division has been Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys, and the talented wide receiver from Oklahoma State will make Dallas’ receiving corps better. However, since the Cowboys already have a strong corps of wideouts and a top notch tight end, I doubt that Bryant will have as much impact as other rookies in the division. For instance, the Washington Redskins’ top draft pick, offensive tackle Trent Williams, is being penciled in to start at the all-important left tackle spot, where he will be responsible for protecting McNabb’s blind side. That’s a big responsibility for a rookie, but Williams is being touted as one of those players who you plug in at that spot and not worry about for the next 10 years or so. Williams will have a big impact, positive or negative, on the fate of the ‘Skins season. Another rookie being thrust into the limelight is Eagles’ safety Nate Allen. Allen was forced into the starting lineup due to injuries and will be on the field on opening day. The Eagles finished 26th in the league in pass defense last season, giving up 26 touchdown passes, so the defensive secondary will be under scrutiny this year. In New York, the feel-good story of training camp has been the emergence of home-town unheralded receiver Victor Cruz, who probably made the Giants’ roster with a tremendous showing in a Monday night preseason game with the Jets that opened the NY teams’ new stadium. But the Giants’ problem last year was defense. They completely caved in at the end of the year, giving up over 40 points per game in 3 of their last 4 contests, and brought in Perry Fewell from Buffalo as the new defensive coordinator. The Giants had hoped rookie DB Chad Allen would help shore up their secondary but he was involved in a car accident that could be career-threatening. New York went for defense in the early rounds of the draft, and with the way the team played last season, defensive linemen Jason Pierre-Paul, a quick defensive end being counted on to help the pass rush, and Linval Joseph, a stud tackle, should get extensive playing time and become huge factors in determining whether the season goes north or south. Also, 4th round pick Phillip Dillard is expected to eventually replace the departed Antonio Pierce at linebacker.
Logo of the American Basketball Association’s Baltimore Claws, who came into existence in the 1975-76 season, but only managed to play 3 exhibition games before folding. The franchise had originally been the New Orleans Buccaneers, moved to Memphis where they played under 3 different team names – the Pros, the Tams and the Sounds, before going bankrupt and making the ill-fated move to Baltimore, where they never made it to the regular season.
Football card of former Denver Broncos’ split end Lionel Taylor. Taylor was one of the top receivers in the 10 year history of the American Football League, and many feel he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He led the league in receptions in the league’s first 6 years, and in 1961 became the first player with 100 catches in a season. Taylor had a long outstanding assistant coaching career after his playing days ended, and was briefly a head coach in NFL Europe with the London Monarchs. When Tony Dungy became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl, he paid tribute to all the others who had paved the way for him but never got their opportunity, mentioning Lionel Taylor by name.
Bobby Thomson passed away at the age of 86 on August 17th. Thomson was a 3 time all-star early in his career with the New York Giants, but for the most part was a journeyman outfielder who kicked around the major leagues from 1946 until 1960, playing with 5 different teams. On the last day of the 1951 season however, in the rubber game of a 3 game playoff series with the Giants’ National League rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, Thomson went down in baseball history, hitting a game-winning three-run home run. The circumstances surrounding the home run were amazing. The baseball world in those years revolved around the New York teams, the Giants had been favored to win the NL pennant but started out badly, then overcame a 13 1/2 game deficit to catch the Dodgers and force the playoff. The term “walk off home run” didn’t exist in those days, but today Thomson’s shot off of the Dodgers’ Ralph Branca is considered the most memorable “walk off” homer in baseball history. It was named the #1 Most Memorable Baseball Moment on FoxSports’ “Best Damn” series.
In the 1990s, over forty years after his famous home run, Thomson received a letter from an ex-Marine who had been stationed in Korea in 1951: “I was in a bunker in the front line with my buddy listening to the radio. It was contrary to orders, but he was a Giants fanatic. He never made it home and I promised him if I ever got back I’d write and tell you about the happiest moment of his life. It’s taken me this long to put my feelings into words. On behalf of my buddy, thanks Bobby.” That was the kind of impact that baseball, truly the national pastime in those days, had on the general public, and helps explain why the moment is considered so unforgettable. Click on the link below to watch the video of Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” from the Best Damn series.
One of the more unusual logos of a minor league baseball team is that of the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League. Formerly known as the Las Vegas Stars, the franchise was renamed in 2001 after the Area 51 military base located north of Vegas that is rumored to house alien corpses and technology. At the time of the name change, the 51s were a AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and began wearing Dodger blue caps with their grey alien head logo on them. The caps were heavily criticized by other PCL teams and fans, but has been one of the highest selling caps in the minor leagues. Today, they are affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays.
1975 Topps basketball card of one of the NBA’s legendary “small” guards, Calvin Murphy. Murphy played for the San Diego/ Houston Rockets from 1971 until 1983, and was once a member of the Rockets’ broadcast team. He was also a world class baton twirler, and while playing in college at Niagara University, occasionally twirled baton with the marching bands at halftime of the Buffalo Bills’ football games. Murphy was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
A lot of youth baseball leagues across the U.S. today have become pretty sophisticated, with high-end facilities that offer players within the league the use of pitching machines, batting cages, sliding pits and all kinds of other training aides. This is a good thing, if a community can afford it, and if the league officers who run the program allow all players of all age levels to use the facilities, rather than have them used exclusively to hone the skills of their all-star tournament team players, while the kids who need the extra practice the most are shut out. In my opinion, baseball is a simple game that requires working on improving fundamental skills through repetition, and this can be accomplished in simple ways without a lot of expensive equipment. Throwing and catching skills can be improved with a lot of games of catch with dad (or mom if she is so inclined), or, if another person isn’t available, with your glove, a rubber ball and a concrete porch or wall. Most kids of my generation would ride around the neighborhood with their baseball glove on the handlebars of their bicycle, looking for a friendly pick-up game, and on days when there just weren’t enough other players around, spend hours bouncing that rubber ball off the porch or local school wall, giving their throwing arm a great workout and improving their fielding skills by scooping up that ball every time it bounced off the concrete. Of course you knew how to bounce that ball off the wall just right to produce popups, line drives or hard grounders, depending on what you needed the most practice on. Improving hitting skills is another story. These days there are batting cages available somewhere in almost every community, and it’s not uncommon for parents to take their kids there and spend an afternoon hitting some balls, without costing a fortune. It can be an enjoyable day for the family, especially if the kids can coax mom and/or dad into the cage and get a good laugh at their old rusty gate swing. One of the best youth hitting aides around these days, however, is the “batting stick”, which requires 2 people, in most cases a parent or coach, and is a terrific tool to improve hitting skills by honing a player’s hand – eye coordination. It forces the young hitter to “keep his eye on the ball” which is the ultimate hitting fundamental. A picture of this training tool can be seen below. The batting stick is recommended for ages 14 and up, but I’ve seen it used safely by players as young as 7 or 8 when supervised by a coach or parent. One thing parents should realize is that very few kids have the skills to become major league baseball players and forcing a kid to over-practice or train because you want them to be great, when the child has little or no interest, is just a bad idea. If you have one of those kids, however, that you have to extract off the diamond with a pry bar every day after he/she has spent the entire day there, who lives and breathes baseball and can’t get enough of it, and would like to provide with training tools to help enhance their practice experience, a great website to check out for ideas is http://SKLZ.com which is where the Target Two-Man Batting Stick pictured below can be found, along with some other terrific training aides.
Logo of the World Hockey Association’s Minnesota Fighting Saints, in their reincarnated version in the league. The story goes like this – the original Fighting Saints, using this exact logo but in gold and blue colors, were a charter member of the league, competing from 1972 until February of 1976 when they ceased operations because of financial struggles before the season ended. Then the following season, the Cleveland Crusaders WHA franchise moved to Minnesota, became the Fighting Saints again, and used the logo above with the red and gold color scheme. Unfortunately, they also folded before even completing the 1977 season. A couple of notable former Fighting Saints are Dave Keon and Paul Holmgren. Also, in the 1974 WHA playoffs, the Saints employed a guy named Goldie Goldthorpe, who had no points and 25 penalty minutes in 3 games. The 1977 movie Slap Shot, starring Paul Newman, featured a wild player named Ogie Oglethorpe, based on Goldthorpe.
“Juuuuuust a bit outside”. That was the famous line by Bob Uecker in the classic baseball comedy Major League. This is Uecker’s 1963 Topps baseball card. At the time he was Joe Torre’s backup catcher with the Milwaukee Braves. Uecker’s major league career was a little better than he joked about after it ended, but he was a career backup. He was generally regarded as a decent defensive catcher, but in 1967, his final season, he led the National League in passed balls, despite playing only 59 games, and rode that one horrible season into a career as a comedian and actor. He used to appear regularly on The Tonight Show and Johnny Carson dubbed him “Mr. Baseball”. He is now a Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster and played the Cleveland Indians’ broadcaster in the movie mentioned above.