Yes, today’s Monster Card Monday is one day late.  With my trip to Pittsburgh last weekend and other foreseen consequences, I had to delay MCM one day.  Never fear, it’s here. 

Harold Leroy “Hal” McKain of 1930 is this week’s Monster Card.  He fits the bill.  Though he’s only a DY, his hitting card makes Lou Gehrig blush.  He’s got power numbers of 2-2-2-6 plus four 7s.  Not only that APBA gave him four 14s. 

McKain deserved those 2s, by the way.  In 1930, he hit four triples in 31 at-bats for the White Sox. 

McKain didn’t amount to much of a pitcher at the big league level.  He won six games each in 1929-1931.  He did manage a 3.65 ERA in 1929. 

But those 2s! 

This week’s Monster Card is at the suggestion of Walt Taylor.  And it’s probably one whose turn is due!

The 1963 card for Richard Wallace “Dick” Hall is quite a barnburner.  Hall, who played for the Baltimore Orioles in ‘63 is rated as a D(B*)YZ pitcher (though he only had three starts for the year).  For our purposes, it’s Hall’s hitting card that turns heads.  For starters, he has double ones.  After that, he had an amazing *eight* sevens which puts his last nine at 45 (alas, no 14s for poor Dick Hall).

For the year, Hall hit .464 in 28 at-bats.  But here’s the interesting part:  in 1963, Dick Hall hit one double to go with his one homerun in 30 plate appearances.  For one reason or another, Dick Seitz didn’t see fit to give Hall any 6s to replicate his double even though the two ones might seem a bit high.  The card shown is from the Original 1963 set.  If anyone out there has the reprint, I’m curious if Hall’s card was “re-configured”.

For those wondering, Dick Hall broke into the majors in 1952 as an outfielder and even played some infield positions during his first few years in the bigs.  It wasn’t until 1955 did Hall see time on the mound. That probably explains why he wasn’t a stranger with the bat.  That said, his homerun in 1963 was his only one after 1955 and as a pitcher.

Thanks to Walt Taylor for the great suggestion!

This week in MCM, there’s a bit of twist. He’s a Monster in two different ways.  I’m talking about 1989 Mitch Williams of the Chicago Cubs.  With his hitting card you’re taking the good with the bad.

Reliever Williams sports five 1s on his card.  After that though, there are no more hit numbers on his card.  Further, he has a few 24s.  More 24s than any other numbers.  Combined.  If you bother to count them, there are 19 of them.  As a matter of fact, there are only six result numbers on his card that aren’t a 1, 13 or a 24 (25, 23, 36, 12, 36, and 35).

Looking at his 1989 hitting stats, they look pretty innocuous for such a wild card.  Essentially, it comes down to one homerun, one strikeout, and one double play in five at-bats.  A typical game for Jim Rice, right?

The 24 result is a hard one to analyze when it comes to APBA cards.  The 1 is easy.  This card for example, should hit five homeruns in 36 plate appearances.  But we all know that the same can’t be said for the 24.  Williams won’t hit into a double play 19 times out every 36 appearances.  There has to be a runner on an appropriate base.  Hence, the odd-looking card.

I’m a long-suffering Cub fan so I remember Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams quite well.  Two things that stick out in my memory about him.  One, I remember his unconventional delivery which seemed to land him on the ground every time.  And two, as a closer, he usually got the job done but not before walking the bases loaded (see his W ?), throwing me and most likely his manager into conniptions.

Nonetheless, he helped lead the Cubs to the playoffs in ‘89 leading the National League in appearances and coming in second with 36 saves.

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So here is the new updated APBA Baseball Card 12 List and Publication Data.  It’s in a pdf format.  Doug will update it when need be. 

What is the APBA 12 List?

For those who haven’t seen “12 list” before, here’s the quick description:  it’s quite simple… Doug Burg’s APBA Baseball Card 12 List and Publication Data lists every baseball season put out by APBA and includes pertinent data related to that card set.  This data includes:

• where the 12 is located on the card
• # of teams in the set
• # of cards per team (and # of XBs and # of XCs)
• year the set was published by APBA
• whether there are Master Game symbols for the set and if so, what year they were published
• plus other extra data

Since the 12 is placed at a different number every year, it is instrumental in the whole process since it works as an season identifier for older sets that don’t have a copyright year printed on the card. 

Looking at Al Kaline’s card for example, he has a 12 at 41.  The only set put out anywhere in the ‘50s with the 12 at 41 was the 1953 reprint card set.  Using that data, we can find more information about the card set it was from.  The set was published in 1985 and there were 20 cards per team in the regular set. 

Thanks again to Doug who maintains this.  It’s an invaluable resource. 

I like this Roy Campanella card.  This particular one comes from APBA’s 1953 reprint set which was published in 1985.  In addition to the power (1-1-5-6) and the all-around hitting (55-7), he’s got that nasty Catcher (9).  I think that’s what puts it over the top for me.  If that wasn’t enough, throw in the 15-10 and a decent on-base (four 14s) and you have a fantastic card. 

That year he broke the single season record for putouts by a catcher.  Offensively, he also broke the record for homeruns (41) and rbis (142) by a catcher in one season.

The writers liked Campy in 1953, too.  Enough to vote him NL MVP that year.  This was his second of three MVP awards he would get in his career. 

A couple of interesting stats about Campanella:  of the 10 years he played in the majors, he made the All-Star team in 8 of them.  He also received MVP votes in seven of them. 

Also, despite being a power hitter, Campy consistently walked more than he struck out.  For his career, he had a 533/501 walk to K ratio. 

Now for your viewing pleasure, a Roy Campanella homerun trot:

I’m excited about this week’s Monster Card Monday.  Not only is it the first one of 2012 (and we haven’t had one for two weeks) but it comes from the new 1966 card set I just bought. 

I focused my search for the MCM on the National League since I ‘m pretty sure that’s the league I’m going to do my replay.  It didn’t take too long to find him.  It was Ray Sadecki.  SF Giant Sadecki certainly wasn’t an All-Star pitcher in 1966 going 5-8 with a 4.80 ERA.  But he could hit. 

Sadecki hit .341 in 41 at-bats in 1966 with 7 rbis and 7 runs.  He hit a total of three homers with a double and a triple thrown in.  Those are great season stats but it was his hitting in the month of July that really brought those numbers up.  In July, he went 5 for 11 with two HR with the double and the triple.  Four of the seven rbis came in July, too.  Definitely a “hot” hitter. 

Sadecki’s card is pretty juicy.  His power numbers are 1-1-3-5 and he has a 7 on 15. That puts the last 9 on the 42.  Runners on pretty much any base any he has a what we call a “BTR” (Better Than Ruth) card. 

After looking at Ray Sadecki’s pitching stats, it occurred to me that I never realized how long he really played in the majors… and he didn’t do too badly on the mound. Ray pitched for 18 years in the bigs as a split starter (1960-1977), appearing in 563 games and starting 328. He came up a winner in the end with a 135-131 record. His ERA of 3.78 in 2500+ innings shows he got the job done. Yet, he played for six teams in those 18 years so he wasn’t much of a household name.

For his efforts, Ray Sadecki was inducted into the Polish Sports Hall of Fame, though. Below is an interview done during the induction process.

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And for those curious, he wasn’t a bad hitter for his career (.191) but he never really approached his 1966 numbers both in terms of average or power.

In honor of the new baseball disk being released, this week’s Monster Card Monday edition includes a “card” from the new set.

Baltimore starter Zach Britton’s 2012 APBA card will be pretty dang good but believe it or not, it must have been downgraded.  Take a look at his 2012 hitting stats.

He went 5 for 8?  With a homerun and a double?  Are we that sure this guy is a pitcher?  Well in high school, he WAS an all-state outfielder.  By the way, there’s a great story on mlb.com about Britton including a bit about how he overcame a serious head injury from hitting a concrete light fixture chasing a foul ball.  Seems to be a trooper, this Britton.

Rookie Britton’s 11-11 win-loss record with a 4.61 ERA was enough to get him for a C in the new set.  For our purposes though, his hitting card is pretty fun, too.  His 1-1-6-6 with four 7s are enough to make me wish the Illowa APBA League didn’t use the Pitcher’s Hitting Card for American League pitchers.

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Here is the result which I uploaded to YouTube…

The APBA Game Company got some flack some years ago when they decided to ship the cards separate from the envelopes.  I don’t find that such a big deal since I go through all the cards anyway.  This just gives me an excuse to do so.

More painful as you might see from the video, is the tedious task of tearing (ripping?) the XBs/XCs from their sheets.  Of course, that’s been the case all along.

No sooner had APBA Blog reader John Heneghan from Naperville had heard that I gotten the ‘66 set (btw, the irony of the number of the year I chose didn’t hit me until yesterday) did he issue a challenge:

“I read that you bought the 66′ season… now you’re getting into the Golden Age of Baseball. I challenge you to a replay the 66′ series !

When you make it back to Naperville in March, get in early and we can get in 4 to 7 games before you can blink.”

Challenge accepted, sir!

John is a friend of the Illowa APBA League who holds their conventions in Naperville often.  I’m sure we’ll find the time to get this series in.

I had a few moments of down time last night so I took a look at my 2012 Illowa team, the Twin City Thunderchickens.  Ugh, Tyler Colvin has a horrendous card.

Don’t get me wrong, he should.  He batted .150 for the year.  But it’s beyond me how the Cubs put up with him for 206 at-bats even in this pitching strong year.

Not only did APBA put a 25-40 on his card but Colvin is so bad that they moved the error number to 15.  Yes, he has a 53-13 ala most pitchers and has a 15-17.  THAT will take some getting used to.  My hope is that my team won’t have to play  Colvin’s card enough to get used to him.

In other news, my 1966 baseball set came from APBA last week!!  It’s so busy with holidays and stuff I haven’t even opened the box.  This afternoon I plan to spend some quality time looking over the teams.  No doubt, I’ll have the laptop handy so I can reference stats.

1966 is bordering on an era of baseball which I am probably least familiar (mid-fifties to mid-sixties).  I guess that’s part of the reason I opted for that set.

Well, that and Ron Santo had a fantastic year.  :)

This last post is filled with miscellaneous mishmash.  It was actually one of the more fun ones to do.  You’ll see what I mean.

Let’s start with something simple.  Who was rated as the fastest players in 2011 by APBA?

…and conversely, who was slowest?

It seems we always find Yadier Molina at the top of this list.

Anomalies are always fun.    Were there any slow players who still had a first column 11 on their card?  Well, there were two:

Which hitters had the most homeruns without getting a first column 1?  Melky Cabrera and Brandon Phillips just missed the cut.  They both had 18.

Let’s look at hit numbers and batting average.  Who had the highest batting average without getting a 44-7 or better?

Now granted, I think most of these benefitted from at least one speed number at 15.

But what about this list?  These players had the highest batting average with a 7 or better at 44.

Giambi’s .260 average might be hard to recreate with his 44-0.  Rest assured, APBA only gave him two 8s.

These next players will enjoy the 66.  Who had the most 1s in the second column?  Kyle Phillips has a whopping 29.

Most of these players have their second column 1s behind just 0.  Not Ryan Langerhans.  He’s got two.

These next players are ones you may not get too excited if you get into the extras.  They have the most second column singles.

Finally, I thought I’d see what lies at 53.  I filtered out the usual numbers (15-21) plus 13 since so many pitchers strike out at that result.  This is what was left.

Parrino has a good number of walks, five.  And no error number.  I still think that was unusual. Perhaps it was an error.

Hope you enjoyed the 2011 By the Numbers series.  I had fun writing it up.  Again, here are the posts if you want to read them all.