Ron Kittle - Another random card found in my old closet

Rummaging through my old closet, I found this gem from the 1989 Topps Traded Series. Ron Kittle, the 1983 Rookie of the Year, had three tours with the White Sox. One with the horrible SOX across the chest uniforms and the last one with the traditional pinstripe Sox uniform.

This card has him with the totally forgettable cursive C hat after his brief turns with the Yankees and Indians.

I have yet to meet a White Sox fan my age who doesn't LOVE Ron Kittle. The main reason I included Kittle in my Home Grown vs. Acquired White Sox entry was his special place in the hearts of Sox fans. It could be that he helped homer the Sox to the unexpected 1983 West title as a rookie. It could be that he was a humble midwesterner playing for a midwestern team. The fact that he wore glasses made him seem less like an athlete and more like a regular guy who could hit one out. It could be that he was one of those old fashioned right handed sluggers who was swinging from his heels, struck out a lot but could launch it when he got a hold of one.

Whatever the reason, mention his name to a White Sox fan my age and watch for the inevitable big smile.

We should also think about players like Ron Kittle as this Hall of Fame vote will be announced. No, I am not saying the Kitty Man belongs in Cooperstown. But let's take a name that is on the ballot. Just a random name... Oh let's say MARK McGWIRE.

Like Kittle, McGwire exploded onto the scene as Rookie of the Year and helped slug his team to the post season (McGwire did it in his second year.). And McGwire also hit a ton of homers and struck out a lot. By the time Kittle was 28 years old, injuries began to catch up with him. Same with McGwire.

The injuries eventually were too much to overcome and Kittle played his last big league games on August 13th when he played both ends of a double header. He homered off of Mike Henneman that day.

When McGwire was in HIS early 30s, he recovered from his injuries and suddenly became the greatest power hitter of all time and in the Hall of Fame discussion.

Kittle never made a million dollars a season.
McGwire made $11 million his final season alone and earned over $70 million in his career.

Can you imagine if Ron Kittle had injected Lord knows what into his body? If his body were able to recover from his injuries... if his line drives went a little further... if his 20 home run seasons became 30 home run seasons... if he piled up homers into his 30s...

Maybe people would have brought HIS name up in a Hall of Fame discussion. Maybe he could have been cashing $10 million checks.

But then again, nobody looks at HIS stats with suspicion. Memories of HIS home runs are positive.

Nobody questions the validity of his 7 homers that reached the roof top of old Comiskey Park.

Ron now does motivational speaking and now does something super cool.

He makes benches.

I am not kidding, these are cool.

The seats? Made of bases.

The backs? Made with bats connected by baseballs.


And you can design the benches to have which ever team and which ever players you would want to honor.

You can have the benches shipped to you... or if you live close enough, Ron Kittle will deliver it

How unbelievably awesome is that? Having Kittle show up with the new bench!

And no doubt he would be HAPPY to talk about the past.


So I salute you Ron Kittle.
You showed us all terrific home run power and you did it right.

No wonder Kittle will always be loved in the South Side of Chicago.

Sully Baseball Honors THE 1982 FLEER SERIES OF BASEBALL CARDS

Ahh... Expos infielder Brad Mills sitting on his butt, blowing bubbles.

It MUST be a Fleer Card from the early 1980s!

These are the 1982 Fleer cards... and how I had some in my mom and dad's garage I have no idea.
I have recollection of adding them to my collection.

But there's something odd with this series..
Yes they have that same homemade quality that the 83 Fleer series had that Scott Mortimer obsesses over and I wrote about.

But there is something even stranger.






















Look at this shot of Bruce Hurst.
It seems so distant... like it is really zoomed in.










































And look at these of Jerry Remy and Carney Lansford.
Not crisp at all.

Kind of fuzzy and hastily framed.
It's almost as if they didn't have permission to be on the field and just snapped the first picture and ran off before they were caught.

Or maybe... just maybe Fleer didn't hire professional photographers.
Maybe they hired private investigators or surveillance men.

Think I am exaggerating?





















Check out this one of Astros reliever Joe Sambito!
It's bad enough that the photo is of him leaning against the railing at Dodger Stadium talking to a kid...
But it looks like he spotted the camera man.

You can almost hear him saying "He spotted me! I got to get out of here!"

I'm sure picking which pictures to use must have been a painful job.

The editor must have been screaming "Every picture is 500 yards away! Didn't any of you take a close up picture of a ball player?"

"I did sir! It's of Red Sox pitcher Bill Campbell."

"Let me see it."






















It's out of focus.
What a surprise!


Ah Fleer!
Thy name is quality.

Sully Baseball Honors RACIALLY NEUTRAL CARTOONS

In some of the Topps series, including the 1980 cards, they would include a cartoon for some of the facts on the back of the card.


Check out the back of Cliff Johnson's card.

Not only did the cartoonist make NO attempt to make the players look like the actual person...



But every single player...










... was turned into a generic white guy.

I guess that is a form of racial equality.

"I don't think of players as black or white or Hispanic. To me they are all Kyle MacLachlan."

Sully Baseball Honors THE HORRIFIC WHITE SOX UNIFORMS OF THE MID 1980s

Man these were horrific.
I would argue they were the ugliest uniforms of all time.

I know some of you will disagree.

Some will say they weren't even the worst White Sox uniforms ever.

Some will bring up the Bermuda Shorts they wore in 1976.





Others will say "What about the lapels?"
And yes, they did have big collars like the one Ralph Garr has in this 3D card.



















But take a look at these duds (both meanings.)
And soak it in.




The SOX across the chest on a top that looks like pajamas.

The white front of the cap that makes it look like one of those cheap hats you'd get at a pizza parlor.

THE NUMBER ON THE LEG!!!








And the batting helmet was a solid blue with the ugly SOX across it.

No uniform screamed out "Short Season Single A Ball!" more.











The worst thing about these unis?
Some great players best known with other teams played in these threads that Gil Gerard would reject on Buck Rogers.






Tom Seaver?

Thanks obscure "Compensation Draft!"


















Carlton Fisk?

Thanks incompetent Red Sox front office who forgot to mail Fisk his contract!
















Steve Carlton?

Well he didn't know when to hang them up.












So while most teams have taken the route of classic looking uniforms, the Staff at Sully Baseball had to tip our hats to a uniform so ugly that they overshadow SHORTS!

Sully Baseball Honors UNUSUAL TEAM PICTURE CARDS

The Team Picture Checklist Card didn't suck as much as the regular Checklist Card but it was never good to get more than one in a pack.

But some teams managed to throw some variety into the dull team picture. Here are some of the better ones I found in my parents garage.


1978 Topps, Oakland A's

There was an impressive amount of organization for this picture. Usually the team shows up in uniform and they line up. But the A's had to make sure the guys who were supposed to wear the yellow uniforms didn't wear a green uniform by mistake.














1979 Topps, Chicago Cubs

The Cubs went with the radical "floating head" team picture.
I assume this was a huge pain-in-the-ass pre-Photoshop process creating this picture.
Either that or there was a giant Green room where the Cubs players stuck their heads through a hole like Whack A Mole.







The Giants of the late 1970s and early 1980s liked to mix it up and change their team picture looks.




1978 Topps, San Francisco Giants

Here the Giants rode a Trolley into left field at Candlestick Park.
This is misleading because it implies that there was any form of reliable public transportation going to the 'Stick.

A trolley like this would be good if you were trying to get from North Point to Market as slowly as possible and being squished next to tourists.

(Note the Marlboro sign clearly displayed on a baseball card... again, different times.)















1979 Topps, San Francisco Giants

The Giants ditched the trolley and decided not to take their picture by the left field wall the next year.
Here's the problem... I don't know where the hell this picture was taken.

Candlestick didn't have that green wall if I remember correctly.
Maybe it's the Spring Training complex.

Maybe they were in San Diego and the traveling secretary said "Oh shoot! Did we take a team picture?"
The picture itself looks a little disorganized. Some are standing. Some sitting on what looks like a trunk.
#39 Bob Knepper looks like he is leaning back on a bunch of other players.

Maybe it is a trust exercise.














1980 Topps, San Francisco Giants

Back to the left field wall at the 'Stick.
No trolley this time but the coaches get to wear the cool orange shirts and guys in the front row get bats.

The Giants label now covers up the Marlboro sign.
Maybe someone complained.

















1981 Topps, San Francisco Giants

My personal favorite.
No kneeling. No sitting. Everyone stand up and look up.

I'm guessing the photographer said "OK, now everyone look up like you are seeing the mother ship in Close Encounters!"

















1980 Topps, San Diego Padres

This one is the coolest.
The brown and yellow Taco Bell uniforms would make any team picture unsightly.

But this one was taken when the Padres were at the Zoo!

I never knew baseball teams went on field trips!
I hope they all remembered to bring their permission slips.

Sully Baseball Honors THE CHECKLIST CARD

Ahhh the Checklist Card.
The card every single baseball card collector hated to get.

Seriously, were they taunting us?
"Hey Kids! Here's a list of a bunch of cards that are all cooler than a Checklist Card."

Greg Matthews... yup would rather have a Greg Matthews card than a Checklist Card
Chuck Tanner... yup him too.

I guess it is to create a new generation of obsessive list writers (in my case, Mission Accomplished.)





But check out this on from the 1988 Topps series.
The Checklist Card itself is #253.
And right there on the back as you are checking off card you have...








... 253 THE CHECKLIST CARD!

You can check you have the Checklist Card on the back of the Checklist Card.

"Hmmm... 253. Let me see if I have it! Oh yes! I'm HOLDING IT!"

They WERE mocking us!
DAMN YOU TOPPS BASEBALL CARD COMPANY!!!

Sully Baseball Presents... BASEBALL CARDS I FOUND IN MY PARENTS GARAGE!

I was in the Bay Area for Christmas and I started going through my parents garage to find my old baseball card collection.
It was like going into the warehouse at the end of Raiders.

Well I found some gems, maybe not the Lost Ark but some cool ones.

And get ready... I have found some stuff to write about.

The 83 Fleer Project Guy is as crazy as I am! How awesome is the internet?

Let me direct my dear readers to something wonderful I stumbled upon on the internet.
A guy who is as obsessive and thorough as I am.

I thought my Best Home Grown versus Acquired team was intense.
The creator of the 83 Fleer Project (whose name I can not find) is trying to get every single card of the 1983 Fleer set autographed.

He has 433 out of 674 signed.
And keeps an amazing blog of his progress.

Let's hope he completes it.
(Has anyone seen Luis Aponte? He's on his "need to get" list.)


There was something brilliant about the 1983 Fleer series.

I had always collected Topps cards.
They tended to be the only cards sold at Richardson's Drug Store in Weston Massachusetts.

But the other drug store across the street, the Weston Drug Store, started selling Fleer Cards in 1983.
And for reasons not 100% known to me, I decided to buy Fleer that year.

A couple of things hit me about the Fleer cards:

1. They listed minor league stats no matter how many years in the bigs a player has played. Topps stopped listing minor league stats after 4 seasons.

2. The graphic layout was sparse. No fancy pennants or cursive writing. Just a gray border, the logo and what looks to me like Helvetica Font.

And most wonderfully

3. The pictures seemed like amateur hour. Almost none of them were action photos or those strange staged pitching shots that Topps would use. They were almost always with players in their batting practice jerseys with the stadium empty. They felt homemade and maybe for one season that was the appeal.

Scrolling through the site I realized how many of these cards I had... and how so many of the pictures not only failed to capture the glamour of the Topps cards but would probably be rejected by a high school year book editor.

Let's look at some of the best ones!



What great composition!
The photographer must have come up to Reds pitcher Mario Soto and say "Nothing captures the excitement of the game for a young child quite like leaning against a trunk that is kept in the locker room!"












This one of Jim Kaat was one of the first 1983 Fleer cards I remember.
How rushed was this photographer? He couldn't even wait for Jim Kaat to finish his interview with ESPN?

How long was Kaat's answer to make the photographer say "Oh F this! I've got places to go!" CLICK!!?












Here we see White Sox infielder Vance Law checking his glasses.
Exactly how dull was the contact sheet of pictures that made the editor pick this one?

"Well we have Vance Law checking glasses, brushing his teeth and taking a nap."
"Better go with the glasses. But next time get him reading the newspaper!"











EXCITING GETTING DRESSED ACTION with Dodger Superstar Steve Garvey!

Seriously, couldn't you wait for him to... I don't know... get OUTSIDE?
Ahhh the magic of Fleer!











At first glance this shot of Rick Honeycutt looks like another interview.
But look... it's Honeycutt holding the mike.
And look at how happy he looks. He's in mid sentence... or is it MID SONG?

I am convinced he is participating in Texas Rangers Karaoke!
And seeing these pictures were taken during the 1982 season, I will guess he's singing a catchy poppy tune.
My money is on Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough."




OK, Hall of Fame bound pitcher Gaylord Perry was 44 heading into the 1983 season.
He was already an old baseball man.

But was it completely necessary to get him slumped in a chair with an expression that reads "Oh my hip!"

Seriously, is this a baseball card or the poster for Gran Torino?









Here's Rangers Johnny Grubb doing a pitch for something that looks like Rangers Ale.

I'm assuming that is a soft drink... although there is something wonderful about the concept of Johnny Grubb getting 'faced during a game.

Either way, it's a good message for the kids!








At first glance, it looks like Red Sox pitcher Chuck Rainey is grabbing his balls in this picture.
Same with the second glance.

Then on close inspection... yup still looks like he's itching his nuts.

If you look really closely he is holding a ball... which he is rubbing on his crotch.




I don't know what is more disturbing:
1) That this was the most appropriate picture to use in a baseball card.

or

2) I spent so much time looking at Chuck Rainey's crotch.




Good luck 83 Fleer Project!
It's this type of obsessiveness that the staff at Sully Baseball will always salute!