Posted in Baseball, Uncategorized

Morning reading: Schmidt recovering from cancer

Happy St. Patrick’s Day if you celebrate it, and happy Monday to everyone else.  By the end of this week, the 2014 Major League Baseball season will be officially underway.

Here are a few interesting articles that you might have missed:

Finally, going off-topic, Bleeding Cool’s Brendon Connelly interviewed Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas about his film that opened this weekend. (Warning – there are spoilers.) If you are a fan of the series, you owe it to yourself to see the film if you haven’t already.

You can follow Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff on Facebook or Google+, see my photos on Flickr and Instagram, and follow @Paul_Hadsall  on Twitter, where I talk about about a variety of things in addition to baseball.

Posted in Uncategorized

Mike Schmidt’s 2009 Topps baseball card

Mike Schmidt’s 2009 Topps baseball card

Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt turns 63 today. He was a 12-time All-Star and a 3-time National League MVP, and he hit 548 home runs during an 18-year major league career.

Forty-nine of those home runs came against Mets pitching – exactly the same number as a noted Met-killer who’s retiring this year. And I’m sure that Chipper Jones will be making his speech in Cooperstown in 2017.

I’m not sure when baseball card companies first started to include retired stars in contemporary sets. I know I’m in the minority, but I’d rather see a current bench player or relief pitcher get a baseball card. Still, it’s cool to see the old Phillies powder blue uniforms – it would have been even better if Topps had used the old Phillies logo instead of the current one on this short-printed card from the 2009 Topps set. I either found it in a pack or somebody’s quarter box at a baseball card show – I don’t remember which at this point.