Tony, the Killer, and Carew

The TwinsCards.com community has been thrown for a loop. Thanks to the very keen eye of one of our readers and the additional contribution from one of the largest Puckett collectors around, we have unearthed two very odd Puckett specimens. In both of these cards, Puckett is wearing the uniform #32 instead of his usual #34.

The first card is 2003 Topps Tribute All-Star Edition Tribute Relics Card, #TR-KP. According to our premier Puckett collector, Ken Hondl, the 2003 Topps Tribute has #32 on all issues, regular, gold and jersey cards. The second card we found is a 1994 Upper Deck Fun-Pack, #206.

So far, we have found nothing to indicate why Puckett would be wearing #32 instead of #34. But here is what we do know. I’m not 100% sure on the uniform, but I believe the uniform Puckett is sporting was used between 1987-1996. What I am sure of is that during Puckett’s career, the following players wore #32: John Butcher wore #32 from 1984-1986; Neal Heaton wore it in 1986; Dan Gladden had it from 1987 -1991; Dave Winfield wore it from 1993-1994 andLaTroy Hawkins from 1995-2003 .
Can anyone help us out here? Do you remember if there was ever anything said about why the Puck wore these uniforms? Are we over-complicating things and it’s a simple case of Kirby grabbing the wrong uniform when the photographer was there? Please leave your ideas in the comments and hopefully, the collective will be able to solve the great Puckett uniform mystery.

Why I like this photo: Here’s a photo from 1962 when Tony was playing for Charlotte in the South Atlantic League (SALLY). Before joining the Twins late in the year, Tony hit a whopping .350/17/93 in 127 games for the Hornets. Although I have no proof to the contrary, I am certain that this photo was taken during a solar eclipse on June 14, 1962 prior to a game against Nashville.

Random Tony Oliva Stat: Even though Twins fan believe Tony should be in the Hall of Fame, his career certainly didn’t start out on a great note. Tony struck out in his very first at-bat with the Twins. He replaced pitcher Frank Sullivan and was struck out by Bob Humphreys for the second out of the ninth inning. Earlier in the inning, Bernie Allen homered to cut the Tiger lead to 10-9, before Humphrey retired three straight for the save. Despite his auspicious start, Tony hit a blistering .444 in 9 games. Perhaps it was the game on September 14, 1962 that hinted at what Twins fan would see for the next 15 years. In that game, Tony went 2-3, 2 Runs, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 1 2B. On the flip side, he was picked off first base by Indian catcher Johnny Romano.

I was fatigued with the Johan Santana trade talks back in November, but after seeing the package that the Twins will reportedly get from the Mets, I kind of wish we could go back to the Red Sox/Yankees talk again.

That said, this is a history blog, so here is the question of the day. Where does Johan Santana stand in Twins history? Assuming he never pitches for the Twins again, where does he rank among Twins pitchers historically?

 
Meanwhile, here is walk down memory lane.

Editor’s Note: This entry is courtesy of TwinsCards.com contributor and autograph collector extraordinare, Twinkie. He spent some time at TwinsFest and files this report from inside the HomerDome.

Since the early 90s, the Twins have held a winter celebration — TwinsFest — usually tied around their Winter Caravan tours of the Upper Midwest and often corresponding with the annual writer’s awards banquet. It’s often a good time for the players and management to touch base — albeit in the often cold confines of Minnesota. The Twins pay for a coach ticket, room and expenses and many players bring their spouses. It sparks interest in baseball with spring training on the horizon. The ultimate Hot Stove experience.

It tends to be very well attended by current players, some select minor league guys, and often a few souls who may never make it out of spring training (last year Randy Choate and Ken Harvey, the prior year C.J. Nitkowski). A few local veterans (Leius, Laudner, Goltz, Stigman, Becquer) usually show up for the fun of it and sometimes the Twins bring in bodies from years past (one season the duo of Bombo Rivera and Hosken Powell were in attendance). But it’s the stars of the current roster that sell the tickets and draw the fans.

First, a word about tickets. It’s really is a free event. You buy your tickets for $8 ($12 at the door) and you can — during the course of the weekend — switch them out for game tickets (nope, not opening day or those popular games against the Yankees, Red Sox or Brewers). Except for the expense of parking (some park for free at the Mall of America so other family members can shop and such, then take the light rail to the stadium and back for a modest fee), it an inexpensive fun time for family — if you don’t want autographs.

People line up hours before the event. Why? To get in that line for Mauer and Morneau (Santana or Hunter in the past) when the doors open at 5:30 p.m.. This is just about the time the sun sets and the cold concrete creeps up through the feet into the heavily garbed bodies, often supplemented by large mounds of paper photos, cards and other collectibles. This year the Mauer/Morneau line was limited to the first 300. It was the in-shape fans that got to the head of the line. The event can get expensive if you like autographs. The fives and tens fly out of your hands every hour as you line-up for signatures. These are more so for the “big guns”, although all monies go to the Twins Community Fund. The fund does quite a bit in the State of Minnesota, which is well-documented on the Twins website.

My spouse, Risa, and I delayed out trip to the Metrodome for the Friday opening, eating a leisurely box supper while waiting for tickets to go on sale at 5:30 and waited only 10 minutes before scoring tickets for opening day on-line. Last year the initial wait at the dome was too long, and nose bleed seats for opening day were all that were left. With that success out-of-the-way, we popped in the car wearing our Twins garb and went to TwinsFest 2008.

My wife is a Twins fan and she blogs (I can contribute, I guess) at “Curlz and Curveballs“. But one of her better qualities is that she likes to buy tickets…I just have to come along and enjoy. She finds excitement at TwinsFest with the crowd, listening to the radio booth interviews with players, watching the youngsters play the variety of games from whiffle-ball to jumping on the blow-up TC Bear, enjoying the kid questions of players, drooling over auction items, or just soaking up the baseball atmosphere. Unfortunately, there was no GameDay booth, which was kinda the meeting place for some bloggers in the past…so she and I failed to hook up with other bloggers that we knew were in attendance…(kept looking for the red-hatted SethSpeaks guy).

The floor is full of dealers selling baseball collectibles. Al Newman had his own booth promoting an advertising idea he had. Bob Feller was on hand signing baseballs. Chuck Foreman was around (hey, it’s a baseball show, Chuck). You could try to drop a ball in a Dodge Truck from the upper deck, take a clubhouse tour, watch promotional videos, sing the national anthem, view a gorgeous model of the new stadium, see examples of the numerous Minnesota Twins uniform designs, and buy grab bags or T-shirts from Twins wives.

Twinkie was there for the autographs. A handful of minor league prospects signed for free in the “down on the farm” area. The Twins minor league booth was selling mini-posters of prospects that you could get signed, or there was a lame piece of minor league logo stationary, if you didn’t have cards. I pulled out cards or images for all the guys…when I got home I discovered I had the majority of the cards already in a signed state from my summer correspondence, but it was a pleasant experience to introduce myself to the guys, mention TwinsCards, and then head to the spending areas.

There were two other signing areas on the main floor, usually $5 or $10 for 4-5 players signing. Up in the concourse area you could find the M&M boys, Cuddyer, Delmon, Hrbek, Blyleven, Carew or Oliva signing for $15-25. Gardy wasn’t there on Friday (bowling) and Nathan was pretty much alone…he’s such a good signer during the year for fans in the stands. Killebrew always has a line.

It’s all pretty organized. Although the Twins frown on picture taking or multiple autographs, most players don’t care as long as things move smoothly. I found the new guys — Harris, Lamb, Young, Monroe all very personable and friendly. I think they felt the love of baseball from the Minnesotan fan base.

The star of Twinsfest, though, was Francisco Liriano. Fans started lining up right away for his signing and by the time he came out before 8 p.m., he could have signed until the midnight hour. This fan skipped that love-fest (and the people signing with him) and after a couple of trips up-and-down the many Metrodome steps, called it a night. It was a comfortable crowd and if it wasn’t so cold, I would have brought along my daughter who would’ve enjoyed the sounds of the event.

I tend to avoid Saturday. This year I heard it was extremely busy in the morning hours, thinning out pretty fast as the afternoon wore on. Francisco Liriano was sent back to the hotel because he was feeling a bit under-the-weather. Hey, Minnesota in January can be an experience for those who spent most of the last year in Florida.

Risa and I returned on Sunday and we went to the “Tell A Story” Fox 29 booth. They were filming stories to maybe run (with some reworking) during Twins games this season. We told the story of how two years ago I tried to link-up with Risa after we talked for a bit on one of the numerous “match” sites, but she wasn’t ready to meet then. But we did get together before the season started and spent many a Twins game in each other’s company. I proposed to her via the JumboTron on September 8th, despite the best efforts of a hot dog vendor to keep the camera guy away. I remember nothing of Garza’s early game performance that night, she remembers nothing of the Twins comeback and Neshek’s (he’s our pitcher) victory. We tied the knot last June, and now are a Twins couple (do I hear that insipid e-Harmony music in the background).

I pretty much hit everyone for autographs on Friday, but still went back into some lines…no Coomer…no Punto. Delmon Young, who had such a good time the previous two days, came back on Sunday and met more fans, even though he was under-the-weather too (what are these guys going to do come April 2010 when there’s snow on the ground in the stadium!). People started lining up for Liriano again, four hours before his signing, only to be told shortly before the scheduled time that he wouldn’t make it.

Unless you make arrangements before hand, you just can’t find folks. I did, though, run into Roger Lynch, who contributes to the photo pages — a wonderful guy who recently put together an autograph collection for the Fargo-area Maris Museum of all the guys who gave up home runs to Roger Maris in 1961. I also met Randy Fredrickson for the first time (get a picture for a fantasy card). I have met his brother in person at comic book shows (another hobby of mine), but this was the first face-to-face with Randy, who was there with his personable nephew who told me he lined up at 7 a.m. Sunday to get in the Mauer line right when the doors opened. Ah, to be young.

I also enjoyed interacting with numerous fans in line, telling them about the TwinsCards site, talking about how they collect, who they collect and just good old Twins baseball. Of course, there were lots of like-minded people. Escaping from the world of autographs every now and then, I was looking over the booths on the outer edge of TwinsFest and ran into, of all people, Carl Pohlad, out and about in a chauffeured golf cart. Yes, the Twins owner is really old, but you could still see a sparkle in his eyes, and his signature is still smooth and more readable than most players.

I added quite a few items to my collection, touching base with 50 folks during my two days in attendance. The first week of February I will add more than 6-dozen items to the old collection. Check out “What’s New” every day to see my additions. Also, a list of players I met will be in “Autograph Successes” in the TwinsCards.com Forum section Febraury 1st.

And hopefully word will spread amongst Twins fans, of which TwinsFest is the perfect representation, about our great TWINSCARDS site!

This is a slow week in birthdays, but there are a few notables:

February 2, 1972
Rich Becker - Question: who succeeded Kirby Puckett as the Twins’ starting center fielder? Answer: Rich Becker. On opening day 1994, Kirby Puckett completed the transition to right field. Rich Becker was called upon to take over in center. Becker performed reasonably well considering he had only three games in the majors prior to 1994. On April 21, Becker was batting .327/.421/.429 when he hurt his knee in a game against the Cleveland Indians. He made a few attempts to play in the weeks that followed, but went on the disabled list, had knee surgery, and didn’t return to the lineup until July, and was optioned to Salt Lake City later that month. Becker returned to the team in 1995 and basically served as the every day center fielder until he was traded to the Mets for Alex Ochoa in December of 1997. Becker bounced around for a bit after that, playing for five different teams between 1998 and 2000. His best season in the majors was probably 1996, when he batted .291/.372/.434 with 12 HR for the Twins.

February 1, 1947
Danny Thompson - Thompson played mostly second base for the Twins during his first few seasons, but took over as the full time short stop when the Twins traded Leo Cardenas away after the 1971 season. Thompson batted .276/.318/.356 in 1972, good enough to lead all AL short stops in hitting. After the 1971 season, Thompson was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors attempted to control the disease with some experimental treatments, and Thompson continued to play for four more seasons despite the fact that he was likely in a lot of pain throughout. Patrick Reusse wrote about it in early 2005:

He kept playing. His average fell to .225 in 1973. This resulted in perhaps the grandest quote of all from Calvin Griffith, the Twins owner and unique observer of mankind.

“I can’t understand what’s wrong with Thompson?” Calvin said. “There must be something on his mind besides baseball.”

No one laughed harder at that than Thompson, one of the great human beings ever to prowl a Twins clubhouse. He played for four seasons while undergoing treatment for his leukemia.

 

Thompson was traded to Texas in the early part of the 1976 season as part of the same deal that sent Bert Blyleven to the Rangers. Thompson died in December of that same year, just a few months after his final major league game. Teammate Harmon Killebrew thought so highly of Thompson that he started donating his own money to leukemia research. Eventually, in an effort to do even more in Danny’s memory, Killebrew helped start the Danny Thompson Memorial Golf Tournament that still runs every year to this day.

February 2, 1977
Adam Everett - While the focus of this blog typically looks at the past, here’s to hoping that I can fill this space next year with nothing but good things to say about the team’s newest shortstop.

February 2, 1968
Scott Erickson - Erickson occupies a place in Twins’ history for throwing a no-hitter on April 27, 1994, but I will always remember him as the black-sock clad pitcher who won 20 games for the Twins in the World Series season of 1991.

Following in the footsteps of such successful blogs as Ben Henry’s Baseball Card Blog and Chris Harris’ Stale Gum, there has been a plethora of new blogs dealing exclusively with baseball cards. I’ve added quite a few of these sites to our blogroll and also to our baseball card links page. Instead of just leaving it at that, I decided many of these new sites were worthy of their own post to highlight what each brings to their readers. I’ve even invented my own grading system based on the TwinsCards.com patented Five-Puckett scale.

One-Puckett: A good start, but the content is lacking and the frequency of posts is below the Mendoza line.

Two-Pucketts: There is definitely some potential here. Tighten up the content and your well on your way.

Three-Pucketts: This site is a good, solid site that has relevant, informative posts with a definite passion for the content.

Four-Pucketts: This is a very good site. The content is a cut above the rest with fresh, insightful posts and a clear, knowledgeable understanding of the target audience.

Five-Pucketts: Reserved for the best of the best. The pulse of the industry beats by the content found here. Bookmark and visit on a daily basis!

We’ll do these one by one and I’ll try and write a small blurb about each site, but please check them out. You won’t be dissappointed!

The Fleer Sticker Project

The first site I’d like to feature is The Fleer Sticker Project. FleerFan has created an awesome resource for a niche of cards that probably wouldn’t get a lot of press elsewhere. FleerFan covers all the Fleer team logo stickers going back to 1960. He’s even posted a few Twins stickers: 1967 Fleer Logo/Emblem Card, 1968 Cloth Emblem Card, 1968 Team Fleer Logo/Emblem Card, and 1961 Fleer Decals.

Pictured here is a 1969 Fleer 3D Baseball Trophy Plaque. Fleer featured all 24 teams with a 3D effect card featuring the teams cap and sold for $0.10.

I have quite a few Fleer stickers but until now, I never had a way to figure out how to tell the difference between years. At some point (in the near future), I’m going to have to search through my boxes to pull them out. This is just an incredible resource and even though there aren’t daily posts, The Fleer Sticker project is worth worth a daily visit!

TwinsCards.com Rating: 4/5 Pucketts: This is a very good site. The content is a cut above the rest with fresh, insightful posts and a clear, knowledgeable understanding of the target audience.

Why I like this card: Isn’t it obvious? Pete’s 1979 Topps card depicts him sporting the classic white-man afro and strikes a remarkable resemblance to actor Gene Wilder.

Random Pete Redfern Stat: Pete was absolutely terrible with the bases loaded! Hitters knocked him around for an .889 average, a 1.611 Slugging Average and a astronomical 2.405 OPS! Opponents rapped out 16 hits and Pete dished up 10 base on balls. Opposing teams managed to score 55 times in those 34 plate appearances. Check out all the ugliness here.

On the cusp of Twins Fest, the Twins have locked up two of the franchises most popular and productive players. The team has signed Morneau to a six-year, $80 million dollar deal that will keep Justin in a Twins uniform through 2013. Cuddyer’s deal was for $24 million over three years and a team option for a fourth. I’ll let more qualified bloggers analyze whether this was a fiscally sound move by the Twins, but I don’t think the timing of these moves should be overlooked. Yes, the ultimate goal is to produce championships but fielding a competitive team and showing the fan base that you are committed to that ideal is very much a part of that. With the new stadium on the horizon, locking up guys like Morneau, Cuddyer, Mauer…and Santana will go a long way to ensuring that the fans continue to support the team through championship or no championship. Of course, an argument can be made that these signings almost guarantee the club won’t (or can’t) sign Santana, but I see it as a small sliver of hope that we may be seeing a loosening of the purse strings.

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for the “TC” stirrup socks, so this card would make my personal Hall of Fame if it were just the picture on the front. That said, I like the design, particularly the cap at the bottom that gives us the team name and position. The back of the card helpfully tells us that Jackson “set a team mark with 175 D.P.’s at 1st base in 1979.” Assuming that D.P.’s stands for double plays, I am not sure if the card writers could have come up with a more meaningless fielding stat for a first baseman (perhaps putouts?). Jackson’s 1981 Donruss card tells us that he also led the league in putouts (surprise) and assists that season. For what it’s worth, 1979 was also his career high according to FRAR, though it is also the year that he played the most at first base.

I only looked at first round picks from the June draft, and considered only major league performance in selecting my team. All positions listed are the positions reported when the player was drafted.

C Joe Mauer 2001 (1st Overall) - Cretin HS
The most recent draftee to make this list, the other option at catcher was Jeff Reed (12th Overall 1980)

1B Travis Lee 1996 (2nd Overall) - San Diego St
Most definitely a tough man to name to the list, Travis Lee is not well regarded by Twins fans. David McCarty (3rd Overall, 1991) was the only other option with major league experience.

2B Todd Walker 1994 (8th Overall) - Louisiana St
By default, Walker is the only listed second baseman to be drafted in the first round of the June draft by the Twins.

SS Chuck Knoblauch 1989 (25th Overall) - Texas A&M
The situation at short stop is quite the opposite from second base. The Twins have drafted 10 players listed as SS in the first round since 1965. Knoblauch was the most accomplished major leaguer (at 2B and LF), but the Twins also drafted Michael Cuddyer (9th Overall, 1997), Jay Bell (8th Overall, 1984), Lenny Faedo (16th Overall, 1978), and Eddie Leon (9th Overall, 1965).

3B Scott Stahoviak 1991 (27th Overall) - Creighton
The other option was Steve Brye (17th Overall, 1967).

OF Torii Hunter 1993 (20th Overall) - Pine Bluff HS
OF Jason Varitek 1993 (21st Overall) - Georgia Tech
OF Midre Cummings 1990 (29th Overall) - Edison HS (Miami)
I was previously unaware that Jason Varitek was drafted as an outfielder. Of course, Varitek went back to college rather than signing with the Twins, and was drafted the following season by the Seattle Mariners. He did come close to playing baseball in Minnesota, however, when he signed with the St. Paul Saints in 1995, though it was just a negotiating ploy and he never played a game for the Saints. Jason’s brother Justin did play for the Saints, however.

P Tim Belcher 1983 (1st Overall) - Mount Vernon Nazarene College
P Dick Ruthven 1972 (8th Overall) - Fresno St
Neither played a single game for the Twins, and both re-entered the draft without signing. Belcher was drafted by the Yankees the following year, and Ruthven, who was drafted by Baltimore in 1969, entered the draft for a third time in 1973 by the Philadelphia Phillies. The Twins have spent a lot of first round draft picks on highly regarded pitchers (Eddie Bane 11th Overall, 1973; Willie Banks 3rd Overall, 1987; Adam Johnson 2nd Overall, 2000) but few have panned out. Matt Garza (25th Overall, 2005) may still pan out, but not in a Twins uniform.