Upper Deck bids on Topps.

I knew Prince. Trust me.

 

every account i've ever read or heard said he hated being called bob. the man was proud to be Puerto Rican and not american. from what i've heard and read, clemente told topps to knock the bob shit out in 1969, hence he was referred to by topps as roberto from 1970 on.

 

Precisely. And Prince called him "Bobby" or "Robby," not Bob.

 

BTW, Topps had Clemente as "Roberto" on his first two cards:

 

in his final four seasons, clemente hit .345, .352, .341 and .312. he was limited to 102 games in 1972, but played in 132 games in '71.

i'm thinking he could have finished with (neighborhood) 3,400 or 3,500 hits if he would have continued playing. hell, if he would have finished with 3,420, it would have put him No. 6 on the all-time list ahead of yaz. speaker is No. 5 with 3,514.

 

I have a buddy of mine who tells a story of a friend of his (I know, a friend of a friend story) whose father took him to see the Pirates play when Pittsburgh was in town. The friend was young at the time and was squirming in his seat as kids will often do late in a baseball game. He was asking his father if they could go or something to that effect. The father keep saying no to the boy, but later in the game a ball went into the right field corner and Clemente chased it down and fired a rope to third to cut down a runner trying to take an extra base.

The dad looks at the friend and just says, "we can go now."

 

... with clemente in right field. damn.

 

Oh, I agree. The kid probably grew up and became a wonderful member of the high school band.

 

I was into collecting baseball and hockey cards as a kid (I remember that 78 Topps set that Bubbler referenced very well) but never got the whole collecting for profit thing.

My brother was heavily into collecting comic books in the early-90s and I used to tag along with him to collectible shows. The sports card guys were just scum, flogging useless, worthless card sets and waving around Beckett's guides like the Bible. I'd tell them their shit was only worth what someone would pay for it and a Royce Clayton rookie card would not make me rich down the road.

Still, this thread sent me into the crawlspace to inventory some of the card sets that my brother would pick up for me or birthdays, Christmas etc.

I have a box of Fleer 91 crap (my seven-year-old son is already looking at them, he has never seen this stuff, shows you how long it's been sitting untouched), 91-92 set of Kayo boxing cards, 91 All World boxing set, 91 Pro Set football series one, 90 Pro Set football, 90 Topps baseball, WWF history of Wrestlemania series 2 (?). Oh yeah and a Royce Clayton rookie card.

 

i inherited a card set. now, TP is the proud owner of 33 flash gordon rookie cards. wow.

 

You know, people tell me I'm a wiz at math, and I always say baseball cards.

200 hits in 600 at bats is a .333 average
1 ER in 2 IP is a 4.50 ERA
12 H in 98 AB is a little more than .120
150 H in 600 AB is a .250 hitter or a middle infielder

Does anyone remember the career highlights they would give some of the players?

"Hit two doubles on June 12th, 1978 for Modesto"

I loved those things.

 

I remember Sky Box made Joe Kline (every picture was of him in his warm-up) look like an all-star with their "per 48 minutes" statistic.