Comments on: Card of the Week: 1986 Topps #563 Alejandro Sanchez

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:37:54 +0000

I've always had a problem with needless Anglicization of Latino names in baseball. If a player chooses an American-sounding nickname or even chooses to alter his name to an American name, of course that's fine. But I don't like Americans choosing on their own to give Latin names an American pronunciation or spelling. One example that comes to mind is Lou Piniella pronouncing Raul Ibanez as "Rawl EYE-buh-nez." I understand that the American music company Ibanez in pronounced that way, but clearly the ballplayer's name is not. Another example is Dave Niehaus of Mariners broadcasts saying "George Posada" years before he ever went by the nickname "Georgie." This was a case of Niehaus simply choosing the lazy way out and using an Anglicized name on his own....I wonder if he wonders why so much of the rest of the world thinks Americans are lazy and self-centered.

By: kingcrab

kingcrab — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:13 +0000

the last tigers pitcher to legally throw the spitball was dutch checkoutmycards.com in 1925?? never heard of him.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:46:19 +0000

If I recall correctly, Alejandro Sanchez was often called "Al Sanchez," and he wasn't the only player whose Latino name got Anglicized. George Bell used to be Jorge Bell, for one, and I'm sure there are others.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:49:40 +0000

I guess I never realized just how bad Beane was at getting on base (a .246 career OBP--wow!)

By: MrDave

MrDave — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:32:20 +0000

Something else that's interesting about Billy Beane is that all eleven of his major league walks happened in the same season, which is sort of amazing given that he spent parts of six seasons in the majors.

By: Kahuna Tuna

Kahuna Tuna — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:15:22 +0000

Some trivia. #24 on the list, Don Mueller, later became one of only four players since 1901 to lead the majors in hits in the same season that his team swept the World Series (1954, of course). The other three: Red Rolfe, Yankees, 1939; Pete Rose, Reds, 1976 (tied for MLB hits lead with Brett); and Derek Jeter, Yankees, 1999. I was going to get in a dig at Larry Haney (#17), whose zero-walk 1968 season earned him exile to the expansion Pilots, but Haney did win a ring in 1974 with Oakland. Other players from the list who later played on Series-winning teams: Tuck Stainback, '43 Yankees; Mueller, '54 Giants; Buchek, '64 Cardinals; and Midre Cummings, '01 Diamondbacks. Billy Beane gets a special nod for having played briefly for the 1987 Twins and 1989 A's but having been left off both teams' post-season rosters.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:52:21 +0000

My methodology for picking cards is fairly random, although I will want my next card to be a Donruss one since I haven't featured any yet from that company.

By: MrDave

MrDave — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:48:24 +0000

I love the obscurity of most of these cards profiled. It's fun to look back and see what these people did.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:10:14 +0000

That image problem is now fixed--thanks for specifying the exact problem, Gerry, as that made it easy to track down. Fairly recently, I started inserting images (including the Excel plots) into my posts using a flash uploader, which I was able to do only once I got editor privileges on this blog. I'm still learning some of the quirks of the system.

By: fiveiron

fiveiron — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:13:51 +0000

I've got Jerry Buchek's autograph! I knew he would be famous some day. It's on the same scorecard as some guy named Curt Flood.