Baseball, Sumo, and NASCAR

I honestly don't know where to begin with this giant stack of madness. What you see above is most of the cards that Ryan from the Sumo Cards blog sent me a while back. It's a regular treasure trove, mostly baseball, but other stuff as well, including my first ever sumo cards.

I'll be quite honest, I'm not familiar with the sport of Sumo at all. As a kid I remember seeing it here and there in the early days of ESPN2 back when they would run tapes of pretty much anything from strongman spectacles to caber tossing competitions and every manner of off the radar sport in between. Somewhere in between all of that, there would be the occasional kickboxing or sumo wrestling tournament. I was pretty fascinated with the sumo wrestling but never really followed it or anything. I watched it out of mere curiosity than anything else.

These cards are just so cool but not knowing the first thing about old sumo cards, I had to ask Ryan about them. Luckily, he gave me a nice rundown of the wrestlers on the cards and what they are called. The black and white cards are called bromides and are from the 1940s and 1950s and are basically cards printed on photo paper. The round disc is a menko piece and dates to about 1930. Apparently the menko piece is extremely rare but Ryan had an extra from a set and included it for me.

As far as the wrestlers on the cards go, the two on top are Meagashira Fujigatake on the bromide photo and Maegashira Fujinosato on the menko disc. The other three, from left to right are: Yokozuna Chiyonoyama, Yokozuna Kagamisato, and Yokozuna Tochinishiki, three of only 72 wrestlers in history to attain the top ranking in sumo.

Here are some more modern sumo cards put out by BBM. The green card is actually part of a sumo fantasy card game (similar to MLB Showdown from the early 2000s I'm guessing). The BBM cards feature Ishihura Masakatsu, Takayasu Akira, and Daieisho Hayato. The explosion of color on these is fantastic and kind of makes me want to pick up a few more here and there just because of the cool looking cards.

Moving on to other cards, these two racing cards from the Maxx '91 set were included. I don't watch a lot of NASCAR but I have a general idea of some of the drivers. Both of these guys are legends in the sport. These are cool additions to my otherwise small racing collection.

Moving on now to the giant stack of baseball cards. First, there are these Expos cards. I always like it when Topps includes the Expos on modern cards. I keep telling myself I'm going to get more of those Highlight of the Year cards in general but I never do.

Some nice cards for my player collections of these four. The Robinson is a reprint so don't get excited thinking it's an original 1971. The Griffey card though is very nice with the Chrome style and the retro Bowman design.

Some modern Reds cards including a really cool Billy Hamilton card from not so cool 2016 Topps Opening Day. Mascot cards are always super fun. Strangely enough, one of the people in the office I work in is a mascot for the Reds and I think that he might actually be Mr. Redlegs.

Some old school Reds. Pete Rose may be a duplicate I think and the Tom Browning might be as well but I think the Eric Davis card is new to me. I really should catalog my cards.

This Johnny Bench card claims it's from 2002 Topps on it but I can't find a record of it anywhere. I'm guessing it's part of a legends insert or variation set? Did they do such things in 2002?

There was also a nice lot of Nolan Ryan cards, some of which I strangely didn't have yet. 

What I've shown so far is only about half of the cards from the header photo. The other half, the BBM cards from Japan, I'll cover in the upcoming days.

Say It Ain't So, Arroyo

This must be the year for retirements. First there was Shane Doan of the Arizona (nee Phoenix) Coyotes and now Reds fan favorite Bronson Arroyo has officially hung up the spikes after 16 seasons and a valiant comeback attempt earlier this year.

1995 Topps Traded and Rookies #47T

Arroyo was drafted by Pittsburgh in the 3rd round of the 1995 Amateur Draft out of Hernando High School in Brooksville, FL. He made his major league debut during the 2000 season and started 12 of the 20 games he appeared in during that season. His years with the Pirates were very uneventful, going 9-14 with a 5.44 ERA in 53 games over three seasons.

Just before spring training in 2003, the Red Sox claimed him off waivers. His season that year wasn't much but  he did get to pitch in the ALCS that year out of the bullpen. The 2004 season though is where he really started to blossom with Boston, going 10-9 with a 4.03 ERA in 29 starts. While his playoff performance wasn't great that year, he did win his only World Series ring as the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to break the curse.

He had another stellar campaign in 2005 going 14-10 with a 4.51 ERA over 32 starts. His lone appearance in the ALDS against Chicago that year did him in though as he came in relief in Game 1 an he promptly gave up 2 hits, 2 walks, and one homer over 1 inning for an overall ERA of 18.00 in a game where the Red Sox lost 14-2.

2007 Topps #30

Towards the end of spring training in 2006, the Reds pulled off a coup, acquiring Arroyo from the Red Sox for slugger Wily Mo Pena. That proved to be one of the most lopsided trades ever for Boston as Pena never really panned out but Arroyo would go on to be a mainstay in the Reds rotation through the 2014 season. In his first season with the Reds, he made his only All-Star team and finished 23rd in MVP voting. He threw a career high 240.2 innings over 35 starts and compiled a 14-11 record with a 3.29 ERA. 

2007 Ultra #43

Over the next 7 seasons, he never missed a start for the Reds and never landed on the DL once. He also threw over 200 innings every season except for one (2011) where he threw 199 innings and made over 30 start every season from 2006-2014. In 2010, he won a Gold Glove and finished 12th in Cy Young voting for a Reds team that surprised everyone and made the playoffs. For as surprising and memorable as that 2010 club was, they were unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs by the Phillies via a three game sweep in the NLDS.

2009 Topps #513

The Reds would return to the playoffs in 2012 in season where the steamrolled the NL Central and won 96 games. That season Arroyo went 12-10 with a 3.74 ERA over 32 starts. Then the playoffs started and despite being only one win away from their first NLCS since 1995, the Giants rattled off three straight wins and surprising knocked the Reds out in the first round. That was the downfall of the Reds as they could only muster a wild card berth the next season, which would be Arroyo's last in Cincinnati.

2014 Topps - Red Foil #78

He signed as a free agent with Arizona that offseason and only managed 14 starts before landing on the DL with arm trouble which ultimately led to Tommy John surgery. While injured, the D'Backs shipped him off to the Braves in June of 2015. He never made an appearance for the Braves and just over a month later, was sent to the Dodgers as part of a massive three team 13-player trade, which included future Reds teammate Jose Peraza. At the end of the season, he was granted free agency by the Dodgers. 

2015 Topps #596
Image from COMC.com

In 2016, he signed with the Nationals reuniting himself with former Reds skipper Dusty Baker as part of a comeback attempt but had rotator cuff problems resulting in him not getting a roster spot. He was released by Washington after the season. On Valentine's Day this year he signed a minor league deal with the Reds with an invite to spring training. 

2017 Topps Heritage #598
Image from TradingcardDB.com

Surprisingly, he made the team and made his first start on April 8th of this year in a 10-4 loss against the Cardinals in a 4 inning effort. It was obvious from the start that he wasn't the Arroyo of old as his fastball had lost a lot of zip and he was forced to rely mainly on breaking pitches and finesse. His last start before arm troubles resurfaced was June 18th, Father's Day, at home against LA where he threw three innings giving up 7 hits, 5 earned runs, and one homer over 16 batters faced. His final stats for the season were 3-6 with a 7.35 ERA. His final career stats came out to be 148-137 record with 4.28 ERA, 1,571 career Ks, 2,4335.2 IP, one World Series ring, and one All-Star appearance.

And so ends the career of one of my favorite players and someone I'm glad to have on my player collection list. I've got a decent start on my Arroyo collection but I'm always on the lookout for more.

Congrats on a great career Bronson. Hope to see you again soon in a few years for your induction into the Reds Hall of Fame.

Bronson, today is your day. pic.twitter.com/qazVQn1l1g

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 23, 2017

Blog Bat-Around: Player Collection Origins

A week or so ago, P-Town Tom of the Eamus Catuli blog (formerly Waiting Til Next Year) suggested a fresh topic for a blog bat-around, that topic being the origin of your player collections. I know I'm a bit late to the party here but as I was doing some sorting (as shown by the picture above), I came across a few cards of some players I collect. So here are five random picks from my player collection list and the reasons I collect them.

Barry Larkin

I'm a bit too young to remember Dave Concepcion but when I was growing up, Barry Larkin was the first shortstop I remember playing for the Reds. By the time I was old enough to finally get memories of baseball, Concepcion had retired and the shortstop spot was taken over by Larkin, who would hold it down until 2003. After Larkin retired, the Reds went through a revolving door of shortstops but now seem to have settled in with Zack Cozart. When I got back into collecting, Larkin was the first guy who's cards I went after.

Dennis Eckersley

The only non-Red on this list, I've had an affinity for Eckersley cards going back to my original collection. The first card that drew me into him was his 1991 Fleer which featured the craziest picture of any pitcher I've ever seen. Since then, I've been collecting his cards, all of which seem to have some sort of crazy picture of him in mid-delivery.

Sean Casey

Casey was acquired on the eve of the 1998 season for Dave Burba and my, how that trade worked out for the Reds. In eight seasons of manning first base for the Reds, he hit .305/.371/.463 and amassed over 1000 games. Not long after Casey was traded away after the 2005 season, Joey Votto came along and has continued the chain of long serving first basemen.

Chris Sabo

As I mentioned before, Barry Larkin was the first shortstop I remember playing for the Reds, so to go along with that Chris Sabo was the first third baseman I remember hanging around the hot corner for the Reds. "Spuds" played the majority of his career for the Reds, with only the 1994 and 1995 seasons being the ones where he was away from Cincinnati. He returned for a final season in 1996 for 54 games before retiring. I've got two cards of him not in a Reds uniform (Orioles and White Sox) and I'm always looking for more non-Reds cards of him.

Hal Morris

I didn't have any Hal Morris cards in the box I was sorting so I took this image from COMC. Morris was always someone I found interesting, mainly because of his wacky batting stances but he could hit like crazy. Like most of the other Reds on this list, he's the first person I remember playing at a certain position, first base in this particular case. I haven't really found many cards of his post 1994 for my collection so those are the ones I'm definitely trying to find currently.