The Big Pitcher Post, Part 1

     I have a ton of pitchers' baseball cards. Most of the ones that I've gotten, I acquired from a Comic and Card shop about half an hour away from my house. They would have these boxes of around 650 cards selling for four or five dollars, so I've hit a bunch of those. While picking through the thousands of cards, I've found a lot of really neat pitchers. Most of the ones shown today are from those value boxes.

   

    Denny Neagle was a part of the amazing Braves rotation of the late '90s. He played two full seasons with Atlanta and a chunk of the '96 season, which you can see on the card. He was 38-19 with a 3.43 ERA with the Braves, including a league-leading 20 wins in 1997. Interestingly, it doesn't say that he led the league on the card. If someone can explain it, please do. Anyway, Neagle finished his career with a respectable 124-92 record and a 4.24 ERA.

    This John Franco card is part of the ever-creepy 1995 Fleer set. I have to say, Fleer didn't often make many impressive designs for their cards, and this one is... odd. Franco had an impressive 21 year career in which he saved 424 regular season games and had an ERA of 2.89. He makes an interesting case for the Hall of Fame, but fell short in 2011.

    This is the final card of the 26-card Nolan Ryan Career Series. I have many of the cards in the set, and a ton of Ryan's cards, but I found this one interesting because he's not pitching in the card, but dressed like a cowboy and hanging out with his dog.

    Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield passed away in October of last year at only 57 years of age. Rest in Peace Tim.

    This card is cool because you can see him throwing his signature pitch on the card. Wakefield won 200 games over his 19 year career. The Back of the card has some interesting Wakefield facts. 

    It's crazy that at the time of the card, Wakefield had a  perfect record in games when he walked 9 batters or more, and 1-11 when he walked 5 or less. Certainly an unpredictable pitcher.

    This is probably my favorite Fleer design. It's cool that I was able to find this Cole Hamels rookie card just in one of those boxes at the card store. He'll have an interesting run for the Hall of Fame, sporting 163 career wins and a 3.43 ERA to go along with 2560 K's. I doubt he'll make it, but we shall see.

    2007 Topps is one of my favorite sets, and C.C. Sabathia is a nice pickup. With 251 wins and 3093 strikeouts, Sabathia will be making the Hall soon. His first year on the ballot is next year, and while I'm unsure if he'll make it the first time around, he'll probably get inducted later on the ballot.

    Here are some more '07 Topps cards, this time of Johan Santana and Mark Buehrle. Santana was kicked off the HOF ballot in 2018, receiving a sad 2.4% of the vote. I personally would put him in, seeing as how he was one of the best pitchers of his time and won 2 Cy Young Awards.

    Mark Buehrle is on the ballot right now, though he won't make the Hall. He had a nice 16 year career in which he won 214 games. He had a span of 14 straight seasons in which he pitched 200 or more innings, which means he was reliable and rarely injured.

    These 2005 Topps Common Base cards look pretty nice, and it's always great to find Randy Johnson, the pitcher with the second-most strikeouts ever (4875). The name in the background of the photo gives the card an interesting touch.

    And I have one of Josh Beckett too. Though not quite the pitcher that Randy Johnson was, Beckett had himself a nice little 14 year career that experienced a 138-106 record and 3.88 ERA. At least the picture is cooler than Randy Johnson's.

    These 1975 Topps Cards are nice, due in part to them being some of the oldest cards I own (I have two from '68 and one from '72). They're very colorful, and I actually like the design of them. Bob Locker had a career 2.75 ERA and 95 saves, as well as a really good mustache, and John Morris didn't really do much in his career. He had a career 11-7 record and 3.95 ERA. 

    These Tim Hudson cards are 2004 Fleer Platinum (left) and 2014 Donruss Hall Worthy (right). Tim Hudson was a very good pitcher whose career lasted from 1999-2015. He collected 222 wins and 2080 strikeouts during that time to go along with a solid 3.49 ERA. I could go either way on him in terms of the Hall of Fame, but the Hall Worthy card is pretty cool (it says on the back that his middle name is Adam, if you wanted to know).

    That will do it for part one of The Big Pitcher Post. I still have 14 or 15 more cards to post about, but figured that doing them all at once would be too much. I hope you all have a great rest of your day. I'm out.