Rediscover Topps

 I got a few envelopes in the mail recently completely out of the blue. The name looks like James Taglia. 

In there is a bunch of Jays and Expos he wanted to hand off to me because he was downsizing his collection. Told me about how he loved the Expos when they existed. 

Well, one of the things that was present in the envelopes were these..

The Rediscover Topps cards. Now, there's some pretty nice ones here.. Doyle Alexander from  1984, Dave Collins from 1985. Garth Iorg from 1986.. Too bad we couldn't keep the year thing going and have one from 1987.. But there's Manny Lee from 1988.. (I almost want to see if there's a Jay from each year of Rediscover Topps.. Get a Jays rep from 1977-whenever)

Of course, with Topps being the only game in town really.. It's hard to rediscover what we can't escape. 

Unless this is their way of reminding us that the older cards are better than the schlock they're putting out now.. 

In any event.. They're very welcome in my collection, though I think I might have the Lee already... Not sure..

Signature Saturdays - April 15

 Today is Saturday. 

Signature Saturday time!

I'm VERY excited for this one. 

JOHN HILLER! 

It's the original 1973 card, as opposed to the one in Heritage that was released last year. They actually used the full design in the Heritage version. 

I wanted one of these for a long time. My friend's father went to school with Hiller in Toronto. 

I am trying to place where the photo was taken. Maybe Spring Training?

Stadium Friday - Anaheim Stadium

 Today's stadium is one that's had multiple names, multiple renovations, many star players, yet not much success when it comes to postseason. 

It's Anaheim Edison International Angel Stadium of Anaheim for the California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. 

The stadium was built in 1966 for the Angels. Prior to this, the Angels played in Wrigley Field and Chavez Ravine Stadium. 

This was the Los Angeles version of Wigley Field. This is the "Original" Wrigley, as this was named after the PCL Angels' owner William Wrigley in 1925. The one in Chicago was named after him in 1926.

Chavez Ravine Stadium you might know better by its other name: Dodger Stadium.

This was how Anaheim Stadium looked when it first opened. Left field had the Big A, right field was a parking lot. 

The stadium underwent renovations in the late 70s to accommodate the Rams moving into Anaheim Stadium. The renovations were completed before the 1980 NFL season. 

The enclosed monstrosity is what I remember. When I first became a baseball fan in 1992, this was how Anaheim Stadium looked to me. 

In 1996, Disney took over the team and worked on getting the stadium back to baseball only, since the Rams left for St Louis. 

In its current form, you can see the mountains again beyond the outfield fence and the rock formation in left centre field. 

As well as baseball and football, the stadium hosted concerts, motocross, and the other football. 

I didn't realize how similar this and Candlestick looked when they were fully enclosed. Though, the chain link fence in the Stick also confused me greatly.. 

Anyway, I just want to mention that these cards are from my collection aside from the Tuff Stuff stadium card.. I would love to find that card but I doubt I will..

Canadians in the Majors... Peter Hoy

 I decided to dust off an old relic of the blog. I haven't done one of these in a while. Canadians in the Majors. 

As before, this is a series that looks at a Canadian born player that I have in my collection. 

Today's look is at Peter Hoy.

Peter Hoy was born June 29, 1956 in Brockville, Ontario. He went to school at LeMoyne College and played in the Cape Cod League for the Chatham A's. He was drafted in 1988 by the Red Sox in the 33rd round. He briefly made the Majors in 1992 with the Boston Red Sox. 

His entire career was spent in the Red Sox organization, starting in Elmira, and having stops in Winter Haven, New Britain, Fort Lauderdale, and Pawtucket. He spent a brief time in the Majors with Boston. He got into 5 games as a Major Leaguer. 

In those five games, he was treated rather rudely by opposing batters:

3.2IP 8H 3R 3ER 2BB 2SO WHIP 2.727 7.36 ERA

After finishing the 1993 season between New Britain and Fort Lauderdale, he retired at the age of 27.

He went back to school after his playing days, completing his Bachelor's degree in 1998. 

He was the LeMoyne College team's pitching coach from 1997-2009. 

Judging from what I've been reading, he's currently the head coach at St Lawrence University in Canton, NY and has been there since 2010. 

Signature Saturdays - Easter Sunday Edition

 I missed the post yesterday. 

Between visits from a friend, lack of sleep, and still generally feeling like crap, I missed posting my Signature Saturday post yesterday. 

Never fear, dear reader.. Signature Saturday on a Sunday is here!

This week is Alek Manoah. Could very quickly, if not already, become the ace of the staff. 

On Another note. I just want to wish my readers a Happy Easter. 

Stadium Fridays

 This week has been a bit of a rough one.. I almost skipped doing this today because I basically did not want to get out of bed or do anything today.. In fact I'm typing this wanting to go to bed for the night. 

This may not be as in depth as last week's. I apologize. 

This week is Exhibition Stadium.. The Mistake By the Lake. The only MLB park to have covered bleachers but no covered seats behind the plate. Considered to be one of the worst places MLB has played baseball in... And quoted as being the worst in sports by a TEAM EXECUTIVE FOR THE JAYS....

So.. How did this stadium come to host Major League Baseball from 1977-1989? It started in 1948 when the grandstand, the covered area, was built for concerts at the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1959, football bleachers were added to allow the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL to move from Varsity Stadium to here.. 

In 1974, the stadium was reconfigured again, adding baseball seating and orientation to lure a MLB team. They almost had the San Francisco Giants, but the Giants stayed put and Toronto got an Expansion team for 1977, though there was a lot of trying by the Commissioner's Office to move the award to Washington DC...

Digital Custom courtesy of TCForums member Benson

The day had come. April 7, 1977. Opening Day for the Jays in Toronto... Annd...... Snowstorm...

A packed stadium didn't let it deter them.. They sat waiting for the game to start. The team had to borrow a zamboni from an arena nearby to clear the snow off the infield. 

Finally, the game was on! 

The Jays won. Doug Ault hit two home runs. We know the story. 

So some of the issues that come with having a multipurpose stadium in Canada. 

Yes, we have football as well. The problem is... The field is slightly larger in the CFL than it is in the NFL... So those seats are a little further away from the field than in the US. 

The seats were also not pointed toward the action, but rather each other. There was also the issue of some of the seats being over 800 feet away from home plate.. Those seats would not be sold except in extreme circumstances like pennant races. 

As with Cleveland and San Francisco, The Ex also had issues with cold and fog. A game was called off due to heavy winds, as Jim Clancy was blown off balance three times and swirling wind kept kicking up dust in the batters' eyes. 

We also have to mention the seagulls.. Ohhhh the seagulls... They love food.. Baseball stadiums are full of food.. So as a result, seagulls loved to come around looking for food.. It lead to the famous 1983 incident of Dave Winfield getting arrested after a throw struck and killed a gull. Some claimed Winfield did it on purpose, leading his manager to state "If you watched him all season, you wouldn't say that.. It's the first cutoff man he's hit all year"

The death of The Ex started in 1982, after the Grey Cup ended up being a soup bowl due to rain. The next day at City Hall, fans there to see the Argos chanted "We Want a Dome!" at the Ontario Premier. Work had begun looking for a site in 1983, as a separate group looked at feasibility studies of building the dome at Exhibition Place. In 1984, Canadian National Railways agreed to sell land by the CN Tower for the purposes of building the new stadium. 

It was started in 1986, and the Rogers Centre, (SkyDome) was built and opened in June 1989.

The venue was used for the odd concert and racing event. It was also used to host a WWE card in 1996 after they stopped using Maple Leaf Gardens. 

The stadium was demolished in 1999 and is used as the Parking lot for BMO Field, the home of TFC and the Toronto Argonauts. 

Signature Saturday

 

 Today is Saturday. Today is April 1.. .Today is my 45th birthday. 

Today is also Signature Saturday. Who's on the docket today??

None other than Milton Bradley. It's almost unfortunate that Triple H didn't have "The Game" nickname and music till after Bradley was done.. Just imagine him coming to bat with that music playing.. 

He started out with the Montreal Expos, drafted by them in 1996. He was traded to Cleveland for Zach Day in 2001. Overall, he played for Montreal, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Texas, Oakland, San Diego, Chicago Cubs, and Seattle. 

For non-wrestling fans, here is the song I'm talking about