2013 Topps Yu Darvish

Here I am, not even a month nito the blog and I'm breaking my own rules. Yu Darvish was not a league leader in 2012 according to the back of his Topps rookie card. Without doing any research I would find it hard to belive that he didn't at least lead rookies in one or more categories. With the gem of a game he pitched last night, I thought he deserved some recognition anyway.

Plus, he is currently the American League leader for Innings Pitched with 8.2 and is tied for Wins (1) and Games Started (1). Good enough for me!

I was over at a friend's house Tuesday night and he was showing off his MLBTV package. I must admit it is pretty cool, although not in my budget this season. There weren't too many games on at the time so when we stopped on the Astros-Rangers game, we stayed for quite a while. I don't know much about the superstitions of perfect games, but I took notice after about the 4th inning. Once the Astros started batting around again, I realized nobody had reached base yet.

I don't mean to plug MLBTV again but one of the cool features is that you can switch back and forth between the home and away broadcasts, which we did. This would have been the most I had seen of any perfect game/no-hitter live. Sometimes, I'll catch wind of one and tune in during the 8th or 9th inning if I can find a broadcast but usually I just get to see highlights. But with this one, we started watching around the 2nd inning.

Has anybody enjoyed a perfect game/no-hitter in person or managed to catch a complete one on TV. I hope to some day!

2013 Opening Day Jim Johnson

True to his word, Matt from over at Once a Cub offered me his Opening Day extras from the debacle that was Blaster Wars. I turned him down though as I plan to buy a complete set in the near future and figured he would be able to trade them off for other stuff. With that said, I did take him up on his offer to let me scan a few for the purposes of this blog.

 

The Orioles have yet to play so in honor of their Opening Day today, here is Jim Johnson's card from this year's set.

I don't really follow American League baseball so it could just be me,  but the Orioles kind of came out of nowhere last year. And a big part of that was closer Jim Johnson. His 51 Saves, was three more than the next the closest guy, division rival the Rays' Fernado Rodney and nine more than the nearest National League leaders, the Cardinals' Jason Matte and the Braves Craig Kimbrel.

 

That was enough to garner him a few Cy Young votes in an otherwise tight race between starters Justin Verlander and winner David Price. He also pitched a perfect inning in his All-Star Game debut against a dominant National League team that pounded other American League pitchers for an 8-0 victory.

1990 Topps Doyle Alexander

I don't like to harp on the bad stuff, but unfortunately for Doyle Alexander, Topps includes Losses as a statistic on the back of their cards. This card came as a little bit of a surprise to me not because the Tigers were particularly bad that year. (They were, 103 Losses as a team.)

More so because, the previous season, Alexander earned his first and only All-Star appearance and had previously been a Cy Young candidate. He wasn't even the guy that got picked because every team had to be represented because Alan Trammell made it too. But as the saying goes, past performance does not guarantee future results. The Tigers went from 14 games over .500 in 1988 to 44 games under .500.

Alexander was credited with 18 of those Losses.

The burden may have been too much for Alexander to bear as that was his final season.