MLB Showdown Obsession

 Nobody got voted in for the 2021 Hall of Fame class. So, I figured why not instead honor the 3 men who were elected in 2020. The ceremony last year was cancelled, so they can have the stage all to themselves this year. Just no one tell them what year it is. Jeter and Walker got voted in (with one clown not voting for Jeter) and Simmons was elected by the veterans committee. I have a few rules when I make cards here. Two of those rules are; 1-The Cooperstown Collection logo is only to be used for Hall of Fame reasons...and 2-I never make cards from the 1999-2004 seasons. Those years are already taken by the real Showdown sets. For Jeter, I'll make the exception since his Mr. November moment is one of the most iconic World Series moments of all time. I'd also prefer if an aggregate of a players career was available for making a HoF card instead of using a specific year, but it is what it is for now. I'd love to come back later and fix that in the future. (EDIT: now we can!) ...

The class for the 2021 MLB Hall of Fame is going to be announced this week. Figure I'd take a chance to highlight the 25 men up for the opportunity. Kinda random in how I decided which year to represent for each player. For those who don't know how the voting works: You need 75% of the vote to clear the bar to gain entry. You have 10 years to make it. If you fail to gain 75% of the vote, you'll appear next year if you're still eligible. You are deemed ineligible if you: fail to get at least 5% of the vote, or don't get 75% in your 10 years on the ballot. Bobby Abreu. Year 2. Previous year: 5.5% Andruw Jones. Year 4. Previous year: 19.4% Aramis Ramirez. First year on ballot. Barry Bonds. Year 9. Previous year: 60.7% Mark Buehrle. First year on ballot. AJ Burnett. First year on ballot. Roger Clemens. Year 9. Previous year: 61% Michael Cuddyer. First year on ballot. Dan Haren. First year on ballot. Latroy Hawkins. First year on ballot. Todd Helton. Year 3. Previous yea...

 Leading the league in any category takes skill. Leading in multiple stats is even tougher. A "triple crown" is when you lead the league in three specific and related stats. Usually they make you the no doubt pick for MVP/Cy Young. For the regular Triple Crown, those stats are Home Runs, RBIs and Batting Average. For the Pitching Triple Crown, there is Wins, ERA and Strikeouts. There is also the seldom known Running Triple Crown, which showcases Batting Average (again), Runs and Stolen Bases. Ty Cobb had a monster 1909 season. He not only took home the Hitting Triple Crown, but he also ran his way to the Running Triple Crown as well. No MVP award existed back then. However, in 1911 he won the "Chalmers Award" which was the earliest version of an MVP. Some of his numbers that season would make it hard to pull that feat off nowadays, but the other numbers would put his right in the heat of any MVP race. For the deadball era, needing just 1 bonus to a natural 20 roll w...

 The Mets have had some memorable trades. Some pretty prominent names come to mind: Hernandez, Piazza, Carter...but what if I told you that before those guys, there were a duo of players that Met fans regarded as their best trade ever. I give you George Stone and Felix Millan. In November 1972, the Mets sent Gary Gentry and Danny Frisella to the Braves and got themselves a 2nd baseman and a pitcher that proved instrumental to their pennant run of 1973. The "You Gotta Believe!!!" Mets with their 82-79 record shocked the Big Red Machine in the NLCS 3-2 before falling to the As in the World Series. Millan was tough to strike out and Stone went 12-3 to aid the Mets in squeezing out the division. That being said, it's humorous to look back on these guys and think it was what fans referred to as the "Best trade ever!" Millan brings in a nice 10 on-base, but there is no power to him, which isn't too shocking for a middle infielder of the era. Needing an 8 just to g...

The Showdown Bot is great, no question. And Mr Gula is constantly tweaking it to make it better with every update. For example, now we can get wild and have cards for when position players pitch. One minor complaint is that not every logo is available yet. Not a huge deal, but I have a lot of classic team ideas I wanna recreate that just won't work because the modern team logo spoils the card for me. Classic Yankees teams is easy because the NY is timeless. I'm also planning a 1904 Cleveland Blues team because that block C logo the current Indians use is actually the same logo. What I'm trying to say is because of my OCD where the logo MUST be compatible to the appropriate year, there is a severe limit to what cards I can create and share. How bad is this perfectionist mindset? I redid the Lou Gehrig card from my 1927 set because the original pic I used features a number on Gehrig's back. I'm also gonna swap a few more players because of uniform issues where the NY...