MLB Showdown Obsession

 So MLB has recently stated that pitchers have it too easy and using foreign substances of any kind for pretty much any reason will no longer be allowed. Time to highlight some cheater cards... George Brett is probably the most high profile case of a cheater getting caught...and the most known case of a cheater getting away with what he did. After hitting a go-ahead 9th inning homer against the Yankees, NY manager Billy Martin informed the umpire that Brett's bat had way too much pine tar on it and was thus illegal. The umpire checked the bat and sure enough, Martin was right and Brett's home run was negated, Brett himself was declared out, and since there were 2 outs at the time of the "home run" that made 3 outs and game, Yankees win. Brett erupted, ran out looking to kill the umpire and had to be restrained. the Royals protested, and the AL president, under the "F*ck the Yankees" rule, decided to sustain the protest and allow the home run, because rules a...

Ok, Mr Gula or someone he knows must see this site from time to time... Now then... The Showdown Bot has come through again, giving me what I mused about when I originally made the 2020 HoF trio. Now the Bot can allow you to create a card based on a players entire career....OR based on certain years cherry picked to avoid rookie years, end of career years or injury years that would otherwise spoil a hall of fame career. Also inducted: Marvin Miller (Executive) Major League Baseball Players Association leader

It was always an absolute thrill to open a pack of MLB Showdown and pull a card of a star. Other times I'd pull trash cards and never think of them again. As I got older and had more of an eye of great players of yesteryear, I realized some of those trash players were actually pretty damn good in the 80s. And since the game stopped updating, some of those trash cards were of young players who would go on to develop into decent cards if the game had a 2006+ set. So let's use the Showdown Bot and see what some of those bad players from the original set would look like in a more favorable year for them... Gary was half of everyone's starting shortstop. He had a +4 defense but was useless on offense. 5 on-base, average speed and no extra base hit potential. It took me forever to pull another shortstop from a pack it seemed. I ended up trading Wade Boggs for Andy Fox just to put SOMETHING with some offense at Short...Then one day I pulled Omar Vizquel and Kevin Stocker in one p...

 Baseball today seems to be taking a bow (or knee) the the violent jeering of the minority. People wanna decry the country and anthem and anything patriotic and it's an embarrassment that the national pastime is encouraging it. It wasn't always this way. There was a time that if America-hating idiots wanted to make a statement, that players would step up and put an end to any attempt at using baseball as a stage for their actions. On this day in 1976, people ran onto the field in the middle of a Cubs-Dodgers game and set up an American Flag to burn in front of the world. They splashed lighter fluid on the flag and attempted to light a match to burn it. Before they could get a light, Rick Monday comes flying in, grabs the flag , and runs it to safety. The media back then celebrated the action of Monday. Today there would be no such press. Todays media would ignore it at best, or slander Monday as white supremacist at worst. Would anyone on the field today be such a patriot as to...

So your starter is gassed and the opponent has none other than Babe Ruth coming up to hit. The game is close and you can NOT afford to let the Great Bambino hurt you. What can you do? Is there anyone you can call upon in your bullpen who can reign in baseballs most prolific hitter? Only one man can stand up to the greatest hitter of all time. Mariano Rivera? Christy Mathewson? Walter Johnson? Nope. toss those bums aside. Who you need is Hub. Who? Hub Pruett is not in the Hall of Fame. His career record was 29-48, he never pitched for a winner and with the exception of one man, he could barely get anyone out. But that one exception was life changing. Babe Ruth had the hardest time figuring out Hub. In 1922, Ruth went 2-13 against Pruett. One of those hits was a homer (because no one can be perfect against the Babe) the other hit was a single. Of the 11 outs, one was a weak groundout to the pitcher...the other 10 were all strikeouts. Now, power hitters are prone to the strikeout, but whe...

  Not every card I make is with serious intent... Bruce Campbell the actor actually does hail from Michigan, so it seemed too perfect that the Bruce Campbell baseball player features a stop in Detroit. Evil Dead one-liners are a requirement whenever Ash steps up to the plate. "Groovy" is a must for any home runs. This is a real card produced by the Bot . How you come out of the bullpen already tired is beyond me. Couldn't it give him a 0 for control in exchange for even 1 inning to pitch? If that isn't bad enough, the dude gives up homers on his own chart. Only pitch Mr Wang as a joke. Larry Walker is a Hall of Fame caliber, great defensive and dangerous power hitter. But the 1997 All Star Game was a thing where he was so scared of Randy Johnson that he tried hitting from the right side and struck out comically. It's all fun and games until the freakin fire truck comes in and tosses a no-hitter...twice. 1952 Virgil Trucks went 5-19 and was so set to not lose 20 ga...

 So on my to-do list is to redo my "Logo Wishlist" because within 2 days of me posting the AL version, the Bot updated and I got many of my preferences, making my lamenting for the lack of a Chief Wahoo outdated almost immediately. Awesome. I'll have to try harder for some obscure logos to wish for... So, my 7 part WBC series took a huge effort and I decided to take a bit of a break. That break lasted about a week until I found myself playing around again with the bot. What I really should do is redo some previously made cards now that I have proper logos to play with, but for now I decided to make another special Hall of Fame theme, this time honoring the OG class of 1936. If you had to pick one expensive card to build a team around, most versions of the Babe would be the popular pick. Incredibly high on-base, plenty of power, this one with complete outfield coverage and doesn't make a lot of outs on his chart and the minimum of strikeouts for a power hitter. Cobb o...

Finally we have the 2017 champions: The United States of America. Pool play for America began with a nail biting 3-2 10 inning walk off against Colombia. They led early 5-0 against the Dominican Republic, but blew the lead and the game, falling 7-5. They closed out Pool C with an 8-0 rejection of Canada, heading off to round 2. Round 2 began solid with a 4-2 win over Venezuela, before their own territory (Puerto Rico) beat them 6-5. Pool F play ended with an elimination game between USA and the Dominican Republic. This time, the DR took the early lead and it was America pulling off the comeback, winning 6-5. Rare errors and miscues by Japan led to opportunities that America would not squander in the semi-finals, winning 2-1 and setting up another rematch for the US, this time against Puerto Rico. Ian Kinsler went deep early in the championship game and America never looked back as Marcus Stroman went 6+ no-hit innings and America claimed their first WBC title with an 8-0 winner. Clippa...