In Memoriam.

Thank you.

( I know this is a repeat of last year's post but I really couldn't think of anything to add.)

Senators Saturday - Ken Hamlin, 1962.

Well, everyone is home and doing well. No NICU stay like with the last wee one. Gotta say I appreciate that aspect.

Since the past few days have been busy and the Rangers lost last night I decided to take a peek back at the Senators. Up today is Ken Hamlin on card number 296 of the 1962 Topps set.

The Senators liked Ken Hamlin. In the 1960 expansion draft they picked him up from the Kansas City A's. They traded him to the Angels the same day. In return Washington got Bud Zipfel. The Angels traded Ken to minor league Toronto on June 22, 1961. On November 27th Washington grabbed Ken again in the rule five draft.

Going into the 1962 season Hamlin was out to win the starting shortstop job. Ed Brinkman was also aiming for the slot though and the two ended up splitting time at short. Overall Ken would appear in 98 games for the Senators - 87 of those would be at short.

Hamlin would put in 666.2 innings at short during the season and see 349 chances. He would commit 13 errors for a fielding percentage of .963. That was about on par with the league average percentage of .962.

Ken made 318 trips to the plate in 1962. He would post a batting average of .253 and an on-base percentage of .303. Neither of those numbers were particularly stunning. The rest of Ken's offensive numbers were not noteworthy. The exception to that might be the curious fact that he walked the same number of times he struck out (22) and that he stole the same number of bases as the number of times he got caught stealing (7).

All in all Ken hadn't been that impressive in 1962. With young Ed Brinkman also hungry for the shortstop job Hamlin needed to be impressive to get things nailed down. In spite of getting the majority of the playing time at short he couldn't close the deal. Washington would hold on to him but he would spend 1963 season in the minors. At 27 years old he needed to do something to get his career moving.

New arrival.

Posting this cyan printing plate of Warner Madrigal's 2008 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects card, number BDP46 today.

This plate has absolutely no relation to any current news but my newest 1-of-1 arrived at 0417 this morning so I thought the correlation an apt one. Headed back to the hospital here in a few minutes to check on Mrs. Spiff and baby. Hope to be back to normal posting soon if everything goes smoothly.

Cruz joins Hamilton in homecoming.

Tonight's game is currently in a rain delay with pretty severe weather rolling through Arlington in the middle of the fourth inning. Since we have some severe weather here as well I decided to go ahead with today's post before I have to shut down the computer.

Posted too soon last night. Apparently Nelson Cruz, shown here on card number RFM-NC of the 2007 Finest set, didn't want to be left out of the return fireworks. As a follow-up to Josh Hamilton's solo home run in the first inning Nelson launched his own shot in the sixth to add two runs to the Rangers lead.

Meantime starting pitcher Alexi Ogando was masterful. He went nine shutout innings to record his first Major League shutout and complete game. That puts him at 5-0 on the year with a 1.81 ERA. Very nice numbers.

They're back!

Great day to be a Rangers fan. Matt Harrison blanks the Phillies yesterday for 8 and a third. Neftali Feliz comes in and grabs the final two outs for a save and a well deserved win for Harrison.

Today Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton came off the disabled list. Both are in the lineup tonight. As I worked on this post Hamilton, pictured here on card number 772 of the 2008 Upper Deck set, came up to bat in the first inning. It was his first at-bat since coming off the DL. On the second John Danks pitch Josh launched a line drive that never came down.

As one radio announcer said, "Superman is back!" Yep, it's a great day to be a Rangers fan. Welcome back Josh and Nellie.

Questions, questions...

It's been a long day - over 13 hours at work and then trying to help Mrs. Spiff get ready for a yard sale tomorrow. As such I am going to use this post to ask questions rather than make comments myself. Perhaps one of my well informed readers can clue me in.

Today's card is a Laynce Nix card from the 2004 eTopps set, number 68 in the set. I picked this card up off Ebay awhile back for rather cheap because it interested me. Why it interested me leads to the questions.

On the back of the card it states that this is part of a "limited edition of 1,760." As you can see, there is a stamp on the lower right of the front of the card that says "1 of 1" and "Chicago". That gold foil stamp is on the card itself. The sticker on the upper left was on the team back the card and case were shipped in. In addition, the eTopps seal on the case appears to be untampered with.

All of that leads to the questions. Was this card stamped by Topps before being shipped out of the eTopps program? If so, why? How easy would it be to take the card out, stamp it, and re-affix the seal so that it looked untampered with? Why "Chicago"? Perhaps a card show or convention? Would you consider this to be a promo card, a 1/1, or just interesting junk?

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments. Looking forward to some enlightenment.

Lightning strikes twice.

Been a busy past couple of days. Lots going on and lots on my mind. The result has been that posting has been a bit sporadic. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track and into the swing of things again.

Listened to the game in Kansas City last night. Quite the game it was. Interesting too that I had to listen to part of it on the local Royals station and so go a bit of the other side of the story.

Alexi Ogando threw 116 pitches as he went through seven innings. When he left the game was tied at two. One of the Rangers runs had come when Craig Gentry walked, stole two bases, and came home on a sacrifice fly. Weird. Texas had been stealing like mad on Matt Treanor all night but had also been stranding runners at an amazing pace.

Texas scratched out a run in the top of the ninth against KC's closer to take a 3-2 lead. In came Neftali Feliz, pictured here on card number 26 of the 2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary set. Piece of cake. Feliz will mow them down and that'll be it. Not so. Young KC call-up Eric Hosmer parked Neftali's first pitch over the fence. First blown save on the year for Feliz. Tied again. Bummer.

Feliz then walked the next batter. Uh-oh. In came a speedy pinch-runner. Bad news, Feliz has no pickoff move. A toss over to first. Runner back in easy. Come on, concentrate on the batter - you'll never get the runner. Got him! Picked him off! First time Feliz has ever picked a runner of first. Good deal, now to get the batter. Walked him. What!?! Another pinch runner. Another toss over to first. Back in safe. Another throw over. He got another one! Back to back pickoffs by a pitcher who had never picked a runner off first before then. Very cool.

Even better, Texas wins in 13 innings. Royals manager Ned Yost said after the game that he thought Feliz was balking. Four throws, no balks called and he was balking? Come on Ned, really? Maybe lightning just struck twice.