Blow Out the Candles January 2

Bill "Mad Dog" Madlock is celebrating his 61st birthday today.

A lifetime .305 hitter, Madlock won two batting titles with the Cubs (1975,1976) and another two with the Pirates(1981,1983).

Smiling here, Bill had a temper.  He was ejected from 18 games as a player and another 3 as a coach.

"I loved San Francisco because I got a chance to play with Willie McCovey. I loved Chicago because I loved playing with Billy Williams. But the Pirates, any time you win, and getting a chance to play with guys like Dave Parker, Stargell and Ed Ott was truly a treat…Chuck Tanner was my favorite manager. He was just unbelievable."

Big Cards Need Love Too -- #'s 26-30

I guess I'm in the minority but I think these 3-1/2" x 5", 1983 Donruss Action All-Stars are nice.   Here they are in numerical order. (Click to enlarge particularly if you want to read the backs).

Jim Sundberg won 6 straight Gold Gloves between 1976-1981.

Andujar was 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA in the Cardinals 1982 World Series win.

1983 was Gaylord's 43rd season in the bigs.  Oh, sorry he only looks that old.  It was his 22nd and final.

Jack the Ripper drove in 103 runs in 1982.  Not quite Wally Moon but he has a pretty nice unibrow going.

Liked the guy even though he replaced Ron Santo as the Cubs everyday third baseman.  Hate those Pirates hats.

Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Favorites - M

Topps put out 150 card sets of retired players in 2003-2004-2005. Players are pictured on card designs from their playing days but with different photos than were in the originals. Here are my favorites, alphabetically.

2003 #68

1975 design. Not wild about the border colors on this one (red on orange for the team name?) but it's a nice shot of a young Bill Madlock and it's a Cubs card.

2005 #86

1964 design. Juan looks so sweet here. Not so sweet to face him in 1964. He struck out 206 and only walked 52, winning 21 and losing only 8.

2003 #1

1955 design. Great design , super great player. No complaints here. Next!

2003 #83

1957 design. Remember when the Pirates were good? Bill does. In 1957 he hit a career high .283 but it was not a good year for the Pirates in '57. They finished tied with my Cubbies at 62-92 and in last place, 33 games behind the eventual World Series Champion Milwaukee Braves.

2003 #90

1965 design. For some reason the Cardinals cards always look particularly good. That being said I like this card for the goofy looking Tim McCarver.

2003 #132

1968 design. Not my most favorite card but Willie's a Hall of Famer and I like the Giant's green on the 1968 design. This is one case where the original is actually better.

2004 #85

1968 design. Sam had an ERA of 1.81 in 1968. That was good for second in the AL behind teammate Luis Tiant but Sudden Sam went only 15-14. If I'm not mistaken he lost twelve games in which the Indians scored no more than one run.

2005 #56

1965 design. The last man to win 30 games in a season, McLain went 16-6 in 1965. Don't you love the glasses? I think Denny borrowed them from Floyd the barber.

2005 #80

1970 design. I believe it's right that the players are not the slaves of the baseball owners but I miss the days when the same guys were on your team together for a longer time.

2005 #110

1978 design. Rick was an All-Star in 1978 and the Dodgers made it to the World Series.

2005 #123

1960 design. This is the design of Topps Heritage in 2010. Personally, I like it. As for this card, you can't do any better than Stan the Man.