Dandy Daves and Davids

 My name is David.  Growing up that's all I ever remember being called.  At some point in college that changed and I started going, in greater part, by "Dave".  After that I reverted back and have always gone by the original.  The funny thing is, lots of people, particularly acquaintances and people I see in my job, automatically call me Dave. Though I find it interesting, I really don't mind.  I see it as a friendly nickname. I have no stories like that about all the guys below.  You'd have to ask them. 

Here's 3 NBA Hall of Famers.  All three were picked for both the 50th and 75th NBA Anniversary Teams.  All three were two time NBA Champs.

In 2016, Hall of Famer Dave Keon was voted the greatest Maple Leaf of all time.  He won four Stanley Cups in the 1960's.  Um, they haven't won one since.

If I'm correct there are only two baseball Hall of Famers with my given name, Dave Winfield and Dave Bancroft.  Incidentally, both of their Hall of Fame plaques list them as David.

I do have a story about Dave Winfield that relates to his name.  Click here.

This guy was sure fun to watch.  

While maybe not quite Hall worthy,  David Cone did have an outstanding career.

Sorry for the missing back.

Big Papi.  Hall of Fame?  We'll see.

You can't think about The Big Red Machine without thinking of Dave Concepcion.  You can make a Hall of Fame argument for him.  Some do.

I grew up a Cubs fan but the Orioles were on TV a lot during my childhood.  I have an affinity, particularly for the great American League teams of the era.  Dave, or Davey -- the way I think of him, comes to mind as readily as Brooks, Frank and Boog. 

Dave McNally was part of the Orioles great starting pitching staffs of the sixties and seventies.  From 1968-1973 he went 117-65 with a 2.91 ERA --and he wasn't even the ace of the team.

The Cobra was a fearsome hitter with a great arm.  Should he be in the Hall of Fame?  Talk among yourselves.

Rags had a great career, first as a starter and reliever, then as a pitching coach.

That's a lot of star power!  Who did I miss?

Thanks for reading.

Autographed Card A-Z John to Jones

When I got back into collecting five or so years ago one of the things that excited me was the availability of autographed cards.  Perhaps I went a little overboard but I think I picked up some nice cards.  This will be an A-Z series of posts with varying numbers of cards.

Tommy is 26th on the all-time wins list with 288.

 2003 UD Yankee Signature Series #PN-TJ

 2005 UD Past Time Pennants #TJ

Dave was part of the great Orioles teams of the 60's and 70's.

 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #FFA-DJ

 2005 Topps Rookie Cup #RC-DJ

This series is a lot of fun.  The signature is great.  Current wisdom is that the picture is of former Brewer and Blue Jay Tim Johnson.

 2006 Fleer Nickname Greats #NG-JJ

Cleon hit .340 for the 1969 Miracle Mets.

 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #FFA-CJ

Jones won 22 games and the NL Cy Young award in 1976.  The cover led me to check his splits for the year.  He went 16-3 in his first 21 starts (thus the headline).  Unfortunately he trailed off in the second half going just 6-11 in the next 19.  One of my favorite sets.

1999 Fleer SI

Blow Out the Candles -- Jan 30

Former player and manager Davey Johnson is celebrating his 68th birthday today.

 1968 Topps #273

As this card tells us, Davey got the last hit off Sandy Koufax.  It came in the sixth inning of Game 2 of the 1966 World Series.

Here's a brief video of Davey talking about it with a great line from Sandy:

Davey in Game 3 of the 1970 World Series.

Davey had some pretty nice accomplishments:

4× All-Star selection (1968, 1969, 1970, 1973)
3× World Series champion (1966, 1970, 1986)
3× Gold Glove Award winner (1969, 1970, 1971)
1973 NL Comeback Player of the Year
1997 AL Manager of the Year

In addition to his 4 World Series (2 wins) with the Orioles as a player,  Davey managed the 1986 Mets their second World Series Championship.

That's Davey just to the left of the Mets logo.

 Met's video featuring 1986 Topps cards

Comedian Dick Martin was born on this date in  1922.

Dick is best known for his work on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In which ran on ABC from 1968 to 1973.  For it's first two full seasons it was the #1 rated show in America.

October 11, 1968

Dick went on to a second career as a sitcom director.  He was the primary director on Newhart.