Starting a Blog Bat-Around these days is kind of like announcing in 1989 that you just bought a vinyl record. Nobody cares, everyone's moved on to compact discs/TikTok.
But records came back, and are dumb expensive, so maybe blogging will, too. Anyway, this is a Blog Bat-Around for the seven of you that blog and care about this topic.
Not Another Baseball Card Blog has already kicked it off. This theme came from a Bluesky discussion and was specifically mentioned by Shlabotnik Report, I think. What are cards you like that feature a team you don't like?
This could get very involved for me. There are a lot of cards I like, often showing teams I root against. And my dislike for teams can spread like a disease covering two-thirds of major league franchises. It all depends on the baseball scene at the time, whether playoffs are involved, etc.
But to keep this manageable, I'll cover four or five teams. And most of the cards I'm showing are coming from childhood because that's when I either hadn't figured out my baseball enemies or allegiances were just forming.
Let's start at the beginning, in my first collecting year, and the cards I always think of first when this topic is raised.
It's amazing how many 1975 Topps Giants were my favorites during that year. That whole bottom row makes up the very height of special cards in that year, right with Bake McBride and Bernie Carbo. I think some of it has to do with the fact that I pulled all three of those cards while on vacation during the summer.
As for the top three, the D'Acquisto came out one of the first packs I ever purchased, the Steve Ontiveros is simply intriguing and the Chris Speier has always been super-cool.
It took some time for me to really dislike the Giants, my disgust might not have even fully kicked in until the late 1980s, but I think it was around as early as the late '70s.
The very first team to get on my bad side was the Yankees, yet look at all these 1975 Yankees that I've enjoyed for so many years. All except the Bill Sudakis were known to me in 1975 -- the Doc Medich, Elliott Maddox and Ron Blomberg cards were all part of childhood lore, heck Roy White, too.
I think the first time I took note of the Sudakis card was during my first trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame when I saw the full '75 set displayed before me.
The 1978 Topps Yankees are legend for kids who grew up in this era. Action images were still sporadic in the 1970s, limited to probably less than 50 cards. But in 1978, Topps decided to make almost three-fourths of the Yankees team set action-packed.
We loved those action shots back then (this was long before the action glut) and we definitely noticed the Yankees getting favored treatment. As a diehard Yankee hater by this point I was annoyed. So were my brothers. But the cards were super-appealing.
This was the king of those cards, at least for me. Guidry was enjoying a phenomenal season in 1978 and this card seemed to predict it.
1978 Topps is also a good time to bring up another team I don't like, because that team's cards really represented the time period well.
Everything about this card bellows '70s. The color scheme, the uniform, it's about the most '70s card you can find, which automatically means I love it.
The 1978 set also contained another Padre that I liked a lot at the time, Gene Richards. Just look at how far he's choking up on the bat.
Richards' other cards aren't quite as memorable to me, although I do like them.
What is going on here?
Another 1981 Fleer Padre card that I do like. Ozzie Smith escaped most my wrath despite spending his entire career team with two teams I did not like at all, the late 1970s Padres and especially the 1980s Cardinals. I disliked the '80s Cardinals so much that I'd rather see Smith's Padres cards.
But I'm leaving the Cardinals out of this discussion. Just two other teams to bring up. And I'll go back to 1975 for the next one.
The 1975 Topps Ralph Garr card has long been a favorite though I don't like the Braves. But my Braves dislike didn't start until 1982. This is another card that I saw for the first time in Cooperstown. It's also been the topic of several early blog posts.
My appreciation for Ralph Garr's cards shifted over into the 1976 set, even though this image couldn't be more opposite of the 1975 one.
Sometimes the photo is so good, the set is so good, it doesn't matter what team is being portrayed. I just naturally like the card. This is especially the case -- at least as far as the photo -- for 1990s sets, even a handful in the 2000s. With 1993 Upper Deck, your fan allegiance is almost meaningless when enjoying the cards.
And that goes for golden oldies sets and players, too. I can't possibly dislike a Willie Mays or Yogi Berra card, especially if it's in the 1956 set. But if I was around in the 1950s, they probably wouldn't be my favorite players.
Finally, the Diamondbacks. This odious team is still so new that there isn't a set out there that can save the subject. With the exception of a small handful of sets, Arizona has appeared on a whole bunch as useless as the team is to me.
But once in awhile something like this 2022 Carson Kelly night card comes along and I have to save it in a binder.
Even Gerardo Parra, who I disliked for a good 90-95 percent of his career, can appear on a card that I enjoy. Remember 2009 Topps, when it tried to make a set where the photos were distinct from each other (unfortunately the unreadable foil was a drawback)?
This post could go on-and-on with many other card examples and maybe even a couple more teams. But I think this is enough to show that every team produces good cards. Even the gross ones.
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