What a card: This is the final Topps card of Tug McGraw issued during his career. It's a pretty good finale.
My observation on the front: McGraw was 40 years old when he stepped away from baseball. He looks pretty good for a 40-year-old in this photo. Unless (*ahem*) Topps used an old shot. Not that they would do that.
More opinion from me: Everything about this card and photo looks dated to someone who is 30 or younger. But it looks perfectly natural to me. Bring back the baby blues and the red belts.
Something you might know: The screwball lefty who exclaimed "Ya Gotta Believe" with the Mets in 1973 and leapt into the air after getting the final out for the Phillies in the 1980 World Series was one of the most quotable players of all-time, the father of country star Tim McGraw, and left us too soon at age 59.
Something you might not know: Maybe you knew it, but I didn't until just now: McGraw's nickname "Tug" came about because of his breast-feeding style as an infant. His mom called him "the little tugger."
My observation on the back: McGraw's two books featured a comic strip character (Scroogie) and a children's book cartoon baseball (Lumpy). "Scroogie" appeared in my hometown newspaper when I was a kid.
The blog wants to speak now: The Ballgames and News categories are updated.
I freakin' love Scroogie! He's my avatar at many places on the internet. I seem to be the only person who knows of that comic, despite it being well before my time. I can thank my dad's epic geekery for that. Got to remember borrow his Scroogie books and scan them for blog/twitter/tumblr/something postings. It was a great comic.
ReplyDeleteI loved Scroogie as a kid! Reading the comics and baseball were my two favorite things. Combining them together was Nirvana! I was devastated when the strip came to an end (I think Scroogie was released by his team? Or did he sign with another team?). Ahhhh, to be 6 again.
ReplyDeleteYes to the baby blues and the red belts! With all the alternate-day-game-holiday variation uniforms going around these days, surely the Phils could find a reason to bring back the baby blues.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm the proud owner of the Lumpy book. I'll have to break it out for my kids one of these nights.