Look, I am not implying that Ohtani’s career numbers are going to be anything special. I am simply saying that what he is doing RIGHT NOW is special. What makes it intriguing to me is the fact that we have become conditioned to just see a pitcher coming up in the nine hole, and the first thing we think is, “welp, there’s an out”. Don’t get me wrong, there are pitchers that can hold their own at the plate, but I have never seen anything close to this, and that is what makes it special. I am not looking at his past numbers, nor I am looking at what his career totals will be. I am looking at this current stretch and that is it.
If it were just a couple of weeks I would accredit it to just being “hot”, but this is a half a season where the man is looking like Barry Bonds at the plate minus the size 9 head. Add to that the fact that he is a Japanese player (somewhat rare in the league), a pitcher (as I referenced are not productive hitters in today’s game), fairly new to the league (look how long it takes most big time power guys to reach their peak), and does not have the physical attributes we normally associate with a power hitter. All that makes it pretty remarkable in my opinion.
Can’t help but root for the guy. Seems like a genuinely good dude. Gave all $150K of his home run derby winnings to 30 Angels staff . . . $5K each. Despite only making $3M in salary this year (probably a ton in endorsements).
Really like Ohtani! But how about Vladdy Jr! He’s going to be even better than his dad, who’s in the hall of fame of course. Jr has a triple crown chance!
Yeah, it’s like Ron Gant grew a Yu Darvish on his back, then.
Darvish is a good comp, though a bit better pitcher while having similar peripherals and rates.
and to be fair, 2020 was a wipeout for Ohtani he won’t be that bad again. Let’s upgrade the hitting comp to Ellis Burks. Good hitter with good speed, slashed 291/363/510, so lots of pop, one big huge peak season, no defensive value and a real history of injuries all through his career
So Ellis Darvish. Yu Burks sounds more fun. But Babe Ruth? Fugghedaboudit
Which maker/year did you get (I have a hard time with newer cards . . . don’t know much about them).
I have a thing with collecting rookie autographed cards of players. I looked at buying his Japan rookie autograph card on ebay . . . I thought I might go up to $1000, but I was quickly priced out and it sold for $8800.
2018 Topps Chrome, base, Heritage, Heritage Chrome, Fire, Holiday and Stadium Club mix plus some Diamond Kings. Thought I had a Bowman Chrome but it got sold before I could get it, that and a couple Optics. No autos, nothing high end, but I sold an 88 Fleer Jordan PSA9 to fund that and a couple megaboxes of 2021 Prizm NFL Draft and hit a bunch of nice stuff, 9 graders.
I was in 110 on the Jordan between acquisition and grading, will do $20/card grading at HGA for all the Ohtanis and NFL, so that’s about 500 more…should land 2500-3500 net across that group of 24 cards…then buy an Ohtani Auto with it, mayyybe?
It’s a lot easier dealing with fewer higher value cards, but if u put in the work, levering up from a few good finds is very satisfying.
Funny or sad story, however you want to look at it. In 1987, I was working in a drug store and the distributor came in with a couple of boxes of 1987 Topps baseball cards. I asked him how much it would cost to buy a box and he said he’d sell them to me at his cost, so I said I’d take a box (turns out it was Bonds Regular rookie card, although there is a Topps traded card in 1986).
Years later, I thought I did alright on the box, but as I was relaying the story to my cousin, who collected all sports, I told him about the box of unopened cards that from Bonds rookie year and also told him how the distributor who was removing all the unsold Basketball cards offered me 4 boxes of Fleer Basketball for the same price . . . I chuckled and told him no, I’ll stick with my Topps and I’ll stick with baseball . . . I wasn’t a fan of Fleer or basketball cards. My cousin then told me that it was MJ’s rookie year as the major companies didn’t make basketball cards in the early 1980’s.
Yeah, 1986 Fleer box was peaked at 250k earlier this year. Distribution of normal rates gets you 3 Jordan rookies and 3 Jordan stickers. PSA10 Jordan rook had a flash peak of 2 sales at 700k, settled back to 250k now. Hard to pull 10 even right from the pack, production quality was crap.
Way to crush him even more, Weasel. Shit, I’m kicking my damn self for waiting until 89 Hoops cards to start buying basketball cards after hearing that number.
It is what it is, it took almost 30 years before I realized the mistake I made, lol. I look at it as being no different than everyone else walking by a rack of 1986-1987 Basketball cards for sale and not buying them. I never bought a single pack of basketball cards and I also had never bought a new pack of Fleer cards (bought older baseball cards from the 1960’s).
