Rick Monday saves the flag. How about a better Monday card?
Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 3:21 pmI recently joined one of 2cityfan's well thought out expansion era franchise theme leagues and voluntarily got (saddled with) the Cubs.
I was considering Rick Monday as a CF option.
I looked up Monday's career at
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mondari01.shtml
and it got me thinking about the famous incident in Dodger Stadium when he saved the flag when playing for the Cubs. The 26th anniversary of that great play was last week. I can't watch it enough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=IrV8QPQAhxo
While I realize that there are no hard and fast criteria for deciding who gets a card and/or the card that is issued (other than requests made in this forum as with Fidrych, Score and others), even without the flag incident Monday is deserving of a better card. Monday had a 19 year MLB career and in his prime was considered one of the best defensive CFers in the game. In addition to being a fine defensive player, Monday's bat had some pop, as evidenced by his 241 career HRs in a pitching dominated era. His best current card, although usable in the lower cap leagues, does not represent one of his 3 best seasons and rarely gets drafted.
It almost goes without saying that there are MANY players with great cards here who had shorter careers with lesser numbers. In addition, there are some players with multiple cards who are viewed by some as having negatively impacted the integrity of the game (Joe Jackson, Pete Rose).
Although the passage of time may have dimmed our memories of Monday's great play on that sunny April Southern California day 26 years ago, it remains as arguably one of the most electric moments in the history of sports. In an age of negativity surrounding athletes, it represents much that is good about sports.
Monday's career is worthy of a better card. The incident where he saved the flag is icing on the cake.
Monday's best card is from the 1974 season when he hit .294 with 20 HRs, a .375 OBP and was a 1 in CF for the Cubs. How about adding that card to the ATG6 set?
I was considering Rick Monday as a CF option.
I looked up Monday's career at
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mondari01.shtml
and it got me thinking about the famous incident in Dodger Stadium when he saved the flag when playing for the Cubs. The 26th anniversary of that great play was last week. I can't watch it enough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=IrV8QPQAhxo
While I realize that there are no hard and fast criteria for deciding who gets a card and/or the card that is issued (other than requests made in this forum as with Fidrych, Score and others), even without the flag incident Monday is deserving of a better card. Monday had a 19 year MLB career and in his prime was considered one of the best defensive CFers in the game. In addition to being a fine defensive player, Monday's bat had some pop, as evidenced by his 241 career HRs in a pitching dominated era. His best current card, although usable in the lower cap leagues, does not represent one of his 3 best seasons and rarely gets drafted.
It almost goes without saying that there are MANY players with great cards here who had shorter careers with lesser numbers. In addition, there are some players with multiple cards who are viewed by some as having negatively impacted the integrity of the game (Joe Jackson, Pete Rose).
Although the passage of time may have dimmed our memories of Monday's great play on that sunny April Southern California day 26 years ago, it remains as arguably one of the most electric moments in the history of sports. In an age of negativity surrounding athletes, it represents much that is good about sports.
Monday's career is worthy of a better card. The incident where he saved the flag is icing on the cake.
Monday's best card is from the 1974 season when he hit .294 with 20 HRs, a .375 OBP and was a 1 in CF for the Cubs. How about adding that card to the ATG6 set?