Pittsburgh Pirates

Archive for February, 2010

Some Great Teams and Some Not So Great Teams
This posting was compiled after the the 2005 Season ended.
From 1919 to 1964 The New York Yankees had a winning season every year except 1925. Their two best years were 1939 of DiMaggio and Dickey when they were 106-45, a 702 winning percentage. Even better the Yankees of 1927 had a 714 winning percentage. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig had something to do with that. The Yankees have scored 79,003 runs since they have been a major league team. They have surrendered 68,192 runs.
The highest all time winning percentages teams. The Yankees are first at 567% followed by The Giants at 540% The Dodgers at 524%. Then there is the Cardinals at 517 followed by The Red Sox at 515% and The Cubs at 514%. Yes The Cubs is accurate.
The lowest winning percentages are The Devil Rays at 401 % followed by The Padres at 459 % and The Phillies at a 468 winning percentage.
While looking at futility from 1930 to 1943 the St Louis Browns had a bit of a slump. They had a losing record every year and for the 14 years finished with 715 wins and 1325 losses ( 350 winning percentage ). Their high water or should I say low water mark of 111 losses came in 1939. In 1946 they started losing again. From and including 1946 through 1956 they were 645 1048 for a 380 winning percentage.
The Phillies have their own sad story. From 1918 to 1931 they had a 786 1310 record. Every year was a losing one. In 1932 they had a winning record only to return to losing again in 1933. This continued to 1948. During this time they had an 888 1555 record. A 363 winning percentage.
The A’s of Philadelphia won 736 games from 1934 to 1946. They also lost 1245 games.During these 13 years their winning percentage was 372. The city of Brotherly Love must have had some real dog days of summer with both their baseball teams suffering.
By contrast the Brooklyn Dodger won 1125 games and lost 656 from 1946 to 1956. During this 11 year period they finished first or second every year except one when they ended up in third place. Their six pennants and one World Series typified their 631 winning percentage during this time frame.
Other Facts The Boston Red Sox have a 500-496 record against the Yankees at home. When playing in New York the Red Sox are 399-582.
The Cubs have a home record of 4453-3716 and an away record of 3762-4333.
The Red Sox have an all time record of 8358-7885.

There are many ways to ensure that your players perform better on the baseball diamond. It is important that baseball coaches are aware of coaching tips that they can impart to their players. You will see that these youth baseball coaching tips will make a difference in the performance of your team and your enjoyment of the season.

Here are a few youth baseball coaching tips that will improve the team’s play:

Defensive Mentality – One of the premier youth baseball coaching tips concerns itself with your team’s defensive mentality. You must ensure, as a coach, that your team is prepared defensively on what to do with the ball on every pitch to the plate. The best preparation is to instruct your players to ask themselves these questions prior to every pitch when they are out on the field, and the opposing team is up at bat. The question is: “What do I do if I get the ball on the ground, in the air, and on a line.” Your players should also remind themselves about the number of outs, often talking on the field to make sure the team is on the same page. These defensive mentality questions will keep your players more alert and prepared to make the correct play if the ball is hit their way.

Pitch to the Target – One of the better youth baseball coaching tips concerns pitchers and their focus. One of the keys in pitching is to throw to the catcher’s target. You must instruct your pitchers to key their eyes focused on the catcher’s glove throughout their windup and through the release of the ball. Many pitchers lose eye contact with the catcher’s glove, accounting for their inaccurate pitches. Similarly, a catcher should practice giving the right target for the pitcher and learn how to frame the pitch to help his pitcher be successful. Often catching technique is overlooked and it is wise to prepare a good array of youth baseball catcher’s drills.

Focus on the Release Point – One of the best youth baseball coaching tips concerns itself with the discipline of hitting. A key to hitting is the ability to pick up the speed and spin of the ball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. As a coach, you must instruct your hitters to focus on the release point of the pitcher. The focus needs to concentrate on the ball as it comes out of the pitcher’s hand. Batters must not allow themselves to be duped by a fancy windup or other deceptive attempts on the part of the pitcher to hide the ball from the batter until it is released. The later that the ball is picked up by the batter, the less time for the batter to identity the type, speed and location of the pitch as it travels to the plate.

While this is just a quick distillation of basic youth baseball coaching tips focusing on fielding, pitching and hitting, it is surprising how often baseball coaches lose focus of these basics. There are many elaborate baseball drill libraries on the Internet such as those at Weplay. While a coach should select a variety of age-appropriate drills for coaching his team, focusing on these basics and making them fun for the team will often lead to greater success.

In a sea of baseball and softball training devices some of the oldies but goodies get lost among the flashier designs.  Thing is old ideas stick around because they work.  So no matter how amazing that new training aid appears chances are it’s a new take on an old design or in many cases an old design will work just as well.  Today I’m talking about weighted baseballs and softballs.  This product remained pretty much unchanged and that’s probably because it’s a simple idea.  Add weight to the ball and strengthen your arm.  Truth is though it’s a bit more complicated than that which in turn will make your workout more rewarding.

Weighted baseballs and softballs come in all sorts of colors and sets.  You can even buy them individually, which is nice if you lose one I guess.  Most people would look at this product and immediately say it’s a pitchers training device and to be honest that is who will benefit the most from using them but everyone on the field throws the ball so the entire team can actually use this product and get results.

In the past weighted ball sets seemed a little pricey.  I mean come on, all they are is heavier versions of the real thing.  In fact most of them sport synthetic leather covers which should really make them less expensive than their tournament quality counterparts.  They are a specialty item though and thus the higher price tag.  That doesn’t mean you have to break the bank though.

Here is what to look for.  First off buy a set.  You need to gradually increase the weight to ensure you do not injure your arm by quickly over doing it.  Second you should make sure you buy a color coded set.  If they are color coded after a few workouts you’ll remember which color is which weight and you’ll save time picking up each ball and trying to determine which is which.  Third get the largest set you can afford.  A more gradual increase in weight is the best way to utilize this type of product.

There is one more thing you should know before I show you the two sets I recommend.  Weight… how much does an official baseball weigh?… how about a softball?  This information is critical otherwise you won’t know what you’re doing.  Official 9″ baseballs weigh 5 ounces and official 12″ softballs weight 6.8 ounces.  Ok now you’re ready to shop. 

Allow me to point you in the right direction.  There are a couple of relatively new sets on the market that come affordably priced and fully loaded.  Let’s look at the baseball set first.

The Weighted Baseball Set to the left comes complete with 9 training balls weighing from 4 oz. To 12 oz. And a nylon carrying case for under $50.00.

To the right is a Weighted Softball Set that comes complete with 8 training balls weighing from 5 oz. To 12 oz. And a nylon carrying case for under $60.

Both of these sets are perfect for developing arm strength and more.  You’ll notice that each set comes with balls that are lighter than the official game balls.  You may ask how these help to develop arm strength.  That’s a good question.  Well they don’t.

What I mean is that the lighter weight balls are not used in the actual arm strengthening they are used to develop better throwing skills.  Once you have progressed with the heavier balls you use the lighter weight balls to develop better ball control.  The lighter weight makes them more sensitive to the way you hold and throw the ball.

So weighted baseballs and softballs offer a good training program for pitchers and fielders alike for an economical price.  They can be used to develop both arm strength and ball control. 

You can find a complete selection of weighted baseballs and softballs, including the two sets pictured above along with competitive pricing on all of your other athletic needs at www.morleyathletic.com.

Steroids are a dark mark on the legacy of baseball.  By no means is baseball the only sport that has been infected with the disease of performance enhancing drugs.   Sprinters have tested positive long before any baseball players were even thought to have been using steroids.  Professional football locker rooms have been infected with all manner of performance enhancing drugs since the late 1970’s.  What hurt baseball more was the way that steroids were brought to light, and how players continue to be exposed as performance enhancing drug users.  Baseball in the mid nineties seemed to be forgotten.  After a long and painful labor dispute a large portion of baseball’s fan base were turned off.  Attendance and television ratings were way down and it appeared that baseball might fall to the level of NHL hockey.  Yet, there is something that brought fans back in large numbers.  The home run.  The most exciting play in baseball.  Nothing is more exciting than seeing a hitter crush a long fly ball which screams over the outfield fence.  During the late 1990’s the home run was back, and the fans were watching.   Legendary home run records were being broken, and the ultimate home run mark, of 715 held by Hank Aaron and once by Ruth, was being approached and challenged.  The problem is that baseball came back and is now once again popular due to performance enhancing drugs.  Baseball, in a way, owes the illegal narcotic for its success.One of the problems with baseball’s spoiled blood bargain with steroids is that they are sending mixed signals to all those training to be a future ball players.  Baseball has been forced to support anti-steroid campaigns, but it still has a culture of encouraging upcoming players to gain a pharmaceutical edge.  Future prospects are faced with a tough decision of gaining an edge through steroids or watching teammates who are using outperform them on the field.  The decision is still being placed on prospects and high school athletes because baseball refuses to draw a hard line in the sand banning illegal and harmful performance enhancing drugs.  The current policy of three strikes and your out is laughable at best.  There are hardly any long term repercussions if a player is found using. What baseball needs to do is to support healthy supplements.  There are supplements on the market that will help a player to add muscle mass, and improve their physical conditioning.  Creatine is an excellent example.  Creatine hasn’t been proven to have any long term medical side effects.  Creatine is a substance that is naturally produced in your body.  It is also not a steroid.  Creatine just helps players to lift weights more often, without suffering such drastic lactic acid build up in their muscles which causes soreness.  Many people are reluctant to take any supplements fearing that the supplement will become banned and they will be retroactively guilty.  If baseball would come out and support the healthy training drugs, like Creatine, and ensure people that they won’t be punished for searching for a legal performance edge; then it would lessen the pressure that players feel to either take no supplements at all, or go all the way to using illegal performance enhancing drugs.  Competitive people play baseball, and they are looking for an edge.  They shouldn’t fell afraid to use legal supplements to train.  If baseball wants to get the steroids out of the game, then they need to help young players know just what they can take to get an edge.

Fans put their very best efforts in to finding the greatest assortment of baseball products that they can add to their collections. Some of the searching techniques for these baseball products might take them and several of their friends on baseball products shopping trips to every baseball team location throughout the United States.
Some of these fans might go a little overboard in their baseball memorabilia collecting efforts. They start by buying the small things like baseball caps, and baseball gloves, and before you know it they want to try to collect every bumper sticker from every baseball team that they can put their hands on.
Their need to show their team spirit might get a little out of hand at times, but when they go on these baseball products shopping trips they all get a little excited. They are inspired by the baseball products that they see on websites throughout the Internet, that promote what they say is the largest collection of baseball products memorabilia in the entire United States.
Some of the baseball products that they find through these web portals are meant to help new players with their pitching speeds, and fans get truly inspired by this, because they at least want to get their speed to 103. Some of these dedicated fans will really enjoy the opportunity to own digital imagine binoculars that would bring all game they see up close, and very personal.
Other fans go on baseball products shopping trips to help improve their swing, and end up buying quality baseball products that bounce, spin, and zing across the playing fields. These consistent and very durable products are made of full grain cow leather hide, and nobody is really ever sure about what the baseball manufacturers put inside of them.
By the time these fans return back home from their baseball products shopping trips, their automobiles will be heavy weighted with all sorts of baseball memorabilia products that they noticed on all sides of the street. The shops with the colorful banners and watches, kept their attentions for quite a while as they talked to their respected manufacturers in lengthy detail.
There were fans that took advantage of the time on the road, to spend the downtime reading about skill tips, and strategy ideas that major league baseball coaches followed throughout the season. The time on the baseball shopping trips was never wasted because all of the baseball gear that was collected was bought to help players and kids learn all about baseball.
These baseball fans are devoted to spreading the word about baseball. While on their baseball products shopping trips, they make it a point to stop by every retail location they can, to search the aisles carefully for baseball products that can motivate the future players of their favorite sport. There are many things out there for them to choose from too, so they know that the kids in their fair cities will be running the bases and hitting homeruns every Summer starting in June.

The Vancouver Capilanos (taking their name after a former Western International League team) are a new men’s junior baseball team playing out of Hillcrest Park in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In conjunction with Vancouver Community Baseball, The Vancouver Capilanos will be the newest team to enter the 2010 Mens Junior League. The age range is 19 to 24 and the schedule is  one game a week with home games at Hillcrest park. A mid week practise will be held weekly. Travel is solely in the Lower Mainland. All games scheduled are weekends with the Capilanos home games most likely on Sunday afternoons. Cost to play will be $250.00 for a 12 to 15 game schedule plus play offs. This is a wooden bat league.

The completion is above average and we will carry 12 to 18 players. Tryouts will commence in the spring and the games will begin mid April. Please contact Hank Gourlay if you have serious interest. Players should either have played AAA Midget baseball or Premier League.

To learn more about the Vancouver Capilanos or if you are interested in trying out for this team, please click here to visit the team’s official website.

The British Columbia Minor Baseball Association was organized in the fall of 1963 at a meeting in New Westminster, British Columbia. Ninety interested baseball enthusiasts were present at this first meeting. The new organization grew out of a desire to develop a provincial association that could determine its own policies and affiliation guidelines to deal with local interests and concerns. The Vancouver Capilanos are proud to be playing in a league with such longstanding history.

So your child plays baseball and you want him or her to have the best baseball gear like youth baseball bats. Of course you need to make sure that he or she has the appropriate baseball equipment so they can play at their best. Since the primary equipment that your child should have is a baseball bat, it is important to choose the right one. When choosing youth baseball bats, it is essential to consider the length, weight, width and league requirements. These factors are the key to choosing the perfect baseball bat that will fit your child’s playing ability. Though there are a whole lot of choices in the market, today, finding the right one can be very beneficial.It is recommended to choose baseball bats that are the lightest for their length but you also need to make sure that this is not an issue with the league your child is playing in. Some leagues require that this should not be more than minus 10. For example, if the bat is 29 inches in length it cannot weigh less than 19 ounces. Choosing the right weight to length will make sure that your child gets maximum swing speed. However, light youth baseball bats cost more than heavier baseball bats that are often made from thicker and cheaper-grade aluminum or wood. While wood baseball bats are available and are also inexpensive, aluminum or cutting-edge alloy youth baseball bats are a better choice because of their lighter weight and they are a lot less likely to crack.Another factor that should be considered is the length. It is important to understand that the longer the bat, the more plate coverage your child will have. However, longer bats are usually heavier. It is important that when choosing the right length to make sure that your child can reach the outside of the plate. If they crowd the plate too much they have a higher chance of getting hit with the pitch. This can cause them to be scared of the ball and start backing out before the pitch reaches the plate. Aside from the length, another thing that needs to be considered is the youth baseball bats barrel size. Baseball is a game of inches. The bigger the barrel the better. Bigger barrels allow your child to get more bat on the ball. Note that most youth baseball leagues require that the bat should be no more than 2 and 5/8 inches in diameter.Choosing youth baseball bats can be a hard job and if you don’t know what you are looking for, you might not choose the best youth baseball bat for your child. Shopping can be a real headache because you usually cannot try out the bat before you buy it. Most sporting goods stores will not have batting cages inside of them. It’s a good thing to have your child try another child’s bat out to find the right length to weight ratio before you buy if possible.For you to have the right picture of what youth baseball bats are right for your child, you can look for professional help online by simply browsing the internet for detailed information on the bat you are thinking about purchasing.

The information you’re about to read about is not available anywhere else in the world. No one has ever combined baseball skills with martial arts training and developed a “system” integrating the two disciplines. Feel free to search the world via the internet trying to find this combination. You won’t find anything because it’s never been done before. I started playing baseball at age 8. As a talented player in my teens and twenties I played on traveling baseball all-star teams while also competing in, and winning, martial arts tournaments. During this time I developed a unique and innovative “system” that integrated my martial arts skills INTO my baseball skills. The results were amazing!I’m now 59 years of age and I still play over 80 games per year on an elite traveling senior softball team in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. All players are over 50 years old. I have worked on perfecting this unique “system” for over 40 years and it’s still very effective. I’m going to give you a glimpse into these “secret” techniques to help you improve your baseball hitting. You will be required to “think outside the box” with these techniques, but they have been proven to work. Let’s try a simple technique… Pick up your bat right now and get into your normal batting stance. Take a few swings using the normal physical movements you are used to. Take mental note of your body position in your stance. Now before you swing again consciously rotate your hips just 2 inches backwards, away from the pitcher. Think about this 2 inches in your mind as you’re in your stance. Feel these 2 inches. Now take your normal swing with this extra 2 inches of hip rotation. You will be able to “feel” the difference in your swing. This simple 2 inch change in your hip rotation has just added much more force to your normal hitting power. Your swing will feel much more “free.” This small 2 inch hip turn “frees” up your swing and adds more power when you make ball contact. It will take some time to adjust to this change and you must remember to consciously think about it each time you step to the plate. But once you become comfortable with this simple technique and it’s timing you will see a dramatic improvement in the power you generate with the bat. I guarantee it.In Okinawa Shorei-Ryu martial arts all power punches are thrown beginning at the hips. The fist starts next to the hip, and just before the point of contact the hip is turned in perfect timing with the fist. This hip turn generates tremendous force through the arm, out the fist, and into the target. The more the hip is turned, the more power the punch generates. I learned to apply this force generated with the martial arts hip turn into my baseball hitting and the results were amazing after just a short time of practice. If you take the time to practice this you will see a marked difference in the power you generate with the bat in a short period of time. Let’s take a look at another mental technique that can help you improve your hitting power…Okinawa Shorei-Ryu teaches us how to mentally “draw” power up from the ground and utilize it physically. When we throw a punch we mentally imagine our feet are rooted to the ground like a tree. We mentally “see in our mind” the roots attached to our feet anchored deep into the ground below us. This mental technique gives us what we call “ground power.” A punch thrown utilizing this mental technique increases the actual force generated physically. We mentally draw massive power from the ground and this generates more physical force into our strikes. It can also generate more force into a baseball bat. When in your batting stance mentally picture that your back foot (your push-off foot) has imaginary tree limbs attached to it and they are rooted deep into the ground. These tree roots are attached to the bottom of your foot. Think about how solid this “push-off” foot anchors your stance with these roots buried deep into the ground. Now when you begin your bat swing picture in your mind the massive power you are drawing up from the ground through these roots. This power is coming out of the ground, into your body, up through your arms and hands, and out into the bat. Picture it vividly in your mind. Work with the timing of your physical swing as you hold this picture in your mind. Practice it over and over. Once you get the physical timing tuned with the mental picture it will produce results for you. This technique takes practice to learn. Any new skill, mental or physical, takes practice. But the benefits it produces are well worth the time spent to utilize it. This technique has been practiced by martial artists for centuries and has been proven to work. And it will produce results when hitting a baseball. The next technique is simple, and can be learned in about 5 seconds. It is powerful and can be used immediately…Okinawa Shorei-Ryu martial artists improve their balance by learning to “grab the ground with their toes” prior to making a move. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But I’ll prove to you that it works.Stand in your normal batting stance again. Your weight should be evenly distributed between the balls of your feet and your heels. Most players never actually think about how this weight distribution affects their balance. But without good balance you cannot generate any true power. Now simply curl your toes downward and mentally and physically “grab the ground” below you with your toes. This is a very simple technique but when you curl your toes downward you will instantly “feel” more balanced and powerful. It’s a subtle feeling, but it’s there and you can feel it. Try it. Don’t strain to “grab” the ground, just do it easily. You’ll feel the increase in balance immediately. And when you swing the bat with this simple technique you are swinging with more balance in your stance.This is a technique that you can use immediately to add power to your hitting. Practice it.I’d like to talk about the importance of relaxation when in the batter’s box. Being able to relax until just the “right time” will improve your hitting with this next technique. Most batters are tense and rigid when standing in the batter’s box. The pressure is on to get a hit. But when you’re tense and rigid you cannot “transfer” and “release” your true power into the bat. When you swing and hit the ball in this state your power is “locked” inside you. You cannot “release” it properly with it’s full force. Muscular tension before your swing acts as a brake to powerful hitting. When a martial artist is fighting an opponent he learns to stay relaxed during the confrontation. By staying relaxed his physical movements are free and flowing and controlled. He has speed and quickness in a relaxed state. Muscular tension slows down all physical movements and restricts quickness and speed. But when he strikes he tenses all muscles in his body and delivers the blow with a “focused burst” of his total energy into the target upon contact. This relaxed state works extremely well when hitting a baseball also. While in your batting stance you should be totally relaxed, not tense and rigid. When the pitcher winds up and delivers the pitch and you decide to commit to swing at it you instantly tense all muscles and mentally “shoot” your energy out of the bat and into the ball at the point of impact. You mentally and physically “explode” all of your “focused energy” into the bat. By being relaxed before this point you are allowing all your power to “flow” into the bat in this “focused burst” of intense energy. By not being tense and rigid before this point you don’t “lock” your power inside you. When you’re relaxed up to this “explosive burst” you “release” all your power at the precise time of it’s total intensity. Your true power is transferred into the ball through the bat and a focused concentration of energy and power is produced.This may sound complicated to you at this point, but with dedicated practice it becomes very easy to master this technique. It’s a matter of timing the tension of the muscles with the exhalation of your breath at the precise moment you touch the ball with your bat. And once you become proficient at it you will quickly move up several levels in your hitting skills. For the first time in your life you begin to think of relaxing at the plate and “explosive bursts,” and “releasing” your power, and “focused energy.” You’re no longer tense and rigid with your power “locked” inside you. Once you’re exposed to this new way of thinking it grows on you. It stays in your mind. You begin thinking of it more and more and you begin to improve your skills. You see it’s true power. To end this sample of my “secret system” I would like to ask you a question. How good do you want to be, and how far are you willing to go to be the best you can be? When I was young I was not the best player on my teams. But I became one of the best on just about every team I ever played on. And I did this by outworking the more talented players. In my free time after school and baseball practice I decided to “practice on my own time.” I would go into the garage at our house and simply swing my bat 200 times each night by myself. I did this 7 days a week It only took 20-30 minutes. In one week I had swung my bat at least 1,400 times. In one month I had swung my bat over 5,600 times more than the rest of the players on my team. My hitting improved dramatically. Doing this can make a huge difference in your hitting? Practicing “on your own time” will make a huge difference in your skill level. Are you one of the few willing to put in this extra work? Most players won’t do this. But if you want to move up to the next level and you commit to doing this you will reap tremendous rewards. I guarantee it!

One of the most crucial aspects of improving your overall performance if you’re a baseball player is core strength training. Advanced core strength techniques will help you improve your overall balance, as well as reduce the chances of getting an injury while swinging, pitching, and throwing. These advanced core strength training tips can help you to become a great power hitter and help you to stay healthy and have a long lasting career.

Advanced core strength work outs are also beneficial for improving a person’s throwing or pitching ability. Strengthening your core isn’t just about being a power hitter, but about achieving an overall balance and improvement in all of the skills you use on the field. All of the skills and muscle movements involved in the game of baseball start in your midsection, which is your core. If you don’t have flexibility and strength in your abdominal muscles, your performance will be poor, and you may end up riding the bench.

The core consists of all the muscles that make up your abdomen and lower back. This particular group of muscles works together to help stabilize your body and help in the transferring of power from the legs to your upper body, and from your upper body back down to your legs. Advanced core strength exercises specifically target these groups of muscles and work to increase their strength, power, and efficiency.

One great advanced core strength exercise that will help you build some serious muscle is the deadlift. Doing deadlifts will help increase the strength in your lower back and will help you prevent injuries to that specific muscle group. These advanced core strength techniques will allow you to get maximum results, but should be done carefully. If these techniques aren’t done properly you can end up getting injured or cause any number of different problems and aggravations.

Another great advanced core strength technique is the lunge. Most people tend to think of the lunge as strictly a leg exercise, but this misses the fact that the lunge is a movement that when done perfectly, requires a lot of co-ordination and use from the trunk and core muscles area. There are a number of different variations of the lunge that can be performed which will really work your core.

A great way to develop solid core strength is to do bicycle crunches. This advanced core strength technique is great for working out and strengthening the rectus abdominus and the internal and external obliques. These exercises are great because they are very effective and easy to do. By implementing these into your abdominal workout you’re sure to gain a strong midsection.

If you’re planning a long lasting career in professional baseball, then placing emphasis on gaining core strength should be one of your top priorities. By putting together an advanced core strength training program you’ll become a more effective player and also prolong your career by avoiding injuries.

Baseball cards are one of the most enduring hobbies that can be found in the US. The many different teams and players all add to this rich history of baseball card collecting. While there are many companies that produce baseball cards the Topps baseball cards are considered to be among the finest. The cards that have been produced by this company have set the standard that many of us see as being the best way to get to know more about our favorite players.

The Topps baseball cards were first introduced to the public during 1951. At this time the baseball cards that were produced by this company were made in a red and black game oriented style. The size of the cards was also a standard which was to be followed thereafter. The current size of the modern Topps baseball cards is 2 ½ x 3 ½ card size. For the avid collectors there is a wealth of information that can be found on the reverse of these cards.

This is one of the traditions that the Topps baseball cards have never lost. Today as with the past cards the size and information all add up to having a great way to collect and still enjoy the art of collecting these cards. While all of the cards that are produced and released to the public by the Topps company these have yet to reach the level of reverence that the card sets of 1952 achieved.

The Topps Baseball Cards of 1952 are filled with lots of rich color and history of baseball cards. To make sure that card collectors enjoy getting a rich variety of baseball cards another baseball card manufacturer was bought over by the Topps Company. Today when you buy baseball cards either from Topps or Bowman you will purchase top (sorry about the unintentional pun) baseball cards.

For the lover of baseball, baseball games and baseball cards Topps Baseball cards come in a variety of editions. You will find that the current releases include baseball series cards, team cards, autographed baseball cards, gift sets, baseball hobby sets, and many others. All of these Topps baseball cards are made from the highest quality material and they are jam packed with all of the information which is required by baseball fans.

In the world of hobbies there is none that is more exciting than collecting baseball cards. You will find that the Topps baseball cards stand high above the competition. For the lover of baseball cards these are the baseball cards to buy. Topps baseball cards from Topps are the best.