14 April 2012

sportscaster goodness: what's your opinion of kingman's card?

first - i have updated the first installment in the sportscaster goodness posts which dealt with the dugout seats, keeping score, and vin scully.  i added a link to dylan hernandez's column from the other day which touched on some of those topics as well.

now then - i, for one, applaud dave kingman's performance on his 1977-79 sportscaster card which shows kong signing autographs in dodger stadium!
maybe he's signing the farmer john ad!  here's the back, which is refreshingly direct in its prose about kingman
kingman, of course, let his bat do the talking in a game against the dodgers in which he hit three homers.  and, it was tommy lasorda who more famously did the talking in a post game q&a session.

speaking of kingman and homers, he finished his career well above 400, which would have earned him a mention on this sportscaster card
instead, it's the duke of flatbush who gets the honor.  i am fairly sure that the photo used is from the 1959 world series in which the duke hit his 11th and final career world series home run. those 11 dingers, of course, did not count towards his membership in the 400-homer club.  if they had, he would have had exactly 400 as a dodger.  well, i guess technically he did have 400 as a dodger, just not all in the regular season.  here's the back
for the record, there are currently 47 players who have hit over 400 home runs for their career.  kingman is 38th on that list, and snider is low man at 47.  paul konerko needs just 4 homers this year to join the club.  back to kingman for a moment - his sportscaster card reminded me of one of my favorite non-dodger dodger stadium cards - the 1998 upper deck vladimir guerrero card
super cool.  oh, and vladdy has 449 homers to his name - 7 more than kingman.

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