Saturday, July 7, 2018

The Last Time We Saw Tim......

was almost two and a half years since I last posted a new Tim Beckham baseball card.  He was one of my favorite Durham Bulls players for awhile, but then a few things happened that slowed down the flow of his cards into my collection.

Here was the last card from January of 2016.



Here are three quick reasons for the dearth of Beckham baseball cards......


1. Beckham stopped signing cards.  It has been four years since he had a certified autograph, which was in a Panini product.  The last certified autograph Beckham had in a licensed product was his 2012 Bowman Platinum autograph.  I tried to buy one of those once.  Seriously, the guy wanted $200.  


I wonder if anyone ever actually bought this card?  There is one currently listed on COMC, but its $40, which is still about twice as much as one should pay for a Tim Beckham autograph.  


2.  I actually took a vacation from talking about Beckham around Rays and Durham Bulls fans on social media.  Did I know that the Rays drafted Beckham in front of Buster Posey?  Did you know that Buster Posey has won a bunch of World Series with the Giants?  I did know all of that, but none of that makes Beckham a terrible person.  




Not sure that certain people around Tampa cannot help lump the two players together.  Absolutely brutal comments on these sorts of things.  I wonder what would have happened to Sam Bowie, guy drafted in front of Michael Jordan,. if he played during an era where there was social media.  

3. Beckham was traded to the Orioles last year and he had a great stretch for the team at the end of last year.  In 50 games in Baltimore, Beckham hit 10 home runs, 13 doubles, 26 RBIs, with an OPS of .871.  There were some Rays fans that were pretty silent.  




I tried starting a Beck-O-Meter, based on the Shawon-O-Meter......




from the Cubs games while Shawon Dunston was their shortstop.  At first the Beck-O-Meter was a success.  I expanded to include some stats outside of just batting average....





but unfortunately, Beckham has been injured most of this year.  The stats are low, but it's also a pretty small sample size at this point.  Just 30 games.  Maybe after break.  


Which brings me to the good news, which is that Tim Beckham is back signing in Topps products again this year.  There are three different sets in which he appears so far, I have managed two of his autographs.  Although, you know that in today's day and age there are about seven different colored variations of each of these cards.  

I am just happy to have two new Tim Beckham autographs.  




This is my favorite of the two new cards.  I worked on putting together the 1983 inserts from the Topps Series 1 earlier in the year, and included a few autographs as I was putting those cards together.  I am not sold on doing the same for Series 2, but I am still going to pick up another autograph or two.  This card, with the number 1 inscription, was the number one card on my list.  

The signature is a little off center, but Beckham signed the card on the lighter backgrounded side of the card.  Kind of considerate.  




The next card is a little bit nicer, in terms of brand.  I really do like the 1983 Topps style card the best.  This is out of Tier One, which seems like a little bit high end for Beckham.  In fact, the whole reason I tracked this card down was because I saw a few case breakers complaining about the fact that they pulled a "utility infielder" out of a pack that cost $125.  

That's why I do not open boxes/packs that cost that much.  I do appreciate the autograph though.  


3 comments:

  1. 24 players were chosen before Mike Trout.
    401 players were chosen before Albert Pujols.
    One thousand, three hundred, and eighty nine players were chosen before Mike Piazza.

    I do not expect any of those players to ever join Trout, Pujols, and Piazza in the Hall of Fame.

    The baseball draft is not like the NBA one, where you have a good idea of who the superstars are. It's mostly a crapshoot. So going on about how a player was chosen over a superstar is just absurd.

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  2. When I returned to the hobby... Beckham had just been drafted... or was just about to be drafted. Anyways... I remember after being the #1 pick, I really wanted his autograph. Don't think I ever did. That 2018 Topps 1983 might be a good place to start. Great looking card.

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  3. Tim Beckham has to be one of the most forgettable players in Bulls' history. There was a lot of controversy that surrounded him. There were a lot of rumblings about Beckham and the demise of Hak-Ju Lee's career. It was rumored that Lee had beaten him out in ST and Beckham made an errant throw on a potential double play that caused Lee to get off balance and blew out his knee. He was never the same after that and was soon out of baseball. Also he was one of the worst signers in Bulls' history. I chased him for years and only after his second suspension for a violation of baseball's substance abuse policy did he become even decent. I finally got him a couple of times right after his return but Beckham returned to his sullen ways.

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