The Worst Card of 2012

I put together several sets during the course of a year.  Since I started blogging this year, I had been writing up a nice little snippet about each set giving some pluses and negatives.  A few weeks back Topps released it's 2012 version of their Allen & Ginter product.  Immediately I began to assemble the set, but was taken back by a name on the list: Don Denkinger.

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Don Denkinger

For those who are not familiar with the legend of Don Denkinger I will gladly catch you up.  During the 1985 World Series, Denkinger was a part of the umpiring crew calling the I-70 series between the Cardinals and Royals.  The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-2 series led and were winning the sixth game heading into the ninth inning.  The first batter of the inning was Jorge Orta.  He hit a slow roller to first base where it was fielded by Jack Clark and flipped to Todd Worrell covering at first base.  Denkinger incorrectly called Orta safe.  Orta eventually came around to score to tie the game and later the Royals would win the game.  

The next night the Cardinals had to deal with Denkinger as the home plate umpire.  Hard to believe, but he tossed Juaquin Andujar and Whitey Herzog early in the game and the Cardinals lost the series.  Now, I am aware that there have been plenty of bad calls in recent baseball history.  However, none of them cost a player or team as much as Denkinger cost the Cardinals that season.  It's pretty hard to believe that an umpire who caused that much harm would be celebrated with a baseball card.  Way to lay an egg Topps.