Today's Tony Gwynn: 04/30/10

Mr. Padre with former Giant and Indian Brett Butler.

Today's Tony Gwynn is a '94 Fleer #711

Archi! (Guest Post by Alex Kasendorf)

Today's Friars on Cardboard is a guest piece from husband, father of one- soon to be two, attorney, all-around good guy and driver of the sexiest Volvo you've ever seen, Alex Kasendorf. Enjoy.

Angelo Dominic Cianfrocco . . . who? ARCHI! Yes, you remember him . . . played a little first but mostly at third for the Friars in the mid-nineties. Started as an Expos but was traded to the Padres in 1993 for Tim Scott. Always loved this guy. Although his stats were never great, he played hard and had a few timely knocks.

Both Archi and my dad are from New York, which is why I think my dad took to him. Whenever Archi would play, my dad would get a little glimmer in his eye and shout “Archi!” That is probably why I have fond memories of the guy. Sitting at the Q, sucking down soda, peanuts and licorice, cheering on the local nine, with my dad. Not many memories beat that.

Some Archi tidbits: While playing for the Padres, had multiple fan clubs, including "Archi's Army" and the "CianfrocCrew". On Hall of Fame Weekend August 4, 1997, won the Home Run Derby in Cooperstown. He also was the Padres' batter facing Tom Browning when the Cincinnati Reds pitcher broke his arm while delivering a pitch.



Alexander S. Kasendorf is a senior associate with Alpert, Barr & Grant. You can view his bio here.

Today's Tony Gwynn: 04/29/10

I really like this particular one. Not only is it an "Opening Day" limited run, but it got trimmed short and the top got notched by whatever the machine they use to crimp packs shut is called.

Today's Tony Gwynn is a 2000 Topps (Opening Day) #2.

More Trevor- This Time He's... Bunting?

Here's another card of Trevor that cracks me up. I mean, as a closer, he needs to be able to bunt about as much as he needs to wear catcher's gear. I guess he just enjoys having fun with the mundane, be it finding new ways to pass the time in the bullpen or just screwing around with photographers.

I really miss having this guy around, but that's not to say I don't hope we light him up this weekend if it comes down to it.

Today's Tony Gwynn: 04/28/10

Since I got seventy-some new Tonys last week in addition to the metric shit-ton I already had, I thought it would be a good idea to post a daily Mr. Padre card to go along with whatever other crap I put up on this stupid little nerdblog. "Today's Tony Gwynn" seemed like a good name for the series as I've become closely associated with the initials "TTG" over the years...

Today's Tony Gwynn is a '97 Select, #3.

The Swing

As I was looking through a stack of Tonys, I noticed how consistent his swing was in all of them, from the 80s 'til he retired. The body changed but the swing remained the same. I arranged about a dozen of them flipbook style, from the beginning of his swing through his follow-through. Pictured above is my favorite portion of the sequence.

Ben Davis, But Mostly J.R. House

Every time I see or hear about Ben Davis, I think of him bunting for a hit to wreck Schilling's (Schilling?!?!) no-hitter and it warms my heart every time. That's not what I like most about this card, though- and no, I'm not a Ramon Castro fan, either...When I was a student at South Charleston (WV) High School, J.R. House was the quarterback for our rival Nitro. Dude was a big friggin' deal; when he graduated, he held the national record for career HS passing yardage and once threw ten touchdowns in the state championship- a national record that still stands. He didn't play baseball for Nitro; his father conveniently owned another car dealership near an elite baseball school in Florida so young J.R. would move back and forth between semesters. I think that high school athletes are allowed to do that is total B.S. and undermines the very idea of education but I suppose that's neither here nor there. After a slew or surgeries and a pair of tiny September cups of coffee with the Pirates, they cut him loose and he spent a year at WVU as a clipboard holder before getting back into baseball. He's had a scattered bit of ML experience the last few years with the O's and 'stros and is now in the Braves system. I always feel bad for guys like him who are characterized as disappointments for not living up to a bar set ridiculously high. All I know is that he's played in more ML games than anyone I've heard criticize him has, so I suppose they can just suck on that.

You Write The Caption Contest, Volume 1

I have no idea what to say about this, so I'm putting it off on you. I'm pretty poor, so I'll just send you, the winner, some cards that you in particularly would like and you can guest-author a spot and tell me what cards to post for a week. That sounds good, right? Now go blow up the comments; contest ends Thursday at 12:01am PST.

P.S.: Happy Holiday if you celebrate. That's all.

Rickey Steals The Show

Nobody can say Rickey doesn't have a flair for the dramatic. Let's set the scene: Last day of the 2001 season; it's a day-long celebration of Tony The Gwynn in his final game and Rickey steals the show by collecting his 3000th hit. In a publicly-unseen display, Rickey apologized to Tony for inadvertantly upstaging him. In all fairness, it wasn't his fault that's when it happened to happen.

Couple O' Shoutouts

Just thought I'd throw out a couple of shoutouts before I go get a delicious five dollar footlong...
Until I pulled this card the other day, I'd forgotten about this guy. He was part of the deal, along with Bay and Ollie Perez that brought a certain womanbeater back home. One person that I imagine didn't forget about him is everybody's favorite Gaslamp Baller and all-around good guy (who spells his first name the right way)...

...and here's one for Timmy of Timmy's World fame. A couple of months ago, he requested a J.J Furmaniak card and, while I don't have any of him as a Padre, I got this one the other day. I know he was in the A's system in 2008 because he absolutely killed the Missions every time he played against them in MLB '08 (I was playing in career mode and suuuucked enough to spend the entire season in Double-A ball).

Champagne Wishes, Klesko Dreams

I had a dream last night about Ryan Klesko. I dreamed that he was back in the Majors ala Jim Edmonds, playing out another season with the Giants. Maybe it's because I've spent the past few evenings flipping through his cards or- no, that's the only possible reason. God, it's good to see him just as a reminder of how much worse it could be.

It's Been A Minute

The last few days, I've been going through my friend Sheezy's collection, pulling out the Padres. So far it's taken a few days and I've pulled gems like this autographed Krukkie that I didn't already have and 75 Tony Gwynns.

I garnered thirty-some new Kleskos and my friend Bobby suggested that I do a post on his many facial hair styles, so there's that.

Needless to say, I have absolutely zero excuse for not updating now.