Happy New Year from everyone at Nerd Central. Sadly enough, when I ran a Google image search for “Mets” and “champagne,” the best picture is this old:
Archive for December, 2009
Happy Nerd Year!
Thursday, December 31st, 2009 by I Love Nerd York CityChris Knapp
Monday, December 28th, 2009 by I Love Nerd York CityClick the stars to vote: 
(17 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)
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This is one of the more unsettling nerd cards I’ve come across. I’m not sure why, and I’m sure Mr. Knapp is a very nice man, but something about this picture is frightening.
Happy Holidays from Nerd Central
Thursday, December 24th, 2009 by I Love Nerd York City
Yes, Vorpy, there is a Santa Claus.
In 2007, Topps released a 14 card “Santa Claus” set. Some of them came with autographed Santa cards.
Happy Holidays.
Gene Walter
Monday, December 21st, 2009 by I Love Nerd York CityClick the stars to vote: 
(16 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
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Mr. Walter tied the AL record for most balks in a game, with 4, on July 18, 1988. The 1988 season proved to be Mr. Walter’s last in the majors, depite his card coming from the 1989 Topps set.
“Unquestionably” the best?
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 by Nerdicus FinchI like Jayson Stark and I really like Roy Halladay (I’ve spent many first round fantasy picks on Halladay over the past several years), but I think Stark really went overboard in his latest ESPN.com column.
In the column, which discusses the recent trade of Halladay to the Phillies, Stark had this to say about the former Cy Young winner:
He has been, unquestionably, the best starting pitcher in baseball for the last eight seasons.
I don’t necessarily disagree with Stark about Halladay, but to say that he’s been “unquestionably” the best is grossly overstating the case. When I read this, the first name I thought of was Johan Santana. Here are their numbers from 2002-2009:
Halladay: 130-59, 3.13 ERA, 1260 K, 1710 IP, 1.131 WHIP, 4.10 K/BB, 144 ERA+
Santana: 119-57, 2.89 ERA, 1641 K, 1580 IP, 1.064 WHIP, 4.07 K/BB, 153 ERA+
At first glance, it looks like Santana’s been the better pitcher, although it’s very close and Halladay’s extra 130 innings may be enough to put him ahead. Either way, I think it’s pretty obvious that Halladay is not “unquestionably” the best starting pitcher* of the last eight years.
*It may be possible that Stark is getting cute here, since Santana spent parts of the 2002 and 2003 seasons in the bullpen.
Steve Lake
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 by I Love Nerd York CityClick the stars to vote: (16 votes, average: 3.63 out of 5)
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Another strange card from our friend Paul’s collection. Paul explains:
“Steve Lake lists hobbies and interests as “Raising birds including Ruffles, pictured on the front of this card…restoring cars…likes to watch ESPN…49ers fan.” Ruffles is actually printed in boldface on the card.
Nerdicus Finch, with a last name that is also a noun, do I smell the opportunity for a Steve Lake funny card?
John Lowenstein
Monday, December 14th, 2009 by I Love Nerd York CityClick the stars to vote: (16 votes, average: 4.31 out of 5)
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According to Wikipedia:
In 1980, after being hit in the back of the neck on the basepaths with a thrown ball, Lowenstein was taken off the field on a stretcher, only to sit up abrubtly as he reached the dugout and pump his fists for the crowd.
Fred Breining
Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by I Love Nerd York CityClick the stars to vote: (20 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)
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Mr. Breining appeared to be in the middle of a decent career as a relief pitcher, when, according to Wikipedia, he blew out his shoulder throwing the ball to first base on a bunt attempt. The Expos lost an arm out of the bullpen, but future generations lost a career that promised to be chock-full-of-nerd cards.
Grow a ’stache
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 by Prof. Nerdtron 3000Is Clay Zavada…
- A reliever for the Arizona Diamondbacks?
- A bully who picked on Nerdtron in his youth?
- The Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year?
- Both 1 and 3
That’s right, in addition to putting together a nice 50+ innings in the desert, Zavada deservedly took home the Mustached American of the Year. The American Mustache Institute put out a press release, which included a curious claim about players sporting the ’stache.
The mustache’s enhancement of a player’s skills has stirred controversy in the sport as an internal report produced by Major League Baseball reportedly said it believes Zavada’s mustache was responsible for at least 42 of his 52 strikeouts in 2009
Here at Nerd Central we don’t hide our affection for those who tout the lip sweater a bit less gracefully than Zavada. So we went about investigating whether a mustache truly could improve a baseball player’s ability.
