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AL All-Star update

Ace Rothstein wrote:Get'um

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Ace Rothstein wrote:Get'um

For years, when Glenn Hubbard would find his 1984 Fleer baseball card in his fan mail, he would keep it for himself and sign a replacement card instead. Hubbard, who played 12 seasons as a second baseman for Atlanta and Oakland, wanted to take the card off the market, one by one.

“I used to hate that card,” said Hubbard, now the bench coach for the Class A Lexington Legends in Kentucky. “My son sent me a site that said it was one of the top five worst cards of all time, and I said, ‘O.K., I’m glad I’m known for that.’ ”

The Legends will commemorate the infamous card with a bobblehead giveaway at Whitaker Bank Ballpark on Friday. The mini-Hubbard is depicted with a bushy beard and a boa constrictor draped around his shoulders, just as he was on April 17, 1983.

Before the Braves’ game in Philadelphia that day, the Phillies staged a birthday celebration for the Phanatic, which made its debut in 1978. As at any 5-year-old’s birthday party, there were balloons, cartoon characters, a petting zoo and party favors.

All fans 14 and under received a Phanatic growth-chart poster. Hubbard received an embarrassing baseball card, after asking a photographer to snap his picture with an eight-foot reptilian friend. As a boy, Hubbard had a snake for a pet and knew how to hold it safely.

“He took the picture and I said, ‘Can you send me one?’ and he sent me an 8-by-10. I didn’t think anything about it. So I go to spring training and a kid comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, can you sign this card?’ And it’s a snake card!”

Hubbard did not know the photographer was on a freelance assignment for Fleer, which used the image for Hubbard’s next card. The background is a blizzard of the bizarre — a giant inflatable Phanatic, a man in a Barney Rubble costume, two red balloons — but the snake made the shot indelible.

Hubbard, 58, still seems incredulous that the team would give out a bobblehead of his likeness; his family is coming up from Atlanta for the event. Hubbard was a .244 career hitter but played for three Hall of Fame managers — Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre — and owns World Series rings from three organizations.

“Listen, they give bobbleheads to guys that were great players. I played a lot of years in the big leagues and I could say I played there, but I wasn’t a great player by any means. All the things I’ve had happen, I can’t help but look in the mirror and say, ‘Man, you’ve been in the right place at the right time.’ ”

Of course, Hubbard never knew that the right place to earn a bobblehead would be 33 years ago, at Veterans Stadium, with a snake at a mascot’s birthday party.

Polar Bear Phan wrote:Given what happened tonight, we're going to need to replace KC Royals with Chicago Cubs in the 2017 thread. Believe it...

td11 wrote:Whole Camels just keeps on gettin better

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