* Remembrances of magazines past

Up on the roof…well, the attic actually. I was going through some stuff, trying to decide whether it’s time to lighten the load, so to speak.

I hve a bunch of Sports, Inside Sports, Baseball Quarterly, and other assorted titles, long gone from this mortal coil.

This one caught my eye: The July 1986 issue of Sport (“Summer Baseball Special”), in which Bill James’ cover story asks “Who Will Make it to the Hall of Fame — And Who Won’t.” The article was adapted from The Bill James Baseball Abstract, 1986

So let’s see how the father of sabremetrics fared:

He breaks the players down into categories: those born in or prior to 1947; 1948-51; 1952-55; and 1956 or later.

1947 or before

Rose, no, but not because of his failures on the field.
Seaver, yes
Carlton, yes
Reggie Jackson, yes
Nolan Ryan, yes
Phil Neikro, yes
Fingers, yes
Sutton, yes
Al Oliver, no
Bob Boone, no
Jose Cruz, no

1948-1951

Schmidt, yes
Garvey, no. James: “There is very little question he’ll get in.”
Ted Simmons, no
Dave Parker, no
Guidry, no
Cecil Cooper, no
Gossage, yes
Concepcion, no
Blylevn, no
Winfield, yes
Grich, no

1952-1955

George Brett, yes
Rice, yes
Sutter, yes
Gary Carter, yes
Robin Yount, yes
Jack Morris, no
Dawson, no
Scot McGregor, no
Frank Tanana, no
Jack Clark, no

1956 or later

Dale Murphy, no
Eddie Murray, yes
Boggs, yes
Ripken, yes
Dave Stieb, no
Lance Parrish, no
Lou Whitaker, no
Mario Soto, no
Dave Righetti, no

Kind of cool in an “If I knew then what I know now…” way.

The other piece I hauled out was Baseball Quarterly, a short-lived publication published by Rick Cerrone (the baseball PR guy, not the Yankees; catcher). This particular issue features articles by Dan Schlossberg, Barry Horn, and Lawrence S. Ritter (of The Glory of Their Times fame). There’s an editorial assistant listed as “Keith Olbermenn”; wonder if that’s actually Keith Olbermann. Nice pieces but, with all dues respect, non Halberstam of Angell. At the time (Winter 1977) I was a young pup and pretty much bought anything that had baseball in the title.

This issue also included a “full-color 1977 Yankees poster which, miraculously, is still intact within the magazine. wonder how much it’s worth.

One of the things I anejoy just as much as the articles is the advertisements. The styles, the prices, the products. For example, in BQ, an ad offers 500 assorted cards from the 1971 Topps set for $13.50. Another merchant sold the complete 1978 set for $11.95 (plus postage, of course). And there’s a layput for Vitalis pump hairspray for men; I actually used that.