If You Build It, They Will Come

This will be the twelfth in series on the minor league managers of the different minor league teams from Iowa.  Today we will break down the Clinton Giants. The Giants existed from 1939-1941 and 1980-1993.  Many major leaguers have come through here, including Rob Deer, John Burkett, Matt Williams and Charlie Hayes.   Blondy Ryan 1939 Giants Manager(Giants affiliate) 18 cards in TCDB Chicago White Sox  ( 1930 ) New York Giants  ( 1933 – 1934 ) Philadelphia Phillies  ( 1935 ) New York Yankees  ( 1935 ) New York Giants  ( 1937 – 1938 ) Josh Billings 1940-41 Giants Manager(Giants affiliate) 1 cards in TCDB Cleveland Naps/Indians  ( 1913 – 1918 ) St. Louis Browns  ( 1919 – 1923 ) Wayne Cato 1980 Giants Manager (Giants affiliate) 3 cards in TCDB  Wendell Kim 1981-82 Giants Manager (Giants affiliate) 28 cards in TCDB San Francisco Giants  (1989–1996) Boston Red Sox  (1997–2000) Montreal Ex...

2021 Panini Prizm is now out, although I haven't seen it in the wild yet.  Well, that's not true.  I hit Wal-Mart on a restock, but had the kids in tow.  So...make the kids wait for three large boxes to get shelved and possibly get a Prizm box, or take the kids home and to the pool like I promised.  Pool won out over Prizm. Prizm is probably considered THE base set for football, and it is now July 2022.  Just ridiculous that it takes this long to get that set.  Still, lets look at the  Iowa Connections in 2021 Panini Prizm: #37 David Johnson - Northern Iowa #54 George Kittle - Iowa Hawkeyes #82 Kurt Warner - Northern Iowa #136 Allen Lazard - Iowa State #147 T.J. Hockenson - Iowa Hawkeyes #160 David Montgomery - Iowa State #200 Noah Fant - Iowa Hawkeyes #273 Joe Burrow - Ames #364 Kene Nwangwu - Iowa State #372 - Ihmir Smith-Marsette - Iowa Hawkeyes Notable exceptions include Tristan Wirfs/AJ Epenesa/Ike Boettger/Bryan Bulaga/Jake Gervase/Anthony Hitche...

 I'm in the process of digging through coaching staffs of the Iowa professional baseball teams (i.e. Iowa Cubs, Waterloo Bucks, etc.)  I also try to collect at least one card of every player who played for those teams.  I am force feeding my brain tons of new name to remember when digging through cards, and sometimes I'll cross some streams and get confused.  Which brings me to Chris Sabo. I have recently processed the major leaguers for Clarinda and Waterloo, while also finishing up coaches for teams and I ran into a Chris Sabo card.  Chris Sabo, for those of you who don't know him, was the third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds during their 1990 World Series year, and the guy who made googles on the field cool. I had his name in my head, and I thought maybe it had been on one of those Iowa Connections.  I remembered he played for Cedar Rapids, perhaps he coached there as well.  So I went to Google and typed "Chris Sabo ".  My heart skips a beat n...

  This will be the eleventh in series on the minor league managers of the different minor league teams from Iowa.  Today we will break down the Quad Cities Angels. The Angels existed from 1962 to 1978 and 1985-1991.  Many major leaguers have come through here, including Frank Tanana, R C Stevens, Jim Edmonds and Dante Bichette.   John Fitzpatrick 1962 Angels Manager (Angels affiliate) 9 cards in TCDB Pittsburgh Pirates  (1953–1955) Milwaukee Braves  (1958–1959) Chuck Tanner 1963-64 Angels Manager (Angels affiliate) 98 cards in TCDB As Player Milwaukee Braves  (1955–1957) Chicago Cubs  (1957–1958) Cleveland Indians  (1959–1960) Los Angeles Angels  (1961–1962) As Manager Chicago White Sox  (1970–1975) Oakland Athletics  (1976) Pittsburgh Pirates  (1977–1985) Atlanta Braves  (1986–1988) Harry Dunlop 1965-66 Angels Manager (Angels affiliate) 24 cards in TCDB Kansas City Royals  (1969–1975) Chicago Cubs  (19...

 While using DALL-E, it can create some interesting images, but the fails are pretty bad too.  Things melting into other things, faces being obfuscated badly, some slightly racist, and, well, baseball bats that look like other things (golf clubs at the best, male extensions at the worst).  Here are some that should go away ... but won't because I'm posting them here :)

  This will be the tenth in series on the minor league managers of the different minor league teams from Iowa.  Today we will break down the Clinton Pilots. The Pilots existed from 1914-1917 and 1966-1976.  Many major leaguers have come through here, including Gorman Thomas, Tom Kelly, Lou Marone and Bill Parksons.   The exciting find is Jim Leyland was the manager for three years in the 70s.  What was interesting about Leyland was that I saw one World Series title, which wasn't unexpected, but that it came with his short stint with Florida, not Detroit or Pittsburgh were we probably most associate him.   Bert Hough 1914 Pilots Manager 0 cards in TCDB George Manush 1915 Pilots Manager 1 cards in TCDB James Drohan 1916 Pilots  Manager  0 cards in TCDB  L. Brown 1916-17 Pilots Manager  0 cards in TCDB Frank Oceak 1966 Pilots Manager (Pirates affiliate) 5 cards in TCDB Pittsburgh Pirates  (1958–1964; 1970–1972)...