Looking Back: Zellers Expos Baseball Pro Tips - Tim Raines

I'm posting this in advance of tomorrow's announcement where I hope to hear that Tim Raines has been elected to the Hall of Fame.


Having grown up in Ottawa, just two hours away from Montreal, the Expos were the closest team for me to follow in the newspapers, on radio and on television. My father also took me to Montreal for games a few times a year.


Tim Raines was a disruptive force on the basepaths. The scoreboard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal used to have a cartoon chicken show up on the screen, accompanied by the sound of a clucking chicken anytime a pitcher threw over to a base to try and pick off a runner, or just to keep them close. Every time the pitcher threw over, another chicken appeared on the scoreboard. It was a sound you would often hear when Tim Raines was on base.


He was a great base-stealer and lead-off man, overshadowed by playing at the same time as Rickey Henderson, the best ever in those roles.


With Raines having led the National League in stolen bases in 1981, it was only natural that he would be featured with sliding tips in the 1982 Zellers set.

The card backs should be read from right to left to match the card photos above

An unfortunate side-note to go with these cards is that Tim Raines had a cocaine problem in 1982. He entered into a substance abuse facility at the end of the season. Raines testified at the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials that he used to keep his vial of cocaine in his hip pocket so as to not leave it in his locker, and would use a headfirst slide to not break the vial.


Having re-signed with the Expos for the 2001 season, Raines was traded near the end of the season to the Baltimore Orioles where he was able to play a game with his son, Tim Raines, Jr. They became the second father-son duo to play together in the same lineup on the same team, after the Griffeys.


Best wishes to Tim Raines for tomorrow's announcement!

Looking Back: Zellers Expos Baseball Pro Tips - Pitchers

With the Mets having their big wildcard game tonight...


Let's Go Mets!!!


...I figured that I might as well post a second batch of Zellers Expos Baseball Pro Tips from 1982.


Today we'll look at tips from Expos pitchers found on the following cards:


2A - 2C: Steve Rogers, Pitching Stance
12A - 12C: Woodie Fryman, Holding the Runner - Left Handed
15A - 15C: Bill Gullickson, The Slurve
17A - 17C: Scott Sanderson, Fielding as a Pitcher
20A - 20C: Ray Burris, Holding the Runner - Right Handed


Steve Rogers was a five-time All Star pitcher that pitched for the Montreal Expos from 1973-1985. He won 19 games for the Expos in 1982, leading the National League in ERA at 2.40.

Remember to read the tips from right to left to match the card photo above

As I said last post, I was primarily a catcher when I played baseball. I pitched some Little League games, but I think that was just because I could throw strikes, not because I was a dominating pitcher.


I don't think that I ever used the pitching rubber properly according to these tips. I remember varying my pitching stance many times - sometimes pitching from the corner of the rubber, and sometimes starting in the middle or the rubber looking straight ahead. As I said, I felt that I was in there to throw strikes, not to throw power.


Woodie Fryman pitched two stints with the Expos, from 1975-76, and 1978-83. I remember seeing him pitch in relief a few times, and he was another childhood favorite. He pitched in the majors until the age of 42.

Not only did these tips not apply to me since I threw right-handed, but at my level of Little League when these cards came out we weren't allowed to lead off base with our smaller diamonds. As I got older and progressed to a full-size field, I realized that lefties were harder to judge with their pick-off moves. I also remember a lot of balks being called on lefties that were trying too hard to disguise their pick-of moves and didn't move their leg properly to first base.


Bill Gullickson broke into the majors with the Expos in 1979 and pitched with them through 1985. It is funny that I remember him as being a strikeout pitcher, but that really isn't the case other than his then rookie record of 18 strikeouts in a game in 1980. (Finally broken by Kerry Wood's 20 in 1988.)

I like how the back of card 15A (far right) is written from Gullickson's voice. I also like that the cards warn young pitchers to not throw breaking balls until their arms are fully developed. We heard that as kids but still tried to throw curves, sliders and knuckles with our friends when playing catch.


Scott Sanderson pitched for the Expos from 1978 to 1983, the beginning of his 19 year playing career in the majors. A career 0.959 fielder, he had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in 1981, the year preceding these cards.

How many people remember all those practices where they had to learn where to go to back up wherever the throw was going to go? All that running... Now how many people get frustrated when simple things like backing up a throw are not done when you've learned to do that all your baseball playing days? It is funny when you watch games and they miss the fundamentals.


Ray Burris pitched for seven teams in his 15 year major league career, pitching in 99 games with the Expos from 1981-1983. I really only remember him from his baseball cards.

Oops, cut the edge too closely on the right of this scan

I don't remember pitching that much when I got older and runners were allowed to take leads, so I'm sure that I didn't have a very good move to first. I do know that as a catcher I liked when my pitchers could help keep the runners close.


To wrap up this post, it is in the news that Tim Tebow will be playing for Scottsdale in the Arizona Fall League. I will be travelling there at the end of the month for one of my mother's milestone birthdays. I think I'll have to go to one of the games while I'm there.

Looking back: Zellers Expos Baseball Pro Tips - Gary Carter

When I was a kid a new mall opened up in my neighborhood, the Herongate Mall in Ottawa. (Searching online, it opened in 1981.) There were all sorts of great stores, including a pet store to look at, and a cookie place that introduced me to double chocolate cookies. One of the anchors of the mall was a Zellers department store.


The following summer, Zellers paired with the Montreal Expos and put out a 60 card set of Baseball Pro Tips. Cards were distributed in 20 panels of three cards.


I remember making my way to the mall to get the cards, especially the Gary Carter ones! I don't remember how they were given away, but imagine it wasn't with purchase because I don't think that I would have had as many as I did. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have figured that of course I had collected the whole set at the time, separating the panels into their individual cards, and putting elastics around them with the rest of my cards at the time.


I recently picked up a full set of cards still attached in panels. Looking at them, I'm now sure that I didn't have them all. I didn't remember there being 20 panels/60 cards. I'm still sure I had all the Carters, but a lot of the others seem new to me.


I hope to eventually show all of the cards, but this post will look at those of my hero, Gary Carter.


Gary Carter had five of the twenty panels, broken down as follows:


Cards 1A - 1C - Catching Position
Cards 6A - 6C - Fielding Pop Fouls
Cards 13A - 13C - Fielding Low Balls
Cards 16A - 16C - Catching Stance
Cards 19A - 19C - Hitting Stride

Remember to read the tips from right to left to match the card photo above

I was a catcher in Little League. I wore number 8 whenever I could get it. And I tried to follow the advice on these cards. Signs, though, they didn't come into play until I was older.

I was so happy when I became old enough to actually have a separate mask and helmet, as opposed to the mask that was fixed on the helmet that covered my whole head. I just felt so much more like a real catcher when I was able to just pull the mask off and throw it aside.

I remember going to practices and having the coach pull me aside to practice blocking errant balls. He had a bucket of tennis balls that he would toss in the dirt right in front of me. Good times!


I credit catching with making me not afraid of the ball. Later in life, in a men's baseball league, I often led my team in being hit by pitches because I wouldn't really make a serious effort getting out of the way. I would twist my body enough to make it look to the umpire that I was trying to avoid the ball but had no problem letting myself get hit in the arm or the thigh. I once remember an opposing catcher trying to call me out to the ump as not having tried to move out of the way but the ump still gave me first base. BTW, the other catcher was right!

Over the years my stance changed dramatically as I tried emulating what I saw other catchers do on tv. I can't say that I ever mastered Tony Pena's style of sitting on one leg with the other extended outwards, I really wasn't that flexible. Do a Google search for it - I can't see how that would be comfortable.


Now, I only played around with other stances when there wasn't anybody on base. If there was a runner on base I would be prepared to shift my body to throw to whatever base I might need to.


As for the hand placement, as a kid my throwing hand would be solidly behind my back. As I got older, and when I played in the men's league, my hand would mostly hang behind my right leg/shin. That got me in trouble once when instinct took over and made me grab for a foul tip that jammed my thumb nail into my thumb. That hurt.

Hey, how did a hitting card sneak in here?


I was a good hitter, with good hand-eye coordination that was mostly a contact hitter when I was young that developed power when I got bigger.


As with most Canadians, I think my baseball swing was influenced by my hockey playing. I shot left in hockey, and batted left in baseball. Like a lot of left-handed batters I liked the low ball.


And writing all of this has made me realize just how much I miss playing baseball.


The tips on these cards seem so basic now but I know that I loved reading them when I was a kid.


And of course, seeing these tips remind me of another avenue of instruction that I had as a kid with another catcher, Johnny Bench. Does anyone else remember "The Baseball Bunch"? What other avenues of baseball instructional tips do people remember?