Brothers From Another Mother – C(h)ris Carpenter

1990 Upper Deck – Cris Carpenter

2010 Topps – Chris Carpenter

How we know they’re different people:

Cris Carpenter pitched for four different teams (St. Louis, Florida, Texas and Milwaukee) in a career that featured 291 Major League appearances between 1988 and 1996, 13 of which were starts.  He was a pretty middling middle reliever for a few years, and according to Baseball-Reference.com, had a similar career to Oscar Villarreal, John Frascatore, and Donn Pall, earning just over $2.2 million in the process.  Wikipedia tells us that he now teaches social studies at Gainesville High School in Gainesville, Georgia after.

Chris Carpenter was the 2005 National League Cy Young Award winner.  He has consistently been one of the best starting pitchers in the league when healthy, compiling a career record of 144-92.  He has been outstanding in the playoffs in helping the St. Louis Cardinals win two World Series titles (2006, 2011), and has career earnings of over $77 million.  He is currently on the disabled list battling back from yet another injury – thus far injuries have cost him the 2003 season as well as most of 2007 and 2008.  From all of this, it would seem that Cris and Chris Carpenter are actually different people.

How we’re not sure they’re different people because we’ve never seen them in the same room together:

Cris Carpenter was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays but spent the majority of his career, achieving the most success, with St. Louis.  Chris Carpenter was also drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays, but has spent the majority of his career, achieving the most success, with St. Louis.  This seems like too much of a coincidence to be true, doesn’t it?  You’d think he could have done more than just add an “h” in his name for the second go-round, which started in 1997, the year after “Cris Carpenter” retired.  Hmmm…

Pujols vs. Hatcher

2010 Topps Opening Day - Albert Pujols

1987 Topps - Mickey Hatcher

So, it would turn out that Albert Pujols is upset with Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher for revealing some pretty mundane details about a meeting Pujols had with other Angels hitters.  Probably something the hitting coach should avoid doing – what could he possibly gain from that?

However, did Albert Pujols have a card in 1987 Topps?  No, he did not, because he was seven years old in 1987.  Advantage, Hatcher.

There is some actual analysis of this situation and of Pujols’ season thus far over at Getting Blanked.

Amazing Airbrushing – 2010 Topps, Roy Halladay

2010 Topps - Roy Halladay

2010 Topps Opening Day - Roy Halladay

So, airbrushing has come a long way from the days of 1986 Topps.  The brutal (and I know, already well documented) part is that I can’t believe nobody at Topps thought to check to see if Halladay was going to actually wear 32 with Philadelphia.  I guess Steve Carlton had a pretty decent career, guess that’s why 32 didn’t end up being available.  I suppose his 329 career wins flew under Topps’ radar.

2010 Topps Update - Roy Halladay

At least they used a different photo for Topps Update.