Today is Bake McBride’s 63rd birthday. Arnold Ray “Bake” McBride was the 1974 Rookie Of the Year after batting .309 with 30 stolen bases in 150 games for the Cardinals. He was an All-Star in 1976, played in the 1980 World Series with the Phillies and finished his career with a .299 average. He ranks 24th among the Phillies all-time batting average leaders (.292).
The photo on the card is obviously a Spring Training shot, and I’m guessing the building in the background is a hotel (my hunch says Hilton). At first I thought the guys doing something on the ground were from the grounds crew, but it looks like they’re wearing Cardinal uniforms so I have no idea what they’re doing.
I featured Bake McBride’s rookie card in the Hostess Card Of The Week post from two weeks ago, only in that post I was focusing in part on one of his card mates, Rich Bladt, who had been traded along with Elliott Maddox, who was the subject of that week’s card:
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My prediction for the Super Bowl (Not that I’ll be watching…):
Niners 24, Ravens 21.
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At this point I’m going to revive a “feature” that may not be thrilling to many (or any) of you, but when my great uncle Beauregard was on his deathbed, I promised him that I would carry on with this….
Yes, it’s time for Weigh-in #45, this time we’re tracking my progress since 12/2/12. I find that it making my progress a matter of public record helps to motivate (or shame) me, even if nobody reads them. This time around, I feel good about what’s going on.
Net change in the collection: -1,311 (since 12/2: 557 added, 1585 purged)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: -8,904 (since 12/2: 530 in, 66 out)
Total # of cards which have left the house: 13,688
Number of cards tracked in my Access database: 20,418 (up from 4,740… I’m very happy with the organization that accompanies this surge)
The Shlabotnik Report 
Happy b day bake, i pray you see this message personally. from an old friend who wonders what might have been???