Card #11: Indians leaders
I like to think this baseball card — with wizened catcher Chris Bando, ageless knuckleballer Phil Niekro and, I assume, manager Pat Corrales all conversing — inspired the mound visit scene in “Major League.”
Choosing a Bando/Niekro picture didn’t seem to make much sense for a card mentioning the leaders of one of baseball’s most exciting young teams. Fueled by a lineup loaded with 20-somethings all performing well above the league average, the Indians won 84 games in 1986, their most victories since 1968. Sports Illustrated not only put Joe Carter and Cory Snyder on the cover of its 1987 baseball preview, it predicted the Indians would end their epic 38-year championship drought.
Card #12: Jeff Sellers
1987: 7-8, 5.28 ERA in 25 games (22 starts), 99 Ks, 1.59 WHIP
I’m going to do this a lot this year: Despite posting an ERA north of 5.00, bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen and making fewer than 25 starts, Sellers threw four complete games and two shutouts. Do you know how many pitchers threw four complete games and two shutouts last season? ONE!!!! Name him.
Anyway, this went down as Sellers’ most extensive big league action. Sellers, who looks young enough to still be getting carded at the Fort Myers bars in a photo that appears to have been taken in spring training, went 1-7 with a 4.83 ERA in his final season in 1988. He at least ended his career in impressively hard-luck fashion on Oct. 1, 1988, when Sellers carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Indians but took the loss when that hit went over the fence in a 1-0 defeat. Sellers was traded after the season to the Cincinnati Reds — in exchange for, no kidding, the guy who follows him in this set — but never pitched again due to arm trouble. His son, Justin, played in the majors for the Dodgers and Indians.
(Trivia answer: Johnny Cueto, again)
Card #13: Nick Esasky
1987: .272, 22 HRs, 59 RBIs, .327 OBP, .529 SLG
If you’re old enough to remember collecting this set, you remember Esasky as one of the decade’s most plaintive “what-if?” tales. Esasky had his best year yet in 1987 despite playing in just 100 games, leading people to wonder what he might do if he was ever healthy for a full season.
The Reds stopped wondering following the 1988 season, when they traded him to the Red Sox for a package that included JEFF SELLERS. Esasky finally had that full monstrous campaign in 1989, when he set career highs with a .277 average, 30 homers and 108 RBIs. He parlayed that into a three-year deal with the Braves, but played in just nine games in 1990 before suffering a career-ending bout of vertigo. According to this story from 2006, Esasky continued to battle vertigo in retirement. He also took up a far more serious fight as he tried to help his daughter recover from a meth addiction.
Card #14: Dave Stewart
1987: 20-13, 3.68 ERA in 37 starts, 205 Ks, 1.26 WHIP
Dennis Eckersley rightfully gets a lot of credit as a terrific low-cost pickup who helped fuel the Athletics’ mini-dynasty, but I’d argue Stewart was an even savvier pickup and more surprising superstar. Stewart, signed by the Athletics as a free agent after he was released by the Phillies in May 1986, had just 39 career wins entering 1987, when he emerged as an ace by recording the first of four straight 20-win seasons. Only one pitcher in the 21st century has won 20 games in as many as two straight seasons. Name him!
Stewart produced at a Hall of Fame level from 1987 through 1990, when he racked up 84 wins, 41 complete games and seven shutouts while producing a 3.21 ERA that was 20 percent better than the league average. He also earned a World Series ring in 1989 and won the ALCS MVP in 1990, when he capped a career’s worth of dominating Roger Clemens by driving the already-insane Rocket to melt down in the decisive game.
Of course, Stewart’s four best years came from ages 30 through 33, which meant he declined pretty quickly and he had no Hall of Fame case. But Stewart, who returned to work as a player agent after being fired as the Diamondbacks’ general manager following last season, would probably kick your ass if you said that to him.
(Trivia answer: Curt Schilling in 2001-2002)
Card #15: Claudell Washington
1987: .279, 9 HRs, 44 RBIs, 10 SBs, .336 OBP, .420 SLG
Washington was the baseball player version of a really good session musician who seems to pop up in every video you see. Had a pretty good career (16 seasons, 106 OPS+) in which he played for seven teams. He came up as a 19-year-old rookie in 1974 with the Athletics, who were on their way to a third straight World Series title. He offered a little bit of power and a lot of speed back in the days when 20/20 seasons were uncommon. He was on the Braves’ surprise division-winning team in 1982. He played twice for the Yankees, for whom he hit the 10,000th home run in franchise history. He got traded for Bobby Bonds and Ken Griffey and was a peer of Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. He was struck out 39 times by all-time strikeout king Nolan Ryan. He was disciplined for his role in the Pittsburgh drug trials. Most importantly, per Wikipedia, he was the guy who hit the foul ball Ferris Bueller caught on his day off. Not a bad run.
While his 1987 wasn’t all that impressive, Washington bounced back with one of the best seasons of his career in 1988, when he recorded an OPS+ of 120 in his age-33 season. He retired following the 1990 season and was, as of 2004, running a construction company in his native California.
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