tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57158565662490548342024-03-12T23:54:00.091-07:001987 Topps: 30 Years LaterJerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-65524761040569855712017-04-09T10:36:00.002-07:002017-04-09T10:38:04.243-07:00Cards 46-50<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #46: Danny Gladden</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gladdda01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats (w/Twins): .249, 8 HRs, 38 RBIs, 25 SBs, .312 OBP, .361 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Sometimes, a trade that barely registered in the small print of the transactions page is the turning point of a player’s career. Gladden didn’t necessarily become a better player after he was dealt from the Giants to the Twins (in a deal that involved four other players, only one of whom ever reached the majors). In fact, despite serving as a regular for most of his time in Minnesota, Gladden had a lower OPS+ with the Twins (90) than the Giants (106).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But Gladden became a vital part of two World Series-winning teams with the Twins. He hit a robust .314 during the 1987 postseason, which ended with the Twins outlasting the Cardinals in a seven-game World Series. Four years later, Gladden capped his Twins career in storybook fashion by racing home with the World Series-winning run in the 10th inning of one of the best games ever played, Minnesota’s 1-0 victory over the Braves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gladden also swiped at least 20 bases in each of his five seasons with the Twins to extend his streak of 20-steal seasons to seven. Only one player has stolen at least 20 bases in each of the last seven seasons. Name him! Most importantly, Gladden’s trade to Minnesota allowed him to fully grow out his glorious mullet, which he displayed on his 1987 Topps traded card and maintained for the duration of his stay in the Twin Cities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gladden ended his career by playing two more seasons with the Tigers before winning a title in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants in 1994. But his iconic status in Minnesota never wavered: He’s been a part of the Twins’ radio team since 2000. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(Trivia answer: Elvis Andrus)</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PLrJ1yL1mR0ykcXyieusRRSTmzISolUYnn70FAZUcpNxLX5chfOsg1yPg2FVx4HmpgHSJ9YU0BwE5FhyphenhyphensFylndZVvxhcLYojn4HcL1J2B0Bez9fi4b2EU8K9lCi9XyP_PFiizUPh61VE/s1600/Powell1987Topps-47.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PLrJ1yL1mR0ykcXyieusRRSTmzISolUYnn70FAZUcpNxLX5chfOsg1yPg2FVx4HmpgHSJ9YU0BwE5FhyphenhyphensFylndZVvxhcLYojn4HcL1J2B0Bez9fi4b2EU8K9lCi9XyP_PFiizUPh61VE/s320/Powell1987Topps-47.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #47: Dennis Powell</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/powelde01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats (w/Mariners): 1-3, 3.15 ERA in 16 games (three starts), 17 Ks, 1.37 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Powell, who was dealt from the Dodgers to the Mariners in the December 1986 trade that sent Matt Young (card no. 19) to Los Angeles, didn’t get a card in the 1987 Topps traded set even though he had the best of his swingman years in his first season with the Mariners. He made 20 starts at Triple-A but produced an ERA+ of 152 in the majors, by far the best mark of his eight-year career. The highlight of his season were consecutive starts in August in which he allowed five runs over 13 innings against the Yankees and Orioles.</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Powell made at least one start every season from 1985 through 1990, a stretch in which he went 7-20 with a 5.21 ERA for the Dodgers, Mariners and Brewers. Sadly, Powell dealt, on and off the field, <a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900622&slug=1078365">with the unfathomable tragedies</a> of losing three brothers and a cousin in separate car crashes in their Georgia hometown in 1989 and 1990.</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He spent the 1991 season in the minors before completing his major league career with the Mariners in 1992 and 1993, though Powell pitched professionally until 1996. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Dodgers/posts/10155975318268508">Powell currently represents the Dodgers at alumni events</a> throughout California.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #48: Wally Backman</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/backmwa01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: .250, 1 HR, 23 RBIs, 11 SBs, .307 OBP, .287 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There are 744 cards to go, but I don’t think there’s a card in the 1987 Topps set more befitting its player than Backman’s, which pictures him grimacing as he creates a Pig Pen-esque cloud of dust by sliding under a tag at the plate. That summed up Backman, the grimiest, scrappiest, peskiest player on a 1986 World Seres-winning team filled with grinders all looking for a fight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Backman’s career peaked in 1986, which proved to be the last season in which he collected as many as 400 plate appearances, but he remained a solid backup infielder into the early 1990s. His fieriness and ability to wring the most out of his abilities made him a natural future managerial candidate, and after five seasons as a minor league skipper, he seemed to reach the pinnacle when the Diamondbacks named him their manager following the 2004 season. <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=1916771">But he was fired just days later</a> after news of previous legal and financial troubles came to light (the Diamondbacks never ran a background check).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Backman went to the very bottom of the baseball ladder—independent leagues—to rebuild his managerial career and reputation and was rewarded in 2010, when the Mets hired him to manager their short-season Single-A affiliate in Brooklyn. He climbed the ladder to Triple-A Las Vegas in 2014, where he spent three successful seasons and developed a rabid cult-like following amongst a segment of fans that perpetually believed he was on the verge of replacing Terry Collins as the big league manager.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Alas, it was never happening for the fiery, profane Backman under Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, who jumpstarted the Moneyball trend of turning the manager into a yes-man whose sole job is implementing the general manager’s plan. And it’s hard to see it ever happening for Backman now that general managers are overlooking minor league managerial experience and hiring big-named ex-players just barely removed from their last big league at-bat or inning pitched. But in the fashion befitting the player pictured on a baseball card 30 years ago, <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/columnists/bob-klapisch/2017/01/10/klapisch-backman-says-mets-have-blackballed-him/96415678/">Backman is headed to Mexico this season</a>, where, despite knowing little Spanish, he’ll keep pursuing his dream by managing Monclova.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #49: Terry Harper</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/harpete01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats (w/the Tigers & Pirates): .246, 4 HRs, 17 RBIs, 1 SB, .329 OBP, .385 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I can’t lie: I don’t remember Terry Harper’s Topps Traded card, which pictured him as a member of a team other than the Braves for the first time. But I was impressed, here in 2017, that it showed him with the Pirates, the second of his 1987 teams, instead of the Tigers. It’s impossible to explain why this is a big deal if you weren’t 13 in 1987. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Anyway, I imagine Harper’s final big league season was a bittersweet one. He’d spent the first 13 years of his professional career with the Braves, which is no small feat in the free agency era, especially for a non-superstar. Harper was also traded to the Tigers (in exchange for pitchers Chuck Cary and Randy O’Neal) fresh off his two busiest big league seasons, a stretch in which he hit .262 with 25 homers and 102 RBIs over 244 games. That equated to an OPS+ of 99—perfectly average.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Harper collected just 130 at-bats in 1987 — his fewest since his rookie season in 1981 — and was traded from the playoff-bound Tigers to the last-place Pirates on June 26 for Shawn Holman, who made three big league appearances for the Tigers in 1989, and Pete Rice, who never reached the majors. But Harper <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT198710020.shtml">ended his career in pretty neat fashion on Oct, 2</a>, when he went 3-for-4 in his final game and singled in his last at-bat. That’s pretty cool. He played the 1988 season in Japan before retiring and <a href="https://traininglegends.com/about-us/">is now a hitting coach in the Atlanta area</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #50: Dave Smith</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: 2-3, 1.65 ERA in 50 games, 24 saves, 73 Ks, 1.00 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Smith was one of three closers to suffer through an agonizing postseason in 1986. But while Donnie Moore and Calvin Schiraldi never recovered from their blown saves in the AL Championship Series and World Series, respectively, Smith bounced back from his rough NL Championship Series (he went 0-1 with two blown saves in the Astros’ six-game loss to the Mets) by producing his finest big league season in 1987. He produced career-best marks in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio. His ERA+ was 239, which is absurd for any sample size. Yet he didn’t make the All-Star Game, despite pitching in the most pitcher-unfriendly season in decades. What's up with that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The 1987 season was the third of six straight seasons in which Smith recorded at least 30 saves while finishing with a sub-3.00 ERA. No pitcher has matched that feat the last six seasons, a stretch in which only one has recorded six 20-save seasons. Name him!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Following the 1990 season — the final season in his terrific stretch — Smith signed with the Cubs, for whom he recorded 17 saves and a 4.94 ERA in his final two big league campaigns. Smith spent two-plus seasons as a coach with the Padres before resigning to spend more time with his family in 2001, a few months after a stint in alcohol rehab. Sadly, <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=3776910">Smith died of an apparent heart attack in December 2008</a> and had his ashes spread out at sea by his friend and fellow former Padres coach Tim Flannery. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(Trivia answer: Craig Kimbrel)</i></span></div>
Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-59857198751722648292017-04-05T13:50:00.006-07:002017-04-05T13:50:47.367-07:00Tony Gwynn on the 2nd day of the season: 4/5/00<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">One of the most memorable interviews I ever conducted happened 17 years ago this afternoon, when I spoke with the late, great Tony Gwynn prior to the second game of the 2000 season at Shea Stadium. (Or, for the Mets. the fourth game of the season, but their second in the States—they opened 2000 with a two-game series against the Cubs in Japan)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Because I am Of A Certain Age, Gwynn was always one of my favorite players as a kid. And I’d always read and heard he was a good guy to reporters. Still, I was nervous as I approached him in the Padres’ dugout, because nothing is more crushing to a 20-something than finding out a childhood icon is a jerk. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I was briefly worried when I approached Gwynn, introduced myself and asked if he had a few minutes. He sized me up with a little bit of suspicion. “Whaddya want to talk about?” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All these years later, I don’t remember what I told him, but he agreed and moved over to make room on the bench. My first question was about getting his 3,000th hit the previous season, and we ended up chatting for a long time—appropriately enough, 3,000-something words, according to my partially edited transcript. But the most memorable part was asking Gwynn about Opening Day, and Gwynn going off on a terrific tangent about how the second day of the season was his favorite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ll post the whole interview, perhaps around the third anniversary of Gwynn’s untimely passing in June. But it is fitting to post Gwynn’s comments about the second day of the season today, because the second home game of the season fell on a Wednesday 17 years ago, too. Hope you enjoy it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>To a question about Opening Day:</b> As a vet, you know you have to harness it, because Opening Days are notorious for bringing out guys trying to do too much, instead of just doing what you do. And I think we kind of saw that in that game, even though both pitchers threw the ball really well, I think you saw guys trying to do too much, trying to lift a little bit, trying to hit a pitch they shouldn’t have been hitting, instead of doing what you normally do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And so experience tells me — and this is one of those Tony Gwynn quirks, I call ‘em — is that on Opening Day, everybody wants to be a part of Opening Day. They want to be a part of the hoopla, the anticipation of seeing the home team play, of just getting the dang season started. But I love the second day, because the second day is when you find out who’s who. The real fans will be at the game. There ain’t no hoopla. You’re there because you want to see your team play and you get a better idea of how things are going. Today is the real fan’s day. The real fans will be here. The players that you’re used to seeing will usually be here, because Opening Day, you’ve got the juices flowing, you want to do something big on Opening Day. Second day, you kind of get into the grind of, OK, we’ve got 160 left. I love the second day. Now, I love the second day whether it’s home or on the road. The home opener is great. The second day and all, whoop-dee-do, is when you find out, because that’s going to be your core fans. They’re going to be there. We’ll go home on Monday and we’ll play the Diamondbacks and it’ll be sold out, 60,000 people. And the second day, we’ll have 22, and it’s great. I love the second day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And that’s kind of why I’m bummed, because I ain’t playing today. Because this is the second day. My favorite day is the second day of the season, because you find out who’s who and all the hype and all the pressure guys feel (is gone).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><b>On the increased media presence of Opening Day:</b> Everybody was here stepping on you, kicking you. ‘Tony, can I ask you a question? Can I do this, can I do that?’ Fans all around yelling at their favorite. ‘Michael (Piazza)!’ ‘Rickey (Henderson)!’ Second day — look, this is when you find out who’s who. And I love the second day. I’ve always been like that. I’ve never been one to get caught up in hoopla, except for the World Series. That’s a little different. But during the opening part of the season, everybody wants to be a part of it. And you can’t blame the fans. It’s a special day, as far as they’re concerned. But for us old grinders, it’s the second day that’s the best day.</span>Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-19113412670010831462017-03-21T15:16:00.000-07:002017-03-21T15:16:14.907-07:00Cards 41-45<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFYmhKqFsBkQfrJ5zyUIA0A1mfGkGNTMvfrt8DdELvu9hGadHu5n8MkuByz2CW5kMvhx4MxpvJXQoBuq-ZGRbVIECzBMe_9tb74UoeU9Jbg6yHooH7dQkYTz_ZBmv_t24t7dbGktBigrV/s1600/BoDiaz1987Topps-41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFYmhKqFsBkQfrJ5zyUIA0A1mfGkGNTMvfrt8DdELvu9hGadHu5n8MkuByz2CW5kMvhx4MxpvJXQoBuq-ZGRbVIECzBMe_9tb74UoeU9Jbg6yHooH7dQkYTz_ZBmv_t24t7dbGktBigrV/s320/BoDiaz1987Topps-41.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #41: Bo Diaz</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/diazbo01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: .270, 15 HRs, 82 RBIs, .300 OBP, .421 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Greg Brock’s struggles with the Dodgers might have proved true the old adage that it’s easier to be the guy that follows the guy. Diaz’s success with the Reds might have proved true the new adage (just made up by me) that it’s easier to be the guy that follows the guy who followed the guy who followed the guy who followed the guy. Got all that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Diaz stopped the post-Johnny Bench revolving door at catcher for the Reds, who employed five different starting backstops in as many seasons before Diaz, whom Cincinnati acquired from the Phillies in August 1985, grabbed hold of the job in 1986. Playing under former teammate Pete Rose — the two were starters for the NL-winning Phillies in 1983, when Diaz hit a walk-off grand slam on Apr. 13 and delivered the game-winning RBI while catching Steve Carlton’s 300th career victory on Sept. 23 — Diaz played a whopping 274 games at catcher over the next two seasons (second-most among catchers, behind Terry Kennedy) and earned his second and final All-Star berth in 1987, when he finished with the second-most homers and RBIs of his career.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Chronic left knee injuries hampered Diaz over his final two big league seasons, but he was still harboring hope of signing with a club for the 1990 campaign when he was killed in a horrifying accident at his Venezuelan home on Nov. 23, 1989. Diaz was trying to install a satellite dish on the roof of his home when the dish slipped and crushed his neck and skull. He died instantly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #42: Gary Redus</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/redusga01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats (w/White Sox): .236, 12 HRs, 48 RBIs, 52 SBs, .328 OBP, .392 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A trade late in spring training in 1987 worked out a little better for Redus than it did for Joe Cowley. While Cowley’s control betrayed him to the point where he’d never throw another major league pitch, Redus played a career-high 130 games, set a career-high in stolen bases and spent the season in the thick of the AL’s only Rickey Henderson-free stolen base race of the 1980s. Redus ended up finishing third behind Harold Reynolds and Willie Wilson and well ahead of Henderson, who was limited to 41 steals due to various leg injuries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Despite the gaudy stolen base total, as well as the second-best homer and RBI total of his career, Redus was stretched as an everyday player, as indicated by an OPS+ of 89 and the fact he played in as many as 100 games just once over his final seven seasons. But he’s also a reminder of how much the game has changed in the last 30 years. Redus stole 223 bases between his major league debut in September 1982 and the end of the 1987 season. Guess how many players have stolen 223 bases in the last six seasons? None, though Rajai Davis (222) and Dee Gordon (218) came close. Nor did either Davis or Gordon ever hit for the highest single-season batting average in professional baseball history, which Redus did <a href="http://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/20959/in-78-redus-hit-462-season-for-the-ages">when he hit an absurd .462 for the Reds’ rookie-level Pioneer League club</a>. According to that very entertaining <a href="http://espn.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">ESPN.com</span></a> story, as of 2013, Redus resided in his native Alabama.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #43: Gene Michael</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/michage01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page (as manager)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 68-68 before resigning Sept. 8</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The second manager in the set is the second former Yankees manager. Detecting a trend here? While Dick Howser found a sane place to land following his firing by George Steinbrenner. Michael — who succeeded Howser as Yankees manager following the 1980 season and had two stints in the Bronx over the subsequent two seasons — traded one high-stress environment for another in 1986, when he accepted an offer to serve as the Cubs’ manager under boisterous general manager Dallas Green. The two battled almost immediately and Michael resigned — <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-09-08/sports/8703080127_1_cub-manager-cubs-president-dallas-green-gene-michael">by telling the press before Green</a> — on Sept. 8 after compiling a 114-124 record in one-plus seasons. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Michael got the last laugh, in more ways than one. By 1989, Green was managing the Yankees under Steinbrenner, who fired him after a mere 121 games. Michael landed back with the Yankees in 1990, when Steinbrenner named him general manager in the owner’s last move before beginning a “permanent” ban (it lasted less than three years) for <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-21/sports/sp-1022_1_general-manager">various nefarious activities</a> that everybody conveniently forgot once the Yankees started winning again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">With the impulsive Steinbrenner out of the picture, Michael oversaw a complete rebuild that allowed the “Core Five” — Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and the perpetually forgotten Bernie Williams — to remain with the Yankees long enough to build the late-‘90s dynasty. Of course, Steinbrenner was still Steinbrenner and demoted Michael following the 1994 season. Michael is still an advisor to general manager Brian Cashman but inexplicably has yet to receive a plaque in Monument Park for putting together the greatest baseball team in the last 40 years. Get on that, Yankees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #44: Greg Harris</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/harrigr01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: 5-10, 4.86 ERA in 42 games (19 starts), 106 Ks, 1.51 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Long before Pat Verditte, there was Greg Harris. And long before Harris became the first “switch-pitcher” of the 20th century, he pulled off a feat nobody had achieved in more than a decade. Harris recorded 20 saves for the Rangers in 1986 before making a then-career high 19 starts in 1987. In a reminder that specialization was well under way by the Reagan years, Harris’ 19 starts were the most in the decade by a a pitcher immediately after a 20-save season. The previous pitcher to start at least 19 games following a 20-save season? Goose Gossage, who led the league with 26 saves (!!!!) for the White Sox in 1975 before making 29 starts in 1976 (and presumably griping that the pitchers of 1976 had it much easier than the pitchers of 1975).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(Trivia: One pitcher has matched Harris’ feat in the last 10 seasons. Name him!)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Harris’ semi-foray into the rotation interrupted a terrific six-year run of yeoman-like relief work. Even with his subpar 1987 included, Harris produced a 3.19 ERA from 1984 through 1989, which was 27 percent better than the league average. He threw more than 100 innings of relief in the two seasons before and after his rotation stint. Harris then spent the majority of the 1990 and 1991 seasons in the Red Sox’ rotation before re-re-emerging as a dominant reliever in his age-36 and age-37 seasons in 1992 and 1993, when he recorded a 3.15 ERA (that’s an ERA+ of 141!) over 220 innings. For good measure, he made two starts, one of which he completed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dude was a machine, never moreso than in his penultimate big league appearance on Sept. 28, 1995, when the right-hander pitched as both a lefty and a righty in the same scoreless inning against the Reds. Did I mention he did it while wearing an Expos jersey and glasses as big as the ones I wore back in the day? Swag. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While Harris (who has a son, also named Greg, pitching in the minors for the Rays) capped his career by going ambidextrous, Verditte has made his career out of it. The natural right-hander began throwing with both hands as a seven-year-old and found encouragement in Harris’ ability to pull it off. According to <a href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/115977508/mlbs-last-switch-pitcher-greg-harris-is-a-big-fan-of-the-as-pat-venditte/">this 2015 story</a> at <a href="http://mlb.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">MLB.com</span></a>, Harris and Verditte communicated regularly during Verditte’s seven-year minor league career. He finally made it to the bigs in 2015 and has appeared in 41 games with the Athletics, Blue Jays and Mariners. The Phillies acquired Verditte from the Mariners earlier this month. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(Trivia answer: Brett Myers recorded 21 saves for the Phillies in 2007 before making 30 starts in 2008)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #45: Jim Presley</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/preslji01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: .247, 24 HRs, 88 RBIs, .296 OBP, .433 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s impossible to explain the mysterious allure of the 1980s Seattle Mariners to anyone who wasn’t around in the ‘80s. Their boxscores, absorbed in print from 3,000 miles away, were filled with robust numbers produced by 20-somethings. They were the perfect team for rabid baseball card collectors on the search for the next big thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Except Presley and the Mariners never really turned into the next big thing. Presley looked like a perennial All-Star during his first two full season in 1985-86, when he hit 55 homers and collected 191 RBIs while batting a solid .270 (it was 1986 we didn’t know any better). But the 1986 season, during which Presley made his lone All-Star team and earned MVP votes, proved to be his peak. Presley had his third straight 20-homer, 80-RBI season in 1987, but he’d never hit either milestone again as his plate judgment (a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 859/210 in parts of eight big league campaigns) proved to be his undoing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He continued to decline in 1988 and 1989 before being traded to the Braves, for whom he had a bit of a bounce-back season in 1990 before finishing his career by struggling in 20 games for the Padres in 1991. Presley was a hitting coach for the Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles from 2006 through 2014 and <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-presley-wont-be-hitting-coach-in-2015-os-interviewing-for-position-starting-today-20141124-story.html">developed a reputation for overseeing a group of homer-happy free swingers</a>, which seems appropriate.</span></div>
Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-42914970154770231992017-03-20T13:37:00.001-07:002017-03-20T13:37:45.653-07:00Cards 36-40<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwykciVpM8rBb5_Q1Nlx-bhFpV1P-KxLe4EACmiJQHZgOsBvO67uj1eOTW7i7yYY_YB00riHQMrtFs_4AA7QyJG39hFBxgDTigJsHrtP7hBWm_DsnD3-XtnfrcKNSyQSqwJ-hsivWiLKZ/s1600/King1987Topps36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwykciVpM8rBb5_Q1Nlx-bhFpV1P-KxLe4EACmiJQHZgOsBvO67uj1eOTW7i7yYY_YB00riHQMrtFs_4AA7QyJG39hFBxgDTigJsHrtP7hBWm_DsnD3-XtnfrcKNSyQSqwJ-hsivWiLKZ/s320/King1987Topps36.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #36: Eric King</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kinger01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: 6-9, 4.89 ERA in 55 games (four starts), nine saves, 89 Ks, 1.47 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The fashion in which King began his career provides another reminder of how the game has changed in the last three decades. King’s first two major league appearances in 1986 were relief outings of 5 1/3 innings (on May 15, 1986) and six innings (on May 21). Remarkably, he allowed only one hit each time. Over the last three seasons, only five pitchers have two relief outings of at least 5 1/3 innings. Name them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14px;">King never topped his rookie season, when he was utilized as a true Swiss army knife (he recorded three saves and three complete games for the Tigers) </span><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-31/sports/sp-15187_1_eric-king" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14px;">while trying to shake his Mark Fidrych-ian reputation as a flake</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14px;">. He set career highs in saves and strikeouts in 1987 and was very solid as a starter for the White Sox in 1989 and 1990, when he went 21-14 with a 3.34 ERA in 50 starts (and served up the first of Ken Griffey Jr.’s 630 homers on Apr. 10, 1989) before scuffling in his final two seasons with the Indians and Tigers. King holds the distinction of being traded for a current major league manager (Bob Melvin) and team president (Kenny Williams). </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Trivia answer: Scott Baker (four times, all in 2014), Steven Wright (three times—once in 2014 and twice in 2015), Vidal Nuno (twice in 2015), Dillon Gee (twice in 2016) and Luis Perdomo (twice in 2016).</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #37: Marvell Wynne</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wynnema01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: .250, 2 HRs, 24 RBIs, 11 SBs, .321 OBP, .346 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The 1987 season was the age-27 campaign for Wynne, but he was already established as a bit player who was durable but didn’t hit for much power or get on base. As a 24-year-old in 1984, he finished in the top 10 in the NL in hits and at-bats but had no homers and just 35 extra-base hits in 653 at-bats while being caught stealing 19 times in 43 attempts for the Pirates. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Wynne produced at that rate as a part-timer for the Padres in 1987, though he garnered some headlines for his power when he homered leading off an Apr. 13 game against the Giants, Tony Gwynn and John Kruk followed with homers of their own as the Padres became the first team ever to begin a game with three straight homers. <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN198704130.shtml">Alas, the Padres lost, 13-6</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Wynne had his best season as a big leaguer in 1988, when he hit 11 homers and recorded an OPS+ of 116 (the only time he had an OPS north of 100 in nine seasons). He was traded in August 1989 to the Cubs and went 1-for-6 in the NLCS before hitting .204 in his final major league action in 1990. Wynne played one more season in Japan in 2001 before retiring to raise his family, including his son Marvell, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/2011/10/26/rapids-marvell-wynne-speedy-like-his-dad-but-baseball-was-way-too-slow/">who was the first pick in the 2006 Major League Soccer draft</a> and is currently with the San Jose Earthquakes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #38: Dennis Leonard</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/leonade01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: Did not pitch (retired before spring training)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s easy to make fun of the world’s Goose Gossages, <a href="http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2017/02/in_epic_rant_hall_of_famer_goose_gossage_targets_1.html">who rant and rave about how men were men back in their day</a>. But holy smokes, Dennis Leonard was a man’s man back in his day. Great googly moogly, he sure earned his farewell baseball card.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Leonard threw 1776 2/3 innings from 1975 through 1981, a stretch in which he won more games (120) than any right-handed pitcher while throwing 95 complete games and 20 shutouts. Good God, they’d jail any manager who abused a pitcher like that today! Not surprisingly, no modern pitcher matches any of Leonard’s feats. Care to guess who has thrown the most innings, earned the most wins and thrown the most complete games and shutouts in the last seven years?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">No stunner, then, that Leonard’s arm wore out from all that—oh wait, he missed nearly three full seasons <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/03/sports/sports-people-dennis-leonard-retires.html">with a knee injury suffered while pitching to Cal Ripken Jr.</a> (that seems pretty cruelly ironic). Leonard came back to earn a World Series ring in 1985 by pitching in two games for the Royals before going 8-13 with a 4.44 ERA in his final season in 1986. Even then, he completed five games and tossed two shutouts, something achieved in 2016 by only Johnny Cueto. While his peak wasn’t Cooperstown-worthy, <a href="http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/kc/hall_of_fame/member.jsp?name=Leonard">Leonard was deservedly inducted into the Royals’ Hall of Fame in 1989</a> and remains a popular presence during the franchise’s off-season caravans in the midwest. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Trivia answers: David Price (1,529 1/3 innings), Max Scherzer (117 wins) and Clayton Kershaw (24 complete games and 15 shutouts).</i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #39: Marty Barrett</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/barrema02.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: .293, 3 HRs, 43 RBIs, 15 SBs, .351 OBP, .351 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Poor Marty Barrett. A whole spate of things, none of which he was responsible for, went wrong over the final 10 innings of the 1986 World Series for the Red Sox and now he’s stuck in highlight reel hell as the batter whom Jesse Orosco strikes out to clinch the World Series for the Mets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Barrett avoided the hangover that plagued the Red Sox in 1987, when he had his usual steady season (including a career-high 22 bunts) for a team that finished 78-84. It was the fourth year in a five-year span in which Barrett anchored the middle of the diamond with a Dustin Pedroia-esque spunk, if not with Pedroia-esque production. Barrett had an OPS+ of 91 from 1984 through 1988 but became known as a pest who did the little things to help the Sox, from delivering in the clutch (he was the MVP of the 1986 ALCS, hit .433 in the World Series and finished the postseason with a then-record 24 hits) to <a href="https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2016/06/26/marty-barrett-hidden-ball-trick">pulling off the hidden ball trick three times</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Barrett suffered a torn ACL in 1989 (he eventually received $1.5 million in a lawsuit against Red Sox team doctor Arthur Pappas) and finished his career by appearing in 12 games for the Padres in 1991. His lone highlight with the Padres? A home run off the next player in the set. Barrett was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2012 and lives in Las Vegas.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwGSBSyu6WrRgENTEMifp0-j9WH7GTQN5ErKWsj5JuIoprml9vkleQuty5roe51XD5ej6N5Hk20HSgUHlxJvI9QewJuCxikEzrXfYIa-y_kUzuhFaaIlvtAStFSxF49UWEy38nKcjaDujG/s1600/Righetti1987Topps-40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwGSBSyu6WrRgENTEMifp0-j9WH7GTQN5ErKWsj5JuIoprml9vkleQuty5roe51XD5ej6N5Hk20HSgUHlxJvI9QewJuCxikEzrXfYIa-y_kUzuhFaaIlvtAStFSxF49UWEy38nKcjaDujG/s320/Righetti1987Topps-40.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #40: Dave Righetti</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/righeda01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats: 8-6, 3.51 ERA in 60 games, 31 saves, 77 Ks, 1.46 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The first member of the “Record Breakers” club to get his own standalone card, Righetti continued in 1987 to morph into what we’d recognize today as the modern closer. He racked up 31 saves and was named to the All-Star team for the second and final time. But he also threw fewer innings than the year before for the third straight season, a streak he would continue for three more seasons. His innings count from 1984 through 1990: 107-106 2/3-95-87-69-53.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Righetti, a Bay Area native, signed a three-year deal with the Giants following the 1990 season but recorded just 28 saves for his hometown team as he began to show the wear-and-tear of a decade in the bigs. After bouncing between the Blue Jays and Athletics in 1994, Righetti finished his career as a starter with the White Sox in 1995, when, in one of my all-time favorite bits of arcane baseball trivia, he was the opposing pitcher when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/19/sports/baseball-yankees-go-0-for-2-against-ex-yanks.html">Yankees right-hander Jack McDowell flipped off the Yankee Stadium while being booed off the mound</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Righetti’s second stint with the Giants has been far more successful. He’s been the team’s pitching coach since 2000, a stretch in which the Giants have won three World Series titles and Righetti has earned a reputation as one of the best coaches in baseball. He is also the father of 25-year-old triplets (two girls and one boy).</span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-51049592665361243822017-03-10T22:29:00.001-08:002017-03-10T22:29:21.187-08:00Cards 31-35<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkpC-1XDXLsEb2CgpgFAm5EEt-i1WeKAdYHpJsS6KF784tFw4L8KSyZ_qy8T5pAiA63wCIIhNC5pwS-QbkomAcroIB6pkNE3L11nL4hXYupvP9aMjkXUrvXluE1PFec1WrYC9ptzyJYzV/s1600/BravesLeaders1987Topps-31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkpC-1XDXLsEb2CgpgFAm5EEt-i1WeKAdYHpJsS6KF784tFw4L8KSyZ_qy8T5pAiA63wCIIhNC5pwS-QbkomAcroIB6pkNE3L11nL4hXYupvP9aMjkXUrvXluE1PFec1WrYC9ptzyJYzV/s320/BravesLeaders1987Topps-31.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #31: Braves leaders</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/1986.shtml">Braves 1986 Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The second leaders card of the set has the second head-scratching picture. The Braves had five players lead the team in multiple categories listed on the back of the card, but how many times could you put Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Rick Mahler, Gene Garber or David Palmer on the front of a Braves leaders card?</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And so Rafael Ramirez (right) leading the Braves with 19 stolen bases was enough to get him and his longtime double play partner, Glenn Hubbard, the picture honors, even though they combined to hit just .236 in 904 at-bats in 1986 as Atlanta suffered the third of seven straight losing seasons — the franchise’s longest stretch of sub-.500 finishes since it was located in Boston more than four decades earlier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Of course, there was a pretty good light at the end of the tunnel for the Braves,who won the first of 14 straight division titles in 1991. Braves fans can only hope their current skid (three straight losing seasons) ends in similarly convincing fashion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #32: Tim Leary</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/learyti01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Dodgers): 3-11, 4.76 ERA in 39 games (12 starts), 61 Ks, 1.46 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The second-most famous Tim Leary (sporting a uniform patch <a href="http://www.sportslogos.net/logos/view/smahgxxc5houch9layo19yaw4/Milwaukee_Brewers/1986/Memorial_Logo">in honor of late Brewers equipment manager Bob Sullivan</a>) is the second player in this set to be included in a December 1986 trade between the Brewers and Dodgers. That Leary was dealt for a player (Greg Brock) who appears a mere six cards earlier was appropriate for a player who was always near center stage, if not quite the most noticeable performer there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Mets selected Leary with the second pick in the 1979 draft, in between all-time bust Al Chambers and future NFL quarterback Jay Schroeder (and four picks before the next card in the set). Leary made his debut with the Mets in 1981 and ended his career with the Rangers in 1994, which makes him one of the handful of players to play during both strike-shattered seasons along with the likes of Hall of Famer Goose Gossage, borderline Hall of Famer Jack Morris and former all-time saves leader Jeff Reardon. He was part of a rare-four team trade in 1985, when he was included in a blockbuster that also saw Danny Darwin, Jim Sundberg and Don Slaught change teams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Like many pitchers, Leary had a rough 1987, when he was demoted to the bullpen but finished the season with an ERA that was just 16 percent worse than the league average. And like many pitchers, Leary had a terrific 1988, when he finished with across-the-board career-best numbers and helped the Dodgers win the World Series, yet was overshadowed by teammate Orel Hershiser’s historic run. He avoided the spotlight for another entirely different reason in 1991, when Leary produced the fifth of 10 19-loss seasons between Brian Kingman and Mike Maroth joining the club no pitcher wanted to join. Leary has served as a coach for numerous high schools and colleges in California and regularly represents the 1988 Dodgers at alumni functions.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Card #33: Andy Van Slyke</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 stats (w/Pirates): .293, 21 HRs, 82 RBIs, 34 SBs, .359 OBP, .507 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If you are old enough to remember this baseball card, you are old enough to remember when you learned about out-of-town teams via weekly reports in <i>The Sporting News</i>. And if you are old enough to remember <i>The Sporting News</i>, you remember the seemingly weekly presence of amusing Andy Van Slyke quotes in the magazine. <a href="http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quovans.shtml">Look, I’m not kidding!</a> The man was a quote machine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And if you are old enough to remember Andy Van Slyke quotes, you are old enough to remember him being traded to the Cardinals in a veritable eve-of-season blockbuster on April 1, 1987. The trade paid dividends in 1987 for the Cardinals who reached Game 7 of the World Series with Tony Pena as their catcher, but the Pirates won the deal thanks to Van Slyke, who spent the next six years as arguably the best all-around centerfielder in baseball not named Ken Griffey Jr. He followed up the best season of his career in 1987 with five more just like it for the Pirates, who completed their transformation from 100-loss laughingstocks to three-time NL East winners (and three-time NLCS losers, each more agonizing than the last).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Van Slyke, who won five Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers in his six-year reign, slid along with the Pirates beginning in 1993 and split the final season of his career in 1995 with the Orioles and Cardinals. He came and went from the Hall of Fame ballot without receiving a vote in 2001. He later served as a coach with the Tigers (under Jim Leyland, his Pirates manager) and the Mariners (under Lloyd McClendon, his Pirates teammate). Van Slyke, whose son Scott plays for the Dodgers, has remained as quotable as ever, especially regarding <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/van-slyke-bonds-roids-article-1.618583">the possible “help” Barry Bonds received</a> in his twilight years, <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/former-mariners-coach-andy-van-slyke-has-some-critical-things-to-say-about-robinson-cano-edgar-martinez/">the role Robinson Cano played</a> in the collapse of the 2015 Mariners and, well, just about anything, as <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Answer-Man-Andy-Van-Slyke-talks-slugging-Bonds-?urn=mlb,80289">this 2008 Q&A with Yahoo!</a> proved.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">(Also, if you think it’s eerie that Leary and Van Slyke, the sixth overall pick in the 1979 draft, were pictured one after the other in 1987, wait til you see card no. 35)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #34: Jose Rijo</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rijojo01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 2-7, 5.90 ERA in 21 games (14 starts), 67 Ks, 1.79 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Among the things I either forgot or foolishly didn’t know before deep diving into the 1987 Topps set: Holy smokes, Rijo was great. Not in 1986, though throwing 193 2/3 innings and recording 176 strikeouts at the age of 21 is an impressive feat bettered this century by only one pitcher. Name him!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Nor was Rijo great in 1987, when he posted the highest ERA of his career while bounding between the rotation and the bullpen and the majors and the minors. The Athletics, who acquired him from the Yankees in December 1984 in exchange for future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, dealt him to the Reds in December 1987 in exchange for should have been future Hall of Famer Dave Parker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The deal arguably won the Athletics one World Series (Parker finished 11th in the MVP voting during Oakland’s championship season in 1989) and cost them another. The 1988 season marked the beginning of an insane seven-year run for Rijo, who went 87-53 with a 2.63 ERA that was 47 percent better than the league average. He saved his best for the 1990 World Series, when Rijo won MVP honors by going 2-0 with a 0.59 ERA in the Reds’ four-game sweep of…the Athletics. Oh the humanity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Hall of Famers Tom Glavine, Gaylord Perry and John Smoltz never had seven-season runs as good as the one Rijo enjoyed from 1988 through 1994. Alas, arm woes ruined any shot Rijo had at reaching Cooperstown, and he underwent a whopping three Tommy John surgeries (and two other arm surgeries) while missing five full seasons. That was a long enough sabbatical to get Rijo on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2001. But Rijo, who PITCHED with Tommy John on the 1984 Yankees, authored one of the great comeback stories in baseball history <a href="http://reds.enquirer.com/2002/04/28/red_rijos_return_miracle.html">by coming back to pitch for the Reds in 2001 and 2002</a> (and becoming eligible again for the Hall of Fame, though he received no votes in 2009).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet another elbow injury forced Rijo to retire for good in 2003. He worked for the Reds and Nationals before being fired by the Nationals in 2009 after prospects signed out of the team’s Dominican Republic facility (which was owned by Rijo) were revealed to be older than their listed age. <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/8215439/ex-world-series-mvp-jose-rijo-charged-dominican">Rijo was charged with laundering in the Dominican in 2012</a> but was reported to be in good spirits in 2015, when he attended the Reds’ 25th anniversary celebration of the 1990 champions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(Trivia answer: Who else but Madison Bumgarner, who threw 204 2/3 innings and struck out 191 in 2011)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #35: Sid Bream</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/breamsi01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">1987 stats: .275, 13 HRs, 65 RBIs, 9 SBs, .336 OBP, .411 SLG</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is a reminder that Pirates fans are fully entitled to think they are a hexed bunch destined to never experience true sporting joy ever again. Bream was a pretty good player for the Pirates as they rebuilt into a contender — he recorded an OPS+ of 108 while playing in all but 35 games from 1986 through 1988 — and recovered from a debilitating knee injury in 1989 to have his best big league season in 1990, when the Pirates won the first of three straight NL East crowns. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Alas, first basemen who hit for a little bit of power and a little bit of average but not a lot of either are always on the verge of being replaced by someone younger and cheaper, so Bream — who built a home in Pittsburgh — reluctantly signed with the Braves following the 1990 season and had, statistically speaking, three quietly steady years as a part-timer in Atlanta.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Except, of course, for the seismic moment from which Pittsburgh sports fans may never truly recover. The gimpy-legged Bream was on second base with two outs and the Pirates nursing a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. Pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera singled to left field off Stan Belinda as David Justice raced home from third base with the tying run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Braves third base coach Jimy Williams waved Bream around. Those watching in living rooms around the country first-guessed the decision in real time. There was no way Bream could beat the throw from Pirates Gold Glover Barry Bonds, right? Except Bonds didn’t heed Andy Van Slyke’s advice to play shallower and closer to center and Bream had a big head start thanks to a huge lead and he slid under the tag of former teammate Mike LaValliere with the pennant-winning run. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Nearly a quarter-century later, Bream still lives in suburban Pittsburgh and <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2012/04/01/The-Slide-The-moment-that-begat-a-legacy-of-losing-for-the-Pirates/stories/201204010228">draws dozens of corporate speaking engagements per year</a>. Belinda lives in seclusion <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/linked-by-pirates-playoff-demise-bream-belinda-take-diverse-paths/">in a remote area of the Pittsburgh suburbs</a>. Like everyone else with anything invested in that game, they are remained daily of what is, or haunted by what could have been.</span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-35819491676893227912017-01-22T12:44:00.000-08:002017-01-22T12:44:04.464-08:00Card #30: Hall of Famer Tim Raines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #30: Tim Raines</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/raineti01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .330, 18 HRs, 68 RBIs, 50 SBs, 123 runs scored, .429 OBP, .526 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Of all the iconic performances produced by baseball players in 1987, none were more impressive — or more important to a player’s legacy — than Tim Raines cramming the best season of his life into a five-month span, a zenith that continues to resonate 30 years later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I think it really played a big role,” Raines said Wednesday night, shortly after he learned he’d been elected to the Hall of Fame in his 10th and final year on the ballot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Despite not debuting until May 2 — he was one of the many free agents who returned to his 1986 club but had to sit out April after choosing not to sign a below-market contract at the height of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/05/sports/sports-of-the-times-nobody-wanted-raines.html">the Collusion Era</a> — Raines ended up setting career-highs in homers, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and stolen base percentage (91 percent) while leading the National League in runs scored.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“The things that I accomplished that year — especially after missing spring training and the first month, you know, that year, I didn’t see a major league pitcher from the end of September until April — I don’t think (anyone) expected that from me that year,” Raines said. “I don’t even know if I expected to do things I ended up doing that year.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If anything, Raines undersold the rustiness he’d accumulated by his 1987 debut. Raines signed a three-year deal with the Expos on May 1 and played in an extended spring training league game hours later, when he said he batted leadoff in every inning and collected five hits and “ … stole about four or five bases.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Afterward, the Expos sent Raines to New York, where Montreal was facing the Mets. Raines, already a veteran of 882 major league games, knew he was heading into an uncertainty unlike any he’d ever experienced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I wasn’t really sure where I was as far as playing — and was I ready to compete at the major league level, especially after it had been a month into the season?” Raines said. “I was just getting started without spring training, so I think that was the most nervous I’ve ever been.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Raines said he took about 50 swings during batting practice and “ … might have hit two or three balls out of the cage.” But whatever nerves Raines had disappeared when he stepped into the batter’s box for real in the first inning and tripled on the first pitch he saw from Mets starter David Cone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“It kind of made me kind of relax (and say) OK, I was into the game,” Raines said. “Wasn’t sure what was going to happen the rest of the game.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What happened was Raines, performing in front of 37,235 fans at Shea Stadium and millions more watching the NBC “Game of the Week,” went 4-for-5 with three runs scored, a stolen base and a grand slam off Jesse Orosco in the 11th inning that lifted the Expos to an 11-7 win. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The decisive homer left Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola flabbergasted in the broadcast booth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“That has to be one of the most incredible stories of the year in any sport,” Scully said. “The first day back!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“That has to be one of those stories — if you wrote it for television, they’d say ‘That’s too corny, it’ll never work,” Garagiola said. “Can you imagine that?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The dramatics were just beginning for Raines, whose 123 runs scored were the ninth-most of the decade and the most scored by anyone who played fewer than 140 games. His stolen base percentage was the sixth-best of the 1980s and the second-best by anyone who swiped at least 50 bases.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Raines had his second singular moment of the season on July 14, when he capped one of the most memorable All-Star Games in history by hitting the tie-breaking two-run triple in the 13th inning to give the National League a 2-0 win. In keeping with the theme of the season, Raines didn’t start the game but went 3-for-3 after entering the game in the sixth inning— no other player had more than one hit — in earning MVP honors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It was the last All-Star Game for Raines, whose age-27 season proved to be the last of his peak years. He remained a solid regular for the Expos and White Sox from 1988 through 1995 and was a valuable role player on the Yankees’ World Series-winning teams in 1996 and 1998 before<a href="http://www.si.com/vault/2001/04/16/301472/like-a-rock-stricken-with-lupus-in-1999-tim-raines-41-battled-back-to-make-the-expos"> a battle with lupus cut short his 1999 season with the Athletics and forced him to miss the 2000 season</a>. Raines came back with the Expos in 2001 and spent his final two seasons as a pinch-hitter with three teams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It appeared as if Raines’ long “wind-down” phase might obscure his era of dominance and keep him out of the Hall of Fame, especially when the Hall reduced a player’s time on the ballot from 15 years to 10 years in 2014. But that change following Raines’ seventh year on the ballot created an urgency for his candidacy, and he went from 46.1 percent of the vote in 2014 to 86 percent this year — 86 percent of the vote for a guy whose 1987 season will get the anniversary treatment it warrants in the months leading up to his induction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“That year to me, out of all the years I played, that year was probably the most special year out of the 23,” Raines said.</span></div>
Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-77361842119167090282017-01-18T14:53:00.004-08:002017-01-19T08:43:05.149-08:00Cards 26-29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOnFaC113z2RjN3vtowDzTWmfh2Ie7dwOCm2D7Ip0EV7iiO9IJpFyaIKq6ySkcgECOo3baJiTwZTFTJMSqfNq5QnvsZ7dld3alLurDyKhWpi2mgvQMa5Mo11cB7s3XkD2srzdO1EQ5-GG/s1600/Brock1987Topps-26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOnFaC113z2RjN3vtowDzTWmfh2Ie7dwOCm2D7Ip0EV7iiO9IJpFyaIKq6ySkcgECOo3baJiTwZTFTJMSqfNq5QnvsZ7dld3alLurDyKhWpi2mgvQMa5Mo11cB7s3XkD2srzdO1EQ5-GG/s320/Brock1987Topps-26.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #26: Greg Brock</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/brockgr01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Brewers): .299, 13 HRs, 85 RBIs, .371 OBP, .438 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You know what they say: Don’t be the guy replacing the guy. Brock had the unenviable ask of replacing Dodgers legend, and borderline Hall of Famer Steve Garvey, after Garvey signed with the Padres following the 1982 season. After four seasons in which Brock displayed pretty good power (71 homers) but hit just .234 with an OPS nine percent above that of a replacement-level player, he was dealt to the Brewers for pitchers Tim Crews and Tim Leary in December 1986.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Finally emerged from Garvey’s shadow, Brock had the best year of his career in 1987, when he set full-season career highs for batting average, RBIs, on-base percentage and OPS while manning first base for a team that traveled more highs and lows than any team I can ever remember watching. And give the guy credit: After going 4-for-5 in the penultimate game of the season to lift his average to .301, Brock could have sat out the season finale and preserved a .301 batting average, but he played and went 0-for-3 to fall under the magic number.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Brock declined from there and batted just .244 over the next three-plus seasons before retiring following the 1991 season. But he will always have his solid 1987 season, as well as one of the best back-of-card blurbs of all-time: “Greg once earned himself the free use of a car for a year by recording a hole-in-one in golf match.” Brock is now <a href="http://www.reporterherald.com/sports/ci_30025153/former-mlb-player-mountain-view-founding-coach-greg">a championship-winning high school baseball coach in Colorado</a>, and, one can presume, still pretty good on the links.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #27: Joe Cowley</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cowlejo01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Phillies): 0-4, 15.43 ERA in five games (four starts), 5 Ks, 3.26 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What if you could reach the pinnacle of your profession, only to immediately fall all the way to the bottom of it? That’s what happened to Cowley, whose final five big league games turned him into the bridge between Steve Blass and Rick Ankiel as the symbol of a pitcher who completely and helplessly loses the skills that made him great. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Cowley’s final win as a big leaguer was a no-hitter on Sept. 19, 1986. In retrospect, his gem — in which he walked seven and struck out eight in an 8-1 victory over the California Angels — might have portended the issues that would envelope Cowley the next year. Cowley was a league-average pitcher despite scattershot control in his first four seasons, during which he posted a 3.91 ERA while issuing 215 walks and recording 327 strikeouts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But he lost it completely in 1987, when Cowley gave up a whopping 38 baserunners (including 17 walks) in just 11 2/3 innings before being demoted to Triple-A Maine, where he continued to struggle and bottomed out by walking 11 batters in 2 2/3 innings against Tidewater. Eventually, the Phillies and Cowley agreed a return to his Kentucky home would be best for all parties. He never pitched again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Cowley, whose reputation as an easy-going free spirit made his struggles all the more stunning, spoke at length about his descent in <a href="http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/080387cowley.html">this <i>New York Times</i> story</a>, which hints that perhaps his issues stemmed from his desire to make the Phillies look good for acquiring him from the White Sox late in spring training. Regardless of what happened, Cowley’s downfall served as a reminder of how thin the line is between success and failure in the major leagues, and the helplessness that can accompany an inexplicable loss of skills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #28: Rick Dempsey</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dempsri01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Indians): .177, 1 HR, 9 RBIs, .295 OBP, .270 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The fun thing about this project is re-learning things I’d somehow forgotten over the last 30 years. Like Dempsey playing for the Indians in 1987, or actually becoming a four-decade player despite collecting just 77 at-bats in his first five major league seasons and batting .207 over his final six seasons, a stretch that began in 1987. That’s impressive. (There’s another four-decade catcher coming up in this set, by the way)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dempsey was the Pat Borders of his time, a journeyman catcher with an unlikely World Series MVP trophy hanging on his mantle. Unlike Borders, Dempsey won another ring (he was the backup for the 1988 Dodgers). Dempsey spent more than a decade as a minor league manager and major league coach before moving into his current position as a popular studio analyst on Orioles games.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #29: Jimmy Key</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/keyji01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 17-8, 2.76 ERA in 36 starts, 161 Ks, 1.06 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Another thing I learned revisiting this set: Key’s 1987 season is an all-time under-appreciated gem. First of all, anyone who won an ERA title in 1987 was doing something right, but Key’s American League-leading 2.76 mark was a whopping 64 percent better than the league average. And it wasn’t a fluke: He also led the league in WHIP while averaging 7.25 innings per start. Key finished second in the Cy Young Award balloting and probably would have won it if not for Roger Clemens’ second-half surge lifting him to the magical 20-win mark. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This season proved to be Key’s peak as the diminutive crafty lefty battled some injuries over the next decade, but he was very good when he made it to the mound. He had an ERA+ of 119 or better in four of his final five 200-inning seasons. Key was also one of those quote unquote clutch postseason pitchers: He posted a 3.15 ERA in 10 series and earned the World Series-clinching win while serving in two different roles for two different teams. He won Game 6 as a reliever for the Blue Jays in 1992 and won Game 6 as a starter for the Yankees in 1996, when the Bronx Bombers notched their first title in 18 years behind a whole bunch of 1987 Topps alums. In retirement, <a href="http://www.amateurgolf.com/4186-GolfNews-Palm-Beach-Former-MLB-Pitcher-Key-Williams-win-Four-Ball">Key has become a terrific golfer</a>.</span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-11756609402750612022017-01-17T20:49:00.000-08:002017-01-18T12:26:49.051-08:00Cards 21-25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9jyIpanoWEnZGZp5-8HqzC_wz_zmrlMitJgt3c0BkeF5xV_e7b1gsovJUie9EoJMpZ_g7Z6G-QGnBWHCSVhW3svW68nmtqNBHs1hCPxUZ0mvIcPdYa3bPaQKVLs64bL8Pgnj0VagssUUS/s1600/MarkDavis1987Topps-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9jyIpanoWEnZGZp5-8HqzC_wz_zmrlMitJgt3c0BkeF5xV_e7b1gsovJUie9EoJMpZ_g7Z6G-QGnBWHCSVhW3svW68nmtqNBHs1hCPxUZ0mvIcPdYa3bPaQKVLs64bL8Pgnj0VagssUUS/s320/MarkDavis1987Topps-21.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #21: Mark Davis</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davisma01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Giants & Padres): 9-8, 3.99 ERA in 63 games (11 starts), 2 saves, 98 Ks, 1.37 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The first in-season trade involving a player in this set was a good old-fashioned blockbuster that benefited both teams. On July 5, the Giants traded Davis, along with third baseman Chris Davis and and pitchers Mark Grant and Keith Comstock, to the Padres in exchange for pitchers Dave Dravecky and Craig Lefferts and outfielder Kevin Mitchell. In 1989, Mitchell won the NL MVP while leading the Giants to the World Series while Davis won the NL Cy Young Award after racking up a major league-best 44 saves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Davis’ transformation into a Cy Young Award winner began following the trade. After posting a 4.40 ERA as a swingman in parts of seven big league seasons, the Padres shifted Davis full-time to the bullpen, where he posted a 3.18 ERA and two saves the remainder of 1987 before making the All-Star team in 1988, when he went 5-10 with a 2.01 ERA, 28 saves and 92 strikeouts over 92 2/3 innings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Davis won the Cy Young Award in his walk year and parlayed it into a four-year, $13 million deal with the Royals — the biggest contract in baseball history. Quaint, huh? But like so many closers, Davis fell as quickly as he rose. He quickly lost the closer’s job in Kansas City in 1990, when he recorded just six saves and a 5.11 ERA <a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-06-12/sports/9001130326_1_mark-davis-eyes-frank-funk-guy">and became a popular target for booing fans</a>. The Royals traded Davis during the 1992 season and he managed to bounce around until 1997, despite posting a 5.37 ERA following the award-winning season. Davis is now a minor league coach in the Royals’ organization.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzVL7dQIlorH-9l1A_MiRQ4qee-ycg6XQLC97pQSfD8ofKUBq309NwXPH8rRxVZR4DSP2FEEjD_43fmCZEW0oYBKF1TUltOsyHgC16071PmtmKv04b2S_ynrGZ0SYd0e-fn7-CDOj_f1yY/s1600/DeCinces1987Topps-22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzVL7dQIlorH-9l1A_MiRQ4qee-ycg6XQLC97pQSfD8ofKUBq309NwXPH8rRxVZR4DSP2FEEjD_43fmCZEW0oYBKF1TUltOsyHgC16071PmtmKv04b2S_ynrGZ0SYd0e-fn7-CDOj_f1yY/s320/DeCinces1987Topps-22.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #22: Doug DeCinces</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/decindo01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Angels & Cardinals): .234, 16 HRs, 64 RBIs, .335 OBP, .392 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Long before Kenny Lofton, there was Doug DeCinces, a very good player doomed to suffer a litany of postseason heartbreaks. DeCinces was a member of the 1979 Baltimore Orioles, who blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series, and the 1982 and 1986 Angels, who squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the ALCS (the LCS was a best-of-five until 1985).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">DeCinces finished 11th in the AL MVP voting in 1986, when he popped up with the bases loaded and a chance to send the Angels to the World Series in <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-16/sports/sp-1795_1_home-run-hero">the fateful Game 5 of the ALCS,</a> but tailed off during his age-37 season in 1987, when the Angels released him in late September. He signed with the playoff-bound Cardinals for the final week of the season, and though he was ineligible for the playoffs, his penchant for agonizing near-misses continued as the Cardinals blew a 3-2 lead against the Twins in the World Series.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">DeCinces went to Japan in 1988 but suffered a career-ending back injury midway through the season. Per Wikipedia, which is never wrong, his experiences as an aging American baseball player in Japan served as the inspiration for the Tom Selleck movie Mr. Baseball. DeCinces went into the business world following his playing days but was indicted for insider trading in 2011, <a href="https://www.law360.com/articles/765164/atty-pal-of-ex-orioles-star-gets-trading-charges-dropped">a charge he was still fighting as of 2016</a> (and one which makes this </span><a href="http://mlb.com/" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">MLB.com</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> story from 2008 <a href="http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/3307259">sort of cringe-worthy</a>).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhynPqbEQlB5R0lmUpIE2u3YX-TYyoNVuwrqsE-Bj8JmLs3IPffNoVjW9soOdbIKB97cq7RYy3C7glmWLYLwv5T1pEQX5l7sz922P7DugBEG1Qg0B3Z50SAxkux1Aq8lT0szhqLFAC_ymi9/s1600/LSmith1987Topps-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhynPqbEQlB5R0lmUpIE2u3YX-TYyoNVuwrqsE-Bj8JmLs3IPffNoVjW9soOdbIKB97cq7RYy3C7glmWLYLwv5T1pEQX5l7sz922P7DugBEG1Qg0B3Z50SAxkux1Aq8lT0szhqLFAC_ymi9/s320/LSmith1987Topps-23.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #23: Lee Smith</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smithle02.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 4-10, 3.12 ERA, 36 saves in 62 games, 1.39 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Man those multiple-of-five cards were hard to get. Smith was firmly established as a top-tier closer by 1986, when he recorded 31 saves. It was the fourth straight season in which he racked up at least 29 saves and the fourth season of a 14-year span in which he’d exceed 29 saves 13 times. Another fine season in 1987 was highlighted by Smith’s role in the best All-Star Game of my youth, a 13-inning affair in which Smith threw three innings (oh the humanity!) and earned the win when Tim Raines delivered the tie-breaking triple in the top of the 13th. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But as for that card number— maybe, once again, Topps knew something we didn’t. Despite retiring as the all-time saves leader (478), Smith has never come close to earning the 75 percent of the vote necessary for induction into the Hall of Fame. This is his last year on the ballot — he’ll be the last player to get 15 years of consideration thanks to this rule change — and barring a miracle surge, he’ll fall short and be relegated to the dustbin of Veteran’s Committee hopefuls that will never get in because the Veteran’s Committee doesn’t want to let in any other players.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Smith, who spent the second half of his career as one of the first one-inning closers, suffered from the devaluation of the save as well as the emergence of Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, each of whom obliterated his save total and finished with better peripheral stats. Fortunately for Smith, who is now a roving minor league instructor in the Giants chain, he seems to be non-plussed by his near-miss status, <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2015/07/15/former-sox-closer-lee-smith-strolls-down-memory-lane/">as he colorfully told the <i>Portland Press-Herald</i> in the summer of 2015</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #24: Tony Walker</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/walketo03.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: Did not play in majors</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The great thing about a 792-card set is there are always some guys who were as mysterious to you then as they are now. Not gonna lie, I have no recollection of Walker, whose minor league track record — 190 stolen bases and more walks (347) than strikeouts (325) — suggested someone who could have carved out a pretty good career as a bench player.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But perhaps Walker — signed, according to the back of his baseball card, by the Reds in 1981 as an undrafted free agent out of the Mexican League — was proof that opportunities are harder to earn and maintain for those who don’t receive the big signing bonuses. His big league career consists of the 1986 season in which he filled a reserve role for the NL West champion Astros. Still, a few cups of coffee are better than none at all, and Walker maximized his role by swiping nine of his 11 bases as a pinch-runner. He also played in the <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-09-03/sports/8603060193_1_wrigley-field-manny-trillo-pinch">epic two-day Astros-Cubs game</a> in which Davey Lopes set a record (that wasn’t really a record) for most stolen bases in a season by a 40-year-old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Walker spent the 1987 season in the minors with the Astros and Pirates and finished his career in the Mexican League in 1988. A quick Google search did not reveal his current whereabouts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #25: Bert Blyleven</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/blylebe01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 15-12, 4.01 ERA in 37 starts, 196 Ks, 1.31 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What would you call a pitcher entering the 2017 season with 229 career wins, a 3.08 ERA and 3,090 strikeouts? Well, you couldn’t call him anything, because he doesn’t exist. But if he did, you’d probably dub him a future Hall of Famer, right?***</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet Blyleven — who also had 216 complete games and 54 shutouts to his credit entering 1987 — ended up needing 14 years on the Hall of Fame ballot before he finally got inducted in 2011. Part of the reason for the delay is Blyleven was a peer of ten 300-game winners (though Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson were beginning their careers as Blyleven’s ended) whose average numbers were generally better than his. That 1987 season was uncannily close to his 162-game average (14-12, 3.31 ERA, 34 starts, 183 strikeouts, 1.20 WHIP). </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Blyleven also had the rep of a journeyman (five teams) who could be ornery to deal with. But while he demanded trades from the <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=22EgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1mUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1750%2C320356">Indians</a> and <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aU8NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oW0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6455,43613&dq=blyleven+walks+out&hl=en">Pirates</a>, it should also be noted that he liked to <a href="https://thetranceofwaiting.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/some-important-fart-quotes-to-go-with-bert-blylevens-i-love-to-fart-shirt/">fart</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve long believed Blyleven — who went 17-5 with a 2.73 ERA and a league-leading five shutouts as a 38-year-old in 1989 — would have won 300 games and cruised into the Hall of Fame if he didn’t miss the 1991 season due to an shoulder injury. But still. All those wins (287), all those strikeouts (3,701), all those complete games (242), all those shutouts (60), plus two World Series rings. How’d he wait so long? No one is within 50 wins of 287 victories. The 10 active pitchers with the most complete games have combined to go the distance 257 times, while the five active pitchers with the most shutouts have combined for 61 blankings. It’s crazy to think how close Blyleven, who is a broadcaster with the Twins, came to not making the Hall of Fame.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">***I bet you CC Sabathia — whose 223 wins, 3.70 ERA and 2,726 strikeouts make him the active pitcher closest to 1986 Blyleven — has an easier path to Cooperstown than Blyleven.</span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-48360875487388891272017-01-14T20:59:00.001-08:002017-01-14T21:02:55.551-08:00Cards 16-20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMYBIw6rrNMfJA-1Gn2jvs95DPEExfa0h3G2ex_diXxwsOUwQvxc7JStQJIK8MSlsSBZCC86PjG6hPEuESK2AtPFLAKZVpAxYjPO2dIWhggALr9G5LqkyB5yNtHzO85gglPLUp1dtwhFyn/s1600/Clements1987Topps-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMYBIw6rrNMfJA-1Gn2jvs95DPEExfa0h3G2ex_diXxwsOUwQvxc7JStQJIK8MSlsSBZCC86PjG6hPEuESK2AtPFLAKZVpAxYjPO2dIWhggALr9G5LqkyB5yNtHzO85gglPLUp1dtwhFyn/s320/Clements1987Topps-15.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #16: Pat Clements</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clemepa01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Yankees): 3-3, 4.95 ERA, 7 saves in 55 games, 1.53 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Poor Pat Clements. Not only was he the first member of the 1987 Topps set to have been traded the previous winter, but he didn’t even get a Traded card out of it. Just another reminder for Clements of the cruel bitch goddess tendencies of sports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Clements was drafted by the Angels in 1983 and made his debut in 1985, shortly before he was traded from an up-and-coming contender to the 104-loss Pirates. The Pirates then dealt him following the 1986 season to the Yankees in a blockbuster that sent Doug Drabek to Pittsburgh. Good deal for Clements, right? Alas, while Drabek became the ace of a team that won three straight division titles from 1990-1992, Clements landed with a team entering season no. 6 of a 13-year playoff drought. Clements was the Yankees’ top left-handed set-up man in 1987 but appeared in just six big league games in 1988 before ending his career with the San Diego Padres and Baltimore Orioles. Per Wikipedia, he lives in California, where he is a member of <a href="http://www.chicoer.com/article/ZZ/20120126/NEWS/120129713">Chico’s sports Hall of Fame</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKH9_pRXVaIBSfpmy7Zvh_OEoKIe-51cJ6ZC2eCMyKLeRv_dNbPWJVILZB_JXZm2MntbKWBQCIZEFasbfKjC6NhBQ69-grfZUUrCxjhHNRAG4OLW0Nr_QDy1PlrFUZNs-Dc694xlW8A8_M/s1600/O%2527Brien1987Topps-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKH9_pRXVaIBSfpmy7Zvh_OEoKIe-51cJ6ZC2eCMyKLeRv_dNbPWJVILZB_JXZm2MntbKWBQCIZEFasbfKjC6NhBQ69-grfZUUrCxjhHNRAG4OLW0Nr_QDy1PlrFUZNs-Dc694xlW8A8_M/s320/O%2527Brien1987Topps-17.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #17: Pete O’Brien</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/o'bripe03.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .286, 23 HRs, 88 RBIs, .348 OBP, .457 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There were almost 80 “multiple of five”-numbered cards in a Topps set, but O’Brien getting saddled with no. 17 despite being in the middle of a fine career is evidence they were pretty hard to earn. O’Brien had his second straight 20-homer, 80-RBI season in 1986, when he finished 17th in the AL MVP voting (hmm, maybe that’s why he was no. 17). He put up almost the same numbers in 1987, which was the fourth of his four straight 80-RBI seasons and the fourth of six straight seasons in which he’d perform at a rate above that of the league-average first baseman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Overall as a big leaguer, O’Brien had five 80-RBI seasons and three 20-homer seasons while playing in at least 130 games nine times. He also got traded for Julio Franco, which means we can pretty much trace his baseball lineage back to the dawn of time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Alas, O’Brien struggled after signing a four-year deal with the Mariners prior to the 1990 season — the Seattle Times called him one of the biggest free agent busts in franchise history — and he retired after being released in July 1993. According to a Google search, he runs At Peace Float Manufacturing in Texas. (And he is not related to the Pete O’Brien who recently got traded to the Royals)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCw9g_VJj4LTKTIBQs96f7K4hf-0M543bMxetfEzvI0W9gFWGBMHypdHkuJ04dsgDPf6yv9nK6fGv_hEUyLeXYgX0OR7YFAzf_u0PZNfqWWHW5X0SDUlLkHbZr2X6gvS-bYAunfeWCFOP/s1600/Howser1987Topps-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCw9g_VJj4LTKTIBQs96f7K4hf-0M543bMxetfEzvI0W9gFWGBMHypdHkuJ04dsgDPf6yv9nK6fGv_hEUyLeXYgX0OR7YFAzf_u0PZNfqWWHW5X0SDUlLkHbZr2X6gvS-bYAunfeWCFOP/s320/Howser1987Topps-18.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #18: Dick Howser</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/howsedi01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page (as manager)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: Did not manage due to illness, died on June 17</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The first of two sad (and eerily familiar) stories in this batch of cards. Howser, the one ex-Yankees manager to go somewhere else and prove George Steinbrenner wrong for firing him (or, if you would rather believe Steinbrenner, for choosing to go into real estate in Florida after a 103-win season ended with a sweep by the Royals in the 1980 ALCS), directed the Royals to an unlikely World Series title in 1985, when they came back from a pair of 3-1 series deficits to vanquish the Blue Jays and Cardinals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But Howser never managed again after the 1986 All-Star Game. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor during the All-Star Break and underwent a pair of surgeries with the hope of returning in 1987. However, he retired after the first day of spring training and his condition quickly worsened. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/18/obituaries/dick-howser-dies-at-51-ex-manager-of-royals.html">He was just 51 when he died at his home in Florida</a>. Only 16 days later, the Royals retired his number 10 — the first number retired in franchise history. Shortly thereafter, the Dick Howser Award, presented to the best player in college baseball, was established. In 2009, the Royals built a statue in Howser’s honor at Kaufman Stadium.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV664n7gstSBH4L6k1wCIxF09REA-u9hwzTpy1B8NxxWaFTGXwfK80vNxAHHKEdAq5h4pWQ5Yl1ncWrVMct-ayFGtT03wCtpBpvGqY8CEgJtwahVR1P6V_hrwdCx7Y7OIkz9w4DlqboHNH/s1600/MYoung1987Topps-19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV664n7gstSBH4L6k1wCIxF09REA-u9hwzTpy1B8NxxWaFTGXwfK80vNxAHHKEdAq5h4pWQ5Yl1ncWrVMct-ayFGtT03wCtpBpvGqY8CEgJtwahVR1P6V_hrwdCx7Y7OIkz9w4DlqboHNH/s320/MYoung1987Topps-19.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #19: Matt Young</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/youngma01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987 (w/Dodgers): 5-8, 4.47 ERA, 11 saves in 47 games, 1.45 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Young, unlike Pat Clements, at least got a Traded card for being dealt to the Dodgers in a minor trade following the 1986 season. It was one of the few decent breaks ever granted to Young, who was generally followed by a black cloud during his decade-long big league career.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As a rookie with the Mariners in 1983, Young made the American League All-Star team — he threw a scoreless inning in the Midsummer Classic — and finished in the top 10 in ERA (3.27). But he posted a 4.86 ERA over the next three seasons before performing exclusively out of the bullpen for the only time in his career in 1987. He missed the 1988 season <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1990-09-13/sports/sp-646_1_matt-young">due to Tommy John surgery</a> and won a World Series ring as a little-used swingman with the Athletics in 1989.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Three years later, in his season debut for the Red Sox, Young allowed no hits during a complete game against the indians but did not get credit for a no-hitter because the Indians won, 2-1, and thus did not have to bat in the ninth inning. (The Indians scored thanks to seven walks by Young and two Red Sox errors) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/17/sports/on-baseball-what-is-a-no-hitter-matt-young-knows.html">Thanks Fay Vincent!</a> Young won only one more big league game before retiring following the 1993 season. Matt Young is a pretty common name so there is no trace of him on the Googles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #20: Gary Carter</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cartega01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .235, 20 HRs, 83 RBIs, .290 OBP, .392 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Carter is the second tragic story in a three-card span. Carter spent the first 11 seasons of his career with the Expos before he was acquired as the missing piece for the emerging Mets following the 1984 season. He did exactly what he was acquired to do for the eventual world champions in 1986, when Carter finished third in the MVP voting and started the Mets’ miraculous World Series comeback with his two-out single in the 10th inning of Game 6.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He finally began to show the wear and tear of a decade-plus of catching in 1987, when he set single-season lows in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He was done as an everyday catcher following the 1988 season, but the 11-time All-Star had done enough to get inducted into the Hall of Fame (albeit as a member of the Expos) in his sixth year of eligibility in 2003.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Carter harbored hopes of becoming the Mets’ manager, but <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/sports/baseball/11carter.html">his relationship with the organization soured</a> when he declined an offer to manage at Double-A Binghamton in 2007 after leading a pair of lower-level affiliates to first-place finishes the previous two seasons. In the spring of 2008, Carter appeared on a radio show on Sirius and said he’d contacted the Mets about replacing Willie Randolph, who was still the manager.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Carter managed the independent league Long Island Ducks in 2008 before spending two seasons as the baseball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University. In the spring of 2011, he was diagnosed with four tumors on his brain. He underwent rigorous treatment but the tumors returned the following January and <a href="http://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7583267/hall-fame-catcher-gary-carter-dies-age-57">he died at the age of 57 on Feb. 16, 2012</a>. The Mets’ 30th anniversary celebration of the 1986 world champions ended in touching fashion last May 28, when Jesse Orosco, who got the final out of the World Series, threw out the first pitch to Carter’s son D.J., who raced to Orosco and leaped into his arms just as his Dad did on Oct. 27, 1986.</span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-91422918990788847892017-01-13T14:42:00.001-08:002017-01-13T14:45:23.068-08:00Cards 11-15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhut-9F9RyW40rQJAcX9D5Xxcwq9Lpbf-KI3wH0UkAQKhQT7ROZPgKEXk9ks0X20h6JDeKcdJf3OWTSlVci4XTO_glKTO-V-B3s-S9ZBsfH7mCEW3FNNaeBLw8klTdu9Gf4Ulb-3q3J3xHS/s1600/Indians1987Topps-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhut-9F9RyW40rQJAcX9D5Xxcwq9Lpbf-KI3wH0UkAQKhQT7ROZPgKEXk9ks0X20h6JDeKcdJf3OWTSlVci4XTO_glKTO-V-B3s-S9ZBsfH7mCEW3FNNaeBLw8klTdu9Gf4Ulb-3q3J3xHS/s320/Indians1987Topps-11.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #11: Indians leaders</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLE/1986.shtml">Indians 1986 Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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. <i>Sports Illustrated</i> 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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 14px;">Alas, perhaps Topps knew something the rest of us didn’t: The Indians had NO pitching (Niekro and fellow 300-game winner Steve Carlton combined to go 12-20 with a 5.66 ERA), most of their hitters fell off and they finished a baseball-worst 61-101. And that 38-year championship drought is now a 68-year championship drought, albeit one that came within a base hit of ending last November.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaGQbxyJMvkRhAF-Jvn7PrygZcCWjDsF5khQ3-uIvR1JFshn8BGBVigH5P_hAZZtXa6sWjomXhh8uhD4_BKQ6zSeIBzqKeIcP9Xe-ewGAGmJcEl0E6nFsZSxPWklj7okSw8pauh3Izx1py/s1600/Sellers1987Topps-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaGQbxyJMvkRhAF-Jvn7PrygZcCWjDsF5khQ3-uIvR1JFshn8BGBVigH5P_hAZZtXa6sWjomXhh8uhD4_BKQ6zSeIBzqKeIcP9Xe-ewGAGmJcEl0E6nFsZSxPWklj7okSw8pauh3Izx1py/s320/Sellers1987Topps-12.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #12: Jeff Sellers</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/selleje01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 7-8, 5.28 ERA in 25 games (22 starts), 99 Ks, 1.59 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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 <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE198810010.shtml">on Oct. 1, 1988</a>, 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, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/30/sports/la-sp-0531-dodgers-justin-sellers-20120531">played in the majors for the Dodgers and Indians</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><i>(Trivia answer: Johnny Cueto, again)</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnStBWi6-HlPHjuHniMhiOh54eJvbqw9mj_GusrkIqBq-ROfvdSpEr9Btz8ju_hIJ3z6SNHmsh-AjTe2zRE0Z9gdVyrb4TLYkGTTfwcqhX8f5t02CPdPk5KUZMsHq_oGH7R08-mzGdZqSC/s1600/Esasky1987Topps-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnStBWi6-HlPHjuHniMhiOh54eJvbqw9mj_GusrkIqBq-ROfvdSpEr9Btz8ju_hIJ3z6SNHmsh-AjTe2zRE0Z9gdVyrb4TLYkGTTfwcqhX8f5t02CPdPk5KUZMsHq_oGH7R08-mzGdZqSC/s320/Esasky1987Topps-13.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #13: Nick Esasky </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/esaskni01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .272, 22 HRs, 59 RBIs, .327 OBP, .529 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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 <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/02/13/story7.html">this story from 2006</a>, 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.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr1tREzKiIkxxtjf7ityeGrrrmmqk6UUsLSksvPluG1BGM0EDaNtrwOCtaNKXCoojKWnZ7WZ99uBUe4Cu4w-c1BOyxYiyTm43sQk6hY2KIrQTOYnikQlaq7o_2i3PqpPKYUX5KyO3JOsH9/s1600/Stewart1987Topps-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr1tREzKiIkxxtjf7ityeGrrrmmqk6UUsLSksvPluG1BGM0EDaNtrwOCtaNKXCoojKWnZ7WZ99uBUe4Cu4w-c1BOyxYiyTm43sQk6hY2KIrQTOYnikQlaq7o_2i3PqpPKYUX5KyO3JOsH9/s320/Stewart1987Topps-14.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #14: Dave Stewart</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stewada01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 20-13, 3.68 ERA in 37 starts, 205 Ks, 1.26 WHIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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 <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/athletics/article/Book-excerpt-Dave-Stewart-owned-Roger-Clemens-6342911.php">by driving the already-insane Rocket to melt down in the decisive game</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><i>(Trivia answer: Curt Schilling in 2001-2002)</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy61DN6SSxxu3qP56qz2CM7xHMz5wLcVWejDCT4C-Da9IwrKYc3ROokaTtnsLST8Sn0NMxuo907pnwcbX87dsujhljIxgI84mtVHC7jo-sNN0Lj0dn_I9TS2xAbLWwIGTUjvCOsSmB9BBv/s1600/Washington1987Topps-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy61DN6SSxxu3qP56qz2CM7xHMz5wLcVWejDCT4C-Da9IwrKYc3ROokaTtnsLST8Sn0NMxuo907pnwcbX87dsujhljIxgI84mtVHC7jo-sNN0Lj0dn_I9TS2xAbLWwIGTUjvCOsSmB9BBv/s320/Washington1987Topps-15.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #15: Claudell Washington</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/washicl01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .279, 9 HRs, 44 RBIs, 10 SBs, .336 OBP, .420 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudell_Washington#In_popular_culture">he was the guy who hit the foul ball Ferris Bueller caught on his day off</a>. Not a bad run. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">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, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Second-hit-was-a-single-highlight-for-Washington-2707557.php">running a construction company in his native California</a>. </span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-41546192343632350132017-01-09T15:09:00.001-08:002017-01-09T15:10:59.851-08:00Cards 8-10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe406q963LVQXOVoEEmuBdpX1NavC4j36iwYe50vho_J3AroUz29EMFfHtqURQjijid48ujpRQV-fn6qIBJyXugsxgDNuFpxwTx_tE3laNP3hr6APV2qqsnMaCJBO-FChkyGumnhLavwfs/s1600/Pendleton1987Topps-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe406q963LVQXOVoEEmuBdpX1NavC4j36iwYe50vho_J3AroUz29EMFfHtqURQjijid48ujpRQV-fn6qIBJyXugsxgDNuFpxwTx_tE3laNP3hr6APV2qqsnMaCJBO-FChkyGumnhLavwfs/s320/Pendleton1987Topps-8.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #8: Terry Pendleton, Cardinals 3B</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pendlte01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .286 average, 12 homers, 96 RBIs, 19 SBs, .360 OBP, .412 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The first true player card in the 1987 Topps set is a future MVP. But anyone who thought Terry Pendleton — shown here apparently after making contact at Shea Stadium — was going to win an MVP in 1991 for the Atlanta Braves was either lying, or failing to properly utilize his/her skills of clairvoyance. Pendleton was a solid everyday third baseman for the Cardinals who had the best season of his career in 1987, when he finished 18th in the MVP voting while setting across-the-board full-season bests in the counting stats. But he declined over the next two seasons before quietly signing with the Braves and sparking their worst-to-first resurgence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Pendleton has served in a variety of coaching roles with the Braves since 2002. He is currently the bench coach for Brian Snitker.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8af1Kx4HZffsUWUsTFOsVi9Tf3-Aby6CBs870Z8jFRW531LUOW83BU2dYFlYMQ17wBqq4ca4ijUTvBNu7sxvKBlGeNyVsKH2xB8sLBerxHC3LMcStiyqTLYTD4vKZZxD6P9g5hq6joN8T/s1600/Tibbs1987Topps-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8af1Kx4HZffsUWUsTFOsVi9Tf3-Aby6CBs870Z8jFRW531LUOW83BU2dYFlYMQ17wBqq4ca4ijUTvBNu7sxvKBlGeNyVsKH2xB8sLBerxHC3LMcStiyqTLYTD4vKZZxD6P9g5hq6joN8T/s320/Tibbs1987Topps-9.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #9: Jay Tibbs, Expos P</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tibbsja01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: 4-5, 4.99 ERA in 19 games (12 starts), 54 Ks, 1.55 WHIP </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Tibbs (pictured here in what looks to be a routine spring training posed photo) appeared to be emerging as a solid if unspectacular back-end rotation piece when he posted a 3.73 ERA and threw 11 complete games and five shutouts in his first three big league seasons. Fun fact: THREE pitchers have thrown A TOTAL of at least 11 complete games in the last three seasons. Guess them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But Tibbs struggled in 1987, when he was sent to Triple-A Indianapolis for 12 starts. He sopped up some innings for the 107-loss Baltimore Orioles in 1988 before going 5-0 in 10 games (eight starts) in 1989 for the Orioles, who nearly went from worst-to-first. The Orioles traded him during the 1990 season to the Pittsburgh Pirates — described <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1990-06-25/sports/sp-652_1_jay-tibbs">in this wire story</a> as “ailing” — and he ended his career by going 1-0 in five appearances for the eventual NL East champs. A Google search of Jay didn’t reveal his post-career whereabouts, so Jay, if you’re out there, drop me a line!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Trivia answer: Clayton Kershaw (13), Madison Bumgarner (12) and Johnny Cueto (11).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyrlbBXaE2wFf4oQ6ms60plGA1HoXEsM_Myr1c4QEMRl93XVk4VEYhGu-BaQfO7X2GIyRxLv0ve-pEOhwmpt4gqQStOjxx-EMd8DBEVVyw5hCLLWHwkIx_-iPLAlCfP4cpN4oLBqa9jX_X/s1600/CooperTopps-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyrlbBXaE2wFf4oQ6ms60plGA1HoXEsM_Myr1c4QEMRl93XVk4VEYhGu-BaQfO7X2GIyRxLv0ve-pEOhwmpt4gqQStOjxx-EMd8DBEVVyw5hCLLWHwkIx_-iPLAlCfP4cpN4oLBqa9jX_X/s320/CooperTopps-10.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #10: Cecil Cooper, Brewers 1B</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/coopece01.shtml">Baseball-Reference page</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1987: .248, 6 HRs, 36 RBIs, .293 OBP, .372 SLG</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We get to our first “round number” card, a designation usually reserved for star players. Cooper, who looks to be waiting to take batting practice at Yankee Stadium in his photo, certainly earned said designation, as evidenced by the big numbers listed in tiny font on the back of his card. He was an absolute beast and a borderline Hall of Famer during his peak years with the Brewers, for whom he hit .300 in seven straight seasons from 1977 through 1983 while twice leading the American League in RBIs. He also would have won a batting title in 1980 if not for George Brett’s pursuit of .400, and a World Series if the Brewers could have closed out a 3-2 lead over the Cardinals in 1982. It felt like Cooper had two hits and two RBIs every time I read a Brewers boxscore in the newspaper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Cooper was winding down in 1986, when he looked more like a coach in his card photo, and his career ended with an unceremonious benching by the Brewers that, per dead linked stories that appeared on <a href="http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136553">this message board</a>, lasted the entire second half of 1987. (He’d still make it into the 1988 Topps set, albeit at no. 769). Cooper, a member of the Brewers’Hall of Fame, spent two-plus seasons as the Houston Astros’ manager and continues to live in Houston. He is also on <a href="https://twitter.com/CecilCooop">Twitter</a>.</span></div>
Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-8369927746345783712017-01-09T11:09:00.000-08:002017-01-09T11:09:11.908-08:00Cards 1-7: '86 Record Breakers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjutoDaLXiP33vMjpIxre0NwbHpEIJ4ZLEPl1tUn-SHQwRtGHqsvTjtq9710oNbn07W9lipbxzZ7-R7WNxRT-LrJvH_bW-qHCiuG9_QUdS7a6X3p78HdSd7LGkTbsPPpS1z4CN7mIGXt9Th/s1600/Clemens1987Topps-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjutoDaLXiP33vMjpIxre0NwbHpEIJ4ZLEPl1tUn-SHQwRtGHqsvTjtq9710oNbn07W9lipbxzZ7-R7WNxRT-LrJvH_bW-qHCiuG9_QUdS7a6X3p78HdSd7LGkTbsPPpS1z4CN7mIGXt9Th/s320/Clemens1987Topps-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #1: ’86 record breaker: Roger Clemens sets strikeout record</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198604290.shtml">Boxscore</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A much thinner than we remember (heh) Clemens cemented his arrival as the best pitcher in baseball by whiffing 20 Seattle Mariners in a 3-1 win at Fenway Park. As amazing as 20 strikeouts was, it’s even more mind-boggling that Clemens was allowed to throw an arm-killing 138 pitches. What? He ended up pitching two more decades? Never mind. Despite living in Connecticut, I watched exactly zero pitches of this game because I was listening to Game 7 of the Adams Division finals between the Hartford Whalers and Montreal Canadiens. I still hate you Claude Lemieux. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This also continued an uncanny run (ok, fine, it was only two years) of Topps leading off the set with Hall of Fame-caliber players who have been thus far doomed to reside outside of Cooperstown due to their own buffoonery. Pete Rose was card no. 1 in '86.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtcQ_s3abm1Tp5FLFC6hIAQs_pdOY6GiRRuqpbe_p3FtraHS4GPEUR-XBkWWdl8x5A7O46OIprUL0bpYH1m__a2ZYmN8xxvU5bbv3hewBT5MI4Gg4HBoJVgB6K2MBlpoBwQ890NfDiDbEu/s1600/Deshaies1987Topps-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtcQ_s3abm1Tp5FLFC6hIAQs_pdOY6GiRRuqpbe_p3FtraHS4GPEUR-XBkWWdl8x5A7O46OIprUL0bpYH1m__a2ZYmN8xxvU5bbv3hewBT5MI4Gg4HBoJVgB6K2MBlpoBwQ890NfDiDbEu/s320/Deshaies1987Topps-2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #2: ’86 record breaker: Jim Deshaies strikes out the first eight batters in a game</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU198609230.shtml">Boxscore</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Deshaies enjoyed the finest moment of a solid rookie season when he struck out the first eight Los Angeles Dodgers he faced on Sept. 23. He broke the modern set earlier in the season by Joe Cowley, who whiffed the first seven New York Yankees on May 28. Deshaies fell one strikeout shy of the all-time record of nine straight strikeouts to open a game, set by Mickey Welch way back in 1884.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Deshaies’ record was tied Sept. 15, 2014, when New York Mets rookie Jacob deGrom whiffed the first eight Miami Marlins he faced before opposing pitcher Jarred Cosart (!!!) singled. I covered that game, we all thought deGrom was going to throw a no-hitter. Instead, he didn’t even get a decision in <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN201409150.shtml">the Mets’ 6-5 loss</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Deshaies’ response to deGrom joining him in the record books was <a href="https://twitter.com/jimdeshaies/status/511695571938447360">pretty amusing</a>, and befitting for one of the most popular and funniest broadcasters in baseball.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJycabXR3bn_pWhaG7a8ljfC33f03tThwj4FBQzlG85-g2B17KEb9N7Ck6mChVQlwWwnj4ab2hyF_Zj4vdWnH8hYJ5MsbcFiM46twhNOY_0QoXONs3fr35YKUOA__CNg1cUZL51MLtguw8/s1600/Evans1987Topps-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJycabXR3bn_pWhaG7a8ljfC33f03tThwj4FBQzlG85-g2B17KEb9N7Ck6mChVQlwWwnj4ab2hyF_Zj4vdWnH8hYJ5MsbcFiM46twhNOY_0QoXONs3fr35YKUOA__CNg1cUZL51MLtguw8/s320/Evans1987Topps-3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #3: ’86 record breaker: Dwight Evans hits the earliest home run in history</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET198604070.shtml">Boxscore</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Shouldn’t this have been the first card in the set? Topps gave leadoff duties to George Bell in 1989 in honor of his three-homer game in the 1988 season opener. Regardless, this card is confirmation Elias was finding awesomely funky stats long before the Internet was invented. I have no idea how this stat was confirmed, or that apparently nobody homered before the fourth pitch of a season prior to 1981.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Anyway, here’s to you Dwight Evans. You should probably be in the Hall of Fame, but you’ll have to be content with holding a record no one can ever break.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGL_PmWAQLbNtQna0E1Hwi_384KaOY0ZTwLcdrcSCkHm5aU_ZQMMyTXfOGZ-ZaqeZKzWfR2bI63Wq-IdDxWUWpznO1EdL2gSyGbLush9bVcEWi1oqwxlpuAX_M6_zKZpjc_bXrKyLphbHk/s1600/Lopes1987Topps-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGL_PmWAQLbNtQna0E1Hwi_384KaOY0ZTwLcdrcSCkHm5aU_ZQMMyTXfOGZ-ZaqeZKzWfR2bI63Wq-IdDxWUWpznO1EdL2gSyGbLush9bVcEWi1oqwxlpuAX_M6_zKZpjc_bXrKyLphbHk/s320/Lopes1987Topps-4.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #4: ’86 record breaker: Davey Lopes steals more bases than any 40-year-old</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198609020.shtml">Boxscore</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Four cards in and Topps was already getting obscure. Perhaps they felt they owed Lopes a special honor card, since he stole 47 bases during his age-40 season in 1985 (his birthday is May 3) but forgot to mention it. It’s not a post-birthday thing, either: Lopes had “just” 23 steals after his birthday in 1986, which would have tied him with Honus Wagner and the unlisted Willie Mays. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Oh well. Check out the boxscore in which Lopes stole his 24th base of the season. How fantastic is that game? The starters were Nolan Ryan and Jamie Moyer and the losing pitcher, in his major league debut, was Greg Maddux. Where’s the card about that game?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Also, to the surprise of no one, Lopes’ 25 steals as a 41-year-old were the most by a 40-something until Rickey Henderson turned 40 and swiped 39 bases for the New York Mets in 1999. Cause Rickey is Rickey. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #5: ’86 record breaker: Dave Righetti breaks single-season save record</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198610042.shtml">Boxscore</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Righetti’s fascinating career — he was one of the Yankees’ top starters and threw a no-hitter on July 4, 1983 before being moved to the bullpen in 1984 — took another cool turn when he got saves in both games of a doubleheader on the penultimate day of the season to break the record of 45 saves in a season previously shared by the late Dan Quisenberry and Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Alas, what seemed otherwordly in 1986 is now downright boring thanks to the emphasis of bullpens and the devaluation of the save. Righetti’s 46 saves are tied for 40th-most all-time with luminaries such as Jose Mesa and Mike Williams. A pitcher has recorded at least 46 saves in a season a whopping 49 times since 1987. Only two of those pitchers, Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz, have made the Hall of Fame, though Trevor Hoffman could be enshrined as soon as this year and Mariano Rivera is sure to be inducted when eligible in 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Righetti fell off the ballot in his first year of eligibility in 2001. He’ll have to be content with earning three World Series rings as the pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #6: ’86 record breaker: Ruben Sierra is youngest player to homer from both sides in a game</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN198609130.shtml">Boxscore</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Sierra made his first career multi-homer game count by going deep from both sides of the plate. He achieved the feat at 20 years and 343 days old, which made him nearly six months younger than Eddie Murray when the future Hall of Famer homered from both sides of the plate on Aug. 3, 1977.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">First Sierra homered from the left side against right-hander Bert Blyleven, who won 287 games and earned induction into the Hall of Fame in 2011. Then he homered from the right side against southpaw Bill Latham, who was making the 12th of his 14 big league appearances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Those of us who collected baseball cards in 1987 thought Sierra was headed for the Hall of Fame, maybe even before he retired. He didn’t follow Murray into Cooperstown, but Sierra had a fascinating career in which he played for nine teams and detoured to an independent </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">league in 1999 yet didn’t take his final big league at-bat until 2006.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Card #7: ’86 record breaker: Todd Worrell breaks rookie record for saves</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198608100.shtml">Boxscore</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Worrell came within one first-place vote of being a unanimous Rookie of the Year, which seems appropriate for someone who might have been the most experienced rookie in history. Worrell earned five saves in 17 games down the stretch in 1985 and notched a save in the World Series — and was robbed of a second, Series-clinching save by Don Denkinger’s blown call — but maintained his rookie eligibility for 1986, when he racked up a National League-leading 36 saves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">According to Topps, Worrell’s 24th save on Aug. 10 broke the previous rookie record set by Doug Corbett in 1980. But per Baseball-Reference, three pitchers — Dick Radatz, Wayne Granger and Terry Forster — all had more saves as rookies prior to Corbett. Either way, as with Righetti, the scope of Worrell’s mark has diminished somewhat thanks to the proliferation of the closer. Five rookies have exceeded Worrell’s total, led by Craig Kimbrel, who racked up 46 saves for the Atlanta Braves in 2011.</span></div>
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Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715856566249054834.post-70007697075918848412017-01-06T14:43:00.002-08:002017-01-06T14:43:32.555-08:00Why a blog about 1987 Topps baseball cards?<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Nice round anniversary aside, why am I hoping to spend the year looking back at the 1987 Topps set? While I certainly liked those 792 cards—actually, since I built six sets, I liked 4,752 cards, plus the thousands of extras that never made it into another duplicate set— it’s not my favorite set of all-time, or what I consider to be the best-looking set of all-time. Those honors are held by the 1985 Fleer set, which I love as much now as I did back in the throes of puberty.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I was too young to really dig the throwback look—the wood panel border celebrated the 25th anniversary of Topps’ iconic 1962 set—and actually much preferred the look of the Fleer or even the 3-D Sportflics among the 1987 cards.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But packs of Fleer, Sportflics and Donruss were harder to find and therefore more expensive as their manufacturers minimized press runs in hopes of increasing demand and value. Topps cards, on the other hand, were as ubiquitous as air, which meant they most easily fed my furious addiction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Baseball cards became more important than anything—more important than my grades, sorry Mom, or the girls I had yet to not date—once I discovered the joy of collecting a set in the summer of 1986, when a buddy and I bought a few packs of the Topps “mini-leaders” and decided to try and collect all 66 (what can I say, we were young and cautious). </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Collecting that set eventually beget completing all three 1986 sets, but 1987 was the first year in which I anticipated the arrival of the new season’s baseball cards. It blew my mind that I could be buying the next season’s baseball cards in January, but there I was, buying full boxes and ripping open packs and even occasionally chewing the gum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As my Mom said, the money from my paper route (Google it, kids) burned a hole in my pocket. Topps cards were everywhere, they were easily obtainable yet I could not get enough of them. (I also got enough Fleer and Donruss to build multiple sets, and enough Sportflics for a set, which should earn me a medal)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In addition, 1987 Topps cards are the cardboard accompaniment to the most memorable baseball season of my youth. Everyone thinks there’s no better baseball season than the one in which they were 13, but those of us born in late 1973 or the first half of 1974 are actually correct.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The juiced ball. Rookie of the Year winners Mark McGwire and Benito Santiago pursuing some of the most hallowed numbers in the sport. A 13-inning All-Star Game. Tim Raines, All-Star Game MVP and one-man post-collusion wrecking crew. The Milwaukee Brewers, who opened the season 13-0 and had a pitcher throw a no-hitter and a player hit in 39 straight games yet finished seven games out in a terrific AL East race. A classic NLCS between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants. The 85-win Minnesota Twins riding the momentum of the Homerdome to an unlikely pennant and an even more unexpected seven-game World Series win over the Cardinals. The last afternoon World Series game ever. And a whole bunch of other stuff I’m probably forgetting but will remember this year, the 30th anniversary of the best baseball season ever and the most omnipresent baseball card set of all-time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">My plan is to look at all 792 cards over the next 365 days while also commemorating the anniversary of the big baseball moments. I’m a sportswriter so I hope to actually interview some of the people responsible for the cards and memories of our youth. It’ll be fun. Come along for the ride, won’t you?</span></div>
Jerry Beachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11039592694913420983noreply@blogger.com0