Card #16: Pat Clements
1987 (w/Yankees): 3-3, 4.95 ERA, 7 saves in 55 games, 1.53 WHIP
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.
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 Chico’s sports Hall of Fame.
Card #17: Pete O’Brien
1987: .286, 23 HRs, 88 RBIs, .348 OBP, .457 SLG
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.
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.
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)
Card #18: Dick Howser
1987: Did not manage due to illness, died on June 17
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.
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. He was just 51 when he died at his home in Florida. 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.
Card #19: Matt Young
1987 (w/Dodgers): 5-8, 4.47 ERA, 11 saves in 47 games, 1.45 WHIP
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.
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 due to Tommy John surgery and won a World Series ring as a little-used swingman with the Athletics in 1989.
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) Thanks Fay Vincent! 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.
Card #20: Gary Carter
1987: .235, 20 HRs, 83 RBIs, .290 OBP, .392 SLG
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.
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.
Carter harbored hopes of becoming the Mets’ manager, but his relationship with the organization soured 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.
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 he died at the age of 57 on Feb. 16, 2012. 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.
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