Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Pack Three

Pack 3 +14
(duplicates are indicated by bold text)


615 Scott Lusader - I've never heard of this guy. But after some digging around, Scott is one of eight players to have committed three errors in the same inning in Major League history. It happened in the first inning of this game, on September 9, 1989 against the White Sox.

Poor guy. In his entire five year career he made only six errors. But three in one game never looks good, much less three in one inning. Dan Uggla made three in last year's All Star game, but only two came in the same inning.


486 Rick Manning - The upper half of Rick's bat blends so well with the blurry fans in the background that on first glance it looks like it's not there.

Just because of the badass Brewers logo, this card will get some consideration in the best of the pack running.


476 Dan Petry - What is that white thing behind the outfield fence? Is it a fountain? Any ideas where it could be?

342 Mel Hall - Woo! A second child molester. I'm not going to let doubles bother me in this box because I know at the end enough people will want to get rid of their extra cards that I won't have trouble completing the set.

If I had any Co2 cartridges left, I'd take ol' Mel out back and shoot him. But... alas, there is no air.


207 Von Hays - I don't know a lot about Von Hayes. He was card number 666 in '87 Topps, that's the only thing I remember about him.

I do like the old Phillies logo though.


10 Julio Franco – Diamond King - Another Diamond King that fell just short of looking like who it's supposed to look like.

I know I say this every time Julio Franco comes up, but I think he deserves serious consideration for the Hall of Fame. He is a career .298 hitter over the course of 23 seasons (plus a few in Japan). He racked up nearly 2600 hits and close to 1200 RBIs, and 281 stolen bases on top of that.

On Baseball Reference's similarity scores, there's only one HoF'er in Franco's top 10, but a few of them (Larkin and Jeter) will most likely be in the Hall pretty soon.

I also think Julio will make a fine Major League manager some day.


554 Rocky Childress - "Hey Rocky, come stand in as much shadow as you possibly can, then I'll take your picture."

Is that the Astrodome? That's a home jersey, but it looks a little too sunny to be inside.


543 Jim Morrison - The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother...i want to...fuck you

Oh wait... wrong Jim Morrison. This Jim Morrison had a decently productive career and is currently the manager of the Single-A Charlotte Stone Crabs of the Florida State League.


533 Terry Puhl - There's something moderately unsettling about this card. I think it's because he looks so genuinely happy to be in a completely empty stadium.

No errors in 157 games in the outfield in 1979 is pretty impressive.


522 Pat Sheridan - Sheridan looks more like he just got punched in the stomach than hit a baseball.

He homered in his first ML at bat. No matter how your career goes from that point on, that's a great accomplishment and a wonderful story for the grandkids.

That homer came off of Milt Wilcox.


388 Dave Parker - Parker probably had the best career out of this pack, but could have had a much better photograph.


253 Bob Welch - This is probably the best looking card in the pack. There's a lot of movement with the pitching delivery and the nice Dodgers logo in the corner.

Bob Welch's 1990 was one of the great pitching performances of the past 50 years. These days a 20 game winner is getting hard to find. But 27 wins? 27-6, with a 2.95 ERA for an Oakland team that won 103 games... and then got swept in the Series by the Reds. D'oh.


408 Jerry Browne - The look on his face is one of absolute confusion. "You want me to do what now?"


18 Andy Van Slyke – Diamond King - It almost looks like Andy Van Slyke. I think without the name at the bottom most baseball fans would figure out that this was Andy Van Slyke. I don't know, but the lips just don't work on these paintings.

Also, good luck with that baseball prowess there Pittsburgh. You almost reasserted it in the early 90s, but it fell out somewhere along the way and no one noticed and you didn't go back to look for it.

Sorry, I think Cubs may have found it and they're still using it. Maybe they'll give it back if you ask nicely.


624 Greg Myers - Unlike Terry Puhl, Greg Myers seems to realize that he's in a completely vacant stadium and has expressed himself accordingly.

So the winner of best card in the pack here is Bob Welch. But again, I'm open to arguments.

Now the puzzle.


So far, I've gotten only border pieces, which is nice. And I apologize for the ass end of my cat, she was sleeping on the puzzle table and tried to bite me when I tried to push her off.

And there's pack 3.

3 comments:

Matt Runyon said...

Van Slyke looks like he's doing the Billy Idol sneer.

Jeffrey Wolfe said...

The Astros road jerseys in those days were a cream-colored off white. Here's a trivia question for everybody. The guys who led the '86 Pirates in homers was in this pack and it's NOT Van Slyke or Parker. By the way, as a little kid I judged how good a player was by whether or not he was a Diamond King.

Jason Presley said...

After reading about Puhl's flawless fielding in '79, I had to see who won the Gold Glove that year. Turns out it was Garry Maddox. I think Terry might have had a shot had he played more of his games in the CF slot. Instead, he split time between all three positions (110CF, 40RF, 7LF) and lost out to a guy who committed 3 errors in 140 games exclusively in CF.

Incidentally, Parker also won a 1979 Gold Glove.