Single Card Post - 2001 Topps #732

Pardon the poor picture on this. I took this over a year ago to be used in a post I never ended up writing. I attempted to clean it up but no dice. So, in order to actually see who's on this card, here it is properly scanned and everything from COMC:

Much better.

I don't know how I acquired this card ... maybe a repack? Maybe a trade? Not sure. Anyway, I thought I'd pull out something I've done in the past with multi-player cards and see how each guy on this card fared in their career.

Gookie Dawkins - At one time the Reds middle infield consisted of guys named Gookie and Pokey, and that's honestly about all can be said about Gookie Dawkins in MLB. In 52 games over parts of three seasons with the Reds (1999, 2000, 2002), he hit a low .167/.238/.208 with exactly zero homers and only 3 RBIs. In 2003, he resurfaced with Kansas City appearing in only 3 games. After his 2003 cameo, he stayed in the minors with various organizations until 2011.

Erick Almonte - Almonte's stay in the majors was nearly as brief as Gookie Dawkins. Almonte only appeared in 55 games total in MLB, mostly for the Yankees (2001, 2003) but also a quick 16-game cup of coffee with the Brewers in 2011. Seems he'd bounced around with a lot of different organizations in the minors before having one last hurrah with the Brewers. At the very least, his MLB career stats show he had two homers with 14 RBIs and a .233 average.

Felipe Lopez - Lopez was a solid middle infielder who debuted with the Blue Jays in 2001 and had a good run with the Reds from 2003-2006. His best season was was 2005 where is made the All-Star team for the only time and finished with a .291 average, 23 homers, and 85 RBIs in 148 games. After the Reds shipped him to the Nationals in July 2006, in what turned out to be a pretty controversial trade as the Reds claimed "damaged goods" on one of the pitchers they got in return, he bounced around to seven different teams from 2008 to 2011. As recently as 2015 though, he made a comeback of sorts with Carolina in the Puerto Rican Winter League.

Of these three, I'd definitely say that Lopez had the best career by far. Do you remember any of these players?

Around the Horn: Toronto Blue Jays

O, Canada! My "Around the Horn" series makes the trek north of the border, to look at the only current MLB team not in the United States, the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays were founded in 1977 along with the Seattle Mariners as part of the last round of American League expansion (that is, until 1998 when the Rays (nee Devil Rays) were added).

Photo: Wikipedia.org

From their inception until June of 1989, the Jays played at Exhibition Stadium, a strange creature of a stadium positioned on the shores of Lake Ontario. According to Wikipedia, there was a small snowstorm before the inaugural game in April of 1977 and the team had to borrow the Zamboni from the Maple Leafs to clear the field.

During the first few years of the Blue Jays existence, they were nothing to write home about. However, when Bobby Cox took over as manager in the early 1980s, things began to improve and the Blue Jays began to rise in the standings. The 1982 Topps "Future Stars" card shows a glimpse into the future. Let's see how each player on this card panned out:

Jesse Barfield - Played 12 MLB seasons total, the first nine of which were with the Jays. He finished in the top 10 of Rookie of the Year voting in 1982, twice in the top ten of MVP voting (1985, 1986), and won Gold Gloves in 1986 and 1987. His best season was 1986, the only season in which he made the All-Star team, in which he slugged 40 homers, hit .289 with a .559 slugging percentage, and drove in 108 RBIs.

Brian Milner - Only appeared in two major league games in 1978 and accumulated 9 official at bats in those two games. He tooled around the lower minors for a few years and was out of organized baseball after 1982.

Boomer Wells - Also known as Greg Wells, he lasted all of two seasons in the majors (1981 with TOR and 1982 with MIN) and only appeared in a paltry 47 games during that span. In 1983, he went over to Japan and had a very prolific career over there playing until 1992 with the Hankyu Braves, Orix Braves, and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.

Throughout the 1980s, the Blue Jays were perennial contenders for the AL East Division crown and actually won the Division in 1985 before being bested by Kansas City in the ALCS that year. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they had veterans like Jim Clancy along with youngsters such as Cecil Fielder and Mark Whiten who would eventually lead them to the promise land. More on that later.

I picked these cards out because I always enjoyed the pure white of the Blue Jays uniforms during this period. Also, I think Cecil Fielder's four year run with the Jays gets forgotten quite a bit as most remember him for the home run clubbing first baseman for the Tigers during the early part of the 1990s.

From the "short term stops" file, here's some 80s cards of Jeff Burroughs and Juan Berenguer. 

Burroughs only season with the Jays was his sunset year of 1985 where he only made 86 games. He's shown here in the 1986 Fleer issue. It's one of only a handful of cards I have from that particular set. Berenguer, also known as "El Gasolino" in addition to his "Señor Smoke" moniker, had a brief 12-game sojourn north of the border in 1981 as he was purchased by the Jays from the Royals just before the second half of the season started. 

Photo: wikipedia.org

In the middle of the 1989 season, the Blue Jays moved from Exhibition Stadium into the brand new Skydome (since renamed Rogers Centre), a giant multi-purpose stadium built on the former Railway Lands in downtown Toronto.

Fred McGriff and Joe Carter were part of arguably the biggest and most famous trade in Blue Jays history. In December of 1990, the Blue Jays traded McGriff and Tony Fernandez to San Diego for Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar. The rest is history. 

McGriff had a few good seasons with the Padres before being acquired by the Braves in 1993 for the stretch run to the playoffs. Fernandez spent two seasons in San Diego before being traded to the Mets in the 1992-93 offseason. He found his way back to Toronto after being acquired via trade in June of 1993. All totaled, Fernandez had four different stints with the Jays (1983-1990, 1993, 1998-99, and 2001) before retiring.

Would I call myself a Fred McGriff collector? Yes, possibly as he's a player I'm familiar with from seeing him with the Braves on TV. Seeing cards of him though in a Blue Jays uniform is just fascinating. These are my four favorites that I have.

Carter and Alomar helped the Jays win back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993, with Carter hitting one of the most famous home runs in World Series history in 1993 off Mitch Williams of the Phillies. Alomar anchored the defense up the middle and earned both an All-Star nod and a gold glove in every season he spent up in Toronto. We won't mention the little umpire spitting incident though.

Joe Carter is definitely someone cool I enjoy collecting, mainly because of that home run in the 1993 World 

The Jays also had some great pitching during this time from players such as Jack Morris, Dave Stewart, and Pat Hentgen. Morris joined the team in 1992 and won 21 games for the Jays after having just won the World Series with Minnesota the year prior

Some more stars from early 90s Blue Jays teams, including "Hard Hittin'" Mark Whiten, and Dave Winfield, who's one of my favorite players to collect. Looking back now on it, those 92 and 93 teams were just absolutely loaded.

I mostly remember Paul Molitor for his time with the Brewers and him signing a three-year deal with the Blue Jays after spending 15 years in Milwaukee was a bit of a shock to me as a kid as I imagined him as a Brewer for life.

The Jays sort of fell off after the 1994-95 strike but did have some younger players coming up like Carlos Delgado. They even changed their long time logo and uniforms. 

They also managed to snag Roger Clemens for two brief seasons in 1997 and 1998. I'm not sure too many people remember his time in blue up north so I guess this could be filed as a "short term stop" even though it was two seasons. It's still bizarre to me to see him in anything but a Red Sox uniform.

One player I didn't care much for when he was with the Reds was Edwin Encarnacion. In a rare trade where it worked well for both teams, the Reds traded him and a couple minor leaguers in exchange for Scott Rolen. Encarnacion had a heck of a run with the Blue Jays, and coupled with Jose Bautista, made for a crazy power threat in the lineup. 

So there we are, a look at some of my favorite Blue Jays cards in my collection. Hope you enjoyed this entry in the "Around the Horn" series.

Next up ... the Cleveland Indians!

Single Card Post - 1977 Topps #492

Our subjects of examination today appear as a quartet on card #492 of the 1977 Topps issue. Everyone on the front of this card looks less than impressed, save for Carlos Lopez. Also, it looks to me that every hat is airbrushed. Three of these four I've never heard of so let's see how they did and if anything new is uncovered:

Tony Armas only made 4 games with the Pirates in 1976 before being shipped off to the A's with five other players for Phil Garner, Tommy Helms, and another player. Armas had six decent years with Oakland appearing in 694 games overall hitting .250, with 111 HRS and 374 RBIs. In the strike-shortened season of 1981, Armas was an All-Star and finished fourth in MVP voting. After the 1982 season, Armas was traded by the A's to Boston in a deal that landed Oakland Carney Lansford in return. With Boston, his best season (and probably best overall in his career) was 1984 where he played in 157 games, hit 43 homers, led the AL in RBIs with 123, and won the Player of the Month award for June. On top of that, he appeared in his second All-Star Game, finished in the top ten of MVP voting and won a Silver Slugger. After this power saw a relapse in both 1985 and 1986, Armas left Boston as a free agent and signed with the Angels before the 1987 season started. He would play three more years before retiring after the 1989 season and a 14-year career.

Steve Kemp was the first overall pick of the January 1976 amateur draft out of USC by the Tigers and was a bright spot on a Tigers squad that finished 4th in the AL East in 1977 with a .257 average, 18 homers, and 88 RBIs. Two years later, Kemp made is only All-Star team hitting .318/.398/.543 with 26 HRs and 105 RBIs and finished in the top twenty of MVP voting. After the 1981 season, he was sent to the White Sox in exchange for Chet Lemon. He only spent one season on the south side and then signed with the Yankees as a free agent. After two decent season, the Yankees traded him and Tim Foli to the Pirates for Dale Berra, Jay Buhner, and Alfonso Pulido. In Pittsburgh, he was a part-time player and was released by the Pirates in the middle of the 1986 season. He resurfaces for a few shots in 1988 with the Rangers but was released again in the middle of the season.

Carlos Lopez only played three years in the majors and all three with different teams. His MLB journey began when the Angels purchased him in 1973. He spent the 1974, 1975, and the majority of the 1976 seasons in the minors. At the end of 1976 he appeared in 9 games with 10 at bats and got exactly zero hits in those 10 at bats. The Mariners selected him in the 1976 expansion draft and he fared a bit better in Seattle and had his best season stat wise. After the season, the Mariners shipped him off to Baltimore along with Tommy Moore for Mike Parrott. After 129 games with the Orioles in 1978 he disappeared from the majors. 1979 was spent in the Orioles minor league system and by 1980 was back in the Mexican League where he played another five seasons.

Gary Woods debuted in 1976 playing in six games with the A's and after the season was selected by the Blue Jays in the expansion draft. With the Jays, he was primarily a backup outfielder, only appearing the 68 games over 1977 and 1978. After the season, he was traded to Houston for a minor leaguer and spent the entire 1979 season playing in the minors with Tuscon (AZ) and Charleston (WV) in the Astros system. The next year, he was back in the majors and again was primarily a backup outfielder, only getting in 73 games over the 1980 and 1981 seasons. After the 1981 season, he was again traded, this time to the Cubs for Jim Tracy. The best season of his career was the 1982 season, his first with the Cubs were he hit .269/.327/.388 but only mustered 4 homers and 30 RBIs. After that season, he had three more years with the Cubs as was out of the majors after the 1985 season.

Here's the back of the card for those who are interested. One thing I always liked about 1977 Topps is the back of the card as it's made to look like, at least in my opinion, a scoreboard you'd see at the local sandlot. Anyway, of the four players mentioned here, there's no doubt that Tony Armas had the best career of all involved. 

You've Got Mail #43: Baseball Every Night

I've got a good selection of the base cards I want from 2016 flagship but hardly any of the inserts. However, in stepped Peter from Baseball Every Night with some of the First Pitch inserts from this year. I enjoyed last year's First Pitch cards so I wanted to try to some from this year too. Since Peter didn't want them, I gladly took them off his hands. While I won't show every card, I'll show off the celebrities I've heard of.

I don't follow boxing at all but some of the MMA news sites I read cover boxing occasionally and I've seen Miguel Cotto's name on occasion, most of it was in conjunction with his fight with Canelo Alvarez last November, which he lost by the way. The picture of former President Bush isn't exactly the most flattering but according to the back of the card, it was right after he suffered a fall and was in a neck brace because of it. Regardless, still pretty cool to have a card of a former President.

I'm not ashamed to say I've got a few James Taylor songs on my iPad. I wouldn't consider myself a fan of his music but I do enjoy listening to "Fire and Rain" on occasion. Just like I'm not a big James Taylor fan, I wouldn't consider myself a golf fan either. I used to play when I was in high school and on occasion after that and will watch a little bit on TV, but that's mainly if I can't find anything else to watch and it's just for background noise.

Good gosh, that's a pretty garish outfit on Don Cherry! However, being the hockey fan that I am, when I saw his name listed in the checklist, I knew I had to have it, mainly because it's a nice blend of my two favorite sports to watch on TV. Speaking of blending sports, Jim Harbaugh definitely went all out, donning the full Tigers uniform, right down to the hat. 

As far as these First Pitch cards go, the line-up wasn't as exciting this year as it was last year when there were cards of Jeff Bridges, Melissa McCarthy, and Metallica among others. For what it is though, it's pretty fun and something nice to break up the monotony when you're opening tons of packs of flagship cards.

Peter also threw in this signed Dave Christian hockey card since he's not a hockey kind of person but I totally am. I'm not too familiar with Mr. Christian so let's see what ye olde hockey reference has to say. Apparently he had a very long career from the 1979-80 season to the 1993-94 season with Winnipeg, Washington, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago. 

So there we go, a handful of first pitches and a neat signed hockey card. Another fun package in the books! Speaking of fun, don't forget to stop by on August 1st at Noon eastern for an announcement of something really fun coming in the fall!