Tony, the Killer, and Carew

 Celebrating our favorite Twins cards for no particular reason 

Man, I love this card of Mickey Hatcher! What really makes me mad is that I never even knew it existed until I started collecting cards again in 2000. 1986 was a few years after I quit collecting and although I still religiously followed my beloved Twins, this particular Mickey Hatcher escaped my keen eye for too many years. Regardless of my collecting habits, I still may have missed it because I considered Fleer the red-headed stepchild of Topps, the Grandaddy of all cards.  

Okay, what makes this card so special? What makes any card so special? In Baseball Card collecting, there was never a truer statement than, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” One man’s Picasso is another man’s Kandinsky…or something like that. This card may never be held up beside the Honus Wagner, Nap Lajoie, Mickey Mantle cards of famed pecuniary value, but it sure stands up to them (or any card) in it’s simple conveyance of one grown man playing a kid’s game and enjoying every minute of it.

I was fortunate enough to watch Mickey play the entire 6 years he was with the Twins and along with Kent Hrbek, he was one of my favorite player. This 1986 Fleer card embodies what I most remember about Mickey as a player and that’s the fun he had while on the field. If you look deep into the heart of the card you can almost see Mickey standing down at third base during batting practice with this hugely oversized Mizuno fishing net as he chides Greg Gagne with barbs like, “Hey batter, batter, swing” or mocks the batting practice pitcher with, “We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher.”

While the front of the card is enough for me to count this among my most favorite cards of all-time, the joy ends there. Fleer was notorious for very bland card backs and they don’t fail to deliver another snoozer with Hatcher in 1986.  While the Fleer fact checker comes up with a great stat about Mickey’s clutch hitting, they entirely miss the boat when they use the ever popular “W” to indicate walks instead of the tried and tested, official “BB” (Base on Balls) abreviation. Maybe I’m nit-picking here, but c’mon Fleer, hire someone who’s at least been to a baseball game.

So Mickey’s 1986 Fleer becomes our first Card of the Moment. It’s not the card of the week or the month or the year…just of the moment. Until next time, keep on collecting.

You may want to look away if you have a sensitive stomach.

September 28, 1984

Despite coming into the game with a three-game losing streak, the Minnesota Twins were still alive in the AL West race. With three games left to play they trailed Kansas City by two games in the standings (from Retrosheet).

Team Name            G   W   L   T   PCT    GB   RS  RA
Kansas City Royals  159  83  76  0  .522     -  663 667
Minnesota Twins     159  81  78  0  .509   2.0  655 651
California Angels   159  79  80  0  .497   4.0  690 693
Oakland Athletics   159  75  84  0  .472   8.0  719 786
Chicago White Sox   159  73  86  0  .459  10.0  669 722
Seattle Mariners    159  72  87  0  .453  11.0  668 764
Texas Rangers       158  68  90  0  .430  14.5  652 708

The Twins had three games left to play in Cleveland, while Kansas City was in the midst of a series at Oakland. A Twins loss would mean the best they could do was tie for the division lead, combine that with a Kansas City win and the Royals would win the division.

   Minnesota Twins               Cleveland Indians
1. K Puckett            CF    1. B Butler             CF
2. R Washington         SS    2. J Franco             SS
3. M Hatcher            LF    3. J Carter             LF
4. K Hrbek              1B    4. A Thornton           1B
5. R Bush               DH    5. C Castillo           RF
6. T Brunansky          RF    6. P Tabler             3B
7. G Gaetti             3B    7. C Bando              DH
8. T Teufel             2B    8. J Willard            C
9. T Laudner            C     9. M Fischlin           2B

   F Viola              P        J Ujdur              P

Early on, the Twins played like a team desperate to catch the division leaders. Mickey Hatcher’s sacrifice fly the scored Kirby Puckett in the first inning was just a start.

After Frank Viola retired the first three Indians he faced, the Twins really did some damage with their bats (with some help from the Indians’ defense) in the top of the second inning.

Two key Cleveland errors had set the Twins up with the bases loaded and nobody out. One run had already scored on Tim Teuful’s single, and Cleveland decided to go the bullpen early, lifting starter Jerry Ujdur in favor of Jeff Barkley.

Barkley seemed to be succeeding in stopping the bleeding when he struck out Puckett, but the next three Twins he faced reached safely, including an RBI double for Hatcher, and a two-RBI double for Kent Hrbek. Before Barkley’s day was done the Twins had taken a 7-0 lead.

The Twins added three more runs in the third inning, thanks in part to another Cleveland error. Though Joe Carter hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning, the game still seemed academic with the Twins ahead 10-2 after three innings.

The middle innings passed uneventfully, and the lead held into the Cleveland half of the sixth. That is when the wheels fell off for the Twins. Here is Frank Viola’s line after five innings:

Frank Viola 5 IP 2 R 2 ER 3 H 2 BB 3 K

The only real blemish was the Carter home run.

The sixth began innocently enough when Carter flied out to center. Six of the next seven batters reached for Cleveland, including a solo home run by Andre Thornton, three singles, a double, and a walk. When Viola left the game with two outs in the inning, the lead had been cut to five.

Rick Lysander didn’t fare much better. He pitched well enough to get the Twins out of the inning, but a Gary Gaetti error allowed another run to score and kept the inning alive. A walk and a single later and the Twins lead was cut to one run. Pete Filson finally put an end to the inning when he came in to coax the final out.

Frank Viola’s final line for the game: 5 2/3 IP 8 H 8 R 6 ER 3 BB 4 K

Cleveland had put together a seven run, six hit inning off of Twins pitching to put themselves back into the game.

While Cleveland seemed to be surging, the Twins offense was headed in the opposite direction after the 10-run outburst in the first three innings. They went out in order in the seventh and eighth innings.

Filson was able to provide some stability on the other side, as he was able to pitch around a one out single in the seventh to keep the Twins ahead by one.

In the eighth, Filson got the first out before manager Billy Gardner went to the bullpen for Ron Davis. Davis, who earned the loss in game one of the series by allowing two runs in the last two innings of the game, came in to face Julio Franco, with Joe Carter on deck. Davis completed the first part of his job by getting Franco to pop out, but Joe Carter erased the lead with his second home run of the game.

After the Twins went down in order in the top of the ninth, Davis came back out to pitch the bottom of the frame.

Those who followed the team closely are likely to say that there was a certain inevitability to the ending for the ‘84 Twins in Cleveland, particularly with Ron Davis involved in a close game. Whether that was true or not, it seemed to be the script that this game was going to follow, and it wasn’t a matter of if the Twins would lose, but when.

Fortunately for Twins fans, if there were any among the 6,106 fans in Cleveland, the ending came sooner rather than later. Davis walked two of the first three men he faced before being yanked in favor of Ed Hodge. Hodge didn’t record a single out, but allowed two straight hits to Mel Hall and Brett Butler to end the game, and any post season hopes for the Twins; shortly after the meltdown was complete the Royals completed their 6-5 victory over Oakland.

Let’s jump into the weekend with some interesting links I’ve found over the past week and we’ll top that off with a little bit of TwinsCards trivia.

Be sure to check out Coffeyville Whirlwind, TwinsCards Blogger Scot Johnson’s other historical blog. Scot has continued his 1987 Hot Stove review as he recaps World Series games 1-5. Additionally, there are some quality posts about Walter Johnson and Harmon Killebrew, the Game of the Week (Apr 25, 1970) and some in-season thoughts on the Twins thus far.

Seth Stohs continues his series with the Top 10 Twins Pitchers of the 90’s. As always, good stuff from Seth. This also may be the first and only Top 10 list that Mike Trombley has ever made!

Will Young pens several historical type posts this week. The first has to do with Bert Blyleven’s Major League debut, while the other two have to do with near trades that the Twins almost pulled off. The first is about volitile Twin’s pitcher, Dave Boswell and the other recaps a few “almosts” involving names like Tony Oliva, Duke Snider and Hoyt Wilhelm.

Twins Geek took a much deserved day off and “Phoned One In” from 5 years ago. A little peak at the Cleveland Indians and a few Twins notes. WARNING: There is a Joe Mays sighting!

TWINS TRIVIA

Nothing here that will qualify you for a spot on Jeopardy, but hopefully they are challenging enough to make you grease up the cogs for a few minutes. All answers can be found on the site. Bonus points for identifying the card or cards the information came from!

1. The Twins became the first team in either league to sweep the monthly player awards by winning AL Player of the Month, AL Pitcher of the Month and AL Rookie of the Month. When and whom?
2. Which former Twins manager previously coached 4 champion soccer teams at Baltimore University?
3. In 1982, this player had a stretch of games in which he hit safely in 40 of 41 games. Who was he?
4. What Twins pitcher left baseball for 2 years to serve as a Nicaraguan Freedom Fighter?
5. The Twins organization has had 2-300 game winners on their payroll. Who were they?

That’s it for today. Enjoy the links and trivia and thanks for making TwinsCards.com home to the biggest nerds on the intraweb.

April 22, 1988

Fresh off of the club’s first ever World Championship, the Twins’ front office was looking for another. Impatient with the team’s 4-10 start, it seemed inevitable that a shakeup was going to occur. That shakeup was announced shortly after an 11-6 home loss to lowly Cleveland.

The Twins announced that they were trading 27-year old Tom Brunansky, a six-year regular in right field for the Twins, to the Cardinals for 32-year old second baseman Tom Herr.

Brunansky originally came to the Twins from the California Angels in a 1982 trade that sent Doug Corbett and Rob Wilfong to the Angels. Brunansky immediately became the team’s starting right fielder, and didn’t relinquish that spot until he was traded to the Cardinals. The Twins had come to expect pretty consistent numbers from Bruno, who quickly became a fan favorite in Minnesota. He generally only hit in the .240-.250 range, but was a patient hitter and had some power. He started slowly in 1988, batting only .184/.286/.265 with one home run; a line that likely made him expendable in the eyes of GM Andy MacPhail.

The previous fall, Tom Herr had competed against the Twins in the World Series. He batted .250/.300/.357 in seven games against his future team in a losing effort in the series. From the time he had signed as an amateur free-agent as an 19-year-old in 1974, Herr had been a part of the Cardinals’ organization. He had some good offensive seasons, most notably in 1985 when he hit .302/.379/.416 for an NL Championship team; but Herr was mostly known for his glove, although today’s defensive metrics indicate that he was a touch overrated in that department.

Andy MacPhail, quoted by Mark Vancil in the Star Tribune (4/23/88), explained his reasoning.

“It’s tough to do when a guy has done so much for the club for several years,” said MacPhail. “We just felt we needed to improve our balance, and I think Tommy Herr is one of the four or five best second basemen in all of baseball. He gives us a lefthanded bat at the front of the order and he can steal a base.”

It was speculated that this move would be followed by a move sending Steve Lombardozzi away in exchange for a starting pitcher, but that move never came to fruition. Lombo was never a big hitter, and, like most Twins, had a poor start in 1988 (.094/.194/.188 at the time of the trade).

To replace Brunansky in right, the Twins looked to 29-year-old Randy Bush. Bush made his reputation as a versatile back up and a good left-handed pinch hitter, but had few chances to play a regular position with the Twins. Bush figured to give the Twins a similar hitting line as Brunansky, with a lower slugging percentage and fewer home runs.

The 1988 numbers tell part of the story of this trade:

Tom Brunansky STL 143 G .245/.345/.428 22 HR 79 RBI 121 OPS+ 7.6 WARP3
Tom Herr MIN 86 G .263/.349/.326 1 HR 21 RBI 89 OPS+ 2.9 WARP3

The story the numbers don’t tell is that Tom Herr did not want to play for the Twins. The first wind of it showed up in the papers three weeks after the trade, when Herr was quoted saying that he felt like an “intruder” in Minnesota. By the end of May, Herr had already announced that he would not return to the team in 1989. He took a trip on the DL in the middle of the season, though many on the team and in the media privately believed that the injury may have been in Herr’s head.

The Twin Cities media had passed judgment on Herr, and the writing was on the wall. Herr was eventually traded to Philadelphia as part of the deal that brought Shane Rawley to the Twins. The Twins had some trouble filling the second base position for several years, and didn’t really settle on a regular until Chuck Knoblauch’s rookie season in 1991.

The immediate impact of the trade looked horrible for the Twins, but as the years passed history was a little more kind to MacPhail. Brunansky lasted in the majors until 1994. Aside from a mini-resurgence with the Red Sox in 1992, he never really returned the the form that had made him a favorite in Minnesota. The Twins ultimately got one poor season from Tom Herr and one poor season from Shane Rawley in exchange for Bruno. While it wasn’t as bad as it initially looked, it is not one of the proudest trades in Twins’ history.

The Bench

C Brian Harper 1988-1993
After bouncing around between several different teams for the first half of his career, Brian Harper finally found a home in Minnesota. He didn’t hit for much power, but was a solid hitter. He is fourth in career batting average (.309) among Twins with 2000+ plate appearances- behind only Carew, Puckett, and Shane Mack. Harper didn’t have a great defensive reputation, mainly due to his throwing arm. He was, however, an underrated defender overall, and deserves some of the credit for the success of the Twins’ starting staff in the early 1990’s.

1B Kent Hrbek 1981-1994
Kent Hrbek held down the first base position for the Twins for 14 seasons. He was a major part of two World Series teams, and one of the best fielding first basemen of his era (though he didn’t receive the national recognition he deserved for his glove). He ended his career batting .282/367/.481 with a 127 OPS+, and hit 293 home runs over the course of his career. He would likely be the starting first baseman for most all-franchise teams, but has to back up one of the all-time great power hitters in this case.

2B Chuck Knoblauch 1991-1997
The way he left Minnesota still leaves a bad taste in many fans’ mouths, and his career went downhill pretty quickly towards the end, so it is easy to forget just how good Chuck Knoblauch was during his time in Minnesota. He is still third in all-time Twins’ on-base percentage with a career mark of .391 in Minnesota, behind only Joe Mauer (.399) and Rod Carew (.393). Knoblauch was a good base-runner as well, and still holds the Twins’ all-time mark for career stolen bases with 276, five better than Carew (though Knoblauch played in about 600 fewer games for the Twins).

SS Zoilo Versalles 1961-1967
Though I explained going with Smalley over Versalles for the starting position, I would probably platoon these two. Versalles was a solid fielding short stop for the entirety of his Twins’ career, and he found his bat enough to win the 1965 AL MVP award. Though his offensive numbers don’t seem to hold up over time, Versalles played during a time when short stops were not expected to hit.

OF Shane Mack 1990-1994
It’s a little surprising to see just how productive Shane Mack was during his time with the Twins. Mack was taken by the Twins in the Rule V draft in 1990. Almost always overshadowed by Puckett and Gladden in the outfield, Mack was solid for each of his five seasons in Minnesota. From 1990-1994 he compiled 36.7 WARP3; during that same time period, Puckett had 40.9. Mack was a good fielder as well, and played both in right field and center field regularly.

OF Larry Hisle 1973-1977
Hisle only played five seasons with the Twins, but he left with some pretty good numbers. In his Twins career, he batted .286/.354/.457 with 87 HR and 409 RBI. Hisle also had good speed, and was considered a solid fielder at both center and left fields. Hisle is also one of only seven Twins hitters to ever hit for the cycle in a game.

OF Tom Brunansky 1982-1988
Rounding out the roster is Tom Brunansky. Though he was part of the 1987 Championship team and a fan favorite for several years, it seems like Brunansky never quite got his due as a player. He played in at least 150 games for six straight seasons with the Twins, and hit at least 20 home runs in each full season he played with the club. Bruno never hit for great average, but was a patient hitter and always had a decent on-base percentage. Though Brunansky didn’t have the most range in right field, he played the baggie just about as well as anybody.

Last man left off: Corey Koskie.

Here is the full roster:
C Earl Battey
C Brian Harper
1B Harmon Killebrew
1B Kent Hrbek
2B Rod Carew
2B Chuck Knoblauch
SS Roy Smalley
SS Zoilo Versalles
3B Gary Gaetti
LF Bob Allison
CF Kirby Puckett
RF Tony Oliva
LF/CF Larry Hisle
CF/RF Shane Mack
RF Tom Brunansky
SP Jim Kaat
SP Bert Blyleven
SP Brad Radke
SP Frank Viola
SP Jim Perry
CL Rick Aguilera
RP Eddie Guardado
RP Mike Marshall
RP Al Worthington
RP Doug Corbett

Recently, the Boston Red Sox made news by hitting four consecutive home runs in an inning against the New York Yankees. It was noted that this was just the fifth time that has happened in a major league game.

The Twins were involved in one instance. On May 2, 1964 the Twins and the Kansas City A’s needed extra innings to decide the second game of a four game series. The 3-3 score carried to the 11th inning.

Kansas City had called on Dan Pfister to pitch the 10th inning. He had retired the Twins in order, and came on to face the Twins in the 11th.

Tony Oliva led off the inning with a home run off of Pfister. It was Oliva’s second home run of the game, sixth of the season.
The next batter, Bob Allison, also hit a home run; his fourth of the season.

In Pfister’s last act of the game, he gave up a third consecutive home run. This time it was off the bat of Jimmie Hall, his third of the year.

The A’s brought in Vern Handrahan to face Harmon Killebrew, but the new pitcher didn’t fare much better. Killebrew hit his second home run of the game to welcome Handrahan. It was Killebrew’s fourth, and the Twins became the third team to accomplish the feat.

Minnesota went on to win the game 7-3.

Interestingly, 28 years later to the day, the Twins would again hit four home runs in an inning. Shane Mack, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, and Randy Bush all went deep off of Yankee Scott Sanderson in the fifth inning of a 7-6 win over New York.

“A chart of numbers that would put an actuary to sleep can be made to dance if you put it on one side of a card and Bombo Rivera’s picture on the other.” Bill James, 1982 Baseball Abstract

“We drive on to Minneapolis. We are all relaxed at the game, cheering the Twins to an easy win, chanting “Bombo! Bombo! Bombo!” each time the Twins’ right fielder Bombo Rivera is announced. He is a good young player, but not great. It is his name that intoxicates the crowd.” - from Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

Bombo, Bombo
Bombo Rivera
What other guys get one of
Bombo, he gets a pair-a
It takes two to tango and two to mambo
But you can do it all with just one Bombo
Bombo Rivera will carry us to victory.

He spent the bulk of the 1970’s working his way through the Expos’ farm system. Rivera never had great batting numbers. His breakout season in the Expos’ organization came at AA Quebec City in 1974, where he hit .290 with 7 HR and 42 RBI. He finally got the call to Montreal the following season, where he batted just .111 (1 for 9) in five mid-April games before he was moved to AAA Memphis where he spent the rest of the season.

With all the outfielders in Montreal, Rivera was certainly expendable, and was purchased by the Minnesota Twins following the 1977 season. He immediately began to play, and was functionally the fourth outfielder for the team, batting .271/.362/.355 for 1978. His best game was a 4 for 4 effort in Kansas City on May 19th, a game in which he hit one of his three home runs of the season, and one of only 10 career home runs in the majors.

One of the more popular pieces of Twins memorabilia seems to be the annual yearbooks produced by the team and made avaiable to the public at the beginning of each year.  Collecting them can be a challenging…yet attainable pursuit. Yearbooks are great to collect and offer a unique insight into Twins history as it happened. Not only do they contain great photography, but also offer up informative articles, biographies and statistics of current and former players.

The Twins offered their first annual in 1961 but many people do not know that there were actually two versions of the yearbook in 1961 as well as 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 and finally in 1985. The second versions were “Revised Editions” that were printed later in the season with updated information. According to TwinsCards.com staff member and long-time Twins collector, Pat Bones, “The covers were the same, except they added a ‘revised’ tag and content differed depending on call-ups (from the minors), trades and some of the miscellaneous photo sections.” Copies of the 1969 editions are included above.

Hardcore Twins collectors often run into a road-block if they are trying to collect yearbooks from each year the Twins have been in existence. From time-to-time, I get an email from a collector asking where he might find yearbooks from 1983, 1984, 1993, 1995 and 1997…as they are not pictured in our publications section. Curiously enough, the Twins did not issue yearbooks in those years. Outside of contacting the Twins (which I may do), I cannot find any information as to why yearbooks weren’t produced for those years. Budget cuts? Environmental considerations? Cheapskates? Who knows! If you know why they weren’t produced, let us know.

For all the fun that collecting yearbooks brings, recent years have brought some pretty boring yearbooks. While they contain all the essential information any Twins fan would need. they lack the human touch that many of the past issues had. I sorely miss the “Family Section” where we got to see the players with their families. Here’s one with Ray Corbin and his wife showing off the latest fashion from 1974. I also miss the managerie of team and fan photos. Not only of the players but ones like “Nun’s Day” at the Met from the 1967  annual. Absolutely classic stuff!

Collecting should be fun and collecting yearbooks can bring a lot of enjoyment and nostalgia to anyone’s collection. Finding some of the older ones can be a little bit of a challenge, but not one that will break the bank. I’ve seen the earliest of Twins yearbooks on eBay for as little as $30-$50…you just have to find the right one at the right time. Later editions can be found for as little as $5. Good luck but remember that collecting doesn’t end once the yearbook makes it into your collection. Don’t be afraid to open them up and reminisce about a little Twins history!

All in all, this makes for a fun debate. Here’s my two cents:

P Rick Aguilera 1989-1994; 1996-1999
With all of the qualifiers above, Rick Aguilera is the exception that proves the rule. He was a mainstay on the Twins’ pitching staff throughout the decade of the 90’s. Though he was primarily a closer (in the 90’s definition of the term), Aguilera also spent parts of two seasons as a starter with the Twins. His success in both roles indicate that Aguilera had the flexibilty that would translate into a good relief pitcher in just about any era. Rick had a run from 1990-1995 where he would have been the best closer in baseball had it not been for Dennis Ecksersley.

P Al Worthington 1964-1969
For three seasons with the Twins, Worthington was about as good of a relief pitcher as there was in baseball. He started his Twins career off quickly, allowing only one earned run in his first 20 appearances. According to Jim Thielman in Cool of the Evening, Worthington’s presence in the bullpen in 1965 gave manager Sam Mele the confidence to turn a game over to the bullpen, something he had been reluctant to do before Worthington arrived; a strategy that allowed the Twins to go with a four-man rotation that year. The strategy paid off with an American League Championship.

Mike Marshall 1978-1980

Marshall pitched in only three seasons for the Twins, but his workload was such that it seemed that he was with the team longer. He appeared in 90 games in 1979, and pitched 142 2/3 innings. The reason he pitched so much was simple: he was just that good. Marshall was a dominant pitcher in ‘78 and ‘79. In an era in which the AL ERA was above four, Marshall had seasons of 2.45 and 2.65.

Eddie Guardado 1993-2003

Every-day Eddie fills the left-handed reliever role in this bullpen. Prior to becoming the closer for two division championship teams in 2002-2003, Guardado was the “innings-eater” for the Twins in the 90’s. For many years, Eddie seemed to pitch in almost every Twins game. In seven of his 11 seasons with the Twins, Guardado appeared in 65 or more games, including 83 games in 1996. After he was made the closer by Ron Gardenhire in 2002, Eddie excelled, earning 86 saves over a two year span.

Here is where it gets interesting. Ideally, I would like to limit the bullpen to five. I think the rotation will go deep into a lot of games so it doesn’t seem necessary to have an 11-man pitching staff. There are four candidates that would challenge for the last spot, then; two who are fondly remembered by Twins fans, one who is not so much.

Jeff Reardon (1987-1989) is, of course, remembered for closing out the biggest games in the Twins’ first World Series season. He was almost universally praised as one of the main reasons the Twins won that year. The numbers, however, indicate that 1987 was a mediocre year for Reardon (4.48 ERA, 1.22 WHIP), who was 31-years-old at the time. He rebounded to have an excellent 1988 (2.47, 1.14), but followed that with another mediocre season in 1989 (4.07, 1.10). In totality, Reardon finished his relatively short career in a Twins uniform with a good 3.70 ERA (117 ERA+), mostly on the strength of his 1988 season.

A teammate of Reardon’s that merits consideration was Juan Berenguer (1987-1990). Berenguer was also an important part of the 1987 run, and had several good seasons after that. Berenguer may be most famous for the single greatest piece of Twins kitsch that I have ever seen, the “Berenguer Boogie” music video that was released following the ‘87 playoffs. Berenguer also compiled a career 3.70 ERA in his four seasons with the Twins.

Finally, the Twins career of Ron Davis (1982-1986) must be considered. Davis was just about universally panned during his time with the Twins, and is still considered by many to be the ultimate goat in Twins history. There were times in Davis’ career, however, that he was as good of a relief pitcher as there was in the game. His career numbers by season basically break down like this: 1982 medicore (4.42, 1.44), 1983 very good (3.34, 1.37), 1984 mediocre (4.55, 1.43), 1985 very good (3.48, 1.39), 1986 horrible (9.08, 2.17). While he was clearly up and down, Davis put together some pretty good stats in odd numbered years. He never approached what Reardon did in 1988, but his two “very good” seasons were better than any other season Reardon had with the Twins. Davis’ 1982 and 1984 were about on par with Reardon’s 1987 and 1989.

In fact, take away 1986 and the decision to go with Davis would be easy. He gave up more walks and hits (as evidenced by his higher WHIP numbers), but he managed to keep the other team from scoring at a rate that was better than Reardon relative to the era in which they each played with the Twins.

1986 does count, however, and I don’t want the home crowd booing my team, so I will take Doug Corbett (1980-1982) as the fifth man in my bullpen. He wasn’t with the team for long, but Corbett put together one of the most dominant relief seasons ever for the Twins in 1980. He posted a 1.98 ERA in a league with an ERA over four. While he wasn’t able to match his incredible numbers of the year before, he put together another solid season in 1981. Though he fell off in 1982, and was later traded to California in the deal that brought Tom Brunansky to Minnesota, those two seasons are enough for Corbett to squeak in there.

Let the debate begin!

I recently posted a comment on Scot’s other blog, Coffeyville Whirlwind, and I alluded to the hobby not being fun anymore. That’s not the case for me, but my opinion in general about how the hobby has progressed has led me to believe that kids probably don’t have as much fun collecting baseball cards as they once did.

I’m not going to turn this into an essay on how important baseball cards have been in my life or how one card changed my life. On my list of the most important things in life, collecting baseball cards falls near the bottom of the list…somewhere between understanding the importance of Gross National Product and learning how to play the tuba. Instead, I want to examine how the hobby has changed. How the fun has been taken out of something that used to be fun for your average 10-year old.

Now, it doesn’t take a Rocket Surgeon to understand the hobby has changed. Cards are more expensive, more emphasis is put on condition, there are a zillion different sets, etc. Those aren’t the changes I’m talking about. I’m talking about the changes that have occured for the 10-year old kid who goes to his local convienance store with $5 in his pocket and wants to buy some baseball cards!

Let’s turn back the clock. The year is 1975 and my Dad had just returned from work. In his hand are several packs of baseball cards. I can’t remember being overly excited, but like any kid my age, I was excited that I was getting something for free. What I do remember is that the packs were brightly colored, the cards inside were these crazy colors and a lot of them seemed to have been cut wrong. From the moment I opened that first pack of 1975 Topps…I was hooked!

For the next 10 or so years, I routinely saved my money just to buy packs of baseball cards. I think packs sold for $.25 and for me to save $2-$3 over a couple of weeks was like hitting the jackpot. Of course, Dad was a large contributor to my obsession as he would routinely bring home a couple packs every day. I couldn’t wait to open the next pack because of the anticipation of finding a new card. It wasn’t uncommon to hear me or my friends say something like, “Awesome…I just got a Bake McBride card and a California Angels team card! Now I only need 225 more cards to complete the set.”

We got our cards from places like 7-Eleven or Little General Stores. On Sundays, my parents would go “flea-marketing” or looking for local garage sales. There was always somebody with a shoebox full of cards that we would rifle through looking for that elusive Pete Rose card or the high-numbered Steve Carlton. Some stalls at the local flea market specialized in sport’s cards and while mom and dad would wander around looking for a new lamp or coffee table, I would spend the couple hours looking through cards and chatting with the stall owner. Every once in a while, the “card guy” would have to leave for a break and ask me to watch the cards for him. It was the first time in my life I felt empowered.  Although I didn’t understand what empowered meant at the time, I definitely look back on those moments as the first time I can remember having total confidence in what I was doing…and loved doing it!

There was a great sense of accomplishment I got when I finished a set or found that missing card. I even started trading my thousands of doubles for other, “older” cards. I remember one particular Sunday, I traded all the 1975 Topps doubles I had (including all the George Brett’s and Robin Yount’s) to another collector for an almost complete set of the 1965 Topps Embossed and a bunch of Brooklyn Dodger autographs. At the time, I had no conception of value. All I knew was that I had a bunch of cards I really didn’t need and those ‘65 Topps Embossed looked really cool! That trade was made in a matter of minutes. I told him what I had, he told me what he had and we made the trade. Who got the better deal? I don’t know…and I didn’t care. It wasn’t about the deal…it was about the fun…it was about collecting and dealing and one person helping out another.

As we collected the cards, they didn’t go from the pack to a plastic sleeve and a screw-down holder to a glass-case that was locked in a humidity controlled room downstairs that my friends could only see by appointment. Instead, they went in my pocket then maybe to a shoebox (wrapped in a rubberband). Eventually, complete sets made it to an album, but it was a home-made album made of document protectors and doubled-sided tape. My cards were everywhere (kind of like they are now). Often they were laid out on the ground by team and by starting line-up and many hours were spent reading the backs of the cards and memorizing statistics and other trivial information found on the back. From the backs of the ‘75 Topps I learned that Cal McClish’s real name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish and that the fan’s name who caught Roger Maris’ 61st home run was Sal Durante.

Admittedly, I am very far removed from today’s baseball card collecting 10-yr old. I have lived outside of the U.S. for almost 13 yrs and haven’t bought cards at a 7-Eleven in probably 20 yrs, but I do know that the hobby has changed. Although you can still buy packs of cards, they are now much more expensive and have fewer cards in the pack. Your average collector does not complete sets pack-by-pack. It’s much easier and less expensive to buy the entire set at one-time. Ebay has revolutionized the hobby by making it easier and less expensive to get the cards you want. While that fact my be enticing, it certainly de-humanizes the whole experience and takes away the fun that once was the centerpiece of the hobby.

The kid with $5 in his pocket has many more choices than I did in 1975. Not only is he faced with a bevy of choices at the store, he probably has his own eBay account and just goes online to find the missing cards from his set. If he does choose to buy locally, he is faced with the decision of what to buy from the many different types of cards out there. While I applaud Major League Baseball and the card industry for minimizing those choices in recent years, it still isn’t enough. Topps and Upper Deck reamin the only two standing after agreements between MLB and the MLBA to only issue licenses to these two companies. Even with only two card companies, the list of sets made available under every concieved name is too large to comprehend. And with the inclusion of game-used cards and autographed cards, the hobby has turned into a gold-rush to find the most valuable cards.

Arguments can be made for variety being the spice of life, but my “old-school” mentality wishes there were only one choice. It doesn’t matter what the choice is, just don’t make me have to spend an eternity guessing whether I made the right one. Let’s bring card-collecting back to the kids and not the money-hungry, portfolio carrying, investment brokers who only care about how much the cards are worth and are oblivious to the fact that Ed Ott’s 1981 Topps card tells us that Ed rode a bicycle to Spring Training prior to the 1979 season!

Have we taken the fun out of collecting? Or am I just an old goat that needs to catch up with the times? Let me know…