Why this card is awesome: Because of the funny mention of his first ML stolen base. That was a real sign that he was going to make a career out of burning up the basepaths.
Cool stat: We just saw Tom Lawless, another St. Louis catcher, and now here's Steve Lake. Lake cracks the top 25 for most at-bats for a non-active player (pitchers excluded) with exactly one career stolen base. Most of these guys are catchers.
7 comments:
I had to look up Lawless again. He caught 1 game for Toronto in '89, but I'm sure Whitey talked him into picking up the mitt. Look up that 7/5/89 Jays v. Orioles game where Lawless caught the 9th inning. He caught Billy Ripken stealing!!! I don't know if Fred McGriff was holding Ripken's waistband or what.
By contrast, Steve Lake's only stolen base attempt that you discuss came off Tony Pena, one of the best defensive catchers of his day, but he was in that crazy catching stance doing the splits. I wonder if he lost his balance down there when Lake inexplicably took off for 2nd?
You know, when I wrote the original post, I was thinking that Lawless was primarily a catcher, which he wasn't. A mixup on my part.
Topps must have been desperate on this one. Lake gets recognized for stealing a base when a big part of his job is preventing those from happening.
When in doubt, always show Lake with his parrot.
Mackey Sasser, #21 on that list! Unfortunately, he didn't swipe his lone base with the Mets, instead victimizing Dave Stewart/Pat Borders as a Mariner in 1993.
Andy, I thought the same thing about Lawless for some reason. I play trivia with some of the officers where I work, and one of the questions I asked was, "Who did the Reds trade to the Expos bring Pete Rose back to Cincinnati?" One of the hints I gave was that the player was a catcher. I don't know why I thought that, but I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Officers? Are you a cop? :)
I don't know where I got confused about Lawless, but the fact that he and Lake look kind of similar might have something to do with it.
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