Why this card is awesome: Because Joyner's pointing straight at the ground. I bet you've looked at this card dozens of times and never noticed that! Also, another mention of current Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon. He was a pretty good scout, it seems.
Cool stat: I do not like Joyner and I don't feel like spending time researching a cool stat. But I will point out that he didn't strike out very much, and had only 10 games with 3 strikeouts in his career. Don Mattingly had similar career numbers to Joyner and he did it only 5 times.
7 comments:
the first starting lineup i ever had, was Wally
i think it was bought @ the now defunct Hill's
Why don't you like Wally? Is it his uncanny resemblance to Matthew Broderick?
I wonder if Topps knew something about Joyner that we didn't giving him the card #420.
I always wondered about how an average ballplayer like Wally Joyner was so loved by so many people. I guess that late-80's 1B position was not a hot spot for superstar players.
I'm sure Joyner got card #420 because he had two very good years in a row in 1986 and 1987.
I always thought Joyner was a hot dog--not on the field, but off. And the fact that he's on the list of alleged steroid users doesn't help either.
Joyner was above average: career OPS+ of 117.
Andy: Got any anecdotes to share of Joyner's off-field hot-dogging?
Being a rookie w/100 RBI on a playoff team at a prestige position will get you a lot of attention. The league figured Wally out by 1990 and he had a long, slow downward slide through KC and San Diego. I think that's how someone we look back on 20 years later as an "average" player got so much love.
And "Wally Joyner".. that's just a cool name. Wally World, etc. Always seemed like a good guy to me.. played hard and such.
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