#15T Damon Berryhill

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10 Berryhill was the starting catcher for the 1989 Cubs team that went to the playoffs, but he got injured halfway through the year. Eventually the Cubs traded him with Mike Bielecki for Yorkis Perez and Turk Wendell. The latter did some good things with the Cubs, but overall Berryhill didn't have a huge impact for the Cubs organization. He did some better stuff with the Braves, of course.

We love Gary Thurman

If you haven't been watching, you might want to check out the comments on Gary Thurman's card.

#14T Andy Benes

IMPACT FACTOR 7/10: Benes ate up a lot of innings for the Padres from 1989 to 1995, although pitched to a fairly average record despite an above average ERA. (That's OK, he pitched terribly for the Mariners at the end of 1995 but still ended up 7-2 somehow.) The trade of Benes to the Mariners brought 2 out of 3 pieces they needed to acquire Greg Vaughn, who went on to club 50 homers for the Padres in 1998. Vaughn was later traded himself for some useful players.

#13T Buddy Bell

Wow, what an ugly airbrushed card!

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Bell put together half a season as an average 3B with Houston before being released.

#12T Tim Belcher

IMPACT FACTOR 6/10: Belcher came over for Rick Honeycutt, a trade that helped both the Dodgers and the A's when they met in the 1988 World Series. Belcher was very good in 1988 and although he got hit some in the post-season, he did win 3 games (2 against the Mets and one against the A's. Later he was packaged with John Wetteland in the trade that brought Eric Davis to the Dodgers.

#11T Don Baylor

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Baylor wrapped his playing career in 1988 with Oakland. Although they went to the World Series, Baylor didn't get a hit in the post season, nor did he produce all that much during the regular season. I'd like to think, though, that he had an impact on the team due to all of his recent post-season experience with Boston and Minnesota.

#10T Jose Bautista

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Not to be confused with the current major leaguer with the same name, this Jose Bautista was part of the dreadful 1988 Orioles team, although he didn't pitch that badly for them. Eventually he walked as a free agent after the 1990 season.

#9T Bret Barberie

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Barberie signed with the Expos, the forth team to draft him, and had two lackluster seasons with them in 1991 and 1992. So unimpressive was his performance that they left him unprotected in the expansion draft and he became the first starting 2B for the Florida Marlins. (I would have given him a larger impact factor, except that I am basing my scores on the impact the guy had for the team he first played for when these cards were issued.)

#8T Floyd Bannister

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Bannister had two pretty average years with KC, including one shortened by injury. It ended up being a bad trade for KC who, aside from a few other low-impact players involved, gave up two decent starting pitchers in the deal: Melido Perez and Greg Hibbard.

#7T Don August

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: The Brewers gave up Danny Darwin to fetch August as well as Mark Knudson. Darwin produced a lot more for the Astros than both guys combined for Milwaukee. August gets a couple of point for a 4th-place Rookie of the Year finish in 1988.

#6T Jack Armstrong

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Armstrong didn't do a whole lot for the Reds but he did have one good year in 1990, when he in fact started the All-Star game for the National League. He had trouble staying healthy, but they did trade him along with Scott Scudder for one good year of Greg Swindell.

#5T Brady Anderson

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: While Anderson went on to have a lot of success with Baltimore, he had a dreadful first season with Boston and was packaged with Curt Schilling, sent to the Orioles for Mike Boddicker. Boddicker was great for the Red Sox in the regular season, helping get them to the playoffs in 1988, but got bombed in his one ALCS start as Boston was swept by Oakland. Boddicker helped the BoSox for two more years and was better in the 1990 ALCS, although Boston against lost to Oakland.

#4T Roberto Alomar

IMPACT FACTOR 8/10 Alomar had 3 strong years with the Padres from 1988 to 1990, although he didn't develop much of his extra-base power until he left San Diego. He got on base more and hit for more extra bases after heading to Toronto. The method by which he left San Diego, the biggest trade of the early 1990s, helps increase his impact factor. Packaged with Joe Carter, he brought Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez to San Diego. Fernandez had 2 solid years with the Padres before being flipped to the Mets, while McGriff had his first two really big seasons with the Padres before going to Atlanta for 3 young players.

He might have to wait a year or two because of his attitude, but Alomar will be in the Hall of Fame one day.

#3T Luis Alicea

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Alicea had a poor rookie season in 1988 but resurfaced again with the Cardinals in 1991, eventually working out as a part-time 2B. He was traded for two guys who never appeared in the majors for St. Lous.

#2T Juan Agosto

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Agosto came and left Houston as a free agent, spending 4 seasons there (not including a return in 1993) as a very effective reliever. He was used in mop-up a lot but nevertheless was one of the top non-closing relievers in baseball from 1987 to 1990.

#1T Jim Abbott

Before we talk about Abbott, I need to point out that Topps included Olympic cards in this set, as evidenced by this very first card of the set. This is the second time they included Olympic cards, the last time being in the regular-issue 1985 set, which ended up giving us the true rookie cards of Mark McGwire, Cory Snyder, and others. There are quite a few players in the 1988 Olympic subset that had a significant impact in the major leagues.

IMPACT FACTOR 6/10 Abbott is an unusual case. He pitched 4 pretty good years for the Angels before being traded (essentially) for J.T. Snow, who didn't do too much for the Angels or bring much in trade. There were a few lesser players involved in the trade too. Abbott, however, was a very popular player due to the success he achieved despite an uncommon physical aspect, namely the lack of a hand on his right arm. this didn't prevent Abbott from being an effective pitcher, fielder, or hitter. He had a 3rd-place Cy Young finish in 1991 and deserved a 15-8 record in 1992 (neutralized) instead of the incredibly unlucky 7-15 he was actually saddled with. But as I mentioned, Abbott's popularity (and attendance at his games) went well beyond his stats.

#792 John Tudor

Why this card is awesome: Because looking at the back, one stat really sticks out: 10 shutouts in 1985, with only 4 others in the rest of his career up to that point. And, and this card is awesome because it's the last one in the regular 1988 Topps set! WE'RE DONE!

Cool stat: Tudor is a forgotten man of the 1980, but he was one of the top pitchers. From 1982 to 1990, minimum 1000 IP, he had the 4th-best ERA+, ahead of Saberhagen, Gooden, and just about anybody else you can think of.

It's interesting that in the trade of Tudor for Pedro Guerrero that happened in the 1988 season, neither player ended up working out well for their new team. Guerrero did have one excellent year for the Cardinals in 1989, but Tudor's injuries prevented him from doing much for the Dodgers at all.

#791 Ted Simmons

Why this card is awesome: Because what an awesome warrior Simmons was. Yeah he looks old and pudgy on the front, but look at those years and years on the back. He had a great career and is one of the top catchers in history. I just hope he doesn't swallow any bugs by accident.

Cool stat: Simmons had 8 seasons with 90+ RBI, good for third all-time among catchers and more than Johnny Bench or Gary Carter.

#790 Dave Righetti

Why this card is awesome: Because you can't fool me. This was taken right at the same time as Phil Lombardi's card photo.

Cool stat: Righetti was the top closer in baseball for the mid-to-late 1980s. Sure, Jeff Reardon had more saves from 1984 to 1990, but Righetti's teams weren't nearly as good.

#789 Indians Leaders

Why this card is awesome: Because this is our last team leaders card, and it's a great one. As an Indians fan in 1987, I don't think you could ask for a better shot, showing your team's two best sluggers (Joe Carter and Cory Snyder) with weapons in hand. The shot of the lit-up light stancheon in the back is fabulous. This card is definitely one of the very best from this set, and is simply an outstanding photograph.

Cool stat: The 1987 Indians were one of two teams that year to have 3 different guys with 30+ HR. Only the 1982 Brewers also accomplished this feat in the 1980s. As a comparison, 35 teams have done this since 1993, some of them having four guys with 30 HR.

#788 Ray Searage

Why this card is awesome: Because this is a guy most people never heard of, and yet he managed a 0.62 ERA in 1986, at least just with the White Sox. Seriously. Check it out.

Cool stat: I don't know a good way of looking up a stat like this, but check out what Searage did in 1986. He pitched 22 innings with Milwaukee to a 6.95 ERA, which is really bad. Then he pitched 29 innings with Chicago (AL) to a 0.62 ERA, which is really good. I wonder how many other pitchers ever had such a split. Here are the leaders for most IP in a full season allowing 2 or fewer ER.

#787 Bill Almon

Why this card is awesome: Because as much as we make fun of Jay Baller, Almon's actually got some good chest hair going in this photo too.

Cool stat: Almon stole 2 bases in a game 10 different times, and his team won 8 of those 10 games. Oddly, though, with those 20 stoles bases, he scored only 6 runs.

#786 Joe Price

Why this card is awesome: Because this card has an awful lot of teal on it, and Price wasn't even playing for the Marlins (who were 5 years away from existing at this point.)

Cool stat: Price gave up more homers to Gary Carter than to anybody else. In 20 ABs against Price, Carter had 10 hits, including 3 doubles, 1 triple, 4 homers, and 10 RBI.

Introducing 1988 Topps Traded Tiffany (part 4)

This is part 4/4 of a teaser series for the 1988 Topps Traded Tiffany set we'll crack and display on this blog as soon as we finish the regular 1988 Topps set.

Here are two photos of the front of card #2T:



The point is to demonstrate the the cards are really shiny. This is what the Tiffany set looks like, with super high gloss on both the front and the back. You can't see it from the photos above, but it's also true that the super gloss changes the colors a little bit. At least in the 1988 set, the Tiffany cards (for both the regular issue set and the traded set) have whites that are actually a bit off-white, closer to yellow, and all of the other cards have a bit of a yellow shift as well. I guess that's a product of the application of the Tiffany gloss.

Otherwise, the card design, both front and back, is identical to that of the regular 1988 Topps set.

I'll be doing these cards a bit differently. Instead of listing why each card is awesome and a cool stat, I'll be putting an impact factor ranking on each player for his new team, and also tying in some stats.

There are some really nice cards in this set, so please stay tuned as we crack it open and go through it one card at a time, 88 Topps Cards style!

#785 Alvin Davis

Why this card is awesome: Because, again, how about an action shot of a great hitter instead of a terrible posed photograph where Davis has a dumb look on his face? I really think Topps was trying to screw Seattle in this set. While Davis didn't live quiet up to the weight put on his shoulders (to singlehandedly turn the franchise around from 10 years of futility) he was in fact a much better hitter than most remember.

Cool stat: Among first basemen who played at least 800 games from 1984 to 1991, Davis was 4th in RBI, 7th in homers, and 2nd in OBP.

#784 Joe Sambito

Why this card is awesome: Because it's a decent bet that your career is winding down when the stat on the back refers to something that happened in minor leagues 13 year prior. Indeed, this was Sambito's last card.

Cool stat: From 1979 to 1981, Sambito was one of the top relievers in baseball. For relievers with at least 100 IP, he had the 4th-best ERA+ over that period, and that was in more innings than the guys ahead of him. And remember, we cannot attribute that to the Astrodome, as the ERA+ corrects for park effects.

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #4 Mark Grace

Why this card is awesome: Because this is a pretty cool card. It's neat that Topps chose to give Grace a Fan Favorites card from 1988 even though he didn't have a Topps card until the 1988 Traded set (stay tuned, that card is coming up.) It's also a great shot as a rookie.

This is the final Fan Favorites card I'll be showing on this blog. I hope you enjoyed them.

#783 Ron Roenicke

Why this card is awesome: Because it's a decent shot showing an alternate jersey for the Phillies, plus we get a free half-shot of Greg Gross.

Cool stat: In 1986, Roenicke amassed one of the highest RBI totals for a guy with at most 275 ABs and a .356 SLG. In part, that's because he drew a ton of walks and actually played more than it might seem.

Just for fun, I looked up to see if he had any bases-loaded walks in 1986, and he had two, including a walkoff walk against Ken Howell. That came after they walked STEVE JELTZ.

#782 Jeff Ballard

Why this card is awesome: Because after his terrible 1987 performance, didn't the Orioles think that Ballard just might contribute to a bad 1988 season? Perhaps, which is why he didn't start with the team until their record losing streak to start the season had ended. And, hey, the Orioles did go 10-15 in his 25 games, which might be better than they did with anybody else.

Cool stat: Ballard's 1989 shows what a bad job the guys who voted for Cy Young awards do sometimes. Ballard won 18 games that year and finished 6th in the CY voting. First of all, neutralized, he should have gone 12-11. Second of all, no 18-game winner in the last 60 years has had fewer strikeouts.

#781 Keith Hughes

Why this card is awesome: Because this guy was once really a prospect. What about his minor league numbers (see the back) suggest that he should have been?



See? In 1988, Score thought he was a prospect.

Cool stat: Hey, Hughes did have 7 games with more than 1 hit, at least. Wow.

Nominations

Just in case you missed it over the weekend, I am taking nominations for the best card in the set. See that post and make your picks by Friday.

#780 Fernando Valenzuela

Why this card is awesome: Because Valenzuela is one of the iconic MLB players of the 1980s. What he did in 1981 was absolutely amazing, and the fervor he created may never be duplicated. I also love the line on the back describing how he was acquired. The Dodgers went after him hard, and they got him.

Cool stat: Fernando led all of baseball in IP from 1982 to 1987. The guy was a horse. Two Braves hit the most homers off him.

Kevin recently posted a couple of Fernando cards here and here.

#779 Tom Glavine

Why this card is awesome: Because we're more than 98% of the way through this set but we've finally gotten there: what has proven to be the best rookie card from the 1988 Topps set. He's also one of the few players still active from the set, although there's some doubt as to whether he'll make it back next year. (The only other ones are, I believe, Greg Maddux and Jamie Moyer, although Barry Bonds is technically not retired.)

But, what's with those teeth?

Cool stat: Glavine has 5 20-win seasons, although his neutralized record is 285-208 with zero 20-win seasons. Interesting. It helps, of course, that he played for lots of great Braves and Mets teams. In the history of MLB, 23 pitchers have won 300+ games. Where do you think Glavine ranks among them, in terms of fewest walks. Given that he's got a great winning percentage and only just recently reached 300 wins, I thought he'd be pretty high on that list. Turns out he has the 6th-worst walk total, thanks in large part to the fact that there are so many more walks in the era he played in. Glavine, Clemens, and Maddux are the only 300 game winners to never record a save.

#778 Keith Comstock

Why this card is awesome: Because, at least for me, this is the card that started the downward spiral of the hobby. This card was originally released as an error version, where the team name was white instead of teal (see below.) For a period, the error card was worth quite a lot. What made me skeptical was how Topps fixed this error, as well as the two Record Breaker errors, but didn't bother fixing other errors, such as Garry Templeton, Mike Dunne, or Tim Conroy. I also remember that there were error variations--one where the "S" in "PADRES" was partially colored teal. I can't even find any of those on eBay...are they so rare? Anyway, as a kid, I remember thinking that it was intentional on Topps' part, mainly because the correction came out pretty late, so those of us who had already collected the full set from packs were inclined to buy more packs.



Cool stat: Somehow, even before I looked this up, I knew the answer. Who hit the most homers off Keith Comstock? See if you can guess and then click here.

Introducing 1988 Topps Traded Tiffany (part 3)

This is part 3/4 of a teaser series for the 1988 Topps Traded Tiffany set we'll crack and display on this blog as soon as we finish the regular 1988 Topps set.

Here's the first card out of the box. This is actually the bottom-most card, and oddly enough, it's labeled #2T.



This set contains #1T through #132T. The "T", of course, means "traded" and is used to distinguish these cards from cards 1-132 of the regular 1988 Topps set.

But I was surprised to see #2T out of the box first. I checked carefully inside the box to see if card #1T was stuck to the inside, but it wasn't. Then I thumbed through the next several cards ahead of #2T and saw that there was no discernible order. The cards were not packed numerically, or by name, or by team, or position, or number of years the guy had been playing. I checked with Ben Henry, and he says the traded sets are always packaged like this and that it most likely has to do with the order in which they are printed on the sheets and then cut up. While that makes sense, I don't understand why they are printed in such a weird order. Perhaps it has something to do with distribution of different inks across the uncut stock.

Anyway, the first thing you notice about the back of the card is that it's much brighter than the backs of any of the regular 1988 Topps cards. Check out, for example, the back of card #760:



The regular-issue cards were printed on plain matte-finish cardboard. The traded cards (not just the Tiffany version) were printed on card stock that was glossy on both sides (and was white instead of gray.) This was true of all of the Topps Traded sets I can think of--the card backs were always on glossy stock and were therefore much brighter than their regular-season counterparts.

Notice another thing about card back #760--a telltale wax stain centered on the lower portion of the card (around the words "CLUBHOUSE" and "the Mets" and "infielder." There's another nice thing about the traded sets--no wax stains since they come in a box. (Although I think that some of the traded sets were available in packs too in the 1990s.)

In the final segment of our teaser, we'll see the front of card #2T. Then, we'll start to post the actual cards!

#777 Lonnie Smith

Why this card is awesome: Bceause of Skates' cool necklace. He's in the club. It looks like his initials "LS" but I'm not sure.

My thunder was stolen back on Don Baylor's card about this, but Lonnie Smith was member of a whole bunch of different World Series teams. This guy was in the right place at the right time, and overall he was quite underrated.

Cool stat: I think that Smith is underrated because of TBS. When the Braves games went national on TBS, they were a bad team, and Lonnie Smith was often cited as the best player on a crappy team. Since they were bad, Smith looked bad too. But this had a good career and did a lot of great things in baseball. For example, he's 4th in stolen bases from 1980 to 1986. He's far behind Henderson and Raines, of course, but near the top of the pack compared to the rest of baseball.

#776 Checklist 661-792

Why this card is awesome: Because it's our last checklist of the set, and it mentions the final card #792! Woo hoo!

#775 Dave Stieb

Why this card is awesome: Because there's a lot to like about this card. Firstly, Pat Gillick, who went on to become a successful GM, is mentioned on the back. Second, I think that's 2B Garth Iorg in the background. Thirdly, Stieb is a very underrated player. I'm surprised, in fact, that he got a card number divisible by 25, but he deserved it in my book.

Cool stat: Stieb pitched some awesome games in his career. In addition to his 1990 no-hitter, I still find it incredible that both of his last 2 starts in 1988 were one-hitters, with the lone single coming with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th inning in each game. I have talked a lot about Stieb, one of my favorite players, on the B-R.com SOTD blog, for example here and here.

#774 Gene Mauch

Why this card is awesome: Because this is the last manager card in the set, and it's a good one. Mauch had a very long managerial career and, although he had less success with his teams than a lot of other managers, he made a huge mark on the game.

Cool stat: Mauch finished his playing career with 104 BB and just 82 K's. That used to happen all the time in the early 20th century, but Mauch is the 6th most-recent player to do it.

Deceased players and managers: 20

Mauch died in 2005. He's the second of just two managers in this set who have already passed away.

Mauch is also the final deceased person from the regular 1988 Topps set. (I haven't checked to see if anybody from the 1988 Topps Traded set is deceased.)

#773 Frank Williams

Why this card is awesome: Because Williams is oh so close to giving the finger to the camera.

Cool stat: Williams, interestingly enough, was one of the top relievers of the 1980s. In fact, among non-closer, only my man Mark Eichhorn had a higher ERA+ for guys with at least 400 IP.

#772 Sal Butera

Why this card is awesome: Because of the mention of assists by a catcher. Exactly when do catchers get assists? It's kind of complicated. A catcher gets an assist on, for example, a dropped third strike where the batter is put out by a throw to 1B. He obviously also gets an assist in a rundown when an out is recorded. And he gets an assist when he throws out a would-be base stealer.

Cool stat: Tough to find much on Butera stat-wise, but he did hit pretty well against Dennis Martinez, Frank Tanana, and Bob Stanley.

#771 Ruben Sierra

Why this card is awesome: Because here's another guy who deserved a better card number. Even in 1987, the year of the homer, a 22-year-old guy smacking 30 HR and 109 RBI deserved a little more press. Seirra is clearly in the necklace club.

Cool stat: Sierra's got the 4th-lowest career OPS+ for a guy with 300 homers. And he has the 13th-fewest walks in that club. But here's the really odd one: he has BY FAR the fewest hit-by-pitches in that group. How the hell did he manage to get hit only 7 times in his career? In fact, of the 135 guys to amass at least 7935 ABs in MLB history, Sierra has the fewest HBP. (Incidentally, my whipping boy Garrett Anderson has 7934 ABs and 6 HBP.)

Red Sox consecutive sellout streak ticket

I got this really cool giveaway from the Red Sox. Check out the full scans and details on my post at Things Done to Cards.

#770 Lou Whitaker

Why this card is awesome: Because Whitaker's hands sure look funny. I guess he's just letting go of the bat with his bottom hand because I don't think he could actually bat that way otherwise.

It's incredibly odd that the player Whitaker is most similar to is Ryne Sandberg, given how different their reputations are. It's even odder that the player Whitaker is 2nd-most-similar to is none other than Alan Trammell.

Cool stat: From 1901 up to Whitaker's last year of 1995, his rankings for second baseman are 6th in runs scored, 9th in RBI, and 4th in walks. He's a massively underrated player outside of Detroit.

#769 Cecil Cooper

Why this card is awesome: Because the screwing continues. Like the Phillies and Mariners, the Brewers got raked through the mud by Topps. In Milwaukee's case, it was assigning pretty pathetic card numbers to their star players. Cecil Cooper is not a HOFer and he was out for a lot of 1987, but the guy deserved a number ending in 5 for sure.

Cooper is rocking the beard and sunglasses, an awesome look!

Cooper is currently the manager of the Astros, and he's a great signer through the mail. Go ahead and send him a card and a SASE care of the Astros, and you'll get it back, personalized no less, in a matter of weeks.

Cool stat: From 1980 to 1983, Cooper had 3 seasons with 120+ RBI. Nobody else did it more than once. From 1970 to 1990, only Cooper and Jim Rice has as many as 3 seasons with 120+ RBI and a batting average of .300.

#768 Dickie Noles

Why this card is awesome: Because not only does is this one of the few cards in this set with the "NOW WITH" label on it, but it looks in the photo as if Noles has just been told that he's going to the Tigers. Why does he look so surprised? Well, how weird is this:

September 22, 1987: Loaned to the Detroit Tigers by the Chicago Cubs.
October 23, 1987: Dickie Noles returned to the Chicago Cubs by the Detroit Tigers as part of earlier loan.

Yes, apparently he was loaned (not even lent) to the Tigers. That is utterly bizarre. Waht actually happened is that he was traded for a player to be named later, but ultimately the teams couldn't agree on that player, so Noles was sent back for himself.

Cool stat: I noticed that Noles issued 11 intentional walks in 1980, mostly as a relief pitcher. I was curious so I check our his event finder for IBBs. Noles intentionally walked 3 guys in this game, including intentionally walking Dave Parker to get to Willie Stargell.

If you're curious, here is a list of games where a relief pitcher threw 3 or more IBBs. It used to be a lot more common. In 1980, Noles' such game was one of 9. It didn't happen even once in 2007.

#767 Jose Lind

Why this card is awesome: Because I was wrong. There's that ice cube again! This is also the final Future Stars card of the set.

Chico Lind was a pretty exciting player, at least for his defense at 2B, but off-field problems began to interfere with his career and eventually landed him in jail for a while.

Cool stat: Although he didn't run that much, Lind was a good base stealer. Since 1951, among guys who finished with no more than 19 CS, Lind had one of the top SB totals. (That ignores parts of players' careers before 1951.)

#766 Henry Cotto

Why this card is awesome: Because they mention Cotto's 52 stolen bases in 1982, and his minor league SB numbers are kind of interesting. He had 52 SB and 16 CS two years in a row, in both 1981 and 1982. He had 59 walks and 1 HR both years, too.

Cool stat: Cotto ties two others for most seasons with exactly 33 RBI, but Cotto is the only one to do it three years in a row.

#765 Neal Heaton

Why this card is awesome: Because this is a great action shot of Heaton in mid-pitch. Check out how bent his wrist is.

Cool stat: Heaton's yet another guy that George Bell hit the most homers off of. Well, Jorge and Darrr-rrryl, both.

#764 Greg Walker

Why this card is awesome: Because turnabout is fair play. Here's a photo of a White Sox player at Comiskey, showing the Red Sox's catcher. Most of the Red Sox cards are from this same game and show the White Sox catcher's mitt.

If I remember correctly, Walker has epilepsy, or at least had a few seizures during his playing days. I'm not sure to what extent that contributed to his fairly short career.

Cool stat: 100 RBI is one of those magical numbers that so many whuse to separate great players from average players. Walker managed 100 RBIs in a season but from 1984 to 1987, he managed at least 24 HR with no more than 95 RBI three different times. He wasn't a superstar but he deserved to be remembered better than he is.

Introducing 1988 Topps Traded Tiffany (part 2)

This is part 2/4 of a teaser series for the 1988 Topps Traded Tiffany set we'll crack and display on this blog as soon as we finish the regular 1988 Topps set.

Here's a shot of the box after breaking the gold seal and opening the top.



So there are the 132 cards, just laid into the box. I'm surprised that there is no plastic wrap around the cards, further suggesting that they are probably dinged on the corners. I guess 1988 is too long ago to expect decent packaging. Say what you will about cards today--the packaging is a lot better.

I'm trying to give you guys at home a sense of what it's like to crack a set like this. Next, we'll take a peek at the first card.

#763 Doug Sisk

Why this card is awesome: Because this is a fairly rare shot of a pitcher doing something other than pitching. Looks like he's coming off the mound to field a bunt or a squibber. Also, there are Cardinals in the background!

Cool stat: Sisk had a strange career, statistically. Look below at his 1983 and 1984. He seems to have filled in as closer nicely, posting great ERAs and appearing in lots of games. But in fact, Sisk is one of only 3 relievers since 1901 to post at least 2 seasons with an ERA+ of 160 or better but also a WHIP as high as 1.4. The moral of the story? All those hits and walks came back to hurt him later, bringing his ERA closer to league-average. He was lucky to finish with an ERA+ of 113 over his career while having a WHIP of 1.517. Those career stats are also pretty special.

#762 Scott Bradley

Why this card is awesome: Because there's another almost-hidden bat, and it's quite grainy! Also, yet another bad trade for the Mariners mentioned on the back. Calderon was no superstar, but he was a good player for the White Sox.

Also this is yet another card featuring a Mariners player looking confused. You can't tell me that somebody at Topps who worked on putting this set together didn't have something against the Mariners, Brewers, and Phillies.

Cool stat: Bradley had just 18 career homers, but he hit 5 of them off two guys: Richard Dotson and Dave Stewart. Both of his homers against Stewart came in the same game, and they were both 2-run jobs, and they were all the runs the Mariners scored as they got obliterated by the A's.

#761 Tony Armas

Why this card is awesome: Because I'm pretty sure Armas either homered or struck out on that pitch. Snicker.

Armas is the father of current major leaguer player...you guessed it...Tony Armas.

Cool stat: Armas was a classic Rob Deer type. He had massive power but had some years with a very low batting average, and he couldn't take a walk to save his life. To think that a guy with a .287 career OBP had 3 years of more than 35 HR is crazy. He had the lowest OBP in a season with at least 35 HR (although Dave Kingman's representation on that list cannot be ignored.) He also had the lowest OBP in a season with at least 40 HR. And he has BY FAR the lowest OBP of any player with at least 250 career HR.