#127T Bob Welch

IMPACT FACTOR 7/10: Welch came to the Athletics after many years with the Dodgers and did not disappoint. Although his W-L stats were inflated beyond what he deserved thanks to a great Oakland offense, he nevertheless pitched mostly very well in 7 seasons with Oakland, including his Cy Young winning season of 1990 with a 27-6 record. He also pitched quite well in numerous post-season starts for the A's, with the lone exception of a 1988 start against Boston.

#126T Walt Weiss

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Weiss won the 1988 AL Rookie of the Year award, but was the best of a pretty weak pool of candidates. Although he was a capable shortstop, he was pretty poor on the offensive side of the ball and hit terribly in 5 out of 6 post-season series he appeared in with Oakland. In his entire career, Weiss ended up playing in 13 post-season series with Oakland, Colorado, and Atlanta and hit .190 with a .270 OBP. Oops.

#109T Joe Slusarski

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Slusarski pitched 3 ineffective seasons with Oakland.

#81T Dave Parker

Somehow, Parker looks like even more of a beast on this card than he did on his regular-issue 1988 Topps card.

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Parker played for the Athletics for 2 seasons, 1988 and 1989. He had good regular seasons, although he had limited ABs. He hit poorly for average in both postseasons, although in 1989 he did have a few homers and a SLG of about .600.

#53T Glenn Hubbard

This is a very nice card. Who knows what the sign in the background behind Old Mother Hubbard says?

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Hubbard signed with the A's as a free agent but couldn't hold down the second base job, eventually yielding to Tony Phillips.

#48T Dave Henderson

IMPACT FACTOR 6/10: Henderson signed with Oakland as a free agent and was their starting centerfielder for 4 years, including the 3 World Series years of 1988-1990. He had some big hits in the postseason.

#46T Ron Hassey

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Hassey caught lightning in a bottle by signing as a free agent with Oakland before the 1988 season and staying with them through 1990, making it to 3 straight World Series with them. He backed up Terry Steinbach each season.

#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.

#759 A's Leaders

Why this card is awesome: Because this reminds me of how confused I was in 1988 as to whether the team was called A's or Athletics. I thought that since this card said A's, then A's must have been their official name. I was confused to later learn about them also being called Athletics.

Also, back in 1988, I think it goes without saying that this was a pretty damn awesome card. McGwire was the best young power hitter in the game and Canseco was the first 40-40 guy in history.

Wow, Luis Polonia got his name on a leaders card not once but TWICE.

Cool stat: Here's a list that really shows how the Steroids Era began in 1993. This is most recent seasons with 120+ runs and 120+ RBI. Nineteen such seasons were recorded in the first 8 years of the current decade. Twenty such seasons were recorded 1993 to 1999. Before that, Canseco's 1988 was one of just two such seasons in the 1980s.

#726 Alfredo Griffin

Why this card is awesome: Because what in the hell is Griffin looking at? I'll cut him some slack and suggest it's a batting-practice homer being launched into the upper deck by Canseco or McGwire. Hopefully he's not just staring at a cloud.

Cool stat: Griffin was a bad base stealer. He's very high on the list of most seasons with at least 11 CS while having no more than 33 SB. Note that for players in the early part of the 20th century, CS totals are often wrong or absent, so this search doesn't count those guys very well. Griffin's career SB% of 58% is really lousy and he shouldn't have been allowed to run. His career OPS+ of 67 suggests that he shouldn't have been allowed to bat, either.

#702 Mike Gallego

Why this card is awesome: Because although his card says he's 5'8", I swear that in this photo, Gallego doesn't look an inch over 4 feet tall. Of course, if that were the case, he probably would have walked more like this guy.

Gallego's name is pronounced "Guy-a-go" with a long "a" sound in the middle (as in Oakland A's). Hence, the awesome Bermanism of Mike "Leggo" Gallego.

Cool stat: Gallego is better remembered than he actually was, thanks to being on the great A's teams of 1988-1990. In fact, among second baseman with at least 3000 PAs between 1980 and present, he had one of the lowest OPS+.

#690 Jay Howell

Why this card is awesome: Because we can see an interesting patch on Howell's arm, but I don't know anything about it. Do you? I see that we can see it much better on Moose Haas' card.

Cool stat: Howell was a really good reliever for a whole bunch of years. For relievers from 1988 to 1993, he had the 3rd-best ERA+ (minimum 200 IP.) Our man Jeff Montgomery actually beat him out.

#673 Tony Phillips

Why this card is awesome: Because Phillips is a pretty underrated player, mainly because he was much better in the second half of his career. From 1982 to 1991, he had an OPS+ just under 100, and an OBP under .360. From 1993 to 1999, his OPS+ was well over 100 and his OBP was something like .390. Superstar, no, but a quality hitter. Factor in that he could play both infield and outfield, and he was a pretty valuable player.

Steve at White Sox Cards recently wrote a little piece about Tony Phillps.

Cool stat: Phillips' increase in OBP can be seen in his career batting splits. A quick analysis suggests that his managers used him pretty well. Note that he had a career .386 OBP batting 1st, and a career .335 OBP batting 9th. If you click on "Batting 9th" you can get it year-by-year, and discover that most of those ABs came early in his career, when he wasn't as good at getting on base. Now click on "Batting 1st" and see that most of those ABs came in the second half of his career, when he was getting on base a lot more often.

#641 Rick Honeycutt

Why this card is awesome: Because, OMG, what a terrible airbrush job. Not only did they give him a ridiculous hat that looks like he's storing his lunch under there, but they put the Oakland name on his jersey so high it's ridiculous. Just like they did with Dave LaPoint.

Cool stat: Honeycutt posted one of the finest seasons for a reliever over 42, one of just 10 seasons with at least 60 games, and he pitched very well.

#621 Gene Nelson

Why this card is awesome: Because, wow, this card is pretty damn similar to Dennis Eckerlsey's. See here:



Cool stat: Nelson was an important part of the playoff A's teams of 1988 to 1990. In 1990, he also posted one of the lowest strikeout rates ever for a guy with 70 IP and an ERA+ of 230 or better. He posted another good year in 1993 but then retired.

#606 Moose Haas

Why this card is awesome: Because so soon after Bobby Valentine's card, here's another guy with his hand in an inappropriate place. Also I like all those cables in the background that have been painted blue so they'd blend in. Pretty effective--I bet you didn't notice them until I pointed them out!

Cool stat: Haas is among a rare group of pitchers who threw at least 190 innings in a major-league season at age 21 or younger. It's very interesting to note how many of those guys went on to have arm trouble and/or injury trouble in their careers. The list includes Alex Fernandez, Felix Hernandez, Bret Saberhagen, Britt Burns, Steve Avery, and some others. Haas himself was done by age 31, and this was his last card.

#580 Mark McGwire

Why this card is awesome: Because of the laughable notion on the back that McGwire could play 3B. After he bulked up, I doubt he could even crouch enough to play there.

Cool stat: Sure McGwire's in the 500-HR club, but he's got the fewest RBI of all.

McGwire's not in the Hall of Fame yet, and my guess is he never makes it. He was a tremendously one-dimensional player and the andro and steroids stuff ain't gonna help.

Still, this is a great card.

#551 Terry Steinbach

Why this card is awesome: Because of our second Pedro Cerrano moment in the set. Way back at card #122, Tony Bernazard, we saw another guy apparently having a conversation with his bat.

Also as you can see on the back, he was signed by Jim Perry, himself a pretty good ballplayer at one time.

Cool stat: Only twice has a catcher hit 35 or more homers at age 34 or older. Steinbach did it in a huge fluke in 1996, and Carlton Fisk did it in 1985. If you lower the bar to 20 HR (still at 34 years old or older,) that's still been done just 13 times by a catcher.

#527 Steve Henderson

Why this card is awesome: Because, man, I love the yellow warmup jersey. At least a few A's were rocking those on their 1988 Topps cards. These days, we're so used to alternate jerseys that the teams use to try to encourage more merchandise sales. But back then, except for batting practice, it was rare to see a player in an alternate jersey. It was home whites, road grays, and that's it. Oh, and his entire face is in the shadow.

Cool stat: Since 1978, Henderson is in an 8-way tie for most seasons with exactly 10 HR. Also, Henderson hit 3 walk-off homers, all at Shea when he was playing for the Mets, and all were 3-run jobs.

#501 Tim Birtsas

Why this card is awesome: Because I believe this is an uncorrected error card. The rest of the Athletics cards in this set have a purple name banner, whereas this one is blue. I don't recall ever hearing that this was an error card, though, like Garry Templeton's.

Cool stat: Since 1901, Tim's 1990 is the 4th-worst season with at least 50 IP and a league-average or better ERA, ranked in terms of WHIP.