#110T Lee Smith

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Smith was great for the Red Sox in his first two years, and then phenomenal in his third year, when they traded him away for Tom Brunansky. It probably wasn't a great trade for the Red Sox, although Brunansky did play pretty well for the BoSox.

#105T Mike Schooler

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Schooler was a top closer for the Mariners until he was undone by injuries.

#45T Bryan Harvery

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Harvey was one of the better closers in the game in the late 80s and early 90s, and had two truly outstanding seasons in 1991 (with the Angels) and 1993 (with the Marlins.)

#41T Rich Gossage

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Gossage came to the Cubs in a pretty meaningless trade. Only he and Keith Moreland had lengthy major-league careers and both were past their primes by this time. The Goose had one below-average year for the Cubs before moving on and having several good years with other teams to close out his career.

Finally, here is our first HOFer in the traded set!

Hall of Fame count: 46

#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.

#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.

#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.

#730 John Franco

Why this card is awesome: Because somebody's wearing Chris Sabo's goggles! Also, what is that knobby thing behind the fence?

Also, that's s pretty bad trade for the Dodgers mentioned on the back. Franco went on to have a very long and productive career. Landestoy had 22 hits over parts of two seasons for the Dodgers.

It's also kind of interesting to see what Cincinnati did with Franco. Eventually, they traded him for Randy Myers and Kip Gross. They traded Myers and turned him into Bip Roberts (WAAHHHH! MORE BIPS!!) Meanwhile they packaged Gross with Eric Davis and picked up Tim Belcher and John Wetteland. Belcher was later traded to the White Sox for Johnny Ruffin and Jeff Pierce. Wetteland was later traded with Bill Risley to Montreal for Dave Martinez, Scott Ruskin, and Willie Greene. Greene got traded straight up for Jeffrey Hammonds. Hammonds was packaged with Stan Belinda and traded to Colorado for Dante Bichette. Later, they traded Bichette to Boston for Chris Reitsma and a minor leaguer. Reitsma was flipped to Atlanta for Jung Bong and a minor leaguer named Bubba. Bong was released in 2006.

Whew, that's a long chain.

Cool stat: Franco has the most career games pitched without ever making a start.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Franco comes up for the HOF vote. It seems that voters don't really know how to handle closers yet, with guys like Sutter and Gossage getting in fairly late, and Lee Smith not getting much support so far. Franco was the active saves leader for 7 years after Smith retired although he led the league only 3 times. His HOF stats on B-R.com are weird. His HOF Standards are only 11.0, with an average HOFer at 50. But his HOF Monitor, a better judge of how likely he is to be elected, is 124.0, with a likely HOFer at 100.

#715 Todd Worrell

Why this card is awesome: Because I can't figure out who the blurry figure in the foreground is. It might be somebody catching Worrell, or it might be somebody just watching him throw. I am going for catcher, though, since you can see what looks like the strap from the catcher's mask on the guy's head. His number seems to end in 0 and is either 10 or 40. Checking out here, though, suggests Doug DeCinces (#10) or Tim Conroy (#40), neither of which makes sense, nor does the name on the back of the jersey look like either. Maybe it was a bullpen catcher. Who knows?

Cool stat: Worrell had an interesting career, coming back from a bad injury that caused him to miss 2 full seasons to have some great years with the Dodgers. Checking out his career home run log, note that he gave up more homers to Howard Johnson and Ken Griffey (Sr.) than anybody else, plus two of the walkoff homers he allowed were in consecutive games in 1987.

#713 Willie Hernandez

Why this card is awesome: Because, wow, there is sure a lot of color contrast between the "TIGERS" team name and the light blue sky behind there.

Cool stat: Hernandez was the first pitcher ever to appear in 80 or more games and finish with an ERA+ of 200 or better. He won both the AL Cy Young and AL MVP awards that year.

#696 Duane Ward

Why this card is awesome: Because although this isn't a rookie card, it's an early card of a guy almost forgotten to time who had a huge hand in two World Series wins for the Blue Jays.

Cool stat: Over 1992-1993, among relievers, Ward had the 3rd-best ERA+ (minimum 100 IP) and 3rd-most strikeouts. And he had a 1.12 ERA over the two World Series that year. And then he got hurt and it was all over.

#670 Dan Plesac

Why this card is awesome: Because Plesac is one of the best relievers from the last 20 years and nobody knows it. He came in as a very effective closer for the Brewers in the last 1980s and pitched effectively through his final year with the Phillies at age 41 in 2003. Way to go, legendary scout Ray Poitevint!

Cool stat: Plesac had one of the best-ever final seasons for a 40+ year old pitcher with at least 30 IP.

#651 Mike Jackson

Why this card is awesome: Because this is yet another nice hidden gem rookie card from this set. This was Mike Jackson's first Topps card, although he had a 1987 Fleer Update card and a 1987 Donruss The Rookies card.

Jackson had a mostly-brilliant 17-year career as one of the top relievers in baseball. He had a couple of great years as the Indians closer, too.

I have to mention, though, that this card continues the trend of the Phillies getting royally screwed in this set. Jackson's card is yet another one that makes the player look like a dopey minor leaguer. And just wait until you see the Phillies Leaders card coming up shortly.

Cool stat: Only 7 guys have ever had a season with 40 saves, a WHIP under 0.9, and an ERA+ of 300 or better. Jackson, of course, was one of them.

#649 DeWayne Buice

Why this card is awesome: Because this card has Buice's name wrong. His first name is "De Wayne," with a space, not DeWayne without a space.

Buice had a short major league career, but played a lot in the minors. More importantly, he holds a much greater significance to baseball card collectors, as one of the major forces that helped Upper Deck get off the ground. See here for more.

Cool stat: In the last 30 years, Buice cracks the top 25 for fewest hits per 9 innings in a season with at least 110 IP exclusively in relief.

#627 Joe Boever

Why this card is awesome: Because Boever looks nervous there in Veterans Stadium, thinking geez, the Phillies are the only team worse than the Braves..hope I don't end up playing there in a few years (uh oh!)

Cool stat: Boever's 1995 ranks in the top 10 for most homers given up in a season with no starts.

#613 Bobby Thigpen

Why this card is awesome: Because Thigpen sure burned through the minors. Signed in 1985 and made it to the bigs by 1986!

Cool stat: Thigpen was the first pitcher ever to record 50+ saves in a season with an ERA+ of at least 200. He still holds the single-season record for saves, although it has been challenged a few times.

#597 Gene Garber

Why this card is awesome: Because of the great shot of Garber, looking like he's pitching softball. Also who's in the background..Seitzer I think?

Cool stat: Scanning Garber's stats, I noticed a weird thing. In 1974, he racked up 24 intentional walks in just 76 IP. That's the most IBBs in any season with 100 or fewer IP. Wait a second, upon further research, that's the most IBBs in any season since 1901 (regardless of IP!)

There must be some explanation for this...anybody?

Maybe Garber just liked issuing IBBs. After all, for career IBBs since 1901, he's 4th overall, with about the same number as Steve Carlton had, in more than 3,000 fewer innings. Kent Tekulve is #1 all time with even fewer innings than Garber.

#582 Mike Henneman

Why this card is awesome: Because of an unheralded rookie card from the 1988 Topps set. Henneman went largely unnoticed in his career but he was a very good closer for a number of years.

Cool stat: From 1987 to 1991, Henneman is way out in the lead for most wins by a pitcher who didn't start a single game. Looks like Henneman was used to finish out a lot of games that were non-save situations, and the Tigers came through to win when he was the pitcher of record. Not quite Mitch Williams vulture style.

#573 Bob Stanley

Why this card is awesome: Because --

STOP THE PRESSES

I have discovered something about this card that I suspect is unique in the long and glorious history of baseball cards.

The background of this card features a POPSICLE. Yes, a POPSICLE.



Cool stat: Stanley is mostly remembered for his role in the 1986 World Series debacle. But from 1977 to 1985 he led all of baseball in most seasons with at least 80 IP and an ERA+ of 112 or better. He was one of the finest pitchers in the game back then.

#543 Kent Tekulve

Why this card is awesome: Because, hot damn, what a great photo of Tekulve. It captures him with those awesome photogray sunglasses about to go into his submarine delivery.

Cool stat: I just love Tekulve. He was a hell of a pitcher. Here's a small piece I wrote on him about most losses in games where the pitcher didn't allow any earned runs. Here's one about how good he still was at age 40. And did you know he once played in the outfield in a game in which he also pitched?