#99T Mark Salas

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Salas was a pretty decent backup for Carlton Fisk for one year before leaving as a free agent.

Tournament poll #8

Here's our final matchup of the first round, and it ain't an easy one either.



Leading off is #4 Eddie Murray Record Breaker. In 1988, this was a bad-ass card featuring a bad-ass player. The double shot of Murray taking both a lefty and a righty swing was inspired, and nobody could see this card without looking at it carefully. The solid red background that Topps chose for the record breakers this year was a very nice way of setting these cards apart from the rest of the set. (Usually, they made their record breakers in very similar style to the rest of the set.) Also throw in the fact that this card had an error version, creating even more interest. Finally, there aren't too many examples of cards featuring two HOFers who are the same guy!



Murray's competition this time comes from #759, Athletics Leaders. While the careers of both McGwire and Canseco ended in controversy, these two guys were just about the hottest players in baseball in 1988. Mark McGwire had just won Rookie of the Year honors by hitting 49 HRs in 1987, and Canseco (himself two years removed from the ROY award) became the first player ever to hit 40 HR with 40 SB in the same season in 1988. These guys were at the top of everybody's hot list in 1988 and their cards were extremely sought after. If I remember correctly, this card booked for as much as $2.00 back in 1988, totally unheard of for a team leaders card.

Tough choice, my readers. (Don't be mislead by the fact that my scan for the Murray card is pretty low quality!)

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#80T Mark Parent

I see Tom Berenger. Whom do you see?

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Parent was a no-hit backup catcher for parts of 5 seasons with the Padres.

#65T Mark Marquess

IMPACT FACTOR N/A: Marquess was the coach of the Olympic team, and just as the card says below remains as the coach at Stanford today. He did play in the minor leagues but I'm not giving him a score since this is not a card of a future player.

#59T Ray Knight

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Knight had one lackluster season with Detroit to close out his career. At least they gave up only Mark Thurmond to acquire him.

#42T Mark Grace

Here's another great rookie card from the set.

IMPACT FACTOR 9/10: Grace was a fantastic player for the Cubs, playing the first 13 years of his career with them before heading out to Arizona. He had the most hits of the 1990s. The only thing that keeps Grace from getting a 10 is that the Cubs didn't have any post-season success with him. In 1989, that wasn't Grace's fault. In the 5 games against the Giants in the NLCS, Grace had an 1.800 OPS (not a typo) with 11 hits and 8 RBI.

I'm sure that Cubs fans will push for Grace to get into the HOF, but he falls quite short, actually.

#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.

#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.

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.

#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.

#752 Mark Grant

Why this card is awesome: Because this card is just like Chris Brown's, clearly taken at the same time. Both players have been airbrushed out of Giants unis and into Padres unis.

Cool stat: Grant was fairly consistently a below-average pitcher, but his 1989 is one of the last seasons a guy ever pitched as many as 116 innings in a season without making any starts.

#749 Mark Eichhorn

Why this card is awesome: Because we saw Duane Ward, a relatively ignored great reliever for the Blue Jays, and here is another such guy in Eichhorn. See below for more.

Cool stat: For relievers with a minimum of 800 IP, check out the highest career ERA+. You'd never think of Eichhorn, right? But there he is at #6 all time, right behind Quisenberry, Wilhelm, and Hoffman, and right ahead of Franco and Sutter.

Serious--this guy kicked ass.

#742 Mark Clear

Why this card is awesome: Because this card is a bit of an optical illusion, making clear look like one of his legs is about 2 feet shorter than the other.

Cool stat: Clear was lucky. He finished with a career ERA+ of 109 but didn't really deserve it due to all the hits and walks he gave up. In fact, he has the highest career WHIP of anybody with an ERA+ that high, minimum 700 IP. (If I lowered the innings limit a bit, Mitch Williams would slide into the #1 spot.)

#734 Craig Lefferts

Why this card is awesome: Because, hey check it out, here is a Giant who was traded to the Giants during 1987 and yet is pictured in an actual Giants jersey, instead of an airbrushed one (like Kevin Mitchell, Dave Dravecky, Dave Henderson, etc.)

Also, a couple of years ago, I assembled a pretty cool trade tree for the Padres. I can't figure out how to upload a high-enough resolution image, so you'll just have to imagine it. But Craig Lefferts appears twice in the same tree.

Anyway, it goes something like this: The Padres drafted Gary Lucas in 1976, and between the '79 and '80 seasons traded him for Al Newman, Fritzie Connally, Carmelo Martinez, and Lefferts. Lefferts was traded before the '87 season to the Giants with Kevin Mitchell and Dave Dravecky (hence the airbrushing in this set) for Chris Brown, Keith Comstock, Mark Davis, and Mark Grant. Chris Brown and Keith Moreland were traded the next year for Walt Terrell. Moreland had been acquired in 1985 with Mike Brumley for Rich Gossage and Ray Hayward. Brumley was traded in 1988 for Luis Salazar. Shortly thereafter, Salazar was packaged with Marvelle Wynne to acquire Calvin Schiraldi, Darrin Jackson, and Phil Stephenson. In 1991, Jackson was flipped for Derek Bell.

Now here's where it gets interesting. In 1993, Bell was packaged as part of a huge trade. Most of you probably remember it. The Padres sent Bell, Ricky Gutierrez, Phil Plantier, Pedro Martinez (not that one), Craig Shipley, and Doug Brocail to the Astros in exchange for Andujar Cedeno, Ken Caminiti, Roberto Petagine, Steve Finley, and Brian Williams. What's fascinating is that the Padres originally obtained Gutierrez from the Orioles in a 1991 trade along with Erik Schullstrom in exchange for...wait for it....wait for it....Craig Lefferts! Lefferts had been re-signed by the Padres as a free agent in 1989.

So the same guy appears in a single trade tree twice, which is pretty unusual.

Whew!

Cool stat: It's easy to see why Lefferts was so highly desired in the first half of his career. From 1983 to 1990, he had one of the best ERA+ among relief pitchers with at least 500 IP. Most of the guys ahead of him were dominant closers, too.

For trade

I have a bunch of stuff I've accumulated that I'd like to trade. There's nothing of massive value here, but it's too difficult to bother selling this stuff on eBay. If you'd like any of it, just let me know.

I'm looking for Don Mattingly cards, preferably more recent special insert cards, as opposed to regular cards from his playing days. I would prefer to be surprised, so send me an email telling me what you want and your address, and I'll ship the stuff out. Then you can send me whatever you've got for trade. Don't worry if you don't have lots to trade--I'll be happy with anything. If you don't have any Mattingly cards, I'll take a pack of 2008 UD Goudey instead.

Here's what I've got to trade:

• #1: Factory sealed 1988 Donruss Baseball's Best set with a small tear on the outer cellophane but everything else intact and unopened.
• #2: About 1500 cards from 1985 to 1989, mostly Topps, including lots of rookies, stars, and HOFers. If you've never collected from this era, you can get lots of the best cards from these years in this lot. I will throw in 20 autographed 1988 Topps cards that I never got to on this blog, including Charlie Hough, Mark Gubicza, Tim Wallach, Jamie Moyer, and a bunch of other interesting players.
  
• #3: About 400 cards from 1999 to present, mostly 2007-2008, all manufacturers, including a number of short prints, rare sets, a few patch cards, etc. This box probably has some value in it and is a great intro for folks who have collected more recently. I also think some of you bloggers might enjoy breaking this one on your blog.
• #4: Six unopened packs of UD Series 2 2008 baseball from a blaster. I pulled a relic card out of one pack and then stopped opening, so I'm pretty sure that none of these packs contain one.
• #5: Any of these PSA graded cards (you can take them individually, not necessarily this whole this): 1961 Topps Bob Schmidt PSA 5, 1967 Topps Phil Regan PSA 7, 1967 Topps Jack Aker PSA 6, 1969 Topps Gary Bell PSA 4, 1975 Topps '74 Highlights [S Busby, D Bosman, N Ryan] PSA 6, 1986 Topps Kirby Puckett PSA 8, 1988 Topps Wade Boggs PSA 9
• #6: About 50 singles selected for being in excellent condition, mainly star players and HOFers, dating 1975 to early 1990s, though most of the cards are from the early 1980s. Includes Nolan Ryan, Robin Yount, Eddie Murray, Ozzie Smith, Kirby Puckett, Don Mattingly, Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, and lots of others. This one goes as a lot.
  

Just email me at 88topps at gmail dot com if you're interested in any of this stuff.

#689 Tom Pagnozzi

Why this card is awesome: Because, hey check it out, Pagnozzi's mom is watching him bat!

Cool stat: Pagnozzi is one of a bunch of players from this set who spent their entire career at the major-league level with just one team.

Here are the batters (minimum 500 games):

Barry Larkin
Cal Ripken
Tony Gwynn
Tom Pagnozzi
Ron Karkovice
Mike Greenwell
Robby Thompson
Alan Trammell
Don Mattingly
Kirby Puckett
Lou Whitaker
Kent Hrbek
George Brett
Randy Bush
Robin Yount
Jim Gantner
Mike Scioscia
Ron Oester
Andres Thomas
Frank White
Bruce Benedict
Tim Flannery
Tim Laudner
Jim Rice
Mike Schmidt
Dave Concepcion
Garth Iorg

And here are the pitchers (minimum 100 games):

Teddy Higuera
Mark Williamson
Bill Wegman
Jeff Innis
Tim Crews
Wally Ritchie
Allan Anderson
Scott Garrelts
Bob Stanley
Ron Guidry
Scott McGregor
Mario Soto
Ken Dixon

HOF players in bold. If you want to get a hint about how I came to this list, see here.

#681 Bobby Bonilla

Why this card is awesome: Because I love playing games to try to figure out who else is on the card. Who's that standing next to Bonilla? In 1987, the following Pirates had numbers ending in 9: Hipolito Pena, Jeff Robinson, and Mark Ross all wore 49, but they were all pitchers and would be very unlikely to take BP at the same time as Bonilla. Infielder Houston Jimenez and outfielder Terry Harper both wore #19 and Onix Concepcion wore #29. Based on the fact that the digit on the left looks to be pretty much vertical, I'd say it's got to be #19. Terry Harper didn't join the Pirates until June 26 and there would be unlikely to be in a 1988 Topps photo. Houston Jimenez, however, signed as a free agent in late 1986. So he's my guess. Interestingly, Jimenez has no card in the 1988 set because he got only 6 AB with the Pirates in 1987.

This card is also interesting because it pretty prominently features a cross on a necklace around Bonilla's neck. Although I'd bet there are others, I can't at the moment think of any other examples in this set of any prominent religious symbols.

Cool stat: I guess Bonilla was a bad base stealer and/or runner since for guys with no more than 45 career steals, he is tied for the most CS. 57 CS against 45 SB is dreadful.

#655 Len Dykstra

Why this card is awesome: Because, hey look, it's another Expo in the background! And if you thought there was a big difference in Mark McGwire's appearance over the years, compare Nails above to this photo:



A bit thicker all around, eh?

The Phillies' trade for Dykstra was a great one. In addition to getting Lenny, the Phils also got Roger McDowell in exchange for Juan Samuel. Samuel stuck around for many more years but was never the same player, whereas Dykstra and McDowell (less so) did some great things for the Phillies.

Cool stat: Only two guys have ever had a season with 30 stolen bases, 120 walks, and 140 runs scored. Dykstra did it in the Phillies' magical year of 1993, but you probably can't guess who the other one was.

88 Topps Giveaway #10

This one is a huge giveaway. The first person to figure out the question below wins the following:

• Cards 551-650 of the 1988 Topps set, which include Don Sutton, Mark McGwire, George Bell, Mike Schmidt, Kirk Gibson, Cecil Fielder, Cory Snyder, Matt Nokes, and Cal Ripken.
• A paperback copy of John Schuerholz's autobiography, which I found pretty droll.
  

• The George Bell All-Time Fan Favorites card.
• And a whole bunch of packs that I opened on A Pack a Day, all containing star/HOF cards: a 1990 Fleer rack pack, a 1984 Topps wax pack, a LOADED 1987 Donruss rack pack (section 1, 2, and 3), and a 1988 Sportsflics wax pack. Check the links and you can see all the cards you're getting.
  

All you have to do to win is be the first commenter to post the name of the five current major league ballplayers identified below:

1) Complete dromedaries
2) Sabermetric female horses
3) After this, guy who kicks the ball on 4th down
4) Cartography for felines
5) Homicide of upper body garment

A bit of wordplay is involved...