#700 George Brett

Why this card is awesome: Because although I love George Brett, this card shows him with creepy zombie eyes, which always scared me a little bit. This card also has a nice sense of motion though, and looks particular good next to Eddie Murray's card--an all-blue Royal next to an all-orange Oriole.

Cool stat: Brett had at least 2 triples every year from 1974 to 1993, as did Robin Yount. Brett had nearly as many triples over that period as Willie Wilson. When I think of triples, I don't think of Brett or Yount, but both guys had tons. In 1990, Brett also had one of the highest seasons of OPS+ for a guy 37 or older with at least 600 PAs.

Simply put, Brett was awesome. He remains the only guy to win batting titles in 3 different decades (1976, 1980, and 1990.)

Hall of Fame count: 44

Hey, that's two cards in a row with a HOFer.

#699 Padres Leaders

Why this card is awesome: Because what a difference 6 cards makes. On his own card, Santiago looked like a badass. Here, he looks like he's peeing in his pants.

Who knows which stadium is in the background?

Cool stat: Let me take this opportunity to talk a bit more about Tony Gwynn. In 1987, he hit .370 with 56 stolen bases. Check out where he ranks all-time for most SB in a season with a .370 BA. Gwynn is the only guy in the top 25 from the last 80 years.

Hall of Fame count: 43

Any Tony Gwynn is good Tony Gwynn.

#698 Brad Havens

Why this card is awesome: Because there's a near identical copy of Havens standing right behind him, except that the copy is totally dark. Oh wait, that's a shadow, making the real Havens look like a cardboard cutout. Way to go, Topps.

I'm pretty sure that Brad Havens became a pitching coach after he retired as a player but I'm having trouble finding any record of that.

Cool stat: Havens was part of the trade that brought Rod Carew to the Angels from the Twins. Here are his career stats pitching against Carew.

#697 Steve Lombardozzi

Why this card is awesome: Because like 600 cards ago, some reader named Jeff was counting down until Lombardozzi's card. Well here it is, Jeff!

But seriously, I think this is the only card other than Larry Parrish where the full last name of the player featured on the card is visible on the back of his uniform. I might be wrong about that, but these are the only ones that come to mind.

And mind you, getting all of "LOMBARDOZZI" visible in a photograph while he's batting ain't easy.

Cool stat: Lombardozzi is somewhat remembered thanks to being part of the championship Twins team of 1987 (and hitting very well in that World Series.) In the regular season, he managed a few 4-RBI games and the Twinkies won them all.

#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.

Three Blue Jays

I couldn't resist. I guess Musselman is laughing at Jimy & Jimmy holding hands.

#695 Shawon Dunston

Why this card is awesome: Because, heck, here is another great-looking Cubs card from this set. The only think better than red, white, and blue is when you add a sea of green from an impeccably maintained grassy area. It might sound like I am being sarcastic, but truly I love this card.

Toward the end of Dunston's career, I learned that his first name is actually pronounced like it's spelled, i.e. "Sha-WAN", not "Shawn" like we all thought for years and years. I thought that was pretty cool because it's a much more African American-sounding name than plain old "Shawn."

Cool stat: What with his .296 career OBP, Dunston was, shall we say, offensively challenged. But he was damned versatile, making the top 10 in career homers for guys who played at least 10 career games at 1B, SS, 3B, OF, and DH.

#694 Eric Nolte

Why this card is awesome: Because this is the second consecutive Padres card. Makes me wonder if he was stuck in here in place of some veteran who retired.

Cool stat: Nolte had a short career and I can't find much of interest, statistically speaking. So I'll just point out that Juan Samuel had the most PAs against Nolte and, incidentally, hit the crap out of the ball against him.

#693 Benny Santiago

Why this card is awesome: Because this is a pretty cool shot. Bats in the bat rack, Benito picking out his weapon of choice, and the "P" in "Padres" almost complete covered, just like the "O" on Lee Lacy's card.

This is the first of two cards in pretty quick succession to feature good ol' Benito.

Cool stat: Here's a wacky and wild bit of trivia for you. Santiago is 5th all-time in HRs for a guy who played for at least 9 franchises. If you can get more than 1 of the 4 guys ahead of him, consider yourself a baseball trivia expert.

#692 Mike Birkbeck

Why this card is awesome: Because of the interesting "SULLY" patch we can see on Birkbeck's shoulder. I did a search and I gather that is was to honor somebody named Bob Sullivan, who I think was equipment manager or something like that. I emailed Thorzul about it but never heard back. Oh well.

Cool stat: Among pitchers with an ERA+ of 250 or better in their final season, Birkbeck had the best WHIP (minimum 20 IP.) Or, for pitchers with a WHIP under 0.9 in their final season, Birkbeck had the best ERA+.

#691 Dan Pasqua

Why this card is awesome: Because there are more Expos in the background, even against an AL team! Spring training, obviously.

Cool stat: In 1988, Pasqua had one of just 4 seasons ever with 20 HR and 100 K's, but no more than 50 RBI.

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.

#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.

#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.

#688 Jim Winn

Why this card is awesome: Because if you're going to be a pitcher, Winn is such a rough name, since it's so easy to joke how rarely he actually did "Winn" ball games. It's so much better to be Early Wynn in this case, who managed to "Wynn" 300 games. At least Jimmy Wynn and Marvell Wynne didn't have to worry about this stuff.

Cool stat: Over the last 50 years, Winn has one of the highest total IP for a pitcher with a K/BB ratio very close to 1 (specifically between 0.98 and 1.02.) I can't believe Mike Torres won 185 games while topping this list. Back on Tim Laudner's card, we saw that Winn was the only guy he hit multiple homers off of. Well, Laudner is not the only guy Winn gave up multiple homers too.

#687 Mickey Brantley

Why this card is awesome: Because, geez, Brantley got around in the minor leagues. From Bakersfield CA to Chattanooga TN to Salt Lake City UT to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Cool stat: Brantley couldn't stick in the majors mainly because of a terrible OBP. Among players who had at least 30 career HR, he had one of the lowest walk totals.

#686 Terry Francona

Why this card is awesome: Because I guess this must have been Santa Claus day at the ballpark, given that there are two of them in the stands.

This is a nice card of another future manager, the current Red Sox skipper.

Francona is also the son of All-star outfielder Tito Francona.

Cool stat: It would seem pretty rare to have more doubles than RBI in a season, and in fact Francona has one of just a handful of seasons with 19 or more RBI and 18 or fewer RBI. I'm not able to search in general for years with more doubles than RBI, but I bet they are pretty rare.

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #74 Ron Darling

This is another set of scans provided by dayf at Cardboard Junkie.

Why this card is awesome: Because methinks that this photo was taken a bit before 1987...

#685 Ron Darling

Why this card is awesome: Because this is the second guy in 6 cards to be born in Honolulu. Charlie Hough was too. And for that matter, Darling's teammate Sid Fernandez was too.

Cool stat: Darling was vastly overrated. Sure, he finished his career with a 136-116 record (.540) but his ERA+ was just 95. His neutralized record was 122-138, .469. Darling has one of the most recent seasons with 4 shutouts but at best a league-average ERA.

#684 Hal Lanier

Why this card is awesome: Because, looking at the back of the card, it sure seems like the Astros had a lot of guys play 3B.

Cool stat: In 1987, they tied for first with 3 different guys playing at least 30 games at the hot corner.

#683 Julio Franco

Why this card is awesome: Because let's take a guy with one of the coolest unique batting stances ever, and put him in a blurry photo with his mouth hanging open. Suuure.

Cool stat: I love Julio Franco. Check out some stuff I wrote about him here. Franco makes the top 10 all time for most hits from Age 40 season on.

#682 Jimmy Key

Why this card is awesome: Because I can't look at this card without thinking of Jimy Williams' card. Clearly they must have been sitting near each other at about the same time. Imagine it like this:


See? Isn't that a nice slice of life?

Plus, if this is how it actually was, I think they were holding hands. Awww.

Cool stat: So Jimmy Key finished second in the AL Cy Young voting in 1987, yet still doesn't get a card ending in a 5 or 0? That's the story of his career, I guess. Few people seem to think much of him, yet he finished with a .614 W-L% and two World Series rings. Among lefties with at least 150 wins, Key was in the top 10 for W-L%.

#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.

#680 Charlie Hough

Why this card is awesome: Because this is simply a great photo showing the sky blue eyes of a very good pitcher. Hough had a very long and interesting career, starting off as an ace reliever with the Dodgers in the early 70s and going all the way into the mid-90's, finishing as the anchor of the brand new Florida Marlins franchise.

Cool stat: Hough finished his career at 216-216, .500, but neutralized he was 226-196, 30 games over .500 at .536! As is typical for a knuckleballer, he allowed very few hits. But check out his company: fewest hits per 9 among pitchers with at least 3500 IP. The top 19 guys are all in the HOF except for Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens, who both will be one day. (Yes, Rocket will get in.) Oh, and Hough is not in.

#679 Darrell Miller

Why this card is awesome: Because of that weird effect going on in the dugout--looks like fancy yellow laser beams going across the card.

Cool stat: Miller was one of 9 players to have 140 or fewer ABs every year from 1984 to 1988, covering his entire career. He sure played a lot of positions, though--97 games at catcher, 54 in right field, 34 in left field, 16 at first base, 8 in center field, 2 at third base, and 8 more as DH. Wow.

#678 Jim Acker

Why this card is awesome: Because of the odd mention of minor league totals. Yeah, he had 437 IP and 28 wins in the minors before making the show. What they don't say is that they were split among 3 different locations, and that Acker actually went back down to AA from AAA in 1982 before suddenly making the Blue Jays out of spring training in 1983. They also don't say that he had 31 losses to go along with those 28 wins.

Cool stat: Acker had one of the small number of seasons by middle relievers with over 100 IP, no game starts, an ERA+ of 150 and a WHIP no higher than 1.12. Acker had two excellent years and a handful of good years.