Bad Wax

Another day and another pack. This makes 4 packs so far. I haven’t received a double, but I know it’s coming. Also my Hall of Fame streak stands at 3 packs now, so I would like to see that one continue. This has been a lot of fun and it’s so hard not to want to rip every pack in that box. Somehow, I am holding back so that I can chronicle this completely. I’m still looking for the Fielder, Mattingly, Rose, Ripken, Gooden, and Clemens cards that I love so much in this set. So hopefully soon I will be seeing them. Let’s rip into this baby!1. Oddibe McDowell – OF – Rangers – 480 – I have to admit when the McGwire card from the Topps Olympic team set of 1985 came out I started to collect all of the Olympic team members. One of those guys was Oddibe McDowell. In 1985 he hit 18 homers and stole 25 bases and I was thinking he might even be better than McGwire. In 1986 he hit 18 homers and stole 33 bases, I thought we had a star in the making and I got 50 of his rookie cards. What I didn’t take into account was he struck out a lot and his batting average never topped 0.260. He was out of baseball by 1994.

2. Kent Tekulve – P – Phillies – 326 – Can you imagine a player who pitched in more than 90 games in a season? Not only did Kent pitch 90 games in a season, he also pitched 94, 91, 72, 78, 85, and 76 in a season. I can’t imagine a pitcher doing that today. To pitch in more than half your team’s games now is unthinkable. Next look at his picture on this card, you know, just know, he got a lot of wedgies growing up.

3. Thad Bosley – OF – Cubs – 512 – Thad looks like on of those guys, that after a loss, he would be a tough interview. I think there would be a lot of cursing from Thad. He had a relatively long career (14 seasons) and he was mainly known as a solid hitter. That would be about the only tool he had.

4. Nelson Simmons – DH/OF – Tigers – 121 – Nelson played in 1985 and 1987 but not 1986. He was only in the bigs from 1984 -1987, looks like he spent 1986 in AAA. Nothing special about him, although he did top 10 homers in 1985 and judging from some of the ohter homer totals I have seen from that year, he’s be among the league leaders.

5. Don Mattingly – All Star – Yankees – 712 – Damn my first double, I really wasn’t expecting to see one for a bit. I was thinking I’d get about 10 packs in before I started to see doubles. I haven’t even gotten to the 100 card make yet.

6. Marty Barrett – 2B – Red Sox – 734 – Another double, I covered him in yesterday’s blog.

7. Domingo Ramos – SS/2B – Mariners – 462 – Man those uniforms are hideous! With Neptune’s making up the m, what exactly was the purpose of the star behind it? He was a career backup but managed to play for 11 seasons, so at least he had that going for him.

8. Mike Scott – P – Astros – 268 – Mike’s stats don’t really show how much of a dominating pitcher he was. He played for 13 seasons but he was one of the most feared pitchers in baseball for 5 of them. From 1985 to 1989 he won one Cy Young and was in contention for 2 more. He rolled up 86 of his 123 career wins during that time period. He had one of the best fastballs I have ever seen and although he didn’t have a Hall of Fame career, he definitely had a couple of Hall of Fame seasons.

9. Jackie Moore – Manager – A’s – 591 – The most famous thing about Jackie was that he coached the A’s to 3 horrible seasons. He was the manager just before Tony LaRusa. I don’t have much more to add to this one, sorry.

10. Frank Tanana – P – Tigers – 592 – Pitched for 21 seasons and had 240 wins. The problem was that he also had 236 losses. I guess that makes him an average player. But I would compare him to Tommy John or Jack Morris. Guys that just pitched forever and even though they were no better than 0.500 pitchers, they were so much fun to watch. By the way, doesn’t he have a mean pitching face?

11. Danny Heep – OF/1B – Mets – 619 – He played for 13 years but was nothing more than a platoon player or backup. He got his ring on the 1986 Mets team and will probably best be remembered as a Met because of that. He would be one of those players omitted from the set in today’s day and age.

12. Pat Sheridan – OF – Royals – 743 – I can tell you one thing about Pat, I never ever got excited about seeing a Sheridan card. He may have logged 9 seasons in the bigs, but other than the Royals (because I have that in front of me) I couldn’t tell you where else he played, which is fine because I don’t care.

13. Cesar Cedano – OF/1B – Cardinals – 224 – I remember him mainly for his days with the Astros, where he was a 5 tool player. 1986 was his last year, he actually played with the Dodgers the whole season, so I;m not sure why they kept him under the Cardinals logo. He had 550 career stolen bases, 2000+ hits, and 199 home runs in 17 seasons. For a while he was Rickey Henderson before there was a Rickey Henderson. Definitely deserves to be in the Hall of Very Good.

14. Frank Eufemia – P – Twins – 236 – I had to make sure that this wasn’t a typo. I can say that I’ve never heard of Eufemia, and I’d like to think I would remember that last name. After some research, I found out his only season in the Bigs was in 1985 where he mainly had mop up duty.

15. Jim Gantner – 2B – Brewers – 582 – He was one of my favorite players in the 80′s. An everyday 2nd baseman for the Brewers from 1980 – 1992 when he retired. He played his whole career in Milwaukee and his college career in Oshkosh. If I had to make a bet, I bet he still lives somewhere in Wisconsin.

I would have to say that overall I was a bit disappointed with this pack. I got my first 2 doubles, no Hall of Famers, although a couple of very good players, I would have to rate this pack 1.0 star. Mike Scott, Frank Tananan, and Cesar Cedeno help this pack, but they are very far from star power. I can’t count the Mattingly because it was his All Star card. So we are still waiting on the cards I listed at the beginning of this post. Maybe we’ll see them in the next few packs. I think I’m going to shoot for another pack tonight. Keep an eye out around 7pm eastern for it.