Pack 15 and now I am seriously worried whether or not I am going to be able to get this set done with 2 boxes. The return of doubles that I have been seeing is scary, almost 16% doubles. Over 2 per pack. But when you think about it, the idea of doubles when you haven’t even reached the 200 card mark is ridiculous. I still need close to 600 cards and I can’t understand why in the first 14 packs I’ve been hitting double city. I’ll have to keep track of this in the second box as well. A good turnout on the next two packages would throw us over the 200 card mark or over 25% of the set. So fingers crossed, let’s take a peek into this pack. I know we’ll have some doubles, but I hope it’s kept to a minimum.
1. Gary Redus – OF – Reds – 342 – Two of my favorite Garys in the world of baseball were absolute speedsters on the bases, first is Redus and the other is Pettis. Actually if you look at their stats closely they were almost the same kind of player. Except Redus had some pop while in his prime years. In 1986, Redus was far removed from his best year of 1983, but he still popped 11 homers and swiped 25 bases in very limited duty (340 at bats).
2. Gene Garber – P – Braves – 776 – Garber played a ton of years! His rookie year was 1969. He carved out a nice nitch for himself as a set-up / closer guy who got it done when you needed it. I am a fan of Garber because he gre up and lived near where I lived in PA. He was kind of a local legend up there. Most of you Chop heads know him as your closer of the 80s, he was every bit as good as Steve Bedrosian (also an 80s flashback).
3. Floyd Rayford – Orioles – C/3B – 623 – Big things were to be expected from Floyd in 1986, he just came off a year where he hit 18 homers, 48 RBIs and batted 0.306 with just 356 at bats. But he had to deal with an aging Rick Dempsey as the catcher, then hitting 0.176 didn’t help him. He never did live up to 1985 again.
4. Steve Carlton – P – Phillies – 120 – Lefty was old at this point in his caree, he was 41 and just went through his worst professional season, maybe he should have hung it up right? Nope the Phillies ended up releasing him in the middle of the year. The Giants picked him up then only a month later released him. He was then picked up by the White Sox and finished the season in Chicago.One of the greatest pitchers of all time was released twice in the same year, that just sounds crazy. It also sounds like he should have walked away.
5. Doug Corbett – P – Angels – 234 – He made the bigs later in his career (age 27) and this was a year that he played a key cog in the bullpen for the Angels. He had a career year in 1986 with a 3.36 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP and helped the Angels advance to the playoffs. Stay tuned to the 1987 set to hear what happened to him after the 1986 season.
6. George Bamberger – Manager – Brewers – 21 – I really do think that manager cards are a pox on the card sets. I understand the need for them in the 80s and early 90s because they offered a way to present a team set, but still who wants a Georger Bamberger card?
7. Darrell Porter – C – Cardinals – 757 – I posted this photo because of the glasses. I know that in the eighties you didn’t get too many options as far as glasses go, plus contacts really weren’t the norm for players, not yet at least, but man those are some fugly glasses. It’s real hard to look cool when you wear a pair of those. Darrell broke into the league as a 19 year old and by 23 he was swatting 18 homers a season. In 1986 he would be winding down his career (age 34), he would only get 161 at bats, but still hit 12 homers.
8. Rick Lysander – P – Twins – 482 – Another no show in 1986, and actually 1985 would be his last year in the majors. He posted a god awful 6.05 ERA and a WHIP of 1.54, just awful numbers for a middle reliever. He never really had any good season (only 4 to choose from). The back of his card really doesn’t have a whole lot to say about him (and niether does wikipedia).
9. Ruppert Jones – OF – Angels – 464 – Double, reviewed in pack 9.
10. Jack Howell – 3B – Angles – 127 – Double, reviewed in pack 9.
11. Gary Carter – NL All Star – 708 – Double, reviewed in pack 9.
12. John Shelby – OF – Orioles – 309 – Double, reviewed in pack 9.
13. Don Sutton – P – Angels – 335 – Double, reviewed in pack 9.
14. Harold Reynolds – 2B – Mariners – 769 – Double, reviewed in pack 14.
15. Larry Sheets – DH/OF – Orioles – 147 – Double, reviewed in pack 14.
Other than picking up a Steve Carlton in this pack, it offered little else and that is why I am giving it the 2.0 star rating. It gets the credit it deserves for the HOFer, but the doubles is so hard to take when you have around 600 cards missing from the set. Again, I will definitely have to see if this also happens with the second box I have for this year. It really is getting me frustrated, especailly seeing doubles from packs I just reviewed yesterday. Oh well, I guess that’s what this project is all about . . . Bad Wax.
