Well I hope you all enjoyed my first post at bad hits. It really was a blast to write and the next one should be just as good as the first one. But let’s get back to the task at hand. So far the latest packs have been pretty low on doubles acyaully dropping the double rate by a full percent over the last 3 packs. I am hoping that this is a trend that will continue, because I don;t know about you, but I have a lot more fun writing when I get new cards than when I get the doubles and refer you to which pack I found them in. So let’s take a look at pack number 25.
1. Ozzie Smith – NL All Star – 704 – Not starting off too good. It’s a double reviewed in pack 2.
2. Ben Oglivie – OF- Brewers – 372 – Unfortunately this was way past Ben’s prime and actually 1986 was his last season in the majors. He had some serious power though and in 1980 he led the AL with 41 homers. Baseball Reference mentions that his stats are very similar to Frank Thomas. Unfortunately with a comparison like that I don’t really remember him. I really didn’t hit my stride as a baseball fan until 1986. I believe after looking at his stats he could have played another year or two. His last season he hit 0.290/10/61 in part time work. So you know he could have held out for another year or two. I would have to say his expression on this card looks like he just saw his cat get run over.
3. Rickey Henderson – AL All Star – 716 – Man I loved watching Rickey play, he could do things no other lead off hitter could do. In 1986 he was fresh off his 0.315/24/72/80 season and Yankee fans were drooling with the possibility of a repeat performance. He did his best in 1986 but his average fell short 0.263/28/74/87, not a bad follow up though. I think what I remember most is watching hit lead off home runs. I am not certain how many of those he hit in his career but it must have been a few, because it always made me smile to see the Yanks up 1-0 after the first inning.
4. Brad Wellman – 2B – Giants – 41 – I guess he was the precursor to Robby Thomson. He wasn’t even keeping it warm for Robby in 1986, he was backing him up. He got a decent amount of at bats in his first 4 pro seasons, but 1986 would be a year he spent most of his time in the minors. Actually he doesn’t make a significant appearance again until 1988.
5. Ron Kittle – OF/DH – White Sox – 574 – In Ron’s first 3 starting seasons, he hit 35, 32, and 26 homers, of course his batting average was a paltry 0.254, 0.215, and 0.230. So what happened in 1986? More of the same except mid season he was traded to the Yankees he hit 21 homers with a 0.238 batting average. Unfortunately for Ron, this would be his last year as a starter. What I like about the picture on his card is A) How similar in looks he is to Napoleon Dynamite (do you think they used him as a model?) and B) He seems very surprised someone would try to snap his card picture during batting practice.
6. Mitch Webster – OF – Expos – 629 – In 1985 he was traded from the Blue Jays to the Expos to be their 3rd outfielder outfielder (with Dawson and Raines). He showed some pop in 1985 so they figured how could they go wrong? Truth was he did well in 1986 with a 0.290/8/49/36. That’s not too bad when you consider other than Raines and Dawson, they also had Wallach and Galaraga. Overall though just your average 3rd outfielder.
7. Glenn Hoffman – SS – Red Sox – 38 – Do you think when he walks down the street people go, “Hey, that’s Trevor Hoffman’s brother!” Yeah I don’t think so either, but it really is. This is another one of those pictures that was taken on the sly, I have to wonder, did the Topps photographers have the cradentials to get on the field and snap these pictures? I have never seen so many ill prepared faces in one pack. Oh by the way Hoffman was a scrub that did very little in 1986 let alone his career.
8. Onix Concepcion – SS – Royals – 596 – Hey speaking of brothers, I’m just kiddin, but he is Jose Lind’s cousi, you know the terribly untalented player from the Pirates whose rookie card you have 50 of. Onix had a very breif career in the majors. It’s hard to have a career batting average of 0.239 and stay in the bigs. He would get one at bat in 1987 but none in 1986. Here is another guy clearly not ready for his picture.
9. Bill Doran – 2B – Astros – 57 – Boy he sure looks pissed in that photo, like get that @#$%^& camera out of my face right now! He was the starting second baseman for a long time in Houston, that is until a guy named Biggio took over for him in 1992. He was known for his speed but he also had a little pop. In 1986 he hit 0.276/6/37/42. Not too horrible, plus he got the job done at second.
10. Dick WIlliams – Manager – Padres – 681 – Who wants to know about Dick WIlliams? He didn’t coach the Padres in 1986, he was in Seattle. The Seattle teams he coached were some of the worst in baseball at the time. THey had no one on those teams. Too bad Ole Dick got himself canned after his 3rd straight cellar finish. If he made it one more season he would have gotten to coach Griffey Jr.
11. Rick Camp – P – Braves- 319 -In the early 80′s, Rick was one of the most dependable and best closers in the game. Then he started to falter, so they made him a starter in hopes of rejuvenating his career. He had four very mediocre seasons and after the 1985 season Rick would retire. In September 2005, he was sentenced to 3 years in a federal prison for conspiring to steal over $2 million from the Community Mental Health Center in Augusta, Georgia. Four others were sentenced to up to 10 years, for providing friends with jobs and unearned contracts.
12. Carmelo Martinez – OF – Padres – 67 – In 1985 he hit 0.253/21/72. The Padres were expecting big things out of him in 1986. Unfortunately he had some injury issues and hit 0.238/9/25. The good news was that the Padres gave him another shot to start in 1987 and well, you will hear more about it from the next set.
13. Luis Aguayo – 2B/SS – Phillies – 69 – Here are two great quotes from Richie Ashburn that completely sum up Luis’s career (cited from baseball-reference):
“Luis Aguayo is on deck. Aguayo hasn’t exactly been reminding anybody of Rogers Hornsby lately.”
“Aguayo’s running at first base. He doesn’t have great speed … what am I saying? he doesn’t have good speed, he doesn’t even have average speed. The man is slow.”
He did carve out an amazing 10 year career as a backup. He wouldn’t ever be able to do this in today’s day and age.
14. Chris Welsh – P – Rangers – 52 – Chris played on 5 teams in 5 years. He was a starter for most of his career (which ended in 1986) but not a very good one, which is why his career ended in 1986. Hey at least he can say he played in the bigs for 5 years.
15. Dick Schofield – SS – Angels – 311 – This has to be one of my favorite pictures in this whole set. At first glance, you would think that Dick was a Special Olympics champion, being given a day of batting practice with the Angels. But upon closer scrutiny it’s actually the Dick Schofield, you know Dick Sr’s son. I can’t understand what he’s doing in this picture because he’s not bunting, you’d never put your fingers around a bat like that if you were bunting. So maybe he’s just goofing around.
Overall, the pack was kind of a dud, although it did provide me with some laughs as far as the pictures go so I’ll be good and give it a rating of 2.0 stars. Again, I don’t know what it was like to be a card photographer back in the 1986, but you would think that they would be able to come up with something better than some of the above pictures. At least an action shot or a posed shot. Don’t forget to visit my new blog Bad Hits.
