Operation Topps – Topps 1986 (Pack 41)

Man am I very late writing this today.  Sometimes, I get the chance to write it first thing in the morning, but today has been fairly hectic at work.  For a few days, I had been writing them at night, but usually the later part of the week, my wife doesn’t work nights, so we spend our evenings getting caught up with our favorite shows which have been DVRed.  Lately, we’ve been hooked into 90210 repeats on the Soap network.  I used to watch it religiously when it first came out, but it’s fun to be able to watch a season in as little as 3 weeks.  Plus it’s fun to see how ridiculous the show really was.  Enough about my nights, let’s cruise into pack 41.

1. Jerry Narron – C/1B – Angels – 543 – I am really starting to dread the “/” players.  I know before I even flip over the card that they are a backup and I have to figure out how long they played in the league or if their last year was in 1985.  For Jerry, who is best known as the coach for the Reds, he was definitely towards the end of his career.  In 1986 he went 0.221/1/8 in 95 at bats, don’t fear he’ll be back in 1987 but with less playing time.

2. Tom Hume – P – Reds – 573 – Normally I try to be politically correct on this blog but, come on, when I get a picture like the one below, how can I not poke fun?  Those glasses make him look like a mentally challenged guy throwing the ball.  He started his career as a starter but after 3 years of mediocraty he was ushered into the bullpen.  In 1986 he played for the Phillies (1 and 1/2 seasons, then went back to the Reds).  He was an OK reliever, and even made the All-Stars in 1983, but he was remembered for putting too many men on base.  His ERA was good, so they didn’t score often but he always made it interesting.

3. Jim Winn – P – Pirates – 489 – Love the last name!  How could you not? Unfortunately though Jim didn’t win enough and he was a middle reliever.  He was basically the Pirates mop up guy, in 1986 he went 3-5/3.58/1.398 in 50 games, so it’s not hard to believe that this was his last season as a Pirate.

4. Jerry Koosman – P – Phillies – 505 – One of the most famous things Kossman is famous for is being Nolan Ryan’s card mate on his rookie card in 1968. Jerry’s last year in the majors was in 1985 so this would end up being his last card. It’s sad to see him in a Phillies uniform, simply because he was mainly remembered for being a Met. In 1985 he went 6-4/4.62/1.419 and he was 42, I guess he was just trying to go out a winner but it just didn’t happen.

5. Jim Dwyer – OF/1B – Orioles – 653 – Jim was another one of those guys that just seemed to hang around in baseball forever, even though he was a backup and not a particularly good one at that. By the end of his career, he would have put up 18 season! Think about that a second, what’s the last backup player you could remember that lasted 18 season?  I con’t think of any.  Here was his stat line for 1986 (this is pretty much his average over his career) 0.244/8/31 in just under 200 at bats.  Now that’s not bad, but how he managed to stay in the majors that long doing so little is quite impressive.

6. Tim Tolman – OF/1B – Astros – 272 – Woohoo back to back “/” guys, Tim however wasn’t quite as lucky as Jim Dwyer.  His career was shorter, and 1986 would be his second to last season where he put up 0.076/0/2 in 34 at bats. Tim was basically your typical 4A player, a tweener who just couldn’t hit big league pitching.

7. Mike Madden – P – Astros – 691 – Wow, back to back to back scrubs.  This is certainly rare air here.  Mike had the career that Tim had, except even shorter.  1986 would be his last season because of this line 1-2/4.08/1.71.  It’s tough to let almost 2 batters an inning reach base and continue to have a job.  I guess Mike found that out in 1987.

8. Calvin Schiraldi – P – Mets – 210 – Calvin was a former teammate of Roger Clemens in Texas when they went on to win the College World Series.  What’s odd is he was traded from the Mets to the Red Sox in 1986, he must have been thrilled for a chance to play on his friends team, but what do you think happened when the World Series was over?  Do you think that he wanted to be back on the Mets? 1986 was Calvin’s best season he went 4-2/1.41/1.000 as a set-up guy.

9. Donnie Hill – 2B – A’s – 484 – Donnie was mainly known as a platoon guy, he did very little as far as power and speed, but he did hit for average.  He numbers for 1986 was 0.283/4/29 which was about average for the kind of numbers he usually put up.

10. Scott Flethcer – SS/3B – White Sox – 187 – Double, first reviewed in pack 20.

11. Lloyd Moseby – OF – Blue Jays – 360 -Double, first reviewed in pack 22.

12. Andre Robertson – SS/3B – 738 – Double, first reviewed in pack 3.

13. Brett Butler – OF – Indians – 149 -Double, first reviewed in pack 20.

14. Bob Knepper – P – Astros – 590 -Double, first reviewed in pack 20.

15. Joaquin Andujar – P – Cardinals – 150 – Double, first reviewed in pack 20.

Overall, this pack was awful! I don’t think I have ever stumbled across a pack as week as this one.  Koosman gives it a 1.0 star rating, but that’s about all I can do for this one.  I don’t even think I was able to put together 1000 words for this post like I usually do.  Oh well we shall see how the next one unfolds, it has to be better than this. Right?