Operation Topps - Topps 1986 (Pack 45)
I woke up late this morning and I’ve been running behind the eight ball, most of the morning. To continue on what I was talking about yesterday with the decline in popularity of baseball, let’s talk about the effects of a hard salary cap (NFL style). The teams that can’t afford it would either fold or start their own league. Teams like the Rays, Pirates, Royals, Twins, A’s, ect . . . would have to bump up their payroll or leave the league, then shorten the season to 81 games and suddenly there’s no need for a 5 man rotation when a 3 man one would work just fine. Your bullpen would also shed one or two players. Injuries wouldn’t plague a team like it does now, because in 15 days you might only play 5 games as opposed to 14 or 15 in those 15 days. I’ll talk about this more tomorrow. Let’s look at pack 45.
1. Bill Scherrer - P - Tigers - 217 - Bill was a middle reliever and played for the Tigers in 1986. He went 0-1/7.29/1.952, which would be the first of his consecutive bad seasons which would lead him to retire.
2. Vida Blue - P - Giants - I remember Vida in the pros, he wasn’t the most dominant pitcher but he certainly was an above average pitcher. 1986 would be his last season and he went 10-10/3.27/1.37, which really isn’t all that bad. He retired relatively early at age 36 and went on to play a few seasons of senior professional baseball after that. He will be remembered for his Cy Young / MVP performance in 1971, and being the only player ever to be credited for a win in the All Star game for both the NL and the AL.
3. Juan Agosto - P - White Sox - 657 - If you ever want to know your true value as a player, just think about where your team would trade you, if traded to another league, then your team doesn’t want to ever face you, you are probably a superstar. If traded in the same league, you’re probably a good, but not great player. If traded to the same division, you know you probably suck and your current team wants to face you instead of letting you face the other teams. Juan was the third option being traded from the Sox to the Twins in 1986.
4. Curt Wardle - P - Indians - 303 - Curt had a fantastically short 52 game career. Which spanned from 1984 to 1985, in 1985 he went 8-9/6.18/1.64, which is probably why he never played in the bigs again.
5. Gary Gaetti - 3B - Twins - Gary was one of the triumvirate of great players for Twins during that period of time including Puckett, Hrbek, and Gaetti. He was one of the premier 3B at the time, in 1986 after a rough 1985 where he only hit 5 home runs, he hit 0.246/20/63/13, not too great, but not bad either. This was pretty early on in his career so you will see many more cards of him.
6. Al Bumbry - OF - Padres - 583 - Al played his entire career in Baltimore except for 1985, which was spent in San Diego. 1985 would be his last season his numbers were 0.200/1/10 in 98 at bats. He had a solid career but in 1986 he was 38 and clearly his best years were far behind.
7. Alan Wiggins - 2B - Orioles - 508 - Alan had a very sad story, he came into the league at the age of 23 in 1981, he was the lead off hitter you wanted on your team. Big time steals guy, he could score from first if needed. The problem was that Big Al had a soft spot for drugs. It pretty much wrecked his career and in the end, took his life. In 1986 he went 0.251/0/11/21 and basically became the bottom of the order guy. He was out of baseball after the 1987 season.
8. Greg Walker - 1B - White Sox - Greg was one of the best first basemen of the mid to late 80’s in the AL. In 1986 he went 0.277/13/51 in less than a half of a season (injured). If you extrapolated that ouUnfortunately for Greg he had a seizure during batting practice in 1988 that changed his life. He became a shell of the player he was and 2 years later retired from the game.
9. Sammy Khalifa - SS - Pirates - 316 - Sammy was a 3 year wonder, who garnered most of his at bats in 1985 as a rookie. By 1986 his at bats were cut in half to about 150, where he went 0.185/0/4, which may very well be the reason why his career only spanned 3 years.
10. Dennis Eckersley - P - Cubs - The Eck, what can I say? This would be the last year he was a drunk and also the last year he was a starter. He realized at the age of 31, that if he didn’t do something dramatic, it would mean the end of his career. So he reinvented himself as a closer and got off the sauce in 1987. But in 1986 he went 6-11/5.47/1.338. Those numbers were a pretty good peek as to what he could do as a starter. But when he became a reliever . . . I’ll save that for next year.
11. Ken Schrom - PP - Twins - 71 - Double, first reviewed in pack 39.
12. Dave Parker - OF - Reds - 595 - Double, first reviewed in pack 16.
13. Larry Parrish - OF - Rangers - 238 - Double, first reviewed in pack 16.
14. Keith Moreland - OF - Cubs - 266 - Double, first reviewed in pack 16.
15. Billy Hatcher - OF - Cubs - 46 - Double, first reviewed in pack 36.
I apologize for not getting this out sooner. Work has been tough today and I had to finish it during my lunch hour. As for the pack, we did get some nice cards in here, namely Parker, Walker, Gaetti and Eckersley. I am going to rate this one a 3.5 stars rating. It was just a very fun pack to do and that made reviewing it that much more fun. Stay tuned as we cross over the 500 card plateau and start working our way to 600 cards.
