Bad Wax

Another pack, another day. Today we look at pack 52, the last pack was loaded with doubles and since the one before that had almost none, I knew I was due. This box is running a lot different from the first box. We were getting doubles in packs that were located next to one another. We aren’t seeing the same thing in this box. The doubles seem to be more random. Overall, like I have been saying, we are still gonna come up short, but it’s going to be fun seeing how close I can get to finishing this set. I have to say, that if you want to get your sons or even daughters into collecting, this is a very fun thing to do. Not only do you learn about the history of the game you also start to see trends. It has definitely helped me out on my fantasy team as I now know what to look for trend wise. My current team, doesn’t have a player over 29 years old. That’s because I know, that you prime is almost over at 30 so I’d rather have players hitting their prime than players leaving their prime. Anyways, here is pack 52.

1. Dan Driessen – 1B – Giants – 65 – Dan was known as a Red for most of his career and basically was a 0.265/14/70 guy yearly. However, in 1984 he started shifting teams a lot as his career winded down.  In 1984 he was on  the Reds and Expos, in 1985 he was on the Expos and the Giants.  In 1986 he was on the Giants and  the Astros and only received 40 at bats (a tenth of what he was used to seeing), he went 0.250/1/3 that year. His next year would be his last.

2. Brent Gaff – P – Mets – 18 – OK this card is a real oddity, one of my college friends figured out that if a player played in 1985 he gets a card and he gets to be seen on the team he was on in spring training.  Well all that goes out the window for Brent.  His last big league season was in 1984 and he was indeed on the Mets.  He went 3-2/3.63/1.340, if I had to guess, I would say he had season ending surgery in 1984 was out all of 1985 and tried to come back in 1986, but didn’t make the team.

3. Billy Martin -MGR – Yankees – 651 – Again, occasionally you get a manager card you have to talk about.  Being a Yankee fan I had a love / hate relationship with Martin.  He laways seemed to come back as manager after a really horrific season and he usually righted the ship.  The problem was he hated Steinbrenner, which always led to the demise of his team.  He did win 2 WS with the Yankees in 1977 and 1978 and an ALCS in 1976, he just couldn’t get back there. Billy died in 1989 from drunk driving on Christmas day.  On a side note, I blew up the picture and it appears that on his cap, there is a smiley face in the Y.  I have to see if this is really there or just a printing error.

4. Reds Leaders – 366 – Dean of the Reds is Dave Concepcion.  The offense was powered by Dave Parker, while pitching was dominated by Tom Browning and Mario Soto.

5. Roger Craig – MGR – Giants – 111 – Here is an example of a boring manager card. Roger was a good manager for the Giants, but you know what, I just don’t want his card.  In 1986 he went 83-79 with the Giants and ended up in third place. Stay tuned for his 1987 year.
6. Geoff Zahn – P – Angels – 42 – Didn’t really become a quality pitcher until he turned 30 in 1976, so as you can probably guess based on that year and age, by 1986 he was out of baseball.  1985 would be his last year and he went 2-2/4.38/1.568 in just 7 starts. He was a 0.500 pitcher for his career going 111-109 and had a nice career ERA of 3.74, just your average pitcher in that era.

7. Dodgers Leaders – 696 – Dean of the Dodgers was Bill Russell, who just edged out Steve Yeager.  The offense was powered by Guerrero and Marshall while the pitching was dominated by Valenzuela and Hershiser.

8. Jim Sundberg – C – Royals – 245 – Double, first reviewed in pack 6.

9. Ozzie Smith – SS – Cardinals – 730 – Double, first reviewed in pack 9.

10. Rick Lysander – P – Twins – 482 – Double, first reviewed in pack 42.

11. Juan Samuel – 2B – Phillies – 475 – Double, first reviewed in pack 9.

12. LuisDeLeon – P – Padres – 286 – Double, first reviewed in pack 17.

13. Doug Corbett – P – Angels – 234 – Double, first reviewed in pack 15.

14. Tim Laudner – C – Twins – 184 – Double, first reviewed in pack 24.

15. Mark Bailey – C – Astros – 432 – Double, first reviewed in pack 24.

Overall I liked getting another Smith and Sundberg card and it was nice to see the Billy Martin card (hand over heart). I think this pack is just under average and as such it gets my 2.0 star rating. This will be my only post of the day on this site, because I have an amazingly busy day at work today. So be sure to check back tomorrow for more history. We are starting to see a lot more doubles and I think it’s due to the fact that we are only with 25% of the set left. As there are fewer cards we need, there will be more doubles. Again I hope it stays around the 30% mark but you’ll have to keep your fingers crossed for me. Until tomorrow . . .