#750 Greg Maddux Atlanta Braves MEMBERS CHOICE (The reigning Cy Young in ’93-Maddux held righties to a .176 batting average)#652 Armando Reynoso Colorado Rockies (’93 would be Reynoso’s best season-he won 12 games for the Rockies)
#714 Brian Williams Houston Astros (Williams was 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA prior to the All Star break in ’92-he finished the season 7-6)
#609 Dave Winfield Minnesota Twins (Coming off the ’92 season-Winfield was still with the Jays and he hit 26 homers with 108 RBI for them, winning his final Silver Slugger Award and winning the Series-his first. The back shows Winfields rookie card from 1974. I think he was the longest served batter in this set. As a Twin in ’93 Winfield hit 21 homers-it would be his final full season in the Majors)
#668 Harold Reynolds Baltimore Orioles (Reynolds stole 15 bases in ’92. Prior to his notierity as a broadcaster-he was a pretty speedy and good defensive player. He was the second overall pick in the 1980 draft and he stole 60 bases for the Mariners in 1987. His 250 steals puts him 222nd All Time... On the negative side of things. I interviewed HR a while back and considering he is a "journalist" himself he was a horrible subject...Cliche after cliche after empty cliche...)
#655 Andre Dawson Boston Red Sox (The Hawk. The best hitter and best arm of any outfielder who isn’t in the Hall of Fame)
#677 Spike Owen New York Yankees (Spike was the starting shortstop on the Red Sox in ’86 when they gave the WS to the Mets)#625 Tom Brunansky Milwaukee Brewers (Tom topped 20 homers 9 times during his career-he was an All Star in ’85)
#736 Russ Springer California Angels (Springer ended 2009 in the Rays bullpen. His 738 career games is 12th among active pitchers)
#603 Billy Ripken Texas Rangers (Still searching for the hidden dirty word in this card, I cant find it!)
#612 Jody Reed LA Dodgers (This is the pack for gritty middle infielders… Reed is the 4th in this one)
#744 Guillermo Velasquez San Diego Padres (Velasquez hit .309 with 44 doubles and 99 RBI in Las Vegas in 1992 earning himself a callup. He batted .304 for the Padres in 15 games and seemed like a can’t miss guy… Well, he missed. He played in 79 games and hit .210 and that was it for his big league career. He is still active and playing in the Mexican League right now…)
#739 Darrell Sherman San Diego Padres (’93 was Sherman’s lone big league season. The dude stole a bunch of bases in the minors. He stole 2 in the bigs…)
#709 Dave Nilsson Milwaukee Brewers (This Aussie catcher had one of the best offensive outputs of his career in ’99-he hit .309 with 21 homers, made the All Star team and that was it. He retired from the Big Leagues at the peak of his game… He was the first Aussie born player to be an All Star)
I wish I had scanned Dave Nilsson and some others... If I don't pull a dupe, I will add him later on. Thanks for reading... Before I go I wanted to give a friendly reminder to anyone who has not yet checked out thevoting for the 2009 Gummie Awards hosted by Chris Harris and the Stale Gum Dot Com blog... It was easy and fun to vote and you get to pick the best and worst products and inserts of 2009... I laughed pretty hard while filling it out. You can only vote one time and after you vote it shows you the current results. When I voted there were only 68 votes so get your voice heard!!! There are 2 awards for card blogs at the end, so check it out! troll out!
The Hawk isn't even the best former Expo not in the Hall...that would be Tim Raines. As to the best arm, maybe but I think Dewey Evans is right there I would argue that he was as least as good as the Hawk on offense as well.
ReplyDeleteDawson is killed by his .323 career OBP, although he is helped by the clearly inferior Jim Rice making the Hall, so he is better than someone already in...so there you go. Of course the fact that Tim Raines is one of the all time greats, gets completely ignored--his major crime being to have played at the same time as the greatest lead off hitter ever---Rickey! Which prevent The Rock from ever being the best. Oh well at least he is still on the ballot...unlike great players like Dwight Evans and Bobby Grich.
This comment should win me lots of fans..or not so much.
I hate to disagree with ya there buddy... Both Dawson and Evans were in their prime during my childhood and both played nearby (I grew up in CT)and I have seen both play from the RF line at least 100 times and Dawson's speed and instincts in terms of getting to a ball were FAR superior to Dwight Evans. Dewey was a great hitter, a fan favorite and an all around decent guy, BUT he wasn't the late inning power threat that Dawson was. As readers know the Expos were my favorite team (up till '85) and Rock Raines was my favorite player... I think he belongs in the Hall as an amazing hitter and baserunner, but as an outfielder he was lacking...He had the speed, but was Vince Coleman quality as a fielder... And Bobby Grich? Really? I agree that Jim Rice was a bit of a stretch-so was Tony Perez and Bruce Sutter, but they are in and you can't take that away from them... A happy ballot would see Raines, Dawson, Smith, Larkin, McGriff, Blyleven and Morris all get in 2010... What do you think about that???
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