#80 Gary Sheffield Florida Marlins (Shef led the NL with a .465 OBP in ’96. He also had 42 homers, drove in 120 and scored 118 times. He walked 142 times while only striking out 66 times. How seldom he struck out was always impressive for a slugger. Over his career Shef struck out 1171 times against 1475 walks and 509 homers. His career .393 OBP is 11th among active players and 84th All Time)#69 Wade Boggs New York Yankees
#135 Shannon Stewart Toronto Blue Jays (I googled Shannon Stewart and this is the first thing that came up, I didn’t look any further)#10 Hideo Nomo Los Angeles Dodgers (The Tornado struck out 230 or more batters in each of his first three seasons)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card -8
#50 Steve Finley San Diego Padres (Steve Finley was a left handed, slap hitting, lead-off guy. In 1992 he hit .292 with 5 homers, 55 RBI and 44 steals. In the first 7 years of his career he never hit more than 11 homers and then 1996 rolled around and blammo! He hit 30 homers and drove in 95. That made me scratch my head a little. His brother in law Brady Anderson had a similar resurgence in Baltimore)
#148 Roger Clemens Common Checklist Toronto Blue Jays#93 John Jaha Milwaukee Brewers (Jaha spent 8 years in the minors before getting his shot in Milwaukee. He got a full season in 1992, but was a platoon player from 1993-1995. In 1996 he got another shot at playing full time and he hit .300 with 34 homers and 118 RBI. He also struck out 118 times. He wouldn’t play another full season until ’99 with the A’s and he once again drove in 111, but that was it. He played pro-ball for nearly 20 years, but only managed 3 full seasons in the big leagues. His 162 game average is 28 homers. He reached that twice)
Another one down. Six more packs of X Press to go. Is anyone still reading these? I hope so! I am pretty sure the entire blog-alaxy has entered Play at the Plate's Ground Hog Day Contest, but if you haven't, you can enter right HERE! Go Rays! Troll out.
#379 Mark McLemore Baltimore Orioles (MM was a super versatile and very fast player. He was great in all 3 outfield spots, was a superb second baseman and wasn’t too shabby at short or 3rd either. He started swiping more bases later in his career and set a personal best in 2000 when he stole 39. He nabbed 272 over his career which puts him at 184th All Time)
#305 Benito Santiago Florida Marlins (an awesome Play at the Plate with the Marlins 3-time Gold Glove catcher! Looks like Castillo is OUT!)
#392 Cliff Floyd Montreal Expos (Big Cliff in the early days…He only played in 100 games in ’94, but the former first round pick still managed to be 5th place in the ROY Vote. I don’t know if he is the only player to go to the World Series with both Florida teams, but if there are more than 1-he is one of ‘em. He won a ring with the Marlins in ’97 and went back in 2008 with the Rays. His 233 homers is 43rd among active players-he would be a lot higher up if you took all the roid-ragers off the list)
#326 Bill Swift San Francisco Giants (Billy had an AMAZING year on the hill for the Giants in ’93. He was 21-8 with a 2.82 ERA. He had led the NL in ERA with a microscopic 2.08 in ’92. He placed 2nd in Cy Young voting in ’93, behind Greg Maddux who won less games and had a lower winning %. ’94 was his final year with the Giants. In 1992, his 7th season, he won 10 games to hit double digits for the first time. He won 21 the next year and never reached 10 victories again. He pitched for 13 seasons and posted a 94-78 career record. Weird)
#312 John Jaha Milwaukee Brewers (Jaha is kicking back and relaxing, preparing for his first All Star game in ’99. I think someone just said something funny or maybe Jaha just said to the photographer “Your not gonna use this on a baseball card, are you?”)
