Hello all! It's time for another installment of “He played there?”
I'll start it off with a Hall of Fame, World Series winning pitcher. I always liked players who had nicknames growing up. Goose Gossage was a guy who as a kid I was fascinated with, but only because of his nickname. A few years ago I was reading something about Gossage where a friend of his didn't like his nickname of "Goss" and started calling him "Goose" because of the way he walked and how his neck would bob or something like that and the name stuck. Anyways, Gossage did plenty of traveling during his long career with stops with the White Sox, my hometown Pirates, Yankees, Padres, Cubs, Giants, Rangers, A's and eventually retiring in 1994 with the...Seattle Mariners? This is one I didn't remember at all. That season with the Mariners, Gossage would suit up in 36 games, have a perfect Win-Loss record of 3-0 and had 1 save. I was lucky enough to own a card commemorating Goose's last year in the majors when I pulled it from a Presstine Marketing re-pack that I bought during the pandemic.
How was he acquired? Goose Gossage signed a 1-year contract with the Seattle Mariners on April 3, 1994.
1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice SE Goose Gossage #126
The next player is one probably everyone will remember, but some may not. Vlad Guerrero was a fan favorite everywhere he played. The guy played hard. He was a 9-time All Star, an AL MVP and also like Gossage, a Hall of Famer. Vlad played 16 years in the Majors and for some strange reason, I was never lucky enough to pull any of his cards. Granted, baseball isn't the main focus of my collection, but I occasionally bought packs. Crazy to think he played 16 years, and I never owned a card of his. When setting out to write these posts, I changed that. A random Tuesday when I was doing "internet research" on COMC, I stumbled across a Vlad Guerrero card where he was in a Baltimore Orioles jersey. I only ever remember him as an Expo, Angel and Ranger, so this was a new one for me. Then it all made sense. The year Vlad was an Oriole was the hardest year of my life, 2011. While Guerrero was hitting .290, 13 dingers and 63 RBI's, I was trying to fix my house. When I left for California, I rented my condo out to a "family friend" who then trashed the place. When I came back, there were holes in the walls, my 1987 Detroit Pistons Championship Cup had an inch of beer with multiple cigarettes in it and I was devastated. Needless to say, that year was spent mostly on getting my condo back in order and I would spend a lot of my free time painting, sanding, building walls, etc. By the end of September of that year, I had moved back in but also spent very little time watching sports, so that is why I had no idea about Vlad's season spent with the O's.
How was he acquired? Vlad Guerrero signed with the Baltimore Orioles on February 18, 2011.
2012 Topps Vladimir Guerrero All-Time Dominican Hits Leader Checklist Red #424
When I was little, my brother and I would watch baseball on TV. It was then that I associated Managers just as, well Managers. I didn't realize they actually used to be former baseball players themselves. However, when your 6 or 7 years old, that's not something that you would really think about. I think I was 8 or 9 when I realized Frank Robinson actually played baseball and wasn't just a manager. My brother and I were browsing a man's card display at a card show and I saw a Frank Robinson Rookie Card. I said, "Look Jer, is that the Manager from the Orioles? He played baseball?" My brother looked at me like I had pantyhose over a party hat on my head. He said, "Are you serious? You had to know the Managers actually played the game of baseball." That's when I felt completely stupid. I hadn't ever seen a Sparky Anderson card before, or Jim Leyland when they were players. How the heck could I have known that? Well, Frank Robinson did play, and he was a great player. The gentlemen let me see the Frank Robinson that was in his case so I could study the card, and he told me a little bit about him and his playing days. I was just flabbergasted. Robinson, as most of the readers of this page know is a Hall of Fame player who has almost 600 Home Runs on his resume (586 to be exact) and almost 3,000 hits (2,943, but who's counting?) Robinson played for 5 different teams in his career (Reds, Orioles, Dodgers, Angels and Indians). When I first saw this card below, I had to have it. I bought it a while ago at a card show for $2. Not a bad buy at all considering I'm actually using it now for a blog post. Robinson also had a short stint with the Dodgers, but when I totaled it up, he actually suited up for less games with the Cleveland Indians than the Dodgers (103 with the Dodgers and 100 with Cleveland). Frank Robinson also retired as a Cleveland Indian. Pretty crazy note there. His final season in the majors came in 1976 where he played 36 games for the Indians before hanging up his cleats as a player.
How was he acquired? Frank Robinson was traded by the California Angels to the Cleveland Indians for Ken Suarez, cash and a player to be named later (Rusty Torres) on September 12, 1974.
1975 Topps Frank Robinson #580
The next guy up is a player with another nickname with an animal in it. Fred McGriff or "Crime Dog" as everyone likes to call him. A lot of Hall of Famers today. Younger Bryan was a big fan of McGriff when he was a Blue Jay, Padre and Brave. When the late 90's hit, I was so engulfed in girls, playing ice hockey for my high school, teaching myself how to play guitar, joining a punk band and hanging out with girlfriends and friends that I forgot or didn't care that Crime Dog had played for the Devil Rays. However, that's not the team I am talking about with this post. Fred McGriff actually had an 86-game stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's true! Back in 2003 McGriff played there and hit .249 with 13 Home Runs and 40 RBI's. Thankfully, I found a card on COMC that was relatively cheap, and I snatched it up for this post to show you that it totally happened. The card also notes that McGriff was "Signed by the Devil Rays on 2/10/04." So, after his season in LA, he then went BACK to the Devil Rays for the 2004 season to retire. Who can blame the guy? Lots of people I have known from church did the same thing, not signing with the Devil Rays, but retired in Florida.
How was he acquired? Fred McGriff signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on December 31, 2002.
2004 Donruss Elite Fred McGriff Turn of the Century #113 /750
Another player with a nickname? Really? Well, yes! Gary Carter "The Kid" was one of my absolute favorite players growing up. I even had his Rookie Card that I purchased from a guy at a card show for $7. Idiot me though sold it a few years ago to a guy who kept bugging me about it. So, it's back on my list of things to replace. When I think of Gary Carter, I think of him as a New York Met. I was a fan of those Mets teams of the 80's and early 90's. If you were a kid back then, you loved them too. If you were an adult back then, unless you were from that area, you probably didn't like most of them. They were a pretty rambunctious group. The card I'm about to show is one I had in my collection just hiding out waiting to see the light of day. I had a small box of mostly football commons, but it also had a bunch of 1991 Upper Deck baseball in it. There's where I found this card hiding out. When flipping through the stack of Upper Deck baseball I came across this card and stopped and said, "I don't remember this..." I really had forgotten about Carter's stop with the San Francisco Giants in 1990. The internet told me he only played 92 games there which was his lowest total with any team (Dodgers came in a close second at 101). At 36 years old, Carter left the Mets to become a Giant. I guess Doc and Darryl probably drove him nuts, but his old pal Darryl would reunite with him in 1991 in LA. Crazy.
How as he acquired? Gary Carter signed with the San Francisco Giants on November 5, 1990.
1991 Upper Deck Gary Carter #176
Dipping back into my childhood favorites with this next guy. Eric Davis was always a player I admired. I used to always try to mimic his batting stance in my front yard, and I'm pretty sure I had it down. I was pretty good at Phil Plantier and John Wehner too! Davis' bat always looked small to me when I'd watch him bat on TV. Maybe that's just me, or how low he would hold it. It never looked like it was big enough for him though. Anyways, I took a trip up to my LCS to grab some team bags to do some shipping of eBay orders and decided to browse around their bargain bins. I found a few nice Young Guns for my collection but then decided to look at baseball. I grabbed a nice Gregg Jefferies Refractor for $1, but then saw this card and said, "What the heck?" The guy who was working was like, "Can I help you with something?" My reply was just, "Please tell me how many games Eric Davis was a Detroit Tiger." After some clicking and typing, he said back to me, "It says here 60 games and 227 plate appearances." I thanked him for that and asked how much the card in my hand was, and he said, just give me 50 cents for it. DONE. Davis played for the Reds, Dodgers, Tigers, Orioles, Cardinals and Giants in his career. The only stops I could not remember was the Tigers and Cardinals. His Tigers tenure was short due to injuries and in 1994 after the strike shortened season, Davis announced he was going to retire once the Tigers granted him free agency. However, after sitting out a year, Davis decided he was healthy enough to resume his career and signed back with the Reds in 1996. Currently, Davis has an autobiography out called Born to Play which I intend on reading.
How was he acquired? Eric Davis was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Detroit Tigers for John DeSilva on August 31, 1993.
1995 Score Gold Rush Eric Davis #406
I still remember where I was when "Gonzo" hit the game-winning bloop single that scored the winning run for the Diamondbacks in 2001 off Mariano Rivera. My friends and I were watching the game at Buffalo Wild Wings that night, but a few of my friends said they had to work early in the morning and weren't going to stay out watching the game and decided to leave. It was just me and my friend Derek left at the table, and he said, "Let's just head out." So, we left too. On my drive home, I found the game on an AM radio station. I decided to stop at the local grocery store to grab a bag of chips to eat while I watched the game at home (since I figured it would go into extra innings). Then, it started to happen, the bases were loaded, and Luis Gonzalez had stepped up to the plate. Finally, I parked my car in the parking lot of the grocery store, and it started to snow outside. My windshield is getting covered while I'm listening to every word. Then, I heard a knock of the bat and the announcer went wild. He did it! He won the World Series for the D'Backs! I got out of my car and started jumping up and down. A man filling up his truck at the gas station right next to the grocery store yelled over to me, "Hey jackass, you're going to fall, it's snowing!" I didn't care; I went into that grocery store bouncing. I was so revved up. Back to Luis Gonzalez, anytime I think of this guy, I think of that memory. Gonzalez carved out a 19-year MLB career with 2,591 Hits, 354 Home Runs and a career Batting Average of .283. Not something to bat an eye at really. When researching players to add to this list, I honestly had no recollection of Gonzo playing for the Florida Marlins. In 2008, Gonzalez finished his 19-year career in Florida suiting up for 136 games before calling it quits at age 40.
How was he acquired? Luis Gonzalez signed with the Florida Marlins on January 31, 2008.
2009 Upper Deck Luis Gonzalez #146
This next player wasn't my favorite. When he spit in umpire John Hirschbeck's face while he was playing with the Orioles, I pretty much wrote him off, but he's a Hall of Fame baseball player. In fact, he's the only player who is a member of the Hall of Fame and also on the MLB's permanently ineligible list due to his allegations of sexual misconduct. I'll keep this one brief. In 2004, Alomar actually played for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, I vaguely remember this, but I wasn't really paying attention to this guy much then anyways. I even would remove him from my draft lists in fantasy leagues. He suited up in 38 games for the Diamondbacks before being shipped off to the Chicago White Sox where he would retire at the conclusion of the 2004 season.
How was he acquired? Roberto Alomar signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks on January 6th, 2004. He was then traded by the Diamondbacks to the Chicago White Sox for Brad Murray on August 5, 2004.
2004 Topps Chrome Roberto Alomar #456
We end this post with probably the most iconic of all "He played there" players. Kids love superheroes. I was a big fan of Batman when I was 3 until the Ghostbusters came along at age 6. That same year the Ghostbusters were ruling my daydreams; I was also trying to be like Bo. Bo Jackson was a superhero. He was the reason why I rooted for the Royals (other than George Brett). I owned a Los Angeles Raiders shirt, and I lived in Pittsburgh at 7 years old. I even begged my parents for his cross-trainer shoes. Of course, my parents never bought them for me, but I still tried. The guy was superhuman. Then his hip injury happened, and his stardom faded out with most people. Then there was me, with a Bo Jackson poster on the wall until I was about 15 years old, and hockey and pop punk bands mattered more to me than childhood heroes. Of course, everyone probably knows this one, but I found out recently that a few of my old coworkers had no recollection of Bo Jackson playing for the California Angels. In 1993, after an 85-game season where Bo hit double digit Home Runs, he spent his last season in 1994 with the California Angels. Luckily, I've had this card since 1995. After hockey practice one early morning, I went into the small card shop that was located inside the hockey rink where my practice was and bought a pack of Collector's Choice baseball cards and pulled this Bo Jackson out of a pack. I must have felt some sort of nostalgia because this was found in a 6 x 6 JC Penny box in my "keepsakes" bin in my storage room in my basement. If you're reading this Jon, I actually did remember where this card came from LOL. It was one of the last times back then that I thought about Bo Jackson before I probably took down his poster that was up on my wall for almost a decade. Bo would end that final year of professional sports by batting .279, 13 dingers and 43 RBI's.
How was he acquired? Bo Jackson signed with the California Angels on January 31, 1994.
1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice SE Silver Signature #36
I have 1 more baseball post of "He played there" to make and then it's on to the hockey portion of these. I hope you have enjoyed these posts so far. They have been fun to make.
As usual, thanks for reading!
