He played there? Baseball Edition: Part 1

My wife bought me a candle one Christmas that smelled like a pack of hockey cards. It was pretty awesome! It came from somewhere in Canada and when they shipped it to her, they included a few O-Pee-Chee cards from the 80's. I had totally forgotten about them until one day in May, I decided to look through a few boxes because I was pricing out some stuff to put out in a garage sale we are planning to have in the near future and there was a Charlie Simmer card that the candle company gifted me. It got me thinking, "I had no idea that Charlie Simmer was a Penguin, I wonder who else played for a crazy team near the end of their career." I must admit, I went down a complete rabbit hole that day. Hours later, my office looked like a pig stye and there were stacks of cards everywhere. When my son decided he wanted to come into my office to build some Lego's at the small desk behind the larger desk where I have my work computer, I realized that I need to start scanning stuff if I was going to get this thought for a blog post out of my head. So, I grabbed the stack of cards out from players I found for these posts, set them in a small box until I had the time to get to scanning and finding the words for these posts. Well, now is that time, so let's have some fun here!

First on my list, Tony Perez. I got this Tony Perez from a re-pack at some point in time in my life, and I don't think I actually paid attention to it. When I looked at it again, I saw him wearing a Phillies hat. It looked really odd to me as he was always a Cincinnati Red in my eyes. Perez played for Philly for 91 games back in 1983 hitting 6 home runs and batting .241. In 1984, Perez went back to the Reds to finish off his career in 1986. 

How was he acquired? January 31, 1983, Tony Perez signed a 1-year contact with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1984 Donruss Tony Perez #503

If that one looked weird to you, wait until you see the next one. John Smoltz was a pretty big name in my neighborhood growing up. At the Butler County Fair back in 1989, I bought these re-packaged 1989 Upper Deck cards. They were all in bunches of 10-15 cards each for $2-$3 and had rookies in them (no Griffey Jr's of course). After a few days of helping my dad and grandparents set up their RV business marketing stand, my dad always gave me a few bucks to ride some rides or buy some food. I spent my per-diem on baseball cards of course. In one of those stacks of 1989 Upper Deck cards, I had 3 John Smoltz rookies! I kept 1 and traded two of them that year to kids in my neighborhood. After that year, I always liked Smoltz and I always thought he retired as an Atlanta Brave. You can imagine my surprise when I was sorting through a stack of commons and I stumbled across a Smoltz card when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals...wait, what? I didn't even realize I owned this card. It's so weird seeing him in this uniform and I don't think I like it very much. The crazy part is, he played 8 games for the Red Sox in 2009, which I also didn't know. Smoltz ended his career as a Cardinal in 2009 pitching a total of 7 games going 1-3 with a 4.26 ERA before hanging up his cleats.

How was he acquired? August 19, 2009, 2 days after being released by the Red Sox, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. 

2010 Topps John Smoltz #126

Growing up, I had a friend whose dad gave him a ton of vintage cards. He had Carew's rookie card, Joe Morgan's rookie card and most importantly a Nolan Ryan rookie. All of his cards were in great shape and occasionally he would trade me something (even though he only collected racing cards). I think it was just out of pity, but Mike was a good guy. One of the trades was for a 1967 Juan Marichal card. At the time, it was the oldest card in my collection (in the 3rd grade). By 5th grade, I was ready to send this card off in a trade for a Joe Montana rookie, but my stack of cards for the trade was confiscated by my teacher when I was flipping through them before recess to make sure I had every card that was being traded. I was told they would be given back to me at the end of the school year; however, they weren't, and I never got my hands on my friend Jeff's perfectly centered, mint condition Joe Montana rookie. Anyways, Marichal was a name my brother and I knew well from a book we had called, "Baseball Stars of 1965". My brother and I loved reading and I read the crap out of that book. In 1992, while at a card show at a hotel about 40 minutes away from home, I bought another Marichal card to go with my 1967 Topps. At the time, I thought the card was a little bit weird, it showed Marichal with a black hat on, and I could not tell what logo was on it with large text saying TRADED in red. I stashed this card in my tin of treasures and about a year ago I found it while looking for a Jeffrey Leonard rookie in my Mud Balls post. Marichal played a whopping 11 games for the Boston Red Sox which is what team bought his contract back in 1973. He had a 5-1 record with a 4.87 ERA. In 1975, Marichal would also play for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but after 2 games, he would retire due to arm and back problems. From what I know, he doesn't currently have a Dodgers card out there, but I may be incorrect. 

How was he acquired? December 8, 1973, his contract was purchased by the Boston Red Sox. Doesn't sound like he was "traded" to me, but back in '73 I guess that's what they called it.

1974 Topps Traded Juan Marichal #330T

In 1992, one day I caught my mom on a good day, and she bought me a pack of 1992 Fleer Ultra Baseball. These cards were a little bit higher end for that era and were glossy and had gold foil on the Fleer Ultra logo and a gold foil line going diagonally above the name plate. My mom bought me a total of 2 packs of Fleer Ultra in my life. One in 1992 and another 1993 pack the next year. Both packs were at Kmart conveniently right near the check-out line. The pack I got that day in 1992 was a complete stinker, but one day in the mid-2000's, I picked up a few '92 Ultra cards I liked in a 10-cent bin. It was nostalgia that took over that day. Did I need those commons, well, no, but I bought them anyway. This next card was one of the cards I picked up at the card show and it was of Dwight Evans. I always liked Dwight Evans growing up. When I was 9, I even bought his rookie card (in rough shape) for a few dollars, so yeah, I guess I was a fan. When I saw his 1992 Fleer Ultra card, I kinda laughed at it. He looked like he was mad at himself for striking out. I hadn't thought about that card until I started to look for cards for this post. I thought, "Wow, Dwight Evans played for the Baltimore Orioles, that's a pretty good one!" Yep, good old Dwight Evans called it a career after putting on an Orioles uniform for 101 games back in 1991. It's crazy to think that after 19 years with the Boston Red Sox he wouldn't just retire. That last year with Baltimore, he hit only 6 home runs and batted in 38 RBI's, so I guess he knew it was time.

How was he acquired? December 6, 1990, he signed a 1-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles.

1992 Fleer Ultra Dwight Evans #3

When I was a kid, I had a plethora of favorite baseball players. Bo Jackson, Candy Maldonado, David McCarty, Gregg Jefferies and Andre Dawson were just a few of the ones I collected the most. At my 13th birthday party, a friend of mine who had just moved into town named Ryan bought me a few packs of 1995 SP as a birthday gift. It was pretty cool. In those packs, I pulled an Andre Dawson card. There were a few other decent cards in those packs, but the Dawson was the one I coveted most. It was weird to see Dawson in a Marlins uniform, but also pretty awesome too. When the Marlins first hit the MLB scene, I have to admit that I loved their colors. When my mom was in Miami for work in 2014, she even bought me a hat of theirs. I wore the crap out of that thing...I should really buy another, but back to Dawson; "The Hawk" played his final seasons in Florida before calling it quits in 1996. After 121 games as a Marlin in 1995 and 1996, he hit 10 total home runs and drove in 51 RBI's. 

How was he acquired? April 10, 1995, he was signed as a free agent with the Florida Marlins.

1995 SP Andre Dawson #56

This next one, I have no recollection of, and I live in Pittsburgh. Kirk Gibson once played for the Pirates, and in that short stint he played here, I still can't remember a single at bat he had. Early in Spring Training in 1992 with the Kansas City Royals, Gibson walked out when he was told he would have a reduced role with the team and demanded to be traded, so that is how it all came about. Also, when I actually searched for another card of him with the Bucco's, the only other card that I could find showcasing him in a Pirates uniform was a 1992 Stadium Club card. While he played here in Pittsburgh, he got 60 at bats in 16 games and batted .196. YIKES! The card I have is also a little odd in the photo. How he's holding the bat still doesn't make any sense to me. If you can figure it out, please let me know. Is it after a walk and he's about to throw the bat to the side? Beats the heck out of me! On May 5, 1992, the Pirates released Kirk Gibson and he wouldn't sign with another club until February 10, 1993, when he signed with the Detroit Tigers to finish off his career in 1995 at the age of 38. 

How was he acquired? March 10, 1992, Gibson was traded by the Kansas City Royals for Pitcher Neal Heaton. As a side note, I really liked Neal Heaton when he was here. Anytime I went to a game, he was always willing to stop by and sign autographs for the kids, so he was a good guy.

1992 Pinnacle Kirk Gibson #481

When I think of nice catches in the outfield, I always think of Jim Edmonds. He was always diving for balls, and he made it look pretty easy. He was also a pretty decent hitter. When he was playing for the Cardinals in the early 2000's, I was at a Pirates game with my buddies and he made a beautiful snag on a ball hit by either Reggie Sanders or Abraham Nunez, to be honest we had a few beers by that time and my memory of that play is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure it was one of the two. Anyways, I found a card in a stack of commons during my search for these types of cards and when I threw it down on my computer desk, I looked at it for a few seconds and for the life of me couldn't remember Edmonds playing for the Cincinnati Reds, but apparently, he did! Edmonds may not have the star power a lot of the guys on this list have, but I have fond memories of watching him play, so he ends up on this list. His Reds career was really short. 13 games to be exact at the tail end of 2010. In only 32 plate appearances though, he did hit 3 home runs. Not too shabby for a 40'year-old player who was about to retire. After the conclusion of the 2010 season, he did just that. On February 4, 2011, Edmonds would sign a contract to retire as a St. Louis Cardinal. Decent sendoff for a decent player, I think. 

How was he acquired? August 9, 2010, he was traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the Cincinnati Reds for Chris Dickerson.

2010 Topps Update Jim Edmonds #US178

Who has played the Nintendo game "Legends of the Diamond"? My brother and I owned it and played the crap out of it. We were the last family in America to own a Nintendo. It's true. We asked for it every Christmas, and finally when everyone else was unwrapping their Sega Genesis' or their Super Nintendo's, my brother and I were unwrapping the NES system. We still jumped for joy like we just won the lottery! Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so we take wins where we see them. After school one day, my brother and I were walking home from the bus stop boasting about our awesome report cards and I was excited thinking that my parents would probably take us to Pizza Hut. My brother on the other hand had a better idea. Instead of going out to eat, maybe we could just take a trip over to the Ames department store that was going out of business and get a NES game. Somehow, my parents went for it. When we got there, there wasn't much in our price range except for the "Legends of the Diamond" game and "A Boy and His Blob" which I already owned. The "Legends of the Diamond" game was like 50% off, which was $10. Like I said before, we take wins where we see them. My parents bought us that game and we went home and ate peach gummy rings and played that game all night. One of the players that I would frequently use on my team was Joe Morgan. He was so fast on that game and every so often, he could hit a homer! He became one of my favorite legends because of this game. During trips to the card shop that was up the road from us, I actually purchased his 1968 Topps card for $8. It was also in fantastic shape. Sadly, when I sold off 90% of my collection in 2005, the Morgan was one of the cards the guy who bought my collection really wanted, so I did get rid of it. I did however still have a few Morgan cards floating around. One was when he played for the Oakland A's. He looked a bit funny to me in that uniform due to the fact the other cards I had of him he was either with Astros or the Reds. Morgan finished his career in 1984 with the A's at age 40! That year he batted .244 with 6 home runs and 43 RBI's. 

How was he acquired? December 13, 1983, he signed a 1-year contract with the Oakland A's.

1985 Donruss Joe Morgan #584

I still remember where I was at when this next player hit a walk-off home run to win the World Series back in 1993. My parents were upstairs watching something, while I was downstairs in our basement surrounded by sports cards watching Joe Carter smack a homer off of "Wild Thing" Williams. There I was in awe of this. I yelled upstairs for my dad. He came running down to see the replay and then said, "Ok, that was pretty cool, but it's time for bed." There I was with my hand-me-down Button Your Fly shirt and some cut off sweatpants made into shorts heading up the steps to our bathroom to brush my teeth before laying down for bed. I had so much adrenaline from that hit that it was so hard to sleep, and I ended up staying up the whole night. The next morning, I had Sunday school at church and was dragging butt the whole way through. I did chat about it with my buddy John who I always hung out with back then. Carter was always a great player, but this home run was epic. It still lives in my mind to this day. When I was sifting through a stack of 1999 Stadium Club this past Wednesday, I actually saw this card below and thought, "here's another one for my post!" The crazy thing is, I didn't intially look at this when I pulled the stack of cards to talk about. This was just a bonus. When I think of Joe Carter, 2 cards come to mind. One is his 1985 Topps Rookie Card, which was one of the cards from the "boot box" my grandfather found in a field. The other is his 1993 Topps Black Gold card. My brother pulled the Topps Black Gold card, and I tried like heck to trade him for it, but he ended up hanging on to it. Carter did play for a lot of teams in his career, but most people remember him as a Blue Jay or an Indian. In 1990, Carter was a Padre and suited up for all 162 games! However, in 1998, he split the year playing for Baltimore and the San Francisco Giants. Since I only own 1 card of Joe Carter from 1999, he is pictured with the Giants. Joe Carter has a bunch of 1998 cards where he is playing for Baltimore and 1 card in 1999 (Pacific). In his 41 games played with the Giants, Carter slashed 7 home runs, with 29 RBI's and batted .295. Not too shabby! Joe Carter went out with a bang, just like in 1993.

How was he acquired? July 23, 1998, he was traded by the Orioles to the San Francisco Giants for Darin Blood. He was granted free agency on November 5, 1998, but did not sign with a team and retired.

1999 Stadium Club Joe Carter #98

That's it for Part 1 of this long series that I will need to get out of my brain, or I'll go crazy. I'll try to get out future posts of "He played there?" as soon as I can. It's a lot of scanning and even more words to type. As always...

Thanks for reading.