Card #83: New York Yankees Future Stars

Who Can It Be Now?
The three players on this card all played in the majors, and two of the three had reasonably long and successful careers.  The guy who didn't has a tragic story to explain why.  Here we go.

1.  Stephen Charles Balboni was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1957.  He grew up a Red Sox fan (with a wicked accent, as the interview in 1980 with former umpire Ron Luciano to which I've linked shows) in New England, and he attended Memorial High School in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was not drafted directly from high school.  As a result, he headed south to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.  There, he led the Tritons to the NCAA Division II College World Series in 1977 while being named to the Division II All-American team as a designated hitter.  

His hitting exploits led the Yankees to select Balboni with the 52nd pick overall (at the bottom of the 2nd round) in the 1978 June Amateur Draft.  The Yankees assigned him to Fort Lauderdale in the Florida State League, where the expansive ballparks ate Balboni's flyballs alive during his first season.  But, 1979 proved a different story -- Balboni crushed 26 home runs to lead the league by 8 over second place Lloyd Moseby.  Only 7 hitters had double-digit homeruns in the FSL in 1979, so that was some accomplishment.

He moved up to Double-A Nashville the next year and continued his hitting exploits -- 34 HR, 122 RBI, 162 Ks, 82 BBs, and a .301/.399/.553 slash.  The Yankees moved him to Triple-A Columbus in 1981, and it was more of the same.  This led to him getting his first taste of major league baseball in 1981, with two games in April followed by two games in September.  

Despite his minor league hitting, the Yankees just seemed not to like Balboni.  Perhaps it was his prolific strikeout rate, but rather than giving "Bye Bye" a chance in 1982, the team used a combination of John Mayberry, Dave Collins, Lee Mazzilli, Dave Revering, and Butch Hobson instead. Then, in 1983, the Yankees found a guy they liked much better than Balboni -- and can you blame them? -- in Don Mattingly.  So, after the 1983 season, Balboni was traded to the Kansas City Royals with Roger Erickson in exchange for minor leaguer Duane Dewey and Mike Armstrong.  

With the Royals, Balboni finally got to play.  He led the team in home runs in its World Series year of 1985 -- leading the league in strikeouts as well with 166.  He stayed there until 1988, when the Royals released him at the end of May.  A couple of days later, he signed with the Mariners.  Then, at the end of spring training in 1989, Balboni was traded back to the Yankees for a minor leaguer, Dana Ridenour.  

He stayed in New York through the end of spring training in 1991, when the Yankees released him.  The Rangers then picked him up and parked him at Triple-A Oklahoma City as an insurance policy at DH and 1B for Rafael Palmeiro, Julio Franco, and, to an extent, Jose Canseco and Juan Gonzalez.  With that logjam, it should come as no surprise that Balboni only got a cursory call-up at the end of the 1993 season.  That was the end of his major league career.

Mustache Check: You bet.  Balboni looks like an extra from the Super Mario Brothers game.

2.  Andrew Joseph McGaffigan was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, on October 25, 1956. He grew up in WPB, attending Twin Lake High School, and starred in baseball there.  He was drafted for the first time in the 36th Round of the 1974 Draft by the Cincinnati Reds -- one of just 8 picks in the round -- and did not sign.  As he said in an interview with Royals.Scout.com, the money on offer was nothing to speak of -- $500 a month, no bonus, no guarantees -- so McGaffigan's father urged him to attend college.  

So Andy signed on with the local Palm Beach Junior College for a couple of seasons.  Midway through his second year at PBJC, the White Sox drafted McGaffigan in the 5th round of the January Regular Draft.  Once again, because the money on offer was nothing -- pretty much the same as the previous offer -- McGaffigan turned it down to finish his degree.  

He moved on from PBJC to Florida Southern College -- the same school that Greg Pryor attended (and both, by the way, are in the Mocs Hall of Fame) -- and had an excellent two years there.  He was a Division II All-American in 1977 and helped lead the team to the Division II College World Series Title in 1978 (wrestling it away from Balboni's Eckerd Tritons!).  So, in 1978 (the same year that Balboni was selected in the 2nd round), McGaffigan was chosen by the Yankees in the 6th Round of the June Draft.

McGaffigan and Balboni were teammates in 1978 in Fort Lauderdale, again in 1980 in Nashville and in 1981 in Columbus. As was the case for Balboni, McGaffigan got a late-season call-up in September of 1981 and pitched reasonably well in middle relief in his two appearances.  Unlike Balboni, however, McGaffigan never played for the Yankees after that.

Instead, he either became the guy who was easy to get rid of or the guy who was always in demand.  

• He was traded for the first time at the end of spring training in 1982 with Ted Wilborn to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Doyle Alexander.  
• He stayed with the Giants organization for two years before being traded to the Montreal Expos in exchange for what Baseball Reference called "unknown compensation".  
• He lasted in Montreal for a half-season before he was flipped to the Cincinnati Reds with a minor leaguer for Dan Driessen. 
• He stayed in Cincinnati until December of 1985 when the Expos got him back in a trade that saw McGaffigan, Dann Bilardello, John Stuper, and Jay Tibbs go to Montreal for Sal Butera and Bill Gullickson.
• After 5 years, the Giants decided they wanted him back and sent a minor league PTBNL to Montreal for him in April of 1990.  
• Three weeks later, the Giants cut him, and McGaffigan caught on with the Kansas City Royals.
• The Royals released him in July of 1991, and the Brewers signed him and sent him to Triple-A.  

Once the Brewers were done with him, McGaffigan was done with baseball.

Mustache Check: Yup, Andy's got him a crumb collector.

3.  Andre Levett Robertson was born on October 2, 1957, in Orange, Texas, a small town halfway between Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas, in the heart of oil refinery country.  Robertson was drafted directly out of West Orange High School by the Texas Rangers in the 12th Round of the 1976 June Draft but he chose instead to attend the University of Texas on a baseball scholarship.  He played well enough at Texas to be drafted in the 4th Round of the 1979 June Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, with whom he signed.

For reasons unclear to me -- perhaps the team thought Alfredo Griffin would be their shortstop forever and that Andre would never get by him -- the Blue Jays sold Robertson to the Yankees following the 1979 season.  Robertson moved up the Yankee chain quickly in 1980 -- starting with Fort Lauderdale in the Florida State League and ending in Triple-A Columbus.  Robertson got his 1981 September call-up and played much more than his other two card-mates.  Apparently, by this point in time, the afterglow of Bucky Dent's 1978 homerun had long worn off and the Yankees were looking actively to replace him.  That happened in 1982 when Roy Smalley became a Yankee.  

But, things looked bright for Robertson nonetheless.  By 1983, he was getting decent playing time on both sides of second base -- Willie Randolph struggled with injuries that year.  New York Post hyperbole specialist Dick Young -- also known as the guy blamed for running Tom Seaver out of New York -- waxed poetic in June of 1983 about how the Yankees Andre Robertson and and the Mets Jose Oquendo, "are as good as any two shortstops who ever played in the same town at the same time. Maybe better."  

Probably not, but Dick had to sell newspapers.

For Robertson, his life was twisted and broken by an event that occurred on August 18, 1983.  His friend from college (and the girlfriend of then-Philadelphia Eagles tight end Lawrence Sampleton), Shenikwa Dawn Nowlin, wanted to do some sightseeing in New York with Robertson. Robertson took a curve on the West Side Highway near 72nd Street too fast, and an improperly placed warning sign did not give him enough time to slow down. The result was that Nowlin ended up paralyzed from the waist down (which, by the way, did not stop her from becoming a lawyer in Dallas).  Robertson ended up with a cracked rib, a broken neck, a separated left shoulder, and a bruised right shoulder.

From that point forward, his career never fully recovered.  Whether it was because he lost his ability -- perhaps not, in light of his hitting his final year with the Yankees -- or whether the Yankees moved on without him, Robertson played only another 102 games in the major leagues.  He kicked around Triple-A with various teams -- the Braves (after being traded there in 1986 with Ken Griffey Sr. for Claudell Washington and Paul Zuvella), the Yankees, the Mariners, the A's, and the Rangers -- through 1989, but he did not make any further big league appearances after 1985.

Mustache Check: Robertson makes it a perfect 3-for-3 on this card.

Trivial Pursuit

Balboni still holds the Kansas City Royals team record for most homeruns in a single season with the 36 he hit in 1985.

Robertson was the first African-American to receive a baseball scholarship to play at the University of Texas when he matriculated there in 1976. 

Family Ties

Andre Robertson's brother Roderick Robertson was a third-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1986 out of high school.  Rod played minor league baseball from 1986 through 1995.  He never reached the major leagues despite spending four seasons and 380 games at Triple-A as a decent hitting middle infielder.  Rod did get the opportunity to play every position in 1995 for Rochester, though, including pitcher.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.

These guys never really became established major leaguers with the Yankees, so it's tough to say that Topps was "correct" in calling these three guys "Yankees Future Stars."  Of course, the Yankees only had 5 guys make debuts in 1981 for them -- three of which are on this card -- and Triple-A Columbus was the place that the Yankees stashed their big-league backups. At least all three players played a decent amount in the major leagues.

These days, the three guys on this card have taken paths as varied as their baseball careers. Balboni went into coaching -- first with the Royals and then with the Expos, for whom he managed the Vermont Expos in 2001.  After that, he was a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals in the minor leagues.  Later on, Balboni caught on first with the Yankees and later with the Giants as a scout. 

Andy McGaffigan worked in the nonprofit sector during the 1990s putting together golf tournaments as fundraising events for charity.  Then, in 2001, he started work with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in retirement planning in Lakeland, Florida.  

After Robertson left baseball, he went back home to Orange, Texas, and did what most folks in a small, blue-collar town do -- he went to the local plant and got a job.  In his case, he started working on "Chemical Row" in DuPont's Sabine River Works.  It's the same plant in which his father worked for 38 years as a mechanic after his father was done playing football at Tennessee State University in Nashville.  Robertson's children went the academic route rather than the athletic route, with his son Ryan being the first-ever African-American valedictorian in his high school's history.

From recent interviews and stories about each man, all of them seem happy and, more importantly, fulfilled with how their lives worked out.  None of these guys were ever "stars" as Topps predicted (perhaps Balboni got close), but, just as importantly, all of these guys have contributed to their communities in their own ways. 

Card #59: Rich Gedman

Who Can It Be Now?
Richard Leo Gedman Jr. was born on September 26, 1959, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Baseball Reference says that he attended Worcester High School, but Wikipedia and the BR-Bullpen both say he attended St. Peter-Marian High School.  The Sons of Sam Horn Wiki claims that he and future Toronto Blue Jays General Manager J.P. Ricciardi attended high school together, and Ricciardi also attended St. Peter-Marian.  I am going to go with SPMHS as his alma mater, and I will note that, as a result, Ricciardi and Gedman would have been two years behind comedian Denis Leary in high school as a result.

Gedman was not drafted by anyone coming out of high school in 1977 and was signed as an amateur free agent.  Gedman was assigned to Winter Haven in the Florida State League and probably surprised the Red Sox and everyone else by hitting very well -- .300/.393/.407 in 348 plate appearances.  As a result, at the age of 19, the Red Sox pushed Gedman up to Double-A Bristol in the Eastern League in 1978.  Gedman was not overmatched and showed good defensive skills behind the plate.  As a result, the Red Sox moved him up again to Triple-A Pawtucket in 1980 and gave him a September call-up to the big leagues that year.  

Between he and Gary Allenson, the Red Sox felt confident enough in their catching situation such that they did not re-sign the 32-year-old future Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk after the 1980 season.  Gedman started 1981 in Triple-A and received his call-up to the major leagues on May 16.  He picked up his first major league hit off Dennis Leonard on May 17 with a single, and by the end of the season he had hit .288/.317/.434 with 5 home runs and 26 RBI. It was a season that did not feature any incredible rookie performances in the American League, meaning Gedman finished a solid second behind Yankee starter Dave Righetti in the Rookie of the Year voting.

Gedman's 1982 season was less successful -- 4 homers and a .249/.279/.363 slash line.  His defenses was not great either -- he threw out 27% of base runners attempting to steal against him (league average: 36%), committed 10 passed balls and, in addition, committed 10 errors (bad enough for third in the league).  He did all that in just 86 games behind the plate (74 starts).

It would get better for Gedman after that, however.  He found an ability to hit the ball with power in 1984 at the age of 24.  It's probably just the maturation process, but eyebrows would probably be raised these days when a guy goes from 2 homers in 223 plate appearances in year one to 24 homers in 486 plate appearances in year two.  For Gedman, that meant that years three and four -- here, 1985 and 1986 -- were his two seasons as an American League All-Star.

The 1986 season was both a wonderful and painful year for Red Sox fans.  It was wonderful for the amazing comeback versus California in the American League Championship Series -- in which Gedman hit .357/.379/.500 -- and painful for the collapse in the World Series against the New York Mets -- in which Gedman hit .200/.200/.333 and struck out 10 times in 30 at-bats without a walk.  Gedman was behind the plate for that fateful tenth inning in Game 6 in which the Red Sox blew their lead.  The coup de grâce, of course, was the Bill Buckner error on Mookie Wilson's dribbler.  

However, some people forget that Ray Knight got to second base to be able to score the winning run -- and that the tying run in the form of Kevin Mitchell -- scored on a passed ball (go to the 3:28:57 point in the game to see the set up and the play as called by the great Vin Scully):




Not to pile on, but considering that Gedman had 14 passed balls in 1986 and allowed his pitchers to throw 40 wild pitches (wild pitches reflect on the catcher to an extent, as this book points out, and the only pitcher on staff not to have a wild pitch was Wes Gardner, who faced 4 batters all season), perhaps Gedman should have been removed?  It's tough to say that for sure, though, since Gedman's backup was Marc Sullivan (allowed 15 wild pitches in just 41 games behind the plate), who may or may not have been on the team because his dad owned the club.  

After the 1986 season, Gedman was a free agent.  Unfortunately for him, he was caught up in the owners' collusion not to sign free agents.  He and the Red Sox could not agree to terms before January 8, he could not re-sign with the Red Sox until after May 1. Due to the collusion, he found no other suitors for his services at an equivalent amount contractually. Later that same year, he tore ligaments in his left thumb in a collision at home plate and was replaced on the roster by John Marzano.  He missed the rest of that season and never again played more than 95 games in any one season.

In 1990, he was re-signed again by the Red Sox to a one-year contract to serve as Tony Pena's backup.  He appeared just 10 times in the first two months for the Red Sox before they sent him to the Houston Astros.  In Houston, he backed up young catching star Craig Biggio and appeared in 40 games.  He closed out his career with two years in the majors for the Cardinals, a contract with Oakland that went nowhere, and 89 games in Triple-A for the Yankees affiliate in Columbus.

Family Ties
Gedman and his wife Sherry produced quite the athletic family.  That should be expected in so far as athletic ability has some genetics involved and some nurturing involved.  One would expect a baseball player's family to emphasize sports at least somewhat.  Genetics for the Gedmans, though, were strong.  In addition to Rich, his wife Sherry played softball and basketball at the University of Connecticut.  From Sherry's Facebook page, it appears that she and Rich met in high school at St. Peter-Marian. 

They had three children.  The oldest two children were sons Mike Gedman, who is the new head baseball coach at Framingham State University after having played at UMass and coaching at Bryant University and Matt Gedman, who played hockey and baseball at UMass before being drafted by the Red Sox in 2011 in the 45th round of the June Draft.  He currently is playing in the Carolina League for Salem.

Not to be left out is their youngest child, daughter Marissa.  Marissa is a hockey player at Harvard who missed one season due to a torn Achilles' tendon.  She was Harvard's captain for the 2013-2014 season as well -- the only captain for that season who did not miss the year due to injuries.  Apparently, even women's hockey is bad for your dental health though -- just look at Marissa's Twitter feed (@GEDyewsum).  

Trivial Pursuit
Rich Gedman shares the major league record for most putouts by a catcher in a game with 20.  He shares this record with Dan Wilson, Jerry Grote, and Sandy Martinez.  Gedman performed the feat on April 29, 1986 when he was the catcher for Roger Clemens's first 20-strikeout game.  The catcher gets the credit for a putout on a strikeout.  In Clemens's second 20-strikeout game, catcher Bill Hasselman had to throw out Travis Fryman at first base in the bottom of the second inning, so he only had 19 putouts.  Grote got his 20 putouts by catching a Tom Seaver 19-K performance and catching a pop-up too.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
I never liked seeing Rich Gedman step to the plate for the Red Sox when they played against the Brewers.  He always seemed to hit well against Milwaukee -- a career .274/.328/.437 slash line and 7 home runs, a total which is behind only the Indians and the Tigers for most home runs against any particular team for Gedman.

I remember this card well, also.  It was one of the first rookie cards about which I was cognizant.  I mean, I was chasing Cal Ripken Jr. cards like everyone else was that year -- after all, everyone pretty much knew Ripken was good -- but Gedman's 1982 Topps was, strangely enough, one of the cards I know I was looking for.

After Gedman left baseball, he served as an assistant coach at Belmont Hill School just outside Boston.  He was an assistant so he would not have to be a teacher.  He left Belmont Hill to become the third-base coach for the North Shore Spirit of the independent Northeast League in 2003.  In the "where are they now" story from the Red Sox website, Gedman said at that time that he did not want to be a manager: "I would see myself more as a coach.  I'm not the leader of the band, I'm part of the puzzle.  The leader of the band has to be too organized and is watching out for 25 guys."

Despite those protestations, two years later, Gedman took the position of manager with the independent Worcester Tornadoes in the Can-Am Association.  He leveraged that into a position as hitting coach for the Lowell Spinners in the Red Sox organization in 2011.  He then moved up the chain to the Salem Red Sox in 2012.  Since 2013, he has served as the hitting coach for the Double-A Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs.  So, despite staying away for a while, he's turned into a "Baseball Man".  

Card #51: Chicago Cubs Future Stars

Who Can It Be Now?
And what are they all looking at?

Our three players are:

1.  Jay Canfield Howell who was born on November 26, 1955 in Miami.  Howell attended high school at Fairview High School and college at the University of Colorado both in Boulder, Colorado.  Howell was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds twice -- first in 1973 out of high school and then in 1976 in the 31st round after his junior year at Colorado.  He signed with the Reds days later and moved slowly up the Reds chain until he made his major league debut in 1980 for Cincinnati.  

In October of 1980, the Reds swapped Howell for backup catcher Mike O'Berry.  Howell then pitched ten games for the Cubs in 1981.  He went back down to Triple-A Iowa in 1982, where he stayed until August 2 when the Cubs sent him to the Yankees to complete a trade made a year earlier when the Cubs traded for Pat Tabler.  The Yankees used him as a starter in 1982 and 1983 before realizing that Howell was better suited for the bullpen.  So, at the age of 28, Howell became a setup guy for Dave Righetti out of Yogi Berra's bullpen in 1984.  

That was his last year as a Yankee, though, as he was a part of a blockbuster trade that saw him, Tim Birtsas, Stan Javier, Eric Plunk, and Jose Rijo go to Oakland in exchange for Bert Bradley, cash, and some guy named Rickey Henderson.   Howell was an all-star closer for two of his three seasons in the Bay Area.  He then found himself part of a three-way trade involving Oakland, the Dodgers, and the Mets.  He went to the Dodgers, as did Alfred Griffin and (from the Mets) Jesse Orosco.  The A's picked up Bob Welch and Matt Young, and the Mets got Jack Savage, Wally Whitehurst, and Kevin Tapani.

Howell served as a closer in Los Angeles, and enjoyed his final All-Star season in 1989.  He stayed in LA from 1988 through 1992 when, at the age of 37, he was one of the top setup men for Bobby Cox in Atlanta.  Despite his success during the regular season, he never appeared in the NLCS for the Braves.  Howell finished his career in 1994 with the Texas Rangers and did not return to baseball after the strike.

2.  Carlos Manuel (Rubio) Lezcano was born on September 30, 1955, in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. He attended high school at Colegio San Jose before he came to the mainland for college at Florida State University.  Perhaps highlighting the oddity that differentiated Puerto Ricans from other Americans, Lezcano attended FSU with fellow major leaguer Terry Kennedy. Kennedy ended up being drafted as a first round pick, but Lezcano signed with the Cubs as a free agent in 1977.

Lezcano went immediately to the Double-A Texas League at Midland in 1977.  He did not perform particularly well -- a slash line of .231/.294/.356 shows that to be true. The next season in spring training, therefore, Lezcano went to Arizona with something to prove to the Cubs organization.

All he proved, however, was that he was a typical 22-year-old kid with more athletic ability than sense.  Walking down the street in Scottsdale during spring training with some teammates, Lezcano decided that he should show his teammates how high he could jump. The story does not mention whether he was challenged to do this or whether he was bragging about it before the leap -- but it certainly was the embodiment of the joke about what the last words of a redneck are before he dies: "Hey y'all, watch this!"  

Anyway, in showing off his jumping ability, Lezcano hit the top of a street sign with his hand and caught a ring on the sign.  He almost severed his right index finger from his hand.  He had to have emergency surgery just to save the finger and, as a result, he had to miss the entire 1978 season.  He did not make an appearance in the major leagues until 1980 as a result, and his major league career ended after a 7-game stint with the Cubs in 1981.  He kicked around the minor leagues with the Cubs, Detroit, and Oakland through the 1984 season, but he never again appeared in the big leagues after 1981.

3.  Elliott Tyrone Waller was born on March 14, 1957, in Fresno, California.  By the time he reached high school, his family had moved to San Diego, where he attended Herbert Hoover High School -- the same high school as baseball legend Ted Williams, in fact.  

Waller was drafted out of high school by the San Francisco Giants in the 33rd round of the June 1975 draft; by that point in the draft, all but 6 teams had passed on making a selection. He did not sign with the Giants, however, and attended San Diego City College for two years. In the 1977 January draft, the Cardinals drafted him in the fourth round as a draft-and-follow player, and apparently Waller showed enough that spring to convince the Cardinals to sign him in May of 1977.  After progressing a level each year from 1977 through 1980, the Cardinals gave him a September call-up in 1980.  Waller got a single off Joe Niekro in his first major league at-bat, but he did not have any other hits that September or October.

In December of 1980, Whitey Herzog was trading off what he felt were spare parts to other teams to try to improve the Cardinals.  In one of those trades, the Cardinals obtained Bruce Sutter from the Cubs and, in return, the Cubs received Ken Reitz, Leon Durham, and Waller. Waller got a thirty-game trial in 1981, and hit .268/.303/.451 in those games.  

His play did little to convince the Cubs that he would be the Cubs' answer at third base.  It also did not help that the Cubs traded away Ivan DeJesus to the Phillies and, in return picked up a hot-shot prospect named Ryne Sandberg and old guy Larry Bowa.  The Cubs plugged Sandberg in at third base in 1982 and moved him to second base only after they signed the Penguin, Ron Cey, after the 1982 season.

As a result, Waller was sent to the South Side of Chicago and the White Sox in exchange for Reggie Patterson.  Waller did not appear for the Sox and, after the 1983 season, he signed with the Houston Astros organization.  He played at Triple-A Tucson for four seasons before retiring as an active player after an 11-game call-up with the Astros in 1987.

Everybody Wants You
As mentioned above, Jay Howell was traded in August of 1982 as the player-to-be-named-later in a nearly one-year-old trade.  Waller was traded after the 1982 season to the White Sox.  

Family Ties
Carlos Lezcano is either the brother (if you believe news stories from 1978) or the cousin (if you believe Baseball Reference of former major-league outfielder Sixto Lezcano (whom we will meet later in this set).

Nanu Nanu
For both Waller and Lezcano, this card would be their last Topps card.  Lezcano never got his own card with Topps -- in 1981, he was a Cubs "future star" along with Steve Macko and Randy Martz.  

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
These Future Stars cards are fun both to see how good or bad the "prospects" in each team's farm system are and to see if Topps was remotely close on calling these guys "future stars." Certainly, if you measure who is a star by whether they make at least one All-Star team, then this card is a solid 1-for-3 with two flailing, horrible, cork-screwing-oneself-into-the-ground strikeouts.

Perhaps it is appropriate, then, that the two guys who did not have very fruitful major-league careers have both stayed in baseball.  Lezcano started his second baseball career as a minor-league manager in 1992 by managing the Seattle entry in the Arizona Rookie League. After three years in the Mariners organization, he spent three years managing for the Giants organization.  From there, he did not manage in 1998, but was then hired on by the Milwaukee Brewers system for four seasons.  After that, he spent 9 years as a minor league manager in the Padres organization.  According to Baseball Reference's Bullpen, he managed last year in El Paso.

Waller got his opportunity as a manager immediately after he retired from playing after the 1987 season.  The San Diego Padres gave him the opportunity to manage their rookie-level club in Spokane, and he stayed in the Padres organization as an instructor in base running and outfield play for five years.  He managed again at Spokane in 1994 and then spent a year on the major league staff in 1995.  After that, he moved into the front office as the coordinator of all minor-league instruction for three seasons and as director of player development from 2000 to 2005.  Since 2007, he has served as a major-league coach for the Oakland Athletics.

Howell went a slightly different direction.  He played until 1994.  In 1998, he became the head coach at Cal State-Northridge, leading them to two Big Sky Conference titles. Eventually, though, he and his wife Linda moved back to Atlanta.  He can be found now at the Lakewood 400 Antique Market in Forsyth County -- the flea market that I have attended in the past and written about on my other blog.  I had no idea that Howell has a booth at that market, and it's not like he is selling baseball cards from it.  If he was, I would certainly have stopped and talked to him.  But, apparently, he welcomes the opportunity to talk baseball with customers at the market.  

Maybe that will be a story for my other blog on another weekend.

Card #21: Baltimore Orioles Future Stars

Who Can It Be Now?
It's the best 3-headed rookie card in the entire 1982 Topps set, showing up at Card #21. Everyone who might read this blog must know who Cal Ripken is -- whether as a shortstop or at 3rd Base, as this card says -- so let's focus on Bonner and Schneider a bit.

First, Robert Averill Bonner -- Bobby, as he is known in most places -- was a Texan by birth and was age 25 when this card went to press.  He attended Texas A&M, and was selected by the Orioles in the third round of the 1978 June Draft.  Bonner had been drafted twice before -- in the 10th round out of high school in 1974 by the Expos and after his junior year at A&M by the Royals in the 9th round.  Immediately on signing, he was placed in the AA Southern League at Charlotte and struggled at the plate.  

Bonner actually debuted for the Orioles as a 23-year-old in 1980, making four plate appearances in four games.  He hit .296 over 27 at-bats in a 1981 stint with Baltimore, but even this small sample portended problems with his plate approach -- he walked only one time in 29 plate appearances.  Bonner lasted just 4 seasons -- 1980 through 1984.  He appeared in 61 games, had 108 at-bats, and had a slash line of .194/.219/259.  He even tried his hand at pitching in the minors in 1984 -- he was drafted as a pitcher out of high school -- but that was scrapped after he made 4 unsuccessful appearances.  Bonner appeared on cards in the 1982 Donruss set and in the 1983 Fleer set.

In comparison to his other non-Ripken cardmate, however, Bonner had a long career. Jeffrey Theodore Schneider was born in Bremerton, Washington on December 6, 1952, but graduated high school from Alleman Catholic in Rock Island, Illinois before attending Iowa State University.  Schneider was drafted twice -- once right of out high school by the Cubs in the 18th round of the June 1970 draft and by the Rangers in the 2nd Round of the January 1973 draft, but he did not sign either time.  He was only signed in 1974 by the Phillies as an amateur free agent.  The Orioles then picked him up in the 1978 Rule 5 draft.

Schneider apparently made it on this card on the strength of his 1981 year at Rochester, where he served as a closer of sorts for the Rochester Red Wings.  He picked up 12 saves and finished 34 games for Rochester with a 2.35 ERA.  Schneider's problem was control -- over any one full season, he never had a BB/9 ratio of under 4.  

On the strength of that minor league season, the Orioles called him up in August of 1981. Schneider made 11 appearance for the O's, allowing 27 hits, 12 walks, and 4 home runs in 24 innings.  More tellingly, he appearance in a game that the Orioles won just once -- a 12-inning affair against Seattle on August 25 in which got the final out for his one and only save in his major league career.  He made his final appearance as a major leaguer against the Yankees in October of that year, and this card is his only appearance on a baseball card as a major leaguer during his career.

Goody Two Shoes
This category -- hopefully one of the last I will have to introduce, but you just never know -- will cover those players whose faith and religion have helped define their life.  Here, it applies to Bobby Bonner.  The major source of information on Bonner anywhere on the internet comes from the faith-based missionary organization that Bonner helped found called International African Missions -- I AM, for short.  

According to his biography on that site, Bonner and his wife first went on a mission trip to Africa in 1988 to Zambia.  The site then reprinted an interview that Bonner did with the website "Ripken in the Minors" -- which, by all indications, is an excellent site serving as an oral history of sorts for Cal Ripken's career.  That interview is an excellent source for information both on Cal and on Bonner.  There is one part of that interview that truly makes Bonner fit this category well:

I went to spring training and hit over .300 in spring training.  Joe Altobelli was our new manager.  He called me into his office and said they were going to send me back to the minor leagues and asked if I wanted to know why.  I"m thinking to myself that they've moved Ripken to short so I'm out of a job but I said, "I don't know why you're sending me down."  

He said, "You're taking this Jesus thing a little to far." And I said, "What?"  I was shocked.  He said, "You make everybody nervous." And I said, "What?"   He said, "You don't fit in.  You bring your Bible to the ballpark and talk about Jesus all the time."

I said, "Let me ask you something, Joe.  Do I play hard when I'm on the field?" He said, "Yeah, and we're not concerned about that.  We're concerned about your other things.  You have to leave Jesus in Church.  You can't bring Him to the ballpark with you."  

I said, "Joe, you don't know your Bible, man.  He lives in my heart and goes wherever I go."

Joe said these words to me and I'll never forget them.  He said, "Well, he ain't goin' to Baltimore."

Everybody Wants You
While Bonner mentions in the remainder of his interview with the Ripken site that he could not get Baltimore to trade him, Schneider did not have that same problem.  In fact, he was sent to the California Angels with Doug DeCinces -- a move that opened up third base for Cal Ripken -- in exchange for Dan Ford.

Don't You Want Me?
On the other side of the coin, Schneider also pitched so poorly in AAA Spokane for the Angels -- 24 innings, 6 strikeouts, 19 hits, 19 walks -- that he either was sent to Toronto or released by the Angels and signed by Toronto.  It did not make any ripple in any of the agate print I can find online, though.  

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
Of course, Cal Ripken is the star of this card and this card is the star of the 1982 Topps set. Cal was the 1982 American League Rookie of the Year, the 1983 AL Most Valuable Player, the 1991 Most Valuable Player, a two-time Gold Glove winner, an eight-time Silver Slugger winner, an 18-time All-Star, and a shoo-in as a first ballot Hall of Famer in 2007 when he received 98.5% of the vote.  He's one of those guys -- as was his ballot-mate, Tony Gwynn -- about whom you ask the BBWAA voters who did not vote for him the question: What more was he supposed to do to make the Hall of Fame? Cure cancer?

It was interesting to me to see what happened to Bonner and Schneider.  Bonner comes across in his interview with the Ripken in the Minors site as you would expect a pastor to be -- eloquent, full of stories, and engaging.  He was and is determined, and he has faith that his path has been the one that God has chosen for him.  He speaks as a man of passion -- the passion that he has found his purpose in life and is carrying it out.

Schneider's interview is one of a man who appears very guarded.  I don't know, of course, how much editing went into each interview posted on line there, but Schneider's answers are short, clipped, and terse.  

As an aside, all three men on this card appeared in the thirty-three inning marathon baseball game in April and June of 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings.  The game was a pitchers duel.  Schneider struck out 8 men in 5-1/3 innings that game after coming on in the ninth inning to pitch.  The game was suspended at 4:09 AM after 32 innings were played.  19 people were left in the stands at this point.  

The game was picked up again on June 23 in front of almost 6,000 fans and multiple television networks.  Interest in the game had picked up tremendously because, after all, the major leagues were in the middle of a players' strike.  Future major leaguer Marty Barrett scored the inning run in the game on a hit by Dave Koza (who never made the majors).  

The box score for that game is a fun one to review, if only to see lines like Red Wing Dallas Williams's 13 0 0 0 box score line -- 0-13 is a slump, not a game line!  Interestingly, the losing pitcher was Steve Grilli -- the father of current Pirates closer Jason Grilli.