1989 Topps Major League Debut #107: Alex Sanchez

Alex Sanchez

PHOTO: Let's compare the photo above with Sanchez's 1988 O-Pee-Chee photo. In this one, his eyebrows, while still thick, are much less caterpillar-ish. However, he's damn near asleep.

STAT: You can go read that post I made about his 88 OPC card for details on his 4 major-league starts. The lone homer that Sanchez gave up in the majors was this 3-run job by Ellis Burks, coming in this game. After the homer, it was 5-0 Red Sox in the first inning and (if you read the play-by-play detail) the Blue Jays had only a 10% chance of winning the game at that point. Win they did, however, thanks in part to a grand slam by Ernie Whitt off Lee Smith in the 9th inning and a 2-run shot in the 12th inning by Junior Felix off Dennis Lamp.

ANAGRAM: Alex Sanchez = Can sex Hazel (Mae, of course.)

CAREER: 1/10

'nuff said.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #89: John Olerud

John Olerud

PHOTO: There are two things I hate and one thing I love about this photo. The two things I hate are 1) the overexposure that drowns out the logo on Olerud's helmet and 2) the fact that the photo makes Olerud look about 12 years old when he was in fact about 21. The thing I love is that he's wearing his batting helmet. As most of you probably know, Olerud wore his batting helmet at all times, including while playing defense, as a precautionary measure after an earlier aneurysm he suffered.

Oddly enough, I once briefly met Olerud's dad, also named John.

STAT: Of the 48 players to finish with 500 career doubles, Olerud did it in the 4th-fewest at-bats. Of course. most of those guys ended up with a lot more than 500 doubles, so it's not exactly a fair comparison. I note that Goose Goslin is the only other guy in addition to Olerud to finish with exactly 500 doubles. Olerud did have by far the fewest stolen bases of those 48 guys, as well as the fewest triples. Fantastic hitter? Yes. Fast? Not so much.

ANAGRAM: John Olerud, Blue Jays = Hoard lonely jujubes

CAREER: 8/10

Olerud had a great career. A classic line-driver hitter, Olerud hit right around .290 or .300 almost every season except for two smash years: 1993 when he won the batting title hitting .363 with the Blue Jays and 1998 when he hit .354 with the Mets. He was an excellent defensive player at first base and played in 14 post-season series (including 2 World Series wins), amassing 9 HR and 34 RBI in 237 AB, excellent for the playoffs.

The other thing about Olerud is that I've never heard a single bad word said about him. By all accounts, he was a great teammate and very professional. He might get a HOF vote or two but I don't expect him to stay on the ballot past his first year of eligiblity.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #59: Glenallen Hill

Glenallen Hill

PHOTO: This is one of the best photos in the set. It's a nice closeup with a lot going on in the photo, including the dangling bat.

STAT: My instinct is that Hill got a lot of extra-base hits. Checking out all the players with 4000 to 4100 career plate appearances, he was indeed #1. That's sort of unfair, though, because most of those players played in much earlier periods in the game when there was less offense.

CAREER: 4/10

By all accounts, Hill was pretty much an asshole who got dumped by his team quite often in his career. But the guy could hit pretty well, especially for power.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #55: Xavier Hernandez

Xavier Hernandez

PHOTO: Wow, what is up with those caterpillars on his face!

STAT: Hernandez was one of the top relievers in baseball in 1992-1993 with, among guys with no games started, the 3rd-most games, 2nd-most innings pitched, and 5th-best ERA+ among guys with at least 100 IP and who were not full-time closers.

CAREER: 3/10

Hernandez had those 2 great years in 1992-93 and a few other decent years but ended up with average numbers over a somewhat short career.

He's one of three major-leaguers with the first name of Xavier, the others being Nady and Rescigno.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #44: Goose Gozzo

Mauro Gozzo

PHOTO: Somehow, Gozzo got Topps to put "Goose" as his first name on the card even though he was known by his given name of Mauro throughout his career. I'm sort of wondering if that white line is actually going in one ear and out the other.

STAT: Gozzo's major league debut game, mentioned on the back of his card, was his best career start in the big leagues.

CAREER: 2/10

Probably the most impressive thing about Gozzo was being involved in trades for two good starting pitchers: David Cone and Bud Black.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #35: Junior Felix

Junior Felix

See Name Chain #1.

PHOTO: This is a fine photo of Felix, but I would have preferred one showing his wide open batting stance, the most open I can recall of any player.

STAT: Junior Felix is currently 6th on the list of most strikeouts by a player with 600 or fewer games played. And two guys ahead of him, Howard and Pena, will end up with more than 600 games.

CAREER: 3/10

Felix was a decent offensive player but he struck out too much. He was taken by Florida in the expansion draft and played so poorly that he got released part way through their inaugural season. Oops.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #26: Steve Cummings

Steve Cummings

PHOTO: That's a fine posed shot, but I'm wondering what the thing on Cummings' necklace says. I can't quite make it out...

STAT: Despite pitching 33 innings in the majors, Cummings didn't register more than 4 at-bats against any one batter. Thus, all of the batting averages against him are 0, .250, .333, .500, .667, or 1.000.

CAREER: 1/10

You read it above. Thirty-three innings. I like that the back of the card mentions another Blue Jays flameout we just saw, Kevin Batiste.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #20: Francisco Cabrera

Francisco Cabrera

Holy crap, when we saw Geronimo Berroa's card just a few back, I had no idea we'd see this card of the guy I confuse him with. But here is Cabrera!

PHOTO: This is a nice posed photo, but I'm more interested in what's behind Franky. I see what looks like a bed of flowers, and behind that I think it's a paved road. Further behind, that looks like a football field with a goal post on the right!

STAT: Cabrera has the 4th-most homers all time for a guy with fewer than 400 career ABs. (He's 6th on that list, but #3 and #4 are still active and will pass 400 AB, I assume.)

CAREER: 4/10

How does a guy with fewer than 400 career ABs get a score of 4/10? Easy. He was the guy that got this hit.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #10: Kevin Batiste

Kevin Batiste

PHOTO: This is a very strange staged over-the-shoulder shot. Given that Batiste had 8 major-league at-bats, I wonder if this is from the media guide.

STAT: Well the guy only had two hits in the big leagues, one off Mark Knudson and one off Chuck Finley. He had five strikeouts, though.

CAREER: 1/10

I can't give him a zero because he did actually appear in the majors. But he's as close to a zero as you can get. Don't confuse this guy with Kim Batiste, no relation, an awful player in his own right who did appear in the postseason with the 1993 Phillies and even got a big hit for them.