#56 - Brewers Leaders

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates. But with a trip to Wrigley, an engagement, and a 30th birthday under my belt and I'm ready to start posting again. And what better way to resume than with a dreamlike leaders card.

Let's see who have here chattin' it up during this mound conference. First, Charlie Moore, who split the signal-calling duties with Rick Cerone that year for the Brew Crew. At the mound looking distraught, it's a tougher call. I'm not too familiar with '80s Brewers faces, but the number is either 42, 43 or 47. Of course, all three of those numbers were taken that year by hurlers, so I'm going to guess it's #47 Jamie Cocanower. With his face in the shadow it's tough to tell, but that's my guess.

I'm guessing that's Bamberger (one of my favorite names ever) chatting up Cocanower. But who's the other guy? It's either a 3B, SS or 2B, but it looks like he's wearing glasses, so it can't be Molitor. He's white, so it can't be Riles. Did Gantner wear glasses? I know he wore shades sometimes. Anyone know? I could be batting .250 on this card for all I know.

#55 - Tim Wallach

Hey, stripes that don't bother me! I like the red and blue up the side. They have a way of emphasizing motion as they turn and twist the player's movement. Plus, the stripes coordinate with pretty much everything else on the card. Wallach looks like he went to right with this swing.

Wallach is the first good player we've seen in awhile in this set. He was an OK offensive player, made 5 all star teams, won 3 gold gloves as a 3B, received MVP votes 3 times...that's an excellent career. He didn't walk enough, struck out too much and didn't hit for a very high average, but he was an important part of a bunch of decent Expos teams.

#54 - Bill Dawley

Kinda dorky posed shot here. But we do get a little peak at those goofy Chisox pants numbers they had in the '80s and those equally goofy warmup shirts that look like they were made from the tarp they roll out during rain delays. Do you think Bill's nickname was "Dilly"? I hope so.

As I've mentioned before, many relievers have great starts to their careers before batters figure them out. Dawley was no exception. He was fantastic his first two seasons, compiling a 120 ERA+ and 0.916 WHIP in nearly 80 innnings as a rookie, and followed that up with a whopping 171 ERA + and 1.194 WHIP in 98 innings his second year. Things went downhill from there and he was out of the league before he was 32.

Looking him up, I saw Dawley was drafted in the 7th round in the 1976 draft. I figured, he had a couple good years, so he might have been the most successful player drafted in that round. Uh, nope. Also drafted in the 7th round in '76: Two HOFers and an MVP. Ozzie Smith, Wade Boggs and Willie McGee. So much for that guess.

#53 - Ruppert Jones

Bland photo. Except for the fact that the catcher looks like he was cut out and pasted on, there's nothing much to say.

Ruppert Jones is our second guy in the last few cards who played in Japan. (Mel Hall did, too.) Jones was a decent player and even made two all-star teams. He had some power (24 homers in '77), some speed (33 SB in '79) and was a full-time center fielder for a few years. He was pretty inconsistent from year to year, at least in terms of batting average, which is probably why he couldn't stick with a team for long (6 teams in 12 seasons).

#52 - Keith Atherton

Quick, hold your tongue and say, "Keith Atherton." Sounds like "Keiss Asserton" doesn't it? Keith must have known that joke. With a 'stache like that, you gotta have a good sense of humor, right? Plus, what is going on with that cap? He's wearing that thing like a stovepipe hat. Maybe that's John Wilkes Booth in the background about to jump up and yell, "Thic themper tyrannis!"

Atherton was quite a middling middle reliever throughout his 7-season career. He had a great rookie season (as many relievers do) but then hitters figured him out and he settled into years of mediocrity, finishing with a 101 ERA+. He did contribute to the '87 World Series season for the Twins, but was pretty much a nonfactor in the postseason. He pitched the 9th in a 10-1 blowout victory in game one and then gave up 1 run in only a third of an inning in a 4-2 loss in game, getting called for a balk in the process.

#51 - Mel Hall

Not much to say about this card. Boring, and slightly peculiar shot, nothing interesting going on in the background. Even Mel's name is boring. That said, Hall is one of those *somewhat* obscure players I'll never forget, mostly because he is inextricably tied to a period of Yankee futility. (He played for the Bombers from '89-'92, a time when they never finished better than 4th in the AL East.) He's a perfect example of what was wrong with those Yankee teams. He was paid like a star but the only place he produced like one was in his own head.

Plus, he was a colossal idiot. I've heard/read a bunch of stories similar to those chronicling his torture of Bernie Williams, who, by most accounts is a pretty decent guy. And let's not even mention the allegations of sexual assault.

I'm not trying to associate his assholedness solely with the Yankees, he did play for the Cubs and Indians (and the Giants for bit after he came back from Japan), but I remember him mostly as a Yankee.

#50 - Dave Smith

There's not much visually separating Dave Smith from a BP pitcher chosen to throw in the Home Run Derby here. Grey hair, protruding gut, toneless arms...

However, Dave Smith was actually a damn fine reliever. He started out is career with a bang, coming out of the pen to throw 102 innings and finish with an ERA of 1.93. Somehow that earned him only a 5th place finish in the NL ROY voting, losing out to Steve Howe (druggie), Bill Gullickson (so-so career), Lonnie Smith (druggie) and Ron Oester (I have nothing to say about Ron Oester). Smith averaged around 60-75 innings per year and finished his career with a 2.67 ERA (129 ERA+). All in all, he was a very valuable reliever for some competitive Astros teams.