#63 - Fred Toliver

Our string of mediocrity continues. Here we have Fred Toliver, who doesn't look happy. Maybe his undershirt is itchy. I'm not sure why, but he sorta looks exactly how a guy named Fred should look. Good for him. Or his parents.

Toliver is another guy with a career that didn't last. So let's take a look at his homer log. He gave up 21 career homers, and there are some big names on the list, including Craig Biggio, Gary Carter, Eddie Murray, Dave Parker, Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson. Hey, if you're gunna get beat, it might as well be by guys like that.

#60 - Tony Pena

Great card. Nice action shot of one of the best defensive catchers of his time taking a throw to the plate. You even see his eyes concentrating on receiving the throw, the Rawlings logo on his mask and "All-Star" on his chest protector.

A below average offensive player with occasional pop, Pena more than made up for it with his play behind the dish. He won 4 gold gloves (3 in Pittsburgh, 1 in Boston) and handled a staff as well as anyone. When he came to Boston, he was one of my favorite players from the first time he lowered himself into that one-legged crouch. Hopefully the guy gets a chance to manage again someday. He did an amazing job with the '03 Royals, guiding them to 83 wins, despite the fact that they had a staff of immortals like Darrell May, Chris George and Runelvys Hernandez.

#35 - Sid Bream

Ladies and gentlemen, your 1990 Hutch Award winner! Um, what? I had to look that one up. Apparently, the Hutch Award is given annually to "an active player who best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire to win." (from Wikipedia). The award was created in honor or Fred Hutchinson, a major league pitcher who died of cancer in 1965. Most of the recipients were players who overcame a tremendous amount of adversity (usually health-related) to be productive major league players. For example, Tony C won it in 1970, 3 years after being hit in the eye. Dave Dravecky won it in '89 after coming back from the removal of a cancerous tumor. And most recently, John Lester took it hom after kicking lymphoma's ass and becoming one of the top lefties in the AL.

So it's not an honor to take lightly. Which is good because if it wasn't for the famous play at the plate that won the Braves the NL pennant in 1992, Bream would be mostly forgotten.

Now the card itself. Ah those stupid Pirates hats. Couldn't be more annoying to a self-proclaimed stripe-hater. Seriously, what was up with those damn caps? Pittsburgh should have just gone all the way and had the players wear pirate hats like the one in the logo. But other than that and the fact that Bream looks like he's trying to take a crap on the first base bag, the card is decent. Bland photo but not terrible.

#16 - Pat Clements

Aside from the fact that he looks like he's 12 in this photo, I don't have a lot to say about Pat Clements or his card. Decent shot of a Rawlings glove and that goofy Pirates that looks like something you might have seen John C. Reilly wear in Gangs of New York.

Pat was was a reliever for his somewhat brief major league tenure but did make two career starts. One came October 2, 1988, when Pat threw 6 innings o 3-run ball against a Tigers team who finished 1 game out of first in the AL East. He got a no-decision as a guy we just looked at, Dave Righetti, picked up the loss. A year later, this time pitching for San Diego, he gave up 5 runs in 3 innings to St. Louis. No wonder he didn't start many games.