#48 - Wally Backman

OK, at some point over the last few years I lost Wally Backman. I don't know how, I know I had him, but for now at least, he's missing. So I had to find a photo of the card and post it here. I'm pretty pissed that I lost it, which is one reason I held off so long in posting this (the other reason being that I spent a lot of time looking for the card), but here we go.

Aside from the fact that Wally looks like he's about to me smashed on the shoulder by someone who looks whiter than Tony Pena (anyone?), this is a great action shot. I love all the dirt kicked up by Backman's slide, the look on his face and the eyeblack. Very nice.

Wally Backman fit the profile of your classic 1980's utility infielder. Solid D, no bat. His best season came for the '86 Mets when he hit .320 in 387 ABs, playing a big part in their World Series season. Over the course of his career, he absolutely destroyed Rick Mahler. In 49 ABs, he hit .510 off him!

#39 - Marty Barrett

This is an odd photo. How many times to see a second baseman throwing from second with his foot actually on the bag? Usually he's straddling the bag, but in this shot, Barrett has his foot squarely on the base. He also has a goofy look on his face that makes him look about 80 years old. I wonder if the guys ever got together after a day game to play basketball on the court in the background.

There's not much to say about Barrett's career, so I go with a story instead. When I was in college, Sean McDonough, former TV voice of the Sox and national voice of many CBS sporting events, was speaking for a sports psychology class I was taking. I remember very little of the speech, but I do recall his answer to a student who asked, "Did you ever say anything on air you regretted?" McDonough couldn't think of anything he said on air (which I find hard to believe), but he told the story of the time when Marty Barrett was nearing the end of his tenure with the Sox. Dealings between the team and player got a little nasty and Barrett had Jody Reed breathing down his neck, so the Sox had all the leverage.

Anyway, around that time, McDonough was an up and coming announcer, as some people were comparing him to Bob Costas, who was becoming a star play by play guy for NBC. McDonough had made some critical comments about Barrett recently, so one day when Barrett ran into McDonough in the hallway, Barrett said, "I hear all these people talking about you being the next Costas. That's bullshit. You're about as close to Costas as I am to Ryne Sandberg."

To which McDonough replied, "At least you know how far you are from Ryne Sandberg."

#4 - Dave Lopes Record Breakers

Brace yourself for a tangent here.

OK, first Dave Lopes? Not Davey? OK, Topps. But overall this is a great shot of Lopes...on the bench. Which actually makes sense considering he only had 255 ABs in the year he stole 25 bases. Now, that doesn't seem like a lot of ABs for a guy with that many swipes, but then I found the '70s As. I'm too young to have watched these teams, so someone will have to fill me in if they have any firsthand knowledge of how this team played, but WOW. In 1974, Herb Washington stole 29 bases and had ZERO ABs. Zero! The guy played in 92 games...and he never played the field!!! So he pinch ran in all those 92 games. And what's worse, he was caught stealing 16 times! That's a terrible %.

What's more, this was not an isolated year. Check out the 1975 team, 1976, etc. And it wasn't just one wacky manager's philosophy; they did this year after year. Am I the only one who finds this interesting?