#28 - Rick Dempsey

Hey, it's Gregg Zaun's uncle! I actually had no idea about that until I looked him up on B-R. Dempsey looks positively weather-beaten in this photo. He was only 36 when it was taken but he looks about 10 years older than that. The stylist should have straightened him up a bit, too. Look how askew his chest protector is.

For some reason I remember Dempsey as a much better player than he actually was. He racked up 400+ ABs in a season only once, which makes it all the more amazing that he stuck around the bigs for an incredible 24 seasons. Think about that for a second. 24 seasons for a catcher. Compare him to his nephew, Zaun who has had a very similar career, numbers-wise. Zaun is 37 years old and would have to play 10 MORE SEASONS to match Dempsey.

Volume metrics aside, Dempsey was a really lousy hitter. Over those 24 seasons he 140 more strikeouts than walks, only 96 homers, 471 RBI, and an OPS+ of 87. OK, so we've established he couldn't hit. Well guess what. HE WAS A WORLD SERIES MVP! That's right, in '83 Dempsey hit .385 over the 5 games with a whopping 1.390 OPS. Amazing. That might have been the best 5-game stretch of his career and he did it in the Series.

#20 - Gary Carter

What looks like a nice action shot here is just Carter throwing down to second after some warmup pitches. Knowing that, it's not as cool a photo as it seems at first glance. But it's a decent look at a Hall of Famer who was seen as the premier offensive catcher in the National League during the late 70s and early-mid 80s.

Because of his position, Carter was a bit overrated as an hitter, but he certainly was a gamer. Twice in his career he caught over 150 games ('78 and '82) which is extremely rare in today's game, and even through history stands up as quite an achievement. In fact, Johnny Bench only did it once, Yogi never did it, Fisk did it twice, Bob Boone never did it, Campy never did it...the list goes on.