#62 - Bobby Meacham

Hey, it's Bernie Williams without his glasses! Oh wait, it's Bobby Meacham. Nothing too notable about this photo, other than the armband Meacham is wearing on his left sleeve. I had to look it up, but Yankees players wore that band in 1986 in memory of Roger Maris, who passed away in December, 1985. By the way, check this out. It's a great resource for information regarding patches and armbands in baseball history.

Meacham had a short career and didn't play much during that time. He was a lousy hitter and not good enough defensively to make up for it, so NY was constantly trying to find guys to replace him. Talking to a Yankee fan, he commented, "I used to think Meacham was the definition of a good shortstop in my jaded, terrible Yankee teams of the late '80s kind of way." I think that sums it up.

#57 - Scott Nielsen

'87 Topps is back! For good this time. And what better way to revive the dormant blog with...a really boring card. It's too bad the shadows didn't completely overwhelm Nielsen's face (instead of just mostly), because then we might have been spared the sight of his terrible teeth. But aside from that, I like the cap logo right next to that other "Yankees" logo Topps decided to use. I always hated that stupid top hat in that illustration.

Scott had an unremarkable career. He pitched parts of 4 seasons, sometimes as a starter, never very successfully. He did give up a large % of his homers to Red Sox and former Red Sox, which makes sense considering he played the bulk of his short career for the Yanks. Of the 26 homers he gave up, here are the one-time Sox:

Bill Buckner
Tom Brunanski
Jose Canseco
Dave Henderson
Gary Gaetti
Rob Deer

#40 - Dave Righetti

Not much to say about this card. We see Righetti's high leg kick here, which is kinda cool, but I'm partial to the pitcher shots where the guy is a little further into his delivery, showing some more physical intensity. Looks like Dave liked Pumas.

While pretty much everyone (myself included) remembers Righetti as a closer, he was actually a pretty solid starter for the Yanks at the beginning of his career. He made 15 starts in '81, edging such future stars as Shooty Babitt in the Rookie of the Year voting. In '83, he went 14-8, 3.44 with 169 Ks. Not too shabby. But the next year, NY converted Righetti into a closer and that's where he found a home. In '86 he set the single season save record with 46 and continued to be an effective, though not dominant closer into the early 90s.

#15 - Claudell Washington

Aside from the fact that the background in this photo looks way too artificially blurry, this is a pretty great card. Claudell has clearly poked what looks like a lazy fly to right and is appropriately taking his time getting out of the box. But not before he kicked up a nice cloud of dirt, a very cool touch. (Thanks for not making this green, Topps!) Plus, it's a great full body shot, with Claudell squarely and completely in the frame.

I don't have many memories of Claudell Washington, but he's a lot older than I thought. I had assumed he came up around 1980, but 1975 was his first full season. Looking at his stats, he had a fairly productive, although somewhat middling career, which explains why he played the As, Rangers, ChiSox, Mets, Braves, Yankees, Angels and Yankees again. He would have been a lot more valuable if he could draw a walk once in awhile (.325 career OBP), but guess what? His career OPS+ was STILL better than Joe Carter (106-105).

#5 - Dave Righetti Record Breaker

Ah, I see why Topps decided to call Davey Lopes "Dave." They didn't want Righetti to be the only record-breaking Dave.

In '86, Righetti set the single-season saves record of 46. That number has been exceeded several times since then, and in '08 K-Rod set the new record with 62. So I'll use this as an opportunity to complain about how overrated K-Rod is. Last year he saved 62 games...in only 68 and a third innings. That's a pretty amazing feat, and you guessed it, he had exactly zero saves of more than one inning. And the first time all year he was left out there to try to close one out for more than an inning, he got the loss in game 5 of the ALDS against the Sox. Yes, he had a pretty good ERA for a closer of 2.24, but he also has had a WHIP that has climbed the last three years, finishing at 1.288 last year. That is NOT good for a guy who's supposed to be an elite closer.

Let's take a look at the WHIPs of the other AL saves leaders in '08:

Joaquim Soria: 42 saves, 0.861 WHIP
Jonathan Papelbon: 41 saves, 0.952 WHIP
Joe Nathan: 39 saves, 0.901 WHIP
Mariano Rivera: 39 saves, 0.660!!! WHIP
BJ Ryan: 32 saves, 1.276 WHIP
George Sherrill: 31 saves, 1.500 WHIP
Bobby Jenks: 30 saves, 1.103 WHIP
Troy Percival: 28 saves, 1.226 WHIP

So the only top save guy with a worse WHIP was George Sherrill, who was only a closer out of necessity and finished the season with a 4.73 ERA. The Mets should be a little worried.