#317 Gary Rajsich - New York Mets

Not only is this Gary Rajsich's rookie card, it's his only Topps card.  Looks like this picture of Rajsich breaking out of the box was taken when the Giants visited Shea Stadium.  Because he only played one day game against the Giants I'm pretty sure this picture was taken on May 9, 1982.  He batted three times in the game with a fly out to center, a ground out to first, and a single to right.  Judging by where Rajsich is looking I'd say were are looking at either the ground out or the single.

Player: Gary Rajsich went the baseball machine known as Arizona State which produced no less than 49 major league players in the 70s and 80s.  He was an 11th round pick of the Astros in 1976 and had a slow start to his pro career hitting for neither power or average his first three years.  He broke through with 20 home runs between two levels in '79 and was a minor league stud at AAA Tucson in 1980 batting .321/.435/.575 with 14 triples, 21 HR, 99 RBI, and 12 steals. 

At age 26 Rajsich wasn't exactly a blue chip prospect and the Astros traded him to the Mets for another minor leaguer with an even stranger name: John Csefalvay.  Rajsich took advantage of his fresh start at AAA Tidewater and crushed homers at an amazing clip.  He was on the Mets radar but with Dave Kingman, Lee Mazzilli, and Rusty Staub they had a glut of leftfielder / first base types.  With 24 home runs in 78 games and 288 plate appearances, Rajsich's season was ended by a broken wrist, otherwise he surely would have been a September call up.

Rajsich made the Mets opening day squad in '82 as a reserve and spent the year as a pinch-hitter finding playing time scarce until the last month of the season.  He struggled in the unfamiliar bench role and hit just a pair of homers while batting .256 in 162 at bats.

He spent most of '83 back at Tidewater waiting until rosters expanded before getting another chance.  He hit .333/.400/.500 in 40 plate appearances with only one strikeout which was  a major improvement since he K'd about 25% of the time in '82.  

Rajsich was sold to the Cardinals as rosters were taking shape in April of '84 but spent all but seven at bats at AAA Louisville where he clubbed 29 homers.  In the offseason he and three other Cards were sent to San Francisco in exchange for Jack Clark.  The Giants used him as a pinch-hitter and part time first baseman but he again struggled when he wasn't in the starting lineup.  He batted just .165 in 110 plate appearances and was demoted in July.  The Cards purchased his contract and he finished the year back at Louisville.  He spent the next three years playing in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons before retiring. 

Flipside: You can see from the numbers that Rajsich really improved after his first three years in the minors.  He credits the purchase of a $1,200 pitching machine after the '78 season for turning his career around.  He practiced relentlessly, with his wife feeding the machine and Rajsich hitting 400 pitches a day, taking heed from the Ted William adage that "the only way to learn how to hit, is to hit".

Oddball: There is saying that pinch hitting is one of the hardest things to do in sports.  You would get no argument from Rajsich, who was a mere 4 for 64 as a pinch hitter.  The rest of the time he was 70 for 232, a .302 average.

History:  Rajsich had a brief major league career with a career line of .236/.328/.345 in 149 games.  Perhaps he would have been off as a DH in the American League, but with a poor track record of pinch hitting, it's hard to say.  He has had a much better career as a scout, signing Jon Lester for the Red Sox.  Rajsich was named the Orioles director of amateur scouting in 2011.

#316 Paul Splittorff - Kansas City Royals

Paul Splittorff's 13th Topps card shows him mid delivery in a spring training location.  The picture is a frame a or two too late to capture his high leg kick for which he was known.

 

Player: Paul Splittorff was a part of the Royals inaugural free agent draft class in 1968.  Although the odds are long on a 25th round pick making the majors, Splittorff was the first Royal from that draft to make the big league roster when he was called up at the tail end of the 1970 season.  He was roughed up in two appearances allowing nine runs in 8.2 innings.

 

Splittorff got another chance in June, 1971 and pitched consistently, allowing three or less earned runs in 18 of his 22 starts.  The young southpaw finished with a 2.68 ERA (127 ERA+) in 144 frames of work.  Splittorff should have finished higher than the fifth place spot he received in a weak AL ROY class that saw Chris Chambliss win with a .275, 9 HR season.

 

The Royals found Splittorff to be a reliable starter in their rotation as he averaged 217 innings over the next nine seasons.  Although his ERA over that time frame was not spectacular at 3.77, he was a workhorse, twice racking up as many as 262 innings and five times making 35 or more starts.  He won a career high 20 games in '73 and 19 in '78. 

 

The Royals won four divisional titles and a pennant in 1980 with Splittorff, and though he wasn't the ace of the staff, he pitched well in the postseason with a 2-0 record and 2.79 ERA in 38.2 innings.  He got off to a rough start in '81 and then tossed an eleven inning six-hit shutout on May 23 against the Twins.  He came back on three days rest and was rocked and it was a struggle the rest of the year posting a career worst 4.36 ERA. 

 

At this stage of his career the soft tossing lefty was confined to the back of the rotation.  He made 28 starts in '82 with a 4.28 ERA but improved to a 3.63 mark in 27 starts in '83.  With a bevy of young pitchers in the system (Saberhagen, Gubicza, Jackson) and an sky high ERA of 7.7, Splittorff retired on June 29 after meeting with GM John Schuerholz. 

 



 

Flipside: You can really see that by the early 80s, Splittorff was a five to six inning starter as he had no complete games in '82 and just one in '81. 

I always appreciate players who stay with the same team their entire career.

 

Oddball: Splittorff struck out 61 batters in 156 innings in 1983.  So what's so odd about that you ask?  That total led the Royals staff!  Bud Black threw a few more innings but K'd just 58.  Veteran Larry Gura topped 200 frames but whiffed just 57. 

 

History: Splittorff holds many of the Royals career pitching marks including wins (166), starts (392) and innings pitched (2,554).  He moved into the broadcast booth for the Royals right after he retired, a position he held until he passed away in 2011. 

#315 Rick Burleson - California Angels

Judging by the trees in the background, Rick Burleson's 9th Topps card was taken in a spring training location. It's a good thing they took the picture when they did because Burleson played only 11 games in '82. 

 

Player: Rick Burleson was a first round pick of the Red Sox in the 1970 January draft and by 1974 was battling for a starting shortstop job in Boston.  Although he started the year at Pawtucket he was soon promoted.  He and Mario Guerrero started 81 games each at short and Burleson also got into 31 at second.  In 415 plate appearances he posted a .284/.320/.372 line and despite a record three errors in his first game, his freshman year was deemed a success and he finished 4th in the Rookie of the Year voting.

 

Burleson's rate stats dropped across the board in '75 (.252/..305/.329) but his play at shortstop was seen as a key to the Red Sox success.  Despite his lack of offense he received some MVP votes. His postseason was successful batting .444 in the ALCS and .295 in the World Series loss to the Reds. 

 

The man known as "Rooster" was a mainstay of the Red Sox for the rest of the decade as he averaged 153 games played from '75-'80.  His batting average fluctuated from a low of .248 to a high of .293 with single digit home run totals while playing good defense.  He was an AL All-Star and received a few stray MVP votes from '77-'79 with a Gold Glove in '79. 

 

Like many of his teammates, Burleson had contract squabbles with Boston so they traded him to California with Butch Hobson for Carney Lansford, Mark Clear, and Rick Miller.  The Angels signed Burleson to a six-year, $4.65 million deal, at the time the biggest contract ever for a shortstop.

 

Burleson's gritty all-out hustle made a positive impression on Angel fans who initially frowned on the trade and big contract.  His numbers in the stat ledger were some of the best of his career as he batted .293/.357/.372 with a career high 112 OPS+ in the abbreviated '81 campaign.  He was an All-Star for the fourth time and won the Silver Slugger award. 

 

Rooster's '82 season was a wash as he tore his rotator cuff two weeks into the season.  He battled to get back and played just 33 games in '83 but this was the tip of the iceberg of his health problems.  In spring training of '84 he re-injured his shoulder and he didn't return until September.  He played in just seven games and was limited to pinch hitting and pinch running duties.  In the offseason he dislocated his shoulder while lifting weights which caused nerve damage to the very area he was trying to strengthen.  The mishap cost him the entire '85 season, meaning he had played just 51 games over the past four years. 

 

Burleson mounted yet another come back and started the '86 season as the Halos' starting shortstop.  He was soon displaced by Dick Schofield but he was hitting well and started 38 games as a DH.  In all he batted .284/.363/.391 in 312 trips to the plate.  He got into four games in the ALCS and went three for eleven as the Angels fell to his former team.  After the season he received the Comeback Player of the Year award. 

 

With his contract up he signed with the Orioles to play second base but was batting just .209 when he received the pink slip in July.  He retired with a .273/.328/.361 stat line in parts of 13 seasons.

 

 

 

Flipside: Burleson played so little in '82 that three of his seven hits make the highlights section.

Oddball: Boston teammate Bill Lee summed up Rooster's intensity by saying "Some guys didn't like to lose, but Rick got angry if the score was even tied."

History: It might be hard to imagine Burleson as the type of player who would be the highest paid shortstop, but when he signed that big contract Robin Yount, Alan Trammell, and Ozzie Smith had yet to peak and Cal Ripken was still in the minors.  Rooster made most of his noise in the 70s a time when shortstops were held to lower offensive standard than the next two decades.  Burleson certainly was a good defender ranking second all-time in range factor per nine innings at SS with 5.245 chances.  To sum it up, Burleson had a nice stretch as the Red Sox sparkplug but he played just 253 games for the Angels. 

#314 Ken Dayley - Atlanta Braves

Rookie card alert! Well if you want to be technical, Donruss put out a card of Ken Dayley in their '82 set even though he hadn't yet reached the majors.  We've seen this background in a lot of cards and I probably should know what the location is.  Candlestick maybe?  Dayley looks a little bewildered in the inset picture or perhaps he's just looking into the sun. 

Player:  Ken Dayley was the third overall pick of the Braves in the 1980 draft out of the University of Portland.  After spending his first year at AA Savannah, Dayley pitched well at AAA Richmond in 1981, with a 3.33 ERA in 200 innings, but showed he wasn't quite ready for the majors by walking 117 batters.  He started the '82 season back at Richmond but was called up to the Braves in May.  He made 11 starts and had a handful of relief outings with mixed results before being sent back down at the end of July.  He returned in September, but did not pitch in the postseason for the Braves.  His stats on the year show improved control but he was hit pretty hard sporting a 4.54 ERA and 1.458 WHIP in 71 innings.

 

Dayley didn't initially make the team in '83 but was recalled in mid-June and was used as a spot starter and long man out of the pen.  The results were slightly better but the young pitcher improved a little bit to a 4.30 ERA in 104 frames. 

 

The southpaw made the Braves opening day roster and was supposed to be a part of Atlanta's rotation but after failing to make it past the fourth inning in three of his four starts he was demoted.  He was traded to the Cardinals in June with Mike Jorgensen for Ken Oberkfell.  The Cardinals put him right to work but after two disastrous starts and a mop up appearance he was sent down for the balance of the season.  Dayley's major league numbers were not pretty as he went 0-5 with a 7.99 ERA.

 

Dayley made the '85 Cardinals roster as a bullpen arm and was put to use right away with three scoreless outings in the first four games.  He was even trusted with some save opportunities and have four saves and a 0.95 ERA at the end of May.  He continued to be a dependable late inning option for manager Whitey Herzog as he saved 11 games with a 2.76 ERA in 65 innings.  Dayley was stellar in the postseason logging 12 shutout innings with a win and two saves, as the Cards fell to the Royals in the World Series.

 

Dayley was having a decent season '86 when he hit the shelf in July with a 3.26 ERA.  Tommy John surgery left him out of action until the following May.  He returned and pitched well with a 2.66 ERA and four saves.  He ran his postseason scoreless streak to 20.1 innings before he came into Game 6 of the World Series to face Kent Hrbek with the bases loaded.  Dayley surrendered a grand slam pushing the Twins lead to 10-5.  The Twins went on to win the game and took the series the next day.

 

The injury bug bit Dayley again when he injured his back while pitching on opening day in '88.  He missed five weeks but put up similar numbers to the year prior with a 2.77 ERA in 55 frames.  Dayley was healthy and continued his strong pitching with a third consecutive season with a sub-three ERA (2.87) and a career high 12 saves.  His ERA rose to 3.56 in 1990 but he was still effectively keeping men off base as he allowed less than eight runners per nine innings for the fourth year in a row. 

 

The Blue Jays signed the free agent Dayley after the 1990 season to a three year $6.3 million deal but it was a disaster as the Blue Jays would get just five innings from Dayley over the next three years.  Dayley was plagued by vertigo and elbow problems and finished his career in '93 at AAA Albuquerque allowing 15 runs in 10 innings before calling it quits.   

 



Flipside:  Not sure how many of those minor league complete games were of the nine inning variety. At the big league level Dayley made 33 starts and worked into the eighth inning just twice and never completed a game.  His best shot came on 6/24/83 when he carried a five-hit shutout and a ten run lead into the ninth inning against the Reds.  Dayley gave up a double to Gary Redus to start the inning and retired the next two batters before giving up a home run to Johnny Bench.  A single, walk, and a double to the next three hitters got him the hook in favor of Steve Bedrosian who put out the fire. 

Oddball:  These days St. Louis fans see a lot more of Dayley's daughter Sara than they do of him. Sara Dayley is an anchor for KSDK and Rams in game reporter.

History:  Once Dayley found his niche in the majors he had a nice stretch with a 2.98 ERA and 39 saves from '85 - '90.  He twice was on pennant winners with St. Louis, but was on the disabled list when the Blue Jays won back to back in '92 and '93.

 You can follow me, this blog, and the Oddballs blog on Twitter @989baseball

#313 Gary Gray - Seattle Mariners

Gary Gray, Gray Gary, Gary Gary, Gray Gray. 
Gary Gray's cards always throw me for a loop when flipping through a stack.  I'm not dyslexic but I always have to pause to read his name correctly.
Let's look at Gray's second Topps card.  He's is batting in a sunny spring training picture and has a crooked hat in the inset.  The OUTFIELD-1st BASE label is inaccurate.  Gray played just 11 games in the OF in his career and none at all in '82

Player: Gary Gray was a streaky right-handed hitter drafted by the Rangers in the 18th round in 1974.  By hitting over .300 each year he advanced a level each year and debuted with Texas in 1977 with two at bats.  The next two years he hit .300+ at AAA with 13 and 17 homers but found playing time scarce at the big league level.  He came to bat about 50 times each year but hit just .240 and .238 in his brief opportunities. 

Before the 1980 season the Rangers included him in a multi-player deal that sent him to Cleveland.  He showed he had nothing left to prove in the minors throttling AAA pitching at a .335/.414/.577 clip in 96 games.  Called up to the Indians he started four games right off the bat but then rarely played the rest of the year.  He batted just .148 in 54 at bats with a pair of homers.

The Indians left him off the 40 man roster and he was plucked by the Mariners in the Rule-5 draft.  Platooning with Bruce Bochte, Gray finally got a chance to play in '81 and hit 13 homers.  The power was evident but he walked just four times with 44 whiffs en route to a .245/.257/.476 slash line.

Gray was sent down to Salt Lake City to start the '82 season, perhaps with the intention of refining his definition of the strike zone.  When he returned in May he showed better judgment at the plate with 24 walks against 59 strikeouts in 295 plate appearances.  He lost some pop along the way and hit just seven homers while hitting .257.

The Mariners sold Gray to the Angels after the '82 season but he never played for California. He spent the four of the next five years playing in Mexico but never made it back to the majors. 

 

Flipside: These are Gray's career stats and his last card.

 

Oddball: Gray was tried in leftfield in order to get his bat in the lineup but according to 1983: The Scouting Report he had terrible time judging fly balls. 

 

History: Gray was a minor league stud but couldn't get it done in the majors.  In over 1,700 plate appearances at the AAA level he posted a .312/.368/.510 line.  In 663 trips to the plate in the majors he hit .240/.281/.402. 

#312 Brian Kingman - Oakland A's

I swear these Oakland A's cards aren't fluorescent but they show up that way.  Brian Kingman's fourth Topps card shows the hurler on the mound adjusting his cap.  I should count how many A's cards have the brighter green hat in the inset pic versus the newer darker green in the main picture.

 

Player: Brian Kingman signed with the A's as undrafted free agent in 1975 after he graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara.  Featuring a good fastball and hard breaking curve ball he advanced through the A's system.  By mid 1979 he was in the A's rotation and made 17 starts with an 8-7 record, and a 4.31 ERA in 112 innings. 

 

Kingman's 1980 season would shape the rest of his life.  He was the A's number five starter for what amounted to a .500 team (83-79) and although his rate stats were not terrible with a 3.83 ERA (98 ERA+) and 1.377 WHIP, he lost 20 games with just 8 wins.  The A's scored more than three runs for him in just nine of his 30 starts and were shutout five times.  Compare his stats to those of teammate Steve McCatty:

 

                  ERA    IP     WHIP     H/9   HR/9     BB/9   SO/9

Kingman    3.83   211   1.377    8.9    0.9       3.5      4.9

McCatty    3.86   221   1.358    8.2    1.1       4.0      4.6

 

Kingman gave up a few more hits but was otherwise better than McCatty in the other rate stats. These look more like the numbers of a .500 pitcher and at 14-14 that's what McCatty was.  The A's scored 5.04 runs per game for McCatty but screwed Kingman over by plating just 2.87.  Kingman was the fall guy and lived with the 20 loss tag the rest of his career.

 

Kingman wasn't bad in '81 but he couldn't buy a win either.  He was yanked from the rotation in August and finished the year 3-6 with a 3.98 ERA in 100 innings.  He started the '82 season in the minors and was recalled in June.  He wasn't fooling hitters much as their hits became more frequent and the strikeouts waned.  If nothing else he was determined to earn a win, twice working into extra innings and facing more than 40 batters.  He finished the year at 4-12 with a 4.48 ERA, bringing his career mark to 23-45.

 

He was sold to Boston in the offseason but cut in spring training.  The Giants picked him up and he pitched poorly and appeared in just three games.  He spent the rest of the year in the minors and retired from pro ball after the season.

 

 

Flipside: Those 10 complete games jump out and seem impressive until looking at the team stats and seeing that he was fifth on the team in complete games.

  

Oddball:  Starting in 2000, Kingman would travel to a pitcher's game if he was on the verge of losing 20 games.  He even brought a voodoo doll to help ward off a loss.  It "worked" four consecutive times for three different pitchers.  Kingman was out of the country and not able to attend when Mike Maroth lost his 20th game for a terrible Tiger team in 2003.

 

History: Kingman was long known as the last pitcher to lose 20 games and it was an albatross he carried as a player.  However he embraced it in retirement, thankful that he was remembered for something. 

His could have benefited from a move to the bullpen.  He didn't have the stamina that A's manager Billy Martin pushed for and that the other A's pitchers possessed.  In his 20 loss season in 1980 he had a .196 opponent batting average with no home runs allowed in the first inning.  In his career he only pitched 12 games in relief and those stats are skewed by his three bad outings for the Giants at the end of his career.  Perhaps he could have been an effective one or two inning reliever, but we'll never know. 

Kingman retired with a 23-45 record, 4.13 ERA, and a 92 ERA+ in 551 innings.   

 

 

 

 

 

#311 Glenn Brummer - St. Louis Cardinals

Glenn Brummer second Topps card is shows him in a non-game shot.  Seeing a catcher on a card crouching without gear is nothing new as Topps used this type of pose a lot in the 70s but this seems like a new angle anyway.  The brick wall in the background indicates that Wrigley Field is the venue.  Would you believe that Brummer is, at most, 27 years old in the inset picture?  At least it's a better look than his rookie card.

Player:  Glenn Brummer signed as undrafted free agent in 1974 and as such was never really considered a prospect.  In fact he was a backup his entire minor league career, never getting more than 367 at bats in a season.  He got the call to the big leagues in May of '81 when Darrell Porter went down with an injury.  Veteran Gene Tenace got most of the starts but Brummer and fellow journeyman Orlando Sanchez took turns spelling him behind the plate.  Porter returned two months later and Brummer stuck around as a spare part, catching a few innings here and there.  Brummer got into 21 games with 6 hits in 30 at bats.

 

Brummer was in the majors most of the year with the Cardinals serving as a third catcher behind Porter and Tenace.  Brummer batted .234 in 64 at bats and did not draw a walk. On August 22 Brummer made a play against the Giants that would be remembered by all that were fortunate to see it.  He entered the game at catcher after Steve Braun pinch hit for Gene Tenace and the game went to extra innings.  With one out in the bottom of the 12th, Brummer singled and moved to third after a pair of singles were sandwiched around a foul out.  With the bases loaded and two outs and a 1-2 count on David Green, Brummer shocked everyone in the stadium by stealing home, sliding head first with the winning run.  He hadn't stolen a base since 1980 and wasn't known for his speed but his aggressive play exemplified the Cardinals approach. 

 

Home plate ump Dave Pallone took some heat for not staying in position to call the pitch strike three which would have been three outs, but that is a no win situation for any umpire.

 

The steal would define Brummer's career and was a spark for the Cardinals who went on to win the NL East and the World Series with Brummer playing just an inning on defense in game six.

 

Brummer and Jamie Quirk split the back-up duties in '83 and Brummer had decent production for an end of the bench sub, batting .276/.351/.356 in 99 plate appearances.  Tom Nieto was Porter's main backup in '84 and Brummer made just 61 trips to the plate with .207 average.  He hit his only career home run off of Scott Sanderson on 4/18/84.

 

He received his release from the Redbirds the following spring and hooked up with the Rangers.  In Texas he and Geno Petralli backed up Don Slaught.  Brummer played in a career high 49 games and batted .278.  He was released in November and spent '86 at Hawaii, his last year as an active player.

 

Flipside: You can see from his stolen base and triple totals that Brummer wasn't that quick so it's no wonder he took the Giants by surprise.

 

Oddball:  In '77 the Cards lent Brummer to the Mets single-A affiliate in Lynchburg in 1977 where he hit the best of his career, with a .328/.370/.380 line in 146 trips to the plate.

 

History:  Brummer's steal of home is what he is remembered for and by going all out without the steal sign he was putting his career on the line.  Third string catchers usually don't have a lot of rope but Brummer was safe and the rest is history.  He played parts of five seasons in the majors with a .251 average in 347 at bats.