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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Brian Brady, Phoenix Firebirds - 539


Check out the more in-depth feature on Brian Brady, posted in July 2011: Brian Brady, Hall Encounters

When I do these posts, I'll be using Baseball Reference as my primary source, but I'll also be doing some Google searches, to make sure there isn't anything else out there about a player.

This Google search included an account of a conversation between two men, with one of the participants, Brian Brady, having 4,255 fewer major league hits than the other participant.

Brian Brady, an outfielder for the Phoenix Firebirds, is interesting enough. He made the majors with the Angels in April 1989, playing in only two games, getting to bat just twice. He doubled in his first at bat, April 16. He struck out in his second at bat six days later, in what would be his final at bat. Interestingly, Baseball Reference credits Brady with an RBI for his double, his stat line on his card doesn't.


His season with Phoenix was his last of seven in the minors, batting just .254.

Now for Brady's meeting with hit king Pete Rose. Esquire reporter Scott Raab, blogging after a 2007 World Series blowout, included the story in his effort. Raab uses the Moonlight Graham reference, though as I've mentioned, there are at least two players in the CMC set closer to Moonlight, with only a single major league at bat each.

The meeting was in early 1997 at a card show in Texas. Raab describes Rose as upset at the turnout. Then Brady walks up, wanting Rose to sign a newspaper clipping.

Brady's teammates used to call him "Charlie Hustle," Brady explained.

"That's what they called me," Raab quoted Brady as saying. "You were my idol growin' up. You were one of my inspirations to make it to the big leagues. They told me I didn't have much. I broke my ass and made it."

Raab implies that Rose appears uninterested, responding with a "Nice seein' ya," and then "two more hours" when Brady asked how long he would be in town.

Brady responded himself with a "nice seein' ya," then turned around and left.
1990 CMC Tally
Cards Reviewed: 4/880
Major Leaguers: 2
Never Made the Majors: 2
100+ Games in the Majors: 0
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 1

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Ruben Escalera, Denver Zephyrs - 49

Be sure to check out the revisited Ruben Escalera feature from June 2011: Ruben Escalera, Rookie Manager

Ruben Escalera, also known as Carlos Escalera, is another player with a long minor league playing career who turned his sights on a minor league managing career.

Escalera played eight seasons in the minors from 1985 to 1992, spending all but his final season in the Brewers' system. He got as high as AAA, playing for the Denver Zephyrs in 1990 and the Nashville Sounds in 1992, but he never made the majors.

He debuted in 1985 with the rookie league Helena Gold Sox, hitting .349. But he wouldn't bat over .300 again until 1991 with the AA El Paso Diablos. It was with El Paso that the outfielder even tried his hand at pitching, tossing two scoreless innings over two seasons.

It was in 1995, after his playing career was over, that Escalera joined the Athletics, becoming a scout, according to his listing at the Baseball Reference Bullpen. He then worked to help others have rookie league success, first as a coach of the AZL Athletics, then six seasons managing the team, winning Arizona League Manager of the year in 2006.

Cards Reviewed: 3/880
Major Leaguers: 1
Never Made the Majors: 2
100+ Games in the Majors: 0
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 1

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Chris Cron, Vancouver Canadians - 498


Be sure and check out the revisited Chris Cron feature from February 2011:
Chris Cron, Eating and Sleeping

Chris Cron and his Fungo bat made it to the majors in 1991, the year after this card came out. Aug. 15, 1991, he pinch hit for Dave Parker in an Angels late in a 9 to 1 blowout of the Twins.

Cron's Fungo bat on his card appears appropriate. The bats are used by coaches for batting practice. He would later manage for 12 seasons in the White Sox and Rockies systems.

As for his major league career, he stuck for five more games in 1991, making it back to the majors in 1992. This time he stuck around just as long with the White Sox. In those 12 games, Cron got just two hits in 27 plate appearances. Both hits came for the Angels.

Cron's first taste of the majors came after seven seasons in the minors, starting in 1984 with the rookie league Pulaski Braves in Virginia. He hung on as a player for parts of a dozen seasons, until 1995. He spent 21 games that year playing for the Nashville Sounds, the White Sox AAA team.

It was that same summer that he took the helm of rookie league Bristol White Sox. He managed as high as AAA, heading the Colorado Springs Sky Sox for three seasons from 2000 to 2001. Most recently, he managed the Great Falls White Sox, another rookie league team, in 2007.

According to Wikipedia, he's currently a roving White Sox minor league infield coach.

Cards Reviewed: 2/880
Major Leaguers: 1
Never Made the Majors: 1
100+ Games in the Majors: 0
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 1

Glenn Sullivan, Iowa Cubs - 90

Be sure and check out the revisited Glenn Sullivan feature from March 2011: Glenn Sullivan, Came Back

Another movie I'll be referencing in this blog is the other Kevin Costner baseball movie, Field of Dreams. In the movie, Kevin Costner's Ray Kinsella is meets Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, who played in one major league game, but never got to bat. The player himself is real. He played in one game, June 29, 1905, for the New York Giants. But he never got to bat.

In the 1990 CMC set, I've gone through about 60 percent of the set, so far finding two players who were near Moonlight Grahams, each with only a single at bat to their major league careers, one of them got a hit in that only at bat, the other didn't. And that was it. More on them later.


For my first member of the 1990 CMC set, I think I'll start with a member of the 1990 Iowa Cubs, infielder Glenn Sullivan. Sullivan played only 28 games with the Iowa Cubs that year, playing another 100 with the Cubs' AA team the Charlotte Knights. In 68 at bats with Iowa, Sullivan got only 7 hits. Between the two teams, he batted only .228.

In all, Sullivan spent five seasons in the Cubs' system, spending his first year with the short-season Geneva Cubs, the next with the single A Winston-Salem Spirits. He showed promise with Geneva, hitting .301, but never came close to that success again.

He never made the majors. The Irving, Tx., native even hung on in the independent Texas-Louisana League for parts of three seasons, 1995, 1996 and 1998.

1990 CMC Tally:
Cards reviewed: 1
Major Leaguers: 0

Monday, December 28, 2009

The Greatest 21 Days

One of my favorite movies has to be Bull Durham. Out in 1988, the movie debuted the year I turned 10 and the year I saw my first major league baseball game. 

I don't remember the first time I saw it. It was probably later on TV. But I loved the look inside the Durham Bulls, the players on the fast track, Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh, and the guys who'd hung on as long as they can, doing what they knew how to do, like Kevin Costner's Crash Davis. 

In this blog, I intend to take a look at a baseball card set that I saw a little bit of as a kid, and it still intrigues me today. It's CMC's 1990 "Pre-Rookie" set. 

The set boasts a total of 880 cards, comprising all 26 AAA teams and looks at players in AA and single A. 

The set was obviously trying to capitalize on the rookie craze - it's tag line was "Tomorrow's Major League Superstars Today." 

But at its heart was essentially minor league team sets presented in random packs like a major league offering. 

What makes this set so interesting, however, is that it's not simply a look at "future stars," it includes every player, with no apparent regard to whether the player's best days were ahead of him or behind him. 

Also, 2010 will mark the 20th anniversary for the set, more than enough time for every player in it to have played his last game, whether that game was in the show or deep in the independent leagues. 

Their futures, now the past, will be told with the help of the cool site Baseball-Reference.com

In Bull Durham, Crash Davis tells Nuke LaLoosh of "the show," how someone always carries your bags, you hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals. It was the greatest 21 days of his life. 

This blog will be about these 880 or so players in the 1990 CMC baseball card set, among them the Albuquerque Dukes' Butch Davis, and how many of them saw their greatest 21 days.