What a card: This card was issued just prior to Ron Gardenhire's final season in the major leagues. He'd play in 26 games for the Mets in 1985, a year in which he spent most of his time in the minors. He was in the minors again in '86 (The year the Mets won the World Series). He was traded to Minnesota after the 1986 season but never played in the majors for the Twins.
My observation on the front: Gardenhire is shockingly skinny compared with the rotund Twins manager that we know today.
More opinion from me: I did a post on "the expanding manager" phenomenon quite some time ago. I even used this card in it.
Something you might know: The American League manager of the year in 2010, Gardenhire is the longest tenured manager in the majors after the Angels' Mike Scioscia.
Something you might not know: Gardenhire's son, Toby, is the baseball coach for the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
My observation on the back: The blurb about Gardenhire asking players to sign his Baseball Encyclopedia is true. During his playing days and coaching days, Gardenhire lugged a 1982 Baseball Encyclopedia with him everywhere and personally asked for players to sign it. He stopped doing it when he became a manager and said he planned to hand the book down to his son. Here is a story on it.
The blog wants to speak now: The Movies and News categories are updated. I forgot how many hijackings there were in '85.
2 comments:
Couldn't agree more. Hard to believe that stocky guy with white hair is the same guy as in this card.
It's interesting that he was born in Germany.
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