Tuesday, April 14, 2015

#400 - 1984 United States Baseball Team: Oddibe McDowell


What a card: Oddibe McDowell is the eighth of 11 '84 U.S. Baseball Team members shown so far to have reached the majors. In fact, McDowell was already in major league baseball when this card was issued. He is the only player featured in this set to also have another card in the Traded set.

My observation on the front: Go, ahead, Oddibe is saying, impress me.

More opinion from me: I don't remember the specifics, but I'm sure that I cracked up the first time I heard there was a baseball player named "Oddibe".

Something you might know: McDowell was named the best amateur baseball player in the country in 1984 and finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1985.

Something you might not know: McDowell and Rangers teammate Darrell Porter are part of select group to have hit back-to-back pinch-hit home runs. It happened against the Red Sox on Sept. 1, 1986 against pitcher Steve Crawford.


My observation on the back: McDowell is one of the few non-major league players to have received a "double zero" card number in a Topps flagship set. The others are league presidents (late 1950s) and first-year players/prospects (late '90s/past decade).

The blog wants to speak now: The Ballgames category is updated once again.

3 comments:

gcrl said...

oh, how this card confused me when i was opening 1985 topps packs. i always took a look at who topps gave the 'tribute numbers' to, and when i opened a pack with the checklist that included card #400 i was so confused.

Stack22 said...

I suspect giving Oddibe the "X00" # number was no accident.

For no particular reason that I can explain this is one of my all-time favorite baseball cards. If I ever have a son there will be a huge fight with my wife over whether or not to name him Oddibe.

Spiff said...

The best baseball player ever name Oddibe. Great guy.