Friday, May 22, 2015

#414 - Gary Ward


What a card: Gary Ward had completed his first season with the Rangers when this card was created. He posted his second straight season of 170-plus hits in a season (171).

My observation on the front: Black bats are awesome.

More opinion from me: Every time I see a Gary Ward card I'm reminded how he was one of four cards that eluded me when I was trying to complete the 1989 Topps set.

Something you might know: Ward came up with the Twins and was one of the year's top rookies in 1981. He's the father of former major leaguer Daryle Ward, and the two are the first father-and-son combination to hit for the cycle.

Something you might not know: Ward claimed that his trade from the Twins to the Rangers in the offseason of 1983 was racially motivated. The Twins had the lowest number of minorities among all major league clubs at the time (as little as 3 or 4). The Twins denied Ward's accusation.


My observation on the back: I have never seen the statistic "TBB" nor heard of it to describe "Total Bases on Balls." Is there a "THR" for "Total Home Runs"?

The blog wants to speak now: The News category is updated.

2 comments:

Brandon said...

Saying so and so was a pitcher-shortstop in high school is probably true of 75% of major league players.

Rob said...

I saw Gary Ward in the Detroit Metro Airport once in the early 90's, when he was a Tiger. He was wearing a track suit and coming off a plane. I was totally starstruck, even though he wasn't a big name player at that point in his career.