Wednesday, June 3, 2015

#418 - Ken Landreaux


What a card: Ken Landreaux was coming off a disappointing 1984 season in which all of his numbers dipped from the previous season. It was actually the beginning of the end for Landreaux, who was a part-time player with the Dodgers by 1986.

My observation on the front: It appears that Landreaux is wearing the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics patch that the Dodgers wore in '84 to recognize the Olympic baseball games being played in Dodger Stadium.

More opinion from me: I desperately wanted Landreaux to play for the Dodgers when he was with the Twins, and was elated when the Dodgers traded for him. But right about 1985, I finally realized that he wasn't all I hoped he would be for L.A.

Something you might know: Landreaux set a Twins record for hitting in 31 straight games in 1980.

Something you might not know: Landreaux threw out two runners from center field and was part of a relay that gunned down another runner at home plate during his first game in the major leagues. In the sixth inning, Landreaux threw out the White Sox's Richie Zisk, who was trying to tag up from second to go to third. In the ninth inning, he threw out pinch-runner John Flannery at third base who was also trying to advance from second on a fly ball. In the eighth, his throw to shortstop Rance Mulliniks, who relayed to catcher Terry Humphrey, caught runner Bob Coluccio at home. Coluccio was trying to score from first on a Chet Lemon double.


My observation on the back: The second-place pitcher in career wins -- Walter Johnson -- is almost 100 wins behind Cy Young. They're going to have to change the way they define "wins" for this record to ever be broken.

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

2 comments:

steelehere said...

I'd love to see a Tony LaRussa type manager have a crazy idea in the future where he uses the exact same pitcher for the 5th inning all season long and as a result some pitcher gets 80+ wins in a season. It would drive the traditional fans in love with the win statistic crazy.

Unknown said...

The play by play on the Angels-White Sox game is messed up-all the players mentioned were on the White Sox, except Kenny