Friday, July 1, 2016

#549 - Mike Scioscia


What a card: Mike Scioscia was coming off a nice comeback season when this card was issued. He missed virtually all of the 1983 season with a torn rotator cuff and came back to play in 114 games with a .273 average in 1984. The 1985 season would be the most productive of his career.

My observation the front: Scioscia is demonstrating his tagging style at the plate. Unlike most catchers of the time, who would clutch the ball in the glove with one hand, Scioscia let the glove do all the work and kept his right hand outside the glove.

More opinion from me: I'm not one to pin a team's success all on the manager, but the Dodgers probably could have saved themselves a lot of managing grief if they had hired Scioscia when they had the chance.

Something you might know: Scioscia was known for his toughness in blocking the plate and holds the Dodgers record for the most games caught behind the plate. His hitting in the 1988 NLCS, in which he went 8-for-23 and hit a game-tying homer off Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning of Game 4, was probably his most notable offensive performance.

Something you might not know: Scioscia signed with the Padres for the 1993 season but didn't play any regular season games for them after suffering another rotator injury in spring training. But that didn't stop card companies -- most notably Upper Deck and Pinnacle -- from issuing cards of him as a Padre.


My observation on the back: A very easy trivia question that is also no longer correct.

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

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