Wednesday, September 21, 2016

#578 - Terry Francona


What a card: Terry Francona was coming off an injury-plagued season when this card was issued. He started out as one of the National League's top hitters in 1984, but injured his knee in June and missed the rest of the season.

My observation on the front: That bat appears monstrous. It looks like it was photoshopped into Francona's hand.

More opinion from me: I'm not sure who is on deck in this photo, but if that is a "4" on his jersey that would be great fun. That's because No. 4 for the Expos for part of the year was Chris Speier, who was just featured in the last post and airbrushed into a Twins uniform.

Something you might know: The current manager of the Indians, Francona managed the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years in 2004.

Something you might not know: When Francona played for the Reds in 1987, owner Marge Schott threw her annual team party at her home. At the party was a rented elephant. Francona rode that elephant. "If you weren't good enough to tell her 'no,' you had to ride the elephant," he said.


My observation on the back: Seaver still holds the record for consecutive strikeouts in a game (Doug Fister came one strikeout short of tying Seaver in 2012). The 10 Padres he struck out as part of his 19-strikeout game were: Al Ferrera, Nate Colbert, Dave Campbell, Jerry Morales, Bob Barton, Ray Webster, Ivan Murrell, Van Kelly, Cito Gaston and Ferrera again.

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

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