What a card: This is Rick Leach's first flagship card with the Blue Jays. After three years with the Tigers, he signed as a free agent with Toronto in April 1984.
My observation on the front: I am noticing a stain of some sort on Leach's hat for the first time. I don't know if it's actually on the cap or a printing flaw, but it's on every one of his '85 Topps cards. Seems like something Topps would take care of before it made it to packs. It's a big stain.
More opinion from me: It annoys me how much is made of Leach's time as University of Michigan quarterback. I know he was really good there, much better than he was as a major league baseball player, but college football means next to nothing to me, and MLB everything.
Something you might know: Leach was the first-round draft choice of the Tigers in 1979 (13th pick overall).
Something you might not know: Leach disappeared from the Blue Jays in August 1987 while the team was in Seattle. It was the first sign that Leach had a drug problem, but nobody knew it at the time. Leach was penciled in to start against the Mariners and never showed up. At first a team PR guy passed it off as Leach getting food poisoning, but reporters noticed the concern of the players, one even saying they didn't know whether he was even alive. Leach showed up the next day, but disappeared again while with the Rangers in 1989. He was eventually suspended while with the Giants in 1990 and got treatment.
My observation on the back: Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens now share the ALCS single-game strikeout record with 15 each.
The blog wants to speak now: The News category is updated.
No comments:
Post a Comment