Wednesday, November 9, 2016

#595 - Larry Gura


What a card: Larry Gura won 12 games in 1984 for his seventh straight season of double-figure wins, but he allowed more than 5 runs a game and was released by the Royals in May 1985. This is the last card of his career.

My observation on the front: Photos take on different meaning when you know it's a player's last card. Gura seems to be posing for his final closeup.

More opinion from me: As someone who rooted vigorously for the Royals against the Yankees in the late '70s/early '80s, Gura's reputation as a Yankee killer was always comforting.

Something you might know: Gura is one of the winningest pitchers in Royals history, ranking fifth all-time in Kansas City history with 111 victories. He won Game 1 of the 1980 ALCS for the Royals against the Yankees.

Something you might not know: Gura once brought a pair of peacocks for his farm on the way back to Kansas City from a road series in Boston. Gura was attracted to the birds while golfing near a farm in Hamilton, Mass., which is north of Boston. He said he bought them for "the same reason someone might want to buy a painting. They're beautiful."


My observation on the back: Baseball was played as a demonstration sport in the 1968 Olympics. There apparently was a riot during the U.S.'s final game against Cuba, but information on the entire series is difficult to find.

The blog wants to speak now: The Music tab is updated.

1 comment:

Rob said...

I started perusing his previous cards...a lot of them are fairly boring like this one. Not a ton of action shots.