What a card: Steve Braun was entering his final season in the major leagues as this card arrived in packs. He would put the finishing touches on a 15-year major league career in 1985.
My observation on the front: Braun looks like a veteran, particularly in his grim, done-this-before smile.
More opinion from me: Braun's career took a detour about midway. A regular starting outfielder for the Twins through most of his first six seasons, he was selected by the Mariners in the expansion draft. A quick trade to the Royals and suddenly he became a role player and pinch-hitter. I often wondered how those middle-of-a-career shifts happen. (My guess in this case is Whitey Herzog wanted a reliable pinch-hitter).
Something you might know: Braun appeared in two World Series with the Cardinals, in 1982 and 1985. His last at-bat as a major leaguer was in the seventh inning of Game 7 of the World Series in 1985 with his Cardinals trailing 11-0. Coming in as a pinch-hitter, he flew out to center field.
Something you might not know: If you go to the website of Braun's summer camp and clinic business, it features many of his baseball cards at the top. Click on a card and you get a larger size image of the card and can view the back, too. If you go to the biography tab, you can view even more of his cards. But this card is not one of the featured ones.
My observation on the back: Braun spent his first years in organized ball, 1968 and 1969, in military service. Several of his cards note that, but this one leaves it out.
The blog wants to speak now: The Music and News tabs are updated. The new No. 1 song was a big-time prom standby in the '80s.
Nice catch on Braun keeping this one out-of-sight for his own site. His card stats made me wonder if Steve was the first guy to play for both 1977 expansion teams (Seattle '77 and Toronto '80). My searching is a little sloppy, but he's the earliest I've seen so far...
ReplyDeleteSteve Braun was the first baseball player I ever met, at a card show in the Twin Cities in the late 1980's. I was probably 6 or 7 when I met him, he was a really nice guy. I've always liked him ever since then, and I recently finished my collection of all of his baseball cards. He also played for my two favorite baseball teams, the Twins and the Cardinals, which I thought was pretty cool.
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