#226 - Juan Beniquez

What a card: Juan Beniquez had just finished what might be considered the best season of his 17-year major league career. He hit a career-high .336 in 354 at-bats for the Angels in 1984.

My observation on the front: That's a terrific in-game shot. Beniquez looks like a right-handed version of Rod Carew with the way he's holding his bat.

More opinion from me: Beniquez was one of those players that I lost track of during his career. His '75 Red Sox card was one of the first that I saw from that set and I pulled his cards consistently each year through the early '80s. But he seemed to disappear around then. Then in 1988, I bought one pack of Topps, pulled his card where he's featured with the Blue Jays and stared at it in amazement. "Juan Beniquez is still playing?"

Something you might know: Beniquez holds the record for playing for the most American League teams in a career. He played for eight (Boston, Texas, New York, Seattle, California, Baltimore, Kansas City and Toronto).

Something you might not know: During Boston's 1975 World Series season when it featured two heralded rookies in the outfield in Jim Rice and Fred Lynn, guess who forced either Rice or Lynn to sit the bench the first four games of the season? Yup, it was Beniquez.

My observation on the back: The tiny print is difficult to see, but Beniquez's career batting average at this point is .269. Thanks to a four-year period between 1983-86 when Beniquez hit above .300 each year, he went from a career average of .257 on his 1982 Topps card to .274 on his 1988 card.

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