What a card: Gary Gaetti was entering his fourth full season with the Twins when this card hit packs. In 1984, he focused on cutting down on his strikeout totals, which were considerable his first two seasons. He did trim them but his home run total plunged from 25 to 21 to five in 1984.
My observation on the front: I always loved the red Twins caps and helmets.
More opinion from me: There is so much going on in the old Twins logo that there is stuff I've missed until right now. For example, I didn't know that the I's in "Win Twins" are dotted with stars. I also didn't know that Minnie and Paul (the two guys shaking hands) featured logos on their uniforms. The research is also telling me that Minnie wears the No. 20 and Paul wears the No. 10, but it looks like both of them are wearing the No. 7 (but that might be the wrinkles drawn into their uniform).
Something you might know: Gaetti was a member of the 1987 World Series champion Twins and put together a string of seasons between 1986-88 when he was known as one of the top sluggers in the game. He could also field.
Something you might not know: Gaetti is the all-time career home run leader for players who hit a home run in their first career at-bat. He has 360. The runners-up are Jermaine Dye (325), Carlos Lee (307), Will Clark (284) and Tim Wallach (260).
My observation on the back: I had to look up what year Bill Terry hit .400. It was 1930.
The blog wants to speak now: The News category is updated.
The great Johnnie LeMaster is 47th on that list with 22 lifetime home runs. He hit an inside the park home run in his first major league at bat against the Dodgers on September 2, 1975. Even back then I wondered how LeMaster could stay in the majors for 12 years.
ReplyDeleteThat is an obscure stat you reference. This is a great looking card. The colors all work.
ReplyDeleteGaetti is a manager in the Atlantic League now, great guy. Last year while getting him to sign a few cards (not this one though) someone asked him if he could describe how it felt to win a World Series. His reply: "No, I can't. It's too amazing a feeling to put into words."
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