What a card: Carney Lansford was coming off a nice bounce-back season when this card arrived in packs. After playing in just 80 games in his first season with the A's, he totaled 179 hits in 151 games in 1984, hitting .300 for the fourth straight year.
My observation the front: It took scanning this card for me to realize there is a red line running from Lansford's glasses down to the bottom of the card.
More opinion from me: I'm guessing most people associate Lansford with the A's since he spent 10 of his 15 major league seasons with them and appeared in three World Series for Oakland. But I associate him with his first two teams, the Angels and the Red Sox. Lansford was a touted prospect with the Angels right at the point when I started becoming aware of prospects. And the trade between the Angels and Red Sox that involved Lansford, Butch Hobson and Rick Burleson was earth-shattering to my baseball world at the time.
Something you might know: Lansford led the American League in batting average (.336) while with the Red Sox during the strike-shortened 1981 season.
Something you might not know: When Lansford was the hitting coach for the Giants in 2009, his son, Jared, pitching for the A's in spring training, faced the Giants. Lansford had such a difficult time thinking of his son facing his batters that he left the game and wandered out in the parking lot until the inning was over.
My observation the back: Four other players have hit a grand slam in their first game since Bobby Bonds -- all of them since 2005. They are Jeremy Hermida (2005), Kevin Kouzmanoff (2006), Daniel Nava (2010) and Brandon Crawford (2011).
The blog wants to speak now: The Movies category is updated.
Add 2011 Brandon Crawford to that list.
ReplyDeleteGot it. My research source hasn't updated, I guess.
ReplyDeleteCarney was one of the most dependable players on the A's during his tenure in Oakland. A favorite player of mine for many years and under-r
ReplyDeleteIn the late 19i0's the Oakland Tribune.published a.photograph of the Giant's Chili Davis on third base while Carney Lansford was playing third base during a pre-season game in Arizona. The caption read "Chili con Carney." A great caption that made me laugh but I was also mad because I should have thought about this name combination. I should have kept that punder-rated player.