What a card: By the time that this card appeared in packs, Derrel Thomas had moved on to two other teams. He appears with the Phillies in the 1985 Topps Traded set, but before that he was purchased by the Angels in early September 1984. But Topps ignores that here and lets you keep believing that Thomas is still with the Expos.
My observation on the front: "OF-2B" is not the most common position designation on a baseball card. But it's not the rarest, as I documented on another blog.
More opinion from me: Thomas was my favorite utility-playing Dodger in the late '70s/early '80s. I actually used to pretend to be him when I played baseball.
Something you might know: Thomas played all over the field in his career and is often noted as one of the relatively few players to play more than one game at every position except pitcher. He even played catcher five times in 1980 (and once again at the end of his career).
Something you might not know: Thomas coached a high school team in the early 1990s. The starting shortstop fatally shot himself in the head while playing around with a gun while on the team bus as they returned home from a game.
My observation on the back: According to baseball-reference's uniform number listing for Thomas, he never wore No. 3 as a major leaguer. But he did wear No. 30 with the Padres, Giants, Dodgers and Angels.
The blog wants to speak now: The Ballgames category is updated.
1 comment:
I always found the fact that Topps didn't list Derrel as an Angel on the front of the card odd even though it's listed on the back of the card. It's the only example I can think of in Topps' history where this has occurred. They could have noted on the front "Now with Angels" like was done with Davey Lopes' "Now with Cubs" in the same set.
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