#451 - Bruce Hurst

What a card: Bruce Hurst had completed his second straight 12-win, 12-loss season for the Red Sox when this card was issued.

My observation on the front: He looks determined.

More opinion from me: There was a period in the '70s and '80s when it seemed like the most important aspect of the Red Sox team was finding a top-line pitcher. The Red Sox always had the offense, but finding that lights-out pitcher seemed like the key to breaking "The Curse". Since I grew up in a family of Red Sox fans, I remember Boston fans pinning their hopes on certain pitchers and Bruce Hurst was one of them. Hurst pitched sporadically for Boston in 1980 and 1981, but I knew all about him long before he broke out in 1983 because I knew Red Sox fans were desperate for him to be great.

Something you might know: Hurst enjoyed a terrific World Series in 1986, pitching two victories for the Red Sox against the Mets. He was famously named MVP of the Series in Game 6 ... until Mookie Wilson's grounder went through Bill Buckner's legs.

Something you might not know: Hurst pitched five innings in the longest game in organized baseball. The 33-inning between the Red Sox's Pawtucket team and the Orioles' Rochester team featured 14 pitchers. Hurst was Pawtucket's seventh pitcher of the game and he threw five shutout innings. (It still wasn't as impressive as Rochester's Jim Umbarger, who threw 10 shutout innings between the 22nd and 32nd innings before the game was called and resumed two months later).

My observation on the back: For the longest time, I didn't know Hurst was from Utah. As a kid, I just assumed Red Sox players were grown on a farm in Massachusetts somewhere.

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