#753 - Greg Brock

What a card: Greg Brock produced his second straight season of hitting in the .220s as the replacement for all-star first baseman Steve Garvey.

My observation on the front: It's just occurring to me now that a guy I hired about a dozen years ago, who left almost 10 years ago, looks a lot like Greg Brock. I always knew this guy looked like someone but I couldn't place who.

More opinion from me: I think this card arrived at the height of my disgust for Brock's performance for the Dodgers. I so wanted him gone. I think he sensed it, because 1985 was his best season with L.A.

Something you might know: Brock absolutely tore apart Triple A pitching, convincing Dodgers brass that they didn't need to re-sign mainstay Garvey, who went to the Padres. For a brief, black period, the Padres actually had a better first baseman than the Dodgers.

Something you might not know: Brock is the high school baseball coach for Loveland High School in Loveland, Colo. Loveland is a rival school of Mountain View High School. Brock also coached baseball at Mountain View. In fact, he founded the baseball program.

My observation on the back: Those 3 teams remain the only MLB teams with nicknames that start with "P". But it reminds me that for the most recent year of baseball expansion, baseball picked two teams with nicknames that start with "D" -- the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays, robbing the Dodgers of elite status as the only team with a nickname starting with "D". At least the Devil Rays had the eventual sense to back down and go with Rays.

The blog wants to speak now: The News category is updated (back to Dec. 9th).