Rich Garces – “El Guapo” and His Career Year in the Boston Red Sox Bullpen
While not eligible for my Junk Wax Dynasty series, Rich Garces himself did in fact begin his career in the infamous era of overproduction for sports cards. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for Garces, setup men don’t get much love at all in the sports card hobby. Who they do get love from are the sports fans, […]
Trot Nixon – An Unsung Hero of the 1999 to 2005 Red Sox
Christopher Trotman Nixon, better known as “Trot,” was a first-round selection of the Boston Red Sox. Despite how highly Nixon was regarded, his first few seasons in the minor leagues weren’t all that exciting. Nixon did get called up to the Major Leagues in 1996, and got 2 hits in 4 at-bats. His 1997 season […]
The Time Someone Bought Larry Wolfe Baseball Cards
As someone who loves to see what’s selling in all sorts of trading card categories, it was a bit surprising to see Larry Wolfe among the Top 100 single sports cards selling on Amazon back in late July of 2015. Specifically, it was his 1980 Topps card. It was pretty cool to see someone from […]
Brief Baseball Bios – Jeff Bagwell
The Boston Red Sox were lucky to have Mo Vaughn come up to the Major Leagues after dealing away one of their better prospects in Jeff Bagwell. Of course, Bagwell is now well-known to be part of one of the most lop-sided trades in history, when he was dealt in 1990 to the Houston Astros […]
Brief Baseball Bios – Dwight Evans
Dwight Evans was a very good baseball player, who played from 1972-2001, all but one year of that with the Boston Red Sox. He racked up 65.1 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in his career according to FanGraphs and 66.7 WAR on Baseball-Reference. This puts his contributions in the area of Hall-of-Famers Duke Snider, Roberto Alomar, […]
Jose Canseco – The Red Sox Years
In one of the better trades the Red Sox made in the 1990’s, the Red Sox traded speedy, defensive minded outfielder Otis Nixon and infielder Luis Ortiz to the Texas Rangers for outfielder Jose Canseco. Obviously, it was a bit of a salary dump, with the Rangers clearly thinking they could replace Canseco’s bat with […]
Brief Baseball Bios – David Cone
David Cone was a pretty good pitcher in his day. In fact, he may have become one of the most underrated pitchers of his era. The Kansas City native Cone was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 3rd round of the 1981 Amateur Draft. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get to enjoy the 1985 World […]
J.D. Drew Was Better at Baseball Player Than You Remember
In his 14-year Major League Baseball career, J.D. Drew hit .278/.384/.489 with 242 home runs. His glove was worth 69 runs in the outfield according to the advanced defensive metrics from TotalZone. For his solid bat and above-average glove, Drew was worth a substantial 44.9 Wins Above Replacement. His career numbers and advanced statistics make […]
What Happened to Red Sox “Socker” Chuck Schilling?
Even most casual baseball fans know who Carl Yastrzemski is, one of the greatest Boston Red Sox players ever and a Baseball Hall of Famer. But, on this 1964 Topps card entitled “Sox Sockers” who is this he’s sharing the card with? That’s the Red Sox second baseman at the time, the slick fielding Chuck […]