Tim Leary
Chuck McElroy
Gerald Perry
Tom Brunansky
BEST PHOTO
For photos on the front, I think Brunansky's is quite clearly the best. It's simply a beautiful posed shot with the stadium nicely framing Bruno, in a warm-up jersey. Gerald Perry has a nice action shot, although a close-up of his head reveals a bit of a scary look:
Now, ok, I get that Perry has an overbite. I'm not the most beautiful person in the world and neither is he. But this photo makes it look like he's got goth makeup on around his eyes, plus his eyebrows and facial hair look painted on. What the hell is going on here?
The photos on the back reveal two priceless shots. First we see a whole lot of reflection in McElroy's glasses. If you look carefully, you can see the ass of another player in the lens on the left, and a whole row of players warming up on the right. But the real gem here is the back of Perry's card, with a journalist (is that Johngy?) carrying what was even for then a bit of an old-fashioned tape recorder. Not to mention that ridiculous microphone...
Oh, and there's a bonus shot of a very blurry Dwight Evans in the background behind Brunansky on the back of his card.
I've got nothing to say about Tim Leary's photos except....booooooring.
BEST STAT
From 1986 to 1988, Brunansky is one of the 7 guys to get 20+ HR and 10+ stolen bases each year. The other 6 are all big names. Bruno hit a lot of triples in his career as a power hitter but finished with more caught stealings than stolen bases. I wonder what that means...fairly fast guy but not a good baserunner, perhaps?
BEST IN 1990
Let's see...that would not be Tim Leary, who led the league with 19 losses (although didn't actually pitch all that badly, as is true for most guys with big loss totals.) Turns out 1990 would be Leary's last fairly decent season.
McElroy didn't pitch much in the majors in 1990, and Perry actually had his worst full season that year (not that it was terrible.)
Out of this bunch, it was Brunansky who was best in 1990, especially once he joined Boston. Unfortunately it didn't carry over to the post-season, where Bruno managed just 1 hit in the 4-game sweep by Oakland in the ALCS.
BEST ANAGRAMS
Gerald Perry = Regard reply
Tom Brunansky = Bonny muskrat = brusk antonym
Tim Leary = Try email
BEST CAREER
In a bit of an upset, it turns out that Chuck McElroy had the best career of this group. Brunansky was almost certainly more valuable, but for what McElroy did, he performed the best, finishing with a career ERA+ of 111 over 739.1 innings.
It's also worth noting that Leary gets a bum rap because of that 19-loss season in 1990, but did have a handful of decent years where he threw a lot of innings. He's better than most people remember him.
Interestingly, Gerald Perry just lost his job a few days ago as hitting coach for the Cubs.
My first thought was to vote for Bruno, until I saw the glasses on the back of the McElroy card. That clinched it for Chuck.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be Bruno - I just love cards which show players in their last or second to last uni for their career, especially if they made their name with one team. The best example I can think of right now is is John Smotlz (with teh BoSox) just looks so weird and out of place. Bruno is 100% a twin in my memorey, but this card shakes things up!
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating to hear everybody's reasoning for why they vote for a particular card...the beauty of it is that there's no wrong answer. Keep 'em coming.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I became a baseball fan in 1988 (obviously, if you read my blogs...heh) and the trade of Brunansky to St. Louis was the first big trade of the 1988 season--so to me he's a Cardinal. His exploits with the Twins were a thing of the past. Just goes to show you how each fan's perspective is a little different.
I went with Brunansky, I like the pose and he played for the Angels. I'll always go with a former Angel...unless its Chuck McElroy...blech!
ReplyDeleteI quickly narrowed my choice down to Perry and Brunansky. Pictures of players with glasses on can be too telling of the era for me. Especially when they are quite large. I went with the Perry as my final decision. It is a decent action shot and you can see a puff of dirt as he drags his foot.
ReplyDeleteI must've had more 1990's cards of Brunansky. I always him on the Red Sox.