It's time for another installment ("aka filler post") of 6 Degrees Of
Raffy, where I connect a beloved card from my collection and connect the
player depicted on it to current Red Sox superstar Rafael Devers.
Blasingame was an All-Star himself in 1958, the only time he was so honored. Between 1959 and 1963, he was traded 3 times. One of those times landed him in Cincinati, where in 1963 he witness the debut of an all-time great.
Rose, of course, would go on to have a 24-year career. He played well into his 40's, which gave him the opportunity to play with someone whose career would eventually span 26 seasons!
I got to see Franco play in 2007. He was 48 years old at the time and playing for the Braves' AAA team in Richmond. I didn't need to go that far to find my next connection.
We start with a randomly generated card from my collection:
I only have 2 cards from this set in my collection, so having this card randomly picked is a real surprise! It's easily the oldest card I've ever attempted this with. 3-time All-Star Wally Moon spent his last season as a Cardinal in 1958 before being traded to the Dodgers that December.
Because I'm not very knowledgeable with players from this time period, I enlisted the help of the Oracle of Baseball feature on Baseball Reference. After a few tries, I found someone who didn't necessarily help me take a big jump forward, but who connected me to someone who did.
| Teammates in the 1958 Topps set | |||||
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Blasingame was an All-Star himself in 1958, the only time he was so honored. Between 1959 and 1963, he was traded 3 times. One of those times landed him in Cincinati, where in 1963 he witness the debut of an all-time great.
| Teammates in the 1963 Topps set | |||||
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Rose, of course, would go on to have a 24-year career. He played well into his 40's, which gave him the opportunity to play with someone whose career would eventually span 26 seasons!
| Teammates in the 1983 Donruss set | |||||
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| Teammates in the 1997 Upper Deck set | |||||
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I can't imagine what must have going through Nagy's mind when this picture was taken! Nothing like a baseball card to show you how sweaty a guy can get!
| Teammates in the 2002 Topps 206 set | |||||
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Nagy's 2002 season would be his last in Cleveland. He was there just long enough for a September call-up to make his debut.
| Teammates in the 2018 Topps Now set | |||||
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Phillips would go on to make 3 All-Star teams and win 4 Gold Gloves. He ended his career playing 9 games for the eventual World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox.
Degrees of Raffy: 6
Not surprising when you start with a card from the 1950's, but I believe this is the first time in all the posts I've done this where I needed the full 6 degrees!
Nice post. I might have to try this sometime on my Curly W Cards blog (Washington Baseball) sometime.
ReplyDeleteLove this concept! Also glad to see Cleveland representation. Having both Rose and Franco (who had exceptionally long careers) certainly helped spanned that time period.
ReplyDeleteThat was a tough one, but you got there. Pete Rose definitely helped!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for reminding me that Brandon Phillips played (briefly) for Boston. I might need that knowledge for a future Immaculate Grid ;)
Fun post!
ReplyDeleteGood job! I like the idea of using cards of teammates from the same set.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you starting with such an older card this time.
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