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.
It's been awhile since I've done one of these, and honestly I doubt I'll ever top the last one I did, but here we are with another junk wax era card. Chris Gwynn may be more famous for being Tony's brother, but he was a good enough player in his own right to carve out a 10-year career.
Prior to the 1991 season, the big off-season free agent signing went to Darryl Strawberry, who parlayed a 3rd-place MVP finish in 1990 into what was at the time a lucrative five-year $22.25 million contract with the Dodgers. Strawberry had a great first year in L.A., but unfortunately after that the wheels fell off due to injuries and drug problems.
Strawberry eventually made his way to New York, where he was able to somewhat redeem himself in a part-time role. His arrival coincided with the last great Yankee dynasty. I could have picked any number of guys here - Jeter, Posada, Petitte - but ended up going with the one guy on that team I respected above all others.
Mariano played for 19 years, which allowed me to connect him to a young Yankees rookie who would go on to have a key World Series moment of his own.
Nunez of course hit a pinch-hit 3-run homer in Game 1 of the 2018 World Series. The guy he pitch-hit for? You guessed it, Rafael Devers!
We start with a randomly generated card from my collection:
It's been awhile since I've done one of these, and honestly I doubt I'll ever top the last one I did, but here we are with another junk wax era card. Chris Gwynn may be more famous for being Tony's brother, but he was a good enough player in his own right to carve out a 10-year career.
Looking at the Dodgers in the 1991 Score set, there were some obvious future Red Sox on the team in Ramon Martinez and Jose Offerman. Both of those guys had short term stays in Boston, and right before Boston started winning championships. I try to not automatically default to Red Sox players though, so it was off to the
Oracle of Baseball
feature on
Baseball Reference. It didn't take long to find a nice short bridge to Devers.
| Teammates in the 1991 Score set | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Prior to the 1991 season, the big off-season free agent signing went to Darryl Strawberry, who parlayed a 3rd-place MVP finish in 1990 into what was at the time a lucrative five-year $22.25 million contract with the Dodgers. Strawberry had a great first year in L.A., but unfortunately after that the wheels fell off due to injuries and drug problems.
| Teammates in the 1997 Ultra set | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Strawberry eventually made his way to New York, where he was able to somewhat redeem himself in a part-time role. His arrival coincided with the last great Yankee dynasty. I could have picked any number of guys here - Jeter, Posada, Petitte - but ended up going with the one guy on that team I respected above all others.
| Teammates in the 2011 Topps Heritage set | |||||
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| Teammates in the 2019 Topps set | |||||
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Love the Oracle of Baseball feature on Baseball Reference. I could sit around and play with it for hours.
ReplyDeleteEric Davis was on the Dodgers then too.
ReplyDelete