6 Degrees Of Raffy: The Dane Iorg Connection

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. 

 

Baseball Reference decided to make this series a little harder on me. At the end of May, the site announced it was retiring the Oracle of Baseball feature from it's web site. I now have to use the TCDB and my brain's trivial knowledge of baseball history to make these connections.

 

 

I think I'm up to the challenge.

 

We start with a randomly generated card from my collection:

Random TCDB Card: 

1986 Topps #269 Dane Iorg

 

Dane Iorg was a two-time World Series Champion, winning in 1982 with the Cardinals and 1985 with the Royals. He's remembered for producing the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 6 of that 1985 Series. (That was the inning of the controversial Don Denkinger "Safe Call" that started the rally for Kansas City).

Teammates in the 1986 Topps set
#269 Dane Iorg	#720 Bret Saberhagen (AS)

Those 1085 Royals were led by Bret Saberhagen, who won the AL Cy Young Award that year. (Fun Fact: Saberhagen won the Cy Young twice in both 1985 and 1987, but none of his 3 All-Star selections happened in either of those years.)

Teammates in the 2001 Topps set
#682 Bret Saberhagen	#701 Tim Wakefield

The end of Saberhagen's career was unfortunately marred by injury. He pitched in only 15 games from 1995-1997, but stayed healthy enough to win the Comeback Player Of The Year Award in 1998 with Boston. More injuries cost him the entire 2020 season, and he managed only 3 games in 2001 before ending his comeback attempt.

Teammates in the 2005 Topps Total set
#188 Tim Wakefield	#701 David Murphy/Hanley Ramirez

 

Wakefield on the other hand was as durable as they come, averaging over 200 IP/162 G in his career. That career spanned 17 years in Boston, which means he played with quite a few Boston teammates! One of those teammates was Hanley Ramirez, who appeared in just 2 games for the Red Sox in 2005 before he was traded to the Marlins in the mega-trade that brought Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston.

Teammates in the 2017 Topps Now Postseason Boston Red Sox set
#PS-66 Hanley Ramirez	#PS-62 Rafael Devers

 

Ramirez would return to Boston 10 years later after signing as a free agent.  In 2017, Ramirez played in his final postseason, a Division Series loss to the eventual *ahem* World Champion Houston Astros. That series just happened to be first postseason experience for one Rafael Devers.

Degrees of Raffy: 4