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:
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
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#720 Bret Saberhagen (AS)
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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
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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.
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Teammates in the 2005 Topps Total set
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#701 David Murphy/Hanley Ramirez
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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.
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Teammates in the 2017 Topps Now Postseason Boston Red Sox
set
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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
Sad to hear they retired the Oracle of Baseball feature. But honestly... it's probably more fun to do the research for these posts anyways.
ReplyDeleteMatt when in doubt you have a resource blogger in me if you ever need assistance lmk
ReplyDeleteThe Mostly Boston Edition
ReplyDeleteRaffy played with Dustin Pedroia who played with Curt Schilling who played Fred Lynn who played with Carl Yastrzemski who played with Vic Wertz who played with Doc Cramer who played with Jack Quinn who played with Babe Ruth (but not with Boston)
I always enjoy these, especially when the 'start' player is so random. Even though I was watching baseball and collecting cards for almost all of Saberhagen's career I don't think I realized just how good he was when healthy.
ReplyDelete