6 Degrees Of Raffy: The Charlie Moore 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 3rd Baseman Designated Hitter 1st Baseman Rafael Devers. 

 

We start with a randomly generated card from my collection:

Random TCDB Card: 

1977 Topps #382 Charlie Moore

Charlie Moore spent 15 years in the Major Leagues, with all but the last as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. He holds the distinction of being the 2,297th and last runner Hank Aaron ever batted in.

Teammates in the 1977 Topps set
#382 Charlie Moore	#635 Robin Yount

The great thing about those late 70's/early 80's Brewers is that there were a few notable players who had long tenures with that team, namely his Hall of Fame teammates Paul Molitor and Robin Yount.

Teammates in the 1993 Pinnacle set
#293 Robin Yount (N&T)	#228 John Jaha

Once I saw this 1993 card of Yount, I knew I had to use Pinnacle as the brand to make this next chain. Finding the next link in this chain was a bit more difficult, but of Yount's 19 teammates listed in this set, I found a guy who would eventually play with 3 members of the historic 2004 Red Sox team. Jaha's  final season was with the 2001 Oakland Athletics, a team that also featured future Red Sox Jeremy Giambi, Mark Bellhorn, and Johnny Damon.

Teammates in the 2001 Plumbers, Steamfitters, and Refrigeration Local Union Oakland Athletics SGA set
#6 John Jaha	#4 Johnny Damon

 

How's this for an unusual card set? 2001 would be Damon's lone year in Oakland. Thanks to the TCDB, I was able to find this obscure locally issued set. This set is the only one I found that features both John Jaha and Johnny Damon in it. 

Teammates in the2005 Topps Updates & Highlights set
#UH151 Johnny Damon (AS)	#UH203 Hanley Ramirez (FUT)

 

Damon of course would go on and spend the next 4 years in Boston, helping to break a so called curse and earning 2 All-Star nods. At the end of his last season in Boston, Damon played in 2 games with a young rising star named Hanley Ramirez.

Teammates in the 2018 Stadium Club set
#15 Hanley Ramirez	#117 Rafael Devers (RC)

 

Hanley was traded in the off season after that 2 game stint, being the key piece that brought Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell from Miami to Boston. Ramirez would blossom into a star for the Marlins. Eventually, his career came full circle as he rejoined the Red Sox as a free agent in 2015. In his penultimate season (2018), he shared the field with Boston's latest young rising star.

Degrees of Raffy: 5