Danny Darwin 1992 Fleer

Sometime in September 2021 I received this card from the Baseball Card Bandit (BCB):

 

 

 

 

Danny Darwin's nickname was "Dr. Death" for some reason. It probably had to do with one of his pitches, probably an off-speed cutter or something, but it always seemed like a weird name for him.

Danny Darwin was born in Bonham, TX and looked like he was born in Bonham, TX. He was tall, gangly and had a droopy mustache that perfectly contoured to his long face. If he was in a western movie, they'd nick name him "Slim" (he is listed at 6'3" and 185 pounds) and he'd probably end up getting shot in a bar fight during the first 20 minutes. 

Darwin pitched--are you ready for this, because this is legit surprising--21 seasons in the majors. Even though he looked like he should have spent his entire career with the Rangers or the Astros (he spent eight and six years with each club respectively) he ended up playing for eight teams. 

If you played for 21 years you would at least think that you'd get some sort of team or individual honor in one of those seasons, right? Wrong. Darwin was never on a World Series team nor was he ever an All-Star. What's even more insane is that according to baseball-reference.com, Darwin NEVER, as in not once, ever appeared in post season play. Not once. 

You hear about a person like Derek Jeter who played 19 seasons (not including 1995 when he played 15 regular season games) and was an October participant in 16 of those seasons, and even the reddest of Red Sox fans can appreciate that number. That's a lot. Darwin does him better, only the opposite. Twenty-one years, no October baseball. At all. 

I don't know how he feels about this dubious distinction, but I am completely blown away. That's a lot of shitty baseball that he watched. Day-in and day-out, trudging to work knowing that your team stinks. That has to take a toll on a man's psyche. 

Maybe that's why they called him Dr. Death? Because every team he was on was death. 

In Darwin's defense, he probably wasn't the problem. He never won more than 15 games in a season and he didn't strike out a ton of people, but he didn't walk a lot either, his WHIP was pretty decent (he lead the league twice, once in Houston--which considering he pitched half his games in the cavernous Astrodome seems about right--and once in Boston--which considering he pitched half his games in the bandbox that is Fenway Park seems about wrong) and he lead the league in ERA. 

The year that he lead the league in ERA and WHIP was 1990, which like I said was done in the ultimate pitcher's park, the Astrodome. So of course Lou Gorman signs* him to a crazy four-year deal for big money. For the Sox he was fine. His first year, it looks like he was hurt--he only appeared in 15 games. The second year he operated out of the bullpen, which I'm sure people were going  nuts about "We gave $3 million bucks to a long relievah! Tha fuck?". The third year, he pitched well as a starter (this was when he lead the AL in WHIP)  and the fourth year, he was fine again. 

* This was Lou Gorman's post 1990 shopping frenzy when like in a day, he signed Darwin, a pretty close to past his prime Jack Clark and a pretty sucky Matt Young to big deals. None of them made the impact that Sweet Lou thought that they were.

BTW, Gorman signing Darwin after he had an amazing year in the Astrodome should have been a harbinger of things to come when nine months later he sends New Britain third baseman Jeff Bagwell to the same Astros. Why did Gorman do that? Because he couldn't understand park effects--the Beehive in New Britain was a huge place where hitters "lost" power and pitchers pitched "awesome". It was kinda like a minor league version of the Astrodome and proved that Lou didn't understand park effects very well.

All-in-all Darwin was a meh signing at best. He wasn't going to win you a ton of games and he wasn't a star that was going to get the masses excited either. He was third/fourth starter who could give you innings out of the bullpen. There are a million dudes who can do that. No need to pay them a ton of cash to do that. Maybe throw the whole wad at Kirby Puckett--who the Sox were rumored to be going hard for that offseason. 

After Darwin left the Fens, he bounced around for the rest of his career, a half season in Toronto, back to Texas then to Pittsburgh back to Houston over to the White Sox before finishing up with the Giants. 

According to Wikipedia*, it was with the Giants that he got into a few scuffles. According to Orel Hershiser, when they were teammates there was a benches clearing brawl and Darwin popped Hershiser (who was his teammate, remember) in the face. Orel claims it was because he hit him once when they were facing each other back in the day. Which, take it easy Slim. Shit happens. 

* How great is it that every MLB player has their own Wiki page? What an age we live in!

The second Giant incident occurred when teammate Barry Bonds lollygagged after a ball. Darwin was furious because that lackadaisical play allowed a run to score. I'm sure that Bonds was super apologetic and vowed that it wouldn't do again. 

Darwin has spent his post-retirement years as a minor league pitching coach--except for a few months when he got  the call to the Show when the normal Cincinnati Reds pitching coach needed a replacement. I don't think that team made it to the postseason either. 

Tom Glavine 1996 Topps Classic Confrontations

On March 30, 2017 I received this card from the Baseball Card Bandit (BCB):

On Facebook, I wrote: There's a lot to say about today's letter from the BCB. 

The return address is from one town away: Billerica, MA., so I knew the card would belong to the pride of Billerica: Hall of Famer Tom Glavine. 

But what I did not know is that I would receive a hand written letter, purportedly from the lanky lefthander, letting me know that HE is a fan of ME! You can imagine my joy in reading this communication and when Glavine said he'd meet me on the softball field, you know that I'll be there. 

I wonder if that's a metaphor? Maybe he means the softball field of life? What would that be though? Church? The Mall? Mac 2's? I'll have to think about this. 

Glavine is probably the best athlete to come out of Massachusetts in the last 40 years. He was drafted by the Braves and the NHL's LA Kings. He chose baseball, giving up being teammates with Wayne Gretzky to sharing a locker room with John Rocker (amongst better, less racist guys).

Glavine won over 300 games, a couple of Cy Youngs, a World Series and with fellow HoFer Greg Maddux starred in the last great Nike ad, "Chicks dig the long ball." Not a bad choice, in retrospect. 

Aside to the BCB, one of Glavine's Brave teammates lived closer to me than Glavine. Burlington native Pete Smith pitched for Atlanta from 1987 through 1993, before calling it a career in 1998. The MVC must have been a lot of fun in the early 80s.

2019 Notes: The MVC means the Merrimack Valley Conference, which is where Burlington High School and Billerica High School were grouped. I'm not sure if they're still grouped that way any more. I should check, but I don't want to. 

I don't have a lot to say about Tom Glavine other than I thought that it was really cool that he was from Massachusetts and was so dominant. There are a lot of baseball players, but not many seem to come from New England. You get your Billy Swifts, your Gary Disarcinas, your Jerry Remys; but you don't get a lot of Hall of Famers, like Glavine.

The one thing I really remember about Tom Glavine is getting his 1988 Score Rookie card, looking at the back and getting excited because he was from Massachusetts. Then looking at his win loss record that year and seeing 7-17, with the 17 in bold indicating that he led the league in losses. That tempered my excitement a bit. I had no idea that he was going to the Hall. 

I counted 14 Hall of Famers from the Bay State and other than Jeff Bagwell, most of these players died before I was even born. So it was pretty great to see someone so dominant in his era come from the same place you did. 

Even though he was elected to Cooperstown on his first ballot, where would you rank Tom Glavine amongst the pitchers of the 1990s and 00s? Behind Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. Behind Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez. Probably above Mike Mussina, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz. Well ahead of David Cone and Kevin Brown, right? Not using any numbers (dangerous, I know) and going on what I remember, I'd say that Tom Glavine was probably the fifth best pitcher of his era.

Not too shabby, Glavine. And that gets you a street named after you in your hometown.