5 Baseball Cards by Any Other Name...
...would still be, uh, Taylor Duncan?(!)
One name that came up in my circles more than once during the 2024 Olympics was Oddibe McDowell. No surprise, either — not only is “Oddibe” one of the great names in baseball history, but McDowell was one of the stars of the 1984 Team USA Olympic team.
And dude was also drafted six times.
As luck and the calendar would have it, today is McDowell’s 62nd birthday. To celebrate, I thought we’d check out the baseball cards of every single McDowell who ever played in the majors.
Here goes…
1963 Topps Sam McDowell (#317)
Sudden Sam was a monster on the mound for the Indians in the 1960s, a decade when the Tribe whiffed on postseason action and hardly ever even sniffed contention. Even so, McDowell made six All-Star teams between 1965 and 1971, struck out more than 300 batters twice and more than 250 two other times, and finished third in voting for the 1970 American League Cy Young Award.
McDowell won 20 games for the only time that summer, though he led the league in strikeouts five times…and in walks five times (not always in the same season).
All those pitches and some personal issues led to a swift downward spiral in his 30s, and McDowell was done in the majors by July of 1975. What once looked like a Hall of Fame career turned into a big “what if.”
Still, McDowell was an electrifying talent who can still cause a stir among collectors. His rookie card is a 1962 Topps multi-player deal, which I wrote about right here. That makes his hands-over-head 1963 Topps — seen above — his first solo card. Given that the pic was probably taken in 1962, McDowell is just 19 years old (20 at the most) in that shot.
1979 Topps Taylor Duncan (#658)
I can hear you now: “This guy is not a McDowell!”
Can’t sneak anything past you. But in this case, you’re wrong, because that patient A’s hitter waiting against a perfect blue sky for some imaginary pitcher to deliver the rock is not Taylor Duncan.
Nope, that man is Taylor McDowell Duncan, the tenth overall pick in the 1971 draft. Things didn’t work out so well in Atlanta, though. Or in Baltimore.
It wasn’t until the Cardinals plucked Duncan off the waiver wire in September 1977 that he finally got a shot at the big leagues. He hit .333 with a homer and two RBI that month, enough for the A’s to select him in that fall’s Rule 5 draft.
Duncan then hit .257 with two dingers and 37 RBI in 104 games for the 1978 A’s before heading back to the minors (for four teams) in 1979 and 1980. Before he hung up his spikes for good, though, Duncan scored his only big league card — that 1979 Topps dandy up there.
In so doing, he sealed his fate as a member of this here rundown.
1985 Topps Oddibe McDowell (#400)
Here’s the man of the hour himself, with the card that was probably the top draw from the Team USA subset right out of the pack. Certainly, this was a more ballyhooed pull than that unknown with the long head — Mark McGwire.
That would all change a couple of summers later, of course, but McDowell was the plum of the crop, a centerfielder who could do it all — hit for average, smack the long ball, run like the wind, field his position like Mays and Mantle.
Those expectations turned out to be a bit lofty, as such things tend to be, but Oddibe did put together a star-level seven-year career that showcased most of those talents to good effect. His best years came with the Rangers, but he also saw time with the Indians and Braves.
Today, this McDowell rookie card still causes old collector hearts to pitter-patter a little faster even if it will never attain the “value” of, say, a 2023 Topps Fanatics Nuclear Cosmic Slush Paul Skenes Refractor with Olivia Dunne Auto 1-of-0 Pre-Rookie “Card.”
1986 Donruss Roger McDowell (#629)
Truth be told, it was the 1986 Topps McDowell rookie card that I chased after on a regular basis. That was partly because there weren’t any good RCs in the 1986 Topps set — we squinted and tried to make Vince Coleman and Ozzie Guillen into something big.
We needed a speculative pay to grab onto.
Besides, I couldn’t find 1986 Donruss packs in my area, or 1986 Fleer packs, for that matter. So it was piles and piles of Topps.
But 1986 Donruss is about as “1980s” as a set ever got, as I described in some detail in this piece about the Dwight Gooden card.
As for this McDowell himself, righty Roger had put together a solid 1985 rookie season and spent 1986 as the Mets’ primary closer, basically platooning with lefty Jesse Orosco in that role.
By the end of October, McDowell had a World Series ring to go along with his growing reputation as one of the great jokesters and hot-foot artists in the game.
1988 Donruss Jack McDowell (#47)
After the White Sox won the American League West in 1983, they didn’t finish about fifth in the division through the rest of the 1980s. But that all changed in the early 1990s with the arrival of an arsenal of young talent led by Frank Thomas in the lineup and Jack McDowell in the rotation.
After a couple of fits and starts in the late 80s, McDowell broke out with a 14-9 record and 3.87 ERA in 1990 as Chicago finished second to the A’s in the West.
It was only up from there, as Black Jack improved to 17-10, 20-10, and 22-10 over the next three seasons, copping the A.L. Cy Young Award that last season (1993). By then, his 1988 Donruss Rated Rookie card had been one of the stars of the set for several years…even as we started to realize what “junk wax” was all about.
McDowell fell to 10-9, 3.73 in the strike-shortened 1994 season, his last summer with the ChiSox. From there it was a slow slide through stints with the Yankees, Indians, and Angels.
He was done in the big leagues by the end of 1999, but his RC still thrills us old-timers today.
—
I’ve hedged a bit here because there actually has been one more McDowell in the majors. Hervey McDowell McClellan played for the White Sox from 1919 through 1924, but his cards are a *bit* out of my wheelhouse.
So, excepting old Herv, what McDowell cards would you add to this list? I don’t think you’ll find any other players to include, but there are plenty of cards to choose from featuring the five men above.
And Topps issued some “Planet of the Apes” cards in the 1960s and 1970s, so you could also add Roddy McDowall to the lineup if you don’t mind the misspelling and the subject matter change.
At any rate, hope you have a good week, and be sure to keep an eye on your sneakers. You never know when a McDowell of one sort or another will sneak up on you and set your foot ablaze.
Thanks for reading.
Absolutely great quote, and I couldn't agree more:
"Today, this McDowell rookie card still causes old collector hearts to pitter-patter a little faster even if it will never attain the “value” of, say, a 2023 Topps Fanatics Nuclear Cosmic Slush Paul Skenes Refractor with Olivia Dunne Auto 1-of-0 Pre-Rookie “Card.”"
I remember sitting in the Coliseum bleachers for an A's game against the Yankees, and staring through my binoculars at the back of Taylor Duncan's jersey at third base most of the game...