5 Baseball Cards Driving in the Breeze

Hold onto your hats and watch the third base coach

Today, Mo Vaughn turns 57 years old. And, come May 2, it will have been 22 years since he last appeared in the majors.

The Hit Dog has been largely out of our collective baseball consciousness since then, appearing on just one Hall of Fame ballot (2009) after his precipitous decline in the early 2000s.

Before that, though, Vaughn was one of the most feared sluggers in the game, generating plenty of power and plenty of wind.

In fact, in winning the 1995 American League MVP, Vaughn pulled off a fairly rare feat: he led his league in both RBI and strikeouts.

Here are five gents (including Mo) who managed that duplicitous deed, done up in their cardboard best, as usual.

1962 Topps Harmon Killebrew (#70)

Killebrew had established himself as an up-and-coming slugger who had likely already arrived when he led the A.L. with 42 home runs in 1959. After a 32-home season for the end-of-the-road Senators in 1961, Killebrew mashed 46 in 1961 for the relocated Minnesota Twins — a performance sort of lost in the Roger Maris/Mickey Mantle/Babe Ruth glare.

Killer also drove in 122 runs that summer and struck out more than 100 times for the third straight season. Then, in 1962, he put it all together to win the Slugger’s Triple Crown (STC): 48 HR, 126 RBI, 142 strikeouts, all league-leading totals. That K total led the majors.

While Killebrew was terrifying pitchers that summer, he also was delighting collectors from the wood-bordered confines of his classic 1962 Topps baseball card. By the way, that “1B-OF” position designation was right on the money, as Killer moved from the infield (first and third) in 1961 to the outfield (left in 1962).

After three seasons in the grass, he’d return to the infield corners in 1965. He never did return to league-leading strikeout totals, though he led in homers six times and in RBI thrice.

1984 Topps Tony Armas (#105)

Like Killebrew in 1962, Tony Armas was well-known as one of the most dangerous power bats in the game entering the 1984 season. He had two 30-homer seasons under his belt and had led the American League in home runs and strikeouts while playing for the A’s during the strike-shortened 1981 season.

In 1983, his first season with the Red Sox, Armas served notice that something special was on tap as he hit 36 home runs with 107 RBI and 131 strikeouts. None of those were league-leading totals, which must have stoked the slugger’s competitive fire.

Because in 1984, Armas came out swinging like never before and won the American League STC: 43 HR, 123 RBI, 156 SO. If it weren’t for Juan Samuel’s 168 whiffs, Armas would have topped the majors in all three categories.

The 1984 Topps Tony Aromas provides just enough ambiguity to leave us forever wondering about the outcome of that swing: strikeout, home run, foul ball, mangled pitcher/infielder/gopher?

1990 Topps Traded Cecil Fielder (#31T)

In the early 1980s, Cecil Fielder was a power-hitting prospect for the Royals (for a year, at least) and the Blue Jays. He debuted with the Jays in 1985 and in card collections in 1986. By 1987, he was garnering part-time duty in Toronto, hitting .269 with 14 home runs in 82 games.

But he appeared in just 74 games in 1988, with diminished results at the plate. With Fred McGriff ensconced at first base and the bespectacled Rance Mulliniks at DH, the future looked about as bright for Fielder in Toronto as a pile of Topps cardstock.

So off Fielder went to Japan, where he smashed 38 home runs for the Hanshin Tigers in 1989. That performance caught the attention of American major league teams, and he was with the Tigers again by the start of the 1990 season — the Detroit variety this time.

Fielder was a revelation in Motown, becoming the first 50-homer man since George Foster in 1977. He also led the American League with 132 RBI and 182 RBI, winning the coveted STC.

But Cecil went one better by leading all of the majors in those three categories, along with slugging percentage. That made his 1990 Topps Traded card (above) one of the most anticipated cards of the year-end sets, right alongside the coveted Dana Kiecker rookie card.

1995 Score Mo Vaughn (#563)

The man, the myth, the…birthday guy.

This card is cool because Mo is cool in his shades…

…because his uppercut is more dramatic than a Mike Tyson knockout blow…

…because we don’t see #42 much these days and it looks great on that classic Red Sox jersey…

…because there were a lot of cool cards issued during the glut of the 1990s, but that got lost in the avalanche — this is one of them.

And, of course, it’s cool because Vaughn burst out of the 1994 strike to post his best-yet season in 1995 with a .300/39 HR/126 RBI line en route to the A.L. MVP award.

The ribbies were most in the American League (tied with Albert Belle) and his 150 strikeouts led the majors. Vaughn was arguably even better in 1996 and 1998, but the only other time he led the league in a counting category was in 2000 — his 181 strikeouts for the Angels topped the Junior Circuit.

1998 Fleer Ultra Sammy Sosa (#95)

Everybody knows about the magical summer of 1998 when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire chased down Roger Maris’ single-season home run record and were anointed as baseball saviors.

Four years after baseball acted like fans couldn’t live without it, and three years after baseball came back only to find out we could and would spend our dollars elsewhere, Sammy and Big Mac made the National Pastime a national spectacle once again.

The heavens shone down, the angels rejoiced, fans and writers alike sang a hallelujah chorus. Thank goodness we came to our senses a few years later and found a way to pass judgment on a generation of ballplayers and toss their achievements on the scrapheap of history.

But whatever tarnish Sosa, McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the rest managed to layer upon their legacies, the record book still has a few things to tell us about the era.

In 1998, for example, Sammy finished second to Big Mac — in the National League and in the majors — with 66 home runs. He may have missed out on the home run record, but Sosa led the majors in runs scored (134), RBI (158), and total bases (416). Oh, and in strikeouts, with 171.

As for Sosa cards from that year, take your pick. Although I was still following the game closely in 1998, I was also in my hobby Dark Ages. Show me a spread of 1998 cards and remove the company logos, and I couldn’t/can’t tell you which was/is a Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, or Bowman, or even which of those brands actually issued cards that year.

This one’s pretty neat, though, and the photography is akin to sorcery compared to the offerings we had when I started collecting 15 years earlier. Sammy at full extension with his blazing white-and-pinstripes Cubbies uni in the Wrigley sunshine?

Yeah, I’ll take a dose of that 1998 magic even if it means I have to wash it down with a syringeful of asterisks.

Bonus! 1952 Topps Gus Zernial (#31)

The first man to lead his league in both RBI and strikeouts during the bubble gum card era beat Killebrew to the punch by 11 years, and it took him two teams to get the task done.

After starting the 1951 season with two strikeouts and four RBI in four games for the White Sox, Gus Zernial was part of the three-team deal that brought Minnie Miñoso to Chicago on the last day of April. That trade landed Zernial with the Philadelphia A’s.

Homerless at the time of the swap, Ozark Ike ended up leading the American League in home runs (33), RBI (129), and strikeouts (101) to win the STC. Zernial’s RBI and strikeout totals led the majors.

As it turned out, those would be his last league-leading totals, though he had paced the Junior Circuit in Ks in 1950, with 110.

Zernial did appear on a 1951 Bowman card, but how could I resist the opportunity to dust off his classic pink-undershirt, velcro-bat-and-ball, chef’s-kiss, first-A’s 1952 Topps baseball card?

I couldn’t. So there it is.

—

There have been other men to accomplish this feat in the last 26 years, I think. Pretty sure Aaron Judge did it once. But when a second baseman who plays just 138 games and drives in 49 runs leads the American League with 188 strikeouts, you know we’re in a different era of baseball.

And baseball cards.

So for me, for now, these six baseball cards are the bee’s knees when it comes to celebrating Maurice on his big day. Just don’t call him the gangster of love. Or speak to him on the pompatus of glove.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam