The late Steve Howe was born on this date in 1958, and while his story isn’t one to celebrate, it does bring to mind other players who burned brightly — or could have — for just a little while before falling off the baseball table.
Here are five of them, presented as always from the confines of their baseball cards.
1965 Topps Steve Blass (#232)
As far as I know, Steve Blass is the only man on this list who has a syndrome/disease named after him.
After cruising through the last half of the 1960s as an up-and-coming starter for the Pirates, Blass hit critical mass in 1972. That summer, he went 19-8 with a stingy 2.49 ERA.
He started for the Bucs on Opening Day in 1973 but got rocked for five runs in five innings, thanks in no small part to the four walks he gave up. There was plenty of hope that Blass just needed to warm up to the new season, but the ice never thawed.
By the end of the year, he had made 18 starts among 23 appearances, pitching just 88 1/3 innings. In that span, Blass gave up 84 walks and posted a ghastly 9.85 ERA.
He just couldn’t seem to find the strike zone, and no one could find a good answer for why. Blass’s troubles eventually led him to the minor leagues in 1974 and out of baseball by the end of that year at age 32.
Now, any time a player suddenly and inexplicably loses control over his throwing arm for an extended period of time, whispers of “Steve Blass Disease” start making the rounds. Unless it’s a position player — they contract Steve Sax Syndrome.
Anyway, Blass’s 1965 Topps is all happy times and bright hope, complete with full-blossom trees against a blue sky.
1974 Topps David Clyde (#133)
David Clyde’s troubles, on the other hand, have a more definite cause — the greed of former Rangers owner Bob Short.
Desperate to drum up some interest in his terrible team after they tried to leave their Washington Senators stink behind, Short latched onto Clyde in the summer of 1973.
In drafting the Texas youngster out of high school with the first overall pick, the Rangers guaranteed Clyde he’d make his first two pro starts with the big league team. Then it was to be straight to the farm for some proper seasoning.
But Clyde trew well enough — and drew crowds well enough — that Short convinced manager Whitey Herzog to keep the 18-year-old in the Texas rotation.
The youngster ended up making 18 starts and, though he posted a 5.01 ERA, he was back with the Rangers the next spring. Clyde blew out his shoulder in his first 1974 start, rehabbed in the minors, came back to the Rangers, and was never the same again.
Fifty years later, Clyde’s 1974 Topps rookie card is a reminder that sometimes the adults in the room need to exercise a little discretion.
1979 Topps Danny Goodwin (#322)
If Goodwin had arrived on the scene in 2021 instead of 1971, we’d probably still be seeing his electric chrome relic one-of-one rookie cards selling for thousands of dollars on lists of the most expensive baseball cards.
It’s not easy to give up on the only man selected as the overall pick in the June draft twice, after all.
Goodwin first got the call from the White Sox in 1971, but he turned down their money for a scholarship to play at Southern University.
Four years later, in 1975, Goodwin was the Sporting News College Player of the Year, and the Angels took him off the draft board right away.
California gave him less than half a season at Triple-A El Paso before they plopped him on the major league roster in September. He hit an even .100, then spent 1976 and most of 1977 in the minors.
Goodwin never stuck at his original position, catcher, and his bat never came alive in the bigs. The Halos traded him to the Twins (with Ron Jackson) for Dan Ford after the 1978 season.
That gave collectors one last look at Goodwin with his original team (not counting the ChiSox) before he disappeared. See the 1979 Topps beauty above.
After three seasons as a part-time DH for the Twins and one for the A’s (1982), Goodwin was done in the majors at age 28.
He’d spend three more years in the minors without ever getting another chance to improve on his MLB tallies: .236, 13 HR, 81 RBI.
1979 Topps Bob Horner (#586)
When I came into the hobby in 1983 and got hold of my first price guide, this Horner rookie card was one of the very few issued in the previous decade that carried a $1+ price tag.
Horner checked in at a whopping $3, and I was on the lookout every time I went to a card show just to catch a glimpse of this “old” card.
There was reason for the hype, too, as Horner had clubbed 32 home runs the summer before in helping the Braves win the National League West. At just 24 years of age, he had won a Rookie of the Year award (1978) and went 30+ in the long ball department three times.
Not only that, but the Braves had drafted Horner with the number-one pick in 1978, and he had never spent a day in the minor leagues.
Horner’s prodigious power and his roundish physique led to constant comparisons to one of the all-time greats. Horner was going to be the next Babe Ruth!
That turned out to be sorta true, as Horner kept slugging home runs when he was in the lineup, but also began to suffer from all sorts of injuries.
His weight became a steady point of contention, and he eventually walked as a free agent…to Japan, after not finding a suitable offer among major league clubs during the 1987 collusion-fest.
Horner gave it one more shot, with the Cardinals, in 1988 before hanging up his spikes at age 30. Today, plenty of other 1979 Topps cards have surpassed Horner’s in terms of value, but he still rides high on the “mystique” leaderboard.
1981 Fleer Steve Howe (#136)
Howe followed in Horner footsteps as National League Rookie of the Year (1980), albeit with Rick Sutcliffe (1979) sandwiched in between.
Drafted by the Dodgers with the number-16 overall pick in 1979, Howe made short work of the Los Angeles farm system and was in the bigs to start the 1980 season.
In short order, he became one of the most ballyhooed young relievers in the game, helping the Dodgers to a 92-71 record and second-place finish in the National League West.
Howe was an All-Star for the first time in 1982, then followed up with a tiny 1.44 ERA in 1983. But that was also the year his substance abuse first made news when he checked himself into a clinic.
For the next 13 years, Howe was in and out of the game, in and out of trouble. He last pitched for the Yankees in June of 1996, months before they won their first World Series since downing the Dodgers in 1978.
In 17 calendar years, Howe spent parts of a dozen of them in the bigs, going 47-41 with a 3.03 ERA and 91 saves.
Could Howe have been a Hall of Famer if he had stayed on the diamond and out of the headlines for the wrong reasons? Impossible to know for sure, but he had plenty of talent…and got a lot of chances.
Howe died in a single-vehicle accident in April of 2006. Today would have been his 66th birthday.
Howe has rookie cards in all three 1981 sets, but I really enjoy the playful, cocky, young-and-hopeful vibe of this Fleer number.
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So, OK, this turned out to be a bit of a bummer list of players and stories. But they’re all part of the game’s history, all part of hobby lore, and all have lessons to offer up.
Who are some of the most memorable quick nosedives during your fandom? As always, I’m interested to hear your picks on this one.
Hope you have a good week ahead, though you should keep an eye on your backside. Especially when friends are around. Especially on Friday.
That’s the ides, you know. Might skip out on sorting any “Cesar” baseball cards until Saturday. (As far as I can tell, there aren’t any “Caesar” cards in my collection.)
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
Brien Taylor and Kevin Maas come to mind as two players with Yankees hype that flamed out, and to a lesser extent, Todd van Poppel (long career but never achieved the promised HOF level greatness).