Welcome to the end of the first week of 2024! How are your hobby resolutions going?
I usually don’t make any cardboard promises to start the New Year, but I loosely committed to thinning out my stacks at the beginning of 2023.
Since I now have a handful more cards than I did this time last year, I guess that counts as a broken resolution. I’m OK with that.
The guys below, though— well, they certainly seem to have made a pledge to change during the course of their major league careers.
And they followed up.
Ross Grimsley
I’ve written about Grimsley and his transformation and his baseball cards in some detail before, over on the website.
These two cards give a pretty good overview, though:
Cleancut rookie with plenty of potential and solid opening results for the rising Reds at that beginning of the decade
Self-assured, happy 70s Disco Dan for the Orioles later in the decade, with enough hairspace to make Captain Caveman envious
By the time that 1978 Topps card came out, Grimsley was with the Expos, and he’d win 20 games for Montreal in 1979.
The wooliness served him well up north, and we basically never saw his upper-lip skin again.
Honus Wagner
Sure, this one’s a bit of a cheat since the fabled T206 Wagner shows the Hall of Famer in the prime of his playing career, while the accompanying 1948 Leaf card (#70) shows him as a Pirates coach.
So, not really fair to compare a mid-30s Honus to a mid-70s “John,” but it’s still fun and illustrates a) how much baseball was in Wagner’s blood, b) that baseball is generally hard to shake once it bites into you, and c) that Wagner turned into a pretty cranky-looking old man.
Oh, and that Wagner probably wasn’t too concerned about tobacco use, after all.
Gaylord Perry
This is another maybe unfair comparison since, like the Wagner examples above, these cards of Perry were issued far, far apart.
But also like Wagner, Perry hung around the game forever. In Perry’s case, though, collectors got to witness his transition from young to old year-by-year through their baseball cards while he was still an active player.
Of course, at 43 in the pic on that 1983 Donruss card (that shows him in 1982) and 45 when he retired late that same year (1983) from the Royals, Perry was really only old by baseball standards.
Still, Donruss did a masterful job of recreating the perspective, pose, and even blue sky of Perry’s 1962 Topps rookie card, letting his “seasoned” face tell the story of his long and successful run (or greasy slide, as the case may be) in the majors.
Al Hrabosky
Al Hrabosky doesn’t look particularly mad — either the angry kind or the Jack Nicholson kind — on his 1973 Topps card (#153), his first solo cardboard showing.
But that card was issued (just) before he broke out with a 2.09 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 56 innings pitched as a reliever for the 1973 Cardinals.
And before he walked three straight Reds (Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan, Dan Driessen) in the top of the ninth during a tie game in 1977 only to strike out the next three — George Foster, Johnny Bench, Bob Bailey.
In between, Hrabosky would grow out his hair, lead the National League in saves (with 22 in 1975), and learn to stomp around and generally intimidate hitters.
That Mad Hungarian persona is on full display on his1977 Topps card (#495) up there, and Hrabosky would keep at it right through stops in Kansas City and Atlanta on his way to a fairly dominant 13-year big league career.
Dave Parker
In 1978, Jim Rice and Dave Parker put together dominant performances en route to winning the American League and National League MVP awards, respectively.
But, while Rice stayed with the Red Sox through the remainder of his Hall of Fame career, the super cool Parker ran into some off-field (or near-field) problems that eventually made him easier for the Pirates to part with.
But when he became a free agent after the 1983 season, Parker’s hometown Reds swooped in and signed him to a surprise deal.
On the Riverfront, Parker shaved his signature beard, sideburns, and mustache, and he settled into his mid-30s by *ahem* bulking up a bit and focusing on his power game.
The result was a guy who looked more fatherly than party-ly most of the time, and a set of wheels content to help drive a ball rather than hustle out the 15-20 stolen bases and 10 or so triples they helped create each season early in his career.
—
In case you didn’t notice, this post featured two former Reds, and it talked about six other Reds (in that Al Hrabosky section).
If I were a resolution-making guy, I might resolve to not be such a homer. But I’m not, so I will continue homering as it suits me.
Besides, the Reds of old were really great for this type of player transformation, what with their “long-haired freaky people need not apply” view of the world.
Over to you — what are some of your favorite player transformations over the years?
I’d love to hear your picks and then go look them up to see just how dramatic the changes were.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go start working on my eephus pitch. Less than six weeks until pitchers and catchers report, you know, and I think this is going to be my year.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
I was going to say Phil Niekro but he had gray hair on ‘74 Topps card at the age of 34ish. lol
Nice “Five Man Electric Band” reference!