So here’s the setup for what you’re about to read…
Jesse Jefferson was born on this date in 1949, a full 75 years ago now.
If you thumb through Jefferson’s stats, you’ll see that he played in the majors from 1973 through 1981.
If you thumb through Jefferson’s baseball cards, you might notice that he also appeared in the 1982 sets.
Hence, we have this week’s lineup of cards that outlasted the corresponding careers of the players they picture. If we were were talking about stars, we’d be celebrating these as career-cappers, which they are.
In either case, here are five cards that were prime time even after the players they pictured were, uh, not.
1955 Bowman Ralph Beard (#206)
Beard signed with the Cardinals as an amateur free agent out of high school in 1947. He then embarked on a long, slow climb toward immortality, spending eight seasons in the minors.
Finally, at the age of 25, Beard stormed his way onto the St. Louis pitching staff in September of 1954. The Cards were also-rans that season, which afforded them the latitude to properly test out the “young” rookie.
Beard made ten starts among 13 appearances that month, posting an 0-4 record with a more palatable 3.72 ERA. That showing earned Beard another season at Double A in 1955, after which he retired from the game.
Oh, that 1954 mug of coffee also landed Beard this 1955 Bowman rookie card, allowing him to finish up his hobby run exactly the same time as Topps’ main competitor finished theirs.
1974 Topps Pat Corrales (#498)
Kids who grew up in the 1980s probably mostly remember Corrales for his Erik Estrada vibes as manager of the Phillies and Indians.
Before that, though, Corrales managed the Rangers in the late 1970s. And before that, he played in the majors for parts of nine seasons. He could manage a game from behind the plate even if he looked a bit lost at the plate.
Corrales played his last game in the majors in 1973, but he had a bit more business to take care of before he joined the ranks of catchers-turned-managers.
He spent a couple more seasons in the minors trying to get back to the bigs, for one.
And he appeared on one last Topps baseball card, in 1974, for another. It’s got all the mustard-y goodness you could hope for, even if Topps missed the boat by not sending Corrales to Washington “Nat'l League” with some of his former teammates.
1982 Topps Jesse Jefferson (#682)
Jefferson was an original member of the Toronto Blue Jays, who drafted him away from the White Sox in the 1976 expansion draft.
As usually happens with sparkly new teams, the Jays were tough on everyone. Jefferson was no exception, and he went 9-17 in 1977…then 7-16, 2-10, 4-13.
From there, the Jays waived him in September 1980, the Pirates claimed him, then the Bucs released him at the end of the year.
The Angels signed Jefferson for 1981, and he went 2-4 with a 3.62 ERA in 26 games for the Halos during that strike-shortened season.
He landed in Spring Training with the Orioles in 1982 but didn’t make the team. He did make it into the 1982 Topps set, though.
After that, Jefferson gave it one more shot, making three appearances for the Angels in 1983…well, OK, for the Triple-A Edmonton Trappers.
Unfortunately, Jefferson passed away in 2011, but we can still celebrate his birthday today — which is what we’re up to right now, right?
1984 Topps George Bjorkman (#116)
This is a beautiful baseball card and makes you want to be right there on the surface of the sun with George Bjorkman watching him practice his splits in the batter’s box.
It’s always been a beautiful baseball card, but it was at its best in 1984, when Bjorkman himself was a rookie…or would have been had he been in the majors.
Instead, the Astros catcher was back in the minors after a 29-game run in the bigs in the last half of 1983. And he was no longer an Astros catcher at all — he was with the Indianapolis Indians, Triple-A club for the Expos.
And in 1985, he’d split time between Indy and Rochester, home of the Orioles’ Triple-A Red Wings.
But in 1984, Bjorkman was shiny and new after five years in the Cardinals’ farm system and one in the Astros’ system. Or at least he was shiny and new to collectors on the cusp of full-blown rookie card mania.
Every RC was gold, and this one also just so happened to be a spectacular rainbow.
Even if Bjorkman was already done in the big leagues before this card ever made it into our wax packs.
1988 Score Buddy Biancalana (#383)
Thanks to David Letterman and the Royals’ magical championship run in 1985, Buddy Biancalana achieved the kind of fame — if only briefly — that mere mortals who hit .188 in their breakout seasons can’t really expect the baseball gods to bestow upon them.
But those baseball gods are fickle, so they smiled on Biancalana in 1985, then sort of let him slide by for a few years with scant little attention, even as he marched toward Ty Cobb and Pete Rose on the all-time hits list.
By 1987, most of us had sort of forgotten about Buddy, what with the birth of the Bash Brothers and all. Turns out, the Royals sent him to the Astros that July for Mel Stottlemyre (the Younger).
And it was there that Biancalana played out the string, hitting .042 in 18 games for the Astros before spending 1988 at Triple A for the Royals.
That same year, as Roland Americo Biancalana was winding down his professional baseball career, he was helping Score christen their own run in the hobby.
For what it’s worth, I thought this was a Glenn Davis card at first glance. And second and third.
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So, what cards would you add to this list, or sub in?
Any career-cappers are fair game, but the more obscure the better. After all, we know Mickey Mantle’s story by heart, but what of Mickey Stanley and that 1979 Topps card of his??
Uh-huh.
I’ll wait here in this corner while you go find whatever story that one has to tell, then we can gather here again next week.
I’m sure I’ll have some other silly baseball ramblings by then.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam