Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
The best part about this day for me has always — well, since like 1983 or so, anyway — been the green Reds jerseys they wear and the hunks of Blarney Stone they throw around instead of a baseball.
But I can’t just reel off five green jerseys or pictures of rocks here, so instead, I’m going to show off a few cards of players with Irish last names. My source is Google search, so the degree of actual Irishness may be suspect.
Shiúl muid!
1965 Topps Ed Connolly (#543)
Connolly’s name could have made him a low-key celebrity in Boston if he had been able to stick around for awhile or done something compelling while he was in town.
As things were, he spent three years in the minors, then debuted at age 24 in April of 1964. He stayed in Boston all year, too, and went 4-11 with a 4.91 ERA in 27 appearances, 15 of them starts.
Connolly did at least strike out more than eight batters per nine innings, and Topps cast him on this nifty rookie card in 1965. Rumor has it* that this card was the model for Radar O’Reilly a few years later.
The Sox salted Connolly away back in the minors in 1965 and 1966, though. Then the Indians swept him away in the November 1966 minor league draft. He made it all the way to the Cleveland roster in June of the 1967 season and appeared in 15 games before his pro run was done.
*Not true — no such rumor exists.
1969 Topps Horace Clarke (#87)
Google says Clarke is an Irish name.
Deeper Google says Clarke was the last name given to Irish clerks or clergymen in olden-day Ireland.
Horace Clarke has some pretty cool baseball cards, and I thought long and hard about going with his 1974 boss-of-the-seventies entry. But this one was too classic to pass up, what with the pinstripes and ballpark in the background.
And the chance to puzzle who those guys behind Clarke are — I may spy with my little eye Frank Crosetti. Who else?
As for our Irish clergyman himself, Clarke played all but 42 games of his ten-year career for the Yankees. He was the Bombers’ starting second baseman from 1967 through 1973, not exactly golden years in the Bronx.
But somebody had to man the keystone, and Clarke was a plus defender, a capable batsman (.256 lifetime average), and a threat on the basepaths (151 stolen bases).
1979 Topps Junior Kennedy (#501)
Have to have at least one Red on my list, right? And with political season already jamming its “sweet” tunes down our earholes at every turn, why not embrace the madness with a Kennedy of our own?
What I love about this card is that 1) it’s a Reds card and 2) Kennedy looks happy to be swinging a bat and 3) it’s a beautiful spring day when anything is possible and 4) Kennedy’s helmet looks like something Topps might have airbrushed together.
But why would Topps scratch out the Reds logo when Kennedy had only ever played for the Reds and it says Cincinnati on his shirt? Hmmmm?
Maybe the Reds themselves blotted out the lemon-shaped C so they could share the helmets with their minor leaguers? Or maybe it just wore off?
Or maybe this is actually a football card and Topps didn’t have a license to show team logos?
Dunno.
Or, more in keeping with the theme of the day —O’Dunno.
1984 Topps Tom Brennan (#662)
I’m about 40% sure Tom Brennan was the appliance salesman at our local Montgomery Ward in the 1980s.
What I know for sure is that Brennan was an every-packer in those years, a guy who seemingly slid into every wax pack there was. And he was always smiling like this.
Turns out he had at least some reason to smile, as he posted a .500 or better record for three Indians teams that were fairly typical Indians teams of the era (i.e., winning pitchers in Cleveland were at least protected if not downright endangered).
It wasn’t until he moved on to the White Sox and the Dodgers that Brennan went underwater, win-loss-wise. Odd game that way, this obsession of ours.
Also, Brennan didn’t debut in the majors until he was nearly 29 years old, which would be enough to make even the most jaded cynic pop a grin.
Brennan also is part of a bit of hobby trivia: he and Chris Bando both appeared on Indians Future Stars cards in both 1981 and 1982. They swapped out Sandy Wihtol on that first card for Von Hayes on the second.
1995 Topps Traded Jeff Barry (#22T)
When I see this baseball card, I automatically think, “pitcher.” They’re usually the only guys on the diamond (or near it) who can look so cocky/cheesy just leaning there on an elbow.
And with his Mets attire, it’s almost like Jeff Barry is channeling Dark Knight-version Matt Harvey. Barry also has a “young Karl Ravetch” sorta look to him — here’s an older Karl Ravetch:
Hmmm.
I don’t think Jeff and Karl are the same guy, but now I’m not sure.
Anyway, as it turns out, Barry wasn’t a pitcher at all, but an outfielder. And he was probably leaning on his rookie card up there because he was tired after climbing the minor league ladder for six years (Expos and Mets).
And making The Show after so long in the bushes is liable to put anybody in a smirk-the-moment mood.
At any rate, Barry only lasted 15 games for the 1995 Mets, then it was back to the minors. That December, the Gothams traded him to the Padres for — wait for it — Pedro Martinez.
No, it’s not what you think, but still a cool-sounding trivia thing, right?
He was a free agent a year later, signed a minor-league deal (what else) with the Rockies, and spent 1997 and most of 1998. But, lo and behold, Barry re-emerged in the majors for the Colorado part of that latter season.
He also split 1999 between the bigs and the littles and hit his only five major league homers in the process. He played his last game for the Rockies in October, then never showed up in the big leagues again.
He did, however, take another shot with a Triple-A run in 2001, courtesy of the Dodgers and White Sox, at age 31.
There — more Jeff Barry text than you knew you needed, but totally did.
—
So by this time, you’re probably green around the gills thanks to the foregoing overload of quasi-Irish silliness, so I’ll bid you slán leat.
But if your breathing slits are not yet sufficiently tinted, don’t forget to wear the proper colors…or get some spinach caught in your teeth…or check out some eBay sold listings for 1982 Kmart cases to make you envious.
Gotta have the green today, after all, lest you feel the sting o’pinch.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
Indians future star in '81 or '82 was probably CHRIS, not SAL Bando... Sal's career was almost done.