Amalio Carreño Had a Busy Week in 1991

And Score rewarded the hobby with a record of his exploits

Note: When you click on links to various merchants in this newsletter and make a purchase, this can result in this newsletter earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1992 Score Amalio Carreño (#867) - Card of the Day

For a guy with all of three games’ experience in the big leagues, Amalio Carreño sure had a pretty frenzied pro run.

It all began when the Yankees signed Carreño as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela in November of 1983 when he was just 19 years old. The next season, he would make nine appearances for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Yankees, going 1-6 with a 4.91 ERA…but with 31 strikeouts in 33 innings.

It was more of the same the next two summers, with Carreño finally graduating to Single-A Fort Lauderdale late in 1986.

The summer of 1987 was a bit more fruitful in terms of climbing the ladder, as Carreño spent time at Single, Double, and Triple A. The Yankees added their 23-year-old righty prospect to the 40-man roster at the end of the season, but he never took the mound in the Bronx.

Carreño spent Spring Training of 1988 with the big-league Yanks before they dispatched him to Albanie-Colony. He made it back to the Columbus Clippers (Triple A) by mid-summer, but then the Yanks flipped him to the Phillies for a familiar face to old-school collectors — Luis Aguayo (1982 Topps #449 below).

And that’s where Carreño pretty much stalled, camping out with the Double-A Reading Phillies through 1990.

Finally, at age 27, Carreño made it back to Triple A to start 1991, but he went 4-8 with a 5.33 ERA in 33 appearances as a swingman.

The 1991 Phillies, though…well, they weren’t great, and they were trying to find their way. When Jim Fregosi took over for manager Nick Leyva after 13 games, he had his work cut out for him.

With a stable of young (or at least not old) talent that included Len Dykstra, Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Mickey Morandini, Mitch Williams, and others who would do something cool in 1993, the Phils and Phregosi were left to phit in the pieces that could maybe appease the phaithful while things gelled.

And so it was that the tinkering spotlight phinally phell on Carreño that July. Summonsed from his eternal minor league assignment, the long-baked rookie made his major league debut in relief of Phillies starter Tommy Greene on July 7 against the Mets at home.

Carreño got the last out in the top of the third inning, then “pitched” the fourth and fifth, giving up three runs on two hits, two walks, and hit batsman (Hubie Brooks).

Tim Mauser came on in the sixth to try and stop the bleeding (the Mets won 8-2).

Fregosi ended up handing the ball to Carreño two more times, the last coming a week after the first, on July 14. In all, Carreño posted a 16.20 ERA in 3.1 big league innings, and he gave up a doozy of a home run.

In Carreño’s final inning of work, he gave up one of Will Clark’s five career grand slams, though Philly starter Danny Cox was the one who loaded the bases in the top of the fourth on July 14 without recording an out.

From there, it was back to the minors for Carreño, who became a free agent in October. The Orioles signed him in January of 1992 and brought him to Spring Training, but he didn’t make the cut.

By Opening Day, Amalio Carreño was done in pro baseball, but Score wasn’t quite done with him — his rookie card was #867 in their 1992 omnibus of a base set. Hey, it’s not everyone who can give up a grand salami to The Thrill, right?

Today, Carreño turns 60 years old, joining Clark (born March 13) in the July 14 Sexagenarian Society.

Cardboard Pirouette

Morandini was the starting second baseman for those 1991 Phillies, and also for the grimy 1993 squad that went to the World Series.

In between, in 1992, he pulled off an unassisted triple play, a feat accomplished just 15 times in MLB history.

I ran down the men who did it, and their baseball cards, in this blog post a while back.

—

Hey, it’s Thursday! That means we’ve pulled off a sort of quadruple play on the week and are rounding third, heading for home. You know, to mix some baseball metaphors.

“See” you tomorrow, and we can celebrate the end of the week with some wrinkled bubble gum and stale wax wrappers.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam