Bien Figueroa's Brief Visit with the Wizard of Oz
Maybe he clicked his heels together too soon?
1993 Pinnacle Bien Figueroa (#263) - Card of the Day
The 1992 St. Louis Cardinals felt like a team at a crossroads, and, hopefully for their rabid fan base, a team on the rise.
Legendary manager Whitey Herzog had retired in July 1990 during a disappointing season. Red Schoendienst took over the helm for 24 games before Joe Torre came on full-time and went 24-34 as the team finished 70-92, last in the old National League East.
With Torre in the driver’s seat all season in 1991, though, the Cards rebounded to 84-78, finishing second behind the defending-champion Pirates. Young players like Todd Zeile, Bernard Gilkey, Ray Lankford, Luis Alicea, Brian Jordan, and Felix Jose had hopes for the future running high. And the presence of veterans like Pedro Guerrero, Andres Galarraga, Bob Tewskbury, and Lee Smith made the 1992 club look like a good bet to move up quickly.
Meanwhile, Ozzie Smith had still been maybe the team’s overall best player in 1991, but how long could that last? The Wizard had played 150 games at short, something he had been doing for the better part of 15 years. Heading into his age-37 season, surely Smith couldn’t keep up that pace forever.
Right?
Well, right, as it turned out.
In 1992, Ozzie appeared in “just” 132 games, all at short, and made only 128 starts. That meant Torre had to find some fill-ins on a fairly regular basis.
Many of the innings at short went to Tim Jones, with Alicea, Jose Oquendo, and Bien Figueroa also getting a look.
If you weren’t a Cardinals fan at the time, Jones may not sound familiar to you, but he was a St. Louis constant from 1988 through 1993, filling a utility role that included games everywhere in the infield, in the outfield corners, and as a pinch hitter and pinch runner. Dude even logged one appearance each as a pitcher(!) and catcher.
But even the most diehard of Cards fans might have trouble coming up with a mental image for Figueroa. Here’s how he ended up at the top of today’s post…
Drafted by the Cardinals in the fifth round in June of 1986 out of Florida State University, the Dominican-born Figueroa spent six full seasons in the St. Louis minor league system. He began a seventh there, too, opening the 1992 campaign with the Triple-A Redbirds for the fourth year in a row.
But St. Louis called up the right-handed hitter in May, and he finally made his big league debut on May 17, 1992, on the road at the Astrodome. Figueroa drew the start at shortstop and went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
That hit came in his very first at-bat, a single off Astros starter Pete Harnisch in the top of the third inning. Figueroa scored four batters later when Jose smacked a grand slam.
The Cardinals won that game, 7-5, but Figueroa wouldn’t play again until two weeks later. And he wouldn’t draw another start until September 27 (second game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia) after he got called up again following a midseason demotion.
In between, Cards fell out of contention.
They finished their season a week later with a 6-3 win over the Phillies at home, but their 83-79 record was a step backwards — they landed in third place, 13 games behind the Pirates.
That game against Philly also happened to be the last Figueroa would ever play in the majors. He replaced Ozzie in the field in the top of the sixth and then struck out in his only at-bat, against Mike Hartley in the bottom of the seventh.
The next season, at age 29, Figueroa was back at Louisville by the time his action-packed black-bordered rookie card made collectors scratch our heads. Who was this guy?
A few of the more observant among us might have remembered his brief run with the ‘92 Cardinals. Maybe others of us took the bait of his first name — this guy will be bien (good) someday…better slap that card in a plastic sheet!
Alas, Figueroa spent the next few years bouncing between several minor league teams and stops in China and Mexico.
Meanwhile, Ozzie played 141 games in 1993 before winding down with three sub-100-game seasons (though two were cut short by the players’ strike of 1994-95). And St. Louis never really got going under Torre before showing him the door in June 1995.
Both the Cardinals and Torre were headed for better days, though, as St. Louis said bienvenido to Tony La Raussa in 1996, the same year Torre landed with the Yankees — and the same year Bienvenido Figueroa made his last pro stop, a season-ending stint with the Mexico City Reds.
Today, Bien Figueroa turns 61 years old.
There’s Only One Ozzie (Rookie Card?)
It’s always a good (bien) time to talk about Ozzie Smith, and his 1979 Topps rookie card is certainly one of the most iconic baseball cards issued in the entire decade of the 1970s. But did you know there are actually a couple of other Ozzie rookie cards?
That includes the very first one — the “fun” entry above. Read all about it right here!