Captain Stubing Was a Ship Passing in the Night

Love, exciting and new, lasted just 8 games for Moose and the Angels

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1989 Topps Moose Stubing (#444) - Card of the Day

I wasn’t sure I’d be dropping by today, but…well, that was before I realized today is Moose Stubing’s birthday.

If you’re an “old” collector like me, you might remember Stubing as one of those guys who dropped into your life out of nowhere, courtesy of your 1989 Topps wax packs, and then disappeared just as quickly.

There’s a reason for that.

See, after a minor league career as a masher of some renown, Stubing finally made his big league debut—at age 29—in August 1967. He made it into five games, all as a pinch hitter for the Angels, and went 0-for-5.

Stubing never saw the big leagues again. As a player, at least.

After hanging up his slugging spikes following the 1969 season, Stubing embarked on another long minor league career, as a manager. He was successful enough in that endeavor to eventually land in the majors as a coach, again for the Angels.

That’s where you would have found Stubing in 1988, had you been looking for him — waving runners along or holding them up as the Halos’ third base coach. At least until general manager Mike Port fired manager Cookie Rojas on September 23.

With eight games left in the season, Port anointed the baseball lifer as interim manager, and the turnaround was immediate under Captain Stubing. The Angels reeled off an amazing run to end the season…they dropped all eight games.

That offseason, the Angels hired Doug Rader to replace Stubing (OK, to replace Rojas on a permanent basis). Stubing returned to the coaching staff and never managed in the bigs again.

With a batting line of 0-for-5 and a managerial record of 0-8, the question has to be asked — is Stubing the most prolific O-fer player-turned-manager in big league history?

As always, it depends on how you define the thing, but if we look at the list of big league managers with zero wins, Stubing finds himself in select company:

When you consider that neither Ted Turner (yes, that Ted Turner) nor John Bickerton ever appeared as players, well, Stubing is in a class of his own.

Take Me Out to the Crowd!

If you’ve ever wanted to catch Turner in his Braves uniform (who hasn’t, right?), you can find him in the 1977 book by Robert Ashley Fields, Take Me Out to the Crowd. Check it out on Amazon (affiliate link).

4 Bags All Around

On Saturday, the Yankees homered on the first three pitches from former teammate Nestor Cortes, now with the Brewers. Aaron Judge went deep in his first three plate appearances and gave it a ride in his fourth, settling for a double. From there, he got two more chances to join the four-homer-in-a-game club but came up short.

That leaves membership at 18, with Bob Horner the only modern player to hit four homers in a losing cause, for the Braves in 1986. (Ed Delahanty did it for the Phillies back in 1896.)

Fleer commemorated Horner’s clouts in its 1987 set (#632):

(affiliate link)

This card also made a cameo in one of my Spring Training warmups a few weeks back. Always fun when the game on the diamond gives us another chance to dig through our boxes of dusty old cards, don’t you think?