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1986 Topps Earnie Riles (#398) - Card of the Day
Today is April 15, fondly known in the United States as Tax Day. Yeehaw.
That moniker is fitting in just about every sense, seeing as how it’s our deadline to settle up with the government and that the entire process is very (yes) taxing.
If you look up “tax” in your favorite local thesaurus, or if you think about it hard for a while, you might also come up with a synonym for the verb form — “rile.”
As in, “doing these taxes really taxes me,” or, “doing these taxes really riles me up.”
So here we have a day when we have to think about and wrestle around with all the taxes we have to pay on all we earn, and that really riles us up.
Could there be any more perfect player to hold our proverbial hand through this most unholy of financial days that Earnie Riles?
Now, you can quibble with the “Earnie” piece of his name.
That’s the way his 1986 Topps rookie card shows it. Baseball Reference lists him as “Ernie” but shows his full name as “Earnest,” while Wikipedia has him as “Ernest.”
So there seems to be some disagreement.
For today, at least, we’re going with the Topps version. And for kids/collectors of the 1980s, it’s the one most likely embedded in our brains from pulling dozens of this card from wax packs in the summer of 1986.
But that was a good thing, because Riles was a bright spot in a set largely devoid of big-name rookie cards when it was issued. We had the reigning Rookies of the Year, Vince Coleman and Ozzie Guillen.
We had Teddy Higuera.
We had Chris Brown, who had some “prospect” fans.
We had Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell, because they were Mets.
Cecil Fielder wouldn’t move the needle for another four years, after a trip to Legend Land in Japan.
Darren Daulton wouldn’t move the needle until the Phillies turned gnarly, thanks in part to Nails himself, seven years later.
Mickey Tettleton’s Froot Loops weren’t yet a breakfast staple.
But Ernie/Earnest/Earnie/Ernest Riles at least gave us some hope. After all, Robin Yount and Cal Ripken had proved to us earlier in the decade that shortstops could hit for power and average and generally anchor a team.
And Riles, if not directly supplanting Yount, had shown enough to convince Brewers’ management that the 1982 American League MVP could move to center field.
After hitting in the .340s every other minor league season (and below .300 in between), Riles made his big league debut in May of 1985. He started 115 games at short through the end of the season and hit .286 with five home runs, 45 RBI, and 54 runs scored.
That was enough to finish third in American League Rookie of the Year voting, behind Guillen and Higuera. Also enough to spur this serious-looking rookie card from Topps the next year.
Riles played 142 games at shortstop in 1986, but took a step backward at the plate: .252, 9 HR, 47 RBI in nearly 100 extra plate appearances compared to the year before.
At the same time, young Dale Sveum was coming up through the Brewers system behind Riles, debuting with the Brewers on May 12. The next year, Sveum was at short, pushing Riles to third base — at least part time.
Sveum smacked 25 homers in 1987 as the Brewers were surprise contenders, while Riles hit .261 with four dingers in 83 games. Then, 41 games into the 1988 season, Milwaukee traded Riles to the Giants for Jeffrey Leonard.
Things didn’t get much better for Riles in San Francisco, though he did see action in the 1989 National League Championship Series and World Series.
Then it was off to the A’s before the 1991 season, along with Darren Lewis, for Pedro Pena. Stints with the Astros and Red Sox followed, but Riles was done in the majors by the end of 1993.
His last game came on October 3, a day after his 33rd birthday.
By the next tax day, Riles was back in the minors, first in the Angels system, then for the Indians. He finally decided the game had taxed him enough after a 1995 run with the independent Tennessee Tomahawks.
By that time, most 1986 Topps Earnie Riles rookie cards had ended up in commons bins. But for collectors of a certain age, some of those RCs still pop up in plastic sleeves or nine-pocket pages now and then.
Hope springs eternal, after all, even on tax day. If things break just right, we might get a return. Or maybe we’ll pull just one more Riles RC.
The Willie Davis Near-Career-Capper
Another player born on April 15 is one with a dark-horse Hall of Fame case — Willie Davis.
Given the current setup of the Eras Committees, Davis will probably *still* never make the Cooperstown cut, but his 2500+ hits, 182 home runs, 398 stolen bases, and 3 Gold Gloves leave him at 60+ WAR.
It’s a better resume than some already enshrined.
Anyway, Davis almost coaxed a career-capper card out of Topps, but his 43-game comeback with the Angels in 1979 tanked that possibility. Here is the rundown on his 1977 Topps near-capper card.
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Alright, I’ll stop taxing your patience now. Hope my rambling didn’t Rile(s) you up too much.
Oh, and many happy returns. Or at least one happy return. You’ve Earnied it, after all.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam