Of Steve Phoenix and Ashes and Bucky Buckles Rookie Cards

Plus some baseball marriages that should have been

1995 Topps Steve Phoenix (#369) - Card of the Day

As far as I can tell, “Steve Phoenix” is not an alias in the “Ron Mexico” vein, or any other vein for that matter.

No, Steve Phoenix was the real name of the boy who really was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 31,1968.

And then, after a move to El Cajon, California, where Phoenix went to high school, he went to local Grossmont College…before winding up at Grand Canyon University in (yes) Phoenix.

Phoenix didn’t get picked in the 1990 draft after he finished college, but he wasn’t done. Phoenixes rarely are.

So Phoenix signed with the Oakland A’s as an amateur free agent that June.

The A’s salted him away in their minor league system, because both salt and the bushes are good options for seasoning, for curing.

After five long seasons in the minors, and in his second round of splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A, Phoenix may have been something of a forgotten man in 1994.

But then…yes…he rose. All the way to Oakland, making his first appearance on July 30 and his second on August 2, both of the multi-inning, middle-relief variety.

A 6.23 ERA might have spelled the end of his short run that summer, but The Strike that befell us all on August 12 usurped Oakland’s power to make that decision.

At 26 and with no baseball to be played, things looked sort of bleak for Phoenix’s prospects. But, of course, he’d rise yet again.

After starting the 1995 season with the Triple-A Edmontron Trappers, Phoenix got one more chance. On August 6 against the Mariners at home, Phoenix got the rock for most of the seventh and eight innings — and gave up six earned runs.

It would be Phoenix’s only big league appearance that summer, leaving him with a 1995 ERA of 32.40. It would also be his final trip to the mound in the majors.

But even as he was headed back to the bushes, collectors were pulling his four-for rookie card (above) that also featured Blad Clontz, Scott Gentile, and Bucky Buckles.

Clontz was the undisputed champ of this group in terms of major league success, while Buckles is tough to top for name value. Phoenix brings a strong name-callup combo, though.

Alas, after two more seasons in the minors, one in the Oakland system and one in the Pirates’ system, Phoenix was done with professional baseball.

In a perfect baseball romance, of course, the newborn Arizona Diamondbacks would have brought the man back the next year (1998) to close the circle in their first year of existence as an expansion team.

Johnny Podres got his moment with the Padres, after all, so why not Phoenix in Phoenix?

Because sometimes, for as poetic as baseball can be, the men and women who run the game miss the aesthetic. You can bet Bill Veeck would have made it happen, though.

As it stands, we’re left to wich Steve Phoenix a happy 56th birthday and trust that he’ll rise yet again, at an old-timers game or a local softball field, when the time is right.

1969 Topps Johnny Podres (#659)

Just a little photographic evidence that the Podres-Padres thing happened.

This, after Podres had been out of tolhe majors in 1968. The expansion Padres (apparently) just could resist the temptation.

Good on them.

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What team-player name combinations have you enjoyed over the years, or which ones do you think were missed opportunities?

Mickey Rivers playing in Three Rivers would have been pretty cool.

How about Seth Beer with the Brewers?

Or would you believe Paul Dicken with the Dodgers?

Thanks for reading.

—Adam