Old-School 'Tradition' with Ken Caminiti
Captain America still hopes for a better outcome
2002 Fleer Tradition Ken Caminiti (#172) - Card of the Day
In his first shot at the Hall of Fame in 2024, former Mets standout David Wright picked up 24 votes, appearing on 6.2% of ballots and narrowly escaping elimination. That already puts him ahead of one his closest historical comps.
In fact, Ken Caminiti is the most similar batter to Wright, according to Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores metric. And since they were both third basemen, one is a decent yardstick for the other.
Of course, there were differences.
Caminiti won three Gold Gloves to Wright’s two.
Caminiti played for four different franchises, while Wright was a Met forever.
Wright got on base more, slugged at a higher rate, and was a more prolific stolen base threat than Caminiti, all of which added up to a significant advantage in some of the slightly more advanced stats for Captain America. For example, Wright trounces Caminiti in career WAR, 49.2 to 33.4 (Baseball Reference version).
While each man led their teams to multiple playoff appearances, including a lost World Series for both, Caminiti holds a 1-0 advantage in MVP awards, copping the National League hardware in 1996.
And, of course, a big difference for oldsters like me is that Caminiti was playing the game — and popping out of wax packs — back when we were still youngsters. With a big league career that spanned from 1987 through 2001, Caminiti’s hobby influence bridged at least a couple of generations of fans and collectors.
In my case, I pulled my first Caminiti card while I was still in high school. And his last cards showed up the year after he retired, in 2002, during my hobby Dark Ages. That means Caminiti was afforded a hobby courtesy that has eluded many all-time greats: career-capper cards.
A case in point is the 2002 Fleer Tradition card you see above, which shows Caminiti in his last big league stop, with the Atlanta Braves. If the design looks familiar, then you’ve probably at least brushed shoulders — maybe online — with the classic 1934 Goudey issue.
The back of the card fulfilled that career-capper promise, showing his full run of stats:
The old-style card set was a fitting landing spot for Caminiti, a tough-nosed competitor who many saw as throwback to earlier generations.
Of course, Caminiti turned out to be a product and tarnished poster boy of the modern game. Even while his final cards were still on store shelves, Caminiti’s interview with Sports Illustrated in the summer of 2002 shone a spotlight on the steroid use — including his own — in the game.
Two years later, in October of 2004, Caminiti unwittingly stepped back into the spotlight again as I stood vigil in a hospital room. A close family member had been in an accident, with a long road ahead, and I was watching the muted TV that hung in one corner of the room. Just passing the many hours.
Out of nowhere, Caminiti’s face flashed on the screen. The crawl underneath said he was gone at age 41, dead of a heart attack (there was more to the story later). It was shocking news, even though I hadn’t given a thought to Caminiti in years by that point.
Caminiti’s one appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot came in 2007 — the same year the infamous Mitchell Report changed the game forever.