Phil Bradley Was a Sneaky Rookie Card Find
He was the pull we didn't know was a pull thanks to Alvin Davis
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1985 Topps Phil Bradley (#449) - Card of the Day
If you were a fan of the Seattle Mariners in the mid-1980s…sorry about that.
But not quite late-1970s sorry.
When I started following baseball in 1983, the Mariners were a really bad team, finishing 60-102 and in last place in the old American League West division. The stink around the (expansion) team went deeper, though, as they’d never had a winning record in their history.
That stretched all the way back to 1977, which was forever ago in 12-year-old terms.
Worse yet, there was never anything worth collecting among Mariners baseball cards, either. For all their talents, Rupper Jones, Tom Paciorek, and Leon Roberts just weren’t moving the hobby needle.
Seattle cardboard took a major turn for the better after 1984, though. That summer, Alvin Davis blew into town and took over first base from Pat Putnam. But it was in the batter’s box where Davis really stood out: his .284 batting average with 27 home runs and 116 RBI made waves throughout the game.
That production had an immediate impact on Seattle’s bottom line, too, as the M’s improved to 74-88.
For his efforts, Davis was named American League Rookie of the Year. And that fall — and in 1985 — his baseball cards were second only to Dwight Gooden’s in the race for title of “Most Anticipated Cardboard of the Year.“
But Davis wasn’t alone in bringing new hope to the Mariners.
Lefthander Mark Langston also debuted in 1984, and his 17-10 record and 3.40 ERA left him behind only Davis in ROY balloting.
Other youngsters chipped in, too, including Spike Owen, Jim Presley, Dave Henderson, Darnell Coles, Mike Moore, Matt Young, and Ed Vande Berg — all 25 or under.
But there was another 25-year-old rookie on the roster who went mostly unnoticed, but who was a gathering storm cloud for American League pitchers.
Like Davis, Phil Bradley showed up in our 1985 Topps (and Fleer and Donruss) wax packs, but collectors mostly didn’t notice him either. Not in the glare of Gooden and Davis and Olympians like Oddibe McDowell and Mark McGwire.
Not at first.
But as the 1985 season wore on, as hot starts gave way to coming back to the pack, a new name started appearing week after week among American League batting leaders: Phil Bradley.
By midseason, we were setting aside Bradley’s rookie cards along with all the rest of the “big names.”
By October, the Mariners were in sixth place in the American League West — no surprise — but Bradley gave the Seattle faithful another reason for the future.
All told that summer, Bradley hit an even .300 while clubbing 26 home runs, driving 88 runs, stealing 22 bases, and scoring 100 times. He also made the All-Star team.
As it turned out, that would be the only Midsummer Classic of Bradley’s career, and 1985 was his best all-around season. But he didn’t just fade away.
He’d go on to hit double-digit homers each of the next four seasons, swipe 40 bases in 1987, and finish his Seattle tenure with a .301 batting average.
Trades to the Phillies, Orioles, and White Sox from December 1987 through July 1990 gave Bradley a bit of a journeyman feel, and his production dropped through the last years of the 1980s.
Bradley found no takers in free agency after the 1990 season and, save for a minor league run with the Angels and Cubs in 1992, he was done playing baseball at age 31.
Today, Phil Bradley — the surprise rookie card star — turns 65 years old.
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1988 French-Bray Orioles
Bradley was part of the 1989 Orioles club that made a dramatic turnaround under Frank Robinson, jumping from 54-107 the year before to 87-75, finishing second in the A.L. East.
A local printer and paper company teamed up to capture both versions of that team — a 30-card set in 1988, expanding to 32 in 1989. Usually those sets are just referred to as French/Bray, or French-Bray.
As you can see, Robinson was part of the run (1988 shown above), as were Bradley, Cal Ripken Sr., Cal Ripken Jr., Billy Ripken, and all the other O’s. There’s even a Brady Anderson “rookie” card in 1989!
Prices on eBay usually run a buck or two for singles, under $20 for complete sets.
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Here’s hoping your Monday is more 1989 Orioles than 1988 Orioles, Bill Ripken F-Face vibes aside.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam