Rufino Linares Has Just the Hope You Need

And a palm tree to back up the promises

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1982 Donruss Rufino Linares (#310) - Card of the Day

You ever wake up on a cheery spring morning feeling pretty good about the world and yourself and wonder if maybe, just maybe, you have time to fulfill your dreams of playing in the majors?

If you collected baseball cards in the 1980s, you don’t. It’s too late.

But then again, if you collected baseball cards in the 1980s, you probably remember Rufino Linares.

Linares was strewn throughout our wax packs from 1982 through 1985 like BBs on the driveway gravel when you forget to close the loading hatch on your Red Ryder.

As ubiquitous as Linares cards were, the man himself was no sure bet to ever appear in majors. Heck, as far as the record book is concerned, Linares didn’t play his first professional game until he was 23.

That’s when the Braves signed him to an amateur free agent deal out of the Dominican Republic and plopped him down with the Rookie-level Kingsport Braves.

What followed were two summers at Single A, and three split between Double A and Triple A.

By his mid 20s, Linares was a consistent threat to hit .300, but he was mostly buried in a system that was helping Atlanta gear up for a title run in 1982.

But in 1980, Linares got a hit in 43 of his first 44 games and ended up batting .373 for the season. That was finally enough to stir Braves brass to action, and he broke Spring Training with the big club in 1981.

Rufino Linares was 30 years old when he made his debut on April 10, 1981.

Linares spent all of 1981 and 1982 with Atlanta, splitting his time between left field and pinch hitting duties. He did fine, hitting .279 with seven home runs, 42 RBI, and 13 stolen bases across 465 plate appearances in 155 games.

More importantly for us, Linares landed rookie cards in all three major sets in 1982, including the Donruss glamor shot above.

This pic was likely taken sometime during 1981, very likely as Linares pushed to break camp with the big club. I mean, see the cloudy/sunny sky and come-hither palm tree in the background?

Yeah, that’s the stuff only the magical world of a not-young man still dreaming about green cathedrals can engender.

Reality began to encroach in 1983, as Linares played just a handful of minor league games and none in the majors. He split the Olympic summer of 1984 between the Atlanta and Richmond Braves, then was on the street in November.

After the Braves released him, Linares sat on the shelf until April of 1985, when the Angels signed him. He spent a month in the California minor league system before they released him in May.

But the Halos re-signed Linares later in the month, and he made his California debut in July. He homered in his second at-bat for the Angels but was back on the farm by August.

Linares had a bit of the old magic left in his bat, though, and the Angels called him up again in time for the September stretch run. That run fell short of a division title as California entered the final contest of the season down by two games to the Royals.

So the game didn’t matter in terms of standings, but the Angles soldiered on under manager Gene Mauch.

In a tight road game against the Texas Rangers, the Angels entered the top of the eighth down by a run. Linares, the starting designated hitter, stepped to the plate with two on and two out.

It was a storybook setting, and Linares went ahead and signed his opus with a three-run home run that held up and eventually turned into a 6-5 Angels victory.

That was the last plate appearance of Linares’ major league career, as he’d spend 1986 (Angels) and 1987 (Expos) in the minors and the Mexican League.

Sadly, Linares died in a car accident at just 47 years of age in 1998.

But today, we can celebrate what would have been his 73rd birthday by remembering that it’s not always as late as it seems. I mean, just look at that palm tree beckoning toward another summer in the grass.

Wanna have a catch?

Wow! Wax - 1982 Donruss Unopened Box

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Wanna chase the stunning Rufino Linares rookie card you see at the top of this post? Well, dreams do come true, because you can buy this unopened box of 36 wax packs of 1982 Donruss is up for grabs.

It’s not mine (none of these ever are), but it’s wrapped in the BBCE (Baseball Card Exchange) cello covering and the seller has solid a feedback rating on thousands of transactions.

As always, buy at your own risk, but browse and frolic-click (froclick?) with youthful abandon.

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Bet you didn’t wake up this morning jonesing for a bunch of 1982 Donruss content, huh?

Well, sometimes it works out that you get what you need instead of what you want. You know, if you try sometimes.

And don’t worry…I’ll be back tomorrow with more hobby stuff you probably don’t know you need but totally do.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam