The Venerable 1992 Score Max Venable Baseball Card
PLUS -- Cobra Played for Who???
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1992 Score Max Venable (#477) - Card of the Day
If you collected baseball cards in the 1980s, you could depend on a few things:
Topps would be there for you, every year, from the beginning of the decade to the end.
There would be more cards produced this year than last, but not as many as there would be next year.
You would find Max Venable in a wax pack.
OK, so technically, you couldn’t find Venable in a pack every year, but it sure seemed like you could.
Venable played in at least 50 games, with the exception of 1984 with the Expos, from 1979 through 1986. During that time, he piled up a decent cardboard resume for a guy who hit just .231 — 1981 Fleer, 1981 Topps, 1983 Topps, 1987 Topps, 1984 Donruss, among others.
After a season spent almost entirely in the minors with the Reds in 1987, and after spending most of 1988 in the Mexican League, Venable hit the comeback trail in 1989 after signing a free agent deal with the California Angels in January.
He made it into just 20 games for the Halos in the second half that season, but he stuck in 1990. And in 1991.
The modest restart and promise of more playing time was enough to get him back in pasteboard glory, too — 1990 Leaf, 1991 Donruss, etc.
Those two seasons proved to be Venable’s last with California and in U.S. professional baseball after batting .253 over 428 plate appearances in 1990 and 1991 combined.
He reached free agency again the November, at age 34, but found no takers, so he headed to Japan for a couple of campaigns
Thing is, though, Score either thought he was coming back to MLB … or they wanted to honor him with a career capper.
And so, the spring after Max Venable bid his adieu, and while he was plying his trade for the Chiba Lotte Marines, we find him on card #477 of the 1992 Score set, all flashy and sunny and 1990s gaud, looking like he just might go on meeting the ball where it was forever.
For kids of the 1980s, it was sweet nectar.
Still is.
Today, Max Venable turns 67 years old.
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Cobra Played for Who???
One of Venable’s teammates with the 1991 Angels was Dave Parker, also in his last year in the majors.
Unlike Venable, though, Cobra didn’t make it through the season in Anaheim…but he did make it to October in the big leagues.
Check out this post to read all about his short end-of-season stint with a new team that led to an unlikely career capper the next year.
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Hey! We’ve almost got this week whipped, or at least stirred.
And the even better news is, well, it’s still baseball season. Still the first half, even.
How lucky are we??
Thanks for reading.
—Adam