Tom Runnells 'Managed' to Get His Story Out
A time-delayed career-capper did the job
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1991 Topps Traded Tom Runnells (#103T) - Card of the Day
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Once upon a time, the Cincinnati Reds were about as exciting as a team could get without actually winning a World Series…or a pennant…or even a division title.
It started on the heels of a couple of dreadful seasons in December of 1983, when Cincy signed Dave Parker as a free agent. Then, heading into the stretch run of another lost season, the dams of excitement broke when Pete Rose came home as player-manager in August 1984.
By the next spring, the Reds were viewed as an up-and-coming team, with renewed hustle and winnability thanks to Rose, and a bevy of prospects who just might rev up a new Machine in town.
Collectors took notice, too, and plenty of Reds rookie cards took on an extra sheen over the next couple of years: Eric Davis, Kal Daniels, Tracy Jones, Tom Browning, Kurt Stillwell, Barry Larkin, Paul O’Neill, Jeff Treadway.
All of them had the “look” of potential stars and RCs that ended up in plastic sleeves or top-holders instead of the commons bin. Of course, most rookies merited some special consideration in those days, at the head of the Rookie Card Boom (proper).
So it’s not too surprising that a glimpse of another Reds rookie card from that era still makes bellies (well, at least my belly) flutter all these years later:
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Yes, Tom Runnells made his major league debut in August 1985, during the heart of the Red Resurrection. The next spring, there he was in our wax packs, courtesy of Donruss, whose 1986 set was about as “80s” as a card design ever got.
Runnells had signed as a minor league free agent in October 1983 after seven years in the Giants minor leagues. Nearly two years later, when he finally got the call to Riverfront, Runnells was already 30 — ancient for a big league debutante. None of that mattered to most collectors back then, though, at least not the way it would today.
The important thing was that we had another rookie card to salt away. And a Reds rookie card!
Alas, Runnells, hit only .200 in his 28-game cup of coffee and spent most of 1986 back at Triple-A Denver before getting one more look at midseason — he hit .096 in 12 more games for the Reds from mid-May through early June.
Runnells hung up his spikes at the end of that ‘86 season and began his managerial career with the Double-A Vermont Reds in 1987. Not surprisingly given the long lead-in from his final at-bat to the new year, the card companies left Runnells off their 1987 checklists.
No career-capper for him. Well, not right away, at least.
By 1991, Runnells was the third base coach for the Montreal Expos, eyeing a big league managerial slot. His chance came in June when the Expos fired manager Buck Rodgers with the team mired in last place in the old National League East at 20-29. Under Runnells, Montreal went 51-61 the rest of the way…and finished last.
That fall, Topps included Runnells in their 1991 Traded set as Montreal’s skipper. You can see that specimen at the top of this post. But that card came with a bonus:
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Yep, it was a career-capper for Runnells’ playing days, five years after they ended. Sort of a fitting lag given his own late start in the majors, don’t you think?
Back in the dugout, Runnells made it through 37 games in 1992, running up a record of 17-20 before the Expos replaced him with Felipe Alou. That was the end of the line for Runnells as a big league skipper. He spent the next 24 years or so as a minor league manager and coach in the majors before retiring from the Rockies in 2016.
Today, Tom Runnells turns 70 years old.
1988 Topps Big Kal Daniels Had Big Expectations
You could always tell a player had “made it” or was on his way to making it or was expected to make it by the cardboard company he kept. Kal Daniels had arrived for sure when he made it onto the 1988 Topps Big checklist. Even though there were 224 cards in that set, not just any Joe Schmo could make it. O’Neill wasn’t there, for example, but Bo Jackson (#48) was, right next to Daniels (#49).
Read all about Kal’s Big breakout right here.
A View from Home
Since this has been a pretty Reds-homer week (kicked off with Rose’s birthday post on Monday), how about we continue the theme with an eyewitness to history? Jack Klumpe was a photographer for the The Cincinnati Post who chronicled the Reds — along with so many other aspects of life in Cincy — from 1950 through 1985. Klumpe teamed up with Kevin Grace in 2004 to put together this one-of-a-kind retrospective on Reds baseball from the heyday of Ted Kluszewski on through Rose’s final assault on Ty Cobb’s all-time hits record.
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Answer to Yesterday’s Quiz…
Yesterday, I asked you if Dwayne Murphy ever made an All-Star team. Kudos if you answered without looking up the answer, and double kudos if you guessed that the six-time Gold Glove winner in centerfield was never an All-Star!
He was still an awesome player, though, and even landed a 1990 Fleer career-capper. Read all about it right here.
