When Upper Deck Hitched Their Wagon to Randy Nosek

As in "No Out"...or as in "Junior Junior"

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1990 Upper Deck Randy Nosek (#2) - Card of the Day

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Randy Nosek had his work cut out for him when it came to living up to his lot in baseball life when he started his professional journey in June of 1985.

For starters, the big right-hander was a first-round pick right out of Chillicothe High School in Missouri. There’s plenty of pressure wrapped up in that designation alone.

The heat gets hotter when you consider some of the other picks in that first round: B.J. Surhoff, Will Clark, Bobby Witt, Barry Larkin, Barry Bonds, Pete Incaviglia, Chris Gwynn, Walt Weiss, Cameron Drew, Brian McRae, Gregg Jefferes, Rafael Palmeiro, and a few other future big leaguers.

And if all that wasn’t enough to light a fire under a young pitcher’s elbow, consider the team who drafted Nosek. The 1984 Detroit Tigers were one of the greatest teams of the decade, if not of all-time, and here they came calling with the 26th overall pick.

So, really, all Nosek had to do in order to make good on that pick was grow into his arm while climbing his way toward a juggernaut team hungry for another World Series title as he kept pace with the Hall-of-Fame class picked in front of him.

No problem, right?

Well, the lower levels of the minors turned out to be something of a problem, at least — Nosek posted a 5.21 ERA in 23 appearances (21 starts) across two levels in 1986, then followed up with a 5.55 ERA in 26 starts at two Single-A stops in 1987.

After making just eight appearances in 1988, Nosek began 1989 with the Double-A London Tigers. He was off to a good start at 3-1 with a 3.10 ERA in seven games when Jack Morris went down with an elbow injury in late May.

Already struggling to stay within ten games of .500 and sliding down the American League East standings, the Tigers were looking for any port in their particular storm. Or any arm in their freefall, as the case may have been.

So out went the call to Toledo, and up came Randy Nosek.

Manager Sparky Anderson tabbed the 22-year-old right away, and Nosek made the start against Kansas City on May 27, an afternoon game at Royals Stadium.

Nosek held the Royals to two runs in 4.2 innings to keep the Tigers close, and he gave up just three hits along the way while striking out three. Problem was, he also gave up eight walks.

Nosek yielded to fellow righty Randy Bockus with two outs in the fifth, but he’d be back five days later. In that start on June 1 against the Orioles at home in Tiger Stadium, though, Nosek didn’t make it out of the first — he gave up six runs on a pair of walks and four hits, including home runs by Jim Traber and Rene Gonzales.

Morris still wasn’t ready to return by that point, but the Tigers decided Nosek wasn’t either. He spent the rest of the season back in the minors, splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A stops.

But Nosek had sipped the major league coffee, and with the Tigers going nowhere fast, that made him a prospect, especially in the world of baseball cards. And so it was that the righty landed in our 1990 wax space-age-material packs, courtesy of Score and Upper Deck.

Topps would join in a bit later, with one of their quirky Major League Debut cards…definitely worth checking out.

For us, though, there’s no other choice to celebrate Nosek and his then-burgeoning big league career than the 1990 Upper Deck card you see at the top of this post.

And that’s because UD put their stake in the ground, and they staked their reputation to one Randall William Nosek.

What am I babbling about now?

Well, let me tell you…

Upper Deck famously began their storied run by christening their first-ever set, in 1989, with a skillfully Photoshopped Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card, slotting Junior at Card #1, Set #1.

It was a low-risk gamble that paid off in all sorts of ways.

So what would UD do for an encore? How would they make Set #2 stand out? How would they anchor it?

Well, they plopped down a Star Rookie Checklist card at #1, which didn’t matter much, anyway. This was 1990, after all, not 1989 — Set #2, baby, which meant the key to the whole shebang was Card #2…not Card #1.

And who landed at Card #2 in Set #2? You already know the answer, you card. It was none other than Randy Nosek.

Now, Nosek probably caused UD some heartburn as he set about torching Triple-A batters to the tune of a 5.19 ERA in 109.1 innings for the Toledo Mud Hens.

The antacid didn’t kick in until rosters expanded in September, by which point the Tigers were pretty much out of the running in the A.L. East (though in third place). Cecil Fielder wasn’t out of the running for 50 homers, though, so Motown still had plenty of eyes on it.

And it was that arena into which Randy Nosek made his next foray into major league competition.

He gave up four earned runs, and five total, over six innings in his first start on September 1.

Five days later, he started again and gave up two runs without recording an out.

Nosek didn’t see the mound again for nearly a month, when he pitched a scoreless sixth inning of a meaningless game — the Tigers’ 161st game of the season — against the Yankees.

And…well, that was it.

Nosek began 1991 back in Toledo, made one start, and then hit the disabled list. He never made it back to any professional mound, or to any other major league baseball cards.

For Upper Deck, it was a case of, you win some, you lose some. They would bounce back with Set #3, dedicating Card #3 in their 1991 issue to D.J. Dozier, who played in 25 big league games.

Total.

So, maybe “bounce back” isn’t quite the right term. Maybe it should be “wished happy birthday”…to Nosek.

Because today, Randy Nosek — he of the monumental Upper Deck baseball card and the start with no outs — turns 59 years old.

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The Confusing Comfort of the 1986 Topps Chuck Cottier Baseball Card

Also born on January 8 was former big league infielder and manager Chuck Cottier. If you were watching closely in the mid-1980s, you might have seen him in dugout action with the Mariners.

For his efforts, Cottier made the cut in the 1986 Topps set. Once upon a time, I devoted some words to that skipper rookie card, right here.

Card Sharks Is How Old??

Since we spilled considerable ink talking about Upper Deck above, this seems like a fitting time to remind you that Pete Williams spent even more squid juice on the topic 30+ years ago.

If you haven’t read Card Sharks yet, there’s still time. Unless, you know, Burgess Meredith.

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