Today’s Lineup…
👋 Card of the Day - Bye Bye in the Field
😇 Pure Cards, Take Two
🕵️♂️ Searching for Junk Wax Treasure
1986 Topps Glossy Steve Balboni (#6) - Card of the Day
Steve Balboni became a baseball cult hero in 1985 as his all-or-nothing slugging helped the Kansas City Royals win the American League West division on their way to an epic 7-game World Series against the cross-state St. Louis Cardinals.
At the time, Balboni’s stocky physique, .243 batting average, 36 home runs, and majors-leading 166 strikeouts were cause for a mix of celebration and gentle ridicule. Today, he’d be celebrated as a “3 True Outcomes” superstar, especially if he could boost his .307 on-base percentage by 50-100 points.
But this 1986 Topps Glossy send-in card (one of 60) reminds us of something else — Balboni was in the field for the Royals nearly every day during their championship run.
In fact, Balboni played 160 games that summer — 159 starts — all at first base.
That fall, Balboni started at first in all seven games of the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays.
He repeated the iron man feat in the Fall Classic.
And, though the Royals planted Bye Bye at first instead of asking him to move his feet or chase down fly balls, modern metrics don’t exactly paint a pretty picture of his defensive prowess.
So, why didn’t the lumbering 28-year-old slugger grab hold of KC’s designated hitter role? A quick look at the record book shows it was because a certain 39-year-old aging superstar had a lock on that role:
Hal McRae’s bat was a decided plus at DH for those Royals (14 HR, 118 OPS+), though backup Jorge Orta provided slightly below-average offensive production.
Balboni did grab onto a partial DH role later in his career, splitting time between the bag and a bat-only gig for both the Royals (starting in 1987) and the New York Yankees.
These days, Balboni might just settle into a DH role forever. Heck, maybe he still can.
After all, Steve Balboni only just turns 67 today. Happy birthday!
And speaking of McRae, take a gander at …
1978 SSPC Hal McRae (#219)
You probably know about the 1976 SSPC “pure card” set that provided some much-needed competition for Topps. Alas, the simple but beautiful issue from TCMA was unlicensed and brought a lawsuit from Topps.
That put an end to SSPC, but only temporarily, and only as a standalone set.
Two years later, the Pure Card was back as a series of eight 27-card team sets stapled inside a magazine called “All Star Gallery” plus Yankees and Phillies sets in separate publications.
McRae appears on sunny #219, almost unrecognizable without his Royals cap and trademark facial hair.
Searching for Steve
Finally, looping back to Balboni…
Bye Bye’s rookie card was a 1982 Topps Yankees Future Stars number that he shared with Andy McGaffigan and Andre Robertson.
Balboni’s first non-Topps MLB card was 1983 Donruss #73. If you want to find that one, you could just buy it for a buck or so, or you could go on a good, old-fashioned treasure hunt by opening some wax packs.
There are plenty available on eBay, but this listing looks pretty fun:
I don’t remember buying Donruss wax in racks like this, but the iconic little-D logo on the tongue looks pretty legit.
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That’s all for today’s rabbit hole. Bet you didn’t expect so much deep dish Balboni when you woke up this morning, huh?
Thanks for reading, and Bye Bye for now.
—Adam
More cardboard fun: