Trevor & The 5 Other 51s

The number 51 had only been worn by five Padres before Trevor showed up and ensured that six would be the limit. John Curtis was the first of them in parts of the 1980 through '82 seasons. Fred Kuhaulua also wore it in '81 when Curtis was on assignment. Greg Booker, son-in-law of Padres manager and general manager Jack McKeon, pitched six years of relief in 51 for the Friars from '83 through '89. Don Schulze also donned it in '89. Mike Maddux was the penultimate Padre to have it in '91 and '92. Nobody wore it in '93; Trevor wore number 34 after coming over from the then Florida Marlins. He made the switch to 51 in the spring of '94 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mustache Monday: Mike Maddux

His brother shaved his
But Mike's a mustache lifer
He's still rockin' it

The FoC 200th Post Celebratory Review & Cardstravaganza

This is the 200th Friars on Cardboard post. In case you missed it (I know, I know, "I wouldn't say I missed it, Bob."), here's The FoC 100th Post Celebratory Review & Beardstravaganza. This one will be along the same lines, only with less emphasis on beards since it isn't May- just a mess of cards and randomness. I hope you enjoy.
First things first (i.e. while I'm still thinking about it), in a continuation of what I was blathering on about yesterday regarding the Gaslamp Ball Sisterhood Of The Traveling Jersey jersey, another thought I had was to take a bunch of game-used jersey cards, gut them and sew all the little swatches along a hem or in another out-of-the way area. I only have two at the moment (the other being a David Wells I already profiled on here) because I never really got into the craze but I could stock up on a bunch by the time I get it (which reminds me for the 842nd time, I need to email jbox my address and preferred dates; I'm the world's worst when it comes to dealing with email- I can't explain it). They're only a couple bucks a pop and I think it would be neat.
The second hundred has taken a bit longer than the first hundred, with large chunks of time vacant altogether. It's been more consistent recently but, as we've seen before, that is subject to change without notice at any given point. In the second hundred, the blog began to find an identity of its own, possibly for the worst, with ongoing gimmicks such as Mustache Monday and using the initials TTG to mean just about whatever. Oh, yeah, and the haikus. Nothing says phoning it in quite like some good old 5/7/5. Including the ten cards in this post, the last hundred have pictured 187 cards which, combined with the 138 from the first hundred gives us a grand total of 345. That's one of those numbers that seems like a lot but isn't. Or, at best, is relative. I wonder how tall a stack of 345 cards is. I don't wonder enough to count that many out just to find out, though.
There haven't been as many cards of Tony and Trevor this hundred. Not that I've ran out of cards, just that I've ran out of things to say. I mean, there's a world of information out there about both of them but that's the thing. They're both such big deals that they've already been dissected and broadcast to the nth degree. As fans, we already know all there is to know about both of them, whereas it's fun for me to discover new things digging around trying to figure out what to say about the Dave Cashes and Dennis Rasmussens of the world. Not to say Gwynn and Hoffman won't be showing up on here, just that it requires a different approach. Man, I'm rambling. Talk about watching sausage being made...
There was only one guest post in the second half of the blog's existence, as opposed to the three in the first hundred, but it was a great one. The offer's still on the table, people. If there's a card or a player you'd like to write about here, just let me know. I need to bug Sam about getting that report on Austin Hedges onto my desk; he pulled the card last month but couldn't do it then because Hedges is a cracker and February ain't havin' none of that. Other stuff on the table for the next hundred include, this, that and more of the same. Mustaches on Monday and whenever I post a Tony, it will continue to usually be on a Tuesday or Thursday so I can TTG the title because I'm like that. If I happen to post a Tony on any of the other five days of the week, I will continue to use the cop-out "Today's Tony Gwynn" because I'm like that. Also, there will eventually be the inevitable Dave Staton post later this summer along with the results of a bunch of destroyed game-used jersey cards. Like how I brought it back around to that? That's some writing right there. Thanks for reading it; stick around for the next hundred!

Tuesday's Trevor: 34?

This is the first in a weekly series of Trevors on Tuesdays. It will be one of two weekly features, the other being 'Thursday's Tony Gwynn'. I had been doing 'Today's Tony Gwynn' but at the rate of one a day, it wouldn't have lasted a year. I dropped the practice without mention right after his 50th birthday; I would have mentioned it had I known I was stopping but, not gonna lie, I just got lazy and stayed that way. Now, with these two theme days in place, FoC will always have at least two posts a week and they'll be better than the rushed scan-and-sentence copouts from the days of daily Gwynns.
It's long forgotten now, but Trevor wasn't always #51. From the time he came over from the Marlins in the Sheffield deal through the end of that season, he rocked the unfamiliar #34. Mike Maddux had #51 in '93 and, for reasons unbeknownst to me, Trevor took it over in his absense the next spring. Without doubt, Trevor's #51 will be the next number to take its place aside the familiar 6 19 31 35 42. Knowing that The Pissin' Professor's big brother was the last to wear 51 before Trevor, let's look at who was the last to wear each of the retired numbers.

• 6- retired for Steve Garvey in 1989: In 1988, the year between Garvey's retirement and his number's, Keith Moreland wore #6 as he had previously in Philadelphia and with the Cubs before switching to #7 partway through the season. He is the only man to wear the number since The Garv.
• 19- retired for Tony in 2002: before T, the last man to wear #19 as a Padre was Gene Richards in 1978.
• 31- retired for Dave Winfield in 2001: last worn by Matt Clement in 2000. He switched to #21 partway through the season.
• 35- retired for Randy Jones in 1997: last worn by Al Osuna in 1996
• 42- retired by all of baseball in 1997: last worn by "Not That" Pedro Martinez in 1994.
  

Ten Trivia Gems

Each of the past two days, I've wanted to post a Jerry Hairy card to celebrate both his unlikely game-winning home run and his unlikely game-winning walkoff home run but, alas, the only card I have of him that I haven't already posted depicts him fully clean-shaven and, as you know, that just doesn't fly around here- not until June 1st at least. So, with that not an option, I'm just going to toss up another batch of beards accompanied by a slew of completely unrelated Padres facts. I hope you enjoy.

1) Of all Major League franchises, the Padres hold the second-WORST all-time winning percentage (.463)- second only to the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays (.432). This season, the Pads have the second-BEST winning percentage (.609) in MLB- second only to the Tampa Bay Rays (.681).

2) Even the most casual fan knows that we've never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter and that we've never had a batter hit for the cycle. However, I frequently notice people inquiring whether we're the only team to not have one or the other. The answer? Yep. However, this was not the case until my brother Paul's birthday last season when BJ Upton of the aforementioned Rays relieved his club of sharing that dubious dishonor with ours.

3) Also well known is that 2001 inductee Dave Winfield was the first player depicted wearing a Padres hat on his Hall Of Fame plaque, joined only by Mr. Padre himself six years later. The first member to have at one point played for the Friars was elected a decade and a half earlier- Willie "Stretch" McCovey in 1986, pictured appropriately wearing a Giants cap.

4) In addition to weighing considerably more than two of me, gargantuan first baseman stuck in left field Kyle Blanks was born on the same day in the same year as my younger brother John. There wasn't much celebrating happening on their fifteenth birthdays as some b-holes chose that day to jack some planes and forever alter the Manhattan skyline and American history books for the worse.

5) In their 42 seasons of play, the Padres have used 23 different Opening Day starting pitchers, led by four-timers Randy Jones, Eric Show and Jake Peavy. Oddly, six hurlers have had multiple Opening Day starts in non-consecutive years: Jones ('75-'77, '80), Show ('84, '86-'87, '89), Ed Whitson ('88, '91), Bruce Hurst ('90, '92), Andy Ashby ('96, '99) and Woody Williams ('01, '05).

6) Halfway through the 1990 season, "Trader" Jack McKeon was replaced as manager with Greg Riddoch. Both men posted identical .463 win percentages.

7) Although 1980 was Dave Winfield's final year as a Padre and he played his last Major League game in 1995, his #31 was not retired until 2001. It was last worn in 1999 by Matt Clement who switched to #21 the following season.

8) 1992 was a record book year for two soon-to-be-jettisoned sluggers. Fred McGriff became the only Padre ever to lead the league in home runs while Gary Sheffield won the batting title- the only Friar other than Tony Gwynn to do so.

9) LF/1B John Kruk ('86-'89) and RP Jon Adkins ('06) are the only two West Virginia born players in Padres history. While Kruk went on to attain a certain level of celebrity during his time in Philadelphia and his subsequent broadcasting career, Adkins will be best known by most for being part of the trade that brought us Heat Bell.

10) Shrek and Jairston are the ninth set of brothers who have both worn the Padres' uniform. Including the Hoffmans with Glenn serving as third base coach, the Hairstons are the sixth set to suit up at the same time and the fifth set- along with the Alomars, Mr. Padre and Chris, the Gileses and the Fightin' Gonzali- to be teammates. The three sets of Friar hermanos whose tenures in San Diego didn't overlap are Phil and Jerald Clark, Melvin and Wil Nieves, as well as Mike Maddux and The Professor.