Gary Matthews, Jr. Or Whatever

I was going to write about Gary Matthews, Jr. for Mustache Monday so I snapped these pics of another card from the whole bunch of awesome ones Nick of Dime Boxes fame sent my way. I was at a loss to come up with anything interesting to say about Matthews other than the standard trope about him being a second generation Major Leaguer and, of course, making mention of his 55 million dollar catch. You probably also know he came up with the Padres and wasn't anything special there. If you didn't know that, that makes perfect sense too because, yeah, the whole nothing special thing. Anyway, sorry for the crappy post; I'll put up a better one in the morning. Go watch some Futurama. I've been half-watching In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela (s6e2); I guess I'll give it my full attention now...

Mustache Monday: All About Tim Scott

There are a lot of Tim Scotts in the world, several of whom have achieved as much notoriety as the man on this card. In my research for this entry (which consisted of me googling "tim scott" to get to his B.R. page), I came across a veteran Hollywood actor, a congressman from South Carolina, an up and coming young actor, a singer-songwriter, a DJ, a photographer and a freshman safety for UNC. This made me wonder if having such a common name was an obstacle for any of them. I feel like casting directors, record executives and even scouts would have an unwitting subconscious bias toward the performers with more memorable names. I don't know; maybe I'm overthinking this- that does happen fairly often.
Tim Scott, the relief pitcher, blended in with the crowd on the diamond as well. He debuted with two games as a Padre in 1991 and had a somewhat rocky full rookie season in '92. After a strong start to the '93 season, Tim was sent to Montreal for the legendary Archi Cianfrocco. He fared better his next three and a half seasons, posting ERA+ marks of 139, 157, 109 and 140 before seemingly hitting a wall upon being traded by les Expos to San Francisco. This is where the bouncing around really begins. He was waived by the Giants after the '96 season, picked up by the Reds and granted free agency two months later without as much as getting a jersey with his name on it. The Padres took another look at him, signing him in January of '97 and releasing him in May after 18 innings featuring 16 earned runs. He signed with Colorado, gave up 3 earnies in 2 2/3 innings over three games and was let loose again. The Mariners picked him up on waivers but he would not see the Majors with them or, in fact, with any other team. He kept at it, though, pitching in the minors through 2002 as a member of the Dodgers, Pirates, Reds and Yankees organizations as well as for three different teams in the independent Western League. He retired with 50 wins and 50 losses and a 3.78 ERA over 15 minor league seasons and went 24-13 with a 4.13 during his seven years digging into Major League mounds.

LaMarr Hoyt: Hitting Bottom & Bouncing Back (A Mustache Monday Post)

By the time this card was released, LaMarr Hoyt had already pitched his last game. Hoyt had a great first season with the Padres in '85 after being acquired from the White Sox for a bevy including Ozzie Guillen and Luis Salazar. He showed his Cy Young form and trademark pinpoint location, winning 16 games and being named MVP of the All Star Game. Then it all started unraveling. He was arrested twice before the '86 season for drug possession and missed Spring Training while in rehab. After a lousy season, he was arrested yet again and suspended by MLB in '87. He was released by the Padres as soon as he was reinstated. The White Sox signed him two weeks later but let him go after he was, uh, yeah, arrested for drugs a few months later. Then, in January of '88 he was sentenced to a year in prison. It all spiraled out of control so fast and reached one if its logical conclusions. Luckily for him, it wasn't death. Since being released, Hoyt has been an example of rehabilitation, showing that it's possible for anyone to turn over a new Leaf.

Mustache Monday: Starring Sam Elliott As Eric Rasmussen

I know I just wrote about Eric Rasmussen on his birthday last Thursday but I remembered this card and it was too good to let pass. The way I was reminded was kind of funny. The other night I put The Big Lebowski on to fall asleep to and the sight of Sam Elliott's mustache made me think of this card and this mustache. Man, that thing's out of control! The last card of his that I posted noted skeet shooting as a hobby; on this card he looks like he gets paid to shoot skeet in brightly-lit cheap motel rooms. That look isn't helping, either. I imagine it's intended to look all SRS BSNS but instead appears as though there's a sixteen year old girl next to the cameraman. And you know it was a cameraman. This was the seventies. Women weren't allowed to have good professions back then; they barely are now.

Mustache Monday: Mike Maddux

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

Mustache Monday: Jerry Royster

I'm willing to bet anything that in the infancy of ESPN, Chris Berman referred to Jerry Royster as Jerry "The World Is Your" Royster. It's way too corny and obvious not to have at some point been blurted out by that rumblin', stumblin', bumbling idiot. Me, when I see his name, the first thing I think of is Royce Da 5'9" MC, for whatever that's worth. Some guy in a Bouncing Souls shirt writing about some guy who was on The Slim Shady LP- yes, I was a teenager in the '90s, why do you ask? Well, I'd look at ol' Jerry's BR and Wiki pages and churn out a couple of paragraphs about his life and times but we're hungry so I'm going to go make some California Burritos instead. I'm sure you understand...

Mustache Monday: More Mack

More Mack already?
A mere three short weeks have passed
But that 'stache deserves it

Mustache Monday: Three Guys With Flip-Shades

I was looking for a card to post for Mustache Monday and came across a Thomas Howard card featuring him wearing flip-shades. This made me think of Avenging Jack Murphy's recent post about Tony The Gwynn- but really it was about flip-shades. I then flipped through some cards to try to find some other examples in action. Handcuffed by the guidelines of both the month and the day, I think I fared fairly well in finding three black guys with mustaches wearing flip-shades- and on three consecutive years of Upper Deck, no less. You know, for a baseball card blog, I make very little mention of the cards themselves. In a departure from that, I have to say I liked what UD was doing their first few years. They had a signature look and they stuck with the same theme year to year, making minor tweaks just to let you know this was the new one. Then the mid-nineties rolled around and everything we knew and loved about baseball cards up until that point got shot straight to hell...

Oddly, all the flip-shade shots are on the backs.
Here are the fronts just for reference:

Mustache Monday: Mack's Many Mustaches

Like last week's 'stacherocker Fred McGriff, Shane Mack was no one mustache wonder. Even before debuting with the Padres, Mack had the ol' lipwarmer in full effect in the minors and as an Olympian. He went on to keep it the entirety of his career, although he kept it closely trimmed toward the end of his career. Mack was a true advocate for the solo-'stache, never giving in like so many others in the mid-to-late 90s by accompanying it with a trendy goatee.

Mustache Monday: McGriff & My Mistakes

Fred McGriff was a hell of a hitter for a lot of teams. However, I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one who immediately thinks of his magnificent John Oatesish pornstache when they hear his name (the Tom Emansky ad rates a close second).

Like McGriff, I'm a multifaceted individual who is recognized mainly for one thing. In my case, it's not a glorious face farm but a historic pattern of fuckin' up. This post's pic is an excerpt from a sketch pad of mine I'd occasionally scribble thoughts down in as well. As you can see, at the time I was really into catching nods. For those who don't know, that's the desired result of doing heroin or a shitload of painkillers. There was a period of a few months last summer/ fall where that was my main reason for getting off the couch. I'm grateful that I've been off of all that for a couple months or so and that it turned out better than my coke phase (basically the entirety of 2009) in that I didn't end up selling it and getting a gun shoved in my face. For now, I'm free of all that and I never get the desire to go cop but I wonder how much lower I can go if I ever stray back into that sort of thing. I don't see it happening- but, then again, who does? It's kind of scary...

Mustache Monday: Roberto Alomar

Speaking of Anthony Rizzo (he's a damn dirty Cub now; no nicknames for him!), the trade of him to get Andrew Cashner was panned by many. I had my doubts but I know I couldn't do Josh Byrnes's job any better so I let it go. I can't imagine how I would have reacted if I had a stupid little nerdblog back when Joe McIlvaine shipped Robbie Alomar and Joe Carter to Toronto for McGriff and Tony Fernandez. I probably would have ranted a bunch because I was eight and I did that even more back then. I just remember being kind of bummed because I knew they were pretty good and I was used to them; I definitely didn't know that Alomar was going to be a Hall Of Famer...

Mustache Monday: Totally The Goose

This is one of those times that happen every so often where I apologize for neglecting you and promise it'll never happen again. We both know the truth but both of you readers will be happy to know that I'm in my "on again" blogging mode for the moment and have a slew of new posts coming up.
Back during May as I was celebrating the wonder that is the May Beard, I had the idea of doing a "Mustache Monday" feature and promptly forgot about it as quickly as it had came to me. Well, I've churned out a few and set them to autopost the next few Mondays so this won't turn out as ill-fated as the "Tuesday's Trevor" idea which never really got off the ground- though I do have one set to go for tomorrow. Upcoming stache-rockers include Shane Mack, Gene Harris, Craig Lefferts, Chris James and of course Boch- both as a player and a manager.
Upcoming posts include one later today about Joey Cora, my mom and me (today's her birthday), a 2006 First Bowman Chrome Ernesto Frieri, the aforementioned Tuesday's Trevor, a Thursday Tony Gwynn and a little something about my love of camoflage. As always, I'm sincerely grateful for everybody that's reading this and I welcome your thoughts, criticism, and contributions. Sorry for my predictably unpredictable hiatus; thanks for being around when I finally came back. WG, I really sound like an alcoholic...