Jedd Gyorko And A Bevy Of Other Bowmans

Yesterday I received 200 Padres cards in the mail, the majority of which I actually didn't already have. I won two separate Listia auctions of 100 Padres cards each by the same user. Each listing showed only one picture of a binder page's worth of cards, which I assumed were the best of the bunches. Although there were a couple Gwynns and an autographed Lee Orr card showing, the other 182 were a crapshoot. I figured it'd be a bunch of '90 Donruss and a dozen Mike Pagliarulo cards but there were a lot of hidden gems, including a couple fistfuls of snazzy Bowmans. I'm not this biggest fan of Bowman as I find their design clunky and overboard the majority of the time, but I do like their inclusion of players on their first card and other players who may never be on another card.

Of course my favorite card of the whole batch was Jedd Gyorko's 2011 "1st Bowman Card", #83. Amazingly, this card wasn't pictured or included in the description; I have a feeling the winning bid would have been driven much higher if it had been. I have never been one to get caught up in prospects or to buy someone's cards before he's even made the majors, but Gyorko is the exception to that rule. I have a handful of Jedd's cards now; the only West Virginian I have more cards of is John Kruk.

Today would have been Mike Darr's 37th birthday. I wrote a little piece about that over at Gaslamp Ball earlier today. It's rather succinct, so if you want to take a minute to go read that, I'll be doing my best Richard Marx impression, right here waiting.

As with Darr, I got the base and Chrome versions of this Gary Matthews, Jr. card. I feel like I've already said everything I have to say about Matthews already: He was lousy for the Padres, went elsewhere and sucked there too, came back to San Diego and sucked a little bit more, did some HGH, put together a decent season capped by one amazing catch, got a ridiculous payday, and went back to sucking.

 A little over a month ago I got my first Juan Melo card and said "I'm betting there aren't a lot of cards of him out there". I still don't know exactly how many there are but now I'm up to a grand total of three including this one and a minor league card that was also included. For now, I'm going to say the same thing about Omar Ortiz, who is a newcomer to my collection, and maybe a couple more issues of him will show up in my mailbox this April or May. As for Ben Davis, this is far from my first card of him but this one is a welcome addition. Something I didn't know about him until I was doing a little light research earlier is that he was good friends with Mike Darr and likely would have been in the vehicle with him if he didn't happen to be tired from traveling when Darr invited him.

 Matt Clement was the last Padre to wear 31 for the Padres before they retired it in honor of Dave Winfield. He was traded to Florida for Mark Kotsay and went on to be on the short end of an 18-pitch at bat culminating in a home run by Joey Cora's little brother Alex.

That's a very fascinating jersey being sported by Sean Burroughs. It's just like the BP/ ST jerseys of the era but it's gray instead of navy. I've seen it once or twice before, also on shots of minor leaguers so maybe they had an excess of gray jerseys and/ or a shortage of navy ones and just sewed the chest insignia on the grays, gave them to some kids, and hoped nobody would notice. If anyone has any more information on this, please let me know.

Nate Freiman, called Nathan here, had a solid season for AA San Antonio last season and was picked up by the Astros in the Rule 5 draft. Ruben Rivera recently resurfaced in the WBC and has been playing in Mexico for the past six seasons. The Dustin Hermanson card didn't photograph well but I can live with that.

There were a lot of other good cards out of the 200 in addition to these Bowmans; I got a couple Gwynns, Hoffys, and Kruks that I didn't have before that I'll feature here in the next day or two. A smattering of current players showed up too, along with a bunch of old minor league cards. I know I said I was trying to get away from doing acquisitions posts but this recent batch really lends itself to being milked for about a week. I promise I won't drag it out that long, though.

Thursday 33s

There is a grand total of 19 players who have worn 33 for the Friars. Gary Ross was the first, from 1969 through '74. In '75, he was traded for Bobby Valentine, who wore it partially through the next season at which time Tom Griffin took it and kept it through '77. Juan Eichelberger wore 33 on the classic '78 jerseys and through 1980. Nobody wore #33 for the Padres from '81-'89. After this long hiatus, Thomas Howard wore it in 1990 until being traded in April, '92. Gene Harris wore it that season as well and parts of the next two. Bill Kreuger also wore it in '94 and again in '95 along with Glenn Dishman, who wore it the next season too. Terry Burrows had it in '97, followed by Dan Miceli in '98 & '99 and Will Cunnane in 2000. Nobody wore it in '01. Wil Nieves and Mark Sweeney wore it in '02; Sean Burroughs took it in '03 and David Wells got it the next. Burroughs took it back in '05 after Boomer left the first time. Mike Piazza wore 33 in his only season in San Diego. Wells came back in '07 and wore it until he was released; Brett Tomko wore it later in the season. Cult legend Jody Gerut rocked the 33 in '08 & '09 and Clayton Richard has had it since 2010; he had worn 41 in late '09 after he came over in the Peavy trade.

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.

Everybody Loves Blummer (No Pressure, No Problems)

He might not be the best example of the point I'm trying to get across but Geoff Blum was the first guy who popped in my head and I think the comparison is fairly apt so I'm gonna roll with it.

In their years with the Padres, Blummer and Burroughs posted similar numbers- sure, Blum hit 'em out out of the yard a bit more frequently and Burroughs had a better average but they're close enough for where I'm going with this. In fact, Sean out-OPS+ed Geoff 91 to 83 yet Blum is recalled fondly by most while the mere mention of the word "Burroughs" makes San Diegans recoil in disgust. Why? I think you know where this is headed.

When we got Blum, we knew what we were getting: a below average guy who gets on the field because the rules say you have to have nine guys out there- and people in general didn't hold that against him. Sure, fans would get frustrated with his Ks and so-forth but nothing approaching the level of hatred generated by Burroughs. Every time he would fail, it seemed as though people regarded it as a personal affront, a slap in their face because they had faith and thought better of him than that. Why? I think you know where this is headed.

There are some people I grew up with and was in advanced placement classes with who now hold down modest jobs- nothing extravagant but sufficient enough to comfortably support their families; sadly, many consider them failures. Others I grew up with, ones who maybe didn't score as well on tests or for whatever reasons didn't get the attention that the first group did, now lead lives many of you would find harrowing. Yet they garner praise for staying out of prison this year, switching over to methadone or merely neglecting their children instead of completely abandoning them.

Expectations are a dangerous thing and can really skew the way we would otherwise view things. I recall one time several years ago; I forget the specifics but I had been planning this day for weeks. Of course this would be the day that everything that could go wrong did go wrong; my wife got called into work, it was teeming rain, my car was being uncooperative, ad infinitum. I saw my friend Jeff, a man wise beyond his years, later that day and told him my tale of woe- I will never forget his reaction. He smiled wider than I've ever seen anyone smile in the history of smiling and said "Well, good, buddy! You learned something about expectations today!" Boy, was I livid at first but it really gave me a new perspective on things, one I wouldn't trade for anything.

Sean Burroughs & My Hatred Of The Word "Potential" (Mo Pressure, Mo Problems)

I was digging through my little brother's cards and found this, which got me thinking about Sean Burroughs. I think I might be the only person who didn't hate him- I rooted and had empathy for him. This was a guy I could relate to in that his baseball career was like my life in general: lauded as a child, showing signs of progress nearing adulthood, but ultimately being an absolute disappointment by the age of 27. I wonder if Sean Burroughs hates the word "potential" as much as I do? I despise it; it's right up there with "cute", the other four letter word that starts with "cu", and "slut". I think it's one of the most damaging labels that can be put on someone...

More on this with tomorrow's card. It all ties together, I promise.