Haiku: Jesus Guzman

May's hottest hitter

Maybe last year was for real

Small glimmer of hope

Dave Staton: A Guest Post by Friar Fever

From time to time, a guest author who has passed the vetting process (me liking them) contributes something that makes everything I've written look like dog crap in comparison. The fifth and latest guest post, written by friend of the blog and all around class act Friar Fever, is no exception. Enjoy!

In the card above, you have Dave Staton, a third baseman in the San Diego Padres organization in 1991. In fact, Upper Deck gives him a moniker of "Top Prospect '91". Now that has got to be one heavy burden to be forced to lug around. We all know that Staton didn't become a star player for the San Diego Padres, or any other Major League club for that matter, yet such a story is commonplace in a sport like baseball. Top prospects just don't pan out sometimes and they may find themselves sent to obscurity. Sadly, that such scenario has been the case for Dave Staton. That is, until his jersey was purchased by Gaslamp Ball at the 2012 Padres Fanfest and the start of a wonderful adventure began. In the blink of an eye, the name Dave Staton became relevant again through tales of The Sisterhood of The Traveling Jersey. As of right now, Staton's jersey has made way through Arizona, California, and even made a stop in Mexico. 
A few months ago, inspired by what I'd seen on Friars On Cardboard, I went looking through my boxes for any Padres cards I could find. All of my efforts yielded me a pretty nice stack of cards. Cards I had forgotten that I'd had. Of course, I did nothing with them. Up until a month ago, they'd just been keeping me company on my desktop. One afternoon, while reading a post regarding the Staton jersey, I wondered if I even had some of his cards. Lo and behold, I found 3 different ones. Needless to say, I was a bit excited to somewhat make myself feel like I was part of the whole Dave Staton experience that has been happening on Gaslamp Ball. But, I never really looked at those cards, because I never really had a reason to. That is until I was asked to do this guest post and took them from the pile. One card was rather plain and looks like any other card. The next had him wearing #28 on the front of the card and #26 on the back. That was unique. However, it was on that 1991 prospect card that I made a very interesting and quite shocking discovery. All of Staton's accolades may not have ever been a possibility.
In the card above, you see Dave Staton swinging for the fences. What you don't see is that he had to fight to even have the chance. On the back of that 1991 Upper Deck card is a brief paragraph. Some background information on Staton and what he brings to the table. Needless to say, Upper Deck cuts right to the chase.
In his sophomore year of high school, Dave was diagnosed as having lupus, a disorder in which the immune system forms antibodies that attack healthy tissue. The pain became so intense that he had to use crutches. A few years later, his lupus in remission and no longer suffering, he was drafted in the 5th round by the Padres in 1989 and assigned to Spokane to play third base. There, he won the short season triple crown, batting .362 with 17 HR and 72 RBI in 70 games. He started 1990 playing third base at Riverside, but played mostly first base after his promotion to Wichita. Dave's 26 homers tied him for fourth best in the minor leagues in 1990.
Lupus. The disease that could have ended not only his playing career before it truly began, but could have cost him his life. Lupus could possibly be the reason for which his time with the Padres was so short. 2 years in the Bigs and gone. In fact, his final game as a Padre occurred on May 19th, 1994. Now, I don't know if lupus was the reason for his career ending. That's something only Dave Staton knows. All that I do know for sure is that Dave Staton was able to live his dream and play in the Major Leagues. Luckily, with the help of a spring training jersey, Gaslamp Ball and many of their followers will be able to continue the legacy of Dave Staton a mere 18 years later. A legacy that was far too short. A legacy that we all wish could have included more reasons to cheer during the 90s. But most importantly, it is a legacy that will be forever immortalized in baseball cards and jerseys because his health allowed it to happen.
TTG, thank you for the opportunity to contribute a guest post to your awesome blog. I hope this post was as intriguing to you and your followers as it has been for me. Go Padres!

Gwynn Facts 26-34 of 52: Top Of The Leaderboard

26. Tony led the league in at bats and runs once apiece, both in 1986.
27. He led the league in hits 7 times and batting average 8 times, both first in 1984 and last in '97.
28. Tony also led the league in win probability added both of those years.
29. He led the league in sacrifice flies once, also in '97.
30. The most double plays Gwynn grounded into in a season was 20, which he did three times. It led the league in his .394 season.
31. He led the league in OBP once, also in 1994.
32. He led the league in WAR outright in '87 and in WAR among position players in '86.
33. Most impressive to me was that he led the league in at bats per strikeouts an amazing ten times.
34. Defensively, Tony led the NL in games and assists as a RF in 1984 and '86; he led in putouts as a RF in '84, '86 and '90.

Haikuesday: A Birthday Poem For Adrian Gonzalez

 Oh, look at the date

Happy birthday, Adrian

I liked Edgar more

A Picture Of A Baseball Card & A Bunch Of Words

I haven't posted anything for a couple days; I hope one or both of my readers weren't too bummed. My sleep has been all out of whack for some reason and I'd just been feeling blah, out of it and not like writing. I finally got a good night's sleep- I even missed last night's win- and woke up today in a mood to write. I hammered out a bunch of words on Tom Griffin and his career before I got to the end and realized that I should hold it off until next Tuesday. Confused? Don't be; it'll all make sense then. Now that you already know what to expect then, I might as well spoil everything else that's queued up. Since Tuesday is Haikuesday, I'll churn one of those out this evening. Tomorrow is Tony The Gwynn's 52nd birthday and you know that, like in years past, I'm gonna be all over that. Ooh, that reminds me, today is Adrian Gonzalez's birthday. I should probably write something about that but who knows? I care about his birthday about as much as it seems he cares about everything, which is very little. Anyway, back to the calendar, Thursday will bring 10s for the 10th. Speaking of which, how do you guys (and gals, of course; you know what I mean. I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude...) feel about the Friars By The Numbers series? Like? Dislike? Should I do it less often? Let me know in the comments.

Sixes On The Sixth

Of the eleven players to wear 6 for the Padres, Rafael Robles was the first in 1970. Don Mason wore it in parts of the '71 through '73 seasons. Fred "Chicken" Stanley had it for 39 games in '72 and Bob Davis had it for five in '73. Rich Morales was the third player to wear it in '73 and kept it through '74. Don Hahn and John Scott both donned it in '75, followed by Bill Almon from '76 through '79 and Tim Flannery from '80 through '82. Steve Garvey came over and took it from Flan in '83 and kept it through '87. Keith Moreland wore it briefly in the beginning of '88 before it was decided it would be retired for Garvey.

Happy Birthday, Larry Andersen!

Larry Andersen pitched 699 games in 17 seasons spread over 20 years, starting with three games for the 1975 Indians, ending with the strike in '94 during his second stint with the Phillies. Before coming to San Diego via free agency for the '91 and '92 seasons, Andersen also pitched for the Mariners, Philadelphia, Houston and the Red Sox, famously being the centerpiece of what is arguably the best or worst trade of all time, depending on perspective. The Red Sox got a good relief pitcher for 15 games; the Astros got a franchise icon and Hall Of Fame caliber first baseman for 15 years. Though, yes, he'll forever best be known as the guy who got traded for Jeff Bagwell, Andersen was actually a very good reliever year in and year out for a long time, checking out with a career 121 ERA+ and, less importantly, a 3.15 ERA. He was even better in his time with the Padres, putting up a 136 and 2.74, respectively, in 82 innings over 72 games, chalking up 15 saves in that time. These days Andersen works as a TV color guy for the Phillies and still manages to find his way into the news.

Frieri To The Angels

I got this card along with a host of others from my friend Shane two years ago and scanned it and started to write about it on August 2nd, 2010, which also happened to be the day I wrote the best thing I've written for this silly little nerdblog. I kept dawdling around without finishing or retooling it until today, when I was given a newsworthy enough reason to dust it off. Ernasty is an Angel now. He served well in his time in America's Finest City but met the inevitable end that successful Padres relievers meet by being flipped for two promising kids. He was never one of my favorites but he didn't scare the crap out of me when he got called in like the Scott Linebrinks and Greg Burkes of the world, so there's that. I wish Frieri the best in all of his future endeavors on and off the field; thanks for serving, Big Ern.

Three 3s For Thursday The Third

Tommy Dean was the first of twenty-one men to wear number 3 for the Padres, from 1969 through '71. Ball Four character Curt "Buffalo" Blefary was second in '72, followed by Randy Elliott in '74 and Willie Davis in '76. The first Dave Roberts had it for two seasons, '77 and '78, as did Bill Fahey in '79 and '80. Juan Bonilla held it down from '81 through '83 and Jerry Royster wore it in '85 and '86. Darrell Sherman led a revolving door in the nineties, wearing it in '93, succeeded by Melvin Nieves in '94 and '95, Jody Reed in '96, Mandy Romero in '97 and '98, Andy Sheets also in '98, and the legendary Eric Owens in 1999. Shane Victorino had it briefly as a Rule V pick in '03 until he was returned from whence he came. Khalil Greene was issued 3 when he was called up in '03 and kept it through '08 when he was traded to the Cardinals. David Eckstein wore it briefly in early '09 before getting his usual 22. Craig Stansberry wore it later in '09 and Luis Durango hit some infield singles in it in 2010. Jorge Cantu didn't wear it last season because that never happened. Shhhh. Andy Parrino has it now and that's all that matters.

Jeff Suppan Haiku

This one goes out to Electric Friar, who suggested I do a haiku after I tweeted that I was going to dig around for an old Jeff Suppan card. I had to clean the card up a little bit since he was pictured as a Brewer.

52s For 5/2

An even dozen have worn number 52 as a member of the Padres. After 18 years without one, the Friars had two in 1987 in the form of Mark Grant and Jim Steels. Dave Leiper picked up where they left off in '88 and '89. Tim Mauser wore it from '93 through '95, followed by Joey Long in '97 and Ed Vosberg in '99. After a few more years without being issued, it was worn by Matt Herges in 2003, Ricky Stone in '04, and Clay Hensley in '05 and '07. Enrique Gonzalez wore it briefly in '08, as did Josh Geer in '08 and '09. Cory Luebke has worn it since last season when Chad Qualls showed up and gave him a Macbook for his number 50.

Every 1 Ever

Bob Barton was the first to wear #1 for the Friars in 1970 through early '72. Mike Fiore and Johnny Grubb also wore it that season, with Grubb keeping it through the '74 season. He was still with the Padres in '75, switching his number to 2 while no one wore 1. Weird. Ozzie Smith took it over in '78 until he got traded for current Yuma Panthers manager Garry Templeton, who in turn kept it until he was traded in 1991. Tony Fernandez wore #1 in '92 and Luis Lopez had it in '93 and '94 and again in '96; nobody wore it in his absence in '95. Two Carloses shared it in 1999; Baerga and Garcia. Santiago Perez wore it for 43 games in 2001 and Ramon Vazquez had it from '02 through '04. Drew Macias and Luke Carlin rocked it in '07 and '08, respectively. More recently, the legendary and lovable Everth Cabrera held it down for two seasons until some mouth-running, decline-phase, apathetic jerk with a bad sense of entitlement showed up and took it away from him.