1989 Score, Paul Zuvella

#598 Paul Zuvella

Here is another non-Padre Padrograph that was sent to me a couple of weeks ago by Rod. This one is kind of cool since it is from a somewhat obscure player.

Paul played in the big leagues for parts of nine seasons. In those nine seasons, he got into 209 games. That averages out to about 23 games a season in the Major Leagues. He spent time with the Braves, Yankees, Indians, and Royals and his best season came in 1985 as a member of the Braves. Normally, when I call out a guys best season, I base that on certain stats such as average, home runs, or RBI. But, the only stat I am looking at for Paul's '85 season is games played. He appeared in 81 games that year, which was 30 more than he ever played in any other season. In fact, there were three seasons when he appeared in three or less games.

In 1985, Paul hit a respectable .253 in 190 at-bats. He smacked 8 doubles that season and he went 2-2 in the stolen base department. He also walked 16 times while only striking out 14 times. That was one of three seasons in his career where he had more walks than strikeouts, though the other two times do involve a much smaller sample size.

In 1989, Paul hit his first Major League home run and it was off of knuckleballer Charlie Hough. He then hit his second, and final, dinger a couple of months later off of Jim Acker before heading back to AAA for the 1990 campaign. In '91, Paul had two appearances in the field for the Kansas City Royals before getting sent back down to AAA to finish the season and his career.

Paul sure has a slick-looking autograph.