Tuesday, June 18, 2013

1981 Donruss, John Tamargo


#210 John Tamargo

The next '81 Donruss comes from John Tamargo. I sent this card to John at the end of January and I had it back eight days later.

John played parts of five seasons in the Majors, seeing time with the Cardinals, Giants, and Expos. He never saw any real significant playing time and only played in 40+ games twice in his career. Both of those seasons were spent split between two teams. His best tenure came with the Expos in 1979 and '80. After being traded to them midseason, he hit .381 in the 12 games he got into. Then, in 1980, he hit .275 in 37 games and had a career-high 13 RBI. That was five more than his previous best despite having 41 less at-bats. For his career, John was a .242 hitter with 4 home runs and more walks than strikeouts.

According to John's Baseball Almanac page, he was drafted five times before he finally signed with a team.

About five years ago, I took this card with me to get signed at a Tulsa Drillers game. The Drillers were hosting the Corpus Cristi Hooks and John was listed as one of their coaches. After the game, I asked him to sign this card as he was heading back to the clubhouse. He said that he would and I handed him my card just to have him give me a funny look and tell me that this was a card of his dad. Whoops.

John needs to warm up his pen before signing cards. His last name came out great. I can't say the same thing about his first name.

On the college baseball front, the CWS field is down to just six teams as Louisville and LSU have been eliminated.

On a side note, I started looking at everyone's pick for the Series and I noticed something interesting. Of the six entries (yes, only six), only four teams were picked to advance to the finals. Pool A had Oregon St and Mississippi St and pool B had LSU and UNC. Of those four teams, Mississippi St is the only one that has yet to lose a game.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 122/100

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