1987 Topps, John Kruk

#123 John Kruk

Here is the fifth and final card of John Kruk that I got signed at the College World Series in 2014. I posted three cards of him with the Phillies later that year and those can be seen here, here, and here. I posted one other Padres card of him last month and that one can be seen here.

John played for San Diego for three full seasons. After hitting over .300 for his first two seasons, John's average dipped to .241 in his third season. In his fourth season, he got off to a slow start and was hitting just .184 over 31 games and the Padres decided to make a change. They shipped him and Randy Ready to the Phillies in exchange for Chris James. John finished his tenure with the Padres hitting .281 with 36 home runs and 179 RBI.

John went on to play for the Phillies for five and a half seasons. Over that time, he made three All Star teams and helped the club to the 1993 Wolrd Series. After the 1994 season, John signed with the White Sox and played his final season with them that year. John finished his career a .300 hitter with 100 home runs and 593 RBI. His best season was with the Phillies in 1991 when he hit .294 and had career-highs in homers (21) and RBI (92).