Rocky Bullett

Scott Bullett is a guy you may not have heard of before. He spent bits of two seasons with the Pirates ('91 and '93) before spending all of 1995 and 1996 with the Cubs. He was a reserve outfielder that couldn't hit much and had limited power.

He hit only .212 for the Cubs in 1996 and in December the team released him. But Upper Deck didn't, and Bullett was on their Collectors Choice 1997 checklist.

As far as I know, Bullett had no baseball nickname. He was just "Scott." Well, that's kind of boring. Allow me to give him a tag, "Rocky." Why, you say?





That's why!

So what is he celebrating? Time to play detective and figure that out. The card gives two big clues: the game was played at Wrigley in April or May (the ivy hasn't come in yet) and they are playing a blue team (Mets or Expos--see the second baseman in the background).

A check of the 1996 schedule shows that the Mets were at Wrigley May 3-5. The next step is to scan the box scores to see what Bullet did in any of those games that would give him a reason to celebrate. It was easy.

On Friday, May 3, the Cubs were trailing the Mets 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. Bullett led off the inning pinch-hitting for the pitcher and got a bunt single.



He stole second as the next two batters struck out. My guess is that the picture on the back of the card is when he stole second. The ivy is missing, and it makes sense that the pictures would be from the same game.

The next batter was lefty Mark Grace and Mets manager Dallas Green decide to walk Grace and take his chances with the next hitter, Sammy Sosa.

Remember that this was 1996 and Sammy wasn't SAMMY! yet. And Grace was hitting .370 while Sammy was at .220. So it seemed like the right thing to do.

It wasn't! Sammy smacked a homer to left and the Cubs won 4-2. The card shows Rocky Bullett celebrating the walk off homer as he heads to third on his way to score the tying run.

Cubs Win!! Cubs Win!!