Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Scrub City: #126

A player's Topps card number is often a good indication of how his career is going. If the number ends with a 00, you're a superstar. End in a 0? You're a top player on your team. End with a 5? You're doing all right.

But if your card ends with anything else, you haven't made it yet or your career is going south. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting, after earlier looking at #1, to now look at the history of a "scrub" number. I came up with #126. I wanted triple digits and "26" is my favorite Cubs player's number.

I've got each of the 60 #126s below. Was it Scrub City? Well, out of 60, there was one Hall of Fame player



(very early in his career)



another that made the HOF as a broadcaster



and one more that might make it as a manager.




Two Cubs got the number, and both were scrubs (hey, don't say "Aren't all Cubs scrubs?" That's not nice!)

But yes, for the most part, its a cast of unforgettable characters. Do the names Bob Wiesler or Stan Palys ring a bell? How about Marty Martinez or Rod Gilbreath? Scroll through and count how many of these you've heard of, especially the guy that played before you started following baseball. I bet you have a hard time reaching double digits.































































And who gets #126 in 2012? The early checklist says...

...
Eduardo Nunez. I'd say that fits right in!

5 comments:

  1. Seeing Smoltz in a Cards uniform is weird! That alone deserves #126.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dick Stuart, "Dr. Stangeglove", is my fvorite of the bunch. Over an eight year period, (1958-1965) he averaged over 26 HR's a season. Over the same period he also led all NL 1st basemen in errors (thus the nickname).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Out of the ones who received #126 before I started following baseball, I had heard of 14 of them. But I totally owe collecting cards for that knowledge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It seems there was a lot of Braves on that list. I didn't count, but that team sort of stood out. This could be a very interesting long term project and perhaps even a blog of its own.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fred Hutchinson was an awfully good pitcher, and a successful manager...

    ReplyDelete