Random Listia Autos - Part 12

It’s been awhile. How about another installment of autos sent to me by a very generous Listia user? I purchased a few cards with credits, and he threw these in just for fun. If you’d like to take a look back at previous posts, knock yourself out:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Part 7 

Part 8
Part 9 
Part 10
Part 11

I always had a fascination with Juan Pierre, and always wanted the Yankees to acquire him. I was fascinated by his speed and lack of power. Keep in mind, this was a time when middle infielders were routinely hitting 40 HRs. Suspicious, eh? So seeing an outfielder hit 0 HRs, but still manage 200 hits? Very different. Pierre was a classic speed/contact guy. He led the NL in steals twice, and the AL once with the White Sox. I don’t remember him on the White Sox. In 14 years, he accounted for a 16.9 WAR. I was surprised to see this, given the bags he stole and the fact that he was a .295 lifetime hitter with over 2200 hits. That’s pretty damn good. I was also surprised to see he was never an All-Star. Regardless, he had a nice career, and won a ring with the 2004 Marlins (grrrr).

Cripes, this guy. Joe Girardi absolutely loved Sergio Mitre. I don’t know why. He never did anything to warrant the chances he was given in NY. Over an 8-year career, he had a record of 13-30 with a 5.21 ERA. For the Yanks, he went 2-6 with a 5.35 ERA in 111 innings over 3 year. I have no idea. He appeared in 43 games for NY, although it felt like at least 500 games to me. I also feel like he pitched every time I went to a game. I am notorious for going to games and seeing my team’s worst starting pitcher. For a

Ok, this is a pretty good one. An auto of a guy who hit 462 career HRs. That’s pretty awesome. Although, he did finish his career with a 16.9 WAR – same as Juan Pierre above! I can’t think of two more opposite players. Dunn was a masher who also walked and struck out a lot. I wish he found his way to NY at some point in his career to play some DH and tee off on the short porch. He was a 2-time All-Star, but sadly never appeared in a post-season game. Still, he is one of the best power hitters of the last 20 years, and was a given to hit 40 HRs per year. Crazy enough, he hit 40 on the dot for four straight years from 2005-08. Pretty cool.

Lee Smith was the first mega closer I remember. I know Goose and Rags and Eck were big in the 80s and early 90s, but I didn’t quite understand the closer role until the Yanks acquired Smith and I learned about it then. I’m not sure if he’s a HOFer…I know he has hovered around 45% in most votes. He’s got one year left on the ballot, so it looks very unlikely at this point. I don’t really have an opinion since I didn’t see him pitch a ton. I know he wasn’t on the level of Rivera or Hoffman, but he was certainly impressive for a long time. Still, he ended his career with 478 career saves, while leading the league in saves four times.

True story – I had to check and see if Darren Oliver was still pitching. He’s not, in case you were wondering. He did manage to pitch until he was 42. He was a starter for most of his early career, pitching for the offensive-heavy Texas Rangers in the mid-90s. He won some games, but his ERA was usually pretty high. It looked like he was done in baseball after not pitching in 2005, but he was born again as a lefty reliever for the Mets in 2006. He then pitched for eight more seasons. I’m impressed with guys can find a way to stick for a long time, and Oliver certainly did that.

Zim! What can I say about Don Zimmer? The man was a baseball junkie, involved in the game for over 60 years. I really only knew him as the Yankees bench coach, but he was far more than that for many different teams. He was a decent player for the Dodgers early in his career, which was an accomplishment in his own right after almost losing his life to a brain injury as the result of being hit in the head by a pitch in the minors. The dude was in a coma for 2 weeks and had brain surgery. That he then went on to play for 12 seasons and coach or manage for another 40+ is pretty freakin’ awesome. He was a very lovable character for the Yanks, from his army helmet after a foul ball to his famous run-in with Pedro Martinez.