Random Listia Autos - Part 13

I still have a bunch of these to go through, and since I’m all caught up on trade packages and bubble mailers, I need some filler. Here we go! Previous editions:

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

Part 7 

Part 8
Part 9 
Part 10
Part 11 
Part 12

Mike Tyson! Sadly it’s not the tattooed-faced former boxing champion. But still, pretty cool to share the same name. Or maybe not? I bet he gets a lot of awful jokes. The other Mike Tyson…or maybe the original Mike Tyson…had a 10-year career in the NL, with eight of those seasons coming with the Cardinals and the last two with the Cubs. Statistically, his best year was probably 1976, despite only playing in 76 games. He accounted for a 2.3 WAR that year, highest of his career (which ended at -0.3 WAR, FYI). He managed to hit .286 with 9 triples that year, the latter stat good for 5^th in the NL. All-in-all, he ended his career a lifetime .241 hitter with 714 career hits. Also, his mustache is sweet.

As a child of the ‘80s, I constantly remember seeing Kevin Bass on cardboard. I don’t have any memories of him as a player, but I do remember him seemingly showing up in every other pack (along with Alvin Davis). Bass was a pretty good hitter for the Astros. He was an NL All-Star in 1986, hitting .311 with 184 hits, 20 HRS, and a very good OPS+ of 134. That’s a solid year, especially when there wasn’t a ton of power in the game at that time. That was also the year the Astros battled the Mets in the NLCS. He did hit .292 in that series, although had no homers or RBIs and struck out with men on base to end the series. His career spanned 14 years overall, as he bounced around a bit the last few years – to the Giants, Mets, back to Houston, and wrapped it up in Baltimore.

I first learned of Jeff Burroughs as I a kid following the 1992 and 1993 Little League World Series, where his porky son Sean was the star of the team he coached. However, Jeff has a very nice big-league career. He was selected first overall in the 1969 draft, and won the AL MVP just 5 years later in 1974. For the season, he hit .301 with 25 HRs and a league-leading 118 RBIs. He passed the 20-HR mark five times in his career, including a career-high 41 for the Braves in 1977. In 1978, he made his second All-Star team, and led the NL with a gaudy .432 OBP that year. Pretty damn good. All-in-all, he hit .261 with 240 HRs in 16 seasons. While he wasn’t the greatest #1 overall pick, he certainly is among the best. His aforementioned son, Sean, never quite had the career many expected, especially being a Top 5-rated prospect and tearing up the minors.

I will forever be a Chan Ho Park fan because of this:

In all fairness, he had a fairly nice career. It started off with the Dodgers, where he really came into his own in 2000 and 2001, his only All-Star appearance. He struck out 217 and 218 batters, respectively, and won 18 games in 2000. He turned that into a 5-year, $55-million dollar deal with the Rangers, and never lived up to that deal. Not even close. He bounced around a bit, but on his second stop in LA, he became a full-time reliever. He then had a couple good seasons as a set-up man. He signed with the Yanks in 2010, got diarrhea, was released, went to Pittsburgh, and was out of the majors in 2011. Still, he pitched for 17 big league seasons, finishing with a 128-98 record, 4.36 ERA, and 1715 Ks. Oh, and he made over $85-million in his career, so yeah, he did alright for himself. This Collector's Choice Arizona Fall League card is one I've always been fascinated by. He's throwing lefty! I assume it's just the reverse-negative. Anyone know for sure?

This is a sweet card. Mike Cameron is best known to me as being traded to the Mariners in the Ken Griffey Jr deal. However, that’s not quite fair. He had a very good career. Notably, he was a fantastic defensive outfielder. I feel like he was on Baseball Tonight’s Web Gems every other night. He was an important piece of those Ichiro-led Mariners teams that won a lot of games, although were twice defeated in the ALCS by the Yanks. He was decent with the bat as well, routinely clubbing 20+ homers, with a career-high 30 for the Mets in 2004. Later in his career, he was often rumored as heading to the Yanks, but never did. Instead he went to Boston and stunk.

Bart! Man, this guy. The Yanks got laughed at when they brought Bartolo Colon back to the big leagues after being out of baseball in 2010, but look at him now! He’s still a quality starting pitcher. He obviously came up as a big-time pitcher with Cleveland, as he and Jaret Wright were going to team up to finally get the Indians over the hump. That never quite worked out. He was later trader to Montreal and again to the White Sox before signing with the Angels and enjoying a Cy-Young winning season in 2005, beating out Mariano Rivera and Johan Santana (who probably should have won). Bart definitely was rewarded for his career-high 21 wins, but Santana had a much lower ERA, 80 more Ks, a lower WHIP, higher ERA+, and was about 3-wins better than him in terms of WAR. Today, I don’t think the vote would have gone the same way. Regardless, in 18 years, Colon has racked up 218 wins, a 3.97 ERA, and 2200+ Ks. Considering he only won 11 games total from 2006-2010, it’s pretty impressive. Even with average years then, it’s not a stretch to say he might be closer to the 250-260 range. Still, he’s had a great career and he’s still going.