A Venerable Old Card Part 33

Everyone seems to love these posts on Monday when I feature an old Minor League card.  Today, I am going to give the people what they want; an old Minor League card of a name baseball person.  Not a Hall of Fame player, not even really a good player, but definitely a Hall of Fame manager.  Interestingly enough, at the time this card was made this guy was one of the better prospects in the game.

Card please......

This Terry Francona Memphis Chicks card is out of the 1980 TCMA Minor League set.  TCMA made some really cool team sets back in the 1980s.  Not expensive cards in general and a really fun group of cards to collect.  

As for Francona's playing career, he started out with the Expos after being drafted out of the University of Arizona in 1980.  He was selected as the 22nd overall player in the draft after winning the Golden Spikes Award and the College World Series MVP after leading the Wildcats to the 1980 NCAA Championship....

Francona's troubles in the Majors can mainly be blamed on knee injuries, but he showed a lot of promise while playing in parts of two seasons with the Memphis Chicks.  In a total of 101 games with the Chicks, the future Hall of Fame manager batted .321/.350/.402.  Francona had little power, little speed, but there seemed to be a ton of players with this type of profile around Majors in the 1980s: no power, no speed, and no walks. 

A Venerable Old Card Part 28

I picked this card up awhile ago and just have not had a chance to post it yet.  Nothing beats getting a really cool card of a Minor Leaguer.  Especially when the Minor Leaguer is someone who made it to the Majors and had a cool nickname like "The Secret Weapon"

The card.....

This gem is from the 1982 TCMA Tidewater Tides set which also featured Ron Darling, Mike Cubbage, and Dave Von Ohlen.  I skipped out on all of those in favor of the team's light hitting shortstop Jose Oquendo.  "The Secret Weapon" would end up spending parts of the 1983 and 1984 seasons with the Tides, also a little time with the Mets, before being traded to the Cardinals.  

I have seen and heard many people put Oquendo in the Keith Hernandez trade, but the Cardinals and Mets also swapped a bunch of Minor Leaguers around the same time.  Oquendo was basically the only name player in the trade.  

Oquendo would gain notoriety on the 1980s "Whiteyball" Cardinals for randomly showing up all over the field and lineup card.  He literally played everywhere for the team, but ended up spending the majority of his career as the backup shortstop to Ozzie Smith and started at second for a time too.  

His two big claim to fames, outside of playing everywhere, were his series clinching home run in the 1987 National League Championship Series.....

and also his fight with Will Clark.  Ozzie Smith, Candy Maldonado, and Bob Brenly also figured prominently in this one. Really underrated baseball brawl.