Here's another of those cards that leaves one scratching their heads: a 1974 Topps Juan Beniquez:
So why is it so strange?
Well for starters the guy didn't even appear in a Major League game in 1973.
And since the 1974 set was the first by Topps to NOT be issued in
different series throughout the Spring and Summer, it's not like they
saw Beniquez collecting some decent playing time in early 1974 in time
to issue a card for him later on.
Odd, especially when you also see that Beniquez actually played in
only 33 games in 1972 as well. Yet Topps went and gave him a slot in the
1974 set.
I could never figure that one out.
I remember always being intrigued by Juan Beniquez in the
mid-1980's since he was always batting better than .300, with a high of
.336 in 1984 with the California Angels over 382 plate appearances.
Over his 17-year career he only plated enough appearances to
qualify for a batting title twice, in 1976 and 1978, both seasons with
the Texas Rangers, so he was really that bat off the bench for most of
his career.
Yet he did manage to stretch it out to 17 years until he retired
after 1988 after a couple of part-time seasons with the Toronto Blue
Jays, even winning a Gold Glove in 1977 and playing in the 1975 World
Series while with the BoSox.
He finished with a .274 lifetime average with 1274 hits, 610 runs
scored, 79 home runs and 476 runs batted in over exactly 1500 games and
5151 plate appearances.
