Here’s
a “not so missing” 1978 card for former catcher Bruce Kimm, who had his
first baseball card the previous year as part of the 1977 set:
Kimm appeared in only 14 games for the Tigers, batting .080 with two
hits over 25 official at-bats while catching, after a rookie year that
saw him play in 63 games, batting a respectable .263 with 40 hits in 152
at-bats, while being used as Mark Fidrych’s personal catcher.
He would spend the 1978 season in the Minors before making it back to
the Majors in 1979, though as a member of the Chicago Cubs, where he
played in nine games, the only games he’d appear in for the
North-Siders.
In 1980 he would see the most action of his short career, this time with
the team who drafted him back in 1969, the Chicago White Sox.
In what would turn out to be his last year as a Major League player,
Kimm appeared in 100 games, batting .243 with 61 hits over 251 at-bats
for the White Sox.
In his brief four-year career, he’d bat .237 with 104 hits in 439
at-bats, spread out over 186 games, before moving on to managing in the
minor leagues, with a Major League managerial stint in 2002 with the
Cubs thrown in.
Sadly for him, he was let go at the end of the season, with Dusty Baker
hired to lead the eventual Central Division champs, leading to the
memorable 2003 National League Championship series against the Florida
Marlins.