Back
on July 9th of 2016 I posted about the strange case of the 1977 Topps
Dave Collins card and how it took me decades to prove to my friends that
I was correct in my guess that it surely wasn’t the former speedster.
Take a look at the original:
Well, turns out it was former pitcher Bobby Jones, as I’m sure many of
you are now aware all these years later, so it was time to go ahead a
re-do the card with the proper image, take a look:
Collins played his first two seasons of Big League ball with the
California Angels, stealing 52 bases combined in a part-time roll,
giving us a preview of what was to lie ahead.
He would go on to play 16 years in the Major Leagues, stealing as many
as 79 bases in 1980 while with the Cincinnati Reds, while also stealing
60 in 1984 when he was playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, a season where
he also led the league in triples with 15.
I’ll always remember him for his disappointing year with the New York
Yankees in 1982, a year that was a failure for the organization in so
many way actually.
Nevertheless, Collins would finish his career with 395 steals, while
also batting a very nice .272 with 1335 hits over 4907 at-bats in 1701
games, finishing up with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1990.
I never even realized he made it that far to be honest!