Up
on the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1976 card for former
Montreal Expos outfielder Bombo Rivera, who made his Big League debut in
1975 with five games:
Rivera hit .111 in that brief time up in the Majors, going 1-for-nine with a run scored while also collecting two base on balls.
He would play in 68 games in 1976 for the Expos, hitting a very
respectable .276 with 51 hits over 185 at-bats, with 22 runs scored and
19 RBIs.
After a full 1977 season in the Minors, he was back in the Majors for
1978, now with the Minnesota Twins, where he would play over the next
three seasons, hitting .271, .281 and .221 before spending all of 1981
in the Minors again.
In 1982, still only 29 years of age, he was back in the Big Leagues,
though now with the Kansas City Royals, where he’d appear in only five
games, the last five of his career it turned out, as he’d hit .100 with
one hit over 10 at-bats.
Far from retiring, he took his talents to both Japan and Mexico, where
he ended up playing another six seasons, through 1988, finally retiring
as an active player.
Overall, for his MLB career, he finished with a .265 average over 335
games, with 220 hits in 831 at-bats, with 109 runs scored and 83 RBIs
between 1975 and 1982.