Today’s blog post has a “not so missing” 1978 card for the ever-famous two-time #1 overall amateur draft pick Danny Goodwin, who didn’t actually get a Topps card until the 1979 set:
Goodwin appeared in 35 games for the California Angels in 1977, this
after a scant four games for his first taste of the Big Leagues in 1975
at the age of 21.
Over his 35 games of 1977 Goodwin hit .209 with 19 hits over 91 at-bats,
hitting his first MLB home run while driving in eight, scoring five
himself.
By now anyone who is into recent baseball history, more specifically the
June amateur draft, knows that there has only been one player that was
TWICE drafted #1 overall on two separate occasions: Danny Goodwin.
In 1971, Goodwin was the overall #1 pick by the Chicago White Sox as a
catcher out of Peoria Central High School in Illinois, but he decided to
pursue a college career instead, leaving Chicago high and dry as he
went off to Southern University and A&M College in Louisiana, alma
mater of Hall of Famer Lou Brock.
For Chicago, it wasn't necessarily the biggest loss, since the first
round of the 1971 draft only yielded one future star of the game, Jim
Rice.
However Rice went at #15, getting picked by the Boston Red Sox, so it
seems highly probable that the White Sox would have picked some other
relative "bust" had they not chosen Goodwin.
Just as a point of reference, the players picked between #2 and #5: Jay
Franklin, Tommy Bianco, Condredge Holloway (what a name!) and Roy
Branch.
After four years at college, Goodwin still impressed scouts enough that
the California Angels decided to pick him #1 again in the 1975 draft.
Sadly for the Angels, it was also not as fruitful a pick, as Goodwin never did pan out on the big league level.
All told, between the years 1975 and 1982 Goodwin averaged about 45
games a season for the Angels, Twins and A's, mainly as a designated
hitter, ending up with a .236 lifetime average and 13 home runs to go
along with 81 runs batted in.
He DID have some fine seasons in the minors, but just couldn't continue that performance in the Majors.
He even managed to get a season in Japan in 1986, playing for Nankai,
but only batted .231 with eight homers and 26 ribbies in 83 games, and
called it a career.
On a much finer note, in 2011 Goodwin was honored as the very first
college player from a historically black university to be elected to the
National College Baseball Hall of Fame after his stellar college career
between 1971 and 1975.