On the blog today, from my recent "Whole Nine: Series 2" custom
set, my "not so missing" 1980 card for Kirk Gibson, who made his Big
League debut in 1979:
Appearing in 12 games for
the Detroit Tigers in 1979, Gibson hit .237 with nine hits over 38
at-bats, including a homer, with three runs scored and four RBIs.
From
there he would go on to put in 17 seasons of solid baseball, always
flirting with 30/30 seasons though never managing to make it, with five
straight seasons of 20+ homers and 20+ stolen bases between 1984 and
1988, culminating with his MVP season of 1988 with the Los Angeles
Dodgers when he helped the in famous fashion win it all against the
Oakland A's.
One of the greatest players to never make an
All-Star team, Gibson was also hurt by the collusion debacle of the
1980's when owners conspired to NOT sign Free Agents, forcing them to
settle for sub-pay contracts.
Who knows if Gibson could have
landed somewhere else, changing the trajectory of his career later on
with some other organization.
By the time he retired after the
1995 season, he finished with a career .268 batting average, with 1553
hits, 985 runs scored and 870 RBIs, hitting 255 homers while also
stealing 284 bases, winning it all twice: in 1984 with the
"wire-to-wire" Detroit Tigers juggernaut, and the Dodgers in 1988.
Not too shabby a career!