Orioles Card "O" the Day

An intersection of two of my passions: baseball cards and the Baltimore Orioles. Updated daily?

Monday, August 12, 2013

Wayne Gross, 1985 Topps #416

On this date in 1985, Wayne Gross and Larry Sheets hit back-to-back pinch home runs in a losing effort, as the Orioles fell to the Indians 8-5. Scott McGregor had a true disaster start, allowing five runs without getting an out. Ken Dixon saved the bullpen by pitching eight and one-third innings of relief, but the Birds trailed 8-3 in the bottom of the ninth. Mike Young and Jim Dwyer made two quick outs against Cleveland reliever Jerry Reed, and then Earl Weaver sent Gross up to bat for Rick Dempsey. The third baseman responded with a solo homer, his tenth of the year and the penultimate of his career. Next, Weaver called upon Larry Sheets to replace Rich Dauer at bat...and Sheets also went deep, his 13th on the season. But just as things were getting interesting, Floyd Rayford popped out to second baseman Tony Bernazard to end the game. If only Earl Weaver had a few more pinch hitters in his arsenal.

As an aside, I just looked at Wayne Gross' stat line for the season: 11 home runs and 18 RBI in 217 at-bats, with a .235/.369/.424 triple slash. That's pretty incredible. He drove himself in 11 times, and drove in other players only seven times. What's more, a couple of his homers were three-run shots; so he only had three RBI that didn't come via the home run. I'm sure that means...something.

3 comments:

Marlene Detierro said...

Got this item from Amazon. It was great. The item wad delivered in a timely manner and in good condition.

Marlene Detierro (Divorce Lawyer)

Zach said...

Marlene: Would you say the '85 Topps Gross you bought from Amazon was near-mint or mint?

(just messin with the spammers)

Kevin said...

Great Zach, now I'm compelled to keep the spammer comment. Is it just me, or does Marlene bear a striking resemblance to Star Jones?