eric karros, team hero?

back in 2003, donruss anointed eric karros a 'team hero'. they used the term loosely, as they also included such dodger stalwarts as victor alvarez and tyler houston in the set. anyway, now that karros' career has had time to settle, i figured i would take a closer look.

of the dodgers' string of rookies of the year in the 1990s, karros was my least favorite. piazza was stronger and more explosive, mondesi more athletic and exciting, nomo was more dominant and mysterious, and even hollandsworth had an 'aw shucks' kind of charm about him. karros just plodded along, hitting home runs and not being in any way flashy.

while his most famous home run came as a cub (the 3-run shot that denied roger clemens his 300th career victory at wrigley), in his 12 years with the dodgers karros hit a los angeles franchise record 270 home runs. more than cey. more than garvey. more than piazza. those 270 home runs are also good for 3rd on the all-time franchise leader board, where he is also 10th in games played, 8th in total bases, 8th in doubles (ahead of hodges!), 6th in rbi, and 1st in sacrifice flies - ha! ok, he's also the la dodger leader in strikeouts (3rd all-time) and 4th all-time in gidp - one ahead of garvey, in fact.

obviously, karros stands among others i easily consider to be 'team heroes' in terms of longevity and production, so i guess the shoe fits. still, i would have preferred him going to the fish instead of piazza, or to toronto instead of mondesi.