so, the baseball draft begins today, and i'm sure it will be mentioned a few times that the very first player taken in the very first round of the very first amateur draft was none other than rick monday, the center fielder on the team of my youth. back in the late 1970's, sportscaster put out a card dedicated to the event, and put mo on the front.
i wonder why they didn't use a photo of him from his kansas city a's days, or even from his time at arizona state. that would have been more appropriate. still, he's standing in dodger stadium and i can't begrudge any company making dodger cards.
the dodgers have never had the first pick in the draft (the highest they have selected was number 2 in 1993 when they picked darren dreifort), and monday was the first number one pick to play for the team. since then, there have been two others - darryl strawberry (also in dodger stadium during an eddie murray at bat on a 1992 fleer ultra card)
and tim belcher (who, like the others is featured on his 1990 topps card with a dodger stadium photo).
strawberry was taken number one by the mets in 1980 and belcher was selected by the twins in 1983. when topps issued the number one pick subset in their 1985 set, they showed belcher as a member of the a's. strawberry was included in the subset, but monday was ignored. maybe it was because monday was no longer an active player, but you would think number 1/1/1 would get a little more respect.
the dodgers have selected a player who didn't sign and was later selected number one overall (luke hochevar) by another team, and i hope whomever they select in the first round this year at number 16 will do old number 16 proud and eventually play like a number one pick. the good kind. not the brien taylor kind. even if they never rescue an american flag from some misguided protesters or hit a home run to propel the dodgers to the world series.
good luck logan. and you too, ned.
1 comment:
those sportscaster cards were great!
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