before there was mike piazza, there was another mustached catcher wearing number 31 for the dodgers. remember jack fimple?
the dodgers had acquired fimple in the december, 1981 rick sutcliffe trade with the indians, and he made his big league debut in 1983 when steve yeager went down with an injury. he played in a few more games for the blue in 1984, but stayed in the minors for all of 1985. when he returned to the big club in 1986, ed vande berg had claimed number 31, and fimple went to bobby castillo's old number - 37.
fimple ended his career with a short stint in an angels' uniform in 1987. i don't remember a whole lot about fimple, although i absolutely love that 1984 donruss card of his. i do think i recall that he hit a home run for the dodgers late in the 1983 season with a broken finger. well, he used a bat, but his finger was broken at the time. a quick check of baseball reference shows that he did hit both of his career home runs in 1983, both against the reds at riverfront. sadly, there is no stat column for broken digits to confirm my memory. oh well, at least i have fimple's card to look at.
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