Jackie Robinson pack card 4:
TONY LaRUSSA
TONY LaRUSSA
Card front: See how good a card looks when it's cropped tight? You don't need to see Tony's ankles. Tony looks crotchety and bedraggled as befits a manager with almost 2500 wins.Card back: There's a lot of amazing stats in his bio write-up (won 3 straight division titles twice, Won a World Series for both leagues, Third all-time in wins) But the list of 'Most Wins By Cardinals Managers' up on top floored me. Here are the guys behind Tony: Red Schoendienst, Whitey Herzog, Billy Southworth, Branch Rickey, Frankie Frisch. Notice anything about those guys? All Hall of Famers except Whitey, who will get in on the Veteran's ballot sooner or later.
Mickey Mantle pack card 4:
MARK BUEHRLE
MARK BUEHRLE
Card front: I'm officially obsessed with ankles now. Crop that card!!! This isn't a particularly good picture of Mark, it looks less like he's following through on a delivery and more like he's lumbering around like an idiot.Card back: I'm struck by how durable Mark is. Eight straight seasons of 30 or more starts for the Sox, and he's pitched very effectively every single year. The back states that his 8 game home winning streak at US Cellular Field is the longest for a Sox pitcher since LaMarr Hoyt. He passed LaMarr this year after winning four decisions at home before losing to the A's. The craziest stat is the 'Lowest Career OPS Against' mark. Jacque Jones has an .074 OPS against Buehrle. Not batting average, not on base percentage, OPS.
VERDICT:
I'm a fan of Buerhle, but he can't beat a guy with almost 2500 career wins. Jackie stays alive going into the last card in the pack.
Jackie Robinson 4, Mickey Mantle 5
3 comments:
Tough decision, but I'd go with my grandparents drinking buddy too.
LaRussa will be in the Hall of Fame someday--gotta go with him.
I agree with you - as crazy as he is - you can't ignore his numbers. Also it takes one special guy to manage teams from both leagues to the World Series title.
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