TASR: 1995 Topps #180 Raul Mondesi

In our effort to cover all the Topps All-Star Rookie Cards we are going to run into some stories that are not fun. Raul Mondesi's post playing career is one of those not fun stories. 

For the past seven years Raul Mondesi has been under house arrest in his native Dominican Republic. 

In 2017 Mondesi was convicted of embezzlement of $6 Million public funds. Baseball-Reference estimates Raul Mondesi's career earnings to be $66 Million. 

Earlier this month it was reported that Mondesi has completed his sentence and is now a free man. Hopefully the $66 Million dollar man can avoid embezzlement charges in the future. 

 

1995 Topps #180 Raul Mondesi

1994 was a much better time for Raul Mondesi. He came a HR shy (Klesko 17) of leading NL Rookies in the Triple Crown categories (.306, 16, 56).  He also led all MLB rookies in Hits, Doubles, Triples, Total Bases and the NL in Runs Scored.  

Those numbers were good enough to make Mondesi a unanimous selection for ROY. Modern analytics backs up the selection as his 1.8 WAR also led NL hitters, although a couple of pitchers led by Steve Trachsel (3.4) did finish better. 

Flip

We direct your attention to the text below Mondesi's numbers that features a quote by his Manager Tommy Lasorda who name drops Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente plus a few 1950s era stars - no pressure kid. 

Well I had to check the stats to see how Lasorda's analysis stacks up. Here is what we found:

Turns out Tommy Lasorda was pretty astute. Mondesi's assist numbers are comparable to Carl Furillo and Rocky Colavito. As one can imagine, nobody is in Clemente's Neighborhood, of course. 

Parallels

If Mondesi's numbers appear modest for league leading numbers it is because they are for a partial season. 30 years ago MLB played a strike shortened season. Topps turned this bummer around and used it as an opportunity to produce a parallel set of cards with different back featuring "Cyberstats" 

In Topps completed 1994 season stats Raul Mondesi picked up 6 Home Runs to finish with 22. 

Another interesting Cyberstats development is that Topps awarded Raul 3 Triples which was good enough to tie League Leader Brett Butler at 11 (Butler in reality had 9) and pass 1994 Triples Co-Leader Darren Lewis who went from 9 to 10. This meant that Raul Mondesi received a mythical Cyberstats League leader flare while Lewis lost his. 

It was the only time Darren Lewis Led the league in Triples, in fact it was the only time he led the league in anything - in 13 years of Major League Baseball

Conversely Raul Mondesi who also played for 13 years never led the league in anything. Had he led the league in Triples it would have been his one and only black ink.

It's weird and interesting how a single opportunity to lead the league in an offensive category can turn on a shortened season. And somehow Topps found it.  

This concludes our look at 1994 Rookie of the Year and convicted embezzeler Raul Mondesi. 

Sources and Links

1995 TASR Index

LA Times (Steve Henson)

Baseball-ref

Game Dated Cards: 1978 Topps #52 Jim Lonborg

There are so many trading cards that most are never considered deeply. 

One thing that is good about an active social media collecting community is it gives us an opportunity to examine random cards based on the whims of others. This happened to me over the weekend. The V Family(@CollectibleVs) posted a TTM of the 1978 Topps Jim Lonborg card.

1978 Topps #52 Jim Lonborg

1978 Topps has a couple of action cards but not many and I thought "Hey is that Candlestick". It was a Saturday Night and I quickly got a lot of confirmations including one from Night Owl Cards - who did do some research on this fine card and covered the card here. Turns out it is one of several 1978T cards featuring the -Stick. 

Greg had come to the conclusion that the photo was taken during a game played on July 21 1977 which was a Night Game and qualified the card for the NOC Night Games collection. 

I perused the comments on the NOC post and Lo and Behold apparently I had followed up Greg's initial research and basically confirmed his findings adding some Phillies specific background.  

I had obviously forgotten any of this but it does make me happy to find out that I have been looking into game dated cards for eight years now. 

1977 July 21

Not sure how much I looked into the game in 2016, but turns out the game had a crazy twist that involved Lonborg. Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Bruce Keidan described the outing with this bit of Hyperbole: 

What was Keidan referring to? See if you can spot what happened here:

It's blurry so here is the baseball-reference link. 

Turns out that Lonborg left the game after 5 innings with the Phillies DOWN 6-0. Manager Danny Ozark sent Tommy Hutton up to pinch hit for Lonborg, who likely went to the shower expecting to take an L. 

But that's not what happened. Look at the line score, the Phillies put up 8 runs in the top of the 6th, they sent 13 batters to the plate. The fatal blow was a bases loaded triple off the bat of pinch hitter Jerry Martin. The Triple was a misjudged line drive towards converted infielder Derrel Thomas who was in his first year as a Center Fielder. 

Here is the detailed account of the scoring from the following days Inquirer:

  

According to Keidan the Phillies turn at-bat, which included 2 pitching changes, lasted 25 minutes. 

Flip

The win referenced in the text on the reverse put the Phillies into the postseason for the first time in over a quarter century. Jim Lonborg pitched a complete game versus in Montreal that day holding the Expos to four hits. A two-out double by Future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson in the sixth inning was the only thing that stood between Lonborg and a shutout.

Lonborg quickly got that run back on his own when he singled home Garry Maddox in the following inning - picking up one of his 43 career RBI. The Phillies big blow came on a 3-Run Homer by Greg Luzinski. 

Lonborg would go on to start two postseason games for the Phillies losing both. He retired in 1979 just missing the 1980 world championship squad.  

This concludes our deep dive into 1978 Topps #52 Jim Lonborg - 2 game dated card columns for the price of 1, and thanks to Night Owl Cards for discovering this card Eight Years ago. 

References and Links

Game Dated Cards Index

Baseball-ref

CollectibleVs

Night Owl Cards

Philadelphia Inquirer (Bruce Keidan)

1988 Topps Rookie Cup All-Star Team (1987 honorees)

This is an index to our postings related to Topps 1988 All-Star Rookie Cup Team. The subset was published in 1988 to honor the Rookies of 1987. 

192	DEVON WHITE	OF
229	JEFF MUSSELMAN	LHP
269	ELLIS BURKS	OF
275	KEVIN SEITZER	3B
294	AL PEDRIQUE	SS
431	CASEY CANDAELE	2B
493	MIKE GREENWELL	OF
580	MARK MCGWIRE	1B
619	MIKE DUNNE	RHP
645	MATT NOKES	C

Sources and Links

All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index

1995 Topps Rookie Cup All-Star Team

This is an index to our postings related to the 1995 Topps All-Star Rookie subset. Players were awarded based upon their performance during the 1994 season which was shortened by a lockout.   

143	ROB HAMELIN	Royals	1B
574	JOHN PATTERSON	Giants	2B
451	JOSE OLIVA	Braves	3B
277	CHRIS GOMEZ	Tigers	SS
180	RAUL MONDESI	Dodgers	OF
324	RYAN KLESKO	Braves	OF
577	MANNY RAMIREZ	Indians	OF
567	JAVY LOPEZ	Braves	C
54	JOEY HAMILTON	Padres	RHP
542	BRIAN ANDERSON	Angels	LHP

Sources and Links

Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index

Canada Day - TASR: 1970 OPC #238 Jose Laboy

Happy Canada Day folks. To honor the occasion we are featuring the first All-Star Rookie Cup awarded to the Montreal Expos. 

1970 OPC #238 Jose Laboy (image stolen from tcdb)

Jose "Coco" Laboy had a shared Rookie card in 1969, The 1970 shown here is his first solo. I have always wanted to cover this card - There is just something cool about bat rack cards.  This one is particularly interesting as Laboy is in motion, he is picking out a bat trying to find the one that with a Hit in it no doubt.  None of the bats have numbered knobs, but we can clearly see Laboy's #39 on his jersey. 

In addition to Rookie Cup honors Laboy was also named the Sporting News NL Rookie Player of the Year. This is a different award than the more widely recognized BBWAA ROY which went to the Dodgers Ted Sizemore. The BBWAA vote was not even that close. Sizemore tallied 14 of the 24 votes, while Laboy garned only 3. This is despite the fact that Laboy, a third baseman hit 18 HR and a rookie leading 83 RBI while second baseman Sizemore's hit a more pedestrian 4 HR and 46 RBI. Ted Sizemore did lead rookies with a 4.2 WAR - of course this was unknown to 1969 era scribes, but apparently he passed the eye test. 

1970+

Coco Laboy played four additional seasons in the majors but never matched the success of his Rookie campaign. He retired as a career Expo with 420 games played 28 home runs and a -0.9 WAR. 

His decline may have been due to his advanced age for a MLB rookie, he was well past his 28th birthday. Laboy's Minor League career was spent in the Giants and Cardinals organization where he racked up 138 Home Runs and a career .294 average in well over a 1000 games. Despite these impressive numbers he never got a Major League opportunity until...

 

Bat Rack Connection

1970 OPC #324 Tony Taylor (tcdb)

In 1969 Coco Laboy was selected in the expansion draft by the Montreal Expos. Manager Gene Mauch picked Laboy largely due to the recommendation of Puerto Rican League teammate Tony Taylor (who played for Mauch with the Phillies) 

In a trading card coincidence Tony Taylor is also a member of the 1970 Topps/OPC bat rack club. 

Flip

Noticed since this is a Canada column we are using an OPC card - or course since it's 1970 we won't see much difference from Topps until we flip the card over. 

1970 OPC #238 Jose Laboy (flip/tcdb)

Checking the text of the card we quickly spot the French language translations that are present on OPC. We also see Coco's long minor League career which dates back to the 1950s including a couple of 20 Home Run seasons. 

Comic: Unfortunately we were unable to find any record of Laboy pitching for Springfield in Baseball-Ref.

Topps

1970 Topps #238 Jose Laboy (flip/tcdb)

Here is the standard Topps card. Beyond the language difference we can also see that the text on Topps is completely contained in the blue box, while OPC put this below the demographics section. 

Peanut Gallery

For more on this card check Jim's column over at 1970 Topps Baseball. 

Sources and Links

1970 TASR Index

Coco Laboy SABR Bio (Brian Joseph)

retrosimba (Mark Tomasik)

1970 Topps Baseball

tcdb

baseball-ref

1990 Topps Rookie Cup (honoring 1989 Winners)

This is an index of our columns related to the 1989 Rookie Cup Winners which are honored in the 1990 Topps Set

461	CARLOS MARTINEZ	White Sox	1B	1990
457	GREGG JEFFERIES	Mets	2B	1990
521	CRAIG WORTHINGTON	Orioles	3B	1990
718	GARY SHEFFIELD	Brewers	SS	1990
336	KEN GRIFFEY JR.	Mariners	OF	1990
464	JEROME WALTON	Cubs	OF	1990
288	GREG BRILEY	Mariners	OF	1990
536	BOB GEREN	Yankees	C	1990
752	TOM GORDON	Royals	RHP	1990
675	JIM ABBOTT	Angels	LHP	1990

Source and Links  

Topps All-Star Rookie Card Master Index

trading card db FASportsCards

1998 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset (honoring 1997 Winners)

 This is an index of our columns related to the 1997 Rookie Cup Team that was honored in 1998 Topps

22	DMITRI YOUNG	Cardinals	1B	1998
46	WILTON GUERRERO	Dodgers	2B	1998
25	SCOTT ROLEN	Phillies	3B	1998
335	NOMAR GARCIAPARRA	Red Sox	SS	1998
146	JOSE GUILLEN	Pirates	OF	1998
326	JOSE CRUZ JR.	Blue Jays	OF	1998
334	ANDRUW JONES	Braves	OF	1998
228	SCOTT HATTEBERG	Red Sox	C	1998
129	JASON DICKSON	Angels	RHP	1998
185	MIKE HOLTZ	Angels	LHP	1998

Sources and Links

B-R Bullpen 

Baseball-Ref

Lifetime Topps Project (1998 ASR Subset)

Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index