The forgotten

I'm going to turn the tables a bit tonight.  I got another unexpected (but most certainly welcome) box of Blue Jays cards in the mail today, this time from another fellow Jays card blogger, Richard, who writes at the Toronto Blue Jays Collection.

You've seen me write over and over about all the great players that the Jays have had during their existence.   Carter, Alomar, Halladay, Stieb, Delgado, the list goes on and on.   Going through this box I saw players that I barely remembered were Blue Jays.  I'm guessing that most of these cards that I'm going to show off tonight are of players that played one season in Toronto, two at the most.

These guys are the forgotten...

Darrin Jackson had a 12 year major league career, playing for 7 different teams.  The Jays acquired him just before the start of the '93 season for Derek Bell.  Darrin didn't even make it through the entire '93 campaign before being traded to the Mets in June for Tony Fernandez.  Back in the early 90's, 1/2 a season with a team enabled you to get a card pictured in their uniform, as this '93 Fleer Ultra #642 proves.

I took one look at this card and did a double take.   I remembered the name Dave Geisel, but probably haven't heard it in 30 years.  It had been so long that I didn't think that Geisel lasted very long in Toronto.  He actually pitched for two seasons (82-83) before moving to Seattle in the Rule 5 draft.  Geisel has a grand total of 12 cards in the Trading Card Database, with no cards of him being released in 83, even though he pitched in 16 games for the Jays in 82.

Another name I hadn't heard in quite a long time, Randy Moffitt played in Toronto during the '83 season.  He actually fared quite well, winning 6 games and saving 10 others in 46 appearances.  Alas, this '84 Donruss card would be a sunset card as Moffitt didn't make it back to the major leagues after the '83 season.  You may know his older sister, Billie Jean King.  I did not know before today that they were related....you do learn something new every day!

Wow, another name that I barely remembered.   Paul Kilgus pitched in a total of 11 games for Toronto during the '90 season, earning him this 1990 Bowman card.  I found a blog post on The Greatest 21 days that features Kilgus on a card during his time with the Syracuse Chiefs, then the AAA affiliate for the Jays. 

Tom Lawless rounds out the list.  Tom played for the Jays for a season and a half; he was released by the Jays in 1990.  Tom is currently the interim manager of the Houston Astros, a job I'd love to see him retain, if only so he can teach his players how to do a bat flip during the World Series.

At least these 6 players I'd heard of, there were other cards in the box of guys I didn't even know (Jerry Schunk, 1991 Bowman!). 

See, it's not always about the stars, the headliners, the guys at the top.

Just like these guys filled out rosters at one point, they also filled out the box I received today.

Thank you Richard for the cards, they will not be forgotten...

thanks for reading, Robert