I could have easily went with Jerome Walton here but at the time I was sure that Smith was going to be more of an impact player than the 1989 ROY award winner.He did come In second.He was a sweet hitting lefty who hit .324 In close to 400 AB's In his first year In the bigs. And who could forget his famous singing of the national anthem at Wrigley.Dwight Smith Is gonna be the next Tony Gwynn/ Luther Vandross!
Brandon Inge didn't really heat up until the middle of his career but that was enough for me to place him on a pedestal with the likes of Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammel.He was actually pretty consistent for decent span.Inge probably shouldn't even be on this list but what the hell.
Zito was good but could have been great.I think he got caught up with marijuana at some point and was unable to get back to form.
What happened to Conor Jackson?Anybody know?
Aley,Aley,Aley,Aley!The 8 game wonder!Great first outing,shellacked In his next start by the D- Backs,great next couple of starts and then shellacked again by Boston. Aley was shown the exit shortly after.
Delmon Young was a solid major leaguer ,but never really reached his full potential.He came In second to Dustin Pedroia In the ROY voting .Solid,albeit controversy/injury filled seasons would follow.Good but not as good as he could have been.He's currently a free agent and could end up helping out a contender down the stretch.Time will tell.
Dwight Smith is the only guy I ever stockpiled rookie cards of. I'd followed him a bit in the minors and, like you, I was convinced he'd be the better player, long-term, over Jerome Walton. And, since everyone else was stockpiling Walton, it also appealed to my sense of running contrary to the pack. Didn't realize, at the time, that neither Walton nor Smith would amount to much and that, even if they had, no cards from that era would hold any true premium.
ReplyDeleteI don't generally "invest" in cards. There's a rule that I've always found to be true...if I own it, it ain't worth squat. Three times, I've tried to prove otherwise. One was Dwight Smith. Another was the Pan Am Team USA sets...which were going through the roof and then...they reprinted them, driving the value into the dirt (well, not quite, but close). The third has actually panned out, so far, so I'm not going to jinx it by mentioning it. But nor do I suspect that luck will last. Kids, buy what you like. Period.
Yeah everything that came out of that Dwight Smith era has little to no value today.Overproduction and steroids pretty much killed off my generation of baseball.
ReplyDeleteMy best investment was a 1990 50 cent Sammy Sosa Topps MLB debut that soared up to 20 bucks at one point during his home run barrage.Not sure what it sells for now.
Always been an Inge fan. He got robbed of more than one Gold Gloves.
ReplyDeleteI liked Inge alot.He did everything.
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