up today, i have a pair of 1986 topps tiffany bill russell cards
1986 was the year that topps put the longest tenured player from each team on the leader cards rather than a random photo as they would in 1987 and beyond through 1989. this was after they put team statistical leaders on the cards in 1982, 1983, and 1984 before taking a break from team leader cards of any sort in 1985.
in addition to russell, who was in his 18th and final season with the dodgers in 1986, some of the other "deans" of their teams included steve carlton, rick dempsey, bobby grich, greg minton, and mickey hatcher. if topps were to do this today, the dodgers' representative would be clayton kershaw, although if it were limited to currently active players, it would be austin barnes.
any idea who the dean of your favorite team is?
Pretty sure Brandon Nimmo is the dean of the Mets. Of course at one point it was deGrom before he left for Texas.
ReplyDeleteWeird to say, but 27-year old Raffy Devers is the dean of the Red Sox, and will likely hold that title until his contract runs out in 2033...
ReplyDeletehe's only 27! that's pretty crazy although not as crazy as juan soto being only 25
DeleteGood question. I guessed Aaron Judge, looked it up and was correct. For a long time it was Brett Gardner, last link to the '09 champs.
ReplyDeleteI've gotta get ready for work in a few minutes... but picking the current "dean" of the A's would be pretty interesting. I'm wondering if they have any players on their rosters that have been with them longer than 3 years.
ReplyDeleteWait. Paul Blackburn might have, but he might not have been with the A's the entire time.
Holy cow! He's played in at least 1 game for the A's the past eight seasons. That's kind of mind blowing. I'm guessing he's the longest tenured Athletic, but I'd have to double check.
i would have a hard time believing that someone else has been with the franchise longer than that at this point. wow.
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