I came across a card the other day that featured three sons of former major league players. Not all that uncommon of an occurrence these days, there are quite a few of today's players who's fathers preceded them at the MLB level. The most famous father/son combo in MLB history is probably the Ken Griffeys. But you could make a great case for Bobby/Barry Bonds. Tough to beat either of those duos, but today's game is giving it a shot. A few of the more prominent sons of former players:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Bo Bichette
Cavan Biggio (go Blue Jays!)
Delino Deshields Jr.
Dee Gordon
Cody Bellinger
Fernando Tatis Jr.
And there are some more coming up through the ranks who are already featured on cards...
Bobby Witt Jr.
Ke'Bryan Hayes
There are quite a few more, too, look it up. As you can see above, about half of the guys I called out are not just sons of former MLBers, but share their father's full name as well. These "Juniors" are what drew me to the card I found:
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| 2000 Topps - Home Team Advantage |
This neat-o card features the sons of three quality players from my youth. Congrats on these three for getting to the big leagues (or close, Maddox Jr didn't quite make it), but I'd prefer to revisit their fathers careers!
Tim Raines Sr.
A true beast, Raines would have been more appreciated if Rickey Henderson hadn't been around, doing almost everything just a bit better than the Rock. Tim had some off the field problems, but what a player! Also, It's always a pleasure to put Expos uni's on my blog!
His namesake spent small parts of three seasons in the show with Baltimore. He stole 10 bases, giving him and his father a total of 818. I was thinking that would be the record, but the Bonds boys actually stole 975 together!
Garry Matthews Sr.
Matthews Sr, AKA Sarge, played 16 solid years in the bigs, winning a Rookie of the Year and getting MVP votes in 4 different seasons. Had probably his best season for the 84 Cubs, who came out of nowhere to almost erase the Cubbie Curse.
Junior played 12 years spread across 7 teams. He was an all star in 2006 for Texas.
Garry Maddox Sr.
All of those Srs. played during my grade school/teenage years (and for Raines, beyond that). All were card favorites, especially Maddox. However, both Maddox and Mathews were big rivals of the Dodgers (and Raines, too, to a bit lesser extent), so I didn't like them TOO much.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid (1978, I believe), my grandfather took me to a Fort Lauderdale Yankees doubleheader. At that level, when there's a doubleheader the home team plays two different opponents, at least sometimes. The West Palm Beach Expos were the second opponent, and they came out into the stands to watch the first game, so my brother and I got all their autographs--one would sign and pass it on. Years later I pulled out the program, and one of the names was Tim Raines.
ReplyDeleteThe third guy, of course, inspired one of the great quotes in baseball history: "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water; the rest is covered by Garry Maddox."
I'm a bit young to have any memories about Tim Raines Sr., but I remember pulling a Bowman rookie of Tim Raines Jr. as a kid and being really excited (probably still have it somewhere). Still hard to believe Fernando Tatis Jr. is an MLB superstar these days, because unlike the Raineses, I *do* have vivid memories of his father.
ReplyDeleteI just stumbled across that prospects cards a week or two ago while cleaning out and organizing the garage. Such a cool card. All three of those guys played when I was a kid falling in love with the game. When I think of Maddox and Matthews... the early 80's Phillies come to mind. As for Raines, I remember him for his base stealing. I feel like him and Rickey were on Topps League Leaders cards every year together.
ReplyDeleteLove Sarge! Something about that guy. Maddox was also a fun guy to root for.
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