Kent Tekulve baseball cards are truly the gifts that keeps giving.  No one can touch him in the “lifetime achievement” category.

Question: Is this style pirates cap the tallest in baseball history?  More evidence.

Full disclosure: While this card resides in the nerd archives, this is not an original scan, as once again, the scanner here at Nerd Central is on the fritz.  I had to use google images to find a digital copy of the card, which is why the image quality is not up to usual NerdBaseball resolution standards.  Thank you to this website for the image.

Mr. Pena made five All-Star teams, and won four Gold Glove awards.  He managed the Royals from 2002 – 2005, and is currently a bench coach for the Yankees.

Bonus points for the turtleneck and huge jersey.

In 1976 Mr. Collins became the first batter in Seattle Mariners history.  He scored the first run in Mariners history, also.

One of my favorite names in nerd-card history, Mr. Johnson shares his name with a Pro Football Hall-of-Famer.  I also love the old-school-Trix-looking font used on these Rangers jerseys.

Mr. Johnson played eight seasons in the major leagues, with his best work coming after his primary role changed from starter to relief pitcher.  He had five straight seasons with an ERA+ over 118, with strike out rates between 8-10 batters per 9 innings, despite not pitching at all in the 1982 and 1985 seasons.

This card also leaves the viewer pondering the question: perm or afro?

Sadly, Mr. Porter was one of the first professional baseball players to publicly admit having substance abuse problems. From Wikipedia:

During spring training in 1980, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe paid a visit to the Kansas City clubhouse. He asked the players 10 questions, the point of which being if a player answered three or more of the questions with an affirmation, the player might have a problem with drugs or alcohol. Porter affirmed all 10 questions and checked himself into a rehabilitation center, admitting he had abused alcohol, cocaine, Quaaludes, and marijuana.

He died in August of 2002 of “toxic effects of cocaine.”

I choose to remember Mr. Porter as “one of the few major league catchers of his time to wear eyeglasses behind the plate” and being “the only batter ever to bat with one hand on the bat.”

From Wikipedia:

During the 1980s, a variation of the Chicago-style hot dog called the Vance Law Dog was sold at Wrigley Field. It featured a traditional Chicago-style hot dog topped with cole slaw and ketchup. Some fans incorrectly referred to the dog as ‘The Vance Slaw Dog’ because of the inclusion of cole slaw. The dog was a personal favorite of the late broadcasting legend Harry Caray.

@JRSIV 81: As a legit pitcher, I want the photo on my baseball card to show me running the bases w my warmups

Thanks @JRSIV81.
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Mr. Davis drew the walk, in the bottom of the ninth inning of game one of the 1988 World Series, that brought Kirk Gibson to the plate.  This would mark the first time a World Series game ended on a come-from-behind home run.