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.

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.

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.

Apparently, my love for Mr. Atherton’s cards is never-ending.  I have to admit, the eye-black is a nice touch.

For those new to the site, check out our previous Ken Phelps post.

I always found Mr. Phelps to be a very underrated nerd, both for his sporting the triple threat of adult braces, large glasses, and facial hair, and his impressive offensive production.  While he never had more than 441 AB’s in a season, he had five seasons with an OPS+ over 120, and four of those were over 147.  He was also part of the trade that sent Jay Buhner from the Yankees to the Mariners.

According to Wikipedia, Mr. Phelps also inspired famous statistician Bill James to create the “Ken Phelps All-Star Team.”  Mr. James describes it this way:

Ken Phelpses are just available; if you want one, all you have to do is ask. They are players whose real limitations are exaggerated by baseball insiders, players who get stuck with a label — the label of their limits, the label the things they can’t do — while those that they can do are overlooked… The Ken Phelps All-Stars [are] a whole teamful of guys who are wearing labels, but who nonetheless can play major-league baseball, and will prove it if they ever get the chance

After Monday’s post questioned Mr. Sabo’s place in baseball eye-wear history, I wanted to remind everyone of why most people associate him with Rec-Specs in the first place.  Whether or not he pioneered their use in MLB, he wore them well, and wove the Rec-Specs name into the consciousness of 7-13 year old baseball card collectors.  And he was featured in this amazing “Diamond Kings” card.

We are looking to get back to a more regular posting schedule, but for now, enjoy this Tom Henke card from Vorpy McNerd.  He doesn’t know what set it’s from, but it looks like 1988 or 1989 Topps to me, and it looks like he cropped Mr. Henke’s name off for some reason.

Anyway, baseball is back.  Life is good.

Click the stars to vote: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

I was pretty sure I had seen this guy playing “class nerd #2″ in at least four different ’80s comedies. It turns out he had a ten-year career in MLB, and even made an All-Star team.

Sorry for the sporadic posts lately…June is a busy time over here at Nerd Central.

Mr. Kipper is now a coach for the Portland Seadogs, a minor-league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

I was extremely disturbed to see that Mr. Manrique has been knocked out of the #1 all-time spot by Kent Tekulve 2.0. So I thought I should remind everyone of Mr. Manrique’s greatness. Vote anything less than 5 stars at your own risk.