I hope Mr. O’Brien is catching a pick-off attempt in this picture, because if not, the Score company has captured the first “stretch” in baseball history that fails to clear the edge of the base from which the stretch originates.

Mr. O’Brien appears to have been a very good defensive first baseman, and even hit more than 20 HRs a couple times in the mid 1980′s.

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.

Another top-notch effort from the 1982 Fleer set.  Was this picture taken on a Little League field?

Not to be confused with Don Robinson. Mr. Robinson was given the nickname “The True Creature” by Pete Rose (who was the Reds’ manager).  He also came within one strike of throwing a perfect game on May 2, 1988.  Montreal’s Wallace Johnson broke it up with a single.

Mr. Brown seems to be in competition with Scott Garrelts and Tom Hume for the title of “largest glasses in baseball history.”

Mr. Brown appears to have played part time for 5 seasons (never more than 358 AB’s in a season).  Considering he put up average to above-average OPS+ numbers in part time work, I don’t know why he didn’t have a longer career as a 4th outfielder.

Apparently, Mr. Harris was a switch-pitcher! From Baseball Library:

Harris’ unusual ability to pitch with both hands led to some tension between him and the Red Sox, who forbade the ambidextrous hurler from throwing lefty. GM Lou Gorman insisted it would “make a mockery” of the game, leading Harris to grumble, “Boston is so conservative. People are afraid to try anything.” In a muted show of defiance, Harris usually chose to wear an ambidextrous glove on the mound.

But just before his retirement, while pitching for the Expos in 1995, the veteran hurler finally became the only twentieth-century pitcher to throw from both sides of the mound. After Harris (pitching righty) retired Reggie Sanders to start off the ninth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on September 28, 1995, he turned around to face the left-handed Hal Morris.

Harris issued a free pass, thus becoming the first ambidextrous major-league pitcher since Elton “Ice Box” Chamberlain of the American Association in 1888. Nerve-wracked, he stayed a southpaw and induced a ground-out from Eddie Taubensee, closing out the inning by retiring Bret Boone as a righty. The last pitcher to use both hands in a pro game had been Bert Campaneris, who did so in 1962 while playing for Daytona Beach in the Florida State League.

Pretty awesome stuff. Hopefully we’ll see something similar from Yankees farmhand Pat Venditte in the not-too-distant future.

Mr. Gantner played baseball at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and had his uniform number retired there. In the majors, he once went 1,762 consecutive at-bats without hitting a home run.

Hey all, sorry for the missing nerd this past Monday. Unfortunately, technical difficulties with the official nerd-scanner have provided a roadblock to expanding the nerd archive. Thankfully, there is a seemingly never-ending supply of Kent Tekulve cards available for posting. You can see our first Kent Tekulve post here. There are many more Tekulve cards in the archive. We may have to develop some sort of lifetime achievement award.

Happy “pitchers and catchers reporting” everyone.

Mr. Tunnell was arrested in October of 2009 for allegedly soliciting an internet prostitute.