New York Yankees

Date of birth: July 6, 1954 in Holly Hill, South Carolina, USA

High School:  Samuel J. Tilden HS (Brooklyn, NY)

Nickname: Mickey. Big fan of the diminutive actor, Mickey Rooney.

First Impression; I loved this card. You can see the catcher, you can see his face he’s readying himself for the pitch. This is a Renior in terms of the other cards in this set.

Career stats player: The first thing that I did was look up his cards. I was pretty surprised to see him wearing a Pittsburgh helmet on his rookie. The next thing I did was mark down his vitals and noted he was from Brooklyn. I figured maybe this was why the Yankees wanted him and I guess they probably knew of him and they had tired of the Jim Mason show, who’s ratings were LOW at .152 1975 down from .250 1974.

The Yankees gave up Doc Medich who was a promising starter but not a dominant arm, so disposable. And with Randolph who was the overwhelming crown jewel in that trade the Yankees also got Ken Brett and Dock Ellis. Fools gold on Brett as he pitched 2.1 innings for them and Dock Ellis who would go 18-9 over the next who years with a 3.07. The other Doc bounced around after the Yankees trade and settled in with the Rangers for a while.

I would assume by the spelling that Doc has a doctorate or is an actual medical doctor while Dock Ellis, well I’m not quite sure, but his actual name is Dock. Maybe they grew up seaside in California?

Hickory dickory Dock
Ellis was on the block.
He rang up Brett,
Said, “grab the Kid,
let’s jet.”
The Pirate ship’s in shock.

Medich got the word
and said, “this is absurd,
Pittsburgh’s the tops,
you know they’ve got Pops.”

Along came Willie,
“We goin’ to Philly?”
Not not really
We’re going where its chilly.
JD’26

I had to stop there when I realized Pittsburgh is as cold as New York. I spent too much time on that but here’s where I COULD have stopped, when I asked AI for a Haiku.

Dock Ellis packed up,
Brett and young Willie rolled too—
Medich swapped on cue.

Crap I didn’t do stats. Well, 6 time All-Star 5 time World Series Champion (4 as a coach). He won a Silver Slugger in 1980. Over his career he batted .276 with 54 Homers and 687 RBI with 2,210 hits.

All Time Stat: As a Yankee his career 251 steals is still 4th all time behind Derek Jeter 358, Rickey Henderson 326 and Brett Gardner 274.

Career stats manager: 302-253. Randolph was on staff during the late 90’s early 2000s run of the Yankees. It looked like he could be the heir apparent to Joe Torre once he retired, but the Mets, probably to get a headline but also Randolph was obviously a very worthy candidate, a two for one. The Mets hired him to manage starting in 2005. His first year the Mets were over .500 by 2 games. The next year, 2006, they won 96 games, the NL East (first since ’88) and they lost in 7 games to the Cardinals in the LCS. He cashed in on his second place manager of the year award finish with a contract extension through 2009.

In 2007, Randolph was managing the Mets when they had one of the worst collapses in major league history. Holding a seven-game first-place lead in the NL East with only 17 games to play, the Mets finished 5–12 and lost the division to the Philadelphia Phillies, who went 13–4 in the same timespan.*

And though to that point his career record was very good, best on this list so far, he was fired midway through 2008. He was a candidate for other jobs early after his Mets run but he settled for coaching jobs instead.

Fun Fact: Randolph was the first manager in major league history to have his team’s record improve by at least 12 games in each of his first two seasons (excluding seasons following strike-shortened seasons).*

Ever a Future Star?  He was featured in a 4 panel rookie car in 1976 “Rookie Infielders” with Dave McKay, Roy Staiger and fellow future manager Jerry Royster.

Rookie or final card? No, he would get a manager card 2006-2008.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? No. He is a Yankee Stadium Monument Park honoree.

Links to stories including Willie Randolph.

*wikipedia