Where Are They Now? Keith Hughes

Keith Hughes made his professional debut as an amateur free agent for the Bend Phillies in 1982. In 1984, he was traded to the Yankees along with Marty Bystrom for Shane Rawley. He made his major league debut May 19, 1987 for the Yankees but was traded back to the Phillies less than a month later.

On March 21, 1988 he was traded to the Orioles and played in 41 games that season, but spent the 1989 season at Triple-A Rochester before being traded to the Mets in November 1990.

He resurfaced in the Majors briefly in 1993 with the Reds. He last played professionally in 1995 with the Omaha Royals.

Mailday '81 and '09 Topps

Fat Rat Phillies Fan sent over a few more '09 Topps that I needed and three more '81 Topps.  Most of my '09 extras have been going his way, so go check out his want lists if you haven't already, he's a great guy to trade with.

I'm now sitting at close to 80% through '09 Series 1. I'm half tempted to go buy one of the cereal boxes, now that I know what they are. However, I'm going to stay the hell away from the Wal Mart blasters. Sure, the black cards look pretty nice, but I don't like the underhanded way they released them on us. But there's plenty of talk of that around the blogs, so I won't say any more.

I do want to show this wonderful Mike Schmidt that John sent.


This is one of those cards that I'd kinda like to know what was going on. Schmidt looks a little annoyed at something or someone. It's also one of four cards in the set directly featuring Schmidt. I wonder if he shows up in the backgrounds of many others.

I also hadn't realized that the All Star cards weren't a subset like they were in later years.

Finally, we need to look at this pretty nice looking shot of Bob Boone blocking the plate.


I've said many times how much I like cards of catcher's in full gear and this one is particularly nice (especially given some of Topps' less than wonderful photography in that era).

Any idea what team they're playing against? Who wore a powder blue pinstriped away jersey in '81? I guess I'll have to go diggin'.

With these cards today, I now have 261 of 330 '09 Topps, and 151 of 726 '81s. Thanks John!

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER
Looks like Capewood beat me by a few hours in posting the 1981 Topps Mike Schmidt. Oh well.

Young Superstars #17 - John Kruk

John Kruk is best known for his time with the Phillies during the first half of the 1990s, where he was the essense of a blue collar baseball player (just read the quote on the back of this card). He was tough as nails and not afraid to get dirty. Kruk, Darren Daulton and Lenny Dykstra turned me into a Phillie fan after they beat the Braves in the NLCS in '93. They were fun to watch and brought their hard drinking, hard partying attitude onto the field with them.

These days Kruk can be seen as an analyst for ESPN where I think he's probably the best on Baseball Tonight these days. He's not afraid to say what he thinks.

What jumps out at you immediately from this picture is how skinny he was.



This is the John Kruk we all remember.

John Kruk's career statistics

Young Superstars #14 - Chris James

For the first time, there's not really a lot to say. As a player he was just average, but he was involved in two important trades in 1989.

In June he was sent to the Padres in a deal for John Kruk (who we'll see here in a few days). And in December he was traded to the Indians, along with Carlos Baerga and Sandy Alomar, for Joe Carter.

The front of this card is held together nicely by the blue border and the burgandy of the Phillies logo. James looks a bit confused on the back of the card though.

Chris James' career statistics