Hot Corners; Cutting Corners

Wade Boggs / Carney Lansford, 1989 Fleer "Superstar Specials"

Fleer headquarters, 1988

Dave: Bill, check it out. Snapped a shot of Wade Boggs and Carney Lansford at the All-Star Game.

Bill: (Looks …) Okaaay. You want an award or somethin'?

Dave: Dude, let’s make a card out of it!

Bill: Sure. We’ll call it (looks again), “Two White Guys With Beard-Stache-Mullets Who Are The Exact Same Size And Play The Same Position And NOBODY CARES.”

Dave: First of all, that’s mean. Second of all, look how happy they are! Kids will want to buy this and share in the happiness. Plus, it’s got Boggs in it! I say we send it to production.

Bill: Fine. Whatever. Work with Dale. Dale! Get in here!

Dale: ‘Sup?

Bill: I need a writeup on Dave’s happy-joy-smiley card here. Call it, “HOT CORNER’S—HOT HITTERS” or something with “HOT” in it to draw attention away from the lack of baseball action displayed here. Boggs will write itself. For Lansford? Make some stuff up.

Dale: Done and done.



The two best third base hitters in the American League are Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox and

Don’t say it.

Carney Lansford of the Oakland A’s.

This is a 1989 baseball card, meaning it’s drawing its conclusions from the most recent season of 1988.

Carney Lansford, 1988: .327 OBP / .360 SLUG / .687 OPS
George Brett, 1988: .389 OBP / .509 SLUG / .898 OPS

Also,

Me: I’ll take “American League Third Basemen Who Were Better At Hitting Baseballs in 1988 Than Carney Lansford” for $200, Alex.

Alex: The answer: .353 / .551 / .905

Beep, beep, beep!

Me: Who is Gary Gaetti?

Alex: Correct!

Me: I’ll take “American League Third Basemen Who Were Better At Hitting Baseballs in 1988 Than Carney Lansford” for $400, Alex.

Alex: The answer: .384 / .452 / .836.

Beep, beep, beep!

Me: Who is Paul Molitor?

Alex: Correct!

In fact, they are the two best hot corner hitters in Major League Baseball.

This lede: Wrong statement. Scratch that—more wrong statement.

1988
Lansford: .327 / .360 / .687
B. Bonilla: .366 / .476 / .842
H. Johnson: .343 / .422 / .765
M. Schmidt: .337 / .405 / .742

One of the great coincidences is that they used to be teammates on the Boston Red Sox in 1982.

Indeed, one of the great coincidences of the modern American era is that Wade Boggs and Carney Lansford were once teammates, and then, coincidentally, they were not teammates anymore. Not mentioned here are the two incidences at work that collided in a case of karmic drama: 1) Wade Boggs was a better third baseman than Carney Lansford in 1982, and 2) the Red Sox were like, “Guess we don’t need Carney Lansford anymore, because of Wade Boggs.”

I’m still trying to figure out how Lansford made the ’88 All-Star Team. Although, a true coincidence as it relates to everything above is the fact that in ’89, Lansford turned things around to the tune of .398 / .405 / .803, and even finished in the top 20 of the MVP voting (and was still outperformed by Bonilla, Molitor, Johnson, et al).

But here’s my favorite:

{Lansford} has amassed 1,622 hits and has a very good shot at achieving the exclusive 3000 Hit Club before his big league career is ended.

That is just crazy talk. A very good shot? Lansford was 32-years old heading into the 1989 season and, as the card notes, coming off a 155-hit season. If he averaged 155 hits—thus displaying no regression or injury—for the next eight seasons, he still would have fallen more than 100 hits short of 3,000. As it were, Lansford reached the 2,000 hit plateau in his final season of 1992.

None of this is to disparage the career of Lansford, who was a very good player. I’m just trying to point out that this card isn’t as accurate or HOT as it claims to be. I have a full-time job, by the way.