Comments on: Nino Espinosa

By: canadiansagainsthockey

canadiansagainsthockey — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:09:29 +0000

8. 1981 was a good year for me as well. fully pampered with food, entertainment, travel, clothes, the works. Any I could pee anytime I wanted. Being 6 months old rocked.

By: sansho1

sansho1 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:04:02 +0000

7. 70's Braves announcers Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson, Sr. routinely referred to infielder Marty Perez as Taco. Neither Perez nor Torrez came from abroad -- Perez was from Visalia, CA and Torrez from Topeka. I guess Taco was a nickname that could only be hung on American-born players of Hispanic descent.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:49:02 +0000

6. 4 : That makes me feel better that you didn't know who Taco was, too, Ennui. I had to Google it, and found a (harrowing) Sons of Sam Horn comment that confirmed your hunch: "We both wanted Torrez out of there before he even started to blow up. Never really trusted Taco. We were screaming for Zimmer to get him out of there. I don't remember how we reacted to Dent's homer. But I remember the crushing sense of disappointment after the game was over. I remember my brother and I throwing the ball against our garage door as hard as we possibly could but not finding that or anything else to be a satisfying outlet for the anger and disappointment we felt."

By: doug frobel

doug frobel — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:41:48 +0000

5. I loved the way Nino Espinosa and Bob Apodaca rolled off the tongue. Thanks for bringing back one of my favorite '70s era pitchers- 'Fro and all.

By: Ennui Willie Keeler

Ennui Willie Keeler — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:45:32 +0000

4. Regarding that last Bob Bailey comment: who was Taco on the 1978 Red Sox? Mike Torrez?

By: ToyCannon

ToyCannon — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:14:35 +0000

3. 1 Yup, 1981 was a good year indeed. Dodgers won a world series, I finally graduated from College and was able to escape the combo of work/school so I could begin my programming career. My wife and I moved from our 1st apartment of no friends into an apartment full of aspiring actors who all become our good friends. That was as good as it got. Young, full of vigor, broke, maybe the best year of my life.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:11:38 +0000

2. 1 : Wow, a rare truthful "future stars" card. I may not be remembering this right, but the one guy who didn't really live up to the card, Perconte, was a much-hyped youngster for a little while, a future batting champ, etc. FYI: There are new comments on old cards for Ron LeFlore (Tigers) and Bob Bailey (Reds).

By: Eric Enders

Eric Enders — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:43:02 +0000

1. As someone whose first extraordinarily vague memories of baseball are from 1981, I see that year and these cards in a different light, of course. Far from being joyless and drab, they are full of promise and hope for the future, a theme best encapsulated by this example from the set:

http://www.checkoutmycards.com/CardImages/Cards/015/365/04F.jpg