# Thad Bosley
Apparently the whole mustache + medium sized Oscar Gamble haircut was all the rage in the early 80′s among major leaguers, ’cause here’s another one sporting the look. This card also seems to have a slight Easter Island head feel to it, which cracks me up. For that alone it can be one of my favorites.
What really makes the card for me though, is the expression. He’s looking upward, hopeful, dreaming, of a better time that he seems sure will come in the not-too-distant future. The photo was apparently taken in ’81, because he was no longer part of the Milwaukee Brewers when the 1982 season started. He’d been traded in early March to Seattle—where he stunk. He hadn’t been all that good before 1982 either, bouncing through five teams and playing below average almost every season.
Yet, after ’82 he’d find himself playing in the northside of Chicago for four seasons, posting a 122 OPS+ during that time. Yep, that young hopeful look on Thad’s 1982 Topps card, wasn’t insanity but soon became a reality. It pays to dream. During his time with the Cubs in the mid-80′s, he’d get on base at a .379 clip and his batting average was a respectable .302. Sadly, he still didn’t get a lot of plate appearances. He really deserved more than he got. No joke.
Get this, despite producing a .375 OBP in 1984 (in limited PA’s), he was only given 2 plate appearances in the 1984 NL Championship series. Two. Those were pinch hitting assignments. Yeah. Just 2.
It feels like an injustice when I look at his 1985 stats and see he had an OBP of .391 & hit a good .328, but only got 202 PA’s. Are you kidding me?? It seems the Cubs just couldn’t see what they had in Thad.
So I wondered if maybe his splits for ’85 would tell me things weren’t as bright as they appeared on the surface, but hey, Thad Bosley’s OBP with runners in scoring position (45 PA’s) was .400! Why do you limit this hitters plate appearances? When he came to bat with the score tied, he put up a batting line of .366/.435/.512. It was even wilder when men were on (any) base— .328/.423/.578/1.001. I mean, look at that slugging and OPS, wouldn’t you look to have a hitter like that coming to the plate when there’s a men on base?
Then, just before the 1987 season began, Bosley was traded to Kansas City. In a weird twist, it turns out Bosley wasn’t any good in the American League. It’s like the AL was kryptonite to him. His stats drop back to being well below average, just like his pre-Cubbie days.
So it all makes me wonder, how good might Thad Bosley have become if he was given more playing time and stayed in the National League? From the look on on his face, I think maybe Thad knew just what Thad had in him.
[claim code: 4sgactzx2y]
