#177 John Ellis
John Ellis's final season of a 13-year career came in 1981. It was more of a partial season, being just 64 plate appearances over 23 games, but a season nonetheless.
If you're a regular reader of other card blogs, you've probably already read about him at the 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, & 1980 blogs. There's not much I can say about his career, that they didn't cover so well already, so I'll just touch on how it ended.
John started 1980 hittin' like he had a few years left in him. Through May 27th, he was hitting .328 and had a fine .375 OBP.
From the next day through the end of 1981 though, he batted just .179 and got on base at an anorexic .240 pace. After 11 1/2 seasons of being good enough for the majors, he finally hit the slump he couldn't come out of.
His final time on base, came on October 2, 1981, his next to last game. He came up to bat with 1 out & Billy Sample on 2nd. John slapped an RBI single into right field off Geoff Zahn, to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th. The Rangers went on to win it in the 10th.
Even though he went hitless the next day in his final major league game, he's gotta feel good that his final hit was an important one for his team.
Weird, I don’t remember him at all.
Good to see you posting again Devon!
Thanks! I’ve got so much to keep up with, that sometimes the baseball cards don’t make it far in the list of priorities. I wish I could get paid for this – I’d be at it every day!