My First Cards

When I see this, I can't help but hope the ball doesn't take a bad hop on his signature and dribble right between his legs.

Dave Stapleton was beat out for AL rookie of the year in 1980, by Joe Charboneau, and it was all downhill from there.

He slapped 33 doubles and hit .321 that season, but his batting average and on-base percentage fell a little bit in each season he played. His slugging dropped every year except one (1985).

The front of this card says he played second base, but he actually played more games at third base & shortstop than second during '81. Even in '82, he played more first base & shortstop than second. Way more. He spent 106 games as first baseman in '82 and only 6 games over at second base.

I wonder if Topps put 2B on here 'cause they saw a game with him playing 2B and wrote him down like that? If so, then I suspect this photo is from September 13, 1981 when the Red Sox were at Yankee Stadium. It's a day game, he played 2B that day, & the background looks like Yankee to me. He didn't play many road games at stadiums with blue outfield walls and blue bleacher seats.

Anyway, part of the reason his average dropped in '82, was that his hand was banged up for a couple weeks. Makes me wonder how often he played through injuries.

Another reason, is related to his 4th inning at-bat on August 7, when Dave hit a foul line drive that struck a little boy, Jonathon Keane, in the head. Scary moment there, and Dave later admitted the event affected his hitting. He didn't realize at first what happened, but fortunately Jim Rice came to the rescue (photo above article's title), and the boy got medical help within seconds.

The boy turned out to be fine, thanksfully.

Before the incident, from July 17 thru Aug 6, Dave was hitting .347/.396/.510, but for nine days after it, his averages fell off the earth to a mere .172/.226/.172. It clearly affected him at the plate.

His defense stayed in tact even as his bat lost its value. After '83, he became more of a backup player. by 1986, he was still playing for Boston, but used almost exclusively as a late inning defensive replacement for Bill Buckner...except for one infamous moment.