My First Cards

Here we see Bob Molinaro doing his impession of the late 70′s and early 80′s White Sox logo during batting practice. He’s also sporting one of the best mustache’s of his era. Fortunately he got a hair cut since his ’81 card.

I also like how he signed his name “Bobby” instead of just Bob or Robert. Makes the card feel more like he’s living out little Bobby’s baseball dreams.

Bobby, wasn’t the best player on the White Sox roster, but he had a good couple of years leading into the ’82 season. In ’81, he started getting used as a pinch hitter a little more than the average player and did petty good at it.

Before the next season though, he was sent from the southside to the northside. The Cubs used him almost exclusively as a pinch hitter for the pitcher and as a late innings defensive replacement, before he was sold to the Phillies at the end August.

He actually hit a lot better for Philadelphia than he did in Chicago, but he was still just a bench player though. At first glance, Bob’s stats look like the description of a player beyond his prime who’s just hanging on by filling out a roster spot. Then I found a very interesting detail to his ’82 stats.

When Bobby came to the plate and there were no runners on the bases, he only hit .119 and got on base at a .190 pace. Just what you’d expect from a player fading into obscurity, but, the real surprise is how he hit when runners were in scoring position (RISP), hitting .350 and getting on base at a .480 clip!

Unfortunately for Bob, 52% of his plate appearances came with nobody on base, dragging down his averages. Only 28% of his PA’s came with RISP. If the manager had used him to pinch hit more when runners were in scoring position, Bobby’s career might’ve lasted longer. He could definitely still get the job done when the moment was important.

Maybe it was the power of the ‘stache.