Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Quest for 1987 Topps - Lonnie Smith

By 1987, Lonnie Smith already had 3 World Series rings with three different teams: the Phillies in 1980, the Cardinals in 1982 and the Royals in 1985. He would appear in a losing effort with the Braves the 1991 and 1992 World Series. Altogether he appeared in 63 post season games hitting .278, with 4 home runs and 17 rbis. Lonnie had a 17-year career (from 1978 through 1994) in which he hit .288, with 98 home runs and 370 stolen bases.
Smith was an outfielder, who was known as "Skates" when he was with the Phillies. When tracking down fly balls he often seemed to be on skates as at times his legs seemed to out-pace the rest of his body.

3 comments:

Ben said...

Let us not forget his plot to kill John Schuerholz. How ironic that he ended up playing on Schuerholz's team.

Ben said...

Typing and talking on the phone don't go hand in hand... that last sentence should read "How ironic that he ended up playing on Schuerholz's team AGAIN."

capewood said...

I hadn't heard that story about Schuerholz. It's detailed on Wikipedia. I've got to get in the habit of looking up players there instead of just relying on my memory. A link on Wikipedia led me to royalsreview.com where Lonnie is #71 on the 100 top Royals of all time.