#601 - Juan Beniquez

Card fact: This is the first Red Sox card that my brother pulled from this set. He was and is a Red Sox fan.

What I thought about this card then: Beniquez looked a little too sophisticated to me to be a ballplayer.

What I think about this card now: It took me a long time to get a card of Beniquez that I liked. For quite awhile, the card that I had of him was cut so it was slightly larger than the other cards in the set. That really bothered me.

Other stuff: Beniquez's career was just getting started in 1975. He came up with the Red Sox in 1971 as a shortstop before converting to the outfield a couple of years later. From there, he would play for Boston, Texas, the Yankees, Seattle, the Angels, Baltimore, Kansas City and Toronto. His career lasted 17 seasons. I remember pulling a card of his in the late '80s, back when I wasn't paying a ton of attention to baseball, and I thought "holy crap, this guy is still in the majors?"

Beniquez is noted for having his best seasons with the Angels in the mid-80s after he had already reached his 30s and had been in the league for more than a dozen years. He hit over .300 four straight years between 1983-86.

Back facts: I knew about this Johnnie "Dusty" Baker guy from his cartoon before I acquired his mini card in 1975. It was nice to see that he actually wasn't a Pig-Pen sort of character.

Other blog stuff: Like I said in the previous post, it's time to take stock of the set as I do every 100 cards or so. There will be one more of these at the end of the set.

1. COLOR COMBINATIONS

The green-light green border combo, which was in fifth place during the last set review, is now the overall leader with 51 cards. But I know one color combo that will make a decent charge in the final 60 cards. Here are the totals right now:

1. Green-light green: 51
2. Orange-brown: 50
3. Green-purple: 50
4. Purple-pink: 49
5. Pink-yellow: 47
6. Yellow-red: 36
7. Orange-red: 31
8. Light blue-green: 30
9. Brown-orange: 29
10. Yellow-light blue: 28
11. Green-yellow: 26
12. Orange-yellow: 26
13. Blue-orange: 22
14. Brown-tan: 22
15. Red-blue: 22
16. Red-yellow: 22
17. Tan-light blue: 22
18. Yellow-green: 22

2. POWDER BLUE UNIFORMS

Twelve more for 76 total.

3. LOOKING UP

Seven more players showing us their nostrils for 24 total.

4. DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY

Two more dudettes (Dave Roberts and Dick Pole) for 11 total.

5. DECEASED

Six more players have passed on for 54 total.

6. CHAW

Not a single one for the last 100 cards. Total still at 4.

7. MLB SONS

Four more players had sons in the majors for a total of 26.

8. ROOKIE CUP/ALL-STAR

8/17.

We're done with All-Star cards. But we're not done with Rookie Cuppers.

9. MOST POPULAR FIRST NAME

Jim is holding onto a one-card lead over Dave/David. 24 cards to 23 cards.

10. MINIS

A total of 105 mini cards so far. That's 17.5 percent of the set, up two percent.

And there you are. Fifty-nine more cards to go. I'll try to make it fun.