A couple of weeks ago, the Tigers announced that they had signed right-handed reliever Octavio Dotel to a one-year contract.
Reports noted that when Dotel takes the mound in a Tigers uniform for the first time next season, he will break the record for appearing in the major leagues with the most teams -- 13.
Dotel already has pitched for the Mets, Astros, A's, Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Blue Jays and Cardinals.
Right now, he is tied with three other players who competed for 12 teams.
Mike Morgan. A guy who did his best work for the Dodgers.
Matt Stairs. I enjoy featuring this minor league card of his.
And Ron Villone. Another minor league card. But I have no major league cards of his, and this might've been his last card.
I believe Villone is retired. Stairs has retired, too. Morgan retired 10 years ago.
So, Dotel, who is 38 and could still play for a couple more years, is free and clear. At the rate he's going, he could end up playing for 15 or 16 teams by the time he's done.
But as far as being the player to appear for the most teams ON A BASEBALL CARD, I'm pretty sure that Morgan remains the champion.
I wrote about this before. With the help of some readers, I was able to pinpoint that Morgan appeared on a card for all 12 of his teams. He was helped in accomplishing this feat because he was a starter for most of his career.
Meanwhile, Dotel has barely started in his career. Same goes for Villone. And Stairs was a glorified pinch-hitter for some of the teams for which he played.
As we all know, card companies are biased against relief pitchers and role players. They'd rather we collect 7 different versions of Albert Pujols than be forced to look at ewwwwwwwwww, a LOOGY. So I'm almost certain that Dotel, who is more of a ROOGY, didn't appear on a card with all 12 of those teams.
It would be nice if Dotel was the champion of appearing for the most teams both on the field AND on baseball cards. If someone wants to see if they can track down cards of Dotel with 12 different teams and then hope to heck that Topps gives him a card as a Tiger, go to it -- you have more time four days before Christmas than I do.
But for now I think Morgan still holds the title for the baseball card portion of the honor.
If it is an honor.
Comments
There needs to be a set for just relievers, perhaps Bowman Set Up and LOOGY, it's not like that would be more ridiculous than their other sets.
I wonder if anyone would ever break Dave Kingman's record for most ML teams in a single season.
I considered Kenny Lofton too, but the majority of his cards depict him in Cleveland.
I mostly researched base Topps and Upper Deck. Don't do Bowman...
Here's her bio.
http://www.vh1.com/shows/baseball_wives/cast_member.jhtml?personalityId=15149