A profile of the MLB player in 1991

 

I wrote a month or so ago that I've been working on a post on the 1991 Studio set. Based on the information provided by players on the back of that set's cards, could a personality profile be developed for the average Major League Baseball player in 1991?

 

I went through all 264 cards. For most of the cards, there are four categories listed on the back that allows you to know the player a bit more than the photo on the front: personal (birth date, family, place of residence), career, hobbies & interests and heroes.

 

I focused on the last two categories because they are the best window into a ballplayer's world in 1991.

 

I separated those two categories into six separate sub-categories: Hobbies & Interests, Music Interests, Collecting Interests;  Favorite Sports Teams; Heroes and Favorite TV Shows. Then I started tallying.

When I was done, I came up with the Average Major League Player in 1991. Based on the most popular answers, this is what that player was like:

He likes to play golf, listens to rock music, collects baseball cards, roots for the Los Angeles Lakers, considers his dad his hero and sits down to watch "Cheers".

 

There were a lot of other activities and teams and shows that players liked in 1991 and I'll get to that, but I think the composite was interesting. It's also interesting to note the outliers, and based on the most off-the-wall answers, here is a composite of the most unusual 1991 player:

 

He likes cockfighting, listens to "light rock with less talk," collects spoons from around the world, is waiting for the arrival of the San Jose Sharks, considers The Green Hornet his hero and likes to watch "Rocky & Bullwinkle".

 

But here is a category-by-category breakdown with the numbers:

 

 

HOBBIES & INTERESTS

 

The Top Five: Golf - 92; Fishing - 76; Hunting - 47; Basketball - 20; Watching Movies - 15

 

As I entered players' hobbies and interests, I was reminded of reading the backs of 1970 Kellogg's cards as a kid. Every players seemed to hunt or fish or play golf. Not much had changed in 15 years or so and I began to welcome another golfer or fisher as it was so easy to find that category and add another.

 

I never pursued any of a 1991 ballplayer's favorite hobbies myself because all three seem like a huge time investment in which almost nothing happens (also no one in my family except my one grandfather got into shooting animals). But they were really popular among the super-talented baseball players. Nothing came close to those three pastimes.

Other popular pursuits were: tennis (13), reading (13), listening to music (10), working out/weightlifting (10) and bowling (8).

For whatever reason I found it extra amusing when someone (actually only two did this) listed their hobby as "watching TV." Meanwhile, Jose Oquendo listed his hobby as "running," and every ball player probably saw that and said, "we don't do enough of that during our job?"

The most unusual hobbies & interests were drag racing (Jack Clark, hopefully not racing himself), amusement parks (Eric Anthony), cockfighting (Ivan Calderon), doing impersonations (Daryl Boston), raising birds (Steve Lake) and making picture frames (Jimmie Reese, the only non-player in the set).

There always has to be a cut-up and no exception here. Curt Schilling listed his hobby as "sleeping" and Andy VanSlyke listed it as "reading the budget."

 

Finally, it was interesting that just three players listed anything having to do with video games as their interest (all of them were "Nintendo" or "Playing Nintendo"). I'm willing to bet that "playing video games" would beat out hunting and fishing if this set was done today.

 

 

 

MUSIC INTERESTS

 

The Top Five:  Rock - 46; Country - 39; Jazz - 32; Rhythm & Blues - 26; "All Types" - 24

The Rock listing covers various mentions such as "old-time rock n roll," "classic rock," "hard rock" and "heavy metal". The music interests seem to reflect a player's background more than any other category. The music lines were a lot less blurred than they are now. Whites liked rock, whites from the south or midwest liked country. Blacks liked R&B or soul or jazz. (Although there were a handful of white players who liked jazz).

Rap was still working its way into the mainstream at the time and still considered "a young person's" music. Fourteen players listed rap as their favorite (Delino DeShields specifically mentioned "positive rap"). A couple of players (Kirk Gibson, Dan Gladden) mentioned a sentiment that was common at the time: "anything but rap," which I don't think you'd see today. Rap has never been a favorite of mine but I'm in my 50s.

 

Heavy metal is another category that got little mention, with just two players, and I think that would be a lot larger today. But it seems players liked it a little less loud. Gary Carter and Ray Lankford mentioned their favorite music was "mellow music".

Other popular genres were soul (17), "contemporary" Christian music (16), salsa (12) and Top 40 (11). One player was very specific and mentioned "Top 20". Screw that No. 21 song.

 

Some unusual choices, to me anyway, were love songs (Mike Fitzgerald), slow dancing music,  "light rock with less talk" (Tom Candiotti), and Don Slaught was the only one to mention a specific artist, choosing Neil Diamond.

P.S.: I was sad that just one player mentioned "alternative rock" as their favorite as that was my favorite kind of music during the '80s and '90s.

 

 

COLLECTING INTERESTS

Top Five: Baseball Cards - 19; Hats - 11; CDs - 8; Cars - 7; Guns - 6

A large variety of collecting interests among players in '91. I was surprised so many players mentioned collecting baseball cards as a hobby. I chalked that up to the era as cards were booming in the early '90s.

Here are the players who mentioned cards as a hobby: Gary Carter, Bert Blyleven, Travis Fryman, Brian McRae, Ron Robinson, Greg Gagne, Hensley Meulens, Scott Champarino, Jeff Kunkel, Rafael Palmeiro, John Smoltz, Steve Finley, Darryl Kile, Curt Schilling, Orel Hershiser, Wes Chamberlain, Mickey Morandini, Terry Mulholland, Lloyd Moseby, Dave Valle.

Wow.

For a long time, Gary Carter was about the only player I knew who collected cards. I wonder how many of these players still collected cards by the mid-1990s. 

There is a sub-category to the card collecting with several players mentioning collecting memorabilia, specifically baseballs and other items signed by Hall of Famers or celebrities or other players.

Collecting CDs is a sign of the times as it was the preferred mode for listening. Outside of the top five, there weren't other collecting interests shared by a lot of players. Five players listed bats and four listed coins.

Dave Stieb made sure to mention he had an "extensive" collection of guitars. Julio Franco collected pictures of dolphins and whales. Jesse Barfield collected spoons from around the world. Jose Oquendo collected "small telephones," which makes me wonder what that was before cell phones.

FAVORITE TEAMS

Top Five: L.A. Lakers - 37; San Francisco 49ers - 21; L.A. Raiders -16; Chicago Bulls - 14; UNLV - 9

The favorite sports teams shows a heavy West Coast influence as only one team in the top five isn't in the west.

The Lakers still held sway even though the first Studio set arrived in the middle of the Detroit Pistons' two-year reign as NBA champions. But the Lakers had won back-to-back titles in 1986-87 and 1987-88 and also in 1984-85. The Bulls were creeping up but their string of championships wouldn't start until 1990-91. Just four players picked the Pistons as favorites.

The 49ers also were kings of the NFL just before the set arrived, winning Super Bowl titles in 1988 and 1989. The Giants won in 1990 but only six players said they were Giants fans. As for UNLV, the Runnin' Rebels won the NCAA title in 1989-90 and scored like 90 points a game. MLB players were transfixed.

 

Runner-up teams are the 76ers (8), UCLA (8), Golden State Warriors (7), Celtics (7), Cowboys (7), Dolphins (7). and Rams (6).

 

Being a pro ball player means not rooting for other MLB teams or your own, I guess. The MLB teams with the most picks were the Yankees, Giants and Reds with two each. Baseball player Dave Righetti would rather pick the team that didn't exist yet, the San Jose Sharks.

HEROES

Top five: Father/Dad - 38; Roberto Clemente - 14; Jesus - 13; Julius Erving - 10; Willie Mays - 9; Pete Rose - 9; Nolan Ryan - 9

"Dad" ran away with this category, which makes sense as the father, in most cases, was the one to get the future MLB player into the sport. Ken Griffey Jr. got to pick a well-known MLB player, Ken Griffey, as his hero.

After that, it was a toss-up among player's heroes, with Clemente just beating out Jesus. Pete Rose's mention surprised me a little. I'm wondering if it was a reaction to his ban from baseball, which happened in August of 1989.

 

Runners-up are Rod Carew (7), Steve Carlton (6), Reggie Jackson (6) and George Brett (6). Michael Jordan got just five mentions, but probably would've have jumped to the top in another three or four years. Mickey Mantle also received five votes as did Tom Seaver and Carl Yastrzemski.

 

The Desert Storm War, which happened in early 1990, was on player's minds when they filled out whatever questionnaire they were given. Two players selected soldiers in Desert Storm and three picked General Schwarzkopf.

Then there is Sam Horn who selected "Dave Parker, Dave Winfield and The Green Hornet."

 

 

FAVORITE TV SHOWS

Top five: Cheers - 50; The Cosby Show - 31; In Living Color - 15; The Simpsons - 15; L.A. Law - 12; MASH - 12; The Andy Griffith Show - 12

"Cheers," the most-watched TV show during the 1990-91 season, drew a greater consensus among ballplayers than anything besides golfing and fishing.

The Cosby Show was No. 5 in the 1990-91 season but had been No. 1 in 1989-90. In Living Color and The Simpsons were both hot new shows. L.A. Law surprised me as it was just a Top 20 show, but Studio shows that some ballplayers liked their dramas with several picking soap operas as their favorite watch.

A lot of players liked old-classics like Andy Griffith, MASH, the Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan's Island. I wonder if that was the influence of TBS and Nick At Night. Other popular shows were: ESPN SportsCenter (10), A Different World (8) and Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (7).

Three players picked the David Letterman Show, which would've been my choice at the time (and Cheers). Mike Scott was a fan of "Rocky & Bullwinkle," which my brother and I always liked. Dave Valle listed "Sesame Street," but he also listed collecting cards with his son, so I imagine it was a parent-son pick and not him switching on Ernie and Bert every day in the clubhouse.

A lot of shows that will take me back were mentioned in this category like "Amen," "Moonlighting," "Taxi," "Alf," "Coach," "Thirtysomething," "Anything But Love," and going back farther, "Dragnet," "Gunsmoke," and "Leave It To Beaver". (Not that I remember the first airings of those ones).

My dad's favorite show was "Rockford Files" and two players picked that one.

 

SUMMARY

This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. Some people liked Studio for the portraits out front but I wanted to know more about the player because Studio was offering the information. This was one of the big selling points to Kellogg's cards when I was a kid and why I liked Topps cartoons on the back of cards in the 1970s. Pictures came with information.

So my curiosity is now fulfilled and you all have a better idea of what a ballplayer liked to do when he wasn't playing ball in 1991.

I'll keep the full list for each category in case I want to check back on it or someone has a question about something (although I didn't list the player with the corresponding category unless it was particularly interesting so I don't have that info on instant recall).

But it's interesting that one player liked to watch Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau movies (Lou Whitaker), another player bowled 300 games (John Burkett), another collected crystal (Gregg Jefferies), another watched "live police shows" (Roger Clemens, of course) and one player's hero was Montreal Canadiens legend Yvan Cournoyer (Jim Deshaies, who grew up in Massena, N.Y., right near the Canadian border). That's what makes 1991 Studio unique in the history of card collecting.

It may not be much to look at, but like anything worthwhile, if you look a little closer, you'll learn something.