(I think Topps/Fanatics has succeeded in curbing my craving for current product. Between the months and months that pass before a new set is released and nothing showing up on shelves regardless, I'm losing my taste for anything that isn't flagship or Heritage. Topps Holiday? Don't care. A&G hasn't shown up yet? Don't care. Thanks, Topps. I'm cured! Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 358th in a series):
I came across this card on social media the other day. It was one of those 1980s cards that I had never seen before, showing a player I had never heard of until that moment. This still can happen with mid-1980s cards when I was apart from the hobby.
Still, it's enough of a rarity that I was stunned. Dave Shipanoff? Who? How had I never heard of him? The first thing I did was look him up on baseball-reference.
I discovered he played for the Phillies just one year in the back half of the 1985 season. He appeared in relief in 26 games, saving three of them. The Phillies were not a good team in the mid-to-late 1980s, which is probably one of the reasons I never heard of him.
Shipanoff is Canadian, he was born in Edmonton. He was initially signed by the Blue Jays in 1980 and later traded to the Phillies at the start of the 1985 season for Len Matsuzek. And I'm telling you all this like I didn't just learn it two days ago.
The second thing I did was look for his other cards. I do not have the 1986 Donruss card, but it turns out I have his 1986 Fleer card.
This is the only other major league card of Shipanoff. Topps didn't bother. Good job, Donruss and Fleer. But it does mean I can't include Shipanoff as a "One-Card Wonder," which was also a thought when I first discovered him.
Shipanoff does have a few minor league cards, and that's where it gets interesting.
He appears on five minor league cards, one for each year, from 1983 to 1987. And out of those five only one pictures him as a pitcher.
That is the only action card of Shipanoff -- his name is misspelled here. He's pitching in old MacArthur Stadium in Syracuse.
He also appears in a minor league set in 1987 where I guess he's posing as a fielder?
There's the classic minimum-effort pose that I love so much from the 1960s and 1970s. "Stick your glove out, Dave. OK, good. We're all set here." Shipanoff's name is misspelled on this card, too.
So that's two of Shipanoff's minor league cards. What's he doing on the other three cards of his?
He's batting.
No, he didn't used to be a hitter. You can see that he's listed as a pitcher on all three cards.
So, maybe Shipanoff was a pretty good hitter for a pitcher? Back in those days when pitchers still came to the plate?
Uh, nope. He was 0-for-9 over eight seasons with five strikeouts and one sacrifice bunt.
I guess Shipanoff liked to joke around, for his photos anyway. He has more batting photos than he has pitching photos!
So that's what I learned going down the Dave Shipanoff rabbit hole. You Canadian baseball fans probably knew all about him already.
What other '80s players that I have never heard of are still lurking out there?
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