Rescued from THE BOX - Ep. 4

     *channels British accent*

    'Welcome back to the next installment of Rescued from THE BOX, where a half-insane card collector acts as though cardboard boxes and baseball cards are alive and sentient, and hallucinates action-packed battle scenes with said cardboard box.'

    

    Last time I saw THE BOX I freed Rafael Montalvo's 1991 Bowman card. The mission of freeing every card from a life of mediocrity is a slow one, but one worth undertaking.

    THE BOX contented itself with making a mess of the room I keep all my cards in. That definitely has nothing to do with me. In fact, when I walked into the room my eyes disintegrated and fell in two small powdered piles on the floor. THE BOX's first attack was successful.

    Thankfully, eyeballs grow back, and I was able to see THE BOX as it lunged at me. Since it has no means of propulsion, it was an awkward fall. 

    My laugh may have sounded too confident as I tried in vain to humiliate my foe. THE BOX has no emotions, as I found out. We rumbled the way comic book superheroes do with their arch-nemeses. Whenever a hit was landed giant words magically popped up, such as 'BANG!' and 'POW!'

    Eventually, human limbs triumphed over cardboard edges and I wrenched open THE BOX's black hole-like maw and pulled a card out before it clamped upon my arm. The paper cut was so deep I had to make a tourniquet with a shirt that was lying on the floor. Who knew cardboard could be so deadly?

    After I had taken care of my battle wounds, I saw the card that had been rescued.

    Another '91 Bowman card, this time of Floyd Bannister!

   The expression on Bannister's face as he delivers this pitch would intimidate any batter of the era. 

    

    Floyd Bannister played 15 seasons in the majors from 1977-1992 (he pitched in Japan in 1990). In 431 career games (363 starts), Bannister pitched to a 134-143 record and a 4.06 ERA in 2388 innings. He was an all-star with the Mariners in 1982 when he went 12-13 with a 3.43 ERA and led the league with 209 strikeouts.

    

    Bannister made one postseason appearance, with the White Sox in 1983. He threw six innings and allowed three runs as Chicago fell to the Orioles, 3-1.

    Floyd has three children, all of whom followed in their daddy's footsteps. His son Brian pitched for the Mets and Royals for five seasons, where in 117 games (114 starts), he went 37-50 with an ERA of 5.08. Floyd's other two sons, Brett and Cory, both pitched in college. Brett played one season in the minors in the Mariners organization.

    I'm glad to have freed Floyd Bannister's 1991 Bowman card from the clutches of THE BOX and to have learned a little bit more about him.  

    Thanks for checking out the blog today, have a wonderful rest of the week, and happy collecting!