Has card but never played

[Exhibitman]

My alltime favorite:



That's the Angels bat-boy Leonard Garcia...

[Cliff Bowman]

Steve Dalkowski is another interesting one, he is on a 1963 Topps high number that has a premium because of him even though he never played a major league game. The legend is that he could throw a baseball in excess of 110 mph, estimated because there were no radar guns back then. He was virtually unhittable, but he was so wild that he gave up just as many walks as strikeouts. The Orioles were going to bring him up to the big leagues for the beginning of the 1963 season but he blew his arm out in a preseason exhibition game against the Yankees. He was never the same after that and lingered in the minors for a few more years before giving up professional baseball.

[Rich Klein]

On top of the legendary status of Dalkowski, the card is a bit tougher as well as semi-high numbered card and I don't think is printed in the same quantity as some other players in that series.

[Republicaninmass]

Brien Taylor!

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

Brien Taylor!

Well, he did have a relatively short MMA career that interrupted his journey to the majors. Finished with a career 0-1 record on the mat.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

My alltime favorite:



That's the Angels bat-boy Leonard Garcia...

Just for kicks, I thought I would post the other Bat-Boy stand-in card (at least, the only other one known to me):

s-l1600.jpg

[Jeff Alcorn]

Hi,

There are 3 players in the 1968 Topps set that never played in the Majors:

Mickey Abarbanel - White Sox Rookies card with Cisco Carlos
Moe Ogier - Twins Rookies card with Ron Clark
Frank Peters - Orioles Rookies card with Ron Stone

There are others, especially on multi-player rookie cards over the years such as George Pena '73 Indians & George Woodson '69 Indians to name a couple.

[homerunderby]

How about some of the Olympic cards in 1985 Topps?

Sid Akins (played til 89 in minors)
Flavio Alfaro (one year of A ball, hit .193)
Bob Caffrey (few years in Expos system)

[Rich Klein]

IMHO:

I think this breaks down into 2 sections:

Pre-1989

1989-Present

The reason I break this down in 1989 is because Bowman returned in 1989 as the prospect laden set. From the very beginning, there were cards in those sets of people who never played in the majors

One example of 1989 Bowman is Johnny Ard whose name always stayed with me. In doing some internet research -- he, as is my wife, is going through dialysis so not all these stories have happy endings. But I bet there are 10-15 players at the very least in 1989 who never played in the majors from Bowman and we'll go from there

Rich