Reader Dale Vanyo reminded me of this Shane Spencer XB card from 1998. Spencer was a late call-up for the Yankees who from all reports had a lot of potential. He certainly did all he could in 1998 to get baseball people to pay attention to him. That included APBA fans who couldn’t wait to see his upcoming APBA card the next year.
Spencer batted .373 in limited play for the Yanks in ‘98. He showed impressive power for a first-year player, hitting 10 dingers in 67 at-bats. In fact, all ten of his homers came in the month of September.
Spencer didn’t stop there that year. He went on to hit two more homeruns in the American League Divisional Series against the Texas Rangers, driving in four runs.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 Totals | 27 | 15 | 73 | 67 | 18 | 25 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 27 | 0 | 5 | 12 | .373 | .411 | .910 |
The primary value of Spencer’s 1998 card, of course, is in his power. You won’t see many players with extra base hit numbers of 1-1-1-1-5-6-6, limited or no. APBA tacked on an additional 25-7 to go with his 8-8-8-9-9 hit numbers giving him a quite tasty card.
Fun numbers: 22-1, 44-5, 15-6
Shane Spencer played for six more years in the majors. There were hints of his power similar to 1998 but nothing as glamorous as his big September run of 1998.
Thanks to Dale Vanyo for his suggestion!!
wow, that’s a crazy card. Looks more like wiffle ball stats :-)
yeah where does it end?? he’s mantle #2!!
Too bad his 73 PAs left him short of APBA Tournament eligiblity. At worst, he could have been Puccinelli #2.
For a guy that was carded and has over 50 ab’s, this has to be in the top 5 of greatest APBA
cards ever made!