#254 Ozzie Guillen

Card thoughts: This is Guillen’s rookie card. And that is a 100-watt smile. When Guillen smiles nowadays, it looks like he's sucking on a lemon.

The player: Before Guillen was the manager who can’t keep his mouth shut (you can read his various rants on his twitter account), he was a fine defensive shortstop for the White Sox, in the tradition of Luke Appling, Chico Carrasquel, and Luis Aparicio. Guillen was known for his volatile, hard-nosed play, traits he has carried with him as a manager.

Guillen came up in the Padres system, and was traded just before the season shown on this card in a big trade with the White Sox which also involved Tim Lollar, Lamarr Hoyt, and Luis Salazar. The White Sox had been weak at shortstop for years, and Guillen immediately stepped in and solidified the position. In 150 games, he hit .273 and scored 71 runs. It was a weak rookie class that year, and Guillen won the Rookie of the Year award over the more deserving Mark Salas and Teddy Higuera.

The next 13 years, Guillen was the starting shortstop for the White Sox. A typical season for him in his prime years (1987-1991) saw him steal about 20 bases, and drive in and score about 50 runs. Defensively, he generally placed in the top ten in range factor, putouts, and assists by shortstops. One thing that limited Guillen’s effectiveness as a hitter was his aversion to taking walks. He never walked more than 26 times in a season, and often only 15. With today’s metrics, Guillen was a pretty useless hitter, with an OPS at its peak barely over .650. On the other hand, he almost never struck out, and his obsession with hitting his way on and lack of power led to a lot of weak ground balls.

In his prime years, Guillen went to the All Star Game 3 times, and earned his only gold glove in 1990. He severely injured his knee in 1992, and only appeared in 12 games that season. After coming back full time the following year, Guillen found his range severely limited, and his speed almost gone, further eroding his already limited offensive skill set. 

He managed to remain the Sox starting shortstop until 1997, after which he was signed a free agent by the Orioles. In a move that will surprise nobody, Guillen proceeded to rip the White Sox after leaving, saying that the reserve infield of his new team, the Orioles, was better than the White Sox starting infield. But in a bit of schadenfreude, Guillen flamed out quite quickly with the Birds, as he was released a month into the season after getting only 1 hit in 16 at bats (an .063 average). This was a signal that his starting shortstop days were over. 

He was quickly snapped up by the Braves where he spent the remainder of that season and the next as a utility infielder. As usual, Guillen’s years with the Braves were not without incident. He was instrumental in rescue efforts in his native Venezuela during the mudslides in the winter of 1998. Unlike many stars that just gave money, Guillen actually directly helped the efforts in some of the most devastated areas. He also was mentioned in John Rocker’s infamous Sports Illustrated rant, when (among other things) Rocker complained that Guillen (filling in for the injured Walt Weiss) missed a seeing-eye single up the middle by John Olerud in Game 4 of the NLCS because "we had a 38-year-old guy [actually 35] playing shortstop, and he can't make that kind of play." 

The Braves actually must have seen some truth in Rocker’s words, as Guillen was cut in spring training the following year in favor of a slick-fielding 19-year old who had never played above Class A named Rafael Furcal. He latched on with the Devil Rays to back up Kevin Stocker, and ended his career there in 2000.

Guillen immediately began coaching after he stopped playing with the Expos and Marlins. Hired on by the White Sox as a manager in 2004, Guillen won the World Series the next year. He won about 5 more games than the pythagorean method predicted, thus cementing his reputation as a canny, maverick manager, much in the mold of Casey Stengel or Billy Martin. Like the latter, Guillen courted controversy, whether it be publicly shaming players, baiting opposing team's fans, or casting homophobic or misanthropic insults at beat reporters. 

Despite Ozzie's success in Chicago, his mouth finally ran him out of town. Casting all good sense to the wind, the Marlins spirited away Guillen (still under contract to the White Sox after being fired) for a couple of minor leaguers. With the Marlins this season, an expensive roster tanked, and Guillen publicly feuded with the local fanbase, the owner, and some of the players. Too bad he's got a bunch more years on that contract.

Rear guard: It's appropriate that Dick (also known as Richie) Allen would appear on this card, as he had a similarly fraught relationship with the fans/press/management as Guillen. Allen won the MVP in 1972, one of his best seasons, leading the league in home runs, RBIs, walks, on-base percentage, and OPS. Although not a base stealing threat, he did have random occasions when he stole more that 10 bases, including this one, which attests to his baserunning smarts. 

Allen's 2 inside the park home runs that night tied a modern American League record. Both were drives to center that the Twins outfielder, Bobby Darwin, fell down on. Here's Allen's card from that season.

And here is Guillen's first Topps card (non-base).

#253 Dann Bilardello

Card thoughts: What’s the deal with the extra “N” on Dan? Always unusual to see a catcher at bat. It’s such an interesting position, that generally the shots (especially in this set) show the catcher in full crouch. Bilardello’s 1984 and 1985 cards are much more exciting catching action shots.

The player: Bilardello is the second of the trio of catchers the Reds used in 1985 (#143 Dave Van Gorder was covered earlier in this blog).

Drafted by the Reds in the Rule V minor league draft in 1983, Bilardello was forced onto the major league squad the entire year, skipping AAA. For a catcher, he had a decent offensive season. He hit his first major league home run off Tom Seaver, and added 8 more to go with a .238 average, while starting the majority of games at catcher (in another three way split with Alex Trevino and Alan Knicely).

Bilardello really made his mark on defense coming fourth in fielding percentage in his rookie year (.991), and catching over 40% of base stealers in both 1984 and 1985 (leading the league in that category in 1984, despite being a backup catcher).

His hitting, even allowing for the lower expectations at the catching position, was too poor to make up for his stellar defense, and he began to losing playing time to the other catchers on the Reds roster. Only 17 hits and a .167 average in the year shown on this card convinced the Reds to add him in a package deal with the Expos. Bilardello’s 212 plate appearances with the Montreal club were the most he had since his rookie season, but he still hit only .194, albeit with good power (out of 37 hits, 5 were doubles and 4 were homers).

Bilardello’s fate for the rest of his career would be the insurance, third string catcher, who spent most of the season at AAA, only to be brought up at the end of the season to give the regular catchers on the major league squad a break in September.  He filled this role with the Pirates (1987; 1989-1990), Royals (1989-1988), and Padres (1991-1992), and Mets (1993). His averages in his last four years in the majors from 1989-1992 were .225, .054, .269, and .121.

As the case with many marginal catchers, Bilardello was a natural coaching and managing candidate. From 2002-2005, and again from 2010-2011, he managed A and Short-season ball in the Dodgers and Mets organizations.

Rear guard: Bilardello was involved with much of the scoring action in the Reds 5-1 win over the Cubs on April 11. Bilardello first big league double drove in #65 Dan Driessen and Ron Oester for the first two runs. He later scored in the inning on #224 Cesar Cedeno's home run.

#252 Bobby Castillo

Card thoughts: There’s nothing sadder than getting a card with a pitcher pitching all alone. Especially on a cloudy day in Florida. No doubt, Topps caught Castillo in a simulated game or workout session. This is the second last Topps card of a player in row. That mustache may be Castillo’s most defining characteristic as it jumps out at you on every card in his career.

The player: Castillo was drafted in 1974 by the Royals as a third baseman/outfielder. After hitting just .253 in rookie ball, he transitioned to being a pitcher. Apparently, he was loaned to the Mexican League for two seasons to hone his craft. The Dodgers eventually bought him from the Royals and assigned him to AAA Albuquerque. Castillo made his debut in relief in September and gave up 2 runs in an inning and a third.

Bouncing between Albuquerque and the big club for the next two seasons, Castillo finally made an impression in 1979 when he went 2-0 with a 1.11 ERA in 19 relief appearances. He even saved 7 games in limited opportunities. This earned Castillo a full time look, and he would have his best season as a reliever in 1980, appearing in 61 games, saving 5, and sporting a fine 2.75 ERA. The key to Castillo’s success was his mastery of the screwball, a pitch very few pitchers threw, thus making it even more baffling to hitters.

Castillo would teach his screwball to Fernando Valenzuela, thus helping launch an extraordinary career. Castillo’s took a turn for the worse, however, as he was unable to help the World Series Champion Dodgers much in ’81 as he held a plus-5 ERA. This poor performance encouraged the Dodgers to trade Castillo to the Twins in the off season for Scotti Madison, a third baseman who had torn up the California League but who never made the majors with the Dodgers.

The Twins decided to have Castillo start, and he split the 1982 season between the ‘pen and the rotation, in the process going 13-11 and winning Twins pitcher of the year honors. He was made a full time starter the following season, but it didn’t go so well, as he lost as many as he had won the previous year, but with only 8 wins. Back to relief in ’84, he was once again effective with a 1.78 ERA, but Castillo was injured most of the year.

Castillo signed as a free agent with the Dodgers in 1985, and in his final season he failed to match his early relief magic with the team as he had a 5.43 ERA as a starter and reliever. That was it for Castillo’s major league career, although he resurfaced in 1987 with Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Baseball League.

Since his retirement, Castillo has been involved with in a history project archiving Mexican-American baseball players.

Rear guard: Kind of surprised that there is no "Talkin' Baseball" on here, as some of these firsts are pretty pedestrian. Castillo's debut has already been discussed. His first win came in the 10th inning in a Padres-Dodgers game, after Mike Garman had given up a double and hit a batter. Castillo came in, walked a guy to load the bases, gave up an RBI groundout, and then got #190 George Hendrick to pop out. Ron Cey his a game winning 2-run home run in the bottom of the inning off #185 Rollie Fingers to win the game.