Baseball card stories from Jim Lentine

Jim Lentine hit .294 over seven professional seasons and played three years in the major leagues for the Cardinals and Tigers. He is now a Principal at West Coast Sports Management, and kindly took time from his busy schedule to share some stories about his baseball cards.

"I only had one card put out by Fleer and Donruss. One unique thing on one of my cards was my first wife was on the field during family day in Detroit. They took a shot of me sitting in the corner of the dugout. The big purple thing in the corner of the picture is her leg in a pant suit. It may be the only card with a wife on it?? I'm amazed I still get cards to sign just being an extra outfielder/dh that barely played over a yr. That was 29 yrs ago. Great Game!"

I can't think of any other cards which have a wife on them, though players are often pictured with their kids.

"Also one of my cards has the wrong age and birthdate. The one that says I was born in Sept is wrong."

That card would be his 1981 Donruss card. Lentine's birthday is July 16, 1954, so they got the day, month and year wrong. 1981 Donruss had a lot of errors like this, but this one is not even noted in the Beckett Almanac. The only big leaguer born on September 22, 1955 is Jeffrey Leonard. He was probably the next person alphabetically and the person transcribing the birthdays got it wrong.


Only two cards, but both had cool stories about them. Thanks!