Baseball card stories from Chris Welsh

Chris Welsh pitched for the Padres, Expos, Rangers and Reds from 1981 to 1986, winning 22 major league games. For the past seventeen years, he has been a broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds. He kindly shared some great baseball card stories with me.

"I don't really have any specific stories about cards except that the photographer for Topps always used to show up in the morning at Wrigley Field after we were out on the town late the night before. That explains a lot of hangover looks.

My favorite card is a rookie card that was taken at the Angels home spring training field in Palm Springs. I broke my foot covering first base (Don Baylor slid feet first into the bag while I was covering it) just moments after the photo was snapped.

I don't really collect cards, never did; except for the real good ones my mom threw away. I did go to an auction about 10 years ago and bought a whole lot of cards and two large oak library card cases filled with cards from the 80's and 90's. I only wanted a few albums of players who played the same years as me but I had to buy the whole lot. Now I can't seem to get rid of the cases."

Thanks! The 1987 Topps card was the only one I could find of Welsh that looked like it was taken at Wrigley Field. He doesn't look so bad to me.