Infielder Arnie Beyeler played six seasons in the Tigers organization. In 584 games he hit .254 with 7 HR, 171 RBI and 69 SB. Now the manager of the Erie SeaWolves, the Tigers' AA affiliate, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.
"I do collect baseball cards and have always been a baseball fan.
My favorite card is my 1991 AAA Line Drive card. It’s the only card I ever had that was sold in stores, it was in a wax pack set that came out. Mike Mussina ended up being the big card in the set, and was the hardest to find. Because they were wax packs they were very random and hard to find the pack with my card in it.
My favorite card/autograph is a ball I have signed by both Trammell and Whitaker since they played in front of me throughout my minor league career. (I now get to coach with Tram and he’s an amazing person as well as a great coach for our young and old players alike.)
My best card story is when I was a minor league rookie in 1986 in Bristol, TN with the Tigers and minor league cards were just getting started back then. A guy came up to me yelling about what a big fan he was and wanted an autograph, He said he knew my brother Don! As in Don Baylor. I acknowledged what a big fan he must be, signed the autograph and still tell that story to this day."
Thanks!
That makes me chuckle...Don Baylor.
ReplyDeleteArnie's "brother from another mother!"
ReplyDeleteHe was a Red Sox coach a few years ago, glad to see he's managing now.
I can certainly think of worse potential brothers than Don Baylor :)
ReplyDeleteGood stuff.
ReplyDeleteGood stories, and pretty cool card of him. The old action pose!
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I am incorrect, but aren't minor league sets much larger than the typical Topps set? Poor Arnie must have had to rip through a huge pile of packs to find his own card back in the day.
ReplyDeleteNot familiar with him, but it's cool that he's still working in baseball and siblings with Don ;D
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite series on the trading card blogosphere. Pretty cool that Beyeler collects cards. (And that he used the term "wax packs".)
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