I have eight cards of Darrel Akerfelds. This one is from 1991 Donruss.
Playing career: Darrel Akerfelds spent five years in the major leagues with Oakland, Cleveland, Texas and Philadelphia. His best season was 1990, when he went 5-2 in 71 appearances for the Phillies.
Where he is now: The bullpen coach for the San Diego Padres, Akerfelds was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December. The most recent report, from May, is that his tumor has shrunk 45% due to chemotherapy; not enough yet for surgery that could eradicate the cancer, but moving in the right direction.
My memories: I primarily knew him from his 1988 Topps card, picturing him as an Indian, so that is what I always thought of him as, not as a Phillie even though that is where he had his greatest success.
Notable facts: Played high school baseball at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. One of his coaches was William “Dave” Sanders, the only faculty member killed in the highly-publicized shootings there in 1999.
Google Autocomplete results: He is fourth when you type Darrel A, between Darrell Anderson, an anti-war Iraq veteran, and Darrell Abbott, the late Pantera guitarist. There do not appear to be any other prominent Darrel Akerfeldses.
Coming up next: The next profile will be Aaron Akin.
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