[LansdowneSt]

On June 1, 1986, 31-year-old pitcher Chris Welsh made his debut in relief for the Cincinnati Reds, the hometown team he grew up rooting for. “I had my family and my friends there,” Welsh said years later. But trouble started right away. He walked the leadoff man, and not just any leadoff man. He then proceeded to throw to first base. Seventeen times. The most in the history of major-league baseball. What had Welsh so spooked? Baiting him off first base, a long lead, arms dangling, ready to bolt the moment Welsh blinked to home plate was … Vince Coleman. At that moment, Coleman was arguably the most exciting player in the game. After pickoff attempt 17, Welsh threw a pitch to batter Andy Van Slyke and Coleman rushed full throttle to second base. He was safe. Of course he was. It was his second steal of the game; his 27th of the season. Before the year was done, he would snag 80 more.

From the moment he made the majors, Coleman hit the ground running (quite literally). With a chip on his shoulder and blinding speed, nobody could stop him once he got on first. He could change the entire dynamic of an at-bat, if not a game, by scaring pitchers into focusing on his huge leads, grabbing an extra base off an errant throw and, naturally, stealing almost at will. But immaturity and recklessness off the field led to troubling allegations and derailed his career in the middle of his prime. The lesson Coleman has learned from his unprecedented, and at times tumultuous, career is that “the grass isn’t always greener.” “Happiness is everything,” Coleman said. “I wasn’t happy in New York. I wasn’t happy the rest of my career. What made me happy was being in St. Louis.”

Coleman went from a baseball walk-on whose greatest talent was his ability to punt a football, to trying out as a wide receiver in the NFL, to becoming for a brief moment the most electrifying player in major-league baseball. His legacy is marred by poor decisions on and off the field, but he will forever have a place in the hearts of St. Louis Cardinals fans because he was a catalyst for a team that slashed and ran their way to two exciting World Series. Nobody captures the era of 1980s baseball quite like Vince Coleman. - SABR

Starting with this one, are facegens that are not yet in my pack but will be in the next one which will post sometime mid to late October. I just traded for SB leader Vince in my post-1970 Random Debut and he's on fire. The cheeks on the old one bothered me, so I took a stab at making a new one.