LansdowneSt's Facegen Checklist

[LansdowneSt]

Anthony Johnson led the 1980 Southern League with 60 stolen bases. He played 2 games with the Montreal Expos during the 1981 pennant race, one as a pinch-runner, and the second in the outfield on the last day of the season, after the Expos had clinched a post-season spot. He was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1981 Rule V draft following the season and spent all of 1982 with the Jays, mainly as a pinch-runner and defensive substitute in the outfield. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Had no facegen, made it while in my early 80s sim.

[LansdowneSt]

Steve Senteney served in the United States Marine Corps prior to his baseball career. He began his minor league career in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, playing rookie ball with the Medicine Hat Blue Jays. His best minor league seasons came in 1981 and 1982. He went 10-5 in 1981 with the Double A Knoxville Blue Jays and enjoyed a 2.44 ERA with the Triple A Syracuse Chiefs in 1982. Following his brief stint with the major league Blue Jays in 1982, Senteney pitched another three seasons in the minors in the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations. He died in an automobile accident in June 1989. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

Greg (Boomer) Wells was a former pro football prospect who began his baseball career in 1976 with the independent Beeville Bees. He excelled in the minors but never really got a chance. He was 27 years-old by the time he appeared in the 1982 Topps Prospect tri-card for the Blue Jays. After a brief call-up in '81, he was again sent down and eventually shipped out to Minnesota. Boomer continued to crush AAA pitching, launching 28 homers (tied for third in the IL) for the Toledo Mud Hens, batting .336 (first) and driving in 107 runs, the most in the league... but again, Greg again failed in a late-season shot [only 15 games!] in the majors.

Normally, that's where the story ends for these footnote players but here's where it gets really interesting. O'l Boomer was sold to the Hankyu Braves. He hit .304/.348/.471 his first year in Japan. In 1984, he switched his batting style and dazzled, hitting .355/.421/.641 with 37 homers and 130 RBI. Wells was leading in all three Triple Crown statistics when Hiromitsu Ochiai said it was improper for a foreigner to win the Triple Crown (none ever had in the history of Nippon Pro Baseball) and Ochiai, a former Triple Crown winner, said he would challenge Wells in homers. Wells said that only three of the five other teams would offer Greg hittable pitches while he accused his teammate, Yutaro Imai of throwing gopher balls to Ochiai. Ochiai finished with 33 homers, 4 behind Wells, who succeeded in becoming the first gaijin Triple Crown winner in Japan. He also led the league in hits (171), total bases (309) and slugging and won the Pacific League MVP award, becoming the third American to be so honored. He struggled in the Japan Series, though. Wells says "It was like somebody came and stole my timing" and there were rumors that the mob had bribed him to fail. Either way, he had a fantastic ten-year *** career!

I fixed up his existing facegen and dressed him in the uniform of the Braves of the time (ignore that the team says "Tigers"). And here I was thinking this was just another scrub Blue Jay I was ending the evening with!

[LansdowneSt]

Dennis Sarfate made his mark with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of [league redacted] (***). He has also played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, and Baltimore Orioles as well as the Hiroshima Toyo Carp and Saitama Seibu Lions of ***. While an average reliever in the MLB, Sarfate became one of the greatest closers in *** history after moving his career overseas. Sarfate holds several *** records, including most saves in a season and most by a foreign-born pitcher. As of 2020, his 234 career saves rank fifth-most in *** history. He has been a 3× *** All-Star, a 3× Pacific League saves leader, a 5× Japan Series Champion, won the Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award, won the Pacific League MVP Award, and won the Matsutaro Shoriki Award.

Made this facegen awhile ago. He played with and without the beard but I went beard. As someone with MLB experience he's on my list of 22,190 faces to go through..

[LansdowneSt]

Tuffy Rhodes was a center fielder playing for the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox from 1990-1995. His only season of more than 250 at bats came with the 1994 Cubs. In that season, Rhodes became the first National League player to hit three home runs on opening day when he connected off Dwight Gooden at Wrigley Field. In this game, Rhodes also became the first major leaguer ever to hit home runs in his first three at-bats of a season.

After Boston released him (sigh), he signed with the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the Pacific League of ***. In the 2001 season, he hit his 55th homer to tie Sadaharu Oh's Japanese League single season home run record, set in 1964. For the rest of the season, opposing pitchers intentionally walked Rhodes to prevent him from breaking Oh's record. Rhodes is the all-time *** home run leader among foreign-born players, and he is tied for 11th overall with 464 home runs in Japan.

I didn't see a facegen for him. Made this one some time ago.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Greg (Boomer) Wells was a former pro football prospect who began his baseball career in 1976 with the independent Beeville Bees. He excelled in the minors but never really got a chance. He was 27 years-old by the time he appeared in the 1982 Topps Prospect tri-card for the Blue Jays. After a brief call-up in '81, he was again sent down and eventually shipped out to Minnesota. Boomer continued to crush AAA pitching, launching 28 homers (tied for third in the IL) for the Toledo Mud Hens, batting .336 (first) and driving in 107 runs, the most in the league... but again, Greg again failed in a late-season shot [only 15 games!] in the majors.

Normally, that's where the story ends for these footnote players but here's where it gets really interesting. O'l Boomer was sold to the Hankyu Braves. He hit .304/.348/.471 his first year in Japan. In 1984, he switched his batting style and dazzled, hitting .355/.421/.641 with 37 homers and 130 RBI. Wells was leading in all three Triple Crown statistics when Hiromitsu Ochiai said it was improper for a foreigner to win the Triple Crown (none ever had in the history of Nippon Pro Baseball) and Ochiai, a former Triple Crown winner, said he would challenge Wells in homers. Wells said that only three of the five other teams would offer Greg hittable pitches while he accused his teammate, Yutaro Imai of throwing gopher balls to Ochiai. Ochiai finished with 33 homers, 4 behind Wells, who succeeded in becoming the first gaijin Triple Crown winner in Japan. He also led the league in hits (171), total bases (309) and slugging and won the Pacific League MVP award, becoming the third American to be so honored. He struggled in the Japan Series, though. Wells says "It was like somebody came and stole my timing" and there were rumors that the mob had bribed him to fail. Either way, he had a fantastic ten-year *** career!

I fixed up his existing facegen and dressed him in the uniform of the Braves of the time (ignore that the team says "Tigers"). And here I was thinking this was just another scrub Blue Jay I was ending the evening with!

What hat and logo is that? I am not familiar with that.


Also taking a page out of ActionJackson's playbook and saving my spot.

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by The Game

What hat and logo is that? I am not familiar with that.

Also taking a page out of ActionJackson's playbook and saving my spot.

Hankyu Braves of the ***. I think the franchise folded or relocated after 1988.

I try to get the uniform that matches the pictures or represent the franchise they made their name with. For MLB'ers with *** as their best team I don't rename the franchise (which is why it says "Hanshin Tigers" in the screenshot but I do change the uniforms. Same approach with the 19th c. players. I put them on the "Louisville Colonels" but always swap the uniform to whatever team they were when they played.

[LansdowneSt]

After four years of shuttling to the Angels and back to AAA with little MLB play, Bobby Rose's contract was sold to Japan at the end of the 1992 season. In his first season with the Yokohama BayStars he played in all 130 games and tied for the most RBIs in the Central League with 94. He also received the Best Nine Award for best second baseman in the league. Rose's success continued over the next several seasons and he became a central figure in Yokohama's famed "machine gun" batting lineup as its cleanup hitter. In 1998, he helped the BayStars win their first CL title and Japan Series in 38 years. He is often regarded as one of the best foreign players in BayStars and Japanese professional baseball history. - Wikipedia

I had reworked Bobby some time ago. I can't recall if I tweaked it or redid it from the same picture.

[actionjackson]

AHHH!!! These Blue Jays facegens are taking me back to childhood/adolescence. The memories are good (Velez/Upshaw/Bonnell/Whitt, and of course Jackson), bad (McLaughlin), and indifferent (Macha/Edge/Garvin/Hernandez/Johnson/Senteney). Have to add to Jackson's resume though. He was quite the gospel singer, and would sometimes sing the national anthems for us. Bonnell, Upshaw, (along with Dave Collins), and McLaughlin combined to crush my nearly 14-year old baseball soul on a late August, 1983 road trip.

Thank goodness I was already in bed, or I might've gone catatonic from the trauma of the late goings on of the August 24, 1983 ballgame in Baltimore. Jim Clancy and Scott McGregor locked horns in a pretty good pitcher's duel. Diamond Jim headed to the bottom of the ninth with a two-hitter, and a 3-1 lead. He'd walked five, and only struck out one, but hadn't allowed a hit since a fourth inning Ken Singleton single. A flyout, single, strikeout, walk combo got him lifted for lefty Dave Geisel. If Dave had just been able to do his damn job, we wouldn't have had to suffer through what must be one of the weirdest losses in MLB history, but alas 'twas not to be. Back to back two out RBI singles by Benny Ayala, and Al Bumbry tied the game at 3. Joey McLaughlin relieved Geisel, and struck out "Disco" Dan Ford, to send the game to the tenth. Sub-optimal, but we were still alive.

This is where things started to get reeeally weird. You see, catcher Joe Nolan had pinch-hit for catcher Rick Dempsey in the seventh inning, and Benny Ayala successfully pinch-hit for Nolan in the ninth. Jim Dwyer had also pinch-hit (for 3B Todd Cruz) in the seventh. Starting 2B Rich Dauer moved to 3B, and Lenn Sakata entered the game at 2B to cover that move off to start the eighth. John Shelby had also pinch-ran for #6 hitter, and DH Ken Singleton in the seventh, so Singleton was now out of the game. Gary Roenicke had also pinch-hit for now 3B Dauer in the bottom of the ninth. So, they now have no catcher, and no 3B. The O's had gone all in, on the bottom of the ninth, and going forward in this game, they faced certain calamity right? Enter manager Joe Altobelli, with the proverbial defensive Hail Mary.

Mr. Sakata had never donned the Tools of Ignorance in MLB before that night, and would never don them again. Gary Roenicke never started a game at the hot corner in MLB in his entire career, but Altobelli entrusted him with that position in the 10th that night. John Lowenstein had actually started some games at 2B in MLB, so the position was kind of familiar to him. Ayala replaced Lowenstein in LF, following Lowenstein's move to 2B. Got all that? Good. Tim Stoddard replaced McGregor to start the 10th. Cliff Johnson took him deep to CF, for a 4-3 lead. Alright! Good start boyzzz! Barry Bonnell followed with a single to CF, Altobelli decided he'd seen enough, and signalled for lefty Tippy Martinez. I think what triggered Altobelli's move was Bobby Cox pinch-hitting with Dave Collins for Jesse Barfield. I don't think Altobelli would've brought in Tippy to face Jesse, 'cause that would either be nuts or 87-dimensional chess.

Ok, we've got a runner at 1st with nobody out, and a one run lead in the tenth. Life is good. With Collins at the plate, Bonnell got picked off, and thrown out at second. Don't forget that we've got a 2B catching here, OK? Collins drew a walk to bring Willie Upshaw to the plate. Upshaw was in the middle of an out of nowhere career year, and would become our first ever 100 RBI guy later that year. Not to worry Orioles, 'cause Tippy just picked off Collins at first, so two out, nobody on now, for Willie. Upshaw scratched out an infield single to bring Buck Martinez to the plate. That is a huge dropoff in hitter quality, but the reason for it was that Bobby loved his platoons, and his platooning called for him to bat one of his best hitters seventh against lefties. Don't ask me. I'm just the narrator of this tragedy. Take a wild stab at what happened next. Tippy picked off Upshaw at first. The only three outs the O's recorded that inning were pickoffs. The other four hitters? Homer, single, walk, single. I still had a full head of hair at 14, but it would've been gone had I witnessed this tomfoolery.

Ok, despite all that drama, we still have a one run lead headed for the bottom of the tenth with McLaughlin still on the mound. Did I say one run lead? Nah. Cal Ripken took care of that to lead off the 10th with a dinger. Ok, 4-4. We're still alive. McLaughlin then walked Murray. Could be much worse, but still, not cool dood. Lowenstein was next, and moved Murray to second with a ground out to Upshaw. First base open, one out, John Shelby (rather than Ken Singleton) coming to the plate. Cox intentionally walked him. I'm not a proponent of the intentional walk, particularly to a hitter like Shelby, but that runner on second is the only one that matters in that situation, so I guess it's a good idea to set up the double play. He then went to the bullpen, for Billie Jean King's younger brother, right handed reliever Randy Moffitt, to face Gary Roenicke. Gary was basically a platoon guy against lefties, and wound up with around 250 more career plate appearances against lefties, which is quite significant given that lefties generally make up about 25-30% of the pitching population.

Moffitt struck out Roenicke. Now Lenn Sakata's come up. Even if Altobelli has anyone left on his bench, he won't be pinch hitting for him, given that he's already his third "catcher" of the night. 2 out, first and second, Sakata coming up, with Buck Martinez, Alfredo Griffin, followed by the better hitters due up in the 11th. We got thi-...What fresh hell is this? A 3-run walkoff HR by Lenn bleepin' Sakata? Lenn. Sakata? The 16th of 25 career homers for the utility infielder/"catcher"/"left fielder". You gotta be bleepin' me!

Let's review. 3-1 Blue Jay lead with two out and runners at 1st and 2nd in the ninth is squandered by Dave Geisel, on back to back singles by Ayala, and Bumbry, including the left on left single by Bumbry. A go ahead solo blast to put my Jays ahead in the tenth, then three straight pickoffs to end the inning, and send it to the bottom of the tenth with a 4-3 lead. A utility infielder had played catcher for the first time in his MLB career. One corner outfielder had played 3B, and another had played 2B. And then Lenn Sakata hits a walkoff three run dinger off Billy Jean King's little brother to win it for the eventual World Champion O's. Are you kidding me? Really? Just another late August Wednesday night game in Baltimore I guess. It took another nine, and then ten years, but eventually we were able to assuage that pain. Actually, that kind of what if pain never goes away for a fan. 38 years later, and it still hurts.

And finally, Greg Wells was our original Boomer Wells. David would arrive towards the end of the 1980s, and go on to have a borderline HoF career. But, but, but action, look at that disgusting 4.13 ERA!!! Look at the era he pitched in. A 108 ERA+, 239 Wins, over 2,000 K, and a career 3.06 K/BB ratio tell a different story. Boomer was a very good pitcher, better than some that are in the Hall. I don't play the "This guy's in, so my guy should be in" game though, so he's still on the outside for me, but he was waaay better than you might think, if you dismiss him due to the 4.00+ ERA. Ain't baseball grand?

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

AHHH!!! These Blue Jays facegens are taking me back to childhood/adolescence.

Action, Me & Sully... Sully & I... we know. We hear ya. [slides the bottle to your end of the bar] Glad I was able to get some Blue Jays out there for ya, trauma aside

[actionjackson]

Also, I remember playing outside listening to Otto Velez' 4 HR, 10 RBI doubleheader against the Clevelands in a sweep on May 4, 1980. Velez hit three in Game 1, and had a first inning three run shot in Game 2, so he could've done a lot more damage than he did. Also, a Grand Slam off Dan Spillner in the 1st, followed by a 2-run shot off Wayne Garland in the eighth, followed by a walkoff solo tater off Sid Monge in the 10th, and the 3-run HR off Bob Owchinko in the first inning of Game 2. That's the HR Cycle in a doubleheader folks. Off four different pitchers no less. Whoa!

[LansdowneSt]

Joe Cowley pitched a no-hitter against the California Angels on September 19, 1986, with the Chicago White Sox, allowing a run due to seven walks, winning 7-1. Earlier that season, he set an AL record by striking out the first seven batters he faced against the Texas Rangers.

Joe finished the 1986 season with a record of 11-11, 3.88 in 27 starts, one year after going 12-6, 3.95 in 30 games for the Yankees in 1985. He seemed poised for a breakout but it all came tumbling down quickly. As spring training wound down in 1987, Joe was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Gary Redus. The Phils were counting on him to anchor their rotation, but he was awful, losing all four of his starts with an ERA of 13.91 in 11 innings. He made one final appearance, in relief, on May 3rd, but gave up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning, ending his big league career. In the process, he became the only pitcher in MLB history to never win another game after tossing a no-no.

[LansdowneSt]

Andy Rincon pitched three years in the majors, and had his career shortened by a line drive that fractured his arm. He made his major league debut in September 1980 as a 21-year-old with the St. Louis Cardinals. He pitched in 4 games with a 3-1 record and a 2.62 ERA. The next season, 1981, he was 3-1 with a 1.77 ERA in 5 games, but on May 9th he was hit by a line drive off the bat of Phil Garner which put him on the disabled list. He came back with the Cardinals to pitch 11 games in 1982 before his last one on May 22nd. His ERA was 4.72, and in the 40 innings he pitched he gave up 25 walks while only getting 11 strikeouts. In previous years his control had been excellent.

The Cardinals went on to win the 1982 World Series, so Rincon at least got a World Series ring but he never returned to the majors.

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

Biff Benedict Pocoroba played ten seasons for the Atlanta Braves, primarily as a catcher. The most at-bats he had in a season was 321. He was named to the 1978 All-Star team, however he began to experience shoulder problems after that and was largely used as a pinch-hitter in his final seasons. Yes, “Biff” was his legal first name. “I wanted him to be a big league ballplayer and wanted him to have a name that sounded like one,” his father said in a 1975 interview. “I didn’t want him to have to go through life answering to Herman or something. Biff sounded rugged.” The “Banedict” part of his name came from his grandfather, who was a former FBI and Secret Service agent. According to that same interview, Pocoroba’s grandfather helped clean up Chicago during the Al Capone era, so toughness ran in the family. So did baseball, for that matter. His cousin, Tom Satriano, played with the California Angels and invited him into the team’s clubhouse when he was a kid. That helped to launched his dreams of playing baseball professionally. - bRef Bullpen wiki & ripbaseball.com

Tweaked the existing CU Facepack facegen

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Action, Me & Sully... Sully & I... we know. We hear ya. [slides the bottle to your end of the bar] Glad I was able to get some Blue Jays out there for ya, trauma aside

Thanks. Who's Sully?

[LansdowneSt]

There have been more successful players who wore the St. Louis Cardinals uniform — but few more beloved by fans than Willie McGee. A work ethic rooted in his upbringing allowed him to make the most of his natural abilities. The switch-hitter used exceptional bat speed to spray line drives all over the field and elite foot speed to run down fly balls and steal bases. Never one to showboat or seek the limelight, McGee remained humble despite being a World Series hero, MVP, four-time All-Star, and two-time batting champion. - SABR

McGee's face had character so I redid it to try to restore some of that from the smoothed-out one in the pack. The famous players do quite well in the pack which is why most of the older zombie photos are more support-role players. But occasionally I'll post a player like this where it may be incremental, but it's still a change worth posting. Also, when I post I get to cross the player off my list

[LansdowneSt]

Action, see my 1986 Boston World Series trauma as relayed a few posts back under "Dave Stapleton".

Sully's the generic drinking buddy name to any Bostonian watchin the game in a bar.

[LansdowneSt]

Everyone knows about John Smoltz’s dominance as both a starter and as a reliever. Same with Dennis Eckersley. Little do people know they were hardly the first people to be widely praised at both spots in the pitching staff. Though he started his career as a highly touted starting-pitcher prospect, Jim Slaton eventually moved to the bullpen and proved to be a major cog in the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen for their 1982 World Series push. Based on his early successes, Slaton had many people thinking he would be as good as Smoltz would ever become, if not better. Slaton even garnered a comparison to an all-time-great hurler. Former Brewers general manager Frank Lane said, “Slaton reminds me a lot of Tom Seaver in the way he works.” Things may not have panned out as well as Harmon and Lane had hoped, but Slaton certainly played a major role for the Brewers throughout his career. - SABR

Redid the facegen and it looks like I used the same photo. He was sometimes with sometimes without the mustache.

[LansdowneSt]

Alejandro Peña appeared in three World Series during his 15-season major-league career, but his first appearance was the kind of thing that you can only dream about. He was called in from the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen in Game One of the 1988 World Series. His team was trailing the Oakland A’s 4-3 at the Dodgers’ ballpark. He pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three and allowing one hit, a harmless infield single with two outs in the ninth inning by Stan Javier.

Peña was due up fourth in the ninth inning and it was determined that he would be removed for a pinch-hitter. With two outs, A’s reliever Dennis Eckersley walked pinch-hitter Mike Davis as Dave Anderson, the apparent pinch-hitter for Peña, looked on from the on-deck circle.2 But as Davis headed to first base, Kirk Gibson grabbed a bat and Anderson returned to the dugout. “Gibson, half man, half beast, whose arrival as a free agent in February had so dramatically transformed the Dodgers, now limped toward the plate to face Eckersley,” wrote Peter Gammons. You know the rest... - SABR

Redid the facegen.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Action, Me & Sully... Sully & I... we know. We hear ya. [slides the bottle to your end of the bar] Glad I was able to get some Blue Jays out there for ya, trauma aside

We all need a Sully in our lives...