#89 Eric Anthony

About the Front: Nothing much to see here. Just a solid action photo of Eric Anthony squaring up a ball in Shea Stadium. We know that Eric had a decent mustache, and that the Astros' jerseys were made by Russell Athletic. Of course, now all 30 MLB teams are outfitted by Majestic. The times, they are a-quite different.

About the Back: Ugh, check out those batting averages. Trust me, he didn't walk enough to make up for it. In 1992, his on-base percentage was an anemic .298.

Triple Play:

1. Anthony led the minor leagues with 31 home runs in 1989, when he was named the AA Southern League MVP as a member of the Columbus (GA) Mudcats.

2. After he batted .249/.319/.397 in a career-high 145 games in 1993, the Mariners inexplicably traded Mike Felder AND a 21-year-old Mike Hampton to Houston to obtain him. He batted .237/.297/.412 in 79 games in Seattle, and was released a year later.

3. Anthony's big league legacy may be the 440-foot home run he hit in a home game against the Cubs' Mike Bielecki on May 17, 1990. It was one of the few balls ever hit into the upper deck in the Astros' former home stadium.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: The prospect sheen was mostly (if not completely) off of Eric by the time I popped in on baseball, so I missed any collector-driven hysteria for his cards. If you were collecting in the early 1990s...was there ever any Anthonymania?

Bill James Said: "He's cut his strikeouts the last two years (only 88 strikeouts in '93), but he's done that by flattening out his swing, so he's hitting the ball on the ground (205 ground ball outs in 486 at-bats), and frankly he's never going to make it big hitting ground balls."

On This Date in 1993: October 17. The visiting Phillies evened up the World Series at a game apiece with a 6-4 victory. Terry Mulholland earned the win while falling one out short of a quality start, but Mitch Williams earned the save by pitching around a pair of walks in 1.2 hitless innings. Jim Eisenreich's three-run homer off of Dave Stewart was the big blow.