#320 Tim Fortugno

About the Front: Tim Fortugno has something of an Alan Rickman look to him. That's my two cents anyway.

About the Back: I'm not sure how a 30-year-old rookie wound up with a card number ending in a zero. Maybe he was a last-minute replacement.

Triple Play:

1. On July 25, 1992, Fortugno tossed a three-hit, 12-strikeout shutout against the Tigers. He fanned each of the Tigers' 3-4-5 hitters (Travis Fryman, Cecil Fielder, and Mickey Tettleton) three times. This effort was more notable as it came in his second career big league appearance, earning him his first win.

2. He gave up a single to George Brett on September 30, 1992. It was the Royal great's 3,000th career hit. The southpaw subsequently picked Brett off of first base.

3. After hanging up his spikes, Tim became a scout for the Rangers. Among others, he signed Scott Feldman, C. J. Wilson, and John Mayberry Jr.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I always thought this guy looked much older than 30.

Bill James Said: Fortugno spent all of 1993 with the Expos' AAA Ottawa team, so James didn't include him in his book. He did resurface in the majors with the Reds in 1994 and the White Sox in 1995, though.

On This Date in 1993: November 13. In a matchup of the two top-ranked college football teams in the U.S., #2 Notre Dame squeaks by #1 Florida State, 31-24. Both teams had been 9-0 entering the showdown in South Bend.

#319 Paul Assenmacher

About the Front: Paul Assenmacher is 6'3", but he looks even taller here. It must be the horizontal photo and the pinstripes.

About the Back: I wonder if the children of ballplayers get a thrill out of being name-checked on the backs of cards?

Triple Play:

1. On August 22, 1989, Paul tied a major league record by striking out four batters in an inning. The quartet of opposing Cardinals was Terry Pendleton, Milt Thompson, Tony Pena (reached on a wild pitch), and pitcher Ted Power (swung through a two-strike bunt attempt).

2. Assenmacher tied with Mike Jackson for the most games pitched in the 1990s, totaling 644.

3. He has served as the pitching coach at St. Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta for eight years.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: It may be pronounced "OSS-en-mock-er", but that didn't stop my younger self from snickering.

Bill James Said: "People don't take him seriously because he's ugly, looks sloppy on the mound and doesn't throw 90, but he's never been easy to hit."

On This Date in 1993: November 12. H. R. Haldeman, Richard Nixon's former White House Chief of Staff and a key member of the Watergate cover-up, dies of abdominal cancer at age 67.

#318 Willie Wilson

About the Front: It's unusual to see Willie Wilson without a Royals uniform and a beard.

About the Back: I just spotted another error here. Wilson's 83 steals led the American League in 1979, and his total of 79 swipes was second behind Rickey Henderson's 100 in 1980.

Triple Play:

1. How fast was Willie? Of his 41 career home runs, 13 were inside-the-park jobs. In fact, all 13 came at the beginning of his career as part of his first 16 round-trippers.

2. After the 1983 season, Wilson and Royals teammates Willie Aikens, Vida Blue, and Jerry Martin all pled guilty to misdemeanor drug charges for attempting to purchase cocaine. All four served an 81-day jail sentence in Fort Worth, TX.

3. He retired after the Cubs released him in May 1994. His 668 career stolen bases are 12th all-time.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: His birth name is actually Willie. It's like his parents just didn't bother.

Bill James Said: "He is probably through in Chicago, where they have young outfielders who are better than he is, and I wouldn't bet on him to be on a roster at the end of spring training."

On This Date in 1993: November 10. Carlito's Way, a crime drama starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn, has its theatrical release.

#317 Kyle Abbott

About the Front: This is indeed the final Topps card of then-25-year-old Kyle Abbott's career. He spent all of 1993 at AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, then a year in Japan, and back to the MLB in 1995 and 1996 for a total of 21 games (32.1 IP, 5.18 ERA) to close things out.

About the Back: That grisly 1-14 record for the 1992 Phillies includes an 0-11 start in his first 13 appearances. His offense didn't do him any favors, either, with an average run support of 3.23 runs per game. They tried to make up for it in his lone win, a 14-3 romp over the Dodgers on July 18. Naturally, it wasn't even a great outing for Abbott, who took a shutout into the sixth inning before tiring and allowing a pair of homers and three runs total to get the hook.

Triple Play:

1. Not more than two years after drafting him ninth overall, the Angels traded Kyle and Ruben Amaro Jr. to the Phillies for former All-Star outfielder Von Hayes, who played 94 games in 1992 with a .225/.305/.326 batting line (78 OPS+) before retiring.

2. His father Larry pitched in the minors from 1964 through 1970, spending all seven years in the Athletics' chain. He topped out at AA Birmingham and retired with a 40-40 record and a 3.09 ERA.

3. There have been 24 players in MLB history to go by "Kyle", and Abbott was the first. The caveat, of course, is that his birth name was Lawrence Kyle. Still, he blazed a trail for the 16 Kyles who are active major leaguers today.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I don't think I ever picked up on the fact that the Angels used consecutive first-round draft picks on lefthanded college pitchers named Abbott - Jim in 1988 and Kyle in 1989.

Bill James Said: "He pitched all right for Scranton in '93, and might have earned a major league callup had the Phillies not been busy winning their division." Kyle was 12-10 with a 3.95 ERA for the Red Barons.

On This Date in 1993: November 7. A joint congressional resolution, introduced back on October 21, designates the week beginning on November 7, 1993 as National Women Veterans Recognition Week. It will be signed into law by President Clinton on November 17.

#316 Dave Nilsson

About the Front: I like it when you can see the hitter tracking the ball with his eyes. Whether it's a pop-up or a home run, only Dave Nilsson knows.

About the Back: Baseball has really flourished in the Land Down Under over the past few decades. The Aussie roll call in the major leagues is up to 28 total; in 1993, reliever Graeme Lloyd debuted with the Brewers and he and Nilsson comprised the first-ever Australian battery in MLB.

Triple Play:

1. He hit the first home run at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on April 11, 1994 - a fifth-inning solo shot against Kenny Rogers.

2. Nilsson became the first Australian-born All-Star in 1999, when he hit .309/.400/.554 (141 OPS+) in 115 games with a career-high 21 home runs. He then retired from MLB at age 29, so that he might represent his native country in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He batted .565 and slugged .957 for the Aussies, who won only two out of seven games. In the 2004 Olympics, he posted an .885 OPS in eight games and threw out five of eight would-be base stealers, helping his country to a silver medal.

3. Throughout the 1990s Nilsson played winter ball in the Australian Baseball League, then bought the financially troubled league and replaced it with the International Baseball League of Australia. That league folded in 2002, but a new ABL launched in 2009 with sponsorship from MLB. Dave was the Brisbane Bandits' manager for their inaugural season. He had the highest career batting average in the original ABL, a .356 mark.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I remember Nilsson being something of a novelty because of his nationality. Not much has changed in that regard - current Rays reliever Grant Balfour is often identified first by his birth country.

Bill James Said: "He threw out only 23% of opposing base stealers, poorest in the American League, and there were other problems." Bill doesn't elaborate, but I'll assume that Dave's nine errors and seven passed balls in 91 games caught, along with the 23 wild pitches that whizzed by on his watch, were cause for concern as well.

On This Date in 1993: November 6. Ed Sadowski, a light-hitting backup catcher for the Red Sox, Angels, and Braves in the 1960s, passes away due to ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) at age 62.

#315 Edgar Martinez

About the Front: Thank the heavens that Edgar Martinez's bat is not literally on fire, as is the case in the photo atop this article about the former Seattle great.

About the Back: As you can see, the moribund Mariners didn't slot Edgar into the starting lineup until after his 27th birthday, and he won his first career batting title two years later. Imagine what he could've done if he hadn't been taking repeated tours of AAA in his mid-20s.

Triple Play:

1. Martinez was a two-time AL batting champ, with his other top season coming in 1995. That year, he led the loop with 121 runs scored, 52 doubles, a .356 average, a .479 on-base percentage, and a 185 OPS+. He played all 145 games for Seattle in the strike-shortened season, also setting career highs with 29 doubles, 113 RBI, and a .628 slugging percentage. All that, and he still finished third in MVP voting behind dubious winner Mo Vaughn (.300/.388/.575, 39 HR, 126 RBI) and runner-up Albert Belle (.317/.401/.690, 52 2B, 50 HR, 126 RBI).

2. Edgar played through 2004, retiring as a career-long Mariner at age 41. He batted .312/.418/.515 (147 OPS+) for his career, with 514 doubles, 309 home runs, and 1,261 RBI. His on-base percentage is 20th-highest all-time; four of the players in front of him played the bulk of their games in the 19th Century, and a fifth (Ferris Fain) played barely half as many games as Martinez. He was a seven-time All-Star and a five-time Silver Slugger, and his feats as a designated hitter were so prodigious that MLB created a namesake award after his retirement to honor the best DH in the American League each year. However, the pinheads in the BBWAA have let him languish on the Hall of Fame ballot for five years and counting, penalizing him for the dual crimes of not playing a defensive position and daring to play during the past few decades, when big, bad, scary steroids ruined the sanctity of baseball. Ugh.

3. He is a noted humanitarian and an entrepreneur, with his own namesake endowment for muscular dystrophy research at the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. In June 2007, he was inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in Boise, ID, which I have just learned exists. In 2005, he was a cofounder of Plaza Bank, the state of Washington's first hispanic financial institution. In 2013, he collaborated with the Mariners and local chefs and bartenders on Edgar's Cantina, a bar and grill inside of Safeco Field.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I was thrilled when Martinez roped "The Double", a two-run walkoff hit off of New York's Jack McDowell in the 11th inning of the decisive Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS. It has become possibly the most memorable scene in Seattle's team history, securing a series win in the club's first-ever trip to the postseason. At the time, I was just a big Ken Griffey, Jr. fan who hadn't yet grown to strongly dislike the Yankees. But in hindsight, I enjoy that moment all the more.

Bill James Said: "Martinez, one of the best hitters in baseball, severely pulled his hamstring in April, tried to come back too quickly, and then a) didn't hit, and b) re-injured the hamstring." If you look back at Edgar's career stats, the 42 games played and .237 average in 1993 stick out like a sore, um, hamstring. Yet he still drew enough walks (28 in 165 PA) to give him a .366 OBP and a perfectly average 100 OPS+. I feel like most fans still don't grasp just how good a hitter he was.

On This Date in 1993: November 5. The back-to-back World Champion Blue Jays release Jack Morris. After going 21-6 with a 4.04 ERA in 240.2 innings in his Toronto debut in 1992, the longtime Tigers ace plunged to 7-12 with a 6.19 ERA in a rocky 1993 campaign. He will sign with the Indians for 1994, but find himself out of work again that August after putting up a 5.60 ERA in 23 starts in Cleveland.

#314 Mark Gardner

About the Front: Astroturf. So abnormally bright green. There's one late-20th-century blight that is on the wane in today's game.

About the Back: Mark's amateur summer baseball team was the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. Other Anchorage alumni include Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeff Francis, current Toronto skipper John Gibbons, Mark McGwire, and Bobby Thigpen.

Triple Play:

1. On July 26, 1991, he became the first pitcher to ever hold the Dodgers hitless through nine innings in Dodger Stadium. Unfortunately, his Montreal teammates could not solve Orel Hershiser, Kevin Gross, and Jay Howell. Gardner lost the no-no, the shutout, and the game in the bottom of the tenth when he allowed consecutive ground-ball singles to Lenny Harris and Eddie Murray; he was pulled in favor of Jeff Fassero, who yielded a walk-off single to Darryl Strawberry. Two days later, fellow Expos starter Dennis Martinez tossed a perfect game at Los Angeles. Showoff.

2. Mark was a mainstay on the Giants' pitching staff for the last six years of his career (1996-2001), despite a cumulative ERA of 4.71 and an ERA+ of 88 during that span. In 2000, the 38-year-old had by far his best effort in San Francisco, going 11-7 with a 4.05 ERA (106 ERA+) in 20 starts and 10 relief appearances.

3. He has been the Giants' bullpen coach since 2003.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: Gardner's 1990 Topps "Future Stars" card was an early part of my collection. I always thought that he had quite a prominent mustache for a young player.

Bill James Said: "He couldn't put two good outings together, and the bad ones got worse until a strained shoulder put him on the DL in early July."

On This Date in 1993: November 4. Indians pitcher Cliff Young is killed in an auto accident in Willis, TX. The 29-year-old is the third Cleveland pitcher to die in a mishap in 1993, after Steve Olin and Tim Crews had a fatal boating accident back in spring training.

#313 Greg Hibbard

About the Front: Sometimes, a man just has to take notice of his surroundings, let out a deep breath, and exclaim, "Ahh! The dugout. Home sweet home."

About the Back: Greg Hibbard's four-hitter against the Royals was also his only career shutout, as it so happened.

Triple Play:

1. Given the depth of the White Sox' pitching staff, featuring Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, and Wilson Alvarez, the team left Hibbard unprotected in the November 1992 expansion draft. The Marlins took him with their 12th pick and flipped him to the Cubs for infielders Alex Arias and Gary Scott. Now pitching uptown, the lefty went 15-11 with a 3.96 ERA for the Cubs in 1993. No southpaw since Ken Holtzman in 1970 had notched a 15-win season for the Cubbies.

2. Greg signed a three-year, $6.75 million contract with the Mariners but was only able to provide 80.2 ugly innings in 1994 (1-5, 6.69 ERA, 1.81 WHIP) as a return on the team's investment. Shoulder troubles cost him part of 1994, all of 1995 and 1996, and ultimately his career. He retired in the spring of 1997, never having regained his former strength.

3. He has been a minor league coach ever since, spending the past dozen years in the Cleveland Indians organization.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: This photo might look cheesy now, but I always liked a card that depicted a player enjoying himself, staged or not. There weren't a lot of dugout shots in 1993 Topps, anyhow, and variety is the spice of life.

Bill James Said: "Tommy John-type pitchers have four defining characteristics: they're lefthanded, have excellent control, get 70% ground balls, and cut off the running game." So if only Hibbard had blown out his elbow instead of his shoulder, he may have hung around for another decade or two.

On This Date in 1993: November 3. Alan Trammell re-ups with the Tigers for another year. The six-time All-Star shortstop will be 36 on Opening Day, 1994, and will hit .267/.307/.414 in just 76 games in the coming season.

#312 Geronimo Pena

About the Front: I'm thinking Shea Stadium. Can anyone verify?

About the Back: Geronimo Pena finished his career with 14 three-hit games, as well as one four-hit game - June 20, 1992, when he went 4-for-5 with a double, an RBI, and a pair of runs in a 6-1 St. Louis victory over the Mets.

Triple Play:

1. On August 12, 1991, Pena made baseball history after entering a Cardinals-Pirates contest as a pinch runner for Jose Oquendo in the top of the eighth inning. He stole second base and scored the tying run on Gerald Perry's single, then stayed in the game at second base and delivered a go-ahead solo home run in the 11th. Unfortunately for St. Louis, Barry Bonds spoiled Pena's unique heroics with a walkoff two-run homer in the bottom of that inning.

2. Geronimo reached base in each of his first eight plate appearances in 1993, collecting three walks, four singles, and a home run.

3. Injuries helped shorten his career, as he topped 100 games only once and was out of baseball after the 1996 season.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I'm not sure how long it took me to learn that Pena's first name wasn't pronounced like the Apache leader, but instead with an 'h' sound at the beginning.

Bill James Said: (Of the Cardinals' second-base battle between Luis Alicea and Geronimo...) "The real problem isn't that they can't play; the problem is that Torre can't decide." Just another reminder that Joe Torre wasn't highly regarded as a manager until he started winning World Series in the Bronx.

On This Date in 1993: November 2. Duets, an album featuring a 77-year-old Frank Sinatra collaborating with other prominent musicians, is released. Sinatra did not actually perform alongside his partners, instead recording his parts in advance and having the guests tailor their pieces to his recorded vocals.