NY Yankee Brien Taylor

The NY Mets dominated the baseball world in New York City with a kid named Dwight Gooden in the mid-late 1980’s. The New York Yankees and then owner George Steinbrenner were never second fiddle to any cross-town sports team ever! But how to draw against Doctor K? This was not just something that could be easily overcome. As a sports card collector sometimes there is a moment where you have to take a gamble on a baseball card rookie and collect every card imaginable even if that card/rookie  belongs to the dreaded Yankees. That was me in the early 1990’s when talk of Brien Taylor came about. I knew that George had deeper pockets then anyone in baseball at the time, but I just could not believe the rampant hype about another pitcher taking away some of the glory from Gooden in NY. Even though Gooden was no longer the center focal point of the Mets pitching staff by the time 1988 and the loss to the L.A. Dodgers came during the National League Championships. However, as a sports card collector you do not ever want to miss the boat on a star rookie. After all, since then, I have missed so many boats, dingy’s, cruise ships, you name it I missed it. This is why today I have more Brien Taylor cards than most to make soup with.

Shoulder Injury From Hell For Yankee Fans!

In case you do not know the history of how this phenom who went from a 1.55 million signing bonus (largest ever at the time) to what turned out to be the end of what could have been a glorious pitching career. In an effort to defend his brother from another person that had already beat his brother up, he attempted to stand up for his brother and endured one of the worst shoulder injuries that Dr. Frank Jobe had ever seen. Dr. Frank Jobe repaired a torn capsule and a torn labrum in Taylor’s shoulder, but the pitcher lost 6-8 miles off his fastball and was unable to land the curve ball for a strike. Since then, he has been arrested two different times. Once for misdemeanor child abuse/child neglect in 2005 and then in March 2012, Taylor was charged with cocaine trafficking after undercover narcotics agents purchased a large quantity of cocaine and crack cocaine from him over a period of several months. He received a 38 month prison sentence, and then he will get three years’ supervised release.

Collecting sports cards teaches us that these players are human and sometimes all the talent in the world, cannot help overcome poor decisions and tough breaks. As a sports fan I think back on when I heard the news that he was arrested a second time and I could not help but feel bad for him. He was only the second NY Yankee 1st round overall pick since 1965. As an older sports card collector, I treasure his cards just as much today. Not because of the value of the cards or a lack there of, but because of the history behind the cards and the man. One man’s claim to fame, and what could have been. Keep collecting sports cards there is history and knowledge on that little piece of cardboard paper.