I'm featuring 1988 Topps Cards featuring members of my beloved Blue Jays that are featured on this blog.
When B.J. Ryan went down about a year ago, I wrote a little tribute to Tom Henke. He is, after all, my favourite Toronto Blue Jays pitcher of all time.
When I was growing up, the first thing I'd read in the newspaper was the box score from the previous night's Blue Jays game. Baseball is all about stats, so I'd monitor each pitcher's ERA, SOs, BBs and IP. Read this quote from the 88 Topps blog and tell me if you know what an ERA+ is.
Henke was an absolute stud. He had a rough 28 innings in 1984, but otherwise the rest of his career was stellar. After 1984, the lowest ERA+ he posted was 127, and he finished at 156 for his career. Here is the full list of all pitchers in history with at least 700 IP, a WHIP under 1.1, and ERA+ over 150. Just four guys. The other guys are all HOFers, probably.
